The Uninvited Ombudsman Report, No. 62 - Centralized Gun-Registration Scheme

Taken from the most recent "Page Nine" Alan Korwin's "The Uninvited Ombudsman Report"

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1- Centralized Gun Registration

The lamestream media told you:

Nothing.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

Although not widely discussed publicly, the Bradys, in conjunction with new Obama officials, are working out the details of a new centralized gun registration scheme. It would avoid existing legal safeguards and allow the dangerous first step toward gun-confiscation. Currently, the federal government is explicitly banned by law from centralized gun registrations, historically the precursor to confiscations.

The plan involves having all retail gun sales reported to and recorded by the gun's manufacturer. This would defeat the ban against central government registration, while giving full access to the records to BATFE and FBI officials with little control of any kind. The unpaid burden this places on firearms makers and dealers would be overlooked. Tucked deeply in the Brady's proposal to Obama, "ATF should require dealers to report details to manufacturers about all guns sold. This action can be taken without additional statutory authority." (emphasis in original)

http://www.gunlaws.com/pdf/BradyMemoToObama.pdf

The scheme will be predictably proposed as 'an important step for gun safety,' though compiling tens of millions of records on the innocent has little crime fighting value, and diverts scarce resources away from crime control and to people control. Reporters are expected to obey and support the plan, and not question how gathering the names of the innocent will have an effect on crime. The Bradys will claim, with some truth, that certain crime traces may improve -- after every gun owner in America is in the data.

The Brady law (1994), and the Firearm Owner's Protection Act (1986) both outlaw collecting gun-sale information by the federal government, to prevent gun confiscation programs. Historically, such record collecting preceded every major genocide in the past century (see, for example, Innocents Betrayed, http://www.gunlaws.com/books13history.htm, which "documents the unthinkable slaughter of unarmed human populations by their governments"). Skeptics will not be comforted by the fact that both California and New York have already used such lists, after promises of confidentiality and safety, to demand forfeiture of targeted firearms from gun owners who had listed themselves.

The Brady group is convinced that requiring every licensed dealer to send all transaction information to the manufacturers would not only sidestep the legal safeguards, it could be done by the Attorney General without the need for congressional action or oversight. The Justice and Treasury departments control gun makers and dealers, largely through regulation instead of statute, which conceivably could allow them to institute the plan on their own. Manufacturers and dealers would have no choice but to comply if they wish to remain in business. It's a very clever scheme actually.

New and used guns would be included in the new government-accessible databases, ostensibly for "tracing" purposes. The inclusion of private gun-sale data, omitted in this scheme, would be part of step two of the plan. There is no cost estimate for recording an average of one million transactions per month, and the feds presumably would use existing facilities, computers and staff to tap into the databanks at will.

One radical bill, HR45, with no co-sponsors and little current chance of passage, proposes repealing the record-keeping ban altogether. It's proponent, Bobby Rush of Ill., also proposes rewriting the Constitution by statute, showing a complete absence of understanding or responsibility, creating a gross breach of his oath of office.

He writes in his bill, "Because the intrastate and interstate trafficking of firearms are so commingled, full regulation of interstate commerce requires the incidental regulation of intrastate commerce." It is a naked attempt to repeal by statute a portion of the Constitution that limits federal government power.

The Constitution can only be legally changed through a complex, difficult and slow amendment process spelled out in the document itself, which Rush seeks to ignore.

If any action justified removal from office, that would certainly be high on the list.

The Firearms Coalition, a wealth of pro-rights information supported entirely by donations, contributed to this report. http://www.firearmscoalition.org

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3- NRA's "Wholesome" Convention

The lamestream media told you:

The powerful gun lobby will be bringing thousands of guns and tens of thousands of gun owners to our town, whether they're wanted here or not.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

NRA Secretary Jim Land has been coordinating NRA Conventions for 15 years. At the Charlotte, N.C. show in 2000, the police chief literally freaked out when he learned the NRA was coming.

The police had two fully geared SWAT teams stationed in warehouses on either side of the convention center, fueled up and ready for incident response. Police cordoned off the convention site with armed officers within speaking range of each other. Six black and whites parked smack dab in front of the entryway. When a protest was planned by the Brady bunch, PD wanted to have a helicopter overhead the whole time. Like a war zone, fearful city elders prepared for battle.

What really happened -- well, the police chief met with Mr. Land in the chief's office and apologized. Apologized. Nothing had happened.

The city was strung out for no reason. (Well, there was a reason -- the news media's constant outrageously inaccurate hyperventilated grotesquely distorted view of the fine NRA had inculcated an atmosphere of terror where none was deserved, as facts proved).

The chief told Mr. Land, "If we had had a convention of Sunday School teachers, we'd have had three times the trouble we've had with you. I'm sorry."

