Gunwalker: What Will Happen When Ken Melson Testifies?
John Solomon of the Daily Beast has revealed that the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Ken Melson, has cut a deal to testify in front of Congress about his role in Gunwalker:
The head of the embattled federal agency that combats gun trafficking has agreed to talk with Senate investigators, a potentially important breakthrough as Congress tries to determine whether higher-ups in the Obama administration knew about a controversial sting that let assault weapons flow across the border into Mexico’s drug wars.
The testimony — expected next month from Kenneth Melson, the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — was brokered as part of a deal between Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and the committee’s top Republican, Iowa’s Charles Grassley. Grassley and his fellow Republicans were given full access to ATF documents, Melson, and other key witnesses; and in return, Grassley agreed to release three Obama administration nominees he had been blocking, according to correspondence obtained by Newsweek and The Daily Beast.
Reading this, it sounds like Senator Leahy acquired the access and information that Senator Grassley wanted to obtain, and then “negotiated” with Grassley a quid pro quo whereby Grassley traded his hold for Melson’s testimony, that of other key witnesses, and ATF documentation about Gunwalker.
Acting Director Melson had come under pressure to resign since the Committee on House Oversight and Government Reform, led by Rep. Darrell Issa, revealed three emails on June 15 showing Melson was intimately involved with the program. There was every expectation that Melson would be forced to resign by the Obama administration — it came as a surprise to many when the acting director stated that he refused to be a “fall guy.”
Melson will instead apparently testify in July about what he knows of the program of which he was “intimately familiar,” according to Issa. If Melson does testify as Solomon reports, several possible scenarios could play out:
1. Melson takes the fall.
While the Los Angeles Times reported that Melson didn’t want to take the fall for his superiors in the Obama administration, there still will be considerable pressure upon him to take the blame for the operation. There is a chance that he will use his time in front of Congress to either stonewall the investigation or to accept responsibility for having initiated and run Gunwalker.
If Melson was going to fall on his proverbial sword and take the blame for the operation, however, he had ample time to do so over the past two weeks. This is the least likely scenario.
2. Melson implicates Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer. Breuer takes the fall.
While the details of Operation Fast and Furious are still murky, it was to be run with the knowledge of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, run by Lanny Breuer. Breuer personally authorized a wiretap that was part of Gunwalker, and may have been responsible for blocking an ATF request to inform the Mexican government about the estimated 2,000 guns the operation let into their country. Breuer is no stranger to scandalous behavior, having represented President Bill Clinton during his impeachment and Sandy Berger after Berger stole classified documents from the National Archives.
Based upon what is known now about Gunwalker and Breuer’s loyalty to the Democratic Party, this appears to be the most likely scenario.
3. Breuer isn’t the highest link in the chain: Melson implicates Attorney General Eric Holder.
Chairman Issa states that AG Holder “absolutely” knew about Gunwalker earlier than he testified that he did, and if Issa has the evidence to prove that the attorney general is part of a cover-up, then there is every reason to suspect Holder will be forced to resign, or will face impeachment.
This is a far more likely scenario than many think.
4. Collateral damage.
There is the distinct possibility that Lanny Breuer and Eric Holder are not the only administration officials that run the risk of going down as a result of their roles in Gunwalker and its cover-up. While ATF and their parent organization the Department of Justice were ultimately responsible for the operation, other executive branch departments were involved.
The Department of Homeland Security played a role in Gunwalker, and DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano would possibly be kept abreast of Gunwalker since she was both the former governor of Arizona and the state’s attorney general from 1999-2002. Lesser-ranking figures within DHS and other agencies were certainly involved, but Napolitano is the cabinet-level official other than Eric Holder who would have most likely known about Gunwalker.
5. And they all fall down.
The least likely scenario is the most dramatic and explosive. There is the possibility that testimony from any of the above actors in this deadly drama could point directly to the Obama administration itself.
It is highly unlikely that the president would have known about the details of the operation unless it originated as one of his ideas. While this sort of devious plot is consistent with his policy goals — and his history of unethical gun control scheming is duly documented — layers of plausible deniability shield presidents from impeachment even if they are involved. It would take the figurative smoking gun — or perhaps a literal one, with Obama’s fingerprints on it — to acquire enough evidence to impeach the president.
