A Disturbing Case in New Mexico

Guilty or not, this is too much

                A family of four – Rick Reese, his wife Terri, and their two sons, Ryin – 24 and Remington – 19 – was arrested in Las Cruces, New Mexico on August 30, 2011.  They have been held in four separate county and federal detention facilities without bond ever since.  Their alleged crime is that, over the course of several months, they sold between 15 and 30 guns to people they knew, or should have known were gun traffickers for Mexican drug gangs.  The Reeses insist that they are innocent of any crime.

Shortly after they were arrested in Las Cruces, dozens of police vehicles, including four armored personnel carriers and two helicopters, full of armed officers and agents from numerous federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies swarmed over the Reese’s home and businesses.  The entire firearm and ammunition inventory was taken from Rick Reese’s store as well as his entire personal collection of firearms and all cash and valuables from his home safe.  Even the 30 to 40 empty gun safes that were on display at the store were seized.  US Attorney Ken Gonzales indicated that he is going to seek asset forfeiture of the Reese’s home and 25 acre property (including the shooting range on the property which he leased to various law enforcement agencies), all of the cash and valuables seized, their vehicles, and a monetary judgment of at least $36,000 from whatever assets might be left.

Continue reading Reese Family Under Attack →

Congress Packs Firearms Riders in “Minibus”

           (29 November, 2011) Rather than pass a large, all-encompassing omnibus appropriations bill for the new fiscal year – which began on October 1 – Congress narrowed the scope of their first funding bill to cover only certain essential services and agencies in what they dubbed a “minibus” appropriations bill.  Even so, the measure, which was finally passed in mid November and signed by the President on November 18, was massive and complex.  Along with funding government agencies and specific programs, the Congress included numerous limitations on how the money can and cannot be spent, including over a dozen riders pertaining to firearms issues.  Most were directly related to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), while others were aimed at the Justice Department and other agencies which deal with firearms law enforcement, record keeping, import, and export, etc.  Such instructions, known as riders, are nothing new, in fact, most of the ATF provisions have been included in appropriations bills for years, some for decades.  But this year’s unique “minibus” has some new tricks.

A permanent prohibition against the establishment of any sort of federal registration system of firearms and firearm owners, which has been included in appropriations bills since 1979, is among the more significant features of this bill.  That provision was originally promulgated under the guidance of my father, Neal Knox, when he was Executive Director of NRA-ILA, the NRA’s lobbying division, and has been included in appropriations bill each year since.  Dad would be pleased to see this protection finally made permanent.

Continue reading Minibus →

National Reciprocity Passes House, What Now?

(22 November 2011) On November 16 the US House passed H.R.822, the National Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act.  This legislation basically says that any state that issues concealed firearms permits must honor the permits issued by other states, much as states honor each other’s driver’s licenses.  While language in the bill includes citation of the Commerce Clause of the Constitution for authority, the stronger argument lies in the Constitution’s call for “full faith and credit” regarding contracts and legal issues across state lines.  The bill is now awaiting action in the Senate where it is likely to be referred to a committee and, in all likelihood be left to languish without a hearing or a vote until Congress adjourns.

This bill is an excellent example of something I discussed in a column a few weeks ago — the way politicians play political games with hot-button legislation.  In this case the legislation was being pushed pretty hard by Republican leaders in the House looking to make points with GunVoters and to put Democrats in a bind.  The whole thing was probably just so much kabuki theatre — an elaborately staged drama to arrive at a predetermined outcome.  There is little chance of the bill making it through the Democrat-controlled Senate and of getting past the President’s veto pen.  For most House members the vote was an easy call.  It was supported by the Republican leadership and was almost certainly going to pass, so the only question was how their vote would play for the folks back home.  Most members are smart enough to realize that GunVoters vote in large numbers based on politicians’ actions while the anti-rights crowd simply doesn’t have any kind of strong voter base.

Continue reading National Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act →

Where do Your Politicians Stand?

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about some of the wool-pulling that politicians do to keep voters in the dark or misguided.  I noted that party bosses and politicians play a balancing game on certain issues, particularly gun issues, trying hard to seem to support a piece of legislation, while simultaneously making sure that the legislation fails.  I warned readers to be on the lookout for such tricks and to hold politicians accountable for not only what they do, but for what they don’t do as well.

A reader wrote to me complaining that I didn’t name names and expose the devious miscreant politicians in my column.  He said that it was difficult for regular Joes like him to do the research needed to distinguish between pro-rights and faux-rights, and asked for more guidance as we approach the 2012 elections.

