Wednesday, February 06, 2013

Flypaper Laws

The Nathan Haddad case in New York State is a perfect example of what the Obama administration wants for America:
Nathan Haddad, a decorated combat veteran, was arrested earlier this month in New York for possessing unloaded 30-round magazines. Mr. Haddad, who has been recognized by the Army for his selfless acts of generosity to fellow soldiers, was charged with five felony counts of possession of “high-capacity” magazines.
Read the whole thing. The Cliff Notes version is that Haddad, who certainly meets my criteria as an American hero, is facing 5 Class D Violent Felony charges for possessing boxes with springs in them. Think about that...technically, he could face up to 35 years in prison, more than twice as much as a murderer, according to the WeaponsMan blog.

THIS IS THE WORLD THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION WANTS FOR ALL OF US!

Now compare this to David Gregory-gate, where the NBC star "journalist" — and I certainly use that word reservedly — clearly possessed a standard capacity AR magazine, illegal to possess in D.C., in front of millions of witnesses and got a free pass. Consider the wording of the D.C. Attorney General's ruling:
OAG has made this determination, despite the clarity of the violation of this important law, because under all of the circumstances here a prosecution would not promote public safety in the District of Columbia nor serve the best interests of the people of the District to whom this office owes its trust.
What do these 2 actions tell us? Try this:

They don't hate guns; they hate us. Why is this an important distinction? Well, our operating theory for literally decades has been that support for nonsensical "gun control" was rooted in ignorance, that the people calling for such things as "assault weapons" ban, magazine capacity caps, closing the "gun show loophole" simply didn't understand that real assault weapons have been rigidly controlled since 1934, that magazine capacity bans are less than worthless, that there is no gun show loophole, that the massive bureaucracy of the Brady Check system generates fewer arrests than a prostitution sting in a monastery, etc., and once we educated those people they'd come around to our arguments.

How well has that worked for us? I say that as the creator and administrator of one of the most "successful" media education programs ever launched by the industry. I say that as a person who has spent 10 years in television educating people about guns. I say that as a person who has reached out to the MSM, to Hollywood, to politicians.

When the chips are down, the very people we've "educated" — people who undeniably know the facts — immediately return to the same trope...black rifles bad, "assault magazines," the necessity of enhanced background checks, national gun registration...

I will give you that some people on the antigun side are indeed ignorant of the facts (whether through sloth or intentionally ignoring them I can't comment on).  But the "drivers" of this antigun bus, the Obamas, the Fiensteins, the Bradys, the VPC, fully understand the facts, fully understand that nothing they've suggested will have any effect on the crimes they cite as the necessity for this legislation, fully understand the misrepresentations about "assault weapons" and all the rest. They know gun control doesn't work. They know their proposed legislation will lead to creating a huge new class of criminals who were previously considered law abiding citizens.

So why are they doing this?

I am reminded of something the late Ed Koch said when he was mayor of NYC, defending that city's draconian gun laws, something to the effect that the laws were aimed not at the criminal — who, by definition, didn't obey laws — but at the small storekeeper who kept a gun under the counter for self-defense. I always thought that was an amazing statement...of course criminals don't obey laws! That's why we call them law-breakers! But we're coming for you, Mr. Storekeeper...because we hate you.

We hate you because you think you have the right, indeed, the responsibility to take care of yourself, and we think that the use of violence of any kind is the exclusive province of the state. Let's look at England today, where once the guns were gone the supposed "right" of self-defense similarly vanished (the case in most of Europe)...use of violence is the exclusive province of the state. Now, how has that worked out in modern times? Oh yeah, the criminals still have the guns, because, as you bloody well know, they're criminals!

IMHO the intent of all this legislation is (and has always been) to create flypaper for gun owners, to create a landscape where it is nearly impossible not to violate a firearms law. To create an environment where exercising one's Second Amendment rights becomes so scary, so fraught with danger that the next generation of gun owners simply gives it up. By the time the inevitable confiscation comes, there will be a lot fewer guns to confiscate.

That's why a D.C. Attorney General will say no harm, no foul to a member of the ruling elite for violating a flypaper law, but a N.Y. prosecuting attorney can say, apparently with a straight face, it’s her job to "prosecute those cases that run amok of the law."

