ATF Special Agent in Charge Jim Needles explains “Weapons of Choice” for the Mexican drug cartels.
ATF Special Agent in Charge Jim Needles
See also this news story built around the video interview above.
“Weapons of choice” include semi-auto FN FALs (a popular sport and hunting rifle), AK-47’s, and 1911 style handguns. It appears the news reporters also visited a gun shop and took pictures of AR-15’s as well.
The demonization of ordinary firearms for the next “assault weapon” ban is picking up steam with the help of the ATF.
These dudes make the argument that if “weapon X” wasn’t available that the criminals/drug gangs wouldn’t have ANY weapons.
Which is a stupid argument. Criminals will find a way to arm themselves, and if we get rid of all the “non-sporting” rifles (is there such a thing?) then these guys will arm themselves with “sporting” rifles and shotguns.
The “assault weapon ban” is only a stepping stone towards a “total weapons ban”.
Over the years, I’ve seen Jim Needles quoted often in anti-2nd Amendment articles. I’m not sure what his role is but I’ve seen his name involved in investigations in NY, WA, and now this one.
No pothead here, just the occasional beer after cutting grass, but still I think we should treat dope like alcohol, e.g., make it legal but gov’t could license the production and distribtion plus tax it and then punish/treat any abusers. That would make one part of your problem go away or at least become less of a problem.
A FWIW is that 5-6 years back I missed out on a good deal on a Century(?) L1A1 rebuild but got over it later with a CETME purchase. Man, I love that rifle!
Big Bob; Legalize pot and take away that profit niche from the crime gangs, and they simply move on to whatever is still illegal. They’ll still make millions. In the 1920s it was alcohol. Today it’s a whole list of controlled substances, the illegality of which and only the illegality of which, support crime and corruption on a massive scale worldwide.
We’re looking at this from the wrong angle. If certain criminals prefer a certain type of weapon, and the government bans it from use by law abiding citizens, the criminals are getting that particular weapon reserved exclusively for their use. Since anyone can see that such a crime monopoly is the only possible result of such a ban, that crime monopoly must in fact be the objective. It’s the simplest and most obvious answer, other than mass insanity on a global scale. Same goes for drugs. The criminal organizations are being granted a government-enforced monopoly and in return, whole agencies are maintained within our government that would otherwise never exist.
A return to a free market would put a lot of criminal organizations, and a lot of government organizations, out of business all at once, virtually overnight.
They need each other then, don’t they? Yes– they need each other desperately. The crime organizations need the .gov to keep their products illegal so the criminals can make the big bucks, and the .gov interests need the criminals to justify their perpetual existence and the associated incursions upon our civil liberties. Meanwhile, we, stuck in the middle, get screwed from all directions. It’s a perfect scam, it’s worth billions of dollars per year, and we’re falling for it, hook, line and sinker.
Go ahead– anyone. Start talking about how drugs (or guns) ruin lives and so should be “controlled” by legislation, and you’ll be proving my point. You simply cannot bring yourselves to get past the stupid-ass rationalizations, can you?
The late William F. Buckley, Jr. publicly stated that the War on Drugs (which began with Nelson Rockefeller, governor of New York) would eventually make assaults on all American rights and freedoms. A lot of folks didn’t believe Bill Buckley when he began saying that so many decades ago but he’s been proven right.
By alarming the populace over a Drug War that has been prosecuted clumsily by the same government that fought a War on Poverty that poverty won (just look at the before-and-after numbers of children born into poverty by irresponsible mothers for example), Americans have seen the erosion of rights supposedly protected by the 1st, 2nd, 5th, 9th, and 10th amendments. We’ve lost the right to privacy, especially regarding our medical information – we’ve even got to surrender our identity information and show government approved identification to buy medicine for cold, flu and allergy symptoms. Doctors fear prescribing adequate and proper medication to patients in severe pain – nowhere in the Constitution or its amendments has the national government been given to power to regulate the doctor-patient relationship, the politicians elected by us just took it.
It’s time to sweep any politician who is high on Drug Warrior delusions from office. Both incumbent parties, Democrat and Republican, share the blame for exploiting Drug War rhetoric in order to expand the State and crowd out the rights of the people. Incumbents who won’t stop Drug Warring against the people and the Constitution must be defeated at the polls. 2010 could be the year for a huge political shock delivered by an awakened and mobilized force of voters. Let’s roll.