I would love to do that, but it’s not as easy as it sounds.  There are 100 US Senators.  I keep tabs on them and can label all one hundred pretty accurately.  There are 435 members of the House of Representatives.  I try to keep tabs on them as well, but with 435 of them, and changes every 2 years, there are many that I couldn’t identify as “pro” or “faux” with much confidence.  There are 50 Governors and state legislatures numbering anywhere from fewer than 60 members to over 400 members.  While I try to keep tabs on the Governors, I tend to only really look at them when a piece of legislation is pending in their state.  Same for the legislatures; there are simply too many of them for me and my small staff to keep track of.  That’s why my organization, The Firearms Coalition, works closely with local grass roots groups when we involve ourselves in state and local politics.  But that doesn’t help my reader looking for guidance on his politicians.  For that, I have created an “open source” web site called www.GunVoter.org.

Continue reading Keeping Tabs on the Politicians →

Exposing the Guns to Mexico Lie

Earlier this year, former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) Attaché to Mexico (basically their Bureau Chief in that country), Darren Gil, told reporters and congressional investigators that he only learned about the gunwalking scandal known as Operation Fast & Furious, after he had retired and the operation began making news in the blogosphere and the press.  But he said that he and his team in Mexico detected the surge in guns that Fast & Furious generated as early as the latter part of 2009 – within weeks of the initiation of the gunwalking scheme.  Gil reported that the sudden spike in crime guns being traced back to the Phoenix, AZ area caused immediate concern and that he quickly reported the analysis to his superiors and the Phoenix ATF office, but that the problem continued to grow, causing tension between his office and his Mexican law enforcement counterparts.  When he demanded to know why the investigation, into what was obviously a major gun trafficking operation, was not yielding results and staunching the flow, he was told that the investigation was ongoing and that he was to leave it alone – and not to share his analysis with Mexican authorities.

While Agent Gil’s statements have been rightly recognized as a scathing indictment of the Fast & Furious operation and the people directing it, a very important aspect of his account has been largely overlooked — or studiously ignored: If the flow of guns from Fast & Furious was clearly discernible by Gil and his analysts in late 2009, at the very beginning of the gunwalking operation, then the reports of an “Iron River” of guns flowing from US gun dealers to Mexican drug cartels is obviously a lie.

Continue reading More Guns Lies →

Run up to 2012 Elections Means More Gun Noise

Change flash and bang for Bullseyes by pushing for action

Elections are in the air and while the presidential contenders and the media focus on jobs and the economy as election issues, members of Congress and state legislators know that certain issues can wake up voters and make a huge difference come Election Day.  Gun control and firearm owner rights are among those voter-motivating issues and the push for gun points is well underway. 

Politicians and their campaign strategists do their best to fire up GunVoters and earn their support by cosponsoring pro-rights legislation, holding hearings, and generating committee and floor activity that catches the attention of the gun magazines and rights reporters like me.  To a large degree though, the biannual congressional gun show is exactly that:  a show.  As my late father, Neal Knox was fond of pointing out, most members of Congress are interested in the gun issue only as a political issue.  Few are interested in actually passing serious pro-rights legislation; their main interest is to bolster their reelection credentials.  For them and their campaign strategists, the name of the game is lots of show with, little go.  Their objective is to activate the special interests with a show of activity, but to avoid actually doing much of anything that might be turned against them later.  Being professional politicians and political hacks, even those who claim to support gun rights tend to be somewhat elitist in their attitudes towards the hoi polloi and look at gun owners with almost as much mistrust and distaste as do their anti-gun colleagues. 

Currently there are several pro-rights initiatives active in Congress and the difference between show and go on these bills could be your informed email.  They want to bluster and offer friendly platitudes, but you can demand that they take action.  If you’re an NRA member, you can also lobby NRA to push harder for votes – even if they don’t think they can win or if it isn’t what their “friends” in Congress want.  Your emails, letters, and phone calls can have an impact.  Demand that we either get our good bills passed or have a clear record of whom to hold responsible.

Continue reading 2012 Elections →

Guns for Our Grandchildren

The future of the shooting sports is brighter than ever

Only a few years ago, many in the shooting world fretted about the future of our sports, pointing to the preponderance of grey and missing hair on the firing lines of shooting ranges and in the hunting fields. Without  younger shooters, the older shooters worried, the sports would simply dry up.  Fewer shooters and hunters would also mean fewer gun owners and activists to stand against encroaching gun laws and fewer buyers of firearms and hunting equipment to fund wildlife and habitat conservation efforts. 

