The Borg Collective Wants YOU

These are some of the statements that are made about the ATF in their recruitment video:

*The one phrase that defines an ATF Agent is someone that is committed to improving the public's quality of life.
*One of the best and most respected federal law enforcement agencies
*Voted best places to work in the federal government
*Self motivated people who seek a sense of honor and loyalty
*Strive to uphold the highest level of standards and integrity
*Value each other, as well as the citizens we serve
*Exciting place to work with many wonderful people

Me, I like where BATFU tells us they have their "roots going back to the creation of the American Constitution" (yeah, like enforcers for tyrants were the reason the Founders wanted to place strong, unequivocal restraints on the central government).

That and the close-up showing the field agent knows how to tie his boots ("Make two bunny ears. The bunny runs around the tree. The bunny jumps in a hole. Close it up tight!").

I'm also relieved to know that--at least when they stage takedowns for the camera using stand-ins for "criminals," they look like they know how to apply proper restraint, as opposed to what happens in the real world.

And I repeat my call to make sure all required-by-law federal procurement regulations were followed in the making of these videos. Too bad Leni Riefenstahl passed on. She would have been a natural at producing these...

We're the Only Ones Not Going on Trial Enough

A former Idaho Falls police officer facing felony weapons charges plans instead to plead guilty to a misdemeanor to avoid a trial that could have put him behind bars for years, his lawyer said.

Todd Ericsson, now a U.S. Department of Defense contractor in Iraq, is charged in 7th District Court with two counts of grand theft for receiving stolen property from Kimball Mason, the disgraced former Idaho Falls prosecutor now serving a prison sentence for stealing weapons from the city's police evidence locker.

Plus he'll end up with a clean record. But I'm sure, under the same circumstances, you know, stolen property, lying to investigators, transporting evidence out of state, all the normal, understandable stuff, that the prosecutor would have offered you and me the same deal.

Meanwhile, as long as we're in Idaho (and transporting stolen firearms across state lines to Utah), we might ask where's BATFU in all this? Tell me no federal violations were involved. Oh, yeah--making cartoons and recruitment videos--and destroying a family business.

[More from "The Only Ones" Files]

And the Larry Hincker Award Goes To...

Former state police Superintendent W. Gerald Massengill said yesterday that he is willing to personally support restrictions on sales of firearms at gun shows.

Stepping into a volatile political issue that he said will take on a new urgency and tenor in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre, Massengill described himself as a strong supporter of Second Amendment rights but as a man who has witnessed an intolerable rise in gun violence and gun presence.

"We can't allow the proliferation of guns to continue," he said, speaking before The Virginia Center for Public Safety, a nonprofit group that is part of a coalition of gun-control advocates.

What...?

And the Winner Is...

The award, considered the UK benchmark for awarding campaigns on the basis of results, credited the campaign with leading to an 86% rise in calls providing information on gun crime, and a 15% reduction in actual gun crime.

Yeah, right.

Good grief.

We're the Only Ones Groping Enough

A former stripper testified that she was humiliated and then terrified when an on-duty Toronto police officer allegedly groped her breasts and pointed his gun because he did not like her attitude...

The traffic services officer was on duty and in uniform when he visited the For Your Eyes Only strip club in downtown Toronto on Oct. 8, 2004, near the end of an evening shift.

"Near the end of his shift," as in "still on duty."

Interesting the way the Canadians do it--identifying "The Only One" and protecting the name of the Citizen...

We're the Only Ones Making False Arrests Enough

Prosecutors have dropped the case against a TV reporter who was arrested carrying a loaded gun near a high school while working on a story on school violence, authorities said Tuesday...

Weinsier had been charged with armed trespass on school property, possession of a weapon, violation of carrying a concealed weapon and resisting arrest without violence. But he was not on school grounds when police approached him and ordered him to leave, Gerson said.

It's nice that he's considering civil legal action, but my question is why the officers involved (what were their names again?) haven't been arrested for kidnapping, false imprisonment, assault, battery...

