We're the Only Ones Off-Road Enough

A town police officer's stolen sport utility vehicle was recovered yesterday morning in Jersey City - minus the loaded 9 mm pistol he had under the front seat, police said.

Practicing "safe storage," I see...

[More from "The Only Ones" files...]

Bloomberg Fraud Continues to Unravel

Farmer said improper sales, such as the ones that the undercover agents pulled off, happen frequently. If the buyer can produce valid identification, passes a background check and takes legal responsibility for the gun, the sale will go through, he said.

"It's the same scenario repeated many, many, many times," Farmer said. "Husbands buy guns for their wives, boyfriends buy for their girlfriends, fathers buy for their daughters."

This is pretty much what I expected to find: No crimes are being committed by the gun dealer's targeted in Bloomberg's "sting"--only routine procedures followed when one person gives another the gift of a gun.

Here's another account from a pawn shop in South Carolina:

The woman filled out papers registering the sale and signed a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives declaration saying she was the buyer and buying for someone else, he said.

Men routinely advise women on what guns to buy, Mickalis said, adding "I think they were specifically sent here to create a lawsuit."

It appears these dealers were following the book to conduct a legal sale in both instances. It wouldn't surprise me to find this chain of events repeat itself in all 15 of the instances Bloomberg would have us believe resulted in "illegal gun sales," where dealers knew the purchasers "would turn the weapons over to criminals."

Is someone intentionally lying here?

If any lawbreaking has occurred, it appears to have been within the Bloomberg "sting team" camp.

Was the federal gun purchase form falsified?

Were the "agents," that is, private investigators, that is, private citizens with no special privileges and immunities, residents of the states in which they made their purchases? If not, is this a violation of GCA '68, which prohibits, among other things, unlicensed individuals from acquiring handguns outside their state of residence?

Surprise, Surprise...

A congressman under investigation for bribery was caught on videotape accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from an FBI informant whose conversations with the lawmaker also were recorded, according to a court document released Sunday. Agents later found the cash hidden in his freezer.

At one audiotaped meeting, Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., chuckles about writing in code to keep secret what the government contends was his corrupt role in getting his children a cut of a communications company's deal for work in Africa.

I have a hard time believing a Louisiana politician would ever involve himself in anything not on the up and up.

Just for yucks, whenever anything like this comes up, I like to check where these folks stand on RKBA. Here's Jefferson's GOA rating:


Nobody's surprised, I trust...

It's All About Headlines

Instead, the headline-hunting Bloomberg launched a civil lawsuit in what should be, if he is to be believed, a criminal action.

There's a reason for that. The private investigators New York hired to conduct this sting must have made deliberately false statements on federal firearms purchase forms. That's a felony. They should be prosecuted. If Bloomberg sent them to do this, he's an accessory, if not a conspirator.

Church Shooter Finds Defenseless Prey the Easiest Kind

Police on Sunday captured the man who allegedly opened fire and killed four people during services at a Louisiana church and later fatally shot his wife after abducting her and their infant, officials said.

There are some who say guns have no place in churches.

They're the same ones who would be absolutely useless in a situation requiring self defense, but who are nonetheless gearing up for their latest blood dance.

This isn't the first time we've seen church members helpless because they were disarmed and their attacker was not. I'm reminded of Woody Allen's line:

"The lion and the lamb shall lie down together, but the lamb won't get much sleep."

I'm also reminded of a 1747 Philadelphia sermon:

"He that suffers his life to be taken from him by one who has no authority for that purpose, when he might preserve it by defense, incurs the Guilt of self murder since God has enjoined him to seek the continuance of his life, and Nature itself teaches every creature to defend [it]self."

This Day in History: May 22

On this day in 1781, Major General Nathanael Greene and 1,000 Patriots attempt an attack on the critical village of Ninety-Six in the South Carolina backcountry. After failing to seize the fortified settlement, they began a siege of it, which lasted until their retreat on June 18, making it the longest of the War for Independence.