Sunday, January 6, 2013
America’s Biggest Killers: The Chart Anti-Gunners Don’t Want You To See
What we are hearing from bloviating gun control advocates in America is nothing short of emotionally driven irrationality.
According to statistics assembled from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Center for Disease Control and the Federal Government, firearms related homicides are minuscule in comparison to other the other “big killers” in the United States.
If we look at homicide statistics in the United States it’s clear that more murders are committed with knives, bats, hammers and poisons than with firearms. As Kurt Nimmo recently noted, “ the number of murders committed annually with hammers and clubs far outpaces the number of murders committed with a rifle.”The facts, not the drivel being spewed by the anti-gun propaganda machine, leave us wondering why some State and Federal lawmakers are so adamant about restricting the sale and ownership of handguns and rifles, especially since the majority of gun owners – close to 99% – have never committed a violent crime in their lives, let alone used a gun to do so.
The chart above proves that politicians and those who would disarm Americans by going so far as to call for a repeal of the 2nd Amendment have ulterior motives – or they’re completely ignorant of the facts.
Perhaps their goal is to trigger a revolution in an effort to implement a total police state over the American people.
It wouldn’t be the first time that a government has tried something like this.
The Department Of Homeland Security Is Hard At Work With One Billion New Bullets
Last March we found 450 million rounds of .40 caliber ammunition slated for delivery to the Department of Homeland Service and its agencies.
Weeks later we found an additional request for 750 million rounds. The news wasn't reported much, though the order forms are still floating around.
It's not as demand for ammunition by the DHS is terribly new. Manufacturer Winchester posted an award to its site in 2009 agreeing to deliver 200 million rounds for the agency over five years. But if that's accurate it's an additional order that's still coming in on top of the others.
Major General Jerry Curry, (Ret) offered up a good point when the 750 million order became public last fall saying that number of bullets was more than 10 times what U.S. troops used in a full year of Iraqi combat.
Now that a new Department of Homeland Security order for another 200,000 hollow points has been placed, we're curious to see what happens to that much ammunition in 12 months. Knowing that DHS trains rural, regional, and federal law enforcement at their Georgia training center, we took a look online to see what programs they have requiring so much firepower.
The Firearms Division (FAD) at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Glynco, Georgia is the biggest facility of its kind in the nation and has more than 88 instructors from several federal agencies.
Wikimedia Commons
H&K MP-5
|
Homeland Security offers a Rifle Training Program, a Precision Rifle Observer Training Program (PROP) that looks like a 37 hour sniper/counter-sniper course. The bonus at PROP is any uniformed officer can take the course and receive the advanced training, since assignment to a sniper team or tactical unit is not required. No rifle or sniper training at all, in fact, is required to take this one where public servants learn to take out targets at more than 1,800 feet away.
There's also the Reactive Shooting Instructor Training Program (RSITP), which looks like some sound practical advice for folks facing off against bad people during their workday.
The Submachine Gun Instructor Training Program (SMGITP) is the class you just know gets wait-listed with the brass and its friends. If shooters are unfortunate enough to lack their own machine guns, DHS provides H&K MP-5 and UMP-40, Colt M-4, SMG (9mm) and the FN P90 for testing and training. There are even two tests required to graduate this one. Maybe submachine guns are as difficult to fire as they are fun, or maybe it's just another couple chances to cook off more free ammunition. One test goes down with the H&K MP-5 the other the Colt M-4.
Finally, the Survival Shooting Training Program (SSTP) seems like a challenging 8.5 day Master course where Law Enforcement Officer's become acquainted with a variety of weaponry, technique, and the effects of stress.
 |
Definitely a comprehensive program, especially the Interesting Facts About The Firearms Division page. I'll list them below in their entirety after I point one fact that states all the firing in the above courses, and whatever else gets expended, requires about 15 million rounds of ammunition a year.
That doesn't make the most recent batch of 200,000 rounds seem out of line, but those billion or so rounds, seem like they could be better accounted for. Anyway, as promised — all the interesting facts about the firearms division:
- Firearms Division (FAD) has approximately 49 buildings that include indoor and outdoor firing ranges, offices, ammunition and weapons storage, equipment and supply storage spaces.
- The indoor range complex and the outdoor ranges (to include 2 outdoor ranges currently under construction) have a combined total of approximately 384 firing points for live fire training.
- These do not include the various scenario-based training ranges that FAD uses for tactical training.
- FAD has approximately 9 training ranges used for scenario-based tactical firearms training.
