House Gun Vote Shows Hypocrisy on Law Enforcement

[jpak]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dennis-a-henigan/house-gun-vote-shows-hypo_b_827578.html

"We don't need new gun laws. We just need to enforce the laws on the books."

How many times have you heard this argument from the gun lobby and its wholly-owned subsidiaries in Congress? And how many times have their actions on gun law enforcement exposed the hypocrisy of their words?

It has happened yet again on the issue of gun trafficking to Mexico. It is now beyond dispute that more than 60,000 guns -- primarily military-style semiautomatic assault rifles -- have moved from American gun shops in the border states into the hands of the murderous Mexican drug cartels, and more are moving every day. Yet on Friday, the House of Representatives, heeding only the National Rifle Association's command, voted to block the Obama administration from implementing a sensible proposal that would enhance enforcement of our laws to curb gun trafficking to the Mexican cartels.

Cartel-related Mexican violence, fueled by the flood of American guns, has taken a staggering 34,000 lives in recent years. The victims are not Mexican alone. Last week a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was killed, and another was wounded, in an apparent drug gang attack in the northern Mexican state of San Luis Potosi. Last month a Texas missionary was shot to death in northern Mexico. In March of last year, a U.S. employee of the American consulate in Ciudad Juarez and her husband were killed when drug gang members fired on their car as they left a children's party. Cartel-related violence has occurred on American soil as well, in the form of kidnappings and abductions from Las Vegas to Texas to Atlanta.

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Wayne LaPierre is an asshole

yup

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. More Repuke lead Brady Bunch stuff?

Why do you persist on posting such obvious spin, and in this case transparent falsehoods?


Brady Bunch is a repuke group advocating for more classist and racist restriction on civil rights

yup yup

[rl6214]

6. You call it spin

I call it blatant dishonesty

YUP

YUP

YUP

[pipoman]

2. Complete idiocy..

Anyone who believes, "Cartel-related Mexican violence, fueled by the flood of American guns, has taken a staggering 34,000 lives in recent years. ", is a complete idiot. There is nothing fueling cartel violence other than DRUG MONEY. The USAmerican 'war on drugs', has killed EVERY ONE of the victims regardless the implement used...holy shit, the stupidity...it's embarrassing...

[lawodevolution]

3. Clearly lies, ATF was walking guns to Mexico and our own federal government supplies

Weapons to the cartels via the Mexican government as the middlemen.

[jpak]

4. GOP/NRA fairy tales are just plain stupid

yup

[lawodevolution]

7. Exposed by wikileaks. Your little gun free world fairytail is a joke

[Bold Lib]

9. And CBS too I guess.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7357550n

Some people have faith so strong that facts and reality are blinded to them.

[Glassunion]

12. Yeah - that's right (LOL) - sorry I don't buy into the whole ATF jackbooted thug fairy tale

[spin]

23. Yup. You can always trust your government ...

it has your best interests at heart.

[Glassunion]

24. Absolutely. I hear the TSA is trying to resurect the CAPPS programs.

But his time they are talking aboout fingerprinting, background checks, etc... If you want to fly...

Remember. We are all free. We are free to do what our governement tells us to do.

[spin]

26. War is Peace ...

War is Peace, Freedom is slavery, Ignorance is Strength.
George Orwell "1984"

Recently reread both "1984" and "Brave New World." It was worth it.

[pipoman]

5. Even the Dept. of Justice, OIG agrees that existing laws are not

being enforced..

The ATF is responsible for retrieving firearms expeditiously from persons prohibited by the GCA from possessing firearms. We found that although the ATF normally has been able to retrieve the firearms eventually, the retrievals were not always timely. We also found that ATF special agents did not sufficiently document retrievals or provide assurance that a prohibited person no longer had access to the firearm.

Since 1998, the ATF has made progress in screening standard denial cases referred by the FBI. However, we found that the Brady Operations Branch and the ATF division offices were still referring standard denial cases to the ATF field offices that lacked prosecutorial merit, thereby increasing the workload of already overburdened field investigators and delaying the investigation of prosecutable cases. Cases without prosecutorial merit were being referred due to the lack of sufficient USAO prosecutorial guidelines, inadequate screening by some ATF divisions, inadequate communication, and insufficient training and guidance.