In the unlikely scenario that the White House is implicated at all, a White House staffer would likely admit to being briefed about the generalities of the operation but not the specifics, similar to the way Congressman Issa was briefed that there was an ATF operation, but not that the ATF was effectively “walking” guns to the cartels.
We’ll know in several weeks if one of these scenarios comes to pass, or if something unexpected occurs to change the equation entirely.
One thing will not change: Hundreds have died as a result of a dangerous and illegal operation that occurred on President Obama’s watch, and someone is going to have to pay the price.
He’s not gonna talk.
We are already in the Soviet Union of America.
You don’t talk when the administration that you would put in troubles with your words is the puppet of SSoros, of the islamic supremacists, of a world wide web of internationalist subversives.
There is no witness protection program powerful enough.
He could be a patriot…
I doubt it…
Maybe you talk enough to look plausible but not enough to do serious damage. You might implicate yourself in the process, but that’s what presidential pardons are for.
True. But unless Melson has been sitting in a cave for the last 29 months (perhaps mumbling to himself about how much he hates guns, their owners, the 2nd Amendment, etc.), he has probably figured out that any promise made by The One has an expiration date of about thirty seconds after he makes it.
Except for the ones which expire thirty seconds BEFORE he makes them.
Therefore, Melson’s “deal” may be just what it appears to be; he tells all in exchange for a guarantee of immunity. Which will be something of a watershed in BATFE’s history. The only thing comparable that comes to my mind is when Joe Valachi testified in front of Congress regarding the Mafia, thereby pretty much hanging “Charley Lucky” Luciano and “Don” Vito Genovese in the process. (See “The Valachi Papers” by Peter Maas.)
I think it likely that Melson is at least familiar enough with Machiavelli to remember his aphorism, “trust not in the gratitude of princes”.
cheers
eon
He doesn’t come off as a Patriot but as a weasel he may snitch the whole bunch out. Some people take offense to forced suicide. Let’s hope. I’d sure like to see Janet N. have to walk the plank.
I really really wish you were wrong Sherab, but we all know that you are right. It is sickening how this administration can do anything and nothing is done about it.
As the Obama regime cannot some how implicate the former white house occupants, who is going to own this one? or who gets thrown under the bus?
Seriously, you are supposedly “john from cinncinatti” and you can’t even spell the name of your city correctly? Unless there is a Cinncinatti somewhere no one knows about…
Collateral damage. Definitely.
If he tells the truth, there will be collateral damage – if he lies it will be at least as bad.
Greetings:
Shouldn’t that be “Whom will he implicate?” ?
Back in Catholic school, the good Sisters taught us to reverse the sentence to “He will implicate whom?” to check the subjective/objective coherenece.
Some will disparage those who bring to notice errors in spelling and grammer. I salute you. Poor English is another sign of the deterioration of standards, of the dumbing down of America. I find errors in the NYT, which is hardly surprising, but also in the Wall Street Journal. Perhaps both are the productt of the Eastern educational establishment.
That would be grammAR, not grammER.
Yes, it’s not “grammer”; I’m “Tom”‘s neighbor, he told me that, he wondered if any one would notice, . . .
“coherenece”?
Sister, whack his pee-pee.
Heh. Wonder how many people remember “Baliff, whack his pee-pee”?
Frank Zappa, circa 1968…
Funny, I never got that who/whom thing. I would have used “who”
Well, maybe Catholic schools teach grammar a bit differently. However, out in Colorado in junior high English, I was taught that “whom” is an indirect object as in “to whom” or “for whom” and the object of a preposition as in “by whom”. In other words, “whom” is always an object and never a subject. Who will be implicated ['who' is the subject of the sentence, not an object]. He will be. To whom will the subpoena be issued? Who do you think? Melson, of course.
Greetings:
I don’t think that we disagree or, if we do, not that much.
