News from Florida:

A former Miami-Dade police internal affairs lieutenant today admitted buying and smuggling guns for a drug ring through security checkpoints at Miami International Airport and depositing some of his payments into a Fort Lee bank account.

Nearly a year after an investigation by FBI and DEA agents out of Passaic County led to his arrest, 45-year-old Ralph “the Milk Man” Mata pleaded guilty in federal court in Newark to conspiring to distribute cocaine, “aiding and abetting a narcotics conspiracy” and depositing money for the illicit organization.

As part of his plea, Mata agreed to forfeit $75,405 seized by federal authorities when he was arrested last April 9.

U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said Mata bought at least six firearms from a gun store in Florida that ended up in the hands of members of the Juan Arias Drug Trafficking Organization.

“Using his prior experience as a lieutenant assigned to the Miami International Airport, as well as his law enforcement contacts at the airport, Mata and others smuggled the six firearms through airport security checkpoints and onto a commercial airliner destined for the Dominican Republic,” Fishman said.

Mata also “provided advice, guidance and counsel to Juan Arias regarding the means and methods the drug trafficking organization should use to import and distribute cocaine,” and also “transported narcotics proceeds for the organization,” the complaint says.

In exchange, he got “cash and a Rolex watch valued at approximately $10,000,” it says.

Gosh.  I hate it when that happens to me.  I remember the last time I bought guns for the drug lords.  I was working for the U.S. ATF and under their direct orders when did that so I didn’t get in too much trouble.  Only a few of those patriot types really cared.  But they wouldn’t let me keep the Rolex.

Guns.com:

Schlotman said:

That was a group called Moms Demand Action. They were opposed to the fact that our policy is to adhere to the local gun laws. If the local gun laws are to allow open carry, we’ll certainly allow customers to do that based on what the local laws are. We don’t believe it’s up to us to legislate what the local gun control laws should be. It’s up to the local legislators to decide to do that.

So we follow local laws; we ask our customers to be respectful to the other people they are shopping with. And we really haven’t had any issues inside of our stores as a result of that.

The comment reaffirms  the company’s original statement when Moms targeted the supermarket giant last summer after a series of successful campaigns targeting other chains. The group was able to raise awareness of policies by Target, Chipotle, Facebook and Starbucks and force the companies to respond, more often than not in a lukewarm way.

Moms won’t have as much success against Kroger as they did with a progressive company like Starbucks.  As I pointed out:

Look Christy, if moms and kids could tell the difference, like this instance when Harris Teeter stores were robbed at gun point, you couldn’t do anything about it.  You couldn’t protect your children, because criminals don’t obey laws or follow rules (even if Harris Teeter made such a rule).

You see, I carry a weapon in Harris Teeter stores, as I do everywhere else.  The fact that you can’t see it doesn’t mean that I’m not a bad guy, and if I open carry, that doesn’t mean I’m not a good guy.  This all has to do with your private psychological peculiarities, and says nothing whatsoever objective concerning anyone else.  This all has to do with things going on in your mind, not reality.

Moreover, if you do ever get into a situation in which you need protection and your husband isn’t with you, one of us might just save the day.  I wouldn’t rely on the police if I were you.  Their response time is far too long, and they have proven again and again and again that they can be very dangerous people with guns.

Harris Teeter doesn’t want this fight.  There are far too many of us and they don’t want to lose the business.  So I recommend that you go somewhere you’re wanted and leave the Harris Teeter parking lots free for folks who want to shop there.

I also noted that the Harris Teeter on Matthews Township Parkway still had their no firearms sign up.  Well, as soon as Harris Teeter saw the photo on this web site, they removed the sign.  Harris Teeter is now part of Kroger, and given where these two chains are located, Moms won’t have success against either one of them.

Congratulations to Kroger and a strong stand.  It’s always creepy to see someone take a stand and then back down in the face of someone bitching about the stand.  If you back down, you didn’t really believe it to begin with.  Reward Kroger and Harris Teeter with your business if you get a chance.

David Codrea:

And while the numbers of Coloradans transferring their property or ignoring the magazine ban is impossible to measure with accuracy, there’s reason to believe they are substantial — just as are the numbers of gun owners who have refused to comply with infringements in California, Connecticut, Washington State and elsewhere. It’s part of a phenomenon I’ve been calling a “new paradigm,” although in truth, disobedience in defense of freedom has been a time-honored practice among liberty-minded Americans since before the Republic — as the example of Patriots at Lexington and Concord could not have made more clear.

