The Right to Keep and Bear Arms

Giant Shipment of Weapons Seized at Airport

March 26, 2009

Local 12 - U.S. Customs agents say they’ve stopped a massive shipment of weapons from entering the United States through the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport...

Obama Pledges American Agents to Fight Mexican Drug Cartels

March 22, 2009

Washington Post - Obama is finalizing plans to move federal agents, equipment and other resources to the border with Mexico to support Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s campaign against violent drug cartels, according to U.S. security officials...

U.S. National Guard Stationed Along Mexican Border States

March 25, 2009

AP - ...Texas Gov. Rick Perry last month asked for 1,000 troops be sent to bolster border security in his state. Napolitano said Tuesday officials were still considering whether to station National Guard troops along the Arizona and Texas borders with Mexico, which some governors have requested.

In addition, officials said they will increase the number of immigrations and customs agents, drug agents, and antigun-trafficking agents operating along the border. The government also will allow federal funds to be used to pay for local law enforcement involved in Southwestern border operations and send more U.S. officials to work inside Mexico.

At the same time, U.S. prosecutors say they will boost efforts to go after those smuggling guns and drug profits from the U.S. into Mexico, and allowed that the problem was not only one of supply, but of demand for illicit narcotics in America.

Those steps come in addition to a three-year, $1.4-billion-dollar Bush administration-era program known as the Merida Initiative through which Congress already has approved $700 million to support Mexico's efforts to fight the cartels. Obama has said he wants to revamp the initiative...

Fears of Regulation, Crime Spur Sales of Firearms and Ammo

March 23, 2009

PostStar - ...Across the country, gun dealers are reporting a big uptick in sales of both firearms and ammunition. Requests for federal background checks for prospective gun buyers have surged since last fall, with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms reporting a nearly 50 percent increase after the election of President Barack Obama.

Tom King, president of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, said gun and ammunition sales around the country have risen in recent months. He said many are concerned a Democratic president and Democratic-controlled Congress will change gun laws and could potentially ban certain types of firearms, like those commonly referred to as assault rifles. Democratic lawmakers are generally viewed as less friendly to gun owners than their Republican counterparts.

"We're hearing it around the country. People are concerned about losing their guns," King said. "If they buy them now, they'll be grandfathered if the laws are changed."

Locally, gun dealers are seeing a number of trends when it comes to sales and purchases of firearms and ammunition. Most said gun sales are up, while others said they are steady. Ammunition sales have risen dramatically, they agreed.

"We're selling a lot of guns. It's been that way since November," said Kevin Zacharewicz, owner of Zack's Sport's in Round Lake. "Handgun sales are up; self-defense shotguns are up. People are worried about what's going on financially..." At MacGregor's Gun Shop in Queensbury, New York, owner Scott MacGregor said he's seen a "sudden influx" of customers wanting to buy "home defense-type weapons," like shotguns.

Everyone interviewed by The Post-Star for this story agreed ammunition of all calibers has gotten tougher to find, as gun owners stock up. Prices skyrocketed in recent years as metal prices went up, which caused many gun owners to stock up in anticipation of rising ammunition prices. There are also concerns that some larger calibers, or those used by military-type weapons, could be banned, restricted or taxed more heavily.

One northern Warren County, New York, resident found out recently the government is paying attention to such ammunition sales. West said a customer of his recently stocked up on .223-caliber rounds, a caliber often used in assault-style weapons. The customer bought 1,000 rounds a few months ago through a mail order company. Shortly after the purchase, he received a visit from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, whose interest was apparently piqued by a large-scale purchase of that caliber. "His wife was home. He was at church," West said.

"People are buying a lot of ammunition in bulk these days," said Kathie Ferullo, owner of Discoveries USA, an outdoors outfitter in Warrensburg that sells guns and ammo. "For some types, we have to wait on a waiting list."

The down economy is also causing people to liquidate some of their valuable assets, including guns. West said his business hasn't seen a big rise in gun sales, but it has seen a rise in people wishing to sell guns to his store for economic reasons. He said one man recently brought in an 80-year-old antique rifle to sell because he needed money. "We've had guys come in with three or four guns to sell," he said.

