I knew from talking to the investigators that inspect the Boomershoot explosives magazine that things were rather “tight” but I had no idea how bad it was or why it was that way.

The full report includes such items as demands for remote controlled doors, and wood flooring in the directors office that alone cost over $62,000. The millwork alone for the other wood in the office would cost $243,000. That doesn’t include the executive bathroom which involved telephone, TV flat panel and radio speakers to listen/view news, quartzite tile floor to match the floor in the building atrium, a bench with a water resistant wood seat, tile wall “in horizontal straight stacked layout vs brick,” and sconces. The conference table cost $28,000. Don’t get me started on the bodyguards, motorcades, and the gym.

All this while agents in the field were using expired body armor and complaining of not having enough people, and other safety equipment.

Now, I’m all for the starving the ATF for money to spend on unconstitutional activities but the money should be left in the hands of the taxpayers rather than put into a quarter million dollar office for the chief villain.

See also: Homework help from the ATF.

I spoke with an NRA spokesman the other day.  Among other things, he was bragging up the fact that the NRA had sued to get some of the guns seized in the Katrina aftermath returned to their owners.

OK, kudos, NRA.  Great.  Wonderful.  Good job.

“Lets say I had broken into your home” I said, “ruffed you up, handcuffed you, and robbed you.  I then get caught, taken in and put on trial.  Would you consider it justice if the only thing that happened to me was that I were forced to return some of your belongings?”  End of story?  Hurrah, Hurrah?  I think not.

I then asked him if he could name a single instance in which the NRA had attempted to get a violator of the Second Amendment punished for his crime.  A long silence ensued, after which I had to ask, “Are you still there?”  He could not think of a single instance, nor had he ever even considered such a question.  I then asked him if he could name a single anti-gun law that, once passed, the NRA had managed to get repealed.  Again, silence.

“If I stole all the fire extinguishers from your house, and later you started a minor kitchen fire while cooking dinner, and your house burnt down because you couldn’t find a fire extinguisher, would you not hold me at least partially responsible for the loss of your house?”  After all, stealing your fire extinguishers is a violation of your rights and of the law, which limited your options in a response to an emergency.

Maybe you’d consider justice as having been served if, after you lost your house due to my violation of your property rights, I were merely forced by order of a judge to return half of your fire extinguishers a year later, all the while having continued my attempts at burglarizing other people’s houses for their fire extinguishers.”

Anyone would be a damned fool to think so.  It would be a sick joke, wouldn’t it?  Yet this is exactly the situation we face with regard to our Second Amendment rights and I dare say no one is doing anything about it.  People are being disarmed and thereby exposed to an increased risk for injury and death, and we’re supposed to jump for joy, singing “Happy Days Are Here Again” at the news that a few of the weapons are returned a year after they were illegally confiscated?  What about the perpetrators (I say, criminals– enemies of the Republic) who confiscated the weapons in the first place?  What happens to them?

Dead Silence.

We have a certain body of law in this country.  It is defined as the Supreme Law of the Land.  It is the Constitution of the United States. All of our elected officials are sworn by Oath to uphold, defend and protect the Constitution, and many of them set out immediately to circumvent, compromise, dilute, and willfully violate that Constitution.

Yet when was the last time you can recall any individual ever being punished for that violation?  It does not happen.  These people are law breakers.  They have been entrusted with, and then broken, the most important law in our society- the one that protects the very fabric of our Republic, and it seems to me that the very worst that has happened to any of them as a result is that they stand a small chance of being forced into early retirement (losing an election) and taking a life-long pension at the tax payers’ expense.

Until those who violate our constitutionally guaranteed rights are held personally liable for their crimes, they have no real incentive to stop.

Having said that, I have a friendly message for all you legislators, cops and judges out there– those of you who feel so comfortable attacking the rights of your fellow countrymen:  Your words, and your actions, are a matter of public record.  They will follow you for the rest of your life and in a time when intercommunication is increasing exponentially.  How much are you willing to bet on the notion that We The People will never actually get serious about protecting our rights?

I wonder if the ATF would have helped my nephew’s with his high school homework had I asked really nicely:

The man who recently departed as director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ordered his staff to help with his nephew’s high-school homework, wasting the agency’s time and violating ethics rules, an inquiry found Wednesday.

The nephew’s project — a documentary about the ATF that took 10 months to complete — was one of a half-dozen examples of lapses in judgment Carl Truscott committed before he resigned in August, says the report by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine.

Probably not. But it would have been just as constitutionally justified as any other activity they are involved in.