Sipsey Street Irregulars: Push-back on Gunwalker hearings.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Push-back on Gunwalker hearings.

Media Matters has an article, "Fox Hypes Bogus Theory That ATF Operation Meant To Lay Groundwork For Stricter Gun Laws." Unfortunately (or, perhaps, fortunately), all Media Matter links are broken at the moment, coming up, "504 Gateway Time-out."
(LATER: Media Matters is back up now so here's the link.)

The Hill has its own slant, calling Congressman Issa's release of the Melson emails a "leak," and has this gem entitled, "At hearing about ATF program, Issa mutes witness for promoting gun law reforms."

The head of the House Oversight committee muted one of his invited witnesses on Wednesday for testifying in favor of tougher gun laws.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said an ATF official's promotion of gun reform fell "outside the scope" of the hearing and "would not be considered valid testimony."

Appearing before the panel, Peter Forcelli, a special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), told lawmakers that straw purchasers – those who buy guns on behalf of others – should be hit with stiffer penalties to discourage gun trafficking.

"I think perhaps a mandatory minimum one-year sentence might deter an individual from buying a gun," Forcelli said.

He was responding to a question from Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), who said the current penalties are so weak that they discourage state prosecutors from pursuing straw-purchase cases. Forcelli agreed the current penalties do little to intimidate straw purchasers.

That brief exchange prompted Issa to intervene.

"We're not here to talk about proposed gun legislation," Issa said.

"I want to caution the witnesses that the scope of your testimony here is limited, and it is not about proposed legislation and the like, and under House rules would not fall within the scope of this [hearing]," Issa said. "So anecdotally you can have opinions, but ultimately it would not be considered valid testimony."

Maloney defended her line of questioning, saying she was "trying to figure out why … prosecutors often decline these gun cases."

Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the senior Democrat on the oversight panel, also questioned Issa's authority to mute Forcelli. . .

Both parties have attacked the ATF program, but gun-reform advocates have also used the controversy to argue that ATF officials need more legal tools to track guns.

"The wisdom of specific law enforcement operations against gun traffickers who funnel arms to Mexican drug cartels is worthy of close examination," Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said Wednesday in a statement.

"It's also critically important that we examine why our gun laws are so weak that they make trafficking so easy in the first place."

Backed by the gun lobby, most Republicans oppose any move to strengthen the nation's gun laws. Tougher restrictions, they argue, would erode the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans.

Throughout the hearing yesterday, the Dems tried to push their gun control meme, and Forcelli was their favorite witness for accomplishing that. Issa was trying to keep the hearing from being hi-jacked off-topic. Look for more of this as the hearings progress.

2 comments:

The Packetman said...: I noticed that Forcelli was getting the lion's share of the questions from the left side of the aisle; Dodson and Casa from the right.

I did notice that Forcelli did point out that the FFL's that they were working with weren't the problem, and they should have concentrated efforts elsewhere.

Then Casa mentioned how the FN Five Seven was a 'cop-killer' ... no one on the panel challenged him.

The GOP will not save us ...; June 16, 2011 at 10:46 AM
Mr Jones said...: I saw this 'Media Matters' story yesterday and became very annoyed. I even signed up there and posted a comment stating basically that 'Media Matters' seems to be reaching a conclusion rather quicky, considering they haven't bothered to report anything about the story until now. (The post has yet to show up on the site - maybe I should go ahead and take a breath?)
As I thought about it more though, I think 'Media Matters' is shooting themselves in the foot by trying to "debunk" the gun control motive. They are actually making more people aware of that motive.
After all, everyone knows 'Media Matters' is a leftist propaganda tool, and the only people who will believe their BS are people who desperately want to in the first place. So by all means 'Media Matters' - keep it up and spread the word.; June 16, 2011 at 1:27 PM

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.

Sipsey Street Irregulars

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Push-back on Gunwalker hearings.

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