Don't Use the Budget to Set Bad Gun Policies | Commentary

In its first vote on guns since the mass shooting in Charleston, S.C., the House Appropriations Committee retained a long-standing ban on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funding for research on gun violence.

Of course, this wasn’t the first time the House used the budget process to do the National Rifle Association’s bidding. Twice this month, the House tried to handcuff the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as the agency works to prevent criminals from getting guns.

First, the House blocked an ATF proposal to close a loophole that allows criminals to buy or possess machine guns.

That’s right — machine guns. The loophole allows people to get them after they’ve formed a business entity such as a trust, through which they can avoid both the standard gun-sale background check and the required certification from local law enforcement. With “gun trust” applications skyrocketing — from fewer than 1,000 in 2000 to more than 40,000 in 2012 — the ATF is logically seeking to make the rules for buying and possessing machine guns the same for trusts as they are for individuals.

The House used a budget bill to block the ATF’s gun trust proposal — and it didn’t stop there. The House also moved to shut down an existing, effective ATF security program — one that’s helping break up gun-trafficking rings and better police the U.S.-Mexico border.

It’s called the “long-gun reporting program.” It’s modeled on a common-sense requirement, in place for 20 years, which requires licensed gun dealers to notify the ATF when someone buys multiple handguns within five business days. Such high-volume sales are typically associated with gun trafficking — not with self-protection, hunting, collecting or any other form of law-abiding gun ownership.

For two decades, the multiple-sales reporting requirement has produced “timely, actionable investigative leads” and helped the ATF identify and prosecute gun traffickers. Shotguns and rifles (or, “long guns”) were not subject to the reporting requirement until recently, when the ATF began requiring reports for certain powerful long guns bought from dealers in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas.

Why might the ATF want to continue requiring long-gun reports from dealers in the four states that border Mexico?

Because law enforcement and the border communities they protect are under attack.

Via: Roll Call

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Fanning the flames of another black church arson hoax by Michelle Malkin

America is still reeling from the horrific Charleston, S.C., massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church that claimed the lives of nine innocent people.

The last thing the community and our country need are hysterical journalists compounding the pain with inflammatory reporting on an unsubstantiated “epidemic” of black church arsons.

On Monday, a Baltimore Sun lead editorial decried “a series of mysterious fires at African-American churches across the South” in the wake of the Charleston murders. The newspaper cited a “pattern” of attacks, including what it claimed was an “uptick in attacks on 37 black churches in the South” in the 1990s that “prompted President Bill Clinton to set up a church-arson investigative task force.”

The Sun neglected to mention that Clinton had falsely claimed at the time that he had “vivid and painful memories of black churches being burned in my own state when I was a child”— an assertion immediately debunked by theArkansas Democrat-Gazette.

The Sun also neglected to mention that the manufactured media coverage that launched the 1990s black church arson juggernaut, fueled by former USA Today reporter Gary Fields’ 61 fear-mongering stories, fell apart under scrutiny. Fields’ own employer was forced to admit that “analysis of the 64 fires since 1995 shows only four can be conclusively shown to be racially motivated.”

Reminder: Several of the hyped hate crimes against black churches had been committed by black suspects; a significant number of the black churches were, in fact, white churches; and the complex motives behind the crimes included mental illness, vandalism and concealment of theft.

Once again, falsified history is repeating itself.

The NAACP, which capitalized on the Clinton-era race hustle, is now pushing the new arson epidemic narrative. The organization remains shamelessly undaunted after fueling the fake NAACP “bombing” in Colorado Springs earlier this year. The group’s CEO, Cornell Brooks, tweeted the incendiary“#WhoIsBurningBlackChurches” hashtag on Tuesday and disclosed that he is “informing churches, reviewing legislation, pushing media awareness and deciding legal options.”

Via: Michelle Malkin

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Charleston's Quieter Lessons

Last Thursday, America woke up to the horrifying news of a massacre in a historic black church. Dylann Roof, a devout racist, walked into a Bible study, listened to innocent people discuss their faith for an hour, and then shot and killed nine of them in cold blood.

Two days after the killings, Americans were shocked once again—but this time, the surprise came from the families and friends of the murdered churchgoers. One by one, gathered at Roof’s bond hearing, a group of Christians publicly forgave and prayed for a decidedly evil person who, except for a few fleeting, eye-flickering onscreen moments, seemed without a soul. 

