GRE Round Up for May 19

Here are the latest offerings from my fellow Gun Rights Examiners:

Yih-Chau Chang/Oakland:

• Impassioned, Portantino And Peers Can't Get Their Facts Straight With AB 144

Dave Workman/Seattle:

• Gunrunner fallout: CCRKBA’s Gottlieb fires off stinging letter to Lieberman 
• Oregon ‘high’ court: Medical pot users can have CCW permits

Kurt Hofmann/St. Louis:

• Why does CDC's 'zombie apocalypse' preparedness list omit guns?

Gottlieb to Lieberman: "Investigate ATF"

In a letter to Sen. Lieberman, CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb reminded him that press reports and documents relating to Gunrunner indicate that the ATF “abetted the movement of firearms into the illicit gun market, and ultimately to drug cartels in Mexico.” Gottlieb also expressed his surprise that Lieberman’s letter to Holder did not mention either Gunrunner or Operation Fast-and-Furious, a project handled by the Phoenix ATF field office. [More]

We discussed Lieberman's abdication of credibility in this in yesterday's GRE and shared a letter in today's.
 

Dave Workman also addressed this in his column yesterday, reported on this latest development today, and just sent me the text of Gottlieb's letter, below:

The Honorable Joseph Lieberman
Chairman
Committee on Homeland Security And Government Affairs
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator Lieberman:

As you must certainly be aware, thanks largely to the efforts of your colleague, Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, there is an on-going investigation regarding allegations that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious actually abetted the movement of firearms into the illicit gun market, and ultimately to drug cartels in Mexico.

Yet, in a letter you wrote two days ago to Attorney General Eric Holder, supporting ATF plans to require federal firearms licensees to report multiple long gun sales, you skip over this serious allegation as though it did not exist. In recent weeks, I have traveled to Arizona twice on business, and both times I have discussed this case with concerned Arizona residents.

Frankly, Senator, I am stunned that your May 16 letter to Mr. Holder makes no mention of Project Gunrunner or Operation Fast and Furious, or the seriousness of the allegations against ATF. Surely, you must know that ATF has almost entirely shuffled its management team at the Phoenix office in recent weeks since this controversy first erupted, reassigning and replacing them. That strongly suggests the agency knows there is and was a problem, and they are now trying to clean up a mess.

It is that mess which has allegedly allowed thousands of firearms to be purchased and transported by suspected gun smugglers. The agency to which you now advocate giving more power over firearms transactions in southwest states was responsible for allowing criminal suspects to complete multiple purchases of so-called “assault rifles,” despite the concerns of those licensed dealers you would have ATF micro-manage, and over the objections of its own field agents.

Senator Lieberman, you are widely regarded by friend and foe alike as a good and decent man. That is why I am astonished that you now support a strategy that places firearms dealers and their customers under additional scrutiny of an agency that may very well be largely responsible for creating a problem you now expect it to resolve.

CBS News and Fox News, several newspapers and independent on-line journalists have been covering this controversy for months. Surely you must be aware of this.

It is not the southwest firearms dealers who need investigating, Senator, but the ATF. It is not those gun dealers who should be held accountable for the flood of illicit firearms into Mexico, but the ATF officials who not only allowed it to happen, but encouraged it. Instead of supporting this new reporting strategy, I urge you to instead exercise your considerable influence to support Senator Grassley’s investigation of the Gunrunner controversy.

Sincerely,

Alan M. Gottlieb
Chairman
Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms

CBS affiliate parrots ATF talking points, completely ignores Gunwalker

You're right in the thick of things in Texas--you're a frickin' CBS affiliate, for crying out loud--and this is the best you and your bobble-head talking point-parroting anchors can come up with? Not a word about "Project Gunwalker"? [More]

This afternoon's Gun Rights Examiner column reflects the most frustrating thing about trying to break this story out--Mike and I can work day and night uncovering new details and yet our reach isn't but a fraction of what a piece of total crap propaganda like this "TV news report" spews out to--so guess whose message gets retained?

That's why I continually pester the regulars here and at Examiner--the ones who presumably perceive enough value from the work to keep returning for more--to share the links. And I'm not going to apologize for it.

What information do you think the audience in KYTX's broadcast range is going to retain and form their opinions from?  What about where you live?

Shove It, You Lying Fraud

That's why even those of us who strongly support the Second Amendment...[More]

Clifford D. May shows everyone his big "but."

And then he tries to sell us on Peter King being "dedicated to protecting individuals' Second Amendment rights."

Anybody think smooth, worm-tongued neocons are not more insidiously subversive than outright raving "progressives"?

Gunfight in the Sunshine State...

2/3 of all Florida counties and countless municipalities have laws and regs that violate your right to bear arms. Preemption is enforceable on Oct 1st and we will need the money to fight in court. [More]

Here's more information from the Florida Open Carry Facebook group. I don't know if you have to be a FB member to view these links.

[Via Sean Carrana]

Walgreens Would Apparently Rather See You Dead Than Armed

"It's all about the almighty dollar," Kosick said. "It's a really poor system" for protecting workers, customers and expensive drugs, many of which are sought by illegal drug users and dealers. [More]

I always figured my life trumped their ignorance.  I wonder if they would sign a statement of liability if someone accedes to their demands and ends up getting killed because of it.


Screw these cowardly corporate weasels.
 
[Via Richard Nascak]

Brainnnnzzz....

What kind of brainless idiot would envision withstanding a zombie apocalypse without guns?

The kind that works for government, naturally.

Kurt explains.

DEA seizes ‘50 to 60’ AK-style firearms; ATF ‘scrambling’

...ATF is reportedly scrambling to take possession of the guns from DEA to avoid further bad publicity. [More]

Today's Gun Rights Examiner column will do what it can to not let them do that.  Avoid publicity, that is.

You can too, by sharing the link.

Also read a letter to Lieberman and take a trip to the Pacific Northwest to see nothing being done, by government workers, naturally.

This Day in History: May 19

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