Unmourning Joe

“Exactly, what’re you gonna do,” Scarborough responds, laughing loudly and deeply. [More]

The creepiness of that doesn't surprise me.

As for what I'm gonna do, I'm mulling over if a FOIA request that wouldn't be a waste of time is doable...

Lawsuit Filed Over DOJ’s Second Amendment FOIA Foot-dragging

“But ‘preconditions like these’ have a place in the United States of America when it comes to the right of the people to keep and bear arms?” this column asked in January. “So they’ll go after violations for other rights, but where the Second Amendment is concerned, state entities can do as they please without fear of federal checks? Even though infringements directly affect the ‘security of a free State’ by disarming the citizen Militia?” [More]

We hear the term “law enforcement” all the time. Considering the whole reason we have the Constitution in the first place (as articulated in its Preamble), we hear far too little about rights enforcement.

Where Credit is Due

Included in link is our FOIA work against Moms Demand Action, Students Demand Action, Virginia county governments and 2A resolution, and nabbing the Illinois government’s scheme to use collected taxes from legal marijuana sales to fund gun control groups via grants. Anyone can FOIA, and it can produce fantastic information. [More]

It's important to know that fee misappropriation was uncovered and first reported by Mom-at-Arms. I bring that up because it would have been appropriate to acknowledge their work:

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As I've noted over the years, that's important for many reasons.

You'll forgive me if I take such matters personally.

Intercepted Enemy Dispatches

We’ve been getting hit a little too. The mommies hate when you FOIA school districts and local governments and get their comms lol [More]

Regular readers here know I do FOIAs all the time and report on the results. This business of going after government/MILM corroboration strikes me as intriguing, so I asked for examples.  Follow the "More" link to see some.

Interesting stuff.

[Via Elmer Non-Fudd]

UPDATE: I am informed it is a locked account and anyone who is not an approved Twitter follower of that account will not be able to access it. So here's what accessing that link would have made available:

• Everytown to use SDA for 2020 elections. Here’s how to fight/expose them
• Champaign, Illinois FOIA regarding their Emergency Declaration and firearms
• Loudoun County, Virginia FOIA: Remember Moms Demand Action’s cheerleader?
• Loudoun County board meeting tonight (12/11): how about another FOIA drop?
• FOIA REQUESTS: A WEAPON WE CAN ALL USE TO FIGHT THE ANTI-GUN INDUSTRY
• Think legalizing marijuana in Illinois didn’t have a catch? Think again. It funds gun control grants

You Bet It's Personal

“On Saturday, a man with a large assault weapon with a large extended magazine came to my home. He stood outside my kitchen window for a couple of hours or so,” Levine said Monday on the Virginia House floor... [More]

Well, that certainly conjures up a self-serving image. Was he on his property,  next to it and looking through it, or was he on a public sidewalk, technically outside his kitchen window" but not with the menacing intrusiveness being implied?

Without being able to read minds, how does he know the man's intent was to coerce? Perhaps it was to defy. Perhaps it was an act of courtesy, to let him know that actions can have consequences for those who would send armed coercion teams to the homes of their countrymen.

And how come this account says it was a shotgun yet reports Levine saying:

"Are we going to say that it's OK to take loaded assault weapons with extended magazines and go and threaten every elected official?"

So we won't even have Fudd guns if he has his way?

In any event, as desperately as he huffs and puffs, had a crime been committed, the police would have arrested the protestor. Herschel says he's filed a FOIA for their report. And the man answers my question about coercion -- looks like my instincts were right.

And ever the budding totalitarian, Levine leaves us with this:

Levine said that if what happened Saturday is not a crime, he will seek legislation next year to make it one. "If it's not illegal, I'm going to be damned sure by next year it is illegal," he said.

Squeeze, baby, squeeze!

I guess those who demand obedience or else don't like the First Amendment any better than they do the Second.