It was the Gospel in practice. It’s not something you see every day, at least not in the fever swamps of our relentless, gurgling, insatiable media, which increasingly resemble a starving narrative monster on speed. As an ever-imperfect Christian, the forgiveness was humbling—almost shamefully so—to watch. Sadly, for some, Charleston’s transcendent moment appears to be slipping away, likely because it was so contrary, and so foreign, to our media culture at large.

From one corner, for instance, we are now told that forgiveness is a tool of oppression. “The almost reflexive demand for forgiveness, especially for those dealing with death by racism, is about protecting whiteness, and America as a whole,” wrote Stacey Patton in Monday’s Washington Post. “What white people are really asking for when they demand forgiveness from a traumatized community is absolution,” Roxanne Gay argued in Wednesday’s New York Times. “Can’t remember any campaign to ‘love’ and ‘forgive’ in the wake of ISIS beheadings,” Atlantic monthly writer Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote on Twitter. 

That last point is undoubtedly true. But here’s the problem: Prior to the church’s radical act of forgiveness, there was no large-scale “campaign” or “demand” or “narrative” that asked them to do anything of the sort. Search the news and social media leading up to that mind-blowing hearing, and you’ll come up empty. Very few, in fact, saw anything like the church’s response coming. That’s what made it so unexpected, so beautiful, and so astonishing—and, in a culture that often thrives on outrage, so disorienting.

Via: Real Clear Politics

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Step Aside, Reverend Al: The Next Generation of Race-Baiters Has Arrived

Hours after last week’s shooting in Charleston, S.C., Al Sharpton announced plans to travel to the Charleston peninsula. “The Rev” never showed. But DeRay did. 

Meet DeRay McKesson: Bowdoin ’07, a former Minneapolis-area school administrator — and now the public face of “Black Lives Matter.” Imagine Al Sharpton, circa the Crown Heights riot, with access to Twitter. That’s DeRay.

When protests began in Ferguson, Mo., McKesson was still working in Minnesota as a human-resources executive with Minneapolis public schools. He would drive to St. Louis on the weekends and tweet — incessantly. He quickly became one of the most recognizable members of the demonstrations. With fellow protester Johnetta Elzie, he launched a newsletter, This Is the Movement, that pulled in 14,000 subscribers at its peak. In March he quit his job and moved to St. Louis permanently. 

But he has not spent much time in his new hometown. New York City, Milwaukee, McKinney, Baltimore, Charleston — wherever racial tensions have appeared, McKesson has not been far behind. Such is the life of a professional protester.

And it’s not a bad life, evidently. For their “activism,” McKesson and Elzie shared the 2015 PEN New England Howard Zinn Freedom to Write Award, and the No. 11 spot on Fortune’s 2015 “World’s Greatest Leaders List.” (For context: Bill and Melinda Gates were No. 18.) 

He was invited by Hillary Clinton’s campaign to her (re)launch on Manhattan’s Roosevelt Island earlier this month. America has a long tradition of celebrity activists, but McKesson is something new — the social-media celebrity. His great coup, in the slobbering characterization of the Washington Post’s Sandhya Somashekhar, has been “unleashing tweets that are passionate and perfectly on message at all hours.”

 For example:

 

deray mckesson‏@deray

The language of respectability is a subtle, yet incredibly powerful, way that we participate in white supremacy. It will never free us.

• RETWEETS417
• FAVORITES481
• 

8:35 AM - 21 Jun 2015

Via: National Review

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O'Malley: A single life 'worth more than all the guns in the United States'

Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley may not be doing well in the polls, but he's putting in a concerted effort to make his voice heard on gun violence in the wake of the recent Charleston massacres.

"A single American life is worth more than all the guns in the United States," O'Malley said while giving a speech at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in San Francisco. "How many senseless acts of violence do we have to endure as a people before we stand up to the congressional lobbyists of the National Rifle Association? How many more Americans have to die?"

While governor of Maryland, O'Malley instituted laws banning assault weapons and high capacity gun magazines that "exist only to inflict human casualty." He also implemented strict licensing rules cracking down on the gun-permitting process, to ensure maximum safety. Because of his actions, the National Rifle Association gave O'Malley an "F rating."

