Page Nine

Chicago War Deaths

The lamestream media told you:

“CHICAGO (CBS) — 125 Shot Dead In Chicago Over Summer; Total Is About Double The U.S. Troop Death Toll In Iraq

“An estimated 125 people were shot and killed over the summer. That's nearly double the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq over the same time period.

“In May, cbs2chicago.com began tracking city shootings and posting them on Google maps. Information compiled from our reporters, wire service reports and the Chicago Police Major Incidents log indicated that 125 people were shot and killed throughout the city between the start of Memorial Day weekend on May 26, and the end of Labor Day on Sept. 1.

According to the Defense Department, 65 U.S. soldiers were killed in combat in Iraq. About the same number were killed in Afghanistan over that same period.

In the same time period, an estimated 247 people were shot and wounded in the city.”
You can see the maps yourself.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

In a story almost without precedent, CBS identified Chicago’s high murder rate as almost totally gang related and geographically isolated. In modern America, that would mean these are war deaths in the War on Some Drugs, and not “gun deaths” as the media likes to frame the argument, to vilify firearms and create public fear.

With surprising candor, CBS announced, “Gang and gun violence continue to be the dominating threat on our streets," according to a police e-mail to CBS. "Up to 60 percent of the shootings are gang related. More than 90 percent of the offenders have criminal histories and up to 80 percent of the victims have criminal histories."

It’s unclear how the police concluded that only 60% of these crimes are gang related, when 90% of the shooters have criminal records and 80% of the victims do too. It’s also a fairly typical police distortion to suggest gun violence is the dominant threat “on our streets” when these gangland rubouts happen “on their streets,” and normal citizens generally only get to see it on the news from the “bad” neighborhoods. Look at the maps. Comparing Chicago’s rubout rate to the wars against Islamofascists is just bad reporting, from the town that has virtually banned guns (unlike Iraq and Afghanistan) and spawned Barack Obama.

Heller’s Suit Expensive

The lamestream media told you:

Nothing.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

The District of Columbia is being sued for $3.5 million in legal fees, the cost of bringing the successful Heller gun-ban case against the city, to restore people’s civil rights. Taxpayers may have to foot the bill for the city’s arrogant denial of rights to its... taxpayers.

"Certainly this money would be put to better use if it were allocated to proven crime-reduction measures like adding more police officers and prosecutors,” said National Shooting Sports Foundation senior vice president and general counsel Lawrence G. Keane. The city apparently would prefer to squander its limited funds -- forcing Dick Heller to sue them again -- to get them to obey the Supreme Court’s ruling. The hubris of these people is just over the top.

Tags: D.C. v. Heller, National Shooting Sports Foundation, Lawrence G. Keane

Heller Citings Growing

The lamestream media told you:

Nothing.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

Lawsuits and court cases post-Heller have been piling up. UCLA prof. Eugene Volokh has been keeping track, and tabulating the results. I’ll post a review of the cases soon. An initial glance doesn’t look good -- as predicted, bad guys are using Heller to try to skate, and courts are finding that Heller allows them to go to prison, with accompanying language that doesn’t hold rights in very high esteem (even though bad guys do deserve punishment).

Tags: Eugene Volokh, D.C. v. Heller

Dangerous BATFE Changes

The lamestream media told you:

Nothing.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

BATFE has announce a plan to allow licensed firearms dealers to maintain their required “bound book” record of all gun sales electronically (in computers). On one hand, this is a relief from the stone-age approach of handwritten records dealers are burdened with by law, will save time, and reduce the likelihood of errors, a frequent government excuse for attacking gun dealers. On the other hand, the potential for gathering the now-computerized data into centralized federal registries of gun owners is a potentially catastrophic abuse of gun rights, and a goal feds have been seeking unsuccessfully for decades.

Although some industry leaders are praising the development, alert gun-rights activists are not so sure. The software approved for an electronic “Acquisitions and Dispositions” book must satisfy “certain ATF requirements set forth in the ruling signed by Acting Director Michael Sullivan,” according to NSSF, which said in a statement, “NSSF would like to congratulate ATF, and in particular the leadership of Acting Director Sullivan, on helping to reduce the paperwork burden on industry.” The true contents of software programs cannot be discerned by average computer users.

The stated requirements in the program include the ability to search, and out-of-business records will fall into the hands of BATFE as they do now. Dealers have in the past been able to request electronic record keeping, now it will be simply available.

At the urging of industry leaders, BATFE plans to launch an “E-Form 4473,” heightening activists’ fears, and presumably easing the collection of data by the feds. No word on safeguards or concerns over the potentials for abuse has been made by any of the usual suspects. Gun Owners of America has informed the Uninvited Ombudsman they are looking into the matter.

Tags: BATFE

Party Gun Platforms

The lamestream media told you:

Very little about the candidates position on RKBA, besides exclaiming that Sarah Palin is a moose hunter.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

The Democratic National Committee official party platform on its position on gun control is not far from Obama’s:

"We believe that the right to own firearms is subject to reasonable regulation, but we know that what works in Chicago may not work in Cheyenne. We can work together to enact and enforce common sense laws and improvements -- like closing the gun show loophole, improving our background check system, and reinstating the assault weapons ban ..."