We Could Tell You But Then We'd Have to Kill You

Gun Owners of America has obtained the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives [ATF] Industry Operations Manual used by Industry Operations Inspectors (IOI). The gun-rights group received a copy of the document after submitting multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request the federal law enforcement agency. This copy is the first time since the 1990s that the manual has been made public. [More]

And the question there for our supposed "pro-gun president" is "Why?"

We're Gonna Need a Bigger Server

The EO builds upon the requirements in FOIA and requires each agency by February 28, 2020 to establish a single, searchable, indexed website that contains, or links to, all of the agencies' respective guidance documents currently in effect. [More]

Good luck with that.

[Via Roger J]

Teaching 'Gun Safety' by Breaking All the Rules

Moms Demand Action Caught Red-Handed Breaking Multiple NJ Gun Laws [More]

It figures they'd get an incompetent to teach the class. Let's hope the sanctimonious gunkapo gets the same treatment you or I would.

One addition for the pile-on I don't see here -- the Camden County Library System's "Code of Conduct" states:

The following activities are not allowed in Camden County Library System branches ... Carrying a weapon into the Library unless authorized by law. Any patron authorized to carry a weapon must notify Library staff that he/she is carrying a weapon in the Library. 

It might be worth a FOIA to the Haddon Township Police Department and the Camden County Sheriff's Office to see if they authorized it...

The Gift that Keeps on Giving

Exclusive: Another ATF “Fast and Furious” weapon recovered in Mexico a decade after U.S. government allowed gun sales to cartels [More]

You ought to see the volume of non-responsive and redacted crap sent to Stephen Stamboulieh in response to the FOIA request he's representing Kent Terry and me on. I wonder how many people have been killed since we first filed it, and the truth is we will never know.

[Via Greg K]

In the Interest of Public Safety?

ATF Issues Guidance To Alabama FFLs Effective Immediately [More]

Here's the stated reason:

Because county sheriffs have issued CCP permits s without completing a full NICS check, firearms have been transferred to felons and other prohibited individuals in violation of federal law, thereby creating a substantial public safety concern. For this reason, the standards set forth in the Brady law require us to find that Alabama’s CCP permits no longer qualify as a NICS check alternative. In the interest of public safety, and effective immediately, FFLs in Alabama may no longer accept CCP permits as an alternative to a NICS check. Unless another exception applies, a NICS check must be conducted whenever you transfer a firearm to an unlicensed person even if the individual presents an unexpired CCP permit.

So, as with "bump stocks," they've reversed themselves again.

I'm trying to determine if they have evidence of widespread system "failures" to back this move or if they're simply making an excuse for another reversal. If you have knowledge that can shed light on this, please educate us in "comments."

UPDATE:

Federal officials did not name the sheriffs who issued the permits ... they have not released the names of those counties ... 

Sounds like it's time for another FOIA.

Meanwhile, the bottom line reflects the desired effect:

“It really doesn’t matter what we think,’’ Thomas said. “We’re going to do what we’re told to do.”

You remember that and we just may let you live.

A Commonsense Totalitarian Safety Law

I was going through an old FOIA response to our "bump stock" queries and came across a copy of a Dianne Feinstein press release that pretty much distills Democrat (look who signed on) "gun control" down to the basics:

The only reason to fire so many rounds so fast is to kill large numbers of people ... The bill also contains exceptions for lawful possession of these devices by law enforcement and the government.

Any questions?

Two-Point Conversion

The newest FBI FOIA production on Mandalay Bay has been posted. [More]

Point One: Bump stocks were found with the guns (but not on AR-10s), but nowhere does it say that any were actually used.

Point Two: Paddock made a repeated point of asking about "converting AR and AK type firearms into fully automatic."

This does nothing to clear things up. DOJ is still unwilling to commit to the devices being used as opposed to any of the guns being modified.

Why? Where is the inspection report?

