Showing posts with label Tobacco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tobacco. Show all posts

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Would Holder have banned guns--if he could?

February 26, 2015 Ammunition , AR-15 0 Comments
Obama To Ban Bullets By Executive Action, Threatens Top-Selling AR-15 Rifle

By Paul Bedard, Feb. 26, 2015, 

It’s starting.

As promised, President Obama is using executive actions to impose gun control on the nation, targeting the top-selling rifle in the country, the AR-15 style semi-automatic, with a ban on one of the most-used AR bullets by sportsmen and target shooters.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives this month revealed that it is proposing to put the ban on 5.56 mm ammo on a fast track, immediately driving up the price of the bullets and prompting retailers, including the huge outdoors company Cabela’s, to urge sportsmen to urge Congress to stop the president.

Wednesday night, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, stepped in with a critical letter to the bureau demanding it explain the surprise and abrupt bullet ban. The letter is shown below.

Read the full story:  www.washingtonexaminer.com

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Monday, October 13, 2014

Bait and switch

October 13, 2014 Jim Estes , Nytimes.com 0 Comments
How the Big Tobacco Deal Went Bad

By Jim Estes, Oct. 6, 2014, Nytimes.com

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — WHEN was the last time you saw an anti-smoking ad?

In November 1998, the tobacco industry and 46 states reached what is known as the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (four states reached separate settlements). This group deal exempted the industry from legal liability for the harm caused by tobacco use. In return, the tobacco companies agreed to make annual payments, in perpetuity, to the states to fund anti-smoking campaigns and public health programs. The industry guaranteed a minimum of $206 billion over the first 25 years.

While a requirement that the states use these funds as intended was not written into the agreement, it was anticipated that they would do so.

They haven’t.

Only a small fraction of the money has gone to tobacco prevention. Instead, the states have used the windfall for various and unrelated expenditures. In Alaska, $3.5 million in settlement money was spent on shipping docks. In Niagara County, N.Y., $700,000 went for a public golf course’s sprinkler system, and $24 million for a county jail and an office building. And in North Carolina, in the ultimate irony, $42 million of the settlement funds actually went to tobacco farmers for modernization and marketing.

But that’s not all: Nine states — Alaska, California, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island and West Virginia — and Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and Guam decided to get as much of those annual payments as fast as they could by mortgaging any future payments as collateral and issuing bonds. They traded their future lifetime income for cash today — at only pennies on the dollar.

Read the full story:  www.nytimes.com

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Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Fox News: "Feds seize customer list from California gun parts store in ATF raid"

March 19, 2014 Ares Armor , ATF 0 Comments
FoxNews.com
The owner of a California gun parts store says he plans to take legal action after federal agents raided his business, confiscating computers, customer lists and 80 percent lower receivers as part of an investigation into alleged federal firearms violations.

Dimitrios Karras, owner of Ares Armor in National City, told Fox5SanDiego.com the raid by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents took place just days after the company obtained a temporary restraining order against the agency. 
“There were women and children inside our retail establishment when the (ATF) agents came in with guns drawn,” Karras told the station. "They came into our firearms manufacturing facility saying, ‘Arms up!’ like they were invading Iraq.”
The ATF says their investigation into Ares Armor stems from the sale of a new plastic version of the 80 percent lower receiver, which can be used to build AR-15 rifles, according to the report.
Although certain receivers may be sold and purchased legally, the agency claims the company was selling receivers manufactured differently with two parts, making them illegal to sell.


Read the full story:  www.foxnews.com
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Saturday, March 15, 2014

Daily Caller: "California Gun Store Owner To Feds: No, You Can’t Have My Customer List" --Question: Why is ACLU awol on 2nd amend?

March 15, 2014 2nd Amendment , ACLU 0 Comments
By Alex Pappas, Political Reporter, Daily Caller
A gun store owner in California has a message for the feds: No, you can’t force me to turn over my customer list to you.
Fox 5 in San Diego reported that Dimitrios Karras, the Oceanside, Calif. owner of Ares Armor, said Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms department agents have threatened to raid his business if he doesn’t hand over a list of all customers who purchased an item for building an AR-15.
The ATF, according to Karras, wants the names of 5,000 customers who bought a certain 80 percent lower receiver, something the feds say is illegal. Gun stores that have sold these specific items have been told by the ATF to hand over a list of customers who have them.

“They said either give us these 5,000 names or we are coming in and taking pretty much anything – which is a huge privacy concern and something we are not willing to do,” Karras told Fox 5.
Read the full story:  www.dailycaller.com

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