The difficulty in the original sentence’s construction arises from the switch of the more usual “subject, verb, object” order. The location of “Who” at the beginning of the sentence provides the slippery slope that leads to its confusion as the “subject”, when in actuality, it is the “object”, hence requiring the objective case “whom”. Thus, the test reconstruct which follows the “subject, verb, object” order removing the slippery slope and revealing the true “object” and the true “subject”.
There’s another practical thing these sticklers taught us, or at least “our” nuns did: when in doubt and lacking a grammar at hand, just change the construction to one that you *are* confident of. The author or editor could have chosen JeepGuy’s “Who will be implicated” as part of the slug. But (MO) their slightly more formal choice does seem to be a better match with the overall tone of the article…another thing our nuns were sticklers about. But such punctiliousness always had a purpose–*meaning*–and was never unkind. We always knew that with all their hearts, they simply wanted *all* of us to succeed…sigh…a kinder, gentler time for sure, stern looks and the occasional ruler notwithstanding. One can only hope the majority of students these days still have the benefit of such selflessness.
About whom. It is always an object. In the sentence – who will be implicated, who is the subject of a PASSIVE sentence.
The sentence “Who will be implicated?” is entirely different from the sentence “Whom will he implicate?” In the title of this blog entry, the second is correct.
Now look what you’ve done, you’ve forgotten the first commandment of blog commenting: Thou shall not flirt with Muphry’s Law: “an adage that states that “if you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written”. The name is a deliberate misspelling of Murphy’s law.” [From the Wiki]
This not only will gain no traction, the Run Interference Media will do everything in their power to destroy this story and provide cover fire for the small c government with whom they are not only in bed, but for whom they are paid concubines.
Melson will not implicate anyone because he would become a lightning rod for the Run Interference crowd, they will uncover every grain of sand trying to beat him to a pulp. The amount of honor and integrity it would take to face that down…would have to come from someone who wouldn’t have been involved in this dirty mess in the first place, most likely.
No, Bob…the tradeoff was Leahy allows some other minor leaguers to take the fall, the story gets a “little” traction…but goes NOWHERE near the top echelons….and in exchange for the tiny blip, a week of bad press…three more nominees get their wings.
Melson gets rewarded with a cushy job someplace for not taking down the small c power base and the story gets buried.
Melson can’t help but notice what happened to Christopher Coates. The small c elements in the DOJ don’t take kindly to honest whistleblowers.
Please pardon the cynicism, but it is well earned. Why would the Republicans have to “trade out” to get what should come for free? The truth. If we are bartering for honesty at the hands of the small c leftists…we have already lost.
What kind of honesty is brought about by the barter system? If we pay more, can we get more? What is the price of the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Van Jones as a Supreme Court Justice? Bill Ayers as Secretary of Defense? Michael Moore in charge of Homeland Security? Michael Mann in charge of Energy Policy? Janeane Garafolo in charge of Net Neutrality and Fairness Doctrine?
What is the price of our sacred honor?
CF:
You are absolutely correct that it is a sad state of affairs that we have to “trade” something in order to investigate and gain testimony. Issa has subpoena power and does not have to “trade” for anything.
You have hit it square on the head. . . . again the oblammo crew gets what it wants from the repugs at very little cost, helped along by the rat-bastard whores (Concubines is too kind a term) of the MSM. . . . there is no honor in politics.
The fact that Far Left Senator Leahy–as far as I can see a committed Obama supporter*– brokered a deal tells means that it is very unlikely that Holder, much less Obama, will be endangered by any of the testimony that we will hear.
* I am still amazed at how little publicity there was and is, and how little memory of the pre-Presidential election work of Obama, Leahy, Claire McCaskel, Hillary Clinton, JIm Webb, and Tom Cobun to “prepare the battle space” on the issue of Obama’s eligibility under the Constitution’s “natural born citizen” requirement was done, when McCaskel introduced, Obama, Leahy, Clinton, Webb, and Coburn (it was “bipartisan”, don’t ya know) co-sponsored, and Leahy fast tracked S. Res. 511 out of the Senate Judiciary Committee and on to a very quick voice vote by acclamation–the Resolution read April 10, reported out with no hearing or amendments Apr 24, voted on Apr 30, 2008–affirming the Sense of the Senate that Senator McCain, although born on a U.S. military base in the Panama Canal, was a “natural born citizen” and, thus, eligible to run for and to become President. Actions which lead to a legislative history for this Senate Resolution that saw comments on/debate about/legal analysis of this requirement that might benefit Obama, if the issue ever came up in the Senate, being included in that Record.