Whys and Wherefores

Now, let’s pose some questions for readers to consider.  First, why are these pages marked SECRET/NOFORN (No Foreign Nationals)?  Second, if you were Paddock, why would you voluntarily choose to shoot an AR-15 with a bump stock in a crime you intended to perpetrate when you could shoot a fully automatic weapon?  Third (and I’ll keep asking this until I get an answer), why did the FBI refuse to allow the ATF to examine the crime scene weapons? [More]

Here we go inventing wild-eyed conspiracy theories again.

No?

If the conspiracy theories I'm hearing are true, some powerful and dangerous people don't want answers getting out.  But rather than repeat them, I'll have to stick with what can be proven at this point, and see if we can prove any more.

What gets me is how some of the loudest and most vocal dismissals of that come from the ostensible "pro-gun" side.

UPDATE: Here's the FOIA release.

Government FOIA Flouting Responsible for One Bump Stock ‘Conspiracy Theory’

I’m not trying to imply anything. I’m merely repeating the government’s words. If anyone infers more to it, that could quickly be cleared up if DOJ wanted to give some straight answers and not play games with FOIAs.  Especially since they’ve given us more reasons to scratch our heads. [More]

The game they're playing is bizarre and only adds to the speculation as to why we have to take legal actions and still can't get a simple straight answer. It's also bizarre how many gun forum loudmouths hiding behind screen names vent their hostility at those asking the questions.

More on the Bump Stock FOIA

Herschel has the letter that contains the genesis for the "cuteness" I referred to. [More]

I'll explain when I'm ready. Not today, because I'm working on something else and there's only one of me.

Compliance Monitoring

FOIA Request Confirms Zero Standard Capacity Magazines Turned In to NJ State Police [More]

This is one reason some of us say "peaceable gun owners" instead of "law-abiding." I forget who I heard that from years ago, but it makes sense.

You Gave Them Eyes

What kind of sauce comes with that serving of red herring? Straw man with roquefort to accompany it? ... Conspiracy theory much? What is this even trying to suggest? The shooter used actual MGs and the FBI covered it up and blamed bump stocks? Just stop. [More]

All we are doing is making public the results of our FOIA production documents showing that ATF, by its own admission, did not internally examine the weapons and cannot confirm "whether or how" bump stocks were used. It's the government doing the saying, not us. It's not our fault if the facts as admitted in the response lend themselves to subjective speculation. 

The real question is, why do some disparage and make inferences of their own about the motives of those investigating, uncovering, reporting and asking about those facts?

Just stop, indeed.

About Those Bump Stocks

Another document production response to our FOIA:

P. 31:

[I already wrote about this here.]

P. 34:

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p. 36:

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P. 49:

Hey, it's not us inventing a "conspiracy theory."

Seeing as how everybody in the media seems to "know" they were used, and a couple hundred thousand citizens risk becoming felons over this, when do they think it might be a good time to stop dragging their feet on this? Everybody realizes this has been going on longer than the Warren Commission, right?

That Sinking Feeling

[More]

Satire aside, I'll be curious to see what the compliance rate is. My guess is the number actually surrendered to ATF will be negligible. Perhaps a FOIA in a month or so will be instructive.

Maybe nobody in Rhode Island owned one? Then again, the state does have plenty of coastline...

Then there are those who have shown us what we can expect from them when ordered to surrender.  As for ATF grinding them up, maybe somebody didn't get the memo.

What Frank 'Knows'

Frank Haera is the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the ATF’s Nashville field office. “A lot of people got hurt with these things in the wrong hands,” Haera said. [More]

Since ATF on-scene personnel were not ALLOWED to examine the recovered weapons for internal modifications and no report of technical examination has been issued to date, it's fair to ask what Frank knows that we don't, or if he's just talking out of his @$$ to "real reporters" parroting his every word without question.

If he can make that statement authoritatively, perhaps another FOIA request is in order-- either that or a complaint about why that information has been withheld from us.