In my time as a gun store clerk, I would have gotten a ten-year sentence in Club Fed for knowingly letting a gun walk out of the door in the hands of a felon.
The ATF clowns in charge of “Operation Fast and Furious” let thousands of guns walk out of the door in the hands of known felons…and what’s their punishment?
They get reassigned…to a different division. Not only do they not have to eat expired hot dogs or take care not to drop the soap in the shower, they get to keep their government salaries and bennies. The same people who would jack Joe Citizen up and send him to jail for a few years for having the wrong piece of metal on the muzzle of his rifle do not have to suffer any serious consequences for letting felons walk off with weapons that were then used to kill a bunch of people.
Some animals are indeed more equal than others.
“got physically sick during questioning and could not finish his session.”
Pics or it didn’t happen.
Four legs good…
“In my time as a gun store clerk, I would have gotten a ten-year sentence in Club Fed for knowingly letting a gun walk out of the door in the hands of a felon.”
Better yet, a lot of these guns “walked” after gun store clerks had called the BATFEIEIO and reported the sales as suspect and were told by teh feds to just let ‘em buy the guns.
…and no doubt the BATFE will shortly start raiding them due to their history of selling guns to straw purchasers and smugglers…
The only reassignment Melson and company deserve are posts at the Federal Department of Turning Big Rocks into Little Rocks.
The sad thing is we all know nothing will happen to them.
Heck, I don’t even own a pitchfork…but I do have a couple of tiki torches out in the shed…
It will be very sad if this is where the story ends and is forgotten. Crimes by those in positions of trust are the most vile. If there are no consequences, it will only get worse in the future. That is an America I would fear to live in.
Unfortunately, this is nothing new. There is a documented case of the BATF planning, staging and executing a raid on a house at 2AM to “maximize the disorientation” of the suspect, showing up in ninjas, not identifying themselves then shooting shooting their victim in her bed when she pulled her piece in self defense.
The entire operation was planned and executed against the wrong house. No one was disciplined, even by letter of reprimand, and BATF argued that they should not be responsible for her medical bills. The agents were back on duty within 12 hours.
Over the last year, I’ve had persistent flashbacks to the 1980s USSR…though 1990s USSR might be even more similar shortly. USG no longer even pays lip service to the rule of law and it’s been interesting to watch the disappearance of national pride among those who had it just recently.
How long would these blogs have stayed up on a hypothetical Brezhnev-era internet?
Point taken, but how many times have they floated the idea of an “off switch” for the internet since the www became widespread?
My point being that, while everything isn’t sunshine and roses, we’ve got a ways yet to go before people are getting their fingernails ripped out in the basement of the Lubyanka.
Hyperbole works with some crowds, I guess, but it bugs me to no end.
You show me the Диссиденты that could say the shit I say every day to thousands of people and stay out of jail. And who could say it with a pistol on his hip.
One gun sold to a felon is a tragedy. Thousands? Meh, that’s just a statistic.
(Where have I heard something like this before…)
Tam’s right, we have a ways to go before people start disappearing.
Two things:
1. When I was in Law School waaaaay back in the Clinton administration, there were some flaming leftists in my class who were convinced we were a heartbeat away from that happening — in 1995! God only knows which beds they hid under for the 8 years of Bush.
2. Clayton Cramer told a story about a co-worker of his during the 70′s who was a worker in Germany in 1944. This co-worker said something that sounded kind of sort of like “we can’t win this war”, so the Gestapo took him into “protective custody”. If not for his important function at the factory he worked at, for which his boss was able to get him sprung, this story would not have been told.
I still don’t see people — anywhere– fearful for what they say. Not the frothing-mouthed leftists during the “Cheney” administration, nor the people today who accuse Obama of being a secret communist.
We can still speak our mind, and vote for who we want for all the good that does us. Doesn’t mean we are free citizens of a Republic though. tyranny comes in more than one form. The fact that we don’t have gulags, or guys in spiffy gray uniforms, or jackboots, or in black leather coats saying papers please doesn’t mean squat to me. Are we more free than the folks behind the late iron curtain? Sure. So what. There is one rule for them, and another for us. What would you guys call that?
I’ll tell you what it means, Dave: It means you’d better frickin’ do something about it other than pissing and moaning on the internets before we do have people getting their fingernails torn out in the basement of the Lubyanka.
Quick: Without using any study aids, name your county commissioners. Thought so.
How come all the people who piss the loudest about voting not solving anything so very rarely actually try it?
You deserve everything you get. And so do I.
I’m personally getting active in my local Republican Party here in Cheyenne.
This has to be one of the reddist of the Red States, and yet they can’t get enough folks to hold down precinct posts. I sent the county chair an email offering to help out with phones and door to door stuff, and he nearly yanked my arm off inviting me to their next meeting and their big shindig coming up.
Yer right, Tam, people bitch about the .gov, but they don’t want to do squat about it but moan and buy ammo.
Government belongs to those who actually show up and work the damned levers.
I vote in every election Tam, I speak my mind too, I’ve also written my representives and recieved nice form letters in return.
Pointing out the obvious fact that it doesn’t seem to help much doesn’t mean that I don’t participate.
Ever attend a committee meeting? Support the nomination of a pro-freedom candidate by actually calling folks or going door to door?
Or even put up a yard sign?
Though I may sound at times like a guy in a bunker surrounded by spam cans of ammo and mre’s, I assure you I am not. Would a chronological history of my political activity dating back to my time as a young true believer water carrier for the GOP during and after the Reagan years from my apathetic it is a waste of time period back to today be necessary every time I state my opinion on the fix we are in?
Outisde of gun rights, where have we done more than fight a holding action lately? What of all your political activities has changed the fact that we are outnumbered by people who are going to vote for the guy that promises more of their favorite slice of government cheese?
Hey I know it isn’t a nice message to hear, but I’m of the opinion we aren’t going to be able to vote our way out of this. Tell me I’m wrong. I wish I was.
Representatives. Agh. I hate typos.
As for the fingernails torn out in the basement stuff, I figure the endgame for us is more like the road the U.K. is on today than things that went on on the Communist side of the iron curtain. Holding that or some similar outcome at bay is about the best thing we can do at the moment. There are too many people willing to vote for politicians like Obama to turn things around to what I’d consider an acceptable state of affairs.