The Canal Zone was U.S. soil until Carter gave it away. It was not just another military base.
Well, who would have thought that a minor break in at the Watergate Hotel would lead to the resignation of a president? Here you have something much worse. You have an operation that was literally responsible for the death of an American border patrol agent plus God knows how many Mexicans. Big things sometimes grow from little acorns. Holder is definitely going down, maybe even Napolitano. Can’t wait to hear what Melson has to say.
Yep. Conservatives and honest journalists will keep picking at this thing until it unravels.
Hope you guys are right, but I’d bet Holder and the whole lot of them walk.
Albeit, Melson will need lots of coaching on how to obfuscate and tell half truths and out and out lies, but I don’t see a problem as he has the very best corrupt advisors of any administration in U.S. history.
I think he’ll do just fine. And if that doesn’t work just bury it on page 91 and 58 of the NTY and WP and don’t even talk about it on any MSM media.
Next
It is unlikely the NYT or the WP will ever again have a page 98.
Very unlikely. First of all, Watergate was investigated by Congress because of principled support for the investigation from the GOP. The very notion of Democrats with principles doesn’t even pass the laugh test; as demonstrated by “Leaky” Leahy, there are no principles in the modern Democrat party. They are as vile a collection of cynical and opportunistic politicians as has ever existed.
So when the Obama administration closes ranks and makes its threats to anyone daring to tell the truth, the GOP in the Senate will be unable to accomplish a thing because of the obstruction of the Senate Democrats. The only possible outcome is to vote out more Democrats from the Senate and then begin the investigations again. Ideally, GOP administration in 2013 would start criminal proceedings against the Democrats who participated in this lawless behavior, but that also doesn’t pass the laugh test.
Might not be saying too much if he happens to walk by a polling area and runs into one of Eric Holders’s friends with a night stick in his hand. Stranger things have happened.
I hope he has teh guts to man up, but let’s not forget he’s an anti-gunner. I haven’t met any that weren’t spineless. They’d rather rely on the police in times of trouble in which case they may lose some family members or friends. I care about the collateral damage but not them per se.
You failed to mention the Vince Foster scenario wherein Melson, out of remorse for the lives lost, “commits suicide” before he has a chance to testify. Then the whole thing goes away because he was the ONLY person on earth that had all the information on the operation needed to run a complete investigation.
Leahy is “lucy with the football”. They know how to play this game and run out the clock. This will all go away long before the next election and Leahy knows it. His job is to clear the deck. Grassley willingly agreed to release the only leverage he had, (same old, same old!!) and yes, I’m guessing Melson will become very despondant…maybe to the point of taking his own life. I can only hope this does not happen. But watch this carefully because this should have never become this public. We will see how the o’bama machine may or may not imitate Putin in the rebuffing of criticism that rises to the level of treason and certainly impeachment. This will be a great sequence of events to monitor!!!
Walt, I share your concern. It makes me nervous as heck that the hearing with Melson is scheduled for several weeks from now. I wish to goodness it were TOMORROW — so that Don Corleone-Obama wouldn’t have as much time for his thugs to “work him over.”
If Holder is named, can he be sued by the families of the Mexicans he ultimately caused to be gunned down? Will there be pressure to extradite him to Mexico as there was to extradite US Special Force soldiers to, and criminally try them in, Italy for war crimes?
I doubt it.
Who will Melson implicate? The short answer: no one. He’ll fall on his bureaucratic cardboard sword. Anyone want to bet a hundred on that?
No!
The Washington ComPost has been trying to lay the blame at the feet of the NRA and Conservatives of late. I guess this “program” was what Team 44 was referring to when they bragged about working “gun control under the radar”. The shredders are probably working OT at DOJ and I doubt anyone above Melson will pay any price regardless of the blood on their hands.