The Republican National Committee party platform position on gun control is different world, here’s a piece:

"Gun ownership is responsible citizenship... We condemn frivolous lawsuits against firearms manufacturers, which are transparent attempts to deprive citizens of their rights. We oppose federal licensing of law-abiding gun owners and national gun registration as violations of the Second Amendment. We recognize that gun control only affects and penalizes law-abiding citizens, and that such proposals are ineffective at reducing violent crime."

In other news, pro-gun Democrats must have a conflict between their stance on human rights, and the Dem party rules for Town Halls, where “Submissions must not... (iii) contain profanity, pornographic, or sexual content, content promoting alcohol, illegal drugs, tobacco, firearms, or weapons, hateful content of any kind (including racism, sexism, etc.), content that promotes violence or harm to another living creature, or any other offensive, obscene, or inappropriate content...."

Brady Schemes Exposed

The lamestream media told you:

There are many good ideas for cutting “gun deaths,” according to a Freakonomics quorum run by The New York Times. “Let’s put aside for a moment the standard discussions about the right to bear arms,” quotes the piece, which goes on to discuss novel ideas -- but not the demographic reality that 80-90% of gun deaths (omitting suicide) are related to the War on Some Drugs, making them actually war deaths.

Among the suggestions: rewards for snitching on illegal possession, increased parental involvement, garnishing wages to pay victims, elect gun-death-reduction politicians, tipping the Supreme Court away from its current pro-rights stance, and other ideas.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

Anti-gun-rights crusader and Brady gun-ban hero David Hemenway, a Harvard professor of “health policy,” has developed plans for gun bans and rights restrictions that will skirt the Heller gun-rights findings and attack the rights of the public, with little or no effect on crime. He is being hailed as a champion in some dark circles opposed to the right to keep and bear arms. The plan is fiendishly simple:

Create the National Firearm Safety Administration, which could quickly occur if anti-rights candidate B.H. Obama wins the presidency (see Obama’s unbroken anti-gun-rights voting record). It would mimic the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in some respects, with stunning power in a loosely controlled agency’s hands.

Massive funding would be poured into the new agency to study crime, firearms injury and deaths, and “public health problems due to firearms,” with no mention of self defense, crime prevention, legal justifications or lives saved. Hemenway draws analogies about air bags and seat belts for proposed requirements on firearms “for safety.” The agency, he says, should have a broad “mission to reduce the harm caused by firearms” while ignoring the good that guns do.

Hemenway says, “The agency should require safety and crime-fighting characteristics on all firearms manufactured and sold in the U.S. It should ban from regular civilian use products which are not needed for hunting or protection and which only endanger the public. It should have the power to ensure that there are background checks for all firearm transfers to help prevent guns from being sold to criminals and terrorists.

“The agency needs the resources and the power (including standard setting, recall, and research capability) for making reasonable decisions about firearms... Similarly, each specific rule regulating the manufacture and sale of firearms should go through a more scientific administrative process rather than the more political legislative process. It’s time to take some of the politics out of firearm safety.”

The cleverly crafted plan would move the constitutional right to keep and bear arms out of the legislative process and representation of your elected officials, where your voice can be heard, and into the hands of bureaucrats and agenda-driven insiders immune to your desires or fundamental rights.

The Democrat party, frustrated in its constant failed attempts to eradicated your rights, once again is handed a deceit-driven scheme for accomplishing their nefarious, freedom-defeating goal.

Off the radar but still on the drawing boards, Dennis Kucinich’s proposed U.S. Dept. of Peace would likely get new life under Obama too, along with a $10 billion budget, hundreds of permanent new federal bureaucrats, and control over everything from animal “rights” to women’s issues and firearms, along with sinister influence over the U.S. military.

Tags: National Firearm Safety Administration, David Hemenway

Carry State Clarifications

The lamestream media told you:

Nothing. In fact, they never provide this crucial information to the public, perhaps because only half of all American homes have firearms.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

Chris Bird, author of the exceptional Concealed Handgun Manual, reports: The NRA says there are 40 right-to-carry states. That includes Vermont which does not issue licenses so you don't need a license to carry open or concealed. Alaska is a shall-issue state but you don't need a license to carry in the open or concealed under current law. The state has kept the permit process going for Alaskans who want reciprocity with states in the Lower 48.

There are three other states – Alabama, Connecticut and Iowa -- that the NRA considers right-to-carry because they say permits are almost always issued to law-abiding residents. I have no quarrel with Connecticut and Alabama but I do not count Iowa as I have talked to people in one state gun-rights organization and they say it depends on which county you live in. Some counties issue few if any licenses.

So I say there are 36 states that have mandatory issuance if a person qualifies: AK, AR, AZ, CO, FL, GA, ID, IN, KA, KY, LA, ME, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NM, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WY.

I use the terms license and permit interchangeably, though states are generally dedicated to the word they've chosen. Also note that some states issue permits for concealed weapons that include more than just a handgun, some issue licenses for concealed handguns only, or for any possession, or for a specific firearm listed on the permit. In my home state of Texas, the CHL is for a revolver only, or for semi-auto and revolver, at your choice.