Fractured English aside, it's the law itself that has run amok.




18 comments:

bgary said...

Spot on.

And I'd add that a clear part of their strategy is to make the web of "flypaper" so complicated and convoluted that even a conscious, proactive person cannot help but be in violation of *something*.

...because then, if you can convict that law-abiding person of an esoteric firearms violation, you can nix that person's ability to possess firearms at all. And the circle is complete. Bit by bit, they're laying the groundwork to get us all.

Because they hate us.

Unknown said...

just a note from a news outlet.

"According to Jefferson County Sheriff’s office sources, Mr. Haddad was in the parking lot of a closed business at 7:30 p.m. when an officer asked him what he was doing. The police allege that the Fort Drum civilian employee said that he was meeting someone to sell the AR-15 style rifle magazines. A police source also said that the magazines were stamped with the words “Restricted. For military use only.”

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/guns/2013/feb/1/miller-ny-vet-arrested-30-round-magazines-part-1/#ixzz2K9GSogl5

If they are stamped "restricted for military use only". Then there is an issue. Right?
sincerely
Mark

Michael Bane said...

No, there isn't. My understanding is that those markings DO NOT carry force of law.

mb

TheMinuteman said...

I've got piles of equipment that's stamped LE/Military use only.

As MB said, no force of law is behind them.

NY however does have a 10 round capacity limit, which has just been upped. Odds are those mags are not pre-ban and cannot be grandfathered under the previous law. (If there's a grandfather clause in the original mag ban.)

Not that it would matter since the SAFE act will be active here soon. No grandfathering and a tighter mag limit.

His mistake was offering information like that to the police. What are you doing? Meeting up with a friend.

nj larry said...

Countries can go insane. Think Germany 1933. Pure freaking nuts. This nation is acting very strange. If it was a person, they would be in their pajamas in the middle of the nite baying at the moon. Nothing, absolutely nothing surprises me today. This is not the nation I grew up in. It will not shock me if they in fact pull an Australia or UK and simply outlaw all guns.

Anonymous said...

Today, we also heard that Colorado was proposing that ALL gun owners be forced to buy liability insurance. That tactic isn't designed to protect anyone, it's designed to make gun ownership so expensive that no one will be able to buy a gun. When it is mandatory to buy anything, the price goes up! Look at Obama-Care. And, both plans solve nothing!

We also heard that another state, I think it was Kahleefornee-ah, is proposing that gun makers be held responsible for gun crimes and injuries. You remember the nuisance-lawsuit strategy designed to break the gun industry? It's baaaaack. Never mind that gun safety is among the highest in the world, with an estimated 300-million US guns and an injury and murder rate that is a fraction of a percent of that population. We should be making gun ownership mandatory!

Life Member

Steve said...

I could not agree more. Defeat first, persuade later.

alanstorm said...

Let me see -

Rifles are used in an insignificant number of crimes, you those are the items they want to ban.

Semi-auto pistols, which are the weapon of choice for most crimes, and are not especially combat weapons? Not a problem, apparently.

Shotguns? useful for home defense but not GENERALLY a combat weapon? No problem.

They want to ban the one item that might give an individual (or group) a chance against "official" force.

I used to worry that I was getting paranoid. Now I'm concerned that I'm not paranoid enough.

Sadltrmp said...

To create an environment where exercising one's Second Amendment rights becomes so scary, so fraught with danger that the next generation of gun owners simply gives it up.
This Michael is where you hit the nail squarely on the head!
For those of us reading this, many of us will fight the good fight, or we'll simply outlast the bastards for now, but it's our kids and grandkids who will suffer.
They attend schools where any mention of guns is bad, they live in a society that portrays gun owners as marginal individuals with criminal leanings or mental instabilities. They are learning that the state is their parent/guardian ie: Chris Rock "Obama is our boss and Dad of our country"
It is for the succeeding generations that we should weep, for they are doomed to a future of slavery to the state if things keep going as they are.
We will hold them off for now, but they are making little steps forward all the time towards a tyranny that I fear the succeeding generations will never see until it's too late.
I for one will keep telling my grandsons about the great things this country can do and has done and hopefully there will be a core of patriots in the next 50 or 75 years who will keep America alive!