You forgot scenario number 6: Melson goes before the committee and gives the usual obfuscating, soft-shoe BS. By the time the Republicans figure out they were snowed, the President’s appointments are approved and the Republicans are suckered again.
Remind me again, how much spending was cut in that last budget “deal”? (or, how many times does Lucy have to yank the football before the Republicans figure out the pattern?)
Two “least likely scenarios” were listed: that Melson would go down alone, or that he would take the whole rotten administration with him. So which is it?
Personally, I’m hoping that he at least takes down Eric Holder, and possibly Janet Cow-Eyes.
Let’s hope Issa can keep Melson alive long enough to testify.
“Evil carries the seeds of its own destruction.”
Many folks are jaded and cynical, and they may prove to be right, but I doubt it. I smell blood in the water, here. The sharks cannot help themselves. Leahy offered some promises, assurances. Worthless. Remember the pro-life Congresscritters who accepted Obama’s written promise about not including funding for abortion in ObamaCare? Didn’t they all lose re-election? Did not Obama’s promise mean nothing?
Melson thinks he has some safety, but unless they gave him immunity,in writing, he is being set up to be hung out to dry. “Well, see, he has admitted to all these illegal things. He is just lying to cover himself, etc….”
It won’t work this time. Like the new Chief of Staff said, “Sometimes you just cannot defend the indefensible.” There is an air of desperation in the Obama administration everywhere you turn. They are pulling out all their tricks, but they are now so weak, that the tricks won’t work. Melson will figure it out when things change. He will clam up until he gets immunity. Then, he will sing like a canary. (He doesn’t have immunity, at the moment. I know, because immunity also precludes you from covering up anything at all. It is a two-edged sword.)
The important thing to understand is the way these thugs work. It is all about power. You cannot show weakness, or someone else will make his move to supplant you. If it looks like there will be no containing this after awhile, the rats will abandon the sinking ship of Obama, and someone else will offer a primary challenge or a convention floor fight. Then the Obama administration’s political blood will flow… what’s left of it.
It will all be ugly… and gratifying in the end.
I hope you’re right, Marc.
But I’m nervous because the key thing about the Left — and most Republicans don’t get this — the key thing is that they REALLY DO BELIEVE, down to their marrow, that the ends justify the means. They are willing to do anything, up to and including murder, to protect their power. (Well, hell, they’ve already been accessories to murder of 2 Americans and over 150 Mexicans so far — that we know of.)
Oh, he’ll him and haw and evade and change the subject. Nothing will come of this until after 2012 and then only if we can get rid of the crook in the White House and his partners in crime in the Senate and House of Reps.
Here we are again trying to distinguish government misfeasance from government malfeasance (or is it that the ATF just “acted stupidly”) and there, right in the middle of it, Pat Leahy, one of the true slugs in the Senate leaving his slime trail everywhere he goes. Why bother suborning perjury when you can trade something (nothing) for the witness. He’s the poster child of the old, fat, bald, politician. Pardon my bitterness, but these people are no longer simply disgusting, people have died, more almost certainly will, and that’s simply a boring annoyance to them. This guy’s not a part of the problem and he’s not a part of the solution. Dick Cheney gave him the best advice he ever got: “F _ _ _k off.” Someone needs to remind him.
“people have died, more almost certainly will, and that’s simply a boring annoyance to them.”
There are still over a thousand guns from Operation Fast and Furious that have not been recovered, still floating around in Mexico. The 150 Mexican deaths that we know about at this point are just the tip of the iceberg. And there will be even more deaths in the future — since it’s not like those guns only get used once and then biodegrade and disappear!
It’s boggling how many deaths Holder and Obama have hanging over their heads.
Two decades later I’m still asking ‘Why is Vince Foster dead?’ Not how, but why?
Melson better watch his six for the time being. OK so how much thread can Grassley pull from this turd-ball? I doubt much because he is senate minority and … well you know how that goes. Issa might have juice and that wonderful power of subpeona, even so there is that Amendment 5 thing and if and until that is presented you’ll see no August gavel-to-gavel coverage from the CMSM (Criminal Main Stream Media). With no coverage they ALL walk. BP officer Terry Allen was a exelemplary individual and he deserves justice. It will be up to the blogospherians to push this to a legitimate finish. Cause See B.S. ain’t gonna lift a finger to cause any damage to the Obowmao crowd.