Actually, there is something kind of transfixing about watching "Authorized Journalists" and "Only Ones" collide...

Permissible Restrictions

What restrictions on gun possession and use would be permissible? Almost no one argues that 2nd Amendment rights are absolute. After all, under the 1st Amendment, the right to free speech does not protect disturbing the peace; religious freedom does not shield human sacrifice.

I'll go along with that.

...Indeed, the appeals court acknowledged that Washington might be able to justify such things as concealed-carry restrictions, registration requirements and proficiency testing.

I won't go along with that. But chances are that's exactly the interpretation we'll get--if the Court takes the case, and if they "rule" in favor of individual rights.

There are some highly respected names in Second Amendment scholarship--people with a lot more formal academic credentials and wider name recognition than I'll ever have--who are on record stating registration would not be an infringement. To back this up, they cite militia laws and practices employed in the Founding Era, where a Citizen would be required to muster with certain predefined arms and accoutrements and subject them to inspection and being recorded into the rolls.

That I have no problem with. If the sheriff puts out a general call to arms (right), I expect him to ensure those of us answering the call won't end up being a detriment. But I see nothing in early militia laws suggesting the people of that era would have considered arms not brought to muster as anybody's business, and am unaware of any widespread legal parallel for recording what people of that time kept in their homes, or bought, sold or bartered.

As always, I'm willing to be educated. That said, the historic lessons of registration ought to be brutally clear to all, and the answer based on that alone ought to be "No."

As an aside, it's nice to see these sentiments getting ink in The Los Angeles Times.

We're the Only Ones Giving the Brush Off Enough

The mother of an unarmed, mentally ill teenager who could be heard on a 911 call yelling "I've got a gun!" cautioned police that she didn't think he was armed before officers killed him in a 20-bullet barrage.

But police officials insisted Tuesday that Khiel Coppin, 18, gave five officers no choice but to open fire after he suddenly charged them outside his mother's home with a black object in his hand; the object turned out to be a hairbrush...

The officers backed up and ordered him to stop, police said. When the teen refused and kept approaching them, they began shooting from a distance of 5 to 7 feet, police said.

"5 to 7 feet," and Bloomberg's highly trained ("all with at least 10 years of experience") "Only Ones" can't tell the difference between a brush and a gun? I was prepared not to even comment on this story until I read that sentence. Had he been farther away, what with moving rapidly and all, I'd have been able to accept that they couldn't be sure. And since when in their training do they let a suspect with a gun get that close?

Naturally:

Patrolmen's Benevolent Association president Patrick Lynch was quick to come to the officers' defense.

Well, yeah. The kid lifted a finger.

There does seem to be something missing from this story, though, and maybe you can help me put my finger on it. We know the victim's name. We know his mother's name. We know his brother's name and his stepfather's name, and even the family attorney's name. Shoot (sorry), we even know the neighbor's name (Hi, Bernice!) Now as we all know, the Associated Press assigned three "authorized journalists" to this story (and we know their names, too), so why do I have the nagging feeling that these highly trained professional watchdogs of government left something out...? Oh well, it probably wasn't important.

This Day in History: November 14

Now we are upon the subject of Grievances, I am constrained to observe, that I have a variety of Accounts, not only from Prisoners who have made their escape, but from persons who have left Philadelphia, that our Private Soldiers in your hands, are treated in a manner shocking to humanity, and that many of them must have perished thro' hunger, had it not been for the charitable contributions of the Inhabitants. It is added in aggravation, that this Treatment is to Oblige them to inlist in the Corps you are raising. The Friends of these unhappy men, call daily upon me for their relief, and the people at large insist on retaliating upon those in our possession. Justice demands it. However before I would proceed to a measure my feelings recoil at, I thought it right to mention the facts to you, and I would propose, that I may be allowed to send a suitable person into the city, under the usual restrictions, to examine into the Truth of them.