This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Veterans Issues

  • Nathan Haddad: the great magazine war in New York

    Earlier this month, I wrote about Nathan Haddad, the 32-year-old who was arrested in New York State for having in his possession five 30-round AR-style magazines. Many of you have sent links to articles about the arrest and I’ve tried to answer them all. But the links keep coming. So, here let me lay out the story for you and why I’m not going to knot my panties over this arrest;

    From what I understand about the case, Haddad was arrested in an empty parking lot where he was waiting for a prospective purchaser of the magazines – magazines which have been illegal to possess since 1994 when (Republican) Governor George Pataki (Democrat) Governor Mario Cuomo signed New York’s scary-looking gun ban into law. Haddad’s brother, Michael claims that the magazines were grandfathered, that would make them 18 years old, and how Nathan would know they were grandfathered is curious – the magazines had federal stock numbers on them, so they were originally government property – Nathan was 14-years-old when the ban took effect, so obviously he wasn’t in possession of them in 1994.

    New York law forbids selling the magazines even if they’re grandfathered, so just being in the parking lot with the intent of transferring them to someone else was prohibited.

    Now, let me be clear, I think the scary-weapons and the scarier magazines ban is completely silly. I’ve been stocking up on the scary magazines since the Newtown thing occurred. But, I don’t live in New York State – and it’s gun laws are one of the reasons I left the state fourteen years ago. While I agree that David Gregory, the NBC news guy who waved a thirty-round magazine on his TV show in a jurisdiction where the magazine was illegal to own, should have been arrested, I must also agree that Haddad should be arrested.

    If it turns out that my research is correct that he was selling government property to a private purchaser in contradiction to current New York State laws, Haddad will get what he deserves. This isn’t the Rosa Parks case that the pro-gun people have been hoping for – there are no Rosa Parks in the gun debate. If we’re willing to violate the gun laws in effect in the various states, we must be willing to pay the price. If NYS wants to overturn those scary-gun laws that have been foisted uon them, they should do it in the courts and the legislature, not in dark, empty parking lots.

  • The great ICUHAJI debacle of ’13

    TSO wrote about Sean Bujno, the Iraq War veteran, last May in his quest to get ICUHAJI (That’s I see you, Haji) license plates in Virginia from the state because they thought it could be construed as offensive. Well, he won that case and was given his plates. But the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles is taking another run at getting his plates from him;

    In a letter to Mr. Bujno, DMV officials now claim the plate encourages violence and is vulgar, the AP reports.

    “That couldn’t be further from the truth,” said Andrew Meyer, Mr. Bujno’s attorney, according to AP. “He really means it respectfully. Some might see [Haji] as a slur, but it’s not.”

    Haji simply refers to someone who’s made the pilgrimage to Mecca, Mr. Meyer added, according to AP.

    The matter is set for another hearing before DMV officials in March, according to AP. Mr. Meyer will argue a free-speech angle, AP says.

    I see why he’s doing it, and it’s probably not for the reasons his lawyer says, but the state of Virginia is making it more of a battle against them.

    Thanks to Old Trooper and Chief Tango for the link.

  • Another Comes Home

    PFC James Hare went overseas in 1949.  Not long afterwards he ended up in Korea.

    He was captured.  He died in a POW camp, and was buried in a mass grave.

    His remains were in a group of 450 sets of remains returned by North Korea in the early 1990s.  It took a while, but PFC Hare’s remains were finally positively identified.

    PFC Hare will be laid to rest today near Cumberland, MD.

    Rest in peace, my elder brother-in-arms.  Rest in peace.

  • TAH on Huff Post Live (Updated)

    I couldn’t sleep last night from anticipating this one. I’m going to be on a panel discussion this afternoon at 3PM on HuffPost Live. The subject is; What happens when America’s best-trained shooters go rogue? The segment description reads as follows: A former LAPD officer is on the loose after having carried out a killing spree. What are the potential dangers of giving someone the skills to shoot?

    I love it! They call him a “former LAPD officer” but, you know the focus is going to be on his military training. I haven’t seen where anything he’s done thus far is related at all to military training. Who goes to live in the wild in a snow storm with all of that desert around? PPP.

    But anyway, I’ll be schooling the hippies, so you should watch. I’ll post the link here when I get it.

    UPDATE: Link for the show

    The replay;

  • Is “Shooter” a Liberal Composite like Obama’s Girlfriends?

    I just read the full seven pages of Bronstein’s very disjointed Esquire article and my conclusion is that it’s most likely partially true that the author had contact with someone(s) from the actual mission but that the protagonist, “Shooter,” is most likely a composite character (like Obama’s girlfriends) created by the liberal Bronstein to provide the literary license to over-dramatize the situation and give the military a black eye.

    I agree with others here that it makes no sense for “Shooter” to jump at sixteen years when we all know that the Navy would give a stud like this a non-combat job in a heartbeat if he wasn’t otherwise a screw-up. Bronstein does hint at “Shooter” having problems with his fellow team members as well as higher ups.