It’s all about momentum, and since the Dems own the Senate and DOJ is trying its hardest to stonewall this thing in the House, there is no way to get this ball moving. The agents that testified and the agents who were reprimanded have to come forward, not just to Congress like they did because that won’t do anything, but to whichever mainstream media outlets will take them; sure the Times and Post will will cover their ears and eyes to this scandal, but CBS reported this so maybe they’ll actually take the stories of these agents, and that might spread this around a little bit in the media and get some much needed momentum. Apart from some conservative internet outlets like PJM, there is no following on this apart from a major paper in Arizona.
Perhaps it best that he avoid travel aboard any KingAirs, lest he get Wellstone’d.
I have a feeling that unless he is in protective custody somewhere that Obama’s minions can’t detect, he stands a good chance of quite literally being thrown under the wheels, or something equally deadly.
Gitmo. He will talk. No deal just gitmo. Terrorist, providing aid and comfort to the enemy.
oh, no one has the _ _ lls to do it for fear they will be sent as well.
Where is Big Sis? I think her hands are all over this.
“…his fellow Republicans were given full access to ATF documents, Melson, and other key witnesses”
I sure as heck hope that they get all of the above, including Melson’s testimony, BEFORE Republicans in Congress allow Obama’s appointees to “walk” past the GOP roadblock.
You might want to look at this:
“adding that the Oklahoma City Bombing appears to have been an earlier and far, far uglier version of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms’ “Operation: Fast and Furious,” an affair involving many of the same key players.”
http://bobmccarty.com/2011/06/27/lawyer-lists-four-possible-fbi-responses-to-federal-judge-re-missing-okc-bombing-tapes/
Just as a note, there is some evidence to show that “Hussain Al-Hussaini, the Middle Eastern man suspected of being “the third terrorist” involved in the bombing along with Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols” (http://bobmccarty.com/2011/05/13/final-chapter-of-okc-bombing-not-yet-written/#more-39354, and elsewhere) is an Iranian agent provocateur; that the Oklahoma City Bombing was, in fact, an Islamic terrorist operation, or at least had considerable assistance from them. See also http://www.reagan.com/news/?oklahoma-city-bombing-al-qaeda-connection-400.html.
Excuse me, please: Al-Hussaini is Iraqi, not Iranian. My bad.
See also “the Atlas Shrugs” posting from Thursday, April 16, 2009 http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/04/mcveigh-cited-again-as-reason-for-rightwing-warning-why-not-accomplices-hussain-alhussaini-and-.html
Thank you for sharing this link, and God bless Mr. Trentadue for his resolve and for his extraordinary fortitude in “not letting go” (in the English bullldog sense made famous by Churchill’s wonderful line) for sixteen long years. And God help us. Any one of the four potential FBI responses suggested here would be cause for grave concern.
Oh please!! Melson will say absolutely NOTHING of any importance. He will remember nothing. He will NOT accuse either Holder OR Obama of having approved or ordered Fast and Furious.
It’s my guess Grassley made another SUCKER’S deal with Leahy, giving up the holds he had placed on Obama’s latest Marxist appointments for….nothing in return. Typical when a Republican deals with a Democrat. Perhaps I’ll be pleasantly surprised…but I doubt it.
I wouldn’t be so quick to assume Grassley’s been a sucker. Take a look at the letter he and Issa sent to Holder last month. Grassley’s pretty darn fed up with all the stonewalling, and didn’t mince any words saying so.
But, yeah, he needs to know he’s got lots of support out here. I called both my senators and urged them to support Grassley in every way they can. Ditto with my congressman, to support Issa.
Only problem is no newspaper/cheerleading squad in the country will report anything that reflects badly on the One. Fox will cover it, the rest will dismiss the coverage as coming from Fox. Just watch. If you really want to know what happened just hope C-Span covers it live.
