The Uninvited Ombudsman Report, No. 87 - DISCLOSE Democrats Deviousness
Taken from the most recent "Page Nine", Alan Korwin's "The Uninvited Ombudsman Report"
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1- L.A.Times Gun Truth
The lamestream media told you:
The L.A. Times "Homicide Blog" since 2007 clearly shows who's getting murdered. All 740 of them. It's not "gun violence," it's social violence for one tiny class of people. Guess who.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126853039&ft=1&f=2
If you don't want to visit the link and read the whole thing:
"Homicide is not a mass syndrome in America," she says. "It's a concentrated group of people and that group of people is still horribly affected by homicide."
In 2007, L.A. County's murder rates were especially low. Even so, Leovy says, black men in their 20s were dying at rates of around 140 per 100,000 per year. "As a middle-aged white lady, my death rate is probably 1 or 2 per 100,000 -- maximum," Leovy says. "These young men are dying at 140. They're in a war zone, and the rest of us are living in a different country."
"The real homicide problem is not the numbers that everybody focuses on, it's the disproportion."
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
The Times, going against their usual anti-gun-rights grain, has joined a few other courageous mainstream papers in exposing the ugly underbelly of the anti-gun campaigns waged by America's hoplophobic bigots.
Here's how "The Bad Part of Town" and failed social policies
are used for sinister attacks on the right to keep and bear arms,
and help justify the law enforcement world and its budgets.
Homicide in America has demographic, geographic, social and economic borders which, if acknowledged and openly discussed, would transform the debate, and place blame where it really belongs: on the causes and people that fuel the violence we hear about (but rarely actually see for ourselves, except on TV "news").
The real blame is hidden, because the truth is so painful.
Crime is not spread across the streets of America.
Crime, and crime using guns, happens in isolated areas
for well-known reasons the media and politicians hide from you.
But, it's useful to blame guns instead of criminals,
and blame guns instead of politicians and social policies,
and blame guns instead of festering pesthole neighborhoods,
and blame guns instead of angry young blacks,
in the effort to disarm the public and transfer power
to the government and away from the people.
See the maps. A picture is worth a thousand words.
http://www.gunlaws.com/GunshotDemographics.htm
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2- Guns Decrease Crime
The lamestream media told you:
"Crime in the U.S. dropped dramatically in 2009, bucking a historical trend that links rising crime rates to economic woes," according to unidentified wire service reports. Extensive numerical measures of the drops for property and violent crime are provided by the FBI, with drops in the single digit range for all categories.
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
The connection between private gun ownership and reductions in rates of crime were unexamined by unidentified wire service reports, expressing surprise that crime has dropped despite a bad economy which, according to the wires, seems backwards and is inexplicable.
"Gun sales rose dramatically in 2009, as fears of a democrat crackdown on Second Amendment rights drove millions more to gun stores than in previous years," notes the Uninvited Ombudsman. "Whether this had an effect on the crime numbers dropping seems likely, and has been well documented in the past, but cannot be proven from anecdotal FBI reports," he said. Wire services failed to note the likely trend, preferring instead to express surprise that crime dropped.
Past crime reports have more accurately indicated that arrests have dropped, since that is largely how crime rates are measured. However, crime rates and arrest rates are only indirectly linked. Get-tough enforcement programs, or budget cutting to police forces, have a far greater effect on arrest rates than anything else. Despite the media's confidence in its report, the actual rates of committed and attempted crime are essentially unknown with any precision.
Although the wires said crimes are down, the actual FBI announcement more accurately said "the number of violent crimes brought to their attention" are down. Detailed stats here: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/prelimsem2009/index.html
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3- DISCLOSE Democrats Deviousness
The lamestream media told you:
[Late breaking news: This bill was killed by Pelosi three days ago, but the story and aftermath remain instructive]: Democrats are seeking to pass a bill called the DISCLOSE Act, that would do damage to free speech and force powerful political groups to use big chunks of their air time identifying their donors and leaders. The bill seemed doomed, but only because the powerful gun lobby objected to such encroachment on their right to free speech. The problem was solved however when clever democrats amended the bill to let the NRA off the hook -- while keeping chains on virtually all other political-interest groups.
