Like a vulture feasting on carrion U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut is cynically exploiting the dead children from Sandy Hook to raise campaign cash, and the editorial board of the New Haven Registerrightly condemns his sick appeal: "using the 'horror' of the 'massacre of 20 beautiful children' at a time
when critical legislation honoring their memory is at stake to beg for
$5 for your next political campaign is as tasteless as it gets."
Have you no shame, Mr. Blumenthal?
Meanwhile, "when it comes to stricter gun-control laws, the nation’s law enforcement isn’t too keen on enforcement" as reported by Jacob Gershman for The Wall Street Journal: "90% said civilians should have the right to carry concealed firearms," and "95% don't think a
federal ban on manufacture and sale of ammunition magazines would reduce
violent crime."
Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife Cynthia Woodward McLelland were shot to death in their home last night as reported by The Dallas Morning News:
A law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity
described the scene at the McLellands' home as an awful scene where the
door appeared to have been kicked in. "There are shell casings everywhere," the official said. "This is unprecedented. This is unbelievable. This is huge."
Last month Kaufman County Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse was gunned down
outside the local courthouse by two men in tactical gear who remain at
large, and authorities fear the murders may be connected to a retaliatory plot by Mexican cartels.
Mike Vigil, retired chief of international operations for the Drug
Enforcement Administration, said "regardless who carried out the
Kaufman County attacks, the link to Mexican drug cartels is
clear" as reported by the Houston Chronicle:
"It really paints a portrait of individuals who are either affiliated
with Mexican drug trafficking organizations -- either directly or
indirectly -- or individuals who have learned (their) tactics,"
Vigil said. In Mexico, an ongoing war between drug cartels and security forces
has turned regions of the country into lawless lands, where
cartel hit men have shown no hesitation to spray people with gun
fire in their homes or businesses, or kick down their doors and
disappear them in the night. "It could be a world of possibilities," he continued. "But it is a
common tactic used by Mexican drug cartels and it is signature
given the fact that this is what they do in Mexico."
Last week the Texas Department of Public Safety released a report
identifying the Mexican drug cartels as the greatest threat to the Lone
Star State as reported by KWTX: "six cartels have command and control networks in the state, moving
drugs
and people into the United States, and transporting cash, weapons and
stolen vehicles back to Mexico." Former Texas Ranger Mark Leger says
"Mexican drug cartels are a real and present threat to Central Texas,"
and "sometimes, the general public doesn't have any idea that there are
gangs operating in their cities and towns."
The drug cartels freelance their retail distribution and enforcement
work to local street and prison gangs across the United States, and
have recently been targeting both Mexican and U.S. law enforcement
officials for assassination.
In the past the Kaufman District Attorney's Office assisted in a federal investigation targeting the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas which allegedly is a
methamphetamine distributor for the Gulf cartel as reported by Dave Gibson for the Examiner.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration naively -- or is it cynically?
-- continues to insist that the border is secure, there is no evidence
of drug-related spillover violence, and American citizens have no need
to own semi-automatic rifles and standard-capacity magazines for
personal protection.
The mass hysteria within the Democrat party over gun violence inexplicably fails to acknowledge street gangs as the primary driver in the bloody carnage.
A new study released by the University of Cincinnati Institute of Crime Science found that in Baton Rouge, LA "43 percent of the 199 murders occurring between September 2010
and October 2012 were confirmed to be 'gang-member involved murders,' and "an
additional 12 percent of the killings were found to 'likely' be 'gang-member involved murders,' a classification that includes homicides
in which the victim or suspect is a known gang member" as reported by Jim Mustian for The Advocate.
Herbert "Tweety" Anny, the Director of the Baton Rouge Area Violence Elimination project which commissioned the study, says "they're the groups that are most likely to either shoot somebody or to get shot themselves."
Of course, the Democrat politicians and their media apologists won't let the facts get in the way of their cynical agenda to strip guns from law-abiding Americans.
The LAPD has busted twenty suspected MS-13 members for their alleged roles in shaking down protection money from food trucks on construction sites for the last five years as reported by Andrew Blanstein for the Los Angeles Times.
MS-13 originated in Los Angeles, CA but operates in more than 40 states with at least 8,000 members across the country, and last October the Treasury
Department designated it as a transnational criminal organization which freezes
their U.S. assets and bans Americans from conducting business
with them according to an agency press release.
The crime group is among those behind the child sex trade
in the United States, and "in Northern Virginia, 12 gang members, mostly
MS-13, have been locked up for child sex trafficking in the past two
years" as reported by Pamela Brown for WJLA:
"We're seeing most of the cases coming from MS-13 with regards to sex
trafficking and we've seen a number of those cases from the past year,"
said John Torres, Special Agent in Charge with ICE Homeland Security
Investigations. "For us it's a disturbing trend."
Meanwhile, clueless Democrats like U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein insist that law abiding Americans do not need semi-automatic guns or standard-capacity magazines for self-protection even as the street gangs and drug cartels take over our streets.
During the Senate judiciary committee debate on a bill which would ban 157 semi-automatic guns and standard-capacity magazines Republican Ted Cruz argued against it by invoking Constitutional principle and reasoned logic while Democrat Dianne Feinstein urged its passage by resorting to victim exploitation and emotional hysteria as reported by Emily Miller for The Washington Times. The bill narrowly passed the committee on a 10-8 strict party line vote although it is "certain to fail" -- rightly so -- in the full Senate as reported by Thomas Ferraro for Reuters.