I wonder whether and to what extent U.S. relations with Mexico were considered when this was brewing and implemented. I seem to recall that the State Department occasionally has some input into the conduct of our foreign relations. Might there have been some discussions with someone at State? Who?
Big sis is so much trouble and she has no consequences.
This does explain why they have to look into adult diapers. She knew there were a lot of illegal guns out there and smuggling them in diapers has to be prevented.
Sure hope Melson is more careful in crossing streets than was James Treacher.
You see, the UN Small Arms Treaty is ultimately designed to register, ban and CONFISCATE firearms owned by private citizens like YOU.
So far, the gun-grabbers have successfully kept the exact wording of their new scheme under wraps.
But looking at previous versions of the UN Small Arms Treaty, you and I can get a good idea of what’s in the works.
If passed by the UN and ratified by the U.S. Senate, the UN Small Arms Treaty would almost certainly FORCE the U.S. to:
*** Enact tougher licensing requirements, making law-abiding Americans cut through even more bureaucratic red tape just to own a firearm legally;
*** CONFISCATE and DESTROY ALL “unauthorized” civilian firearms (all firearms owned by governments are excluded, of course);
*** BAN the trade, sale and private ownership of ALL semi-automatic weapons including shotguns and other firearms commonly used for hunting;
*** Create an INTERNATIONAL gun registry, setting the stage for full-scale gun CONFISCATION.
No one will ever confiscate any of the guns I own, or the guns my sons or my wife owns, or the guns that my neighbor owns. To a person, I can say with absolute confidence, any person trying to take those weapons will be shot at and most likely hit, fatally. That person can be a federal agent, a local cop, or a relative for all that matters. They will die trying to do this.
I am not a gun nut, just a deer hunter. My family is not crazy about guns, we own what we do for recreation, and a very small amount of self defense (we live in very safe areas).
If someone like me and my family will shoot to kill if necessary to prevent confiscation, how many others like me and how many many more, much more serious than me about guns, do you think there are? One of my neighbors owns at least a hundred guns, is a superb shot (regularly wins loocal shooting events). He alone could muster and equip a small milita. He is hardly uncommon where I have a place in WV.
Many years ago, J Gordon Liddy told an FBI agent on his radio show, that there was no way they could disarm Amricans. Too many Americans owned guns, that they outnumbered the FBI by tens of thousands to one, and that in the end all the FBI agents would be dead.
I am not saying that evil doers are not out there trying to do what they can to destroy the 2nd Amendment. All I am saying, is you’d have to be on drugs and plum crazy to “volunteer” to do the confiscation. You’d need a will and a burial plot paid up and you’d be RIP in short order.
The response by me and my family will not be discussed or thought about. It would be reflexive, much like waiting for the deer’s chest to just clear the tree it is behind.
I really appreciate your comment and your fearless stand. In our home, we were raised with the idea that America’s citizenry constituted the second largest standing army in the world. (Not sure who was first and never asked, but given this was in the 50’s, it would most likely have been “The Russkies.”) It always seemed like a terrific idea then, and I’m convinced it’s an even better one now. It is our failsafe, and a right we must never surrender. My view is that it is only because so many other of our institutions have failed (the home, the churches, the schools, and now more than ever, the state!!—Christ, is there anything left?) that increasing numbers of people seem to be falling for the false choice of gun control out of fear, whereas I would think confronting that fear with reason would move the numbers in the opposite direction. And perhaps they are and the control folks are just making more noise (as in, empty vessels make the loudest…).
I read a few years ago that someone surveyed Marine recruits to see if they would obey orders to confiscate guns from the general populace. Ninety percent said no, they would not.
The gun grabbers got away with it after Katrina only because Louisiana had a law to back them up. Most such laws have now been repealed. Americans saw enough to not let it happen again.
In the absence of a major change in people’s attitudes towards guns (not an impossibility, though remote), a nationwide gun confiscation will not be successful. The police will fail and the military will mutiny – as will many police.
Gun control advocates have no idea how much a threat they are to democracy.
THESE FOOLS SHOULD BE IN JAIL.
Ken took the proverbial advice given to anyone in his situation: “Trade up.”
Mr. Owens, the penalty for Grassley FINALLY obtaining the Gunwalker documents, which he should have received MONTHS AGO has been Sen. Leahy.. (check out this dude’s record)
http://www.ontheissues.org/Senate/Patrick_Leahy.htm
..strongarming 3 illiberals to the DoJ. Then again, he can be a self anointed Socialist like his fellow VT Senator, Bernie Sanders.
So in order to obtain information that should have been available with no strings.. Illiberals pulled a, ‘Israeli’s provide 200 former Lebanese prisoners for their 1 IDF soldier’ scenario.
REEEAAALLL tired of spineless RINO’s giving into EVERY situation where they SHOULD have these asshats on the ropes..
Good news for Sarah Palin! This means that all the media types (and their friends and relatives) who were searching through Palin’s garbage will now be reassigned to check out Melson’s history to find everything that the anti-American lefties can use to discredit him. If they don’t find much, they, of course, will make stuff up.
Melson’s testimony will implicate nobody at DoJ.
He will blame Sarah Palin!
How convienent!! He cuts a deal so that he can’t get in trouble for HIS role in it and then he’ll testify that HE made all the decisions without anyone else knowing and thus nobody will go to prison for this extremely criminal act that helped in the murder of hundreds of Mexicans, at least one American Border Guard, and who knows how many other crimes in the southeastern part of the US. Bush may have been a War Hawk but the this administration is nothing but a complete criminal organization. We better get rid of them while we still can. This entire exercise was an attempt to show how gun control is needed ironically by forcing the gun dealers to sell to criminals and illegal aliens even when they didn’t want to.
What is it with our Bob Owens, here? Myself, an uneducated dolt in the Oklahoma hustings am so informed that, the firearm having reached the US/Mexico border, ostensible surveillance stopped, how then does Bob Owens term it a “sting operation”? I mean, the requisite logic says that, in fulfillment of such definition, they must needs have followed the thing—wouldn’t they?
And, “pay”? “. . . . and someone is going to have to pay the price.”? Why should any one be made to pay the price? All these decades, has Bob Owens read or learned nothing of dissembling governmental non-culpability?
Reading his stuff, the learned Bob Owens is one whom I might like to sit down with, to have a cup of tea, you know, to kind of see what he thinks about: “Oh, you write, do ya? So, whatdaya write about? U-u-h-h-h, so, . . . where d’ya get your ideas from, Bob, you know, that you write about? U-u-h-h-h, . . .”, . . .
The current administration, being above the law & being completely oblivious to the Constitution, will simply make the man disappear. God forbid he be placed in protective custody.
Why does Grassley have to make a deal with anyone to get access to the necessary documents and information to continue his investigation? What the f**k is wrong with Congress that it’s not interested in pursuing truth and justice and in holding the government in check! Another great example of what’s f**king wrong with America today!
Sorry, Charlie. It was Cheech & Chong. “Haven’t you ever seen a pervert before?”
The liar-in-chief has the insulating dope heads to take blame. In addition, you can’t impeach an putative president. The only resolve is to arrest him. Illegally obtaining the office (POTUS)through fraud and deceit with complicit justices, CONgress, and DNC nominating committees has only delayed the inevitable- prison, mis-prison felony charges for all or most of the government officials in office.
Only one problem remains, the rule of law presently doesn’t exist. However, not for long. Citizens are joining forces. The Republic will stand. Barry Soetero will be in the BIG house rather than the White House. His future is sealed with upcoming exposure for the world to see.
Bet he ends up with a “self inflicted” gunshot would to the head with a 50 caliber long barrel shotgun. And Obama will say “it was a tragic event.”
In any event, if he testifies and he knows Holder and Obama were complicit in this debacle, I hope to God he testifies to that.
Give Melson FULL IMUNITY and let him sing, sing, sing…I can almost hear the paper shredders humming at Justice from here.
{Oh Holder…do you have an “escape plan” yet? You KNOW Obama with throw you to the wolves to save himself…LOL!}
Let’s hope he’s under some kind of witness protection to keep him safe. I soooooo want them to “all fall down!”