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
First, recognize that a Congress that would do such a thing -- write a law that exempts one single group so the law can be passed -- is as corrupt as anything you can name. While it's good that the NRA's right to free speech is not infringed, it is an abomination that Congress would do that to any other group under any rationale whatsoever. All groups deserve the same exemptions, namely, the entire bill should die (and as noted at the beginning, it did... for now).
Placing draconian burdens on political speech is tyranny.
Identifying players in the political theater might be acceptable, but burdening their free speech to do so is not a legitimate option. Congress, or at least the party behind this, deserves a face slap and leg irons.
In one sense though, carving out an exemption for the NRA was a good thing. In the backhanded dirty dealings of modern U.S. politics it may have been planned to get the result it did, death to the bill, by deep insiders who play these dangerous games. It showed the democrat leaders for the conniving deceitful beasts they are, and raised a firestorm against them -- not so much from their opponents, which they expected of course, but from their own members who revolted en masse! Are some politicians laughing at the morass? I sure am.
One of the best things the NRA has accomplished receives little recognition and less praise. Sure, they've fixed, bolstered, introduced and enhanced laws that improve the right to keep and bear arms. Yes, they have held the forces of darkness at bay, especially at the federal level where no one else does that job with as much pull. Of course they pour support into the state associations and local battles that are crucial to preserving the Second Amendment on a practical, every day level.
But the NRA is responsible for moving the public mindset, for challenging and changing the debate in the court of popular opinion, in a way all the smaller players could not.
People everywhere are more accepting now that a woman is entitled to protect herself from assault. That every home owner has the right to defend the family castle. Oh, the lamestream media has been slow to arrive at these self-evident truths, but America now largely accepts the idea of discreetly carried firearms, by responsible adults, even if the Cro-Magnon media thinks of it as Cro-Magnon.
Hopelessly bogus myths that our sacred right to keep and bear would lead to blood in the streets have crashed and burned. Gone is the fabricated silliness that “the right of the people” is a collective right of no one at all -- thanks in large measure to decades of NRA-supported research that led to the Heller case victory.
When we look at NRA-backed individual state and federal bills that might not please us totally, we need to always see the larger picture. The constant pressure NRA brings to bear against the anti-rights bigots in society is a steamroller suppressing the forces of evil, without which our gun rights would be a pale shadow of what they are, if they even existed at all.
Here is some of what the NRA would have been burdened with, if the Democrats had not (stupidly?) amended the bill. Most other groups would have suffered under these burdens if Democrats got away with their plan (and I don't for a second believe the plan is altogether abandoned):
Prohibit any organization that has one $50,000 or higher contract with the federal government from engaging in political speech (bill language as introduced);
Require NRA to list top donor and top 5 donors on all election mass mailings, no exception for member mail;
Require NRA to put CEO and top donor on all robocalls, no exception for member calls;
Require NRA to put CEO and top 5 donors on all election TV ads;
Require NRA to put CEO and top 2 donors on all election radio ads;
Require NRA to put CEO and top donors on all internet election ads that NRA pays to put on other websites;
Require NRA to disclose all donors $600 and higher to FEC for all independent expenditures;
Require NRA to disclose all donors $1,000 and higher to FEC for all electioneering communications;
Require NRA to put a hyperlink on its website within 24 hours after FEC posts electioneering reports to the exact FEC page where NRA's report appears and keep link live for one year after election day;
For donors who don't want their contributions spent on campaign activity, would require the NRA CFO to certify to them in writing within 30 days of their donation that their money wasn't spent on campaign activity.
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4- Mythology Dies Hard
The lamestream media told you:
Taking guns away from the people will put an end to mass shootings. Don't look across the pond where "gun-free" Great Britain just had another mass shooting of unarmed helpless citizens.