Obama’s Gun Ban List Is Out

March 13, 2009

Infowars - Remember, the first step in establishing a dictatorship is to disarm the citizens... Gun bans will impact our freedoms under search and seizure, due process, confiscated property, states’ rights, free speech, right to assemble and more, in addition to the Second Amendment...

DOD Ends Sale of Expended Military Brass to Remanufacturers

March 16, 2009

The Shootist - AND SO IT BEGINS… We all wondered when it was going to start.

...It is an end-run around Congress. They don’t need to try to ban guns – they don’t need to fight a massive battle to attempt gun registration or limit "assault" weapon sales. Nope. All they have to do is limit the amount of ammunition available to the civilian market, and when bullets dry up, guns will be useless...

New York: Albany County Staging Attack on Ammunition Sales

SPP: Updating the Militarization and Annexation of North America

March 14, 2009

Global Research - The SPP is a military-backed corporate coup d’etat against the sovereignty of three nations, their populations and legislative bodies.

The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), also known as the North American Union, was formerly launched at a March 23, 2005 Waco, Texas meeting attended by George Bush, Mexico’s President Vincente Fox, and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. It’s for a tri-national agreement, below the radar, for greater economic, political, and security integration with secret business and government working groups devising binding policies with no public knowledge or legislative debate.

In short, it’s a military-backed corporate coup d’etat against the sovereignty of three nations, their populations and legislative bodies. It’s a dagger through the heart of democratic freedom in all three, yet the public is largely unaware of what’s happening.

Last April, New Orleans hosted the last SPP summit. Ever since, progress may have stalled given the gravity of the global economic crisis and top priority need to address it. Nonetheless, what’s known to date is updated below plus some related information.

Last September, the Army Times reported that the 3rd Infantry’s 1st Brigade Combat Team in Iraq would be re-deployed at home (October 1) as “an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.”

“This marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities.”

Then on December 1, the Washington Post reported that the Pentagon will deploy 20,000 troops nationwide by 2011 “to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear attack or other domestic catastrophe.” Three “rapid-reaction” combat units are planned. Two or more others may follow. They’ll be supplemented by 80 smaller National Guard units trained to respond to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, high-yield explosive, and other domestic “terror” attacks or disturbances. In other words, homeland militarization and occupation are planned using troops trained to kill.

The pretext is national security. In fact, they’ll be on-call against another major terrorist attack, real or contrived, as well as civil unrest given the gravity of the economic crisis, its affect on millions, and likelihood that sooner or later they’ll react. Armed combat troops will supplement militarized local police in case security crackdowns are ordered or martial law declared.

“Catastrophic Emergency” procedures are in place to react to situations, “natural or manmade,” according to DHS/FEMA’s March 2008 “Preparedness for the Next Catastrophic Disaster” policy paper. Should conditions warrant, initiatives to suspend the Constitution and declare martial law are in place, but militarizing America for business is also at issue.

Last October 1, the Canadian Action Party posted a “COUP IN USA ALERT” after the Bush administration announced the homeland deployment of troops with “$100 billion (bailout) dollars” to do it...

Destabilizing Mexico

March 14, 2009

Global Research (Excerpt)

KNX News radio station, a subsidiary of Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), reported this week that most of the guns that land in the hands of the drug cartel allegedly came from the black market in the United States. Ironically, most of the drugs that enter the United States from Mexico have been funneled to the Mexican drug lords through rendition flights from Columbia (cocaine) and Afghanistan (opium) to Mexico , then rerouted to the U.S. through the Mexican drug lords.

It would make sense to assume that Mexico is going to become a national security risk for the United States, which in turn will justify our Samaritan military aid and intervention to help the Mexican government contain the Mexican drug cartel. Therefore, Mexico will become a safer place for transnational corporations like Chevron and Exxon-Mobil. In addition, this process will pave the way for the Security and Prosperity Partnership to unravel, as well as the privatization of Mexico’s oil and natural resources and their takeover by the global corporations. As a result, a massive transfer of wealth and power to the new North American Union Government will unfold.