The source of the bogus perception of this fine national civil rights group is nearly 100% generated by our sick, misguided, paranoid, biased, prejudiced, anti-rights bigots in the lamestream media. They should be ashamed of themselves. They're not. They think they do a fine job, and that their drumbeat against this righteous organization is deserved. The media is digging its own grave.

Everyone in the gun-rights and freedom movements know Second Amendment supporters are among the finest bunch of decent, reliable, accountable good human beings you could ever want to know.

"In 15 years of doing this," Land said in an interview for this column, "we haven't had a single hotel room trashed. We have had no arrests or legal issues of any type -- and that includes when we honored our contracts after canceling a number of events in Colorado following the Columbine incident in 1999. This actually did a world of good for the NRA in the hospitality community, who were amazed we would honor our commitments. The world just doesn't realize how good our membership is, but the facts are on the table. NRA members are among the finest citizens in our country."

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4- Phony Mexican Gunrunning

The lamestream media told you:

Combatants in the escalating Mexican drug-cartel wars are getting 90% of their firearms from U.S. retail stores and gun shows, according to officials in the U.S. and Mexican governments.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

In the escalating U.S. media war to vilify firearms and make licensed dealers and gun shows look like chaotic arms bazaars, increasingly bogus stories about the U.S. war on some drugs are implying or flat-out insisting that Mexico's drug armies are equipped by U.S. store owners.

Missing from the stories are news of 18,000 deserters from the Mexican army in 2008, and the arms they took with them when they left. Underpaid, poorly fed and run by corrupt officials, the desertions are no surprise, putting military training, tactics and weaponry into the hands of ruthless vegetable-product exporters.

Now, in a surprising moment of candor, the LA Times, facing extreme violence on its state's border, is finally reporting that attacks by the drug lords on police are using hand grenades, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, M203 40-millimeter grenade launchers, fragmentation grenades, anti-tank weapons, dynamite, high-grade bulk explosives and other military ordnance that cannot possibly come from U.S. retail shops (though the Times forgot to make that point explicitly). http://tinyurl.com/cq3llv

Whatever source of supply the criminals are using is a likely source for everything else they obtain, since they don't need to fake NICS checks for repeated single purchases and smuggle the goods across the border. Some of the arms they use are reportedly coming from communist China, Russia, former soviet blok countries, South Korea, Spain and elsewhere.

"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 semiautomatic and conventional weapons purchased from dealers in the U.S. border states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California," the Times said, though other "news" outlets failed to pick up on this critical breaking news. Some outlets been mentioning plans in Congress to go after law-abiding American gun owners, using Mexico's cartel wars as an excuse.

"The Mexican government said it has seized 2,239 grenades in the last two years" says the LA Times. No apology for implicating licensed American retail stores has been made.

As recently as March 13, 2009, writers for the AP wrote: "Tighter gun control and stronger law enforcement in Southwestern states were recommended Thursday by lawmakers concerned about drug violence in Mexico possibly spilling across the border," without asking questions, essentially running the government's prepared pronouncement unchallenged. http://tinyurl.com/bnpnwo

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5- "Gun Runner" Freed

The lamestream media told you:

"Judge tosses case against Phoenix gun-shop owner: Criminal charges against a Phoenix gun shop owner accused of supplying firearms to Mexican narcotics cartels were thrown out of court Wednesday when a judge ruled the prosecution's case had a fatal evidentiary flaw," according to Dennis Wagner writing in the state newspaper http://tinyurl.com/dkxa7k

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Robert Gottsfield issued a directed verdict of not guilty for George Iknadosian, owner of X-Caliber Guns, who faced a 21-count indictment for fraud, money-laundering and other offenses.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

Saddened that their trophy case against a so-called gun runner has failed miserably before it even began, "news" reports have done everything possible to make the dismissal look like a smarmy loophole mistake, instead of the robust protection of liberty that it is.

Falsely charged by zealots seeking to give an appearance of diligence, discredit gun stores, accuse Americans of the extreme violence caused by Mexico and the U.S. government's poorly run war on some drugs, and blame guns for the misdeeds of criminals, Mr. Iknadosian has been through personal hell defending himself against the now abandoned case and months of horrific groundless attacks in the "news" media.

His recourse against the people who falsely accused him is so difficult and expensive it may not pay to pursue. Instead of corrections or an apology, the report of the dismissal repeated the false news coverage as "background."

X-Caliber Firearms, whose shuttered store the Uninvited Ombudsman drives past frequently, only sold firearms to people who passed the FBI NICS check, making every single sale legal and compliant with federal law, a point not made clear in the stories. That's why they're called "stories." Some of the buyers however did falsify documents, and have pled guilty.

Backpedaling as hard as he can, Wagner reports that the case, "appears to be a defeat" to the state AG, despite "international news portraying Iknadosian, as a greedy business owner who helped fuel Mexico's drug violence by supplying more than 700 AK-47s and other weapons to cartels," a charge now known to be false, but why let that prevent its reprinting.

