*Ka-Bump!*
Posted on 01/07/2005 9:49:01 AM PST by looscnnn
Edited on 01/07/2005 11:11:14 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
If you value your firearms, your safety, and your financial security, you should read every word of the following article - then pass the information along to other gun owners. Your personal future and your family's well-being could depend on it.
- The Liberty Crew
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THE BATFE GETS CAUGHT WITH ITS HAND IN THE COOKIE JAR
SEE THE FOOTAGE YOUR GOVERNMENT NEVER INTENDED YOU TO SEE
For years, you've heard horror stories about the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (BATFE). You've heard they're more interested in framing the innocent than in catching real criminals. You've heard they'll ruin lives for the sake of their own prestige and funding. You've heard that BATFE agents are callous and careless - and that the bureau supports a culture of cruel ineptitude.
Well, you don't have to rely on rumor or third-hand information any more. Now, you can SEE FOR YOURSELF.
For the first time, footage exists that shows exactly how the BATFE treats an ordinary, average gun owner once it decides to "get" him. And JPFO is making that footage available to the public. You can view that footage and show it to other gun owners who may be in denial about how desperately dangerous federal gun-law enforcement really is.
AN AMERICAN HERO SAVES AN INNOCENT MAN
The background story behind this footage is in JPFO's January 2005 _Shotgun News_ column (online at http://www.jpfo.org/cs54.pdf). In short, on the word of one informant with a grudge, the BATFE confiscated all the firearms from an ordinary competition shooter named John Glover and set about trying to prove that one of those firearms was a machine gun illegally manufactured by Glover. Their aim: To send Glover to prison for years, and to ruin him financially - for no reason at all!
Fortunately Mr. Glover was able to get the assistance of a good lawyer and one heroic American, a man named Len Savage. Savage manufactures semiautomatic versions of well-known NFA weapons (like the limited-edition Bren he donated as a JPFO fundraiser, which you can see on our site (http://www.jpfo.org/brengun.htm). He is one of the only firearms makers who remains willing to stand up to the BATFE when they're wrong even though several of its agents have threatened to destroy him.
What you will see in this footage will shock you, even if you think you know all there is to know about BATFE schemes.
First, you will see BATFE "expert" Michael Cooney - a man whose investigations and testimony might possibly have put dozens, if not hundreds, of gun owners behind bars - test firing Glover's supposed "machine gun."
Then you you will see Len Savage calmly do what any competent investigator would have done in the first place - disassemble the firearm and reveal that the "machine gun" was simply an ordinary semiautomatic rifle, assembled from aging parts, that would occasionally - and dangerously - malfunction.
You will see that the BATFE makes no attempt at any real investigation. Their "experts" have no firearms manufacturing experience, no engineering degrees, no rigorous protocols to follow. They have no forensic labs, no scientific method, no desire to discover the truth. You'll see that its "experts" not only know very little about firearms but don't even know the laws they're supposedly enforcing. You will see them caught in the act (just like a kid with his hand in the cookie jar) of doing the very things they've gotten away with all these years.
Had Len Savage not disassembled that firearm, the BATFE would almost certainly never have done so. The agency was prepared to put John Glover in prison - to make him a felon forever -- because he owned a broken gun!
SADLY, THEY'RE STILL GETTING AWAY WITH IT
We'd like to tell you that this story has a happy ending. And in part, it does. When prosecutors saw this stunning footage, they dropped the charges against Mr. Glover in disgust.
However, by that time, Glover had already had to mortgage his house to pay his bail and $30,000 in legal fees. And that's with a lawyer who worked for half his normal hourly rate. Today, Glover barely answers his phone, can't sleep, and lives in terror that someone will kick his door down in the middle of the night, or arrive to drag him off to prison for some other "crime" he didn't commit. And the BATFE still refuses to return any of his firearms.
Perhaps federal agents will leave Mr. Glover alone in the future. Who knows? But you should be aware that, among all the BATFE's old methods, there's a new tactic afoot. We call it an Economic Waco.