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
A gunman was stopped by an off-duty police officer, out of his jurisdiction, at Salt Lake City's open public Trolley Square in 2007. Another shooter was stopped in his tracks at a church in Colorado Springs that same year, by a woman who had her gun with her. An armed customer at a restaurant in Anniston, Alabama prevented a mass shooting in 1999. An armed high school vice principal stopped Pearl, Mississippi gunman Luke Woodham. Two armed students stopped a gunman at the Appalachian Law School in 2002. Thanks to SAF for reminding me and providing this partial list.
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6- Armed For Safety
The lamestream media told you:
CLEVELAND--Judge Alfred Mackey of Ashtabula County Common Pleas Court advised residents Friday to arm themselves because the number of deputies has been cut about in half because of a tight budget.
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
It was unclear at press time how large a force of deputies is required before citizens no longer need to arm themselves for their own safety.
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7- Federal Firearm Databases (plural)
The lamestream media told you:
According to Michael Ferraresi, writing for The Arizona Republic: A federal firearms-identification database used to solve Phoenix murders could soon be expanded to other Valley cities if detectives are approved for a grant.
The National Integrated Ballistic Information Network database, which cataloges weapons and helps investigators link evidence from multiple crime scenes, is touted as key technology in a major metropolitan area. Shootings in Phoenix spill into other communities and vice versa.
Phoenix police enter more than 7,000 firearms into NIBIN system each year. Crime scene investigators enter the evidence as quickly as days or up to a week after a crime occurs, enabling detectives to use 3-D imaging and other technology to compare spent shell casings with evidence in the system, which spans the country.
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
I once saw the official account of 26 firearms databases maintained by the federal government, and the justifications for each one that supposedly exempted it from the Firearm Owners Protection Act (1986) ban on such databases.
It was a full-blown federal report available as a pdf file. Some of the databases were more-or-less understandable -- firearms reported stolen, guns held in evidence, accountings of guns in federal arsenals (the egg-inspector police, the print-shop police, environmental protection agency police, etc.). The NIBIN crime-incident system sounds like a new one. Are there more?
I can no longer find this document, which Congress had requested as part of a watchdog effort on the FOPA Act. I am asking Page Nine readers to track this down and send me a copy or a link. I don't ask my readers for much, but in this case however, it would be very useful if someone can find that Congressional report, covering federal gun databases and the justifications for each one's existence. Thank you in advance. I'll circulate the info once I have it.
9- Brady Group's Dying
The lamestream media told you:
Nothing.
The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
Things are not going well for the Brady anti-rights group, as the principles of robust rights to keep and bear arms grows in America. Scare tactic myths they've spread for several decades are apparently collapsing under their own fictitious weight.
To raise funds, the group is selling its mailing list, a paltry 50,000 names, many of whom are known to be pro-rights activists (like The Uninvited Ombudsman and friends) who joined, "to keep their enemies close." Previously, the Bradys claimed a million members, and absorbed the so-called Million Mom March (a misnomer) as a group under its umbrella, when that group got so small it couldn't sustain itself.
http://tinyurl.com/277oo4g
In other news, Examiner.com reported on June 4 that, according to public filings required by disclosure laws, Brady had raised $1.7 million in the 2000 election cycle, but that dropped to just over $15,000 in 2008. So far in 2010 the group has raised only $2,500, which came from a single donor.
"The conclusion is clear," writes reporter Rob Reed, "The public no longer believes the gun control lies." I saved the file, but now can't find a live link to the original story; I'm sure you techies can dig it out, and please accept my humble apologies for ineptitude.
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CONTENTS:
(searchable by item number)
1- L.A.Times Gun Truth
2- Guns Decrease Crime
3- DISCLOSE Democrats Deviousness
4- Mythology Dies Hard
5- Suicide Absolves Guilt?
6- Armed For Safety
7- Federal Firearm Databases (plural)
8- Mexico Cedes Arizona
9- Brady Group's Dying
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Thanks for reading!
Alan Korwin
The Uninvited Ombudsman
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