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1. 

   dtroutma said, 4 months ago

   The business of our biggest business.
2. 

   Radish said, 4 months ago

   Today we take great pride (or at least have no shame) in being by far the world’s number one arms-exporting nation. A few statistics bear this out. From 2006 to 2010, the U.S. accounted for nearly one-third of the world’s arms exports, easily surpassing a resurgent Russia in the “Lords of War” race. Despite a decline in global arms sales in 2010 due to recessionary pressures, the U.S. increased its market share, accounting for a whopping 53 percent of the trade that year.

   .
   http://www.salon.com/2012/01/24/america_arms_dealer_to_the_world/
3. 

   MortyForTyrant said, 4 months ago

   @Radish

   I believe this cartoon to be more about “civilian” weapons, not weapons used in armed conflict. If that is the case then Heckler&Koch, Glock, Sig-Sauer and others need to be mentioned too.
4. 

   Respectful Troll said, 4 months ago

   Hello Neighbors,
   In a hurry last week, I provided a link to Jon Stewart’s the Daily Show and suggested readers to watch the first 15 min of his show re: the NRA and the ATF. A couple of conservative readers complained. I was told to provide the websites instead of Mr. Stewart’s sarcastic but concise information. Now I wonder if those who complained will actually read the following and/or visit the websites.
   ^
   From – http://protectpolice.org/
   The Tiahrt Amendments, named for their original sponsor, U.S. Representative Todd Tiahrt (R-KS), are provisions attached to federal spending bills that make it harder for law enforcement officers to aggressively pursue criminals who buy and sell illegal guns.
   ^
   The amendments restrict cities, states and even the police from fully accessing and using Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) gun trace data, which can show where illegal guns are coming from, who buys them and how they get trafficked across state lines and into our communities.
   UPDATE: The Tiahrt restrictions are blocking Congressional oversight of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Explosives & Firearms (ATF) and its controversial “Operation Fast & Furious.” According to allegations, ATF allowed guns to be illegally trafficked to Mexico, possibly putting law enforcement officers in danger. ATF is prevented by Tiahrt from releasing trace data connected to Fast & Furious, forcing Congress to request the data from the Mexican Government.
   ^
   The Tiahrt provisions require the Federal Bureau of Investigation to destroy certain background check records within 24 hours, making it nearly impossible to use those records to help solve crimes or to identify gun buyers with criminal histories who were mistakenly approved. Learn More
   The Tiahrt Amendments also block ATF from requiring gun dealers to conduct inventory checks to detect loss and theft, which law enforcement says is a dangerous back channel source for criminals who are in the market for illegal guns.
   ^
   For years, the Tiahrt Amendments have been standing in the way of law enforcement efforts to stop the flow of illegal guns to criminals. But now, a coalition of 350 mayors and 200 police chiefs have called for repealing these damaging restrictions.
   ^
   From – http://www.patheos.com/blogs/christianpiatt/2013/01/the-nra-atf-insider-trading-and-politics-at-its-worst/
   A few years back, Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) suggested we did not need additional gun laws. He noted that we already have about 2,200 gun laws, and that the real issue is that those laws are not being properly enforced. Tiahrt went further to suggest that enforcing these laws should not be the purview of state or local law enforcement, namely because we have a government agency – the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) – whose job it is to pursue such enforcement around the clock.
   ^
   The problem is that the ATF hasn’t had a permanent director since 2006. Instead, the U.S. Attorney for Minnesota (a full-time job in itself) “commutes” from his home state to serve as an interim director. Seems ridiculous, right? Why not just appoint a new director by executive order? This is how it should work, yes?
   ^
   In theory. But back in 2006 (a year before Tiahrt’s CNN interview) Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) inserted a clause into the Patriot Act requiring Congress to aprove any appointments to the head of the ATF, which is the sole government agency responsible for the federal control of firearms. Since then, they have failed to approve anyone brought forward by a president to fill that post. Keep in mind that, for two of those years, the President was George W. Bush.
   ^
   Jim Sensenbrenner put a clause about the ATF into a seemingly unrelated bill. Interesting, also, that the same year this clause found its way into the Patriot Act, Sensenbrenner accepted the NRA’s “Defender of Freedom” award.
   ^{^}^^
   http://www.atf.gov/firearms/faq/licensing.html
   ^
   http://www.atf.gov/training/firearms/ffl-educational-seminars/
   ^
   http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolynmcclanahan/2012/07/23/gun-owner-rights-and-obamacare-yes-it-is-in-the-law/
   ^
   If you had the interest to visit these websites, then I compliment you. Whether or not your view has changed, you show a willingness to be part of a debate. If you have a site you feel objectively counters the above, I would be interested in seeing it.
   Respectfully,
   C.
5. 

   Ms. Ima said, 4 months ago

   Turn up the fascism.
6. 

   dfowensby said, 4 months ago

   that should illustrate not guns, but gushing blasted corpses of undefended and unprotected school children. realistically.
7. 

   Jase99 said, 4 months ago

   @Respectful Troll " I was told to provide the websites instead of Mr. Stewart’s sarcastic but concise information. Now I wonder if those who complained will actually read the following and/or visit the websites."
   