- There are approximately 150 staff members assigned to the Firearms Division including managers, support personnel and instructors.
- The instructor cadre consists of former law enforcement and/or military personnel who now work for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) and current law enforcement personnel detailed from many of the agencies who participate in training conducted at the FLETC.
- Training requires the use of approximately 15 million rounds of ammunition annually.
- The ammunition includes lead projectiles and reduced hazard (environmentally friendly) ammunition.
- The reduced hazard ammunition accounts for approximately 70 percent of the ammunition expended for training.
- FAD offers 8 advanced firearms training programs. These programs are open to Federal, state and municipal law enforcement personnel. Some international law enforcement personnel attend these programs when they are sponsored by one of the Federal partner agencies.
- FAD offers approximately 120 firearms courses. Many of these are contained in FLETC basic, agency basic and advanced law enforcement training programs.
- FAD conducts advanced export training (off site) at other Federal, state and municipal facilities around+ the country on an as-needed basis.
Obama to pay US debt with trillion-dollar coins?
The United States can’t just print paper money all willy-nilly every time it exhausts its borrowing options, but the US can, however, have a figurative field day when it comes to some types of coin.
As analyst Chris Krueger from Guggenheim Securities’ Washington Research Group explains to the American Enterprise Institute, “There are limits on how much paper money the U.S. can circulate and rules that govern coinage on gold, silver and copper. BUT, the Treasury has broad discretion on coins made from platinum.”
“Although the Treasury can't just create money out of thin air to pay its bills, there is a technicality in the law that says the Treasury has special discretion to create platinum coins of any denomination, and the thinking is that [Secretary of the Treasury] Tim Geithner could make the coin and walk it over to the Federal Reserve and deposit it in the Treasury's bank account,” adds Joe Weisenthal of Business Insider.
Although the idea seems outrageous, it’s been discussed repeatedly in the media since the start of 2013, and has even been brought up by an influential member of Congress.
"It sounds silly but it's absolutely legal,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-New York) tells New York Capital this week. "There is specific statutory authority that says that the Federal Reserve can mint any non-gold or -silver coin in any denomination, so all you do is you tell the Federal Reserve to make a platinum coin for one trillion dollars, and then you deposit it in the Treasury account, and you pay your bills.”
More than 1,000 people have already petitioned the Obama administration to order the minting of a coin on the White House’s We the People webpage, and New York Times economist Paul Krugman considered the option himself this week. Of course, doing as much is easier said than done. Designing the actual look of the coin would be up to Congress, and asking the House and the Senate to agree on the face adorning a one-trillion-dollar coin would likely lead to all sorts of Capitol Hill bickering.
Chris Krueger adds to the American Enterprise Institute that this option has a “VERY low probability” of ever happening, and Business Insider’s Weisenthal willingly says it’s a silly route to take, in his own opinion.
“But what's sillier is a rich nation having a debate on whether it will pay what it owes, which is what the debt ceiling fight is all about. So in the face of such silliness, this unfortunately may be required,” he says.
Trillion Dollar Coins: The Ultimate Debt Ceiling End-Around?
It goes like this: Should Congress fail to extend the U.S. debt limit — reached again on Dec. 31 — the president could ask the Treasury to begin printing trillion dollar coins (in a process explained mostly seriously by Jim Pethokoukis on his American Enterprise Institute blog), a number of which could then be put toward fulfilling debt obligations in the event new legislation stalls in Congress.
While there are laws in place to regulate how much paper, gold, silver or copper currency can be circulated by the government, there is nothing so clearly stated when it comes to platinum. That door open, the Treasury could have the U.S. Mint melt and mold a few trillion dollars of it, then ship the goods over to the Federal Reserve for safekeeping until the time comes to pay the bills.
The more difficult part comes sometime after the decision is made to coin the platinum and before the Mint gets to work in sculpting the pieces.
At that point, the American people must decide whose face will adorn the trillion dollar trinket. The process to determine the “specs” of the coin, U.S. Mint Public Affairs Specialist Genevieve Billia warns, must be “determined by legislation,” creating the potential for another congressional impasse.
Also to note: The likeness sculpted into its side must belong to a dead person, ruling out early favorite Ikea Monkey, but boosting the candidacies of Ronald Reagan and John Maynard Keynes.
Uncertainty grows over Pentagon budget
The two-month delay to pending Pentagon spending cuts included in the last-minute fiscal cliff deal passed last week shows both U.S. political parties oppose the across-the-board cut to planned military spending through sequestration.
