continuing proofs America is wacko

People don't always agree on everything- Orwell

I do.

Jon Stewart had an interesting piece on his show about how the NRA and its allies in Congress have limited the ability to enforce federal gun laws. Comedy Central videos don't play in the UK but fortunately the Daily Kos put together a transcript of the whole thing (there are two videos, which are embedded about halfway down the page).

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/01/17/1179688/-Must-see-Jon-Stewart-exposes-how-the-NRA-GOP-PREVENT-the-ATF-from-enforcing-current-gun-laws

Thanks Eldo- always thinking of us poor Brits with our anti-Stewart Chinese-style firewall!

the ATF has always been underfunded and undermanned , they are almost as big of a joke as the NRA. Some law enforcement agencies also are guilty of not utilizing the resources that th ATF has also. Here is an example that happened to me , In 2001 my ex- wife split up , she secretly brought her new boyfriend over and he helped her steal alot of my personal belongings ,among the items stolen was A pistol of mine . I tried repeatedly to report it stolen to local law enforcement because her new Beau was a convicted felon , my son who lived with also confirmed the theft. Law enforcement refused to add it to what is called the HOT list which is maintained by the ATF because my wife was involved and they maintained she was part owner of the firearm, which was not the case , I had owned the gun prior to getting married to her . At my divorce proceeding I was able to get the judge to side with me and declare the gun my property and demand its return , my ex denied any knowledge of the gun being stolen by her new Beau. A year after the divorce was final I was finally able to get law enforcement to add it to the HOT list , The captain who took my report ( I had to go that high up in the chain-of -command to get this done ) stated it should have been added immediately when I first reported it . a year and a half after it was added I recieved a letter from a nieghboring law enforcement agency telling me to bring this letter down to theyre property office and my firearm would be returned to me . It has been used in a armed robbery , they had had posession of it since 2001. Since it didnt show on the HOT list they didnt even bother to check the ATFs records to see who the rightfull owner was , The gun was registered to me in the ATFs system all along, when it was reported by me I had actually had to pay the ATF 35.00 US dollars an hour to do the research on my records and get the serial #s to give to police for the report as my ex had also stolen all my personal records with this info. At the time of this incident 2001 the ATFs records where still on micro-film , thats how under-funded they are.

Oh did I forget to say I was also chastised by law enforcement for not reporting it stolen to start off with , even though it was theyre fault for not taking the report , I had attemted to get this report taken by them on three different occasions .

Any idea why alcohol and tobacco is grouped with fire arms? I think that's part of the the problem. It will be interesting to look into history to see why this separate agency exists in the first place.

They actually do explosives too. After prohibitions the direct precursor to the ATF was established to enforce alcohol (and later tobacco) tax laws. When Congress decided to create stricter laws governing firearms and explosives, they just tacked those responsibilities onto the nascent ATF.

Further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureau_of_Alcohol,_Tobacco,_Firearms_and_Explosives#Organizational_history

That might be too much for one agency to handle, especially since its chronically understaffed, but that's what we've got for now. I'm not sure how proposals to split it up would be received. It would ruin a great joke, though.

Spoiler:

Yeah, just the name itself with a proper pause sounds Monty Python. Imagine John Cleese saying:"Hello everyone. I'm from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco.....Firearms and Explosives". The skit would roll on from there.

Eldorion wrote:Jon Stewart had an interesting piece on his show about how the NRA and its allies in Congress have limited the ability to enforce federal gun laws. Comedy Central videos don't play in the UK but fortunately the Daily Kos put together a transcript of the whole thing (there are two videos, which are embedded about halfway down the page).

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/01/17/1179688/-Must-see-Jon-Stewart-exposes-how-the-NRA-GOP-PREVENT-the-ATF-from-enforcing-current-gun-laws

As usual Stewart does a better job of clarifying things than any other source.

the guy who nonchalantly carried a loaded shotgun into a gun show only to have it go off as it was taken out of its case shows the need for mandatory gun training (ie licensing) for all gun owners. The NRA is pro training but anti regulation. They need to shut up and let regulations deal with the dumbfucks amongst us.

halfwise wrote: The NRA is pro training but anti regulation. They need to shut up and let regulations deal with the dumbfucks amongst us.

Yeah, like Dick Cheney. Shooting you hunting partner or random passersby at a gun show should have more consequences than just having to apologize.

I thought this was an interesting read in light of the ongoing gun control debate.

Bill Clinton to Democrats: Don't trivialize gun culture - Politico

He demonstrates why he was an effective president. Despite the initial promise of his campaign, Obama doesn't understand large segments of the population the way Clinton does.

At this point I think that Ted Nugent is actively trying to provoke the federal government into taking legal action against him so that he can claim that he's being persecuted for his cause. It's the only explanation that doesn't require Ted to be a goddamn idiot as well as a lunatic. :/

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/01/22/ted-nugent-claims-his-buddies-are-willing-to-start-an-armed-revolt/

So did anyone hear about the American football player who got 'catfished' for almost 3 years?
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-915994
on a side not, he was Mormon and ironically went to Notre Dame, a catholic school

I've seen a lot of headlines for that but haven't read much about the story. I feel bad for the guy if it's true, though.

-------

http://www.hobbitmovieforum.com/viewtopic.forum?t=621