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
He is a conservative. However, there are only so many fires he can fight at one time. What I ask is why this information has not been blazing out in the Free Republic? You have to know of a problem before you can fix it.
Because the longer the Republicans are in, the longer we'll 'get' to keep our guns. And who knows? With the NRA now up in arms on the NOLA Kopper Kapers and their mission to get a restraining order in all states, the gun-grabbers, regardless of party, will have to re-write their agenda. No doubt the NOLA stupidity set them back years.
I understand your frustration and righteous comment, but you know and I know and everybody knows that we cannot afford to split the vote and risk a period of years with a majority of democrapic feet in Congress, let alone have another stealth socialist in the White House.
So replace the RINO's.
Call me cynical (but don't call me late to dinner :), but I will be VERY surprised if the RATs do NOT make a go of "triangulating" the RKBA away from the GOP.
Face it -- we (gun owners) are a sizable constituency. We are probabably in the aggregate at LEAST as wealthy a demographic as the homosexuals -- and we are FAR larger in NUMBER than them.
And, we are in the unenviable situation of having our rights under attack, and at the same time being subject to "constructive desertion" by our putative "home party".
We are a low-hanging fruit, ripe for the plucking. If the RATs make a serious effort to go after "the gun owners" (I'm NOT talking about JFKerry mincing out of the swamp after "goose hunting"), then they stand to pick up a significant number of very disaffected voters.
Remember, the RATs don't care nearly as much about "guns" as they do about POWER. And unlike the GOP, they are NOT loath to USE their power when they have it.
If the GOP has Clue One, they'll get their act in gear and FINALLY take some SERIOUS pro-2nd Amendment action -- because if THEY don't, there's someone ELSE who most likely WILL.
I'm not expecting it to happen, though, because it would mean a total paradigm-flip for the GOP, whereas for the RATs to swoop in and co-opt the issue out from under the GOP's nose, it'd simply be business-as-usual.
The author is leaving congress to become governor of Nevada.
It is doubtful that his replacement will have the guts to carry on with this bill.
The veterans most likely to be affected are dying at a rate of about 300 per day.
The bill is a small measure of justice for our veterans and their heirs, that it is not getting more support is shameful.
The author is leaving congress to become governor of Nevada.
It is doubtful that his replacement will have the guts to carry on with this bill.
The veterans most likely to be affected are dying at a rate of about 300 per day.
The bill is a small measure of justice for our veterans and their heirs, that it is not getting more support is shameful.
BUMP
Well put!
Particularly the point about their promises being generally understood as vague statements of intention rather than actual pledges.
Well said.
Hallelujah brother!
You are referencing H.R. 1703, which does away with several infringements on our RKBA for the general public.
Disgustingly, it has possibly ONE cosponsor!
NRA, GOA, JPFO, etc. all seem to pretend it does not exist.
I thought we were discussing H.R. 2088, which does have 55 cosponsors and offers some justice for at least three generations of our veterans and their heirs.
This is not a trivial issue, it has been shown beyond any doubt that the NFRTR is incomplete and inaccurate, leaving thousands of law abiding Americans at risk of unjust federal prosecution, or the confiscation of their very valuable personal property at the least.
A disproportionate number of those at risk of such prosecution or confiscation are veterans or their heirs.
Detailed information, including past congressional testimony leading to the granting of a $1,000,000 appropriation specifically for "Correction of the NFRTR database", can be found at http://www.nfaoa.org
Two peas and a pod. An isolated Jew hating pod.
When Ronald Reagan ran in the primaries in 1980 he was considered "unelectable" due to his age and his conservatism. The Ronald Reagan's are out there, but not in the Rockefeller wing of the party. They may even be Zel Miller Democrats who have not yet come over from the Darkside. The "Reagan's" are out there, somewhere. They're just not from New York or Connecticut.
"Two peas and a pod. An isolated Jew hating pod."
Haven't seen ANYTHING like that about Bay. Cite a source?
As a Jew I tend to notice these things.
Angela "Bay" Buchanan, his senior campaign adviser and sister, declined to be interviewed for this article but issued this statement: "My brother Pat does not now and has never belonged to any organization or group that preaches or practices intolerance or hatred.
"Angela "Bay" Buchanan, his senior campaign adviser and sister, declined to be interviewed for this article but issued this statement: "My brother Pat does not now and has never belonged to any organization or group that preaches or practices intolerance or hatred."
Technically, that's true.
Of course, Bay is still in the GOP - Pat isn't, so they clearly have their differences.
I am in 100% agreement. I do not know what tactics the DemonRATs will use to try to regain the House and Senate. What is absolutely essential is to rat out their lies and make sure Ma and Pa America know the truth. I suspect that the Republican leadership has a huge amount of issues on the fire and have put the gun issue on the back burner. When this happens, the opportunist DemonRATs steal in and eat the bottom out of the feed sack.
We need to light some fires.
"the RATs don't care nearly as much about "guns" as they do about POWER."
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