Credit Bill OK’d With Gun Provision!

Congress on Wednesday approved and sent to Obama a bill to rein in the credit card industry, but not before handing Republicans a rare legislative victory by including an unrelated amendment to allow visitors to carry a licensed gun in national parks.

Exploiting differences between Democratic liberals and conservative Blue Dogs, House Republicans were able to attract more than 100 Democratic votes for the gun amendment, which had been added to the bill in the Senate earlier this month.

The gun rider, sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, would permit firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges as long as they are allowed by federal, state and local law.

The gun amendment passed the House on a 279-147 vote, while the credit card reform bill passed on a separate 361-64 vote. The Senate passed the combined bill on a 90-5 vote.

Republicans have long been seeking a federal rule that would codify the right of state gun laws to govern national park lands. A rule issued under President George W. Bush to allow concealed weapons in national parks was later overturned by a federal court.

America’s Poor Are Its Most Generous Givers

The Myth of 90 Percent: Only a Small Fraction of Guns in Mexico Come From U.S.

While 90 percent of the guns traced to the U.S. actually originated in the United States, the percent traced to the U.S. is only about 17 percent of the total number of guns reaching Mexico.

You’ve heard this shocking “fact” before — on TV and radio, in newspapers, on the Internet and from the highest politicians in the land: 90 percent of the weapons used to commit crimes in Mexico come from the United States.

– Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it to reporters on a flight to Mexico City.

– CBS newsman Bob Schieffer referred to it while interviewing President Obama.

– California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said at a Senate hearing: “It is unacceptable to have 90 percent of the guns that are picked up in Mexico and used to shoot judges, police officers and mayors … come from the United States.”

– William Hoover, assistant director for field operations at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, testified in the House of Representatives that “there is more than enough evidence to indicate that over 90 percent of the firearms that have either been recovered in, or interdicted in transport to Mexico, originated from various sources within the United States.”

There’s just one problem with the 90 percent “statistic” and it’s a big one:

It’s just not true.

In fact, it’s not even close. The fact is, only 17 percent of guns found at Mexican crime scenes have been traced to the U.S.

What’s true, a BATF spokeswoman told FOXNews.com, in a clarification of the statistic used by her own agency’s assistant director, “is that over 90 percent of the traced firearms originate from the U.S.”

But a large percentage of the guns recovered in Mexico do not get sent back to the U.S. for tracing, because it is obvious from their markings that they do not come from the U.S.

“Not every weapon seized in Mexico has a serial number on it that would make it traceable, and the U.S. effort to trace weapons really only extends to weapons that have been in the U.S. market,” Matt Allen, special agent of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told FOX News.

Video: Click here to watch more.

A Look at the Numbers

In 2007-2008, according to BATF Special Agent William Newell, Mexico submitted 11,000 guns to the BATF for tracing. Close to 6,000 were successfully traced — and of those, 90 percent — 5,114 to be exact, according to testimony in Congress by William Hoover — were found to have come from the U.S.

But in those same two years, according to the Mexican government, 29,000 guns were recovered at crime scenes.

In other words, 68 percent of the guns that were recovered were never submitted for tracing. And when you weed out the roughly 6,000 guns that could not be traced from the remaining 32 percent, it means 83 percent of the guns found at crime scenes in Mexico could not be traced to the U.S.

So, if not from the U.S., where do they come from? There are a variety of sources:

– The Black Market. Mexico is a virtual arms bazaar, with fragmentation grenades from South Korea, AK-47s from China, and shoulder-fired rocket launchers from Spain, Israel and former Soviet bloc manufacturers.

– Russian crime organizations. Interpol says Russian Mafia groups such as Poldolskaya and Moscow-based Solntsevskaya are actively trafficking drugs and arms in Mexico.

- South America. During the late 1990s, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) established a clandestine arms smuggling and drug trafficking partnership with the Tijuana cartel, according to the Federal Research Division report from the Library of Congress.

– Asia. According to a 2006 Amnesty International Report, China has provided arms to countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Chinese assault weapons and Korean explosives have been recovered in Mexico.

– The Mexican Army. More than 150,000 soldiers deserted in the last six years, according to Mexican Congressman Robert Badillo. Many took their weapons with them, including the standard issue M-16 assault rifle made in Belgium.

– Guatemala. U.S. intelligence agencies say traffickers move immigrants, stolen cars, guns and drugs, including most of America’s cocaine, along the porous Mexican-Guatemalan border. On March 27, La Hora, a Guatemalan newspaper, reported that police seized 500 grenades and a load of AK-47s on the border. Police say the cache was transported by a Mexican drug cartel operating out of Ixcan, a border town.

‘These Don’t Come From El Paso‘

Ed Head, a firearms instructor in Arizona who spent 24 years with the U.S. Border Patrol, recently displayed an array of weapons considered “assault rifles” that are similar to those recovered in Mexico, but are unavailable for sale in the U.S.

“These kinds of guns — the auto versions of these guns — they are not coming from El Paso,” he said. “They are coming from other sources. They are brought in from Guatemala. They are brought in from places like China. They are being diverted from the military. But you don’t get these guns from the U.S.”

