We're the Only Ones Peeping Enough

Two FBI workers are accused of using surveillance equipment to spy on teenage girls as they undressed and tried on prom gowns at a charity event at a West Virginia mall. The FBI employees have been charged with conspiracy and committing criminal invasion of privacy...

Gary Sutton Jr., 40, of New Milton and Charles Hommema of Buckhannon have been charged with the misdemeanors and face fines and up to a year in jail on each charge if convicted. [More]

Teenage girls? Any of them legally minors? If so, is there any reason--aside from "Only One" status--that they're not being charged as felonious sexual predators, so that we can forever disarm them and track where they live online?

[Via too many of you to credit]

We're the Only Ones Stimulated Enough

Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia wants to spend about $7 million in federal stimulus money to lease and staff a helicopter, buy a covert surveillance van and add machine guns to boats that patrol the Houston Ship Channel. [More]

Let's see, it's Homeland Security lucre, so it can't be foreign pirates. Maybe there's a rightwing extremist threat? Because as we all know, these weapons of war are designed solely to kill as many human beings as possible and belong on the battlefield, not on our streets.

Oh, sorry, I was mistakenly referring to your and my semiautos, not to "Only One"-assigned "patrol rifles."

[Via Lane]

UPDATE: Whose Paranoid tells us about another toy that can be deployed against...what did the guy in shades call us?

Civilians.

I know the definition has been allowed to change through common usage over time to include pea...uh...law enforcement officers. I wonder who thought that was a good idea?

Savage Shooting Looks Like Fun

Funny thing about Knob Creek. Ordinary Americans have access to all kinds of firepower and yet 15,000 of them manage to get along just fine.

Maybe, just maybe it's not the guns...? [More]

Today's Gun Rights Examiner column covers a lot of ground, from a range in Kentucky to:

• A "progressive" view of the Second Amendment
• Front Sight Correcting 20/20 vision
• Deceptive play dates
• Trouble in Oregon
• Anti-gun Facebook censorship
• Alaskan liberty

Also get access to my latest GUNS Magazine "Rights Watch" column, plus read the latest commentary from my fellow GREs.

Tell a friend?

This Day in History: April 21

The Enemy, unprovided with Horses and Carriages or any means of moving by land, cannot go off the Island and penetrate the Country, and I should imagine that it would not require any great number, properly Stationed, to prevent their ravaging the Coast. [More]

Wrap your mind around that. Washington regarded those who insisted--with force--that they were his lawful government--and fellow countrymen who sided with them--as "The Enemy."

It's a hell of a thing to drive a good man to consider, don't you think? How much abuse and disregard for his rights should one have to suffer before he does? That seems to be the question we're wrestling with, isn't it?

Breaking News: Ninth Circuit Incorporates Second Amendment!

It's huge because the Second Amendment has not been held to be incorporated --and thus binding-- on the states. [More]

This one warranted a second Gun Rights Examiner column.

Raw Intel

A former member of our unit (but now a cop) told me homeland security is telling all law enforcement to find excuses to search the vehicles of anyone they suspect of being militia and to seize their firearms for any charge they can make up even when they know the firearms will have to be returned or on the pretext of checking the serial numbers so while they have them the BATF can ballisticly test (and put the ballistic forensics into a data base) of all the firearms they can take. He said on the AR-15s the BATF is also checking for M16 parts and testing to see if they will malfunction and double. [More]

No idea if this is valid, but the way it "feels" to me, I thought it best to air vs. sit on. I call it to your attention as a precaution and recommend treating it with appropriate questioning while not dismissing it outright.

At this point, we're in data gathering mode. Feel free to enlighten us.

[Via Qi Ji Guang]

A Little Quid Pro Quo, Jane?

In exchange for Harman’s help, the sources said, the suspected Israeli agent pledged to help lobby Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., then-House minority leader, to appoint Harman chair of the Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections, which the Democrats were heavily favored to win. [More]

This is wrong on so many levels--and not just with foreign powers and democrats, but with their republican cronies as well.

Of course, Jane always has been wrong on so many levels.

The Right Tool for the Job

Monitoring "rightwing extremists," that is. [More]

Everybody's hip to "27bstroke6" in the url, right?

[Via Matt Maynard]

Piquing DHS Interest

West said a customer of his recently stocked up on .223-caliber rounds, a caliber often used in assault-style weapons. The customer bought 1,000 rounds a few months ago through a mail order company.

Shortly after the purchase, he received a visit from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, whose interest was apparently piqued by a large-scale purchase of that caliber. [More]

Thank God.

I mean, the guy was at church.

Sounds like one o' them "rightwing extremists" to me...

