Posted on 09/24/2005 9:51:57 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A storm is brewing. It has the potential to utterly destroy the Republican Party.
For years, under both Democrat and Republican administrations, American citizens -- cornerstones of their communities -- have been falsely charged and railroaded into prisons. Their lives have been ruined. Their families have been shattered. It has all been because of accusations and sham trials that belong in Communist China, not the United States of America.
We're talking about the decades of abuses committed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). We're talking about the _continuing_ abuses that are ruining innocent gun owners and gun makers today. Worse, we're now also talking about political cover-up and complicity.
A HISTORY OF ABUSE
For evidence of the abuses, see:
http://www.jpfo.org/alert20050103.htm
http://www.jpfo.org/savagebatfe.htm
http://www.jpfo.org/savage2.htm
People are being convicted on utterly meaningless testimony from "expert" witnesses who don't know what they're talking about and who work for an agency that uses arbitrary testing methods designed to yield whatever results bureaucrats and politicians want.
Do the Republicans know about this? Yes. Of course they do. They've known since at least 1982, when Congress recommended curbing the ATF's powers. Instead of controlling the ATF, administration after administration, of both parties, has handed the ATF more money and more power.
NEW EVIDENCE OF A COVER-UP
But it's worse. Not only does the current administration know about these unjust persecutions, these outrageous, trumped-up charges, they're now blatantly aiding and abetting the very agency that so horribly abuses American gun owners.
Here's what we're discovering:
Earlier this year, firearm manufacturer Len Savage and JPFO worked together to reveal that ATF Firearms Technology Branch (FTB) actually has NO standards for determining what constitutes an "illegal machine gun"!
One agent might decide that a semi-automatic rifle is an "illegal machine gun" if it can be made to fire full-auto after 15 minutes of casual tinkering. Another ATF agent might say another semi-automatic rifle is an "illegal machine gun" if a gunsmith with a machine shop can make it fire full-auto after eight hours of expert modification.
But each "expert" can then give testimony that puts the innocent owner of a semi-automatic rifle in prison.
Sometimes, they do no real testing or examination of firearms at all. Don't believe it? Watch the video of the "testing" of John Glover's FAL, and see for yourself: http://www.jpfo.org/batfevideo.htm. You'll see an ATF "expert" claim that a semi-automatic rifle is an "illegal machine gun" because it had a broken part and would occasionally fire two shots on one trigger pull. No one from the ATF ever even disassembled the gun to look for the cause of the malfunction before charging Glover with a federal felony!
When the Glover footage became public, the prosecutor ordered the charges against Glover dropped. Later, the head of the ATF himself ordered Mr. Glover's guns returned to him. (If you know someone being attacked by the ATF, make sure they have a copy of the footage to use!)
GUN OWNERS ATTEMPT TO HOLD THE ATF'S FEET TO THE FIRE
Recently, many concerned gun owners have contacted their congressional representatives requesting the FTB's firearms-testing procedure manual. The response has been -- shockingly, but not surprisingly -- that _no such manual exists_. The ATF is now being forced to admit that for decades it's been "making it up as it goes along" -- at the expense of American gun owners.
BUT ... Instead of defending gun owners in this simple matter of commonsense and justice, powerful Republicans are helping the ATF cover up!
The FTB has _refused_ to release its manual to the Congressional Research Service. Note: It's not admitting the truth -- that there is no manual, that there are no standards. It's just saying it won't release it. And the Department of Justice (under which the ATF now operates) is backing up its underlings.
Congressman James Sensenbrenner - Chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary - is scrambling to give the FTB time so that it can hurriedly write some sort of fake manual - anything! - to show the public when knowledge of this travesty becomes widespread.
But by doing so, the FTB will be facing unintended consequences: If the standards for testing firearms have only _now_ been written, then literally thousands of _previous_ gun owner convictions will become suspect, and may well be overturned. The Department of Justice fears (accurately) that there will be a wave of retrials or even complete exonerations for imprisoned gun owners when the public discovers this fetid coverup.
But the current VIPs of the Republican Party and the Bush administration are actually trying to _prevent you and me from learning what their agents are doing to us_.
Only one congressman, Phil Gingrey of Georgia, stands alone in opposition to the ATF's domestic terrorism. He has written a bill to force the ATF to video-record all firearms tests. He made the first requests for the non-existent manual. Yes, Gingrey is a Republican, and a courageous one. But his attempts to get justice have been stymied at every turn by Republican James Sensenbrenner and the Republican Department of Justice.
