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Judge won't force disclosure of records on alleged episode with Hunter Biden's gun
The privacy interests of President Joe Biden's son trump a blogger's Freedom of Information Act suit, the federal court rules.
Hunter Biden and his wife Melissa Cohen leave after President Joe Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 17 people during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, July 7, 2022. | Susan Walsh/AP Photo
By JOSH GERSTEIN
09/13/2022 09:21 PM EDT
Updated: 09/13/2022 11:17 PM EDT
A court has rejected a lawsuit seeking to force the public disclosure of federal records about a 2018 episode in which a gun belonging to President Joe Biden’s son Hunter was allegedly thrown in a trash can.
In a ruling Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras found that the public interest in the handling of any investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives into the episode was “significant,” but that the importance of Hunter Biden’s privacy as a private citizen outweighed the value of releasing any such records to the public.
“The privacy interest here is remarkably strong,” wrote Contreras, an appointee of President Barack Obama.
Contreras’ 24-page decision makes numerous references to an article POLITICO published in March 2021 detailing the bizarre episode in which Biden’s late brother’s wife, Hallie Biden, allegedly found his .38-caliber handgun in his truck, disposed of it in a trash can behind a store and later returned to retrieve it, only to find it missing, according to a police report. Hunter Biden was engaged in a romantic relationship with her at the time.
EXCLUSIVE
Sources: Secret Service inserted itself into case of Hunter Biden’s gun
BY TARA PALMERI AND BEN SCHRECKINGER
The Delaware State Police investigated out of concern that the missing gun could be used in a crime, but a man who regularly rummaged in the trash returned the weapon to authorities a few days later, according to the story. Secret Service agents allegedly visited the gun store where Hunter Biden bought the weapon and asked for the purchase records, but the owner declined to provide them, saying the matter was under the ATF’s jurisdiction. He later cooperated with ATF agents.
A copy of the purchase form obtained by POLITICO last year and referenced in the court opinion showed that Hunter Biden checked a box saying he was not at the time a user of, or addicted to, narcotics, despite the fact that he and his family members have said he has struggled with drug addiction for years.
However, no charges were ever brought in connection with the episode.
Hallie Biden and a lawyer for Hunter Biden declined to comment when POLITICO reached out to them last year.
Contreras said Hunter Biden’s discussion of his drug problems in his memoir did not diminish his privacy interest in any records about the episode.
“Disclosure would reveal whether Hunter Biden was criminally investigated by ATF,” the judge wrote. “An individual’s public disclosure of information that could be potentially incriminating in a general sense does not reduce his privacy interest in whether he was the subject of a particular federal criminal investigation by a particular agency.”
Contreras said Hunter Biden’s relation to his father, the president, did not undercut his privacy interest as a legal matter. “The Court is not aware of any case law holding that a private citizen like Hunter Biden loses a sense of personal privacy for purposes of [a Freedom of Information Act exemption] merely by being related to a prominent public official,” the judge wrote.
An Ohio-based blogger, internet journalist and gun enthusiast, David Codrea, requested the records in November 2020 and filed suit in August 2021 after the ATF failed to produce any documents. The Justice Department agency initially told Codrea it couldn’t find any records, then said it was searching for them, then reversed course again and said it would not confirm the existence of any records, offering what is known as a Glomar response.
Codrea filed a similar suit against the Secret Service, but dropped it after the agency said it could locate no records about the episode.
A lawyer for Codrea, Stephen Stamboulieh, declined to comment on the decision. Codrea said in a blog post Tuesday that no appeal is planned.
Tuesday, April 02, 2013
Gun Control Debate 2013: 5 Updates Including Free Guns, New Fines And More
By Charlie Creitz, Apr 02, 2013 01:53 PM EDT
Advertisements indirectly funded by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, I-New York City, are reportedly not being received well in the swing states his gun control PAC is targeting.
The gun control debate continues in earnest following a number of major events including the aftermath of the shooting at a school in Newtown, Conn., and the pretrial activities for accused Colorado theater shooter James Holmes. Astronaut Mark Kelly, husband of gun violence victim Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., appeared on "Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace" on Easter to share his much-publicized opinions on the issue.