After several public catastrophes in the 1990s (the Randy Weaver case and Waco among them), the BATFE is now less likely to kick down your door, shoot you in your bed, or stomp your kitten to death. Today, they can be more polite - but more insideous. With new laws and technology giving federal agents almost unlimited access to our financial records, they can pick easy targets (like the lower middle- class John Glover and like most of us). Once they've targeted you, they relentlessly pursue you, forcing you to spend all your resources to defend yourselves against them.
The new approach uses the velvet glove of legal proceedings. But the iron fist of the BATFE police state mentality is just as devastating.
One informant with a grudge, one sloppy agent just "doing his job," and one bureaucratic boss is all it takes to ruin your life. And on the footage we've obtained, you'll see how casually they do it.
This is why we must work to get the word - and the undeniable, visual, evidence - to every gun owner. We have the evidence we've been looking for. Each of us must show it to our friends, to decision-makers, lawyers, prosecutors, judges, law-makers. We must show the world what the BATFE really is - and what it really does to people just like us.
JPFO MEMBERS MADE THIS POSSIBLE NOW, WHAT WILL THE REST OF THE WORLD DO?
Packaging this footage (provided to us by Len Savage) was a secret project, funded by JPFO membership and everyday contributions. We could not openly raise funds to produce the DVDs and VHS tapes for you, and we could not do any advance publicity because that would have tipped our hand. Advance notice might have given the BATFE time to prepare some sort of coverup or counter propaganda.
By revealing the footage to the world without notice, we've caught the entire BATFE in the same embarrassing situation Agent Cooney found himself in by the end of the tape.
If you are a JPFO member or contributor, you can be proud. Getting this footage to the world is YOUR accomplishment. If you're not a JPFO member but you know one, please give that person your thanks.
This is dangerous material. Not dangerous to you. On the contrary, it could save your life. But dangerous to Len Savage, who must face BATFE bureaucrats and submit to their paperwork and approvals constantly. And dangerous to JPFO. We can now expect three kinds of opponents to attack with renewed fury: police staters, gun haters, and Jew haters.
When you use this footage, you'll also be able to tell who the real friends and enemies of your gun ownership are. Show it to a friend or to one of the "lesser of two evils" politicians you might have had faith in over the years. If that person in turn uses it to wake others up or curb BATFE powers, you'll know he's not only your friend but a real friend to freedom. If you show it to a friend (or a lawmaker) and get a "ho hum" or a "Gee, that's awful, but it's not my problem" reaction - and you'll know that person isn't going to stand for your rights, now or ever.
This footage is a litmus test. It's something we never had before and must use now.
Len Savage, who has already done so much, has persuaded his congressman, Phil Gingrey, to introduce legislation in the upcoming U.S. Congress to require the BATFE to tape all such test firings and examinations of firearms in the future. Another American hero, Larry Pratt, of Gun Owners of America (GOA -- http://www.gunowners.org/), is supporting this effort.
Although JPFO takes no position on any legislation, as Savage points out such taping has little cost and many benefits. It could put a stop to wasteful prosecutions and force the BATFE to be more professional. It could save gun owners' lives and families.
But that's in the future. For now, _this_ is the only footage we have. And it's dynamite, if not nuclear.
We challenge all firearms decision-makers, including manufacturers and other gun-rights groups, to join JPFO, Len Savage, and GOA in using this footage to help rein in the powerful, abusive, unamerican BATFE.
Ping.
BTTT
*Ka-Bump!*
If you want to get the word out, then why not give it away for free by streaming it?
Selling it implies you'd rather make a fast buck.
I've seen a few "girls with guns" pics, but that one is right near the top of the heap.
Wow.
I still think SigZiggy was cuter. Then again, I've got a thing for redheads. ;-)
Class III AR-10 and AR-15s Ping!
Yes sir!! Now that is my kind of support for the Second Amendment!! Lock and load....nice.
Read later.