Anonymous said...

OK, Michael, I agree that the anti-gunners do understand (for the most part) what we've been saying about guns, and choose to ignore it because, as you correctly identified, they hate us.

So, having identified the problem, what do we do about it? If the issue is hatred toward us and what we stand for on the part of anti-gun people, the solution is not education, it is not conversation.

What is it?

Schaffer said...

Great column! Reminds me of one of my favorite Ayn Rand quotes: "There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible to live without breaking laws."

Trapped in new york said...

Mb
Perhaps we the gun owning residence of New York should clam political refugee status and ask for asylum in Texas or florida

Anonymous said...

Mb
Perhaps we the gun owning residence of New York should clam political refugee status and ask for asylum in Texas or florida

Edited Version

MB,

Perhaps we, the gun owning residents of New York, should claim political refugee status and ask for asylum in Texas or Florida.

Anonymous said...

The US Govt tried to prevent India from developing an atomic bomb.
FAIL
The US Govt tried to prevent Pakistan from developing an atomic bomb.
FAIL
The US Govt has tried to stop 3 generations of North Korean Leaders from pursuing nuclear weapons.
FAIL
The US Govt has tried for 20+ years to stop Iran from pursuing nuclear arms.
FAIL
In a world that can not control nuclear weapons the idea that fire arms can be "controlled" requires a special sort of idiocy.
Tom Bogan

Anonymous said...

Michael,

Special attention needs to be paid to the comments on the DRTV Forum titled "NRA Responses". We look to you to carry this back to Mr. La Pierre, with the proper discretion. Many of us feel this way and if we don't correct the deficiency, we will lose the confidence of our membership and prospective new members. We will also lose the confidence of those in the general public that currently support the NRA. WE WILL ALSO LOSE OUR BATTLE!

Life Member, as in NRA Life Member

Anonymous said...

A few observations:

1) Just because there's no force of law behind magazines stamped "for LE/Military use only" doesn't mean they can't make it so - which is why I've avoided all such items like the plague.

2) The "flypaper law" strategy DOES seem to be the direction their heading, as their attack is being waged on multiple fronts.

3) Our once'great nation IS truly going insane - throwing itself on the alter of political correctness.
Trotsky would be proud.

4) No, AlanStorm, you are nowhere near paranoid enough. They are coming to get you - after they get your guns.

5) We have only ourselves to blame for what our kids & grandkids will face - for we've allowed them to be indoctrinated for decades by 60s radicals who are now in control of gov't at most every level.
If the fact that a child cannot draw a picture of a gun, or throw an "imaginary" hand grenade into an "imaginary" box wherein resides the "imaginary" forces of evil while playing a super hero game called Save the World at recess - then we have long since slipped through the looking glass.

6) "They" have no interest in facts, statistics, reason or a "common sense" solution. They want us to disappear - and are working on a variety of fronts to control us until we do - and he next generation, re-educated to their way of thinking will be far more compliant.

7) Oh, yes. They hate us. Their cries of death to our spokesmen go ignored in the MSM - while ANY hint of aggression on our part is magnified 100 fold. And while Haddad faces 35 yrs - David Gregory continues to collect his hefty NBC salary, and all the prestige that goes with it.

We are at war - let there be no doubt. We don't dare start CW2 - yet we can't afford to give any quarter either. We must be at DefCon One for the foreseeable future - and beyond.

But most of all, we MUST stop the niggling little arguments among ourselves. No good can come of them. We need to present a united front. Whether it's LaPierre or Dudley Brown - ALL of them have disappointed me at one time or another. And will continue to do so. No one can please everyone, and if you're waiting for someone who can, then we'll all be dead and buried before that ever occurs. So get over it, put it aside, and STAND TO - FOR THE BATTLE IS JOINED.

And if you're not part of the solution - then you're only one more portion of the problem. And we have enough already.

~ Gunny

Motor-T said...

“There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with.”

― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

Henry said...

"But the "drivers" of this antigun bus, the Obamas, the Fiensteins..."

Remember: I before E, except after ✡. :-)