The new Operation Choke Point continues to take shape . . .
Twelve Democratic senators are calling on banks to follow the lead of Citigroup and Bank of America in limiting their business with firearms dealers in light of recent mass shootings.
The senators, led by Dianne Feinstein of California and Brian Schatz of Hawaii, wrote letters to 11 banks — including Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley — endorsing corporate policies that raise the minimum age to purchase firearms, require background checks on sales, and prohibit the sale of high-capacity magazines, bump stocks and assault-style weapons.
Not all the numbers have gone back to their pre-Parkland levels, but they’re getting there. That process was already well underway as early as late March. The measurements being looked at break down into two different questions. How many people support new gun legislation and how many believe that it’s actually possible to pass such laws with our current Congress and president. Right after the shooting 50% of the country thought passing such legislation was possible. By March 23rd the number had dropped by six points and it continues to fall.
Similarly, right after the shooting, 51% said Congress wasn’t doing enough about gun violence. In a matter of six weeks, that figure had sunk back into the mid-40s. But that doesn’t mean that all the news is either good or bad. In the wake of a terrible attack, a certain number of people are always going to react in a predictable fashion and consider governmental “solutions” which might have seemed undesirable before. But Americans value their Second Amendment rights and once they see the sorts of legislation that the gun grabbing lobby inevitably cooks up every time they have a chance, enthusiasm for such schemes tends to drop.
Weapons manufacturer Remington Outdoor Company Inc won approval for its bankruptcy plan on Wednesday, paving the way for the company to slash debt, boost its cash position and better weather the uncertain climate for firearms in the United States.
Remington will exit bankruptcy as soon as this month, with some of its creditors, including JPMorgan Chase & Co(JPM.N) and Franklin Advisors, taking ownership stakes in the company in exchange for forgiving debt. Cerberus Capital Management L.P., Remington’s current private equity owner, will give up its equity in the restructuring.
The company confirmed in a statement that its expects to emerge from bankruptcy before the end of May.
It’s almost like America’s gun owners are more committed and engaged than their anti-gun opponents . . .
The nation’s largest gun-control political action committees raised just over $1.4 million in March, about 60 percent of the amount raised by the National Rifle Association’s PAC.
The PACs for the Brady Campaign, Everytown for Gun Safety, and Giffords all brought in money from donors in March with varying degrees of success. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence Voter Education Fund raised $4,015 for the first quarter, according to a filing with the Federal Election Committee. In March, the Everytown For Gun Safety Action Fund, Inc. raised $13,580. And the Giffords PAC outpaced its ideological counterparts by raising $1,386,892.64 that month.
That amounts to $1,404,487.64 between the three groups. The NRA’s Political Victory Fund raised $2,353,095.31—about 40 percent more than the combined total of the gun-control groups. The NRA PAC’s total represents a record amount for the group.
As a Washington, DC, police officer, Richard Wince knew firsthand about the dangers of black market gun sales and the inherent risk of weapons ending up in the wrong hands.
But that didn’t stop him from illegally dealing firearms while off-duty. Prosecutors say he supplied weapons to people who couldn’t buy them legally, including a troubled former Marine reservist deemed “mentally incompetent.”
Wince sold the 29-year-old former Marine an AK-47 that he used to kill himself about two weeks later, according to court documents reviewed by CNN. Another weapon Wince sold “was used in a murder,” the documents state. Authorities declined to provide details about the slaying.
Across the country, the number of gun shop burglaries has steadily increased from 436 in 2015 to 577 last year, according to ATF statistics. The number of guns stolen in these break-ins is up from 4,721 in 2015 to 7,841 last year.
“That’s a concern for us, ” added (ATF Public Information Officer Suzanne) Dabkowski.
The number of gun store burglaries in Ohio has varied only slightly, but the number of guns stolen has increased by nearly 100.
There’s a common misconception in the media about the eventuality for which the preppers are exactly prepping. That’s because they’re a diverse group, and prep for many different things. No, they aren’t planning for a revolution to overthrow the government. (Most of them, anyway.) Mostly they’re planning to keep themselves and their families safe while someone else tries to overthrow the government. That, or zombies. (More on zombies below.)
While we don’t have any good sources of data on how often zombies take over the world, we definitely have good sources of data on when the group of people on the piece of dirt we currently call the USA attempt to overthrow the ruling government. It’s happened twice since colonization. The first one, the American Revolution, succeeded. The second one, the Civil War, failed. But they are both qualifying events. Now we can do math.
Politicians bought by the NRA are no longer safe.
Voters are ready to turn the page on a gridlocked Congress that refuses to protect our kids and communities from gun violence. That’s why we’re doing everything we can to #VoteThemOut in November. https://t.co/l4v5g00Qnj