But it’s not that simple, as the two parties remain far apart on the details.
In fact, finding a mix of deficit-reduction components deemed politically appetizing to both could derail anti-sequestration efforts and trigger on March 1 the $500 billion, decade-long cut to projected Pentagon budgets.
The fiscal cliff-avoidance measure “doesn’t change a thing about sequestration, other than moving the goalposts a few, small steps,” House Armed Services Committee member Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., told Defense News through a spokesman. “Defense cuts might be delayed two months, but when that time comes, and it’s right around the corner already, we’re back at square one.”
For months, sequestration was tied to efforts to extend tax breaks for most Americans while raising rates on the highest earners. Now it will be part of what lawmakers and pundits say will be a nasty fight over the debt ceiling. And that, they agree, is a big problem for the defense sector.
“At this point, sequestration will probably only get the attention it deserves if it’s isolated from other big budget issues and dealt with separately,” Hunter said. “Otherwise, the outcome could be more delays and uncertainty, and whether we’re talking businesses or national defense, or anything else, that’s no way to budget.”
As the effort to avoid the sequestration cuts begins, the two parties appear very far apart on how to put together a suitable deficit-paring package.
Obama is insisting that new federal revenues be a part of a sequester-killing deal. The president on Dec. 31 said lawmakers must find both revenues and other cuts to offset any delay to the twin $500 billion defense and domestic cuts, saying the plan must be “balanced.”
But congressional Republicans say they will resist further revenue-raising measures beyond the high-earner tax hikes in the fiscal cliff bill. GOP members have long been resistant to anything that would increase federal revenues.
Instead, Republicans are salivating for the debt-ceiling fight, eager to battle Obama for big federal spending cuts.
“Democrats now have the opportunity — and the responsibility — to join Republicans in a serious effort to reduce Washington’s out-of-control spending,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said. “That’s a debate the American people want. It’s the debate we’ll have next. And it’s a debate Republicans are ready for.”
Former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker said last week during a television interview that “we’re going to see a big battle over spending as part of the debate over the debt ceiling and the [continuing resolution].”
What does that mean for the defense sector? “My guess is the odds of another delay have gone down and the odds of actually having a sequester have gone up,” said Todd Harrison, a senior budget analyst at Washington’s Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
For defense, the potential problem lies in a changing GOP ideology and simple math.
“Senator McConnell says spending now means entitlement programs,” said one former congressional aide. “What are you going to do, completely gut the non-defense part of the budget?”
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said several times last week that Washington should immediately move to dramatically cut the costs of domestic entitlement programs.
But several analysts say cutting entitlement programs to get to deficit-reduction targets is not politically feasible.
That means the math likely will lead to some level of further Pentagon cuts if a deal is struck — or frustrated lawmakers walking away from talks and allowing the full $1 trillion in defense and domestic cuts to kick in.
Several sources said if they were either Defense Secretary Leon Panetta or Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey, they would be very nervous with their massive budget tied directly to what will be a debate about the size of government and how much it should spend.
Heritage Foundation analyst James Carafano tweeted on Jan. 2: “Talk of more #fiscalcliff(s) starting [to] sound more like speed bumps to higher taxes, more government spending & bigger defense cuts.”
Hawkish lawmakers are banking that an ample number of congressmen will be mindful of Panetta’s warnings about the national security implications of sequestration, causing them to put aside worries about how to pay for the delay.
“The secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have said they will be unable to defend this nation if sequestration happens,” Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member John McCain, R-Ariz., told reporters Dec. 31. “That’s good enough for me, and it should be good enough for anybody that’s negotiating.”
But analysts say the current House GOP caucus no longer includes military spending as an untouchable plank of its party platform. It has in many ways been replaced by an intense focus on cutting spending, shrinking the federal government and paring the deficit — by any means necessary.
“They came to Washington not to govern,” one former official told Defense News recently. “They came to Washington to burn down the castle.”
Gordon Adams of American University, who oversaw defense budgeting for the Clinton administration, offered another frightening scenario.
Pentagon funding currently exceeds spending caps put in place by the 2011 Budget Control Act. “If there’s no [sequestration] agreement by March 1, there will be a sequester. And the Pentagon and Energy Department would take a $42.5 billion cut,” Adams said. “That would bring the level of Pentagon and Energy spending below the cap.”