[Via Jeffersonian]

We Can All Agree to Disagree

Mexican and U.S. authorities disagree on just what type of gun it was. Federal police coordinator Gen. Rodolfo Cruz maintains it was .50-caliber anti-air craft machine gun. ATF, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said it was an unmodified .50-caliber semiautomatic rifle made by TNW, a U.S. firearms manufacturer. [More]

Whose Paranoid brings us a conflicted report.

I hate to add even more confusion, but I had a source with connections tell me:

THIS is not a .50 anti aircraft machine gun. It is a 1917-1918A series 30 Cal thousands of which have been given to Latin American Countries over the years and which has not been in the US inventory for almost 50 years.

Perhaps someone can help clarify all these seeming disconnects...?

Journalistic Ethics at ABC

The "Jan" listed as a gun-owning father in this story is Jan Nickels - an old friend from grade/high school, who still currently lives only about 5 miles from me. He is an ex-Marine and is well-schooled in firearms and firearm safety. We are fellow members of the same local shooting club.

I called Jan as soon as I read the story. As it turns out, ABC News tricked Jan and others to participate in what was obviously always been intended to be an anti-gun attack. In fact, this story starts with a false premise and goes quickly downhill. At this point I will let Jan tell the rest of his story... [More]

Jeff Riley turns his eye on the ABCs of "Authorized Journalism."

Go read his exposé and watch the supporting videos.

And then help get the word out.

Point/uh...Counterpoint...?

"I challenge the president of the United States and the media to prove that 90 percent of the guns used by the drug cartels are being smuggled," Mr. LaPierre said...

Mr. Rendell did not address the statistic. [More]

Of course he didn't. That's because Mr. Rendell is a tyrannical fraud.

Another balanced Washington Times report...

We need to encourage this. I know of no better way to do that than by showing them such reporting boosts site visits.

It's Our Fault

Obama blames U.S. guns in Mexico [More]

Of course he does.

It's easier than dealing with the real issues, and he knows he'll get plenty of publicity and support. Such posturing will help mollify some of the anti-defense zealots demanding gun bans NOW, plus, when the time is right, he'll be better positioned to press forward with the next round of infringements.

He's even confident enough in his position that he knows he can repeat the 90% lie even though he knows it's not true. To their credit, Stephen Dinan and The Washington Times threw a flag on that and gave us a pretty balanced report.

Meanwhile, Across the Pond in Sarah Brady Paradise...

The public are fast losing patience with thuggish policing... [More]

Why? They're the ones with the force monopoly. Isn't that what you lot wanted?

Be careful what you wish for...? You just might get it...?

And how.

"No One Should Feel Immune"

Curry also found out firsthand what federal drug enforcement agents have long understood. The drug war, with the savagery it brings, knows no bounds. It had landed in his back yard, in the foothills of the Appalachians, in Alabama's wealthiest county, around the corner from The Home Depot.

One thousand, twenty-four miles from the Mexico border. [More]

Government usurpation, corruption and negligence have led us to this. And the solution is to give them more power to disarm us?

Not feeling very immune, I don't think so.

2A All the Way

Rady Ananda makes me eat my words.

Crow has never tasted better.

Check out the first column she has ever written about the right to keep and bear arms.

I understand OpEd News kind of freaked, because they're a "progressive" site. Hey, that's another debate to be held later. For now, go on over and give her some support.

And let other know.

Still Crossing Fingers 10 Years After Columbine

We can do so much better than crossing our fingers and wishing. But right now, that's really the only preemptive measure in place. Everything else is just a response. [More]

Today's Gun Rights Examiner column questions why the best preemptive solution the gun grabbers have against school shootings involves keeping your fingers crossed. It seems a fair question. Funny how there's not a mass outcry demanding an answer.

Also get the latest from my fellow GREs.

Tell a friend?

This Day in History: April 20

XL. And whereas it is of the utmost importance to the safety of every State that it should always be in a condition of defence; and it is the duty of every man who enjoys the protection of society to be prepared and willing to defend it; this convention therefore, in the name and by the authority of the good people of this State, doth ordain, determine, and declare that the militia of this State, at all times hereafter, as well in peace as in war, shall be armed and disciplined, and in readiness for service. [More]

New York, folks. Founding document.

The Four Most Important Lessons of Columbine...

...show supposed "experts" like Dave Cullen haven't learned a damn thing. [More]

The most important lesson isn't even mentioned.

What a useless article. I can't imagine subjecting myself to more of it with his book.

I'm always amazed by those who presume to teach us when it's evident they aren't even qualified to be in the class.

[Via Ed M]

A Tale of Two Protests

There's what really happened and the "Authorized Journalist" version. [More]