On December 14, 2010, Customs and Border Protection Agent Brian Terry was shot as he tried to capture heavily armed "bandits" targeting illegal immigrants trying to get across the border near Rio Rico, Arizona. He died the next morning.
It was a tragic incident that occurs frequently on our southern border, made all the more tragic because THE SEMI-AUTOMATIC RIFLE THAT WAS USED TO KILL AGENT TERRY WAS BOUGHT BY A CRIMINAL AND SMUGGLED INTO MEXICO UNDER THE WATCHFUL EYE OF THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO AND FIREARMS (ATF). "The gun used to kill Agent Brian Terry has been sourced, not to Mexico, but to a gun store in Phoenix that was actually part --- and cooperating --- with a federal investigation into arms trafficking. However, U.S. agents did not stop the sale or the transfer of that gun to the cartels that killed Terry." -- William Lajeunesse, Fox News broadcast (February 22, 2011).
Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) is now demanding answers on ATF's "Project Gunrunner." Hundreds of guns were allowed to be purchased along the border by alleged straw buyers, while ATF conducted its investigation and DID NOTHING. The ATF looked the other way while these guns slipped into Mexico into the hands of drug cartels, and then they blamed gun laws in the United States for the transactions.
The ATF is under threat of a 13% budget cut. They claim cuts will hurt their efforts to prevent firearms trafficking on the Mexican border---but the death of Agent Terry exposed how corrupt and inadequate this initiative has been.
What lengths will the ATF go to in order to keep their funding?
James Cavanaugh, a retired ATF official says losing 13% of their budget "would really handicap the ATF. It's a small agency and it's a lean machine. With ATF, it would be an amputation."
I say we amputate!
ATF's own agents say that sometime in late 2009 or early 2010, the Phoenix office of ATF began to implement a policy of "walking" semi-automatic rifles south of the border. One agent says, "The agency was not only looking the other way but actually facilitating trafficking, threatening and punishing agents who voiced objections, covering up trace information, the truth about the gun that killed BPA Terry, what I.C.E. knew, it goes on and on."
The accusations against ATF and DOJ officials include:
1. They intentionally allowed perhaps as many as 3,000 firearms to "walk" across the U.S. border into Mexico.
2. They instructed U.S. gun dealers to proceed with questionable and illegal sales of firearms to suspected gunrunners.
3. They intentionally withheld information about U.S.-sanctioned gun smuggling from the Mexican government.
4. One of the guns ATF allowed or helped to be smuggled into Mexico was involved in the death of CBP Agent Brian Terry.
For two years, we've been hearing from Holder and others in the Obama administration about a so-called 'iron pipeline' of American guns across the border, and federal officials have been working to strip you of your rights. Wouldn't it be ironic to learn that while the Obama administration was blaming our gun rights for the drug war violence in Mexico, its own gun sting operation was a major source of illicit firearms?
Obama nominated anti-gun zealot Andrew Traver to head up the ATF prior to Congressional recess last year, and reappointed him in the 112th Congress---but the Senate Judiciary Committee has yet to hold hearings. Rumors are that this Gunrunner issue is causing problems, because the ATF doesn't want questions about this case to come up.
What does the ATF not want us to know?
This is a cover-up at the highest levels of our government.
The Second Amendment guarantees us the right to bear arms. There is no language in the Constitution that allows for restricting this freedom.
But the Obama administration and Members of Congress are still trying to take away that freedom, especially in the wake of the Tucson shootings.
Those of us who have a strong desire to protect our rights to own a gun need to put our money where our passion is. Don't wake up tomorrow and find out it's too late. Please give the largest gift that you possibly can to CCRKBA as we FIGHT the corrupt ATF and the Obama/Democrat agenda to take away our Second Amendment rights.
I agree with Senator Grassley, who tells Attorney General Eric Holder it's time to "come clean."
This tyranny will not prevail on our watch! Thank you for your help.
Respectfully, Alan M. Gottlieb, Chairman. Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
P.S. If you prefer to donate by check, please mail to: Citizens Committee for the Right, to Keep and Bear Arms, Dept Code 5752, Liberty Park, 12500 NE 10th Place, Bellevue, WA 98005
With more than 650,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is one of the nation's premier gun rights organizations. As a non-profit organization, the Citizens Committee is dedicated to preserving firearms freedoms through active lobbying of elected officials and facilitating grass-roots organization of gun rights activists in local communities throughout the United States. Contributions are not tax deductible. The Citizens Committee can be reached by phone at (425) 454-4911 or by email to InformationRequest@ccrkba.org
Political significance [of a 'court jester']
The Royal Shakespeare Company provides historical context for the role of the fool:
In ancient times courts employed fools and by the Middle Ages the jester was a familiar figure. In Renaissance times, aristocratic households in Britain employed licensed fools or jesters, who sometimes dressed as other servants were dressed, but generally wore a motley (i.e. parti-coloured) coat, hood with ass's (i.e. donkey) ears or a red-flannel coxcomb and bells. Regarded as pets or mascots, they served not simply to amuse but to criticise their master or mistress and their guests. Queen Elizabeth (reigned 1558-1603) is said to have rebuked one of her fools for being insufficiently severe with her. Excessive behaviour, however, could lead to a fool being whipped, as Lear threatens to whip his fool.[1]
One may conceptualize fools in two camps: those of the natural fool type and those of the licensed fool type. Whereas the natural fool was seen as innately nit-witted, moronic, or mad, the licensed fool was given leeway by permission of the court. In other words, both were excused, to some extent, for their behavior, the first because he "couldn't help it," and the second by decree.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JesterDistinction was made between fools and clowns, or country bumpkins. The fool's status was one of privilege within a royal or noble household. His folly could be regarded as the raving of a madman but was often deemed to be divinely inspired. The 'natural' fool was touched by God. Much to Gonerill's annoyance, Lear's 'all-licensed' Fool enjoys a privileged status. His characteristic idiom suggests he is a 'natural' fool, not an artificial one, though his perceptiveness and wit show that he is far from being an idiot, however 'touched' he might be.[1]
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