The Launch Of Russia's New 'Silent' Sub Is Just One Step In Rebuilding Its Mighty Military
Russia recently launched its near silent nuclear submarine following several years of development.
The Borey Class submarine, dubbed Vladimir Monomakh, has a next generation
nuclear reactor, can dive deeper than 1,200 feet, and carries up to 20 nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM).Each of these "Bulava" ICBM's can carry ten detachable MIRV warheads, what they call "re-entry vehicles," capable of delivering 150 kiloton yields per warhead (luckily, tests of the warheads only yielded 11 "successes" out of almost 20 attempts). Which doesn't mean they aren't a concern, MIRV's are what shook the Cold War to its foundation when they first appeared in the 1970s.
And the Kremlin's not dissuaded or slowing down with plans to build eight additional Borey's over the next year, at a very reasonable cost of about $700 million each.
The sub is just one portion of a larger effort at re-arming the Russian navy — the Defence Ministry allocated another $659 billion — for another 50 new warships as well.
Russia's currently engaged in its largest Naval exercise "in decades," involving four of its fleets — maneuvering within the Black Sea, Baltic Sea, and the Northern and Pacific Oceans. The exercise is an attempt to strengthen its presence in the Mediterranean.
Finally, Russia launched a new "Voronezh-DM class anti-missile radar system" along its southern borders in what some analysts believe is a response to U.S. Patriot missile systems in Turkey.
One in a string of building responses to what it sees as U.S. provocations within a sphere of the world it's eager again to take control.
Assad rejects dialogue with “Western puppet." EU: He must step down
Syrian ruler Bashar Assad calls for full national mobilization against
outside forces whom he blames for orchestrating the conflict in his country. In
his first public appearance Sunday in seven months, the Syrian ruler outlined
what he called a peace plan. He invited “those who have not betrayed Syria” to a
conference of reconciliation, followed by the formation of a new government and
an amnesty. But Assad added, "We will not have dialogue with a puppet made by
the West.” The first stage of a political solution would require that the
regional powers stop funding and arming the opposition. He vowed to defeat the
rebellion fighting to overthrow his regime, calling the rebels “terrorists” and
“criminals” who harbor al Qaeda’s extremist ideology.
The European Union
reacted to the speech by calling on Assad to step down to allow political
transition.
Assad spoke before cheering supporters at the Opera House in central
Damascus.
Bolstered by 16 Russian warships, Assad nixes dialogue with “Western puppets”
With a buildup of 16 Russian warships carrying thousands of marines on the
Syrian coast “to deter the West from deploying ground forces in Syria,” Syrian
Bashar Assad could afford to brazen it out in his first public speech in seven
months. Speaking at the Damascus opera house, Sunday, Jan. 6, Assad said Syria
no longer takes dictation from anyone and called on Syrian citizens to defend
the country against “a war fought by only a handful of Syrians and many
foreigners.”
He rejected dialogue with the opposition which he referred to as “puppets fabricated by the West.”
He rejected dialogue with the opposition which he referred to as “puppets fabricated by the West.”
debkafile: Assad’s emphasis on this point indicates he counts on his war against Islamist terrorism as a long-term insurance policy for bolstering his regime’s survival.
The Syrian ruler’s speech Sunday was therefore far more upbeat than his last address in June. Then, he defended himself against pressing international demands to step down by vowing to “live and die in Syria.” In this speech, he makes no mention of resigning or throwing in the towel. In contrast to current predictions of his downfall, to be found in Western and Israeli media, Assad felt secure enough to set out his blueprint for ending the Syrian conflict.
He rejected the Syrian opposition movement as “puppets fabricated by the West,” and said that Syria wanted to negotiate with the "master not the servants."
FREE JONATHAN POLLARD!
Israeli parties unite in call for Pollard's release
The parties, which have been fighting vigorously ahead of the January 22 election, found Pollard to be an issue that unites them. The parties who signed the letter were Likud, Bayit Yehudi, Shas, United Torah Judaism, Kadima, Yesh Atid, Labor, Meretz, Strong Israel, and The Tzipi Livni Party.
In the letter, the parties note Pollard's recent hospitalization and the fact that on November 21 he entered the 28th year of his life sentence. They said the start of new terms in Washington and Jerusalem was an ideal time for US President Barack Obama to "turn a new leaf" in US-Israel relations by commuting Pollard's sentence to time served.
"We cannot ignore the painful reminder that this man's life could end while he is still in jail," they wrote. "Please act to bring about Pollard's release before it is too late.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)