July 25, 2014

On July 23, Boston Police Commissioner William Evans told Boston Public Radio (WGBH) that residents of Boston do not need shotguns or rifles. 

He said these things in response to Massachusetts state senator Stan Rosenberg's (D) position that there are already "sufficient controls" on long guns at the federal level and, therefore, no need for new state laws giving police additional powers to deny ownership to citizens.
According to WGBH, Evans responded: 
I don't agree with that. Having long guns--rifles and shotguns--especially here in the city of Boston. I think we should have, as the local authority, some say in the matter. [And] the federal [government] doesn't really allow us to have the discretion that we want in these particular cases.
...For the most part, nobody in the city needs a shotgun. Nobody needs a rifle. 
Evans went on to restate his position that he ultimately wants to have "discretion" over who is allowed to have a shotgun or rifle.

From: www.breitbart.com

July 24, 2014

Police chiefs in Massachusetts are blasting state lawmakers for shooting down a provision that would have given them sole discretion over who can get hunting rifle or shotgun permits, regardless of criminal records.

The Bay State, which has some of the nation's toughest gun laws, has long left it up to a community's top cop to sign off on handgun permits. Lawmakers were considering extending that to include the Firearms Identification Card, or FID, needed to possess long guns. But lawmakers, leery of the constitutionality of the law, which critics say can result in law-abiding citizens being denied their Second Amendment rights, have stripped a proposed bill of that provision. This week, police chiefs from throughout the state and gun control advocates converged on the Statehouse in Boston to blast state senators for removing the provision.

“Our position is really very, very simple,” said Wayne Sampson, executive director of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association. “We, as an association, believe that it’s unconscionable that if we determine a person is unsuitable to carry a handgun, that they can then turn around and apply for a Firearms Identification Card, which allows them, by law, to purchase rifles and shotguns. And there’s no way we can impose any restrictions on that. It just doesn’t make sense.”

"It’s all about public safety."
- Wayne Sampson, executive director, Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association
Sampson, who attended Tuesday’s rally along with Boston Police Commissioner William Evans, the city’s former top cop, Ed Davis, and several other chiefs, told FoxNews.com that the organization’s 351 chiefs are willing to work with legislators to find a compromise, but stressed that no one else in the state’s patchwork of towns and communities has a better grasp of who is fit to possess firearms.

“In our smaller communities, it’s very easy to check how many responses we’ve received for a certain address,” he said. “We know whether it’s a parent or a child having problems, or if it’s a domestic situation [involving a gun]. These are things that are very legitimate for us to take into consideration. It’s all about public safety.”

Davis cited an incident during Tuesday's rally regarding a man who killed an 80-year-old victim and then held a police officer hostage using a shotgun after he was issued an FID card. Davis, he said, learned that the man had mental problems only after the incident.

The state’s local affiliate of the National Rifle Association, meanwhile, strongly favors the Senate version of the bill that removes that measure, and noted other key provisions it contains, including requiring schools to develop plans for students with mental health needs and increased penalties for certain firearm violations.

“Massachusetts police chiefs have had discretionary ability [to issue handgun permits] for decades here and the system has been pretty widely abused as far as suitability goes because it’s left up to the chief to decide,” said Jim Wallace, executive director of the Gun Owners’ Action League. “Some chiefs say they just don’t hand out those licenses, or some are granted for target and hunting purposes only.”

Asked if he had constitutional concerns regarding the House version of the bill, Wallace told FoxNews.com: “I don’t see how you could see otherwise.”

Both chambers named three members apiece to a conference committee on the legislation, including four Democrats and two Republicans. They will now have until next Thursday to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the bill.

State Sen. James Timilty, D-Walpole, said while it’s clear that police chiefs want more authority regarding Firearms Identification Cards, it remains foggy how that will be done without violating rights guaranteed under the Second Amendment.

"The issues of FID suitability, MSBA security upgrades, increased penalties for committing gun crimes, and expanded tools for district attorneys to keep pre-trial violent offenders off the streets are just some of the differences in the Senate and House bills to reduce gun violence,” Timilty said in a statement to FoxNews.com. “I look forward to working with my Senate and House colleagues to come to a consensus on this important piece of legislation so we can make our schools and streets safer............

Read the rest of the story here

July 23, 2014


Northern Border Agent Pulls Gun on Boy Scouts Detained For Taking Photos As Southern Border Collapses
From Infowars.com

A U.S. border agent aimed his gun at a boy scout’s head after another scout took a photo of a government official near the Alaska/Canada border.

Grimes, Iowa, Boy Scout Troop 111 was driving into Alaska recently when one of the scouts took a picture of the official, which provoked border agents into detaining and searching the scouts at gunpoint for over four hours.

“The agent immediately confiscated his camera, informed him he would be arrested, fined possibly $10,000 and 10 years in prison,” Troop 111 leader Jim Fox told KCCI, adding that the agent claimed it was illegal to take photos of officials.

When another scout began removing luggage from the top of their van to be searched, one of the agents drew his gun on him.


“He hears a snap of a holster, turns around, and here’s this agent, both hands on a loaded pistol, pointing at the young man’s head,” Fox said.

The troop was later released with no injuries.

Although Fox was outraged over the incident, Charles Vonderheid with the Mid-Iowa Council Boy Scouts of America told KCCI that they want to make sure the scouts “follow the rules.”

“A Scout is a good citizen,” he said. “It would be a great lesson in civics for that young man and that troop.”

But it is not illegal to take photos of government officials as long as it does not interfere with their official duties.

Simply put, these agents were using the color of law to detain children at gunpoint for perfectly legal behavior and considering how out-of-touch these agents were with reality, it is fortunate that none of these scouts were killed.

This is all part of the Obama administration’s draconian version of “Homeland Security” in which feds are encouraged to target peaceful Americans while Border Patrol agents trying to protect America’s southern border and national sovereignty are ordered to stand down.

“We are simply being ordered to stand down and stop tracking and trying to apprehend the criminals,” Shawn Moran, Vice President of the National Border Patrol Council, told Breitbart back in October.

And the Obama administration’s targeting of Americans instead of foreign criminals leads to constant violations of First Amendment rights.

This past January, for example, a Los Angeles police officer told Infowars reporters and crew that they could not film a wastewater plant from across a public street.

The officer claimed that he had the “authority” to stop them from filming even though he admitted that it was not illegal to film the Hyperion sewage treatment plant in Los Angeles, California.
From Rt.com

A 76-year-old military veteran was arrested for disorderly conduct at a public county board meeting for asking officials to speak up when they refused to use the microphones. The hearing was over a controversial new plant in the area.
The contentious meeting involved a group fighting a proposed US Nitrogen plant and its plans to build a pipeline that would empty into the nearby Nolichucky River in Greene County, Tenn. The meeting - promoted as being a public one - was Friday at 8 a.m., which citizens complained was designed to keep them from attending
In the meeting room, the county’s board sat in a circle around a roped-off table at the front of the room, and did not use microphones or podium behind the table, several attendees said. At least four board members had their backs to the public viewing area.
“They, in writing, presented a ‘public meeting’, but did everything they could to confuse people as to when it would be, having during the worst time of day and while conducting it, making sure no could properly hear or understand what they were saying,” Roberta Drake posted to the Save the Nolichucky Facebook page. “It was all a farce.”
When citizens began complaining, Mayor Alan Broyles, who announced in January he would not be running for reelection, according to WJHL, warned, "If we have any more outbursts from the audience, you will be removed from the building."
At this point Eddie Bruce Overholt, who the Greeneville Sun describes as the owner of the popular CJ Papadops restaurant at Bybee and a well known figure in both Cocke County and western Greene County, stood up and said, "Would y'all speak up until the whole audience can hear you?"
Police, who were on standby at the meeting, then moved to Overholt and removed him from the room with his arms behind his back, as he asked, “Are you throwing me out from a public meeting?”


Overholt described what happened next in an open letter on Facebook, and shared by the Greeneville Sun.
"On the way down the steps the officer called for a transport, but very shortly canceled the transport, saying he was 'walking me down'… He told me his name was Dixon or Hixon, and very abruptly increased the pressure and lift on my right arm, pulling my shoulder up into a very painful position, causing me to walk very awkwardly,” Overholt wrote.
"After a few steps I told him I had a very bad back and hips and would have to sit or lean against something, at which time he lifted my right arm higher and stated that I had no trouble walking forward in the meeting room,” the veteran added. "His next words were, 'You are charged with resisting arrest.' [He] got on his radio and called for backup. Another officer pulled up but did not get out of his car.”
Roger Coen, a Greene County resident who was also escorted out of the meeting explained what happened to him in an open letter:
The motion was being made to be adjourned and I said that [Greene County Chamber of Commerce board member] Tom Ferguson told me that we were able to ask questions but I was told that Tom Ferguson was not running the meeting. I was then escorted out by the police with my hands behind my back to the hallway. Tom Ferguson followed us out and grabbed my hand and said he was sorry that this was a private meeting but the public was invited. He also said he was sorry, that he did tell me we were allowed to ask questions. Then the cop took me outside and made me leave the property so I had to stand on the sidewalk in the rain to wait on my wife while two police officers stood under the roof on the porch watching me.
Deborah Fisher, who works with the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, told Save the Nolichucky that there is no right to public comment at public meetings, but that the board should have made accommodations for all attendees to hear the proceedings. She urged county residents to file an open meetings complaint with the state.
The Tennessee Open Records Counsel received 42 complaints about the meeting by Monday, WJHL reported.
Greeneville City Administrator Todd Smith sent the Sun an emailed statement on the incident. "At the arraignment this morning, the judge decided to continue the hearing against Mr. Overholt until Sept. 22. Mr. Overholt is charged with interfering with a public hearing and resisting arrest,” Smith wrote. "Since this is an ongoing criminal hearing, we have no additional comments at this time."
The Greene County Industrial Development Board voted at the Friday meeting to resubmit a permit application requesting the Tennessee Department Of Transportation to allow the board to place a double-pipeline along state and county right-of-ways from the area of the US Nitrogen plant at Midway to the Nolichucky River, the Sun reported.

July 4, 2014






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