Tag: police state

ATF Shuts Down Gunmaker After Suit By Anti-Gun Group

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) revoked a Nevada firearm manufacturer’s license following litigation from an anti-gun organization and two states challenging the agency’s decision to reinstate the gunmaker’s license, multiple outlets reported.

“ATF hereby reports that, on March 24, 2022, it sent JA Industries a notice of revocation of its firearms license,” a March 30 letter from the ATF said. The letter came after a lawsuit brought by the city of Kansas City, Missouri, and the state of Illinois as well as Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun-control group partly founded by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other mayors, challenged the ATF’s decision to grant a license to JA Industries, USA Today reported. 

The company, originally known as Jimenez Arms, made affordable handguns until filing for bankruptcy in 2020 on the heels of a lawsuit in which Kansas City claimed it was a public nuisance due to its alleged contribution to firearms trafficking, Newsweek reported. It later reincorporated as JA Industries and was reissued its license by the ATF.

Everytown then followed up with a 2021 lawsuit against the ATF over its decision to grant the license to JA Industries, claiming that due to its alleged violations of the Gun Control Act, the gunmaker was ineligible to be licensed.

“I think this is an undisputed important step toward shutting down a manufacturer that flouted federal law and facilitated gun trafficking,” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown, told USA Today. “It shouldn’t have taken three lawsuits to get ATF to do its job. I can only hope this marks a beginning of a new era at ATF where it starts to serve as a watchdog of the American people rather than a lapdog to the gun industry.”

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Canada’s Heritage Minister says online censorship bill will help free speech

To advise the Heritage Minister on regulating Canada’s internet, a panel of experts, most of them academics, has been appointed. One of the government’s internet regulation plans, alongside the online censorship bill, is to create a federal internet censorship agency.

When announcing the panel of experts, Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said, “We are open to all ideas. The only thing we want is to do the right thing, is to make it right, is to make it happen.”

The minister was asked if it was a priority for the internet censorship bill not to infringe Canadians’ rights. He said that freedom of expression is a fundamental right and is “at the core” of the bill.

“But I’ll tell you something else,” Rodriguez said. “Actually there are a lot of people who don’t want to share what they think anymore, who are afraid of going online to speak freely because of the negative and violent reaction they may get. I think in some ways this will really help freedom of speech.”

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Rep. Maxine Waters warns reporter over LA homeless story: ‘You’ll hurt yourself’

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) tried to stop the publication of a news story about Los Angeles’ homeless crisis this week, reportedly telling a Los Angeles Times scribe: “You’ll hurt yourself and the community trying to put this together.”

The Wednesday story by investigative reporter Connor Sheets detailed a March 25 incident in South Los Angeles, where hundreds of homeless people tried to obtain Section 8 housing vouchers after being misled by social media rumors.

The would-be applicants crashed an event held by nonprofit advocacy group Fathers and Mothers Who Care, which had been meant to help the unhoused obtain emergency shelter. 

The confusion reportedly overwhelmed the non-profit as well as Los Angeles Housing Services Authority (LAHSA) workers who told the unexpected arrivals that they would only be able to provide their information and enter an emergency housing database.

At one point, Waters told the crowd: “I want everybody to go home,” triggering an angry response.

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