Is the American public aware and in agreement with the SPP?

Are we going to witness more conflict within our borders due to economic woes, or contrived attacks, which in return will solidify further the iron hand of our new democratic-socialist government?

Are we going to witness another major economic collapse like the prospective commercial real estate disaster that will cause major reverberations in the stock market, which will induce further impoverishment of the population, and which will lead to more bailouts leading to higher inflation, new currency, and poorer standard of living?

Are we heading toward civil unrest incited by the economic woes that will lead to the balkanization of America?

Or, are we simply going to be led like sheep to the slaughter house where we will give up our freedom to satisfy our primal needs like food, shelter and safety, then become totally impoverished, micro-chipped and controlled, and finally be forced into accepting the new global order?

Who Benefits from the Destabilization of Mexico?

March 13, 2009

Infowars - In order to solve the problem of violence associated with the drug cartel war in Mexico, Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass) said during a House subcommittee hearing on Thursday that the government should think about imposing further restrictions on the Second Amendment. “Let’s examine our gun laws, let’s cut down on U.S. drug consumption, let’s ask there to be more resources to root out drug money laundering,” said Tierney...

Mat Rodina - By summer of this year, Mexico will enter a full blown war with large scale gun battles in most of the cities. Most civil wars push out refugees. If even 10% of the 110 million living in Mexico start running north, that will collapse the governments of the American border states, already bankrupt from the Bank Panic of 2008 and the Economic Collapse of 2009. Most civil wars actually push out closer to 30-40% of a population, thus anywhere between 30-50 million people could head north.

But it gets even worse. A large chunk of the former U.S. industry is located in northern Mexico, already in the war zone. U.S. companies suffering in the present economic climate will further sink or collapse with the loss of these facilities, and their closing will force even more economic and war refugees north. A large percentage of the U.S. fruits and vegetables also come from Mexico, as does U.S. oil. It is not difficult to imagine that small groups of Mexican bandits could easily take to the water in speed boats and begin to raid the various oil platforms, freighters and cruise ships sailing in the Gulf of Mexico and the southern Caribbean Seas. Somalia has already proven how effective this is.

All of this would require a large amount resources that the U.S. no longer has to spare and will push the Americans into a grave political crisis. Stay tooned, dear readers, this is starting to get ugly.

Obama’s USA Service Website Hosts Gun “Buy Back” Event

Obama has pledged to to make the assault weapons ban permanent and promised to push for childproofing guns. He said he wanted to close the gun show loophole, which permits sales of firearms at gun shows without requiring a background check.

February 27, 2009

Infowars - The usaservice.org website was originally set in place to facilitate Obama’s “call to service” on the national Martin Luther King Day of Service, a federally mandated “holiday” cooked up by Congress and Bill Clinton in 1994. “Individuals, businesses, non-profits, and churches from Baptist to Mormon to Scientologist are employing the site to publicize events and recruit volunteers,” writes Mark Bergin for World, a Christian magazine. “In many ways, such online organizing and activity is a picture of compassionate conservatism: privately initiated and funded opportunities to render social services.”

As it turns out, usaservice.org is being used as a platform for activity that is anything but the picture of compassionate conservatism. In the “Health & Public Safety” section of the website, there is a post for a gun “buy back” event that was presumably held in Chicago on Sunday, February 15. Bryan Garcia, host of the event, offered to pay $1,500 per gun and $6,000 for four guns. “We will prevent hundreds of people being shot from gang violence and other forms of gun violence,” writes Garcia. “The money given these anonymous gun donors has to be high, high enough to outweigh the need for gun owners...”

Obama to Seek New Assault Weapons Ban

February 27, 2009

ABC News - The Obama administration will seek to reinstate the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 during the Bush administration, Attorney General Eric Holder said today. “As President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons,” Holder told reporters.

Holder said that putting the ban back in place would not only be a positive move by the United States, it would help cut down on the flow of guns going across the border into Mexico, which is struggling with heavy violence among drug cartels along the border...