It’s certainly not what the Brady Campaign would proclaim, but the big increase in firearm sales between the summers of 2008 and 2009 does not seem to have increased the crime rate in the United States … especially since the violent crime rate dropped 4.4 percent during the first half of 2009.
Just today, I’ve now heard the “90 percent of the seized weapons in Mexico came from the United States’ outright lie three times today. Three times.
I do not have the ability to record video, and do not have the time to edit it down either, but this morning at about 7 a.m. ET, WFSB Channel 3 in Hartford went to a “shared” reporter who used the 90 percent statistic. I screamed at the TV.
Then Bob Beckel – on Fox News during America’s Newsroom – tossed out the same 90 percent lie. I screamed at the TV.
Let me point out that I’ve watched a total of five minutes of TV today, so seeing the 90 percent lie must be some sort of divine intervention – hence this post.
Now, Morrissey over at Hot Air picked up the story from today’s Washington Post.
The financial sanctions provide an additional tool against the organizations, whose drug and gun trafficking has proved exceedingly difficult to curtail. Mexico, for example, has seized more than 35,000 firearms from narco-traffickers since December 2006, and both governments say 90 percent of the weapons originated in the United States.
Look, it’s a lie. More from Ed; and Jim covered on the show and here on April 2 – two weeks ago.
The ATF correctly states that of the guns that can be successfully traced by the ATF or FBI from the guns sent to them by Mexican authorities, about 90% have origins in the US. However, Mexico doesn’t send all of the guns that they capture to the US for tracing; only about a third of them get sent here. Of that third, roughly half can’t be traced at all, thanks to efforts to strip the weapons of registration markings. With the other half, about nine of ten can be traced to the US, which works out to about 17% of all weapons seized by Mexican officials.
Let me be perfectly clear. I do not want any weapons to be transferred to Mexico illegally. None. I don’t want criminals to have any guns, but taking the rights away from honest, law-abiding Americans will not take one gun out of the hands of a criminal, here or in Mexico. Not one.
A Washington Times editorial notes the Obama administration’s FAA budget has diverted $2 million from the Federal Flight Deck Officers (FFDO) program to provide more funding for supervision of pilots.
Some suggest this is an administration attempt to disarm pilots, but my quick research indicates this probably is not true. I read the editorial yesterday, but I elected not to write about it since the opinion piece was so vague.
… President Obama is quietly ending the federal firearms program, risking public safety on airlines in the name of an anti-gun ideology.
The Obama administration this past week diverted some $2 million from the pilot training program to hire more supervisory staff, who will engage in field inspections of pilots.
In fiscal year 2007, the program received $25 million in funding, and in 2008 it was suggested that funding increase by $2.5 million. If the Obama administration is diverting $2 million from the program elsewhere, this is not an attack on the concept of arming pilots.
What does concern me is statements noted in the editorial from program participants.
Since Mr. Obama’s election, pilots have told us that the approval process for letting pilots carry guns on planes slowed significantly. Last week the problem went from bad to worse. Federal Flight Deck Officers – the pilots who have been approved to carry guns – indicate that the approval process has stalled out.
Pilots cannot openly speak about the changing policies for fear of retaliation from the Transportation Security Administration. Pilots who act in any way that causes a “loss of confidence” in the armed pilot program risk criminal prosecution as well as their removal from the program. Despite these threats, pilots in the Federal Flight Deck Officers program have raised real concerns in multiple interviews.
For those of you involved in the FFDO program – is this true?
Since less than 3 percent of flights have air marshals, I’m quite fine with pilots having access to a firearm as a last resort to keep hijackers off the flight deck.
FFDO training is not your everyday gun safety and shoot at a few targets class. For a full week, pilots review legal issues, use of force, firearms training and defensive tactics. They are trained specifically for protection of passengers – by keeping hijackers off the flight deck.
Training is provided by the Federal Air Marshall Service, which is the right organization since they too, deal with guns inside pressurized tin cans at flight level 250. (Little ATC lingo for you there…)
The Times notes program participants are – for a lack of a better phrase – very well behaved.
The 12,000 Federal Flight Deck Officers, the pilots who have been approved to carry guns, are reported to have the best behavior of any federal law enforcement agency. There are no cases where any of them has improperly brandished or used a gun. There are just a few cases where officers have improperly used their IDs.
Fewer than one percent of the officers have any administrative actions brought against them and, we are told, virtually all of those cases “are trumped up.”
Other than the stupid holster design – click on image to enlarge – FFDOs need to deal with, this is a good program that should be continued.
Ed at Hot Air asks if we are disarming pilots, as does Malkin and Atlas Shrugs.