Earlier in the week I posted on the New York man who had his firearm confiscated, purportedly for being on anti-depressant drugs (which I noted at the time is a treatment for a fairly common malady; making the confiscation akin to seizing someone’s broken arm for the crime of wearing a cast). As the story broke and started gaining narrative steam, NY state law enforcement (Erie) suggested that the whole thing had been an honest record-keeping mistake and that the mental health aspect of the story as it had been reported wasn’t true.
Naturally, many thinking pro-gun conservatives were quick to hammer the extremists who uncritically believed the initial reporting of (metaphorical) black helicopters swooping in to confiscate firearms; the fringe, hard-right true believers were being unhelpful, you see — fearmongering! — because we all know that a government that puts in place a law denying itself a certain power would never abuse such a law, and the fact that lawmakers were stern in their legal admonishments to themselves is proof of their integrity and commitment to their word.
Except when it isn’t. Which is why I point you to this follow-up to the story from Friday, presented without comment. “Radio host charges Cuomo/DHS conspiracy against gun owners”:
Claiming information from multiple sources that ought to require the resignations of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and State Police Superintendent Joe D’Amico, WBEN Buffalo radio host Tom Bauerle yesterday told listeners he’s had it confirmed that New York State Police are lying when they say they made a mistake when they confiscated an Erie County resident’s guns. Instead, Bauerle charges, there is a high-level conspiracy to violate the Fourth Amendment rights of New Yorkers that reaches up to the Obama administration’s Department of Homeland Security.
The claim by the Erie County Clerk that New York State Police had simply provided “bad information” resulting in permit revocation and the confiscation of Amherst resident David Lewis’ guns is not true, Bauerle insists. “I’ve had it confirmed; the New York State Police are lying about him not being the guy they wanted.”
Police weren’t expecting Lewis to get a lawyer, Bauerle says, especially one who knows the Second Amendment.
“They had the guy they wanted,” Bauerle maintains, calling the official excuse “nonsense” and charging Gov. Cuomo “is a monomaniac on the subject of guns.” What happened, he explains, is that the state has a special HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) unit to search private medical records without warrants, and that Lewis was simply the first person to be caught up in that net.
It’s a scheme “to deprive New York citizens of basic protections,” Bauerle charges, where the state wants “carte blanche to look at every person’s medical records and cross-reference them with pistol permit holders” for purposes of confiscation and permit revocation. According to Baurele, his sources tell him this is being coordinated with officials in the Department of Homeland Security, and there was a meeting in Albany with the New York State Police and the Division of Criminal Justice Services “at the impetus of DHS.”
Bauerle alleges there is “a clandestine squad” violating the Fourth Amendment and circumventing HIPAA privacy protections in order to revoke pistol permits from those who have been prescribed anti-depressants or who have undergone mental health treatment, calling that “tyranny, plainly and simply.”
Max Tresmond, the son of Lewis’ attorney Jim Tresmond, joined the program and told Bauerle their law firm is having information leaked to them from inside the state “that confirms everything that you just conveyed to the public.”
As for next steps, the host and his guest advocated for continuing the investigation, having citizens demand a special prosecutor to investigate the allegations of “a plan to systematically violate the Fourth Amendment,” and also put out a call for more whistleblowers to “come forward,” guaranteeing protection of confidentiality.
“We are in the process of preparing a federal case on behalf of David Lewis,” Tresmond revealed, promising “we will be relentless in our pursuit of the truth.”
The interview can be listened to in its entirety at the WBEN website.
I urge you to listen to the interview and draw your own conclusions. And then steel yourself for the battles to come. Because though many people keep insisting that gun control is DOA in the House (should it find its way out of the Senate), I submit that there are a number of troubling signs from GOP House leadership that suggests to me that a group of Republicans — hoping to prove their “anti-child slaughter” bona fides — will break off from the majority and once again caucus with the Democrats to pass “common sense” gun control laws that “90% of Americans” support.
Perception over principle. And further solidification of the power of the ruling class over its subjects, sold yet again as a “common sense” constraint on liberties that will protect the children.
How’s that “pragmatic” strategy working out for you, there, conservative “realists”?
(h/t segerbullet)
Based on a quick look at the New York statue, Joe Biden, who has twice had brain surgery, should be banned from not just a gun, but also the entire nuclear arsenal.
[…] Protein Wisdom […]
Boner could easily block any gun control bill and not take a vote on it. Instead, he will bring it up for a vote, and will help pass it.
That’s right, kids. Congress can change the constitution without amending it, at their will. They’re smarter than we are so it’s okay.
If the law is illegal, why should we abide by it?
Francine Wheeler:
The dangerous people? That’s you, gun owners (leaving this unsaid, is Mrs. Wheeler). Every damned one of you.
They will send a lot of people with guns to your house so you will abide by the law. They will paint you as an extremist and condemn you in the court of public opinion, which they control.
Fuck em. I live way out in the country on a large piece of land that is far from police, yet close to bad guys.
I am an extremist and don’t give a damn who knows it.
The police have cars and trucks and helicopters. They can go wherever you are.
Because Cuomo has that magic “D” after his name, I’m not too optomistic about these charges sticking.
the homo is cuomo
Sure they can, cranky. Why do they care? Isn’t there actual real crime to fight? I’m an upstanding citizen with not so much as a traffic ticket in over 30 years. They should be after the meth heads, not me.
Of course there is real crime to fight. That crime will be gun owners who refuse to properly register, and eventually surrender, their guns.
It’s all part and parcel of the fascist state we live in.
Well, it’s settled then. Secession papers need to be drawn up.