The Brady Operations Branch was using broad guidelines synthesized from jurisdiction-specific guidelines prepared by multiple USAOs. As a result, ATF division office personnel were required to perform additional screening using more specific individual USAO guidelines in order to determine whether a case merited investigation. Further, we found that the ATF had not allocated sufficient resources to the Brady Operations Branch to enable it to fully execute its responsibilities. Insufficient staffing resulted in extensive NICS case backlogs, which delayed the referral process and affected the timeliness of investigations. Also, the ATF had not provided funds for technological modifications of its case tracking and referral system to improve the operational efficiency of the Brady Operations Branch.

Our review also found that few NICS cases are prosecuted. During CYs 2002 and 2003, only 154 (less than 1 percent) of the 120,000 persons who were denied during the NICS background check were prosecuted. Historically, USAOs have been unsuccessful in achieving convictions in many of these cases and consequently have been unwilling to expend their limited resources on prosecuting most NICS cases.

http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/ATF/e0406/exec.htm

[krispos42]

8. Yeah, because tens of millions of Americans should have their gun rights surpressed

Not all of the, mind, but some of them, in response to foreign activity only tangentially related to guns.


So what are out choices here?

Virtually outlaw guns (i.e., take away gun rights) in an attempt to support the laws that virtually outlaw natural mood-altering substances.


OR


End the laws that outlaw natural mood-altering substances and eliminate the perceived need to suppress gun ownership.


Gee, which one makes Americans freer? :think:

[one-eyed fat man]

10. This cartoon is hated around here

It's still spot on the truth!

[Glassunion]

11. What about the war on terror?

[Callisto32]

13. I'm pretty sure that cartoon predates the war on terror.

[one-eyed fat man]

14. That's a tough one

"War on Terror" was an evil Bush era unconstitutional power grab by the executive branch. But the current resident of the White House has been loathe to give up any of the powers he decried as a candidate.

They both are using that chainsaw from my perspective.

The "government" is granted powers when the people acquiesce. People should learn to guard that prerogative jealously as history has proven once the government gets a power, it will never give it up.

[Atypical Liberal]

16. A third axman is needed.

There needs to be a chain saw laying in the foreground labeled "War on Terror".

[one-eyed fat man]

28. They both use the chainsaw!!! n/t

[Atypical Liberal]

17. Updated version

[Tuesday Afternoon]

21. rightclick/save. thanks.

nicely done.

[krispos42]

22. Also right-click/save n/t

[Atypical Liberal]

15. 60,000 civilian assault rifles at $700 each. Still doesn't add up.

60,000 civilian variants of the AK-47, which now retail at around $700 each, would cost $42,000,000

For $42 million dollars, I would expect the drug cartels to be buying much cheaper, fully-automatic weapons on the global market.

[spin]

25. If that's true, the cartels need better bean counters to run their business ...

that's a hell of a waste of good money.

[BuffaloES]

18. Did I miss something?

When did the United States of America become responsible for Mexico's border security? Isn't it Mexico's Government's job to stop guns at the border or marshmallow peeps if they choose to not allow the import of snacks? or the import of any other product into their country?

[X_Digger]

19. Bullshit..

http://www.notangsushi.com/?p=58

[ileus]

20. Is this about the ATF allowing these firearms to be sold???

[Bold Lib]

27. In a roundabout way, yes.

See, the ATF is up for funding review. Their project "gun runner" program was being seen as a dismal failure. Suddenly there are a bunch of guns tracked back to the U.S. Now the "gun runner" program is a success and they need more money and better tracking as there is obviously an emergency. So now we need to not only report multiple sales of handguns (as mandated by law decades ago) but we need to do the same for rifles.

This was the same kind of crap that lead up to the pooch screw at the Branch Davidian house in Waco TX. Funding was up and the ATF needed a big play to show how successful they are and how they need more money. Hell, the press was already there rolling tape BEFORE the ATF showed up. (the press was tipped off by the ATF so they could get good footage of their success.)