For information on how the wonderful firearm licensing laws attack and diminish your right to keep and bear arms, read this and this.

Tags: concealed handguns, NRA, right-to-carry states

Election Avoids Guns

The lamestream media told you:

The gun issue may have caused both John Kerry and Al Gore their presidential election bids. President Clinton specifically attributed Gore's loss to the fears of gun owners, costing the great award-winning environmental champion the humiliating loss of his own home state and the election.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

Despite a monumental Supreme Court case on the subject, and quiet rumblings about how guns are a factor in presidential races, the news media is maintaining an eerie silence on the topic of guns, gun rights, gun control and even the Olympic winners of the shooting contests (Great Britain, Germany, China and Russia were big winners, American Kim Rhode took her 4th career Olympic Medal, getting Silver in Women's Skeet).

The media however continues issuing its routine national "news" reports of many minor local gun-related crimes, creating a false impression that gun violence is random (it is highly localized in "bad" neighborhoods), an intrinsic value of firearms (it is largely related to the federalized war on some drugs), and that guns should be outlawed since outlaws use them (the same as outlaws use getaway cars, stolen cash, knives, clubs, liquor, cigarettes, soft drinks, tattoos and everything else).

The media's highly favored candidate, African American B.H. Obama, has no published platform position on firearms. Read it for yourself. His opponent, John McCain, has a strong pro-rights position posted.

Posted platforms and performance are not always an exact match, but the difference is startling. Obama did recently publicly deny that he would take away your guns, and denied his anti-rights record of gun-ban laws he's supported, and that if gun confiscation is why you won't vote for him, change your mind, he said.

Tags: John McCain, Barack Obama

Shooting, Not Buying

The lamestream media told you:

The Heller case, which overturned D.C.'s 32-year-old gun ban, will lead to the Wild West days of Dodge City, with shootouts happening on a regular basis. "Eighty people a day die at the hands of guns," said NYC Mayor Bloomberg. "It's just completely befuddling that our Supreme Court would be in alliance with the gangbangers," said Tom Barwin, village manager of Oak Park, Ill., which has a now-endangered gun ban in place.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

Residents of Washington D.C. cannot legally buy guns, since there are no gun stores in the city, and direct sales across state lines have been banned by federal law since 1968. People lucky enough to already own guns in the District have not been involved in the much-feared public blood letting officials are now afraid of. How any of this will lead to shootouts was unclear at press time.

Mr. Barwin's inane statement is very valuable, in showing how hopelessly ignorant some elected officials are. "Arguing with such vapid stupidity is less than worthless," said an observer who refused to be named. "The man has no understanding of the good that guns do or the difference between criminals and the rest of the citizenry. He needs education along with well-deserved scorn."

Someone needs to tell Mayor Bloomberg that guns do not have hands, and that people die at the hands of something known as criminals. Reporters failed to question the mayor about the obvious gaff. More than half of all U.S. firearm-related deaths are suicides, many related to poor care for the destitute elderly infirm. Japan suffers a far higher rate of suicides, despite a near total ban on guns (people often throw themselves under trains).

Despite an inability to get guns, D.C. residents will be able to get gun training, thanks to the NSSF "First Shots" program that teaches newcomers how to use and enjoy firearms safely. Tom Gresham's Gun Talk Radio Show featured an interview with NSSF President Steve Sanetti on the upcoming program for the district's residents.

Tags: Gun Talk Radio Show, Bloomberg, Steve Sanetti, D.C. v. Heller

Gun Sales Rising

The lamestream media told you:

The economy is in the doldrums, business is bad, people are hurting, spending is down, consumer confidence is down, unemployment is up, good jobs are scarce, foreclosures are up, the market is down, gasoline is expensive, food prices are up, blah, blah, blah.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

Gun and ammunition sales are up 9.7% in the first quarter of 2008, according to a National Shooting Sports Foundation analysis.

Sales were led by a 17.3 percent increase in ammunition sales, a 5 percent rise in handgun sales and a 6.7 percent increase in long gun sales. The statistics come from the Pittman-Robertson federal excise tax collection report, calculated as a percentage of wholesale receipts, paid quarterly by firearm and ammunition manufacturers, and earmarked for state wildlife conservation and habitat restoration programs.

The stats reflect solely U.S. civilian sales and do not include sales to military, police, etc. During the quarter, $76.8 million was generated for conservation through excise tax collections, compared to $70.1 million in the same period in 2007. From January through March, $19.9 million was collected for pistols and revolvers, $30.3 million for long guns and $26.4 million for ammunition. The latest tax collections suggest overall sales of $716.4 million, not including retail markup or final retail sales.

In other news, ATK Armament Group sales were up 32 percent in the first quarter of 2008, to $442 million, compared to $336 million in the prior-year quarter. The division of ATK produces commercial and military ammunition and gun systems, propellants and advanced energetics. ATK's overall first-quarter earnings rose 9 percent when compared to the same period the previous year, with sales for the quarter surpassing $1.1 billion. "ATK" trades on the NYSE and closed Friday at $105.90.

Tags: National Shooting Sports Foundation, ATK Armament Group