Gun Nut Roundup July 2011

Cheddarheads Finally Get Concealed Carry

On July 8th Governor Scott Walker signed into law a bill making Wisconsin the 49th state to allow law-abiding citizens to carry concealed weapons.  Said Walker, "By signing concealed carry into law today, we are making Wisconsin safer for all responsible, law abiding citizens."

"I would like to thank the NRA for all their hard work over the past 10 years—they never gave up the fight for Wisconsinites to defend themselves," said Sen. Pam Galloway, the bill's sponsor. "While we were both disappointed that Constitutional Carry did not have the necessary support in the legislature to pass this year, we know that SB 93 [the concealed carry bill] represents one of the most freedom-oriented licensing laws in the entire country and it's a tremendous first step toward our ultimate goal of adopting Constitutional Carry in the Badger State. I look forward to continuing this battle alongside the proud members of NRA."

This now leaves President Obama's home state of Illinois as the only state in the union that doesn't allow it's citizens any legal option to arm themselves outside their homes.

U.N. Still Seeking International Gun Ban

A committee of the Blue Helmets met recently to hash out details on its Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), with final negotiations to be in 2012.  Although you might think this treaty just deals with international gun smuggling, former ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, explains that, “The hidden agenda of a lot of the people who sought to negotiate a small arms treaty really had less to do with reducing dangers internationally and a lot more to do with creating a framework for gun control statutes at the national level.”

According to a Gun Owners of America alert, "[t]he ATT will, at the very least, require gun owner registration and microstamping of ammunition. And it will define manufacturing so broadly that any gun owner who adds so much as a scope or changes a stock on a firearm would be required to obtain a manufacturing license.  It would also likely include a ban on many semi-automatic firearms (i.e., the Clinton gun ban) and demand the mandatory destruction of surplus ammo and confiscated firearms."

The Obama administration is fully on board with the new treaty, unlike the Bush administration which opposed it.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton  has stated, “The United States is prepared to work hard for a strong international standard in this area.”

Operation Fast and Furious Getting Ferocious

For those of you haven't heard of it, "Operation Fast and Furious" was yet another Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) plan apparently devised by Wile E. Coyote.*   In this plan, ATF knowing allowed straw purchasers to buy guns at American gun stores (despite protests from ATF's own field agents and the store owners themselves) and allowed these weapons to be smuggled into Mexico to drug cartels.  As many as 2,500 such weapons were walked into Mexico. 

Testifying before Congress, one disgruntled ATF agent stated, "I cannot begin to think of how the risk of letting guns fall into the hands of known criminals could possibly advance any legitimate law enforcement interest."  Um, yeah.  Mexican drug cartels have put the ATF guns to good use.  So far they have used "Fast and Furious" weapons to kill U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, down a Mexican military chopper, kidnap high-profile attorney Mario González Rodríguez, and engage in at least 150 shootings (that we know about).

The whole steaming shitpile is under investigation by the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.  According to an Examiner.com article “The Obama Administration, according to ATF agents who blew the whistle on the illegal plot, intended to use statistics concerning U.S. guns in Mexico to call for more stringent gun control.”  Ideally President Obama should be impeached, but that will never happen with the press too busy humping his legs to do their job.  At the very least, however, Attorney General Eric Holder (who oversees the ATF) should lose his job. 

Gun Owners of America has a page where you can send a pre-written email to your Senators urging them to call for Holders resignation here.  The NRA has set up a petition at http://www.fireholder.com/.

* Humor columnist Dave Barry first suggested that the ATF's plan during the disastrous 1993 Waco siege of the Branch Davidians had been devised by Wile E. Coyote.