O'Malley recently told supporters that his legislation passed in Maryland is just his first step for his plan for the nation. If elected, he said he wants to enforce a national assault weapons ban, stricter background checks and increase efforts to reduce straw-buying of guns.

Via: Fox News

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FBI director says Charleston shootings not an act of terrorism

Is Dylann Roof a terrorist? The killing of 9 black Americans at an historic black church in Charleston has some elements of terrorism, but, according to FBI director James Comey, does not rise to the level of "terrorism" as the bureau defines it.

Mediaite:

In the wake of the Charleston church shooting in South Carolina, two particular phrases have been used in the media to describe the attack — “hate crime” and “terrorist act.” Soon after the initial reports of the tragedy, the authorities threw both around when discussing the matter with reporters, sometimes letting their emotions get the better of them. That is, what Dylann Roof did was terrible, but until the official investigation is complete, the use of either descriptor won’t be completely accurate.

But that hasn’t stopped FBI Director James Comey from discounting the use of “terrorism” and “terrorist act” to describe Roof’s crimes. At a press conference in Baltimore on Saturday, Comey said that the agency was currently investigating whether or not Roof committed a hate crime, but not terrorism:

“Terrorism is act of violence done or threatens to in order to try to influence a public body or citizenry so it’s more of a political act and again based on what I know so more I don’t see it as a political act.”

The Bureau has a rather large and ever-evolving code of definitions for the various kinds of terrorism and terrorist acts. However, the basic definition is quite simple.

The unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof in furtherance of political or social objectives.”

Via: American Thinker

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Parishioners gather for emotional return to Charleston church

CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church threw open its doors for Sunday morning service, as heavyhearted worshipers filed into the same sanctuary where nine of their fellow parishioners were slaughtered nearly four days ago.

The organ played “Amazing Grace” as 400 seats inside historic black church were filled by worshipers who vowed that a racist gunman would not break their faith.

“I woke up at 6 a.m. and I was determined to come here. In spite of what happened, the strength still remains in our unity,” said Eva Bryant, 55, with her 10-year-old granddaughter Demiyah in tow.

“I brought my granddaughter because I want her to see all races coming together and know that just because one bad thing happens, you don’t shut yourself from the world. Being active is important and so is showing our support for the victims’ families.”

Via: New York Post

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Revealed: 'Manifesto' where killer unveils Charleston as target of church massacre, calls black people 'stupid and violent' and complains there's 'no real KKK' to help him

Charleston killer Dylann Roof apparently left a ranting, racist manifesto on the internet calling for a new civil war in America before staging his massacre in a church.

A website seemingly written by Roof not long before the killings at the Emanuel AME Church in the South Carolina city emerged Saturday, in which he pinpoints Charleston as his target because of its high proportion of blacks and bemoans that there is 'no real KKK' to help him.

The site was also stuffed full of images of Roof burning the America flag, spitting on it, posing next to Confederate landmarks and posing menacingly with a gun pointed at the camera.

Killer: A website seemingly belonging to Charleston killer Dylann Roof included this photograph of him aiming a gun at the camera, seemingly taken in his bedroom

Hate: Roof pictured himself burning the U.S. flag - he later said that he 'hates the sight' of it

Grim: The photo above shows roof spitting on the America flag while trampling it into his floor

Roof's 2,500-word rant begins with saying he was not raised racist, but came to the decision he had to act after reading about what he describes as 'black on white crime' and concluding that minorities were taking over the United States.

In the text, which he implies was written not long before the killings, he declares: 'N****rs are stupid and violent.... Black people view everything through a racial lense [sic].'

At the end of the passage, he wrote: 'I have no choice. I am not in the position to, alone, go into the ghetto and fight.

Via: Daily Mail

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O'Malley: 'I'm Pissed'

Democratic presidential candidate responds to the Charleston shooting with an email saying, "I'm pissed."

"I'm pissed that after an unthinkable tragedy like the one in South Carolina yesterday, instead of jumping to act, we sit back and wait for the appropriate moment to say what we're all thinking: that this is not the America we want to be living in," O'Malley writes.

I'm pissed that we’re actually asking ourselves the horrific question of, what will it take? How many senseless acts of violence in our streets or tragedies in our communities will it take to get our nation to stop caving to special interests like the NRA when people are dying?