    If I wanted to be generous to Bronstein, I might consider that he used a composite character to provide anonymity and protect the SEAL’s who provided him with mission information. But knowing what a lib Bronstein is, I don’t. As is usually true with liberal reporting about the military, we’re probably getting a bit of the real deal slathered with a whole lot of anti-military BS, a partially true fabrication written to support a liberal viewpoint. And it would have been very easy for Bronstein to fact-check the medical benefits angle to determine the truth, which he obviously did not, most likely because it would have derailed his anti-military narrative.

    It would be interesting to hear what Capt. Larry Bailey has to opine. Jonn?

  • Stars & Stripes: about those “crazy vet” assumptions

    Leo Shane at Stars & Stripes writes an excellent article for a change that says some of the things that we’ve been saying here for years in regards to the “crazy vet” and PTS linkage;

    Up to one in five veterans returning from the recent wars could suffer from depression or some sort of post-traumatic stress, according to a 2008 Rand Corp. study. Despite the perception that mentally ill warriors pose a public health threat — veterans derisively call it “the Rambo effect” — research has shown only a tenuous link between PTSD and veterans committing violent, impulsive acts against others.

    Federal researchers have identified 30 mass shootings in America since 1999. Of those, only four have involved veterans or military personnel. Of those, none of the shooters had been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.

    Shane points out how the media seems to wave off any other excuse in the murder of Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield last weekend other than the fact that Routh and his sister claimed he suffered from PTS.

    It’s unclear whether he has been diagnosed with the disorder. In a 911 call obtained by local media, Routh’s sister said he suffered from the illness and had received care recently in a mental hospital.

    But most of the headlines in the days following the crime assumed that Routh had the condition.

    Because that’s the easiest way for the media to understand – they all saw “First Blood” and they know how it works.

    Elspeth Ritchie comes back from the darkside in the article;

    The reasons behind the Kyle case might never be known. Routh is believed to be the only living witness of Kyle’s death. Police officials have had him on suicide watch since he was taken into custody.

    In her analysis, Ritchie said it was too early to speculate on his motive. The crime could be connected to PTSD, or another mental illness, or drug abuse, or a number of other causes.

    “Then again, the alleged killer simply could be evil,” she wrote.

    Maybe.

  • This Week’s Friday Feel-Good

    Elbert Wood, 93, of Houston, TX, is a USMC World War II veteran. He came home from a medical appointment on January 21st.

    His home had been vandalized. Two juvenile “little darlings” had broken in. They’d spray-painted many of the walls, furnishings, carpets, and appliances.

    Wood served in the Pacific in World War II. He was wounded in action twice. He also recently lost his wife – 19 days before the incident, to be precise. Let’s just say he deserved better than this.

    Just another case of big-city vandalism and taking advantage of the elderly, eh? Perhaps. But here’s where the story takes a good turn.

    Seems as if word of what happened to Mr. Wood got around. Independently, many pitched in to help.

    Like MAJ Roberto Rodriguez, A/1/23d Marines – and his troops. They went to the man’s home to help.

    On arrival, they were joined by a group of contractors laid-on by a local radio station. So instead of doing clean-up work, the Marines instead cleared the entire house so the contractors could do a better job while doing the rehab.

    GruntLife – a vets organization – also got wind of the incident. They started a fundraiser to send Wood and his children on a trip to DC to visit the World War II memorial and the National Museum of the Marine Corps. The fundraiser achieved its initial target of $5,000 within 72 hours.

    The revised plan is to send Woods’ children to accompany him to DC in April as well. They’re well on the way to making that happen.

    No, this won’t make the incident “go away”. It happened; nothing can change history. But it does help mitigate the damage done to Mr. Wood – both that done to his property and his dignity.

    And it also shows that, while there are indeed many jerks among us, there are also those who still give a damn.

  • Routh was a POG?

    This is the first and probably the last time I’ll link to InfoWars, but they have something that I tend to believe – sent to us by our buddy, Aunty Brat. A Marine who claims that he served with Eddie Ray Routh, the fellow who killed Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield the other night, says that Routh was a mechanic and never left the wire in Iraq – something I’ve suspected since the beginning. Aside from the fact that he was listed in Marine On Line as a unit armorer, according to some of you, folks who go around using PTS for an excuse for all of their bad behavior are usually POGs who never heard a shot fired in anger.

    “After seeing this picture I just remembered this guy lived in the same barracks as me in 2007 in Camp Lejeune, N.C., he was definitely NOT a highly trained Marine he was a mechanic in for only about 4 years,” said the Marine.

    “My friend deployed to Iraq with Eddie Routh and this guy never even went outside the wire, so the PTSD from combat as the news is saying is unlikely, and this guy was no highly trained Marine as they are also saying in the news,” he added.

    The Marine also told us that Routh “was into drugs.”

    I’m not saying that because InfoWars says it’s so, it’s the truth, I’m just saying it reinforces what I’ve thought was true since the beginning. Kyle and Littlefield were shot in the back, so I guess that’s one way of overcoming the “not highly trained” thing and reports that his sister said that he did it to steal the truck – not something someone suffering from PTS is likely to do, I would think.

    By the way, if you’re inclined to go over to the InfoWars link, stay out of the comments unless you’re into that “war for empire” BS.