Becky Sarwate thinks Wayne LaPierre is a criminal. She claims he and the NRA are “directly responsible for [the] ricin letters sent to gun control leaders” last week. “Wayne LaPierre is an accessory to each and every one of these ricin crimes. He may not have supplied the chemicals, but he and his group continue to dish out motive in dangerous, irresponsible bucketfuls” She thinks they should “[h]aul him to the precinct, turn on the hot lights and file some charges. I’m serious. If it’s illegal to yell ‘Fire!’ in a public place and incite a riot, there should be no distinction between trumping up an imagined threat to the Second Amendment and standing smugly aside as violence ensues.” In that case, then, if someone is killed in a home invasion or raped because they can’t own the arms they need to protect themselves properly, can we haul the Becky and the other gun control lemmings in and treat them the same way? And now, on to some real criminals . . .
A Hotchkiss, Colorado, man could get up to 20 years after he pled guilty to assorted charges including possession of stolen firearms and possession of a “machine gun.” He stole SWAT gear including a fully automatic rifle, a handgun, ammunition and tactical gear from a sheriff’s deputy’s basement and then was stupid enough to ride around with some of it in his pickup. There was evidence he had fired the automatic rifle, a .223 caliber Colt M4 Commando.
In Pinal County, Arizona, a couple of suspects took off after being stopped for routine traffic violations. They abandoned their vehicle shortly after, in which LEOs found a “High-Point 9mm rifle” in the car with a round loaded in the chamber and a full magazine, along with a bag of cocaine. The two suspects are still at large, but if they want to claim their property, they’re holding it for them at the Pinal County Sheriff’s Department.
Also from Arizona comes a report that a Tucson man has been given one year probation for pointing a wooden rifle stock at a Pima County Sheriff’s deputy. The deputy fired two shots in return, but didn’t hit him. The report didn’t say if the stock was one of those adjustable assault stocks, or if it had an actual shoulder thing that goes up.
Yes, as RF pointed out earlier today, you can bring a knife to a gunfight. But a pointy stick? Not so much. In Seattle, someone tried robbing a store using a “pointy metal stick.” Unfortunately for him the store’s owner was carrying a pistol. When police arrived the suspect was handcuffed on the floor and the store owner was standing with his foot on him. The suspect was hauled off to jail, the police made sure the owner’s CCW was up to date and the antis have to choke on yet another DGU that was completed without anyone firing a shot.
And in nearby Edmonds, Washington, a group of kids have been suspended for playing with Nerf guns after a teacher told them it was OK to bring them to school. They were studying probability and were going to shoot the guns 100 times to see what would happen, statistically speaking. After they decided to “try out” the guns before school, they were hauled into the principal’s office where they were treated like criminals and suspended. “…It’s a matter of safety and it’s of the utmost importance. So even if it’s a toy, we take it seriously,” said school district spokeswoman Amanda Ralston. The parents are appealing the decision.
And no discussion of criminal activities would be complete without taking a look at what’s going on in politics. In Connecticut legislators approved a package of revisions for their recently-enacted draconian gun control measures. The revisions further tighten the stranglehold they have on the Second Amendment but they managed to toss a few sops to gun owners: they’re excluding Olympic target pistols, curios and relics from the assault weapon ban. And anyone who bought a modern sporting rifle before the ban went into effect but didn’t receive it until afterward can now legally possess their own property. The changes are going to Governor Dannel Malloy, who of course will rubber-stamp them all.
If you’ve been thinking that the Senate shifting their focus to immigration means they’ll lay off gun control, you’re sadly mistaken. Senator Richard Blumenthal from — you guessed it — Connecticut is “seriously considering” reopening the issue as part of the proposed immigration legislation. His plan is to try to tack on amendments which would limit immigrants’ access to firearms, calling them “common-sense, gun violence control measures that apply very logically and reasonably to the immigration bill.”
And bringing up the rear, as is his wont, there’s Rep. Charles Rangel of Noo Yawk. He’s pushing for “common-sense reforms in this legislation would allow the ATF to consolidate and centralize gun dealer records so that when a crime is committed or when gun trafficking is discovered, the ATF and other government agencies can quickly trace the gun’s purchase history and identify the criminals involved and the mistakes that may have been made in the approval of purchases. ” In other words, he wants to create a central database of gun ownership records, administered by the ATF. That’s the same agency that brought you the “Fast & Furious” debacle and which works for AG Eric Holder who wipes his feet on the Constitution daily. What could possibly go wrong?