I'm pissed that after working hard in the state of Maryland to pass real gun control—laws that banned high-magazine weapons, increased licensing standards, and required fingerprinting for handgun purchasers—Congress continues to drop the ball.

It's time we called this what it is: a national crisis.

I proudly hold an F rating from the NRA, and when I worked to pass gun control in Maryland, the NRA threatened me with legal action, but I never backed down.

So now, I'm doubling down, and I need your help. What we did in Maryland should be the first step of what we do as a nation. The NRA is already blaming the victims of yesterday's shooting for their own deaths, saying they too should have been armed. Let's put an end to this madness and finally stand up to them. Here are some steps we should be taking:

1. A national assault weapons ban.

2. Stricter background checks.

3. Efforts to reduce straw-buying, like fingerprint requirements.

Via: The Weekly Standard

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Obama to donors: You twits are unworthy of me

After delivering his diatribe statement on the Charleston, SC shootings, Obama jetted off to take care of the real business of the nation. He went to to a pair of Hollywood fundraisers. The first was at the home at the Pacific Palisades home of television producer Chuck Lorre (in fairness, the man did fire Charlie Sheen so he can’t be all bad). Then it was off to Beverly Hills mansion of celebrity Tyler Perry (full disclosure, I never heard of the man before today). It was at the Perry event that the good stuff happened. Obama blamed the 250 people shelling out from $2500 to $33,400 each for screwing up:

“When I ran in 2008, I in fact did not say I would fix it. I said we could fix it,” Obama told an audience of about 250 at a fundraising event here at the stately hillside home of film mogul Tyler Perry. “I didn’t say, ‘Yes, I can.’ I said, ‘Yes, we can.'”

The president continued: “If you’re dissatisfied that every few months we have a mass shooting in this country killing innocent people, then I need you to mobilize and organize a constituency that says this is not normal and we are going to change it.”

Okay. Fair enough. But if you’ve given tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars to this grifter you’d have the right to say, “I did my part, what did you do?” Now his fat cat donors have joined the rest of us in being blamed for everything that goes wrong. This is a great list of things Obama is not to blame for, unfortunately, ends in 2014:

• Obama Blames Arab Spring and Japan’s Earthquake on Struggling Economy and Job Situation, August 5th, 2011.
• Obama Blames Messy Democracy for His Failed Policies, August 3rd, 2011; remarks by the president at a DNC event.
• Obama Blames Congress for US Debt Mess; Obama news conference, June 29th, 2011.
• Obama Blames Republicans for Slow Pace on Immigration Reform, July 25th, 2011.
• Obama Blames Media for Lack of Compromise in Washington; remarks by Obama at a town hall meeting July 22nd, 2011.
• Obama Blames Technology for Struggling Economy; June 14th, 2011, NBC Today interview.
• Obama Blames Oil Spectators for High Oil Prices; April 19th, 2011, remarks by Obama at a town hall meeting.
• Obama Blames Reagan for America’s Out of Control Debt and Spending; remarks by President Obama April 13th, 2011, Federal News Service.
• Obama Blames Bush and Congress for Lack of Fiscal Discipline, April 13th, 2011; remarks by Obama, Federal News Service.
• Obama Blames Bush-Congress for Putting Off Tough Decisions, August 17th, 2010; remarks at a fundraiser for Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) 0%.
• Obama Blames Bush for Tax Cuts, Deficits; Obama town hall meeting on the economy in Racine, Wisconsin, June 30th, 2010.
• Obama Blames Bush for Deficits, June 8th, 2010; remarks by Obama at a second fundraising reception for Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) 0%.
• Obama Blames GOP for Events that Led to Gulf Oil Spill; remarks by President Obama June 3rd, 2010, Federal News Service.
• Obama Blames Republicans for America Not Being Able to Solve Problems; remarks by President Obama June 3rd, 2010, Federal News Service.
• Obama Blames Corporations for Everybody’s Problems, June 3rd, 2010, Federal News Service. He said, “If you’re a Wall Street Journal bank or an insurance company or oil company, you pretty much get to play by your own rules regardless of the consequences for everybody else.”
• Obama Blames Bush for Overall Standing of American Economy, April 19th, 2010, at a fundraising reception for Senator Boxer.
• Obama Blames Bush, Congress for Deficits, February 1, 2010, delivering remarks on the budget.
• Obama Blames Bush for Regulatory Policies; January 17th, 2010, remarks by the president at an event with attorney general Martha Coakley in Massachusetts.
• Obama Blames Bush for Overall Standing of Economy and American Standing, April 19th of 2010. Obama delivering remarks at a fundraising reception for Senator Boxer and the DNC.
• Obama Blames Bush and Congress for Deficits, February 1st, 2010, in remarks delivered on the budget.
• Obama Blames Bush for Regulatory Policies, January 17th, 2010, remarks by the president at an event with Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley.
• Obama Blames Wall Street Fat Cats for Economic Disaster, December 13th, 2009, CBS News’ 60 Minutes.
• Obama Blames Bush for Overall Economy, September 27th, 2009, remarks by the president at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual dinner.
• Obama Blames Bush for Stifling Unions, September 7th, 2009; remarks by the president at the AFL-CIO Labor Day picnic.
• Obama Blames Bush for Prescription Drug Bill; remarks by the president, health insurance reform town hall, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, August 11th, 2009.
• Obama Blames Bush for Jobs, July 22nd, 2009; news conferences by the president.
• Obama Blames Bush for Failure to Recognize Europe’s Leading Role in the World, April 3rd, 2009; remarks by President Obama at a Strasbourg [France] town hall, and in those remarks he said this: “So we must be honest with ourselves. In recent years we’ve allowed our alliance to drift. I know that there have been honest disagreements over policy, but we also know that there’s something more that has crept into our relationship.” “In America there’s a failure to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world, instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive of you.” That’s Barack Obama, speaking in Europe at Strasbourg, blaming Bush for a failure to recognize Europe’s leading role in the world, April 3rd, 2009.
• Obama Blames Bush for Deficits, February 23rd, 2009; Obama delivering opening remarks at fiscal responsibility summit.
• Candidate Obama Blames Fox News for his Elitist Label, New York Times, October 2008.
• Candidate Obama Blames Fox News for Likely Loss in Kentucky Primary, May 2008.
• Candidate Obama Blames Washington for High Gas Prices, April 25th, 2008; remarks of Senator Barack Obama, press availability on energy plan, 25 April 2008.

With those words ringing in their ears, the Lightworker hopped in his motorcade to continue taking care of the nation’s business:

Obama arrived here Thursday afternoon to kick off a four-day California trip during which he will attend four Democratic fundraisers in Los Angeles and San Francisco, speak to the U.S. Conference of Mayors and play golf in Palm Springs.

Via: Red State

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Black activists fear ‘race war’ amid Charleston shooting

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Black community activists raised alarms Thursday about the mass murder at the historic black church potentially sparking race riots in Charleston, South Carolina.

“We don’t need any more bloodshed and we don’t need a race war,” pleaded J. Denise Cromwell, a black community activists. “Charleston has a lot of racial tension. … We’re drowning and someone is pouring water over us.”

Ms. Cromwell said that nerves were still raw from the fatal shooting two months ago of a black man, Walter Scott, by a white police officer in neighboring North Charleston, which ignited major protests.

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SEE ALSO: Obama calls for gun control in wake of ‘senseless’ S.C. church murders

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Black activist Michelle Felder, 58, said she feared the city’s young people “aren’t thinking” and might seek revenge, an emotional reaction that she said she understood but was mature enough to resist.

“This is 2015 and we are still going through the same things we went through 50 years ago,” she said. “This is so sickening. We are so tired.”

Religious and political leaders have repeatedly called for calm since the shooting Wednesday night.

Via: Washington Times

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Nation’s only black Senator not invited to speak at March on Washington

Noticeably absent from the speaker line-up at the Let Freedom Ring event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington today: the nation’s only black Senator, Tim Scott.

Scott, a Republican Representative appointed by S.C. Governor Nikki Haley earlier this year to fill former Sen. Jim DeMint’s seat in the U.S. Senate after he retired, was not invited to participate in the historic event, a spokesperson for the Senator confirmed to Red Alert Politics in an email.

African-American leaders who did receive an invitation to speak at included Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) – who participated in the original March – Martin Luther King III, MSNBC host Al Sharpton and movie stars Jamie Foxx, Oprah Winfrey and Forest Whitaker.

Via: Red Alert Politics

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