Never obey an immoral law.  God does not approve of that.  Furthermore, do you notice that the ones who chat up the issue of forcible confiscation, or forcible arrest and detention, or forcible prison time, or infringements on our God-given rights are mostly the rulers who want submission to their every desire, or their loyal minions, the internet trolls who chat this up over the web?  None of these people ever volunteer to conduct the raids and get shot enforcing these stupid laws.

Kurt Hofmann:

In the end, though, it’s fair to ask just how relevant the numerical breakdown is. This is a republic, after all, and not a democracy, in which 51% of the people can vote away the rights of the other 49%. Fundamental human rights cannot be legitimately held to the outcome of a popularity contest. And finally, if the supposedly growing number of people who own no guns want to disarm us, in our supposedly shrinking numbers, we shouldn’t even need the large and growing numbers of guns we each ostensibly own. When defending one’s rights against the unarmed. one gun should be plenty–just be sure to have a good supply of ammunition.

Yea, I caught Mr. Horn’s assessment, and laughed out loud.  First of all, what gun owner in their right mind today is going to answer a telephone or internet question on whether he has guns?  Such a poll is prima facie ridiculous.  Second, this notion that rights aren’t held hostage to favorable statistical outcomes (or the results of polls) is an old and respected one with me and Kurt.

H&K rifle problems.  Well, H&K hates you, so why would you have one?

John Kerry appeals to Baal.  Will he slash his wrists and bleed out next? (1 Kings 18:28).

One in eight illegal immigrants now has a white collar job.  You know.  Those jobs that Americans won’t do.

Does Israel really have a thermonuclear weapon?  He doesn’t mean that.  He meant to say “nuclear weapon,” not thermonuclear weapon (which uses fission to create the heat for fusion to occur).  This is what happens when idiots write articles.  So dismiss everything else he has to say about everything.

Yahoo:

Ottawa (AFP) – Canada’s high court struck a blow against gun control on Friday, with a decision that clears the way for the federal government to destroy data on owners of rifles and shotguns.

Ottawa ordered the database destroyed in 2012, but Quebec went to court to try to stop it, hoping to use the names of Quebecers on the list to build its own firearms registry.

The Supreme Court’s decision means that while Canadians must still obtain a license to own a gun, most will not have to disclose that they own a long gun.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a longtime advocate for the gun rights of hunters and farmers, said he was “happy” with this outcome.

But in Quebec, which also fought to maintain the national firearms registry created by parliament in 1995, there was disappointment.

The province pressed Ottawa to hand over parts of the database relevant to Quebec after the federal government shut down the national firearms registry three years ago.

But Harper’s Tory government refused, citing critics of the registry who complained the original had been an expensive intrusion on gun owners and should not be repeated.

Furthermore, the Tories argued, the registry did not help to stem crime.

With both sides refusing to yield and Quebec vowing to create its own registry from scratch, firearms regulations are sure to become a hot campaign issue in upcoming elections.

In a five-four split decision, the Supreme Court ruled that Quebec had simply failed to establish a legal basis for its claim to the data.

The court added that the disagreement over the fate of the information in the registry should have been negotiated in a political process, rather than adjudicated.

So here’s the scene.  The firearms registry is being done away.  Quebec wants the information, and this court case decided the issue.  Quebec doesn’t get it.  In the process, the Canadian supreme court looks a lot like the U.S. supreme court and other morons, and stipulated that in the future, the political process must be used to restrict God-given rights.  But it gets better.

Quebec Public Safety Minister Lise Theriault said the province would move ahead with its plans for a database of its own, allocating Can$30 million (US$24 million) for the project.

If the centralized government won’t help, they’ll do it themselves.  Sounds like New York or Connecticut, no?  But wait.  It gets even better than this.

Earlier this month, Harper earned widespread scorn over comments he made which seemed to wrongfully imply that Canadians have the right to shoot intruders.

“My wife’s from a rural area, gun ownership wasn’t just for the farm, it was also for a certain level of security when you’re ways away from police, immediate police assistance,” he’d told the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities on March 12.