As the Latin Times previously reported, Kelly has come under fire for allegedly purchasing a semiautomatic rifle from a Tucson, Ariz. gun store for the intended purpose to turn it over to police. Kelly reportedly said it showed how easy it is for anyone to obtain a weapon in the United States.
"20 first graders ... were murdered in their classrooms," Kelly told Chris Wallace. " ... and it is important to take action."
Wallace then noted that despite the high demand supposed by Kelly for increased regulations on guns, that some high profile Republicans in Congress including Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida said that they would filibuster any attempt to impose further restrictions. Paul is no stranger to the process, as he recently held up confirmation of newly-minted CIA Director John Brennan.
Mark Kelly then told Wallace that residents in Paul's and Rubio's home states would likely support further background checks at the least, something that would allegedly fall under threat of a filibuster.
Recently, moderate Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said that he would againoppose filibusters by members of his party on gun control legislation. He and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., criticized bipartisan filibuster of Brennan's nomination, choosing instead to dine with President Barack Obama. Graham said he wants an "open process" approach to gun control reform, saying that he would join his more conservative colleagues in voting against background checks and other stricter gun control policy.
In Texas, Sen. Ted Cruz, a freshman Republican, has echoed conservative sentiments toward infringing upon the Second Amendment rights of Americans. Now, a Houston-based charitable organization is offering free guns to citizens in high crime areas like some parts of the Gulf Coast city as well as in Dallas. The Armed Citizen Project is aiming to protect those in violent areas from gun violence, echoing the sentiment that guns don't kill people, people kill people. Participants would have to complete a "safety training course" to be eligible for donated protection.
Reports have also surfaced that pro-gun control advertisements funded indirectly by anti-soda Mayor Michael Bloomberg, I-New York City, are not resonating with those in target areas where the ads are playing. In fact, Bloomberg's televised gun control pleas seem to have backfired. The gun control ads were allegedly meant to warn swing state lawmakers up for election next term that despite the interests of the NRA, it is important that gun control measures go through for the safety of their constituents. Many of the senators' states that are targeted are home to a large population of hunters who oppose gun control measures. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, Kay Hagan, D-N.C., and Mark Warner, D-Va., represent states where owning rifles and the like is the way of life for many who shoot for sport. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., recently called out Bloomberg's attempt to sway his vote saying "I don't take gun advice from the mayor of New York City, I listen to Arkansans."
In line with Bloomberg's pleas for stricter gun control laws, the United Nations passed the Arms Trade Treaty, or ATT. It establishes international requirements for member nations to regulate the export of tanks and military-type aircraft, as well as requires the government to determine whether weapons would be used in acts of crime or terrorism. Despite attempts in Congress led by Oklahoma Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe to appeal to the Obama administration to oppose the measure if it came to a vote, the United States delegation voted with 153 other nations to pass the ATT. Three countries voted against it and 23 abstained. Iran, North Korea and Syria reportedly voted against the gun control measures.
Most recently, the Daily Caller reported Tuesday morning that liberal Democrats lead by New York City Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney introduced legislation to treat gun ownership like vehicle ownership: require gun owners to purchase liability insurance in order to purchase weapons. Seen by many as another roadblock to exercising Second Amendment rights, the NRA's Chris Cox called the proposed gun control bill "ridiculous on its face," no doubt after reading the clause imposing a $10,000 fine on insurance evaders.
Source
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Thursday, March 07, 2013
SPLC warns Homeland Security of 'conspiracy-minded groups'
HOMELAND SECURITY
MARCH 5, 2013
BY: DAVID GARRETT JR.
Southern Poverty Law Center logo.
Credits:
Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Department of Homeland Security Secretary (DHS) Janet Napolitano today that warned of "patriot groups" and domestic terrorism.
"The number of conspiracy-minded antigovernment 'Patriot' groups on the American radical right reached an all-time high in 2012, the fourth consecutive year of powerful growth by a movement that is becoming increasingly militant as President Obama enters his second term and Congress debates gun control measures," the SPLC said in a press release today.