Some guns, he said, “are legitimately shipped to the government of Mexico, by Colt, for example, in the United States. They are approved by the U.S. government for use by the Mexican military service. The guns end up in Mexico that way — the fully auto versions — they are not smuggled in across the river.”

Many of the fully automatic weapons that have been seized in Mexico cannot be found in the U.S., but they are not uncommon in the Third World.

The Mexican government said it has seized 2,239 grenades in the last two years — but those grenades and the rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) are unavailable in U.S. gun shops. The ones used in an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey in October and a TV station in January were made in South Korea. Almost 70 similar grenades were seized in February in the bottom of a truck entering Mexico from Guatemala.

“Most of these weapons are being smuggled from Central American countries or by sea, eluding U.S. and Mexican monitors who are focused on the smuggling of semi-automatic and conventional weapons purchased from dealers in the U.S. border states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California,” according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

Boatloads of Weapons

So, why would the Mexican drug cartels, which last year grossed between $17 billion and $38 billion, bother buying single-shot rifles, and force thousands of unknown “straw” buyers in the U.S. through a government background check, when they can buy boatloads of fully automatic M-16s and assault rifles from China, Israel or South Africa?

Alberto Islas, a security consultant who advises the Mexican government, says the drug cartels are using the Guatemalan border to move black market weapons. Some are left over from the Central American wars the United States helped fight; others, like the grenades and launchers, are South Korean, Israeli and Spanish. Some were legally supplied to the Mexican government; others were sold by corrupt military officers or officials.

The exaggeration of United States “responsibility” for the lawlessness in Mexico extends even beyond the “90-percent” falsehood — and some Second Amendment activists believe it’s designed to promote more restrictive gun-control laws in the U.S.

In a remarkable claim, Auturo Sarukhan, the Mexican ambassador to the U.S., said Mexico seizes 2,000 guns a day from the United States — 730,000 a year. That’s a far cry from the official statistic from the Mexican attorney general’s office, which says Mexico seized 29,000 weapons in all of 2007 and 2008.

Chris Cox, spokesman for the National Rifle Association, blames the media and anti-gun politicians in the U.S. for misrepresenting where Mexican weapons come from.

“Reporter after politician after news anchor just disregards the truth on this,” Cox said. “The numbers are intentionally used to weaken the Second Amendment.”

“The predominant source of guns in Mexico is Central and South America. You also have Russian, Chinese and Israeli guns. It’s estimated that over 100,000 soldiers deserted the army to work for the drug cartels, and that ignores all the police. How many of them took their weapons with them?”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/02/myth-percent-guns-mexico-fraction-number-claimed/

Baptist Pastor Beaten & Tazed by Border Patrol & Arizona DPS – 11 stitches

Click here to read the latest update on Pastor Anderson’s abuse at the hands of the Arizona Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security (border patrol).

CNN Fakes Gun News

U.S. Judges Admit To Jailing Children For Money

Two judges pleaded guilty on Thursday to accepting more than $2.6 million from a private youth detention center in Pennsylvania in return for giving hundreds of youths and teenagers long sentences.

Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan of the Court of Common Pleas in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, entered plea agreements in federal court in Scranton admitting that they took payoffs from PA Childcare and a sister company, Western PA Childcare, between 2003 and 2006.

“Your statement that I have disgraced my judgeship is true,” Ciavarella wrote in a letter to the court. “My actions have destroyed everything I worked to accomplish and I have only myself to blame.”

Conahan, who along with Ciavarella faces up to seven years in prison, did not make any comment on the case.

When someone is sent to a detention center, the company running the facility receives money from the county government to defray the cost of incarceration. So as more children were sentenced to the detention center, PA Childcare and Western PA Childcare received more money from the government, prosecutors said.

Teenagers who came before Ciavarella in juvenile court often were sentenced to detention centers for minor offenses that would typically have been classified as misdemeanors, according to the Juvenile Law Center, a Philadelphia nonprofit group.

One 17-year-old boy was sentenced to three months’ detention for being in the company of another minor caught shoplifting.

Others were given similar sentences for “simple assault” resulting from a schoolyard scuffle that would normally draw a warning, a spokeswoman for the Juvenile Law Center said.

The Constitution guarantees the right to legal representation in U.S. courts. But many of the juveniles appeared before Ciavarella without an attorney because they were told by the probation service that their minor offenses didn’t require one.

Marsha Levick, chief counsel for the Juvenile Law Center, estimated that of approximately 5,000 juveniles who came before Ciavarella from 2003 and 2006, between 1,000 and 2,000 received excessively harsh detention sentences. She said the center will sue the judges, PA Childcare and Western PA Childcare for financial compensation for their victims.

“That judges would allow their greed to trump the rights of defendants is just obscene,” Levick said.

The judges attempted to hide their income from the scheme by creating false records and routing payments through intermediaries, prosecutors said.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court removed Ciavarella and Conahan from their duties after federal prosecutors filed charges on January 26. The court has also appointed a judge to review all the cases involved.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE51B7B320090213

Million Mom March Pad Gun Death Statistics

One Man’s Thoughts Has Moved To

http://www.patriotthoughts.com

You can read this article at:

http://www.patriotthoughts.com/2009/05/23/million-mom-march-pad-gun-death-statistics/

Thank You, Vytautas

Muslim Demographics

A Bill Could Infringe Upon Regular Citizens’ Constitutional Right To Bear Arms.

The Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2009 would authorize Attorney General Eric Holder to deny the sale or transfer of firearms to known or suspected terrorists — a list that could extend beyond groups such as radical Islamists and other groups connected to international terror organizations.

Critics say the names of suspected terrorists could be drawn from existing government watch lists that cover such broad categories as animal rights activists, Christian identity activists, black separatists, anti-abortion activists, anti-immigration activists and anti-technology activists.

“It doesn’t say anything about trials and due process,” said Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America. “This is one of the most outrageous pieces of legislation to come along in some time. It’s basically saying, ‘I suspect you, so your rights are toast.’”

Terrorist watch lists came under fire last month after a Department of Homeland Security report warned that right wing extremist groups may be expanding their membership in the midst of current economic upheaval. While the report stated that such groups were not believed to be planning any terrorist attacks, it went on to state they might do so in the name of issues like abortion, immigration and gun control.

The American Legion, the largest veterans group in the country, harshly criticized DHS officials last month after they reported that veterans would be likely recruits for right wing groups looking for “combat skills and experience.”

The report sparked outrage from conservative groups and politicians, including Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, who called it “political profiling.”

The proposed gun control bill, which was introduced by Rep. Peter King, R-NY, last week is currently before the House Judiciary Committee.

Taking away an individual’s constitutional right without giving him the opportunity to stand trial would likely open the federal government to legal challenges, said Robert Cottrol, a law professor at George Washington University.

“There is a Second Amendment right to hold and bear arms,” he said. “That right is not absolute, for instance with convicted criminals. But there would have to be an individualized determination, as in a trial, to prove someone is guilty of something before they are deprived of such a right.”

The National Rifle Association, the nation’s largest pro-gun lobby, said it was still reviewing King’s bill, but a spokesman said the organization had opposed similar efforts “in the past due to the serious inaccuracies within the terror lists that affect the rights of law abiding citizens.”

Since the outset of the 2008 campaign, Obama has stated that he will push for greater gun control measures.

“This is a very dangerous time. The president has a voting record in the Illinois Senate of voting for gun bans,” Pratt said. “Hopefully, he’s not going to have the votes.”

Last year the Supreme Court upheld an individual’s right to bear arms when it struck down a decades-old ban on firearms in Washington, D.C. The decision was the Court’s first Second Amendment ruling in over 70 years, Cottrol said.

“We had this vacuum where the lower courts discussed it, but the Supreme Court remained silent,” he said. “The jurisprudence on (gun control) is very much in its infancy.”

Thousands Of Gun-Rights Advocates Gather This Weekend In Phoenix, Arizona, For The NRA Convention.

At its annual convention this weekend, such leaders as Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, former presidential nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former presidential hopeful Mitt Romney are speaking to 60,000-plus gun-rights advocates gathered in Phoenix, Arizona. Even Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana is addressing the convention in a recorded message.

“Whenever they can, wherever they can, the Democrats want to take away the rights of law abiding citizens to own and purchase a gun, a right that is guaranteed under the United States Constitution,” Steele said to attendees, according to excerpts released by the Republican National Committee.

“No constitutional protection is more often ignored, distorted or disdained than the individual right to keep and bear arms,” Romney will say, according to draft remarks released by his political operation.

Despite solid majorities in the House and Senate and control of the White House, there has not been any push by Democratic leaders to pass major gun control legislation this year.

But gun rights advocates say they are afraid of what Obama and his Democratic colleagues may do.

“Given his past record before he announced for president, I think people are suspicious of what the Obama administration might do,” NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said.

During the campaign, Obama supported restricting the sale of assault weapons.

When Attorney General Eric Holder mentioned in February the possibility of reinstating a ban on assault weapons, there was an instant backlash from congressional Democrats. This week, 21 Senate Democrats voted in favor of allowing people to carry loaded guns in national parks. Some Democrats blame the loss of the House in 1994 and the White House in 2000 on the gun issue.

A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll finds that fewer Americans are in favor of stricter gun laws than just two years ago. Thirty-nine percent now favor stronger measures, but in 2007, 50 percent did.

This comes against the backdrop of a large increase in sales of guns and ammunition since the fall, an increase that dealers say grew even larger around the time of the inauguration.

The number of background checks conducted on gun purchasers each month rose from the previous year, topping a million beginning in October, FBI statistics show. In April, there were 1,225,980 requests, an increase of almost 400,000 over the same period last year.

Gun stores and the NRA are both benefiting from the concern that gun rights will be sharply curtailed. NRA officials said thousands more are joining each month, and its membership is now about 4 million.

“We have grown by hundreds of thousands of members, and that is because the American public wants their freedoms protected,” LaPierre said. “They see threats out there. They see statements made from the attorney general, from [Democratic Sen.] Dianne Feinstein and other people. They say, ‘I’m ready to defend my freedom, and one thing I’m going to do is join the NRA.’ “