Legal experts and the opposition pounced on the comments to suggest Harper had urged Canadians to take the law into their own hands.

“It’s vigilantism,” former Ontario attorney general Michael Bryant was widely quoted as saying.

“People are going to find themselves facing the criminal justice system and being charged with serious crimes if they decide to follow what the prime minister is suggesting.”

Rather than being a God-ordained duty, self defense is “vigilantism” according to Bryant.  The former attorney general of Ontario is a damn communist.  And the damn communists (and Harper’s Tories) notwithstanding, the reasons for ownership and bearing of arms goes beyond hunting and self defense (American “Fudds” also notwithstanding).  It also enables us to kill people just like them.  The extent to which Americans get that will be directly proportional to the liberties we retain in the face of men just … like … the … rulers … of … Quebec in the U.S., federal, state and local.

News from Florida:

After the Hollywood Police Department declined to investigate his allegations of excessive force, Gozaloff filed a lawsuit claiming police brutality and false arrest stemming from the January 2008 incident.

In their reports, the officers alleged Gozaloff, now 54, became irate, ground his own face into the pavement and kicked at them. They arrested him on charges of drug possession and obstructing a traffic stop.

But after hearing the officers testify in the criminal case, Broward Circuit Judge Dale Cohen said he believed Gozaloff and dismissed the criminal charges against him in December 2009, court records show. “The court found Mr. Gozaloff very credible,” Cohen said. “The court believed his entire story.”

This month, Hollywood agreed to pay Gozaloff $240,000 to settle the lawsuit, city documents show.

City commissioners signed off on the deal privately in early March and are expected to give formal approval April 15 during a public meeting at City Hall.

Hollywood Police Chief Frank Fernandez and other city officials declined to comment on the case.

The federal lawsuit, filed in January 2012, accuses five officers of attacking Gozaloff in a “shark-like feeding frenzy.” The officers named as defendants are 12-year veteran Joseph Siple, 36; 10-year veteran Alexander Chang, 34; nine-year veteran Matthew Petty, 41; 18-year veteran Travis Schuller, 45; and 19-year veteran William Cash, 50.

The lawsuit accuses all five of filing false and misleading police reports and claims Siple planted a bag of Xanax pills on Gozaloff.

“Paul believes he was arrested because they thought he was homeless and wanted to get him off the street,” said his attorney, Javier Lopez. “One officer had a knee in his back while the other ones were kicking him. He was just taking the blows. He was never resisting.”

Gozaloff was posting campaign signs for presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani around 3:30 a.m. on Jan. 27, 2008, two days before the Florida primary, when he encountered a cluster of Hollywood cops ticketing a driver near Johnson Street and State Road 7.

Worried the driver might be a homeless friend, Gozaloff pulled over to inquire. Gozaloff, who suffers from bipolar disorder, says the officers grew annoyed with his questions.

Thinking Gozaloff, admittedly unkempt, was homeless, the cops beat him, kicked him, ground his face into the pavement and stood on his knee and ankle, the lawsuit alleges.

His ribs were bruised and he had cuts on his head, knees and feet, he said.

Despite his injuries, the arresting officer took him straight to jail, bypassing the hospital, the lawsuit says.

Gozaloff said he spent a week in jail until his wife came up with $1,700 to post bond.

In police reports, officers gave contradicting accounts of what transpired that night, Judge Cohen ruled.

According to Siple, the arresting officer, Gozaloff screamed, “Why won’t you talk to me?”

Siple says Gozaloff refused to take his hands out of his pockets despite repeated orders. According to Siple, officers yanked Gozaloff’s hands from his pockets and found rolling papers and three burnt marijuana cigarettes. Siple’s report says he later found a baggie of 11 Xanax pills in Gozaloff’s shorts pocket.

Police also claimed Gozaloff slammed his own head into the pavement repeatedly and attempted to punch officers before he was “escorted” to the ground.

Gosh.  I hate it when that happens to me.  I remember the last time I couldn’t remember what I planted on people to get them in trouble.  I looked stupid and it cause my whole plan to fall apart.

News from San Francisco:

San Francisco sheriff’s deputy Scott Neu is accused of leading a ring of corrupt jail guards who coerced prisoners into gladiatorial combat with threats of rape and violence.