In the letter, the SPLC asked the department to "establish an interagency task force to assess the adequacy of the resources devoted to responding to the growing threat of non-Islamic domestic terrorism."
The SPLC said that there were 149 militias and "radical antigovernment groups" in 2008, but that the number increased to 1,360 in 2012. The SPLC said that the increased numbers are tied to the gun control debate. It also cited the case of a Tennessee man who threatened to "start killing people" if President Obama signed any executive orders to take weapons away from law abiding citizens. The Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security suspended James Yeager's handgun carry permit after the department watched his video on YouTube.
"In the last four years, we have seen a tremendous increase in the number of conspiracy-minded, antigovernment groups as well as in the number of domestic terrorist plots," SPLC President and CEO J. Richard Cohen wrote."As in the period before the Oklahoma City bombing, we now also are seeing ominous threats from those who believe the government is poised to take their guns."
The letter goes on to say that there is also a "high level" of "neo-Nazi and racist skinhead groups" that may be a result of "comprehensive immigration reform."
In an article on the SPLC website, the center attempted to tie groups wanting to preserve the second amendment with racism. Mark Potok wrote, "Anger over the idea of four more years under a black, Democratic president — and, even more explosively, the same kinds of gun control efforts that fueled the militia movement of the 1990s — seems already to be fomenting another Patriot spurt."
"In light of these questions and the disturbing trends we have described in this letter, we believe it is time to take a fresh look at the issue," Cohen wrote.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Police: Hopkins gunman shot himself and relative
By ALEX DOMINGUEZ, Associated Press Writer Alex Dominguez, Associated Press Writer – 7 mins ago
BALTIMORE – A gunman who wounded a doctor at Johns Hopkins hospital in Baltimore and then holed up inside a room has shot and killed himself and a relative during a standoff with authorities, police said Thursday.
Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told The Associated Press that the suspect and his relative died in a hospital room.
The standoff lasted more than 2 hours.
Guglielmi said earlier that he did not know the relationship between the gunman — described as a man in his 30s — and the doctor. The hospital said in a statement that the doctor is a faculty physician but that it could not release more information because of privacy policies.
The doctor was shot in the stomach but was expected to survive, Guglielmi said.
"The doctor will be OK," Guglielmi said. "He's in the best place in the world — at Johns Hopkins hospital."
Michelle Burrell, who works in a coffee shop in the hospital lobby, said she was told by employees who were on the floor where the doctor was shot that the gunman was angry with the doctor's treatment of his mother.
"Basically, he was upset about his mother being paralyzed by the doctor," Burrell said. "It's crazy."
A small area of the hospital had been locked down before the gunman died, as about a dozen officers wearing vests and helmets and carrying assault weapons prepared to go into the hospital at midday. Guglielmi said the gunman had not taken any hostages, and people with appointments in other parts of the hospital were encouraged to keep them.
The FBI was assisting Baltimore police, said FBI spokesman Richard J. Wolf.
Hopkins spokesman Gary Stephenson said the gunman was on the eighth floor of the Nelson building, the main hospital tower. Guglielmi said the situation was contained to that part of the hospital, and no people had been locked in rooms or otherwise in danger.
According to the Hopkins website, the eighth floor is home to orthopedic, spine, trauma and thoracic services.
The rest of the massive hospital, research and medical education complex remained open, including the emergency department.
With more than 30,000 employees, Johns Hopkins Medicine is among Maryland's largest private employers and the largest in Baltimore. The hospital has more than 1,000 beds and more than 1,700 full-time doctors.
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Associated Press writer Ben Nuckols contributed to this report.
Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100916/ap_on_re_us/us_hopkins_shooting;_ylt=AqEJyC8llKAKZ4tsLR.JXjhvzwcF;_ylu=X3oDMTJra2xyMDBhBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwOTE2L3VzX2hvcGtpbnNfc2hvb3RpbmcEY3BvcwMxBHBvcwMzBHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcnkEc2xrA2Z1bGxuYnNwc3Rvcg--
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Monday, December 17, 2007
DISARMING POPULATION & TYRANNY OF GUN CONTROL
Disarming of the Population and the Tyranny of Gun Control
By Dana Gabