Setting the Stage

WARNING: Turn your bullshit filters up to 11
before reading this one. You'll thank me later.

Assault-Weapon Attacks on Rise in Miami

MIAMI (AP) - The spray of bullets that killed a police officer and hurt three others this week came from something increasingly common on this city's streets: a high-powered assault weapon, fast becoming the gun of choice for gang members and violent criminals.

"Becoming" the gun of choice for gang members and violent criminals? But, the anti-gun zealots in this country have been telling us that these guns have been the so-called "weapon of choice" for these ne'er-do-wells since the day after the Magna Carta was ratified.

And when the guns, once found solely in the hands of soldiers, are aimed at officers on patrol, there's little authorities can do to escape.

OK, anyone who smells the latest attempt to obfuscate the issue, and further blur the line between select-fire, military assault rifles and semi-automatic civilian versions of the same, wafting through the air, raise your hand.

"It's almost like we have water pistols going up against these high-powered rifles," said John Rivera, president of the Dade County Police Benevolent Association. "Our weaponry and our bulletproof vests don't match up to any of those types of weapons."

Bullshit. I'll bet anyone 100 bucks the cops in Dade County have automatic weapons available for their officers to use. If not, what's stopping them? It's not any of our country's gun laws apply to their "more equal than others" subset of society.

And, as for the "bulletproof" vest comment, Mr. Rivera, those vests your fellow officers wear every day on the job won't match up to any commonly-available centerfire hunting rifle.. What's your point (as if I have to ask)?

Federal officials don't compile statistics on the number of crimes involving assault weapons like the AK-47, and municipalities' numbers across the country are patchwork.

Translated: All the fear-mongering and emotion-based drivel coming out of the Brady Bunch, and their allies in the mainstream media and the US Congress, being put forth as "rationale" for banning guns that look scary, has been nothing more than, well, fear mongering and emotion-based drivel.

Shocking.

[snip]

Police do not yet know where the 25-year-old suspect in Thursday's shooting of the Miami-Dade officers got his weapon.

Not that it matters to the Schumer/Clinton/Kennedy cabal, who will use this story as ammunition in their never-ending quest to prevent us non-criminals from buying these scary-looking guns legally for use in non-criminal, recreational activities.

You see, for these "progressive" folks, comparing the actions of law-abiding gun owners to those of hardened career criminals and illegal alien gang members, and trying to spot the moralistic differences is what they call a "toughie".

Purchasing a $600 handgun in a legal fashion vs. trading a rock of crack and a handjob for the same gun? Yeah, whatever. Six of one, half-dozen of another. There's simply no appreciable difference between those two types of gun buyers, as far as these fascist jerkwads are concerned.

Well, that's not entirely true. They'll actually go out of their way to protect the Constitutional rights of the latter, while doing everything they can do strip the former of their God-given right to protect their families from harm.

Shawn Sherwin Labeet was found hours later and 30 miles from the crime scene. Police said they shot and killed him after he refused to drop his firearm.

What are the odds that scumbag should have been behind bars, where he'd have been unable to kill any police officers, but was kept out of jail by a "compassionate" judge at some point in the last few years? I'm thinking better than average.

On Friday, officers arrested four people accused of aiding Labeet. Alba Bello, 47; her son, Alain Gonzalez, 24; and Bello's boyfriend, Lazaro Guardiola, 35, were charged with accessory after the fact on suspicion of harboring the killer. Labeet's girlfriend, Renee Dangelo, 26, was charged with giving police false information.

OK, in addition to the near certainty that every single one of them has criminal record, here's another 100 bucks that says not all of the above-referenced persons are in this country legally.

Quick! Ban barrel shrouds!

The rising number of deaths by assault weapons reflects growing availability of the weapons and their elevation to a status symbol among gang members, said Carlos Baixauli, an agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Ban gang members.

There, problem solved. You can just mail me my check.

"In the early '80s to '90s, it was more common to have a handgun in your waistband and the bigger the caliber, the more powerful you were," Baixauli said. "Now it's escalated to the assault weapons."

Another issue potentially at play is the 2004 expiration of the federal assault weapons ban, 10 years after its passage. The legislation outlawed 19 types of guns, including the semiautomatic AK-47.

Gee, didn't see that coming.

And, surprise, surprise, the writer, one Matt Sedensky, got his facts wrong, when trying to explain what the now-defunct "assault weapons" ban did or didn't do. Unless, of course, these gang members are out there bayoneting their neighborhood rivals.

The 1994 AWB, as most of us are too keenly aware, only banned certain arrangements of cosmetic features on semi-automatic rifles that look like military assault rifles. It did nothing to address the "lethality" of any type of gun, based on cartridge size or muzzle velocity, as some would have you believe.

It's not like gang members everywhere were walking around in the late 90's trying to buy guns from the back of some guy's van, only to walk away dejected and unarmed, because they couldn't get a semi-auto AK knock-off with the bayonet lug not ground off.

And, this brings us to the obligatory money quote.

(Prepare the Bullshit Flag, me hearties.)

Here comes the creme de la creme of superfluous rectal vapor masquerading as professional expertise. Once again, here's agent Carlos Baixauli, of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

The guns are readily available on streets, Baixauli said, or can be ordered by mail for under $200.

Under 200 bucks, huh?

OK, asshole, show me.

I want to see the catalog or website you're looking at that has semi-automatic rifles, such as the ones mentioned in this article, available to purchase for less than $200. Sounds to me like someone's been jerking off to the girls in his Airsoft catalog again.

Of course, conveniently eluding this stooge is the the fact that any such mail-order firearms purchase has to comply with all the same state and federal gun laws as a gun purchase made at one's local gun shop (which, by the way, is not where the criminals are buying theirs).

Shootings involving assault weapons were among the reasons U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta set up an anti-gang task force of federal, state and local law enforcement officials this year.

Really? No mention of that in the press release from last April.

The Task Force …will focus on utilizing federal resources to help prosecute gang-related violent crime cases in South Florida.

The Task Force will focus on both reactive and proactive gang-related violent crime cases.

… the Task Force will use a wide array of federal laws to prosecute the most violent offenders for federal firearms and narcotics violations as other violent crimes, including bank robbery, car jacking, and Hobbs Act violations.

… the Task Force will focus on federal prosecutions of individuals related to ongoing state or federal investigations or priority targets.

… will continue to aggressively prosecute gangs, criminal organizations, and individuals who have committed violent criminal acts in South Florida.

… the U.S. Attorney's Office will be better equipped to respond quickly and efficiently to violent gang-related criminal activity…

… the Task Force will work with the FBI, ATF, DEA, ICE, and with local sheriffs and police departments to target violent drug organizations and other criminal groups that use firearms to further their goals.

...the U.S. Attorneys Office will aggressively prosecute gang-related violent crimes...

And, from the closing paragraph…

The U.S. Attorney also noted the dedicated efforts of … the Broward County Sheriff's Office …

Dedicated, indeed.

Plenty of references in there to "gang-related violence", but criminal misuse of any type of firearm is only mentioned twice. No mention, whatsoever, about rifles with collapsible stocks, bayonet lugs, or barrel shrouds, etc.

Go figure.

Anyway, back to the bloviation at hand...

"These bullets are very powerful: they go through walls, they go through cars, and if you just spray the general vicinity you're going to get innocent bystanders," Acosta said. "A shooting that might have been an injury previously is now a death."

Sounds like he was reading from the talking points memo that the mayor and police chief of New Bedford, Massachusetts were reading from when they were calling for a statewide ban on possession of AR-15 rifles last year.

NEW BEDFORD — Mayor Scott W. Lang is asking the city's legislative delegation to push for a statewide ban on the sale of military-style weapons — including the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle used by a gunman last week to kill two employees and himself at the Foxy Lady SouthCoast.

"I'd like our local delegation to sponsor a bill that takes that type of weapon out of civilian hands ... any type of military weapon," he said. "This is not an appropriate weapon for a civilian to have.

"It's a killing tool. ... It's a weapon that's used to destroy an opposition army. We don't need a battlefield in the middle of our city."

Apparently, he's never spent much time walking the streets of crime-free New Bedford.

The AR-15 "has firepower that police do not have available to them, except in extraordinary circumstances," Mayor Lang said.

[...]

According to Chief Teachman, the bullets cut through the cruiser door panels "like a hot knife through butter."

OK, kids, put down your books. It's Pop Quiz Time. I meant to put this up last year, following the Foxy lady incident, in response to the dim-witted mayor's assertion that Massachusetts gun control laws weren't sufficiently strict. But, laziness got the better of me.

Here are two bowling pins, or what's left of 'em, which have been shot by two very different firearms.



And, here are the two types of firearms in question.

Marlin 1895 lever-action rifle (.45-70 Govt.)
One of the only kinds of gun you'll be allowed to own if the
majority Socialist Branch of Congress has its way with us.

AR-15 rifle(.223 Rem)
As if you'd even be allowed to look at this picture on your
computer in Ted Kennedy's Utopian "workers' paradise"
with all its "commie-sense" gun laws.

Now, all you have to do is match the gun to the "victim". Remember, scary-looking assault weapons fire bullets that "are very powerful: they go through walls, they go through cars...", according to U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta.

OK, I'll give you one hint. Mr. Acosta is feeding you a line of disingenuous, misleading horseshit.

Back to the original story:

Kevin Morison of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund said his organization is considering tracking when assault weapons are involved in police shootings. Officer shootings had been on a downturn until this year.

Well, at least he won't be wasting taxpayer dollars on all the paper he'll need to tally those up. I'd say the backside of his business card should suffice.

And, now from the American Council of Misleading Statistics:

More U.S. police officers were killed while on duty in the first six months of 2007 - 101 - than during any such period since 1978, according to the organization.

Ban cars.

In 2006, there were 151 federal, state and local law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. Traffic-related incidents were the leading cause of death (73), followed by shootings (54). California had the most fatalities with 17, followed by Virginia with 10, New York and Texas which both lost nine, and Florida and Illinois with eight each.

(sigh)

Just more of the same lies, misrepresentations, and distortion of reality that we've come to know so well from these folks. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go shopping for a couple of those $200 AK-47's this buttclown was talking about.

(bowling pin pics courtesy of Kim du Toit)