Neu serves at County Jail No. 4 at 850 Bryant St despite having settled claims that he raped a woman prisoner and two transgendered prisoners while working at the jail. He sports a tattoo reading “850 Mob,” believed to describe the name used by the corrupt deputies to describe themselves. At least four other deputies are implicated in the program of sexualized torture.

The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office had undertaken an investigation into Neu’s behavior, in cooperation with an independent private investigator, and had planned to issue their report only after the prisoners who came forward were released and safe from retaliatory violence. However, Neu had reportedly planned a fresh round of fights, leading to a hasty release of their findings.

Neu and his co-conspirators gambled on the outcome of fights. One fight pitted the smallest inmate in the jail against the largest, and the fighters say they were threatened with rape and beatings by the guards if they didn’t spar. Neu is also said to have coerced prisoners into training for the fights with threats of rape and violence. Neu has a reputation for sadistic practices overall, including making prisoners gamble to receive their food, clothes and comfort items. Even when prisoners won the games Neu forced on them with the red dice and the deck of cards he carried, he would sometimes take away their “winnings” and give them to other prisoners.

The Deputies’ Union attorney Harry Stern claims the Public Defender is making a big deal out of nothing. He says that the prisoners were encouraged to “wrestle to settle disputes about who was stronger,” and were “encouraged” to work out. He dismissed the entire affair as “little more than horseplay.”

Gosh, I just hate it when that happens to me.  I remember the last time I forced men to fight at gunpoint in order to eat.  But I didn’t have that awesome Deputy’s union to help convince people it was all just in good fun.

The Salt Lake Tribune:

So let’s assume you have no kids in the home.  If you want to leave four handguns lying in strategic places around the house, coupled with a rifle and perhaps a shotgun, that’s your business.  To be individually responsible, every gun owner should be able to do the following: allow themselves to be blindfolded, start at the door, walk to every firearm he owns, touch it, and tell someone from memory whether it is loaded and whether a round is chambered.

That’s my personal view.  But I consider it none of my business what you do within the confines of your own home.  How may guns you have, where they are located, whether they are loaded, whether a round is chambered, etc., is your business and yours alone.  How you secure your weapons is up to you. After all, they are your property.

As for Steve Sanetti, you are out of line implying that if someone chooses to handle firearms his way within the confines of his own home, and his way happens to disagree with yours, he is irresponsible.  Making suggestions is okay.  Implying that people must do things your way isn’t.  And by the way, I don’t need law enforcement telling me anything about how to safely handle weapons.

MSNBC:

Asked about the Second Amendment at a town-hall meeting yesterday, the governor told voters, “Send me a Republican legislature. And with a Republican legislature you’ll have a governor who will respect, appropriately, the rights of law-abiding citizens to be able to protect ourselves…. No rights are given to you by government. All our rights are given to you by God.”

The theological reference was a bit odd under the circumstances. Even if Christie genuinely believes the Second Amendment creates a God-given entitlement to firearm ownership, it’s up to policymakers – humans, in positions of governmental authority – to shape and place limits on this right.

First of all, Chris Christie’s campaign is over.  It’s far too late to convince any legitimate gun owner that Christie would be good for gun rights.  Now that this point is out of the way, consider the way the reporter, Steve Benen, worded this objection.  “Even if Christie genuinely believes the Second Amendment creates a God-given entitlement to firearm ownership …”  How on earth could a man-made document create a God-given right?  What kind of ignorance and sophomoric thinking leads someone to make such intellectual missteps?

As I have stated, “The basis [for bearing arms] comes not from the constitution or any other founding document, but from God Himself, and he answers to no one.  His laws have a deontological flavor (see Divine Command Theory).  He refers to no one outside Himself for notions of right and wrong, and when He speaks, it is right because He has spoken it and it follows the nature of His character, which is itself good.  Simply said, God doesn’t need the constitution, and neither do we need it to tell us it is okay to seek and employ means of self defense.”

For the grand finale of embarrassing brain freezes, Steve believes that it’s up to humans to “shape and place limits on this right.”  God, to whom man answers and who is in need of no one and nothing (see the “Aseity of God”), and who demands obedience rather than demurral, apparently hasn’t spoken clearly enough for Steve, who believes that creatures have the right to amend the word of the creator!

And there you have it.  The much heralded main stream media, who wouldn’t be able to perform good analysis work if their lives depended on it.

David Codrea:

Let me tell you something about ATF “gunwalking.” Did you know that if you go to Wikipedia, you’ll find no mention of either me or Mike, or our documented roles in breaking the story while imploring both Congress and the media to even notice it? Go ahead– go explore that last link for a few minutes and see all the reporting that was done before the rest of the media had written word one. Now find anything in that early reporting that later investigations did not bear out — notwithstanding discrediting attempts by those taking their talking points from the administration. Several people interested in a complete chronology of events have tried to change that, but their entries were always edited out within a day or so.

David goes on to explain why the acting director Brandon of the ATF is just as bad or worse than Jones.  Of course he is.  What did we expect from the organized crime gang of the Obama administration?  Go read all of David’s piece.

Now, I want to address some thoughts concerning the what David said (and I cited) above.  First of all, it has been said of bloggers that we live a symbiotic relationship with the main stream media.  We don’t do original reporting, original analysis, or anything approximating what the real media does.

I reject this notion with prejudice.  While it’s certainly true that much of what we link and analyze comes from the media, there isn’t a chance on earth that anyone in the media could have developed the theological case for guns and self defense I developed in Christians, The Second Amendment And The Duty Of Self Defense.  Nor would they have known where to go to get such an analysis performed.  On occasion I have conducted original interviews and documented and analyzed information no one in the media has done, and to date no one in the main stream media has thought to obtain information on gun crime in national parks after the law had been changed in 2010 through a FIOA request as did I.  Finally, the main stream media simply cannot accomplish the same kind of analysis performed by many bloggers.  If you think so, prove it.  We’re listening.

As for David Codrea and Mike Vanderboegh, they broke the story on gun walking into Mexico as conducted by the ATF.  That much is clear.  It’s also clear that they followed that story until its conclusion, and will continue so as anything else develops.  The fact that they didn’t get the credit for it only speaks to the ugliness of the main stream media.

I may be speaking out of turn, but I also know that David has sent his articles to other venues such as Drudge Report, only to find out that Matt Drudge waited until the stories were carried by the main stream media to report on them.  I have sent one or two links to Drudge, only to see some of my source information (with which I did further analysis) linked by Drudge Report.  Matt Drudge, for all of his claim to hold the main stream media accountable, is a fawning fan boy of the main stream media, and only wants himself to hold anyone accountable.  He worships the main stream media.

I’ve also logged dozens of instances where I’ve sent my links around to large bloggers, only to see my source information linked by those bloggers without attribution.  Dozens of times.  This is very bad form.  I know who you are.  I won’t mention names because it does me no good to pick fights.  But it matters for one simple reason.  Bloggers do this for the opportunity to advocate and persuade.  In order to do that, one has to have readers.  It’s as simple as that.

Whenever you can, forward important links to friends, contact and family.  You have the additional benefit that with David Codrea, you have both a legitimate reporter and a blogger (who as any blogger does more advocacy journalism and commenting).  Persuasion and truth-telling is the name of the game.  And if you don’t blog yourself, it’s always handy and welcome to have reporters who send you information that assists you in your blogging efforts.

News from Texas:

ODESSA, TX — An Ector County ISD police officer accidentally fired his gun inside Crockett Junior High on Friday.

“It discharged into the wall of his office and then the bullet went up into the ceiling,” said ECISD Communications Officer Mike Adkins.

“His gun was wet, and he went back into his office and felt it would be an opportune time to clean it and make sure it was working,” said Adkins.

The school system is investigating the incident, and the officer has been placed on administrative duties.

“They want to know exactly what happened, how it can be avoided in the future and if there needs to be retraining done for our officer or even other officers,” said Adkins.

The owner of a business called Guns and Trades, Tommy Atchison, offered reaction on Monday.

Atchison said, “All guns should be acted like they’re loaded at all times.”

Gosh.  I hate it when that happens to me.  I remember the last time I shot up a junior high school while trying to clean my gun.  I didn’t pull the trigger either.  It just “went off.”  But everybody wanted to blame me.

Meanwhile, some folks in Texas are really glad those goober civilians who are about to be allowed to open carry will have to get training since a concealed carry permit is a requirement.  We wouldn’t want them to shoot up junior high schools.