He goes on to call the dismissal a, "technical legal issue," (translation: the man was not guilty), any documents falsified by buyers did not implicate the store owner, and jurors were dismissed and charges dropped "under a so-called Rule 20 motion" (case must be thrown out if "evidence is inadequate for conviction," a fine rule, not a "so-called" rule).

"There is no proof whatsoever that any prohibited (firearm) possessor ended up with the firearms," according to the judge. Still Wagner saw fit to say, "It was considered a landmark prosecution in part because of cooperation with Mexican authorities."

Unmentioned in any of the "news" reports is that if Mr. Iknadosian had refused to sell even a single gun to an FBI NICS-approved buyer because the buyer "looked Mexican" or raised other red flags to common observation, he would have been slapped with a civil-rights discrimination suit, which he wisely and legally avoided.

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6- College Shotgun Championships

The lamestream media told you:

Guns have no place at all in the school environment.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

College Shotgun Championships Attract Record Crowds: The 41st ACUI Intercollegiate Clay Target Championships were held March 18 - 22, at the National Shooting Complex in San Antonio, Texas. The event was the largest ever, with 337 shooters from 37 schools exceeding the 295 shooters at last year's event, thanks to a continued influx of new shooters and new teams. The event is co-sponsored by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, NRA, Winchester and USA Shooting -- the U.S. Olympic team. The events aired on ESPNU and ESPN2, but were censored by networks and other cable operators, as usual, despite including top notch schools such as Purdue, George Mason, Texas A&M, U. Virginia and Yale.
http://www.nssf.org/share/Video/ACUI/ACUI.html

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7- National Parks Re-Banned

The lamestream media told you:

"The Bush Administration's last-minute gift to the gun lobby, allowing concealed semiautomatic weapons in national parks, jeopardizes the safety of park visitors in violation of federal law," said Brady Campaign President Paul Helmke, in a press release carried by "news" outlets nationwide. "We should not be making it easier for dangerous people to carry concealed firearms in our parks."

On March 20, 2009, a federal district court in Washington, D.C. granted anti-gun plaintiffs a preliminary injunction to stop the new rule that would have restored limited Second Amendment rights (concealed carry) in national parks and national wildlife refuges.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

Firearms were routinely borne in National Parks, where the right to keep and bear arms on public property was unquestioned from the outset of the National Parks program through the 1980s.
Then by regulatory fiat, Second Amendment rights in the Parks were eliminated, without representation, and without apparent authority to do so.

Then, by regulatory fiat, Second Amendment rights were restored there under the Bush administration, at the prodding of various gun-rights groups.

Then, using the judiciary as a wedge, the Brady group filed a lawsuit and got a preliminary injunction against implementing the rule that removed the ban that removed the freedom to keep and bear arms on public property.

Then, using the judiciary, the NRA was able to intervene in the case, to challenge the injunction that stopped the rule that removed the ban that removed the right to keep and bear arms in National Parks.

When people ask why Bloomfield Press didn't immediately jump on the ban ban repeal ban can freedom repeal ban story, the answer is it is regulation based, and our focus is on statutes -- laws made by legislatures -- since the rest is an entangling bureaucratic nursery rhyme. The National Parks debacle has no statutes behind any of it, just abrogation of the Constitution.
It's nice to know that our precious fundamental rights are protected by laws that are subject to regulations that can be changed by regulations and overturned by courts until other courts re-regulate the regulations. As of this writing, the RKBA is once again suspended in National Parks (translation: you can be arrested for carrying there).

Missing from the discussion is the fact that under the plan anyone who could carry in the Parks could carry in the entire rest of the state the Parks are in, creating a totally bogus, isolated, feel-good gun-free zone among the trees. OK, OK, some parks have no trees.

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8- Disarm Armed Pilots

The lamestream media told you:

Nothing.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

The Obama plans to end the armed pilots program that blazed across the web struck me odd: Armed pilot training is so intensive, and the pilots are such a select group, and the public's gun rights are so unaffected, and the threat to planes is so undeniable, and the pilots union is such a strong force, and since pilots can't be armed -- only sworn federal officers can (pilots renamed "federal flight deck officers" after the training), and then only while on the flight deck, and since a problem caused by disarming the pilots would be so dire but the risk of leaving them armed is so small, and since there isn't even a hint of disarming other federal or local officers, and since the pilots are among the highest rated of ALL federal officers, and since the issue is controlled by law and would require congressional action, it just doesn't smell right to me.