Let me remove that belly button piercing for you.
I agree. That is why Newsmax is not taken too seriously in my house.
Was the gun in question for sale or still being assembled/tested when they picked it up?
Was the problem really potentially fatal to the user?
From what I saw, the BATF was pushing the envelope but seems he may have been also. Better minds might know but guns with 3 position switchs (even without function) and worn "firing parts" makes me wonder.
dang, this is GA, because his Rep is Gingrey.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1316126/posts
Bush Lawyers Target Gun Control's Legal Rationale
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ^ | January 7, 2005 | JESS BRAVIN
Posted on 01/07/2005 9:56:54 AM PST by neverdem
Readying for a constitutional showdown over gun control, the Bush administration has issued a 109-page memorandum aiming to prove that the Second Amendment grants individuals nearly unrestricted access to firearms.
The memorandum, requested by Attorney General John Ashcroft, was completed in August but made public only last month, when the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel posted on its Web site several opinions1 setting forth positions on various legal issues. Reaching deep into English legal history and the practice of the British colonies prior to the American Revolution, the memorandum represents the administration's latest legal salvo to overturn judicial interpretations that have prevailed since the Supreme Court last spoke on the Second Amendment, in 1939. Although scholars long have noted the ambiguity of the 27-word amendment, courts generally have interpreted the right to "keep and bear arms" as applying not to individuals but rather to the "well-regulated militia" maintained by each state.
Reversing previous Justice Department policy, Mr. Ashcroft has declared that the Second Amendment confers a broad right of gun ownership, comparable with the First Amendment's grant of freedom of speech and religion. In November 2001, he sent federal prosecutors a memorandum endorsing a rare federal-court opinion, issued the previous month by the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, that found an individual has the right to gun ownership. President Bush adopted that view as well, saying that "the Constitution gives people a personal right to bear arms," and doesn't merely protect "the rights of state militias," in an interview published days before last year's election in National Rifle Association magazines.
The new Justice Department memorandum acknowledges that "the question of who possess the right secured by the Second Amendment remains open and unsettled in the courts and among scholars," but goes on to declare that...
Please, whenever someone mentions 'semi-automatic' firearms, respond in kind that they are better known as 'quasi-automatic' firearms or 'single-shots'.
Thankee.
JPFO is one of the mos valuable civil rights organisations in this country.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1316126/posts
Bush Lawyers Target Gun Control's Legal Rationale
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ^ | January 7, 2005 | JESS BRAVIN
Posted on 01/07/2005 9:56:54 AM PST by neverdem
Readying for a constitutional showdown over gun control, the Bush administration has issued a 109-page memorandum aiming to prove that the Second Amendment grants individuals nearly unrestricted access to firearms.
The memorandum, requested by Attorney General John Ashcroft, was completed in August but made public only last month, when the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel posted on its Web site several opinions1 setting forth positions on various legal issues. Reaching deep into English legal history and the practice of the British colonies prior to the American Revolution, the memorandum represents the administration's latest legal salvo to overturn judicial interpretations that have prevailed since the Supreme Court last spoke on the Second Amendment, in 1939. Although scholars long have noted the ambiguity of the 27-word amendment, courts generally have interpreted the right to "keep and bear arms" as applying not to individuals but rather to the "well-regulated militia" maintained by each state.
Reversing previous Justice Department policy, Mr. Ashcroft has declared that the Second Amendment confers a broad right of gun ownership, comparable with the First Amendment's grant of freedom of speech and religion. In November 2001, he sent federal prosecutors a memorandum endorsing a rare federal-court opinion, issued the previous month by the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, that found an individual has the right to gun ownership. President Bush adopted that view as well, saying that "the Constitution gives people a personal right to bear arms," and doesn't merely protect "the rights of state militias," in an interview published days before last year's election in National Rifle Association magazines.
The new Justice Department memorandum acknowledges that "the question of who possess the right secured by the Second Amendment remains open and unsettled in the courts and among scholars," but goes on to declare that...
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