We're getting calls from outraged, patriotic gun owners. We're reading angry rumblings on second-amendment blogs and message boards. They're all saying the same thing: "If more gun owners begin to grasp the full depth of their betrayal, the Republican Party will not survive the fallout."
Republican betrayal of gun owners is unfortunately not new. The Brady law passed only because a powerful Republican (Bob Dole) enabled it. Republicans who claimed to oppose various Clinton-era gun laws have vigorously supported enforcement of those same laws through Project Safe Neighborhoods. It has been a _Republican_ administration, not a Democrat one that has appointed hundreds of special prosecutors just to handle "gun crimes" (which are often completely non-violent and technical "crimes").
Until now, many gun owners have either been oblivious to the depth of the Republican betrayal or they've held their noses and supported Republicans because they believed the Democrats to be worse.
Many Democrats are open and frank in their hatred of guns and gun owners. But for years the Republicans have looked us in the eye, smiled, shaken our hands, asked for our support -- then stabbed us in the back.
If this were a just world with an impartial media, this brewing scandal of Republican-supported abuse and Republican coverup would have the potential to make Whitewater or Iran Contra look trivial in comparison.
Because the media doesn't care about gun owners, and because gun owners themselves are so often willfully blind to Republican betrayal, we don't know that this scandal _will_ be the end of the Republican Party.
We only know an increasing number of concerned, patriotic gun owners are saying that it _should_ be.
- The Liberty Crew
For more background information and references, see: www.jpfo.org/batfearticles.htm
For a copy of JPFO's "BATFE Fails the Test" footage of BATFE testing procedures, see: www.jpfo.org/batfevideo.htm
Jews For The Preservation of Firearms Ownership, Inc.
P.O. Box 270143
Hartford, WI 53027
www.jpfo.org
Mirror site: www.jpfo.net
Phone (262) 673-9745
Fax (262) 673-9746
As for survivability of the Republican party, I'm sure that it will survive. Watergate did not destroy the Republicans; Monicagate did not destroy the Democrats. These parties have a way of hanging on...
PING!
Fight the power!
Unfortunately conservativism has been seeping out of the GOP for a very long time.
face reality..the 1950's will never be back...this is the most conservative government we'll ever get after Reagan
"The FTB has _refused_ to release its manual to the Congressional Research Service. Note: It's not admitting the truth -- that there is no manual, that there are no standards. It's just saying it won't release it. And the Department of Justice (under which the ATF now operates) is backing up its underlings."
Well if they have any sense they are rapidly putting together such a manual.
And it's traditional to hold such "collapse of the party" stories until they no longer control the White house and both houses of congress.
This is more of a wish than a reality.
Face facts, the republicans can't win without a base.
"Face facts, the republicans can't win without a base."
While that's true, it's also true that when the base has not strongly supported the Republican nominee the results have been Presidents like Carter and Clinton - and the base understands that.
ANd didn't the base turn out in record numbers last year. We'll never get people like Tancredo or Buchanan in the top job..They are paleos who would garner less than 5%
Cowards allways accept the lesser of two evils.
We also thought George Bush was a conservative. We know he's a socialist now.
The Republican party is less screwed up but the leadership is still so bad that they couldn't lead a pack of hungry wolves to fresh meat. By allowing the BATF to abuse their constituents and by constantly floating illegal immigration amnesty schemes, the Republican politicians are killing their party.
The real death of the republican party will occur when the electorate at large finally realizes the GOP are just another cabal of attornies fighting the other cabal of attornies for the American taxpayer's purse strings. Real conservativism died years ago. DNC LLC vs RNC LLC. Which end of the political spectrum would you like to be screwed by today?
"destruction of the repubs"
Wishful thinking!
I noticed that too.
"We'll never get people like Tancredo or Buchanan in the top job."
Tom Tancredo has nothing to do with Pat Buchanan, and is nothing like him. Try again!
Yep. Big government republicans now seem to outnumber the ones who claim to be otherwise. They have shifted the focus from being the party of small government to whatever it needs to be today. Just like the rats. It is almost like the two parties have done a divide and conquer on us to meet where they always planned. We will become like all the rest of the countries. One conservative party and one liberal party, both socialists. So many on FR get so excited when they see a foreign election going to the conservative. They have no clue that these people are just as much the socialists as the ones they replaced.
I support and donate to JPFO waaaay before the Republican Party of Big Stupid Government. The former believes in liberty.
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