Plus, the Washington Times editorial (not article) on March 17 that seems to have started it all said Obama is "quietly ending the federal firearms program" by diverting some $2 million from the training program to hire "supervisory" staff, whose job, "looks like completely unnecessary harassment of the pilots," which is speculative and fear mongering, and a leap of logic, from the usually reliable Times. http://tinyurl.com/cyjrbk

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9- Why Ammo's Scarce

The lamestream media told you:

Gun and ammunition sales are up as irrational fears of impending gun restrictions under president Obama drive frightened consumers to buy firearms and stock up on ammunition. Although gun ownership is known to be dangerous, this hasn't stop some fringe elements of the public from hoarding and creating personal arsenals, while the gun industry secretly smiles and enjoys record profits.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

Charly Gullet, long-time friend and owner of The American Gunshop in Prescott, Arizona, has his own view of what's really going on:

"If I may, I'd like to offer you my very limited perspective on the "gun-sale boom" for which I have only my own experience and personal analysis.

"Virtually all the lamestream media has dutifully reported the so-called boom, boorishly reciting the ubiquitous November uptick in NICS background checks. The inescapable impression one gets from the nearly non-stop repetition of news video showing "gun owners" standing in line to buy out both guns and ammo is that gun shops and their owners just got stinking rich and are probably sitting somewhere with their feet up sipping champagne while the rest of the Roman economy burns.

"This turns out not to be the case.

"1. In fact, the retail gun business has been off for almost a year and half due to the same economic collapse that the rest of the nation is suffering under and may be about to get dramatically worse for firearms retailers, industry and buyers.

"2. The November and after gun boom in sales (identified by NICS checks) in my experience has been composed of primarily two types of buyers; first-time buyers and scalpers. SMALL gun shops had almost no uptick in November and December (traditionally a holiday uptick period). January was flat (which is typical for the post Xmas VISA depression) and February was up a little bit, but still down compared to two or three or four years ago February results.

"One might be tempted to ask how, given the news coverage, this could possibly be the case? Here is what is not getting above the radar...

"First-time gun buyers are not sophisticated gun owners. They are not even shooters and they certainly are not Second Amendment supporters.

"They are people who have been convinced either by their friends or the media that they are about to become the only person in the neighborhood who does not have an AK47. This kind of buyer does not know where small, privately owned gun shops exist. In their very limited view, big-box stores like Cabella's, or regional commodity shops like J&G Sales here in Prescott are the destinations for both first-time buyers (and the news media) because they don't know anything else. I guarantee you CNN was not in my little shop asking about the champagne.

"Scalpers also do not buy in the small gun shops. Scalpers are looking to buy cases of rifles/pistols/shotguns and truckfuls of ammunition, neither of which is available in the limited inventories of small customer-oriented gun shops.

"It gets worse...

"The net result of the boom was to completely sell out the distribution channel through the big-box stores and create enormous back-orders in the factories. This is disastrous for small business for several reasons. First, small businesses operate on limited inventory and small margins so they must be able to restock turnover. Every new gun (and ammo) sale we have had since November has become a hole on the wall because we can't replace it.

"Worse yet, factory production is both limited and on a staggered schedule. Any given machine builds several products and the machine is re-tooled several times during the year. This means when there is a distribution channel sellout, it takes months for the factories to get any kind of inventory back into the distribution pipe, and in some cases we will not see products in retail again until the end of this year.

"So, on the off chance that a small gun shop has a repeat customer show up with money we are becoming increasingly hard pressed to have anything they want. Most small businesses do not have the financially deep pockets to wait out a recession with no available restocking inventory in distribution.

"Coupled with an already long-term bad economy, this will cause, I believe, a large number of small gun shops to go out of business this year, contrary to the champagne image we are getting in the media. I suspect the media will neither morn nor report the number of Mom-and-Pop gun shops that go out of business.

"The final pain here is the hit to the industry. I know for a fact that Bushmaster is back-ordered by over one million units (as you know, they only build AR15s). Other factories are in similar situations. Because of the enormity of the back-order, Bushmaster has cancelled all innovative product development (including the much trumpeted Masada ACR) in order to put the entire labor force onto back-order production. We will now have no new products this year and maybe none next year. Stagnation in innovation is poison in any market.

"And we did all this for what reason? If anybody is drinking champagne, its Obama, who is showing more teeth than a long-eared mule with a bucket of Prozac.

"Looking forward to seeing you third weekend in April, when you come to town with your band, The Cartridge Family.

"Warm regards, Charly"

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Contents:
(searchable by item number)
1- Centralized Gun Registration
2- Tea Party Redux
3- NRA's "Wholesome" Convention
4- Phony Mexican Gunrunning
5- "Gun Runner" Freed
6- College Shotgun Championships
7- National Parks Re-Banned
8- Disarm Armed Pilots
9- Why Ammo's Scarce
10- Special Guest Columnist Craig J. Cantoni
"Stupid Educated Americans"

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Thanks for reading!
Alan Korwin
The Uninvited Ombudsman