Who’s with me?
This is the kind of shit that worries me. It is looking like it is going to be framed by the Rs as “we compromised on background checks to save your assault rifles”, when in reality the expansion of background checks and the implicit increase in gun registration and compromising of health records is far more egregious than banning some specific weapon features.
And I have gotten to the point where any time anybody refers to any of this as a “compromise” I want to fucking smack them.
One side not quite always getting everything it wants is not a compromise.
According to people like George Will, Lincoln permanently settled the question of “do states have the right to secede?” with a definite “no.” This time, however, government is not seeking to free people, but enslave us through taking away the ability to protect ourselves. The showdown over individual rights vs. government diktat is coming soon. I think that the secession movement will start incrementally, with neighbors helping neighbors to defend against the gungrabbing fascists, followed by small towns coming together, then counties, confederation of counties, etc. The lib-fascists have no idea what they are about to unleash.
No one should be allowed to carry a gun rudely …
Our girl , Lady Thatcher said “Consensus is the lack of Leadership.”
Three separate times this morning on FNS I heard the dread word “consensus”.
BMoe, between compromise and consensus lies complicity. Not alphabetically, but you know what I mean.
So much for Texas. Are there any states left to go to?
Mine. Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain.
” Isn’t there actual real crime to fight?”
Crime is the excuse. Control is the goal.
See also: Reichstag fire.
” Are there any states left to go to?”
Alaska has legal personal carry with no need for any stinkin’ permit of any kind.
If you won’t fight for Texas then one day you’ll look up and Texas won’t fight for you. Just like any place else.
If I am going to leave MN I don’t want to go somewhere else that is just as gun-grabby.
palaeo lives in Austin. Which is sorta Texas as much as the hipsters try to pretend otherwise by hating on the rest of the state and Rick Perry.
I wouldn’t assume that this local yokel cop’s opinion reflects official Texas law.
A lawyer will likely straighten him out. At a cost, of course.
As far as I’m concerned, if the cops have time to go around and confiscate guns from peaceful citizens, then we have way too many cops.
Official law really does not matter. Once the police have taken your property and your freedom, it takes a lot of money to fix the problem.
If they believe they have the right to do what they are doing, there is not much you can do about it.
First I have heard of this new report. Thanks Jeff. This story needs legs, and fast!
I’m gonna move this out via email/twitter/etc. and I advise others to do the same. This issue, the Feds colluding with state agents to violate HIPPA, goes far deeper for the public than just guns.
On the whole, Americans do not like the idea of their person health information being “browsed”, even for safety. What’s better is we can tie it to issues that other “interest” groups would not like.
Feds or state agents looking into your medical past to decide that they can regulate your …guns
…abortions
…access to public spaces
…finances
…driving privileges
…smoking (all types)
…own children
…education choices
…etc.
You get the idea. This is a great story to use when explaining why this bill is so dangerous. Taking the topic from guns to privacy could be the way to get this defeated in the Senate. Or at least get an amendment attached to the bill strictly forbidding HIPAA violations and registries.
Maybe I am just being optimistic, but if all the sympathetic sites, blogs, papers, news programs, talk-radio, etc. trumpet this angle – it might break into the mainstream.
And it is a winner of an issue.
Word.
“palaeo lives in Austin. Which is sorta Texas as much as the hipsters try to pretend otherwise by hating on the rest of the state and Rick Perry.”
It’s like a decompression chamber to prevent snooty libs who think Texas is the movie ‘Mississippi Burning’ come to life with a little Deliverance and The Hills Have Eyes on the side, from getting the bends when they move to Texas. Usually they avoid, then shit test the rednecks until they find out that the red necks are typically smarter, calmer, better informed people than they are who don’t pay much attention to their silly lib antics because they have actual busy lives. Once this point gets across…THEN they usually calm down and start making friends and seeing past the cartoon blinders they were raised to have.
Austin is about 75% Texas and 25 % “Oh God I wish we were Portland/San Francisco” and sadly that 25% regularly intimidates and out votes the 75%. Or at least they have since the 1970’s when I’ve been here.
As I have mentioned in another thread, the CDC [who thinks Gun Violence is a disease under their purveyance] has hired US Census Workers to review medical charts for the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. No notification of or permission from the patient is required, as this is for research approved by an Institutional Review Board. Primary Care practices around the US are participating in this survey right now.
I do believe we are familiar about how professional US Census workers have been…
Y’all might want to call your primary care providers and tell them what you think about this.
epador: It’s called the “Identity Thieves Full Employment Act of 2013”, I believe.
Palaeo, my niece who was born and raised there is a 25%. She goes out of her way to pretend she isn’t from Texas, other than trying to say “y’all” in an ironic way. Cripes, she enrolled in a culinary arts program to become a vegan chef.
Talk about a niche market. I counseled her to broaden her scope and got a whole “meat is murder and Monsanto is the e-vil” rap from her. God, she’s stupid.
That’s the Fredo move —so naturally that’s what they’ll do.
If they really wanted to prove their anti-child slaughter credentials, they’d be moving legislation to protect children from being slaughtered by the likes of Kermit Gosnell. That’s the smart move.
HotAir runs a piece touching this story about Lewis, yet interesting to me is the second video clip from a local NY tv news report which asks “what is the State doing searching medical records” while accepting without question and repeating twice the State’s claim that “Lewis was the wrong man”, a mere case of mistaken identity.
Benghazi? It was the Bakula video — yeah, that’s it.
AP:
link
NY’s Gun Laws Take Effect, and If You Don’t Like Them, Cuomo Dubs You an ‘Extremist’