Rather than stand by and allow the shooting sports to die by attrition, shooting groups and the firearms and hunting equipment industries, along with millions of  individual shooters began actively working to make shooting more accessible to younger generations.  Hunters lobbied for, and got, special mentoring licenses and game permits to allow novice hunters better and safer access to game fields.  Clubs and industry groups created new training and competition programs for young people.  Newer, more exciting, action-shooting games began surpassing traditional, more staid shooting disciplines.  An unintended consequence of three wars in the past 20 years is a boon to the shooting sports as it has provided hundreds of thousands of young people with firearms training and sparked enduring interest in guns, shooting, and hunting in many of them. 

Continue reading Guns for Our Grandchildren →

More Federal Overreaching from ATF

By Jeff Knox

Ever since the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA’68), established a licensing system for gun dealers, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) has been loading gun dealers down with ever-increasing responsibilities for record keeping, reporting, and, to a growing degree, psychic precognition.  For years ATF has run sting operations against dealers trying to catch them selling guns to someone that they “should have known” was acting as a straw buyer.  A straw buyer is someone who illegally purchases a gun for someone who presumably couldn’t buy the gun for themselves.  Federal law forbids the sale of firearms to any “prohibited person,” including convicted felons, anyone convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, illegal aliens, anyone involuntarily committed for mental illness, and anyone who is an “unlawful user of, or addicted to, any controlled substance.”  

In late September, the ATF sent an “Open Letter” to all Federal Firearms Licensed dealers (FFLs) advising them that anyone licensed by their state to legally (in the state’s eyes) use marijuana for medicinal purposes is an unlawful user of a controlled substance under federal law, and therefore prohibited from purchasing or possessing firearms.  Even if the person has never used marijuana, the fact that they are licensed by the state to do so makes them a prohibited person according to the ATF.

Continue reading State v. Federal – Rights War →

* Exclusive *

Meet the New Boss

Don’t be fooled again.

   By Jeff Knox

Was the new Acting Director of ATF involved at the inception of the criminal gunwalking scandal known as Operation Fast & Furious?

The appointment of B. Todd Jones as Acting Head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) hasn’t caused much of a ripple – in the media or in the ATF.  By most accounts Jones is a stand-up guy, ex-Marine, and in a refreshing change of pace, apparently not known for ignominious bouts of bad judgment.  But who your friends are generally says a lot about you and Todd Jones is a long-time friend and confidant of his boss, Eric Holder.  That’s got some gun owners uneasy and asking for more information about the new chief gun control enforcer. 

While Jones hasn’t publicly demonstrated the anti-gun bias of Holder or Obama’s pick for a permanent ATF Director, Andrew Traver, there are legitimate reasons for concern.  Along with Jones’ close associations with Holder – going all the way back to the Reno Justice Dept., when Holder was in charge of the official DOJ whitewash of the Waco fiasco – there is also strong evidence that Jones was actually involved in Operation Fast & Furious from the very beginning.

Researchers at The Firearms Coalition, the grass roots rights organization my father founded in 1984, have uncovered what appears to be a redacted reference to B. Todd Jones in attendance at the first meeting of Eric Holder’s “Southwest Border Strategy Group.”  This group included people at the highest level of ATF, DOJ, FBI, and other agencies, including virtually all the people implicated in F&F to date.  This organizational meeting is likely where Operation Fast and Furious was conceived.

Continue reading New ATF Boss →

Lies, Damn Lies, and the Bradys…

By Jeff Knox

The Brady Center against Guns (formerly Handgun Control, Inc.) is out with a new report on the firearms industry and as is typical, the authorized journalists of the “mainstream media” are lapping up the Brady swill and regurgitating it back out with no investigation or critical analysis as if it were written in stone by the almighty himself.

The fact is that the Brady “report” is actually little more than wild assumptions and unfounded fear mongering based on some raw numbers provided by ATF to members of the firearms industry. What those numbers indicate is that an undisclosed number of unidentified manufacturers have had some problems keeping track of all of the frames and receivers they make, but that there has been marked improvement over the last two years. In all, according to the ATF, some 18,000 serial numbers were unaccounted for during factory inspections over the past two and a half years.

While that seems high to those unfamiliar with large-scale firearms production, it actually represents a remarkable low percentage of firearms produced and such “lost” guns are almost always a simple matter of paperwork or accounting errors. While there is occasional pilfering of parts by factory employees, this is extremely rare and is usually quickly detected. The vast majority of these “lost” guns never left the factory; they were frames or receivers which failed some quality control inspection and were recycled. Many of the missing guns simply never existed. Automated equipment stamps serial numbers and generates a record, but sometimes numbers get skipped, or there is a gap in the line resulting in a number being stamped into thin air. If such errors are not immediately detected by an equipment operator, the imaginary gun goes into the system and is later unaccounted for.

Continue reading Brady Distortions →