   Are you kidding? Sometimes it seems like the trolls don’t even read our comments before responding to them. Why would they read a news article showing they are wrong?
8. 

   onguard said, 4 months ago

   @Respectful Troll

   Something you will not find out from the Jon Stewart’s the Daily Show on the Comedy Channel. The ATF has a long history of attacks on Americans exercising their 2nd Amendment rights…..Start with a congressional hearing: ……The Subcommittee received evidence that ATF primarily devoted its firearms enforcement efforts to the apprehension, upon technical malum prohibitum charges, of individuals who lack all criminal intent and knowledge. Evidence received demonstrated that ATF agents tended to concentrate upon collector’s items rather than “criminal street guns”.¹⁸
   Beginning in 1975, Bureau officials apparently reached a judgment that a dealer who sells to a legitimate purchaser may nonetheless be subject to prosecution or license revocation if he knows that that individual intends to transfer the firearm to a nonresident or other unqualified purchaser (Straw purchase). This position was never published in the Federal Register and is indeed contrary to indications which Bureau officials had given Congress, that such sales were not in violation of existing law. Rather than informing dealers of this distinction, ATF agents set out to produce mass arrests based on “Straw purchase” sale charges, sending out undercover agents to entice dealers into transfers of this type.¹⁸
   In hearings before ATF’s Appropriations Subcommittee, however, expert evidence was submitted establishing that approximately 75 percent of ATF gun prosecutions were aimed at ordinary citizens who had neither criminal intent nor knowledge, but were enticed by agents into unknowing technical violations.¹⁸
   The Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986 addressed some of the abuses noted in the 1982 Senate Judiciary Subcommittee report…….This from:…….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bureau_of_Alcohol,Tobacco,Firearms_and_Explosives#Historyofcontroversy

   Want more?…………http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/12/19/ex-atf-official-gun-ends-up-at-mexican-cartel-shootout-that-killed-beauty-queen/
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Ridge
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATF_gunwalking_scandal
   ……….Lets not forget “Fast and Furious”……..ATF gets the Respect it has Earned.
9. 

   mikefive said, 4 months ago

   @Respectful Troll

   @C Downs

   Your long (and interesting) post on guns.
   ♦
   I went to the Forbes site and then went to the Act itself for verification. It is no wonder that it is difficult for ATF (or any government agency) to enforce laws when the laws that they are to enforce are buried in places like page 2,037, line 23 of unrelated acts of Congress. An agency would need to have a full time staff just going through all proposed and enacted bills just to find out what they are supposed to be doing.
   ♦
   Only as an academic point, it strikes me that forcing this ftype of reporting by MDs would infringe on the doctor/patient relationship of confidentiality. A law requiring a doctor to violate doctor/patient confidentiality concerning a patient that MAY be about to commit a violent crime would be challenged in the courts and if invalidated, what would be the effect on Roe v Wade and other like decisions (equal whateveritis under law)? I’m not sure that I wouldn’t oppose a law requiring doctors to make their reports, not because of my attitude toward guns, but because of the undoubted unforeseen consequences of finding such a law unconstitutional.
10. 

    Harleyquinn said, 4 months ago

    So that is why Obama wants to limit guns. He wants that to be our only export. I mean if we can not sell them here we might as well expand the base there. But my guess Obama will shut down that loop hole so that gun makers have to go on food stamps with the rest of his political base.
11. 

    dfrechet said, 4 months ago

    @Radish

    Okay on the exportation, but just to clarify, what particular type of arms were exported, exactly? Can you be more specific as to that aspect, and not a generalization. Thank you!
12. 

    MortyForTyrant said, 4 months ago

    @Respectful Troll

    Good grief, what a long post! Since I watched the show and have full faith in Jon and his team I didn’t need the links. I checked his claims before and they always checked out right. But thanks anyway!

    -

    But all the work you put into educating those who do not trust him was a waste of time, regrettably. The real hardcore-trolls on here, like RightisRight, Ima and Onguard, will not even look at it. They are the TEA wing of the GOP, and in times past they would have called themselves “Whig” or “Know Nothings” and be proud of it. Or as “Will McAvoy” would say: “They are the American Taliban” :-)

    -

    Me? I’m just venting here. I don’t expect anybody to read it or answer it or understand it or like it or anything. It’s therapeutical and much cheaper than a shrink…
13. 

    NeoconMan said, 4 months ago

    @onguard

    onguard is right; the ATF is just another part of the government, and the government must be destroyed. It’s time to put the business tycoons in power as only they can govern America properly.
14. 

    TheIronMouse said, 4 months ago

    @onguard

    LOL.. hate to say this.. FAIL post..very big fail. ONE, NEVER use wikipedia as a reference. NO educational institution will accept this as a valid source. Do this in School and you will get a BIG FAT F!… lol .. nice try..
15. 

    mickey1339 said, 4 months ago

    @mikefive

    “Only as an academic point, it strikes me that forcing this ftype of reporting by MDs would infringe on the doctor/patient relationship of confidentiality.”
    

    
    I did drug and alcohol counseling with kids for a few years, and there are clear mandates for “mental health professionals” to report to the proper authorities if they believe the patient poses a clear and present danger to themselves or others. The fight that is going to come at your point is probably from the ACLU. I’m pretty sure they will take issue with the mental health reporting as a violation of the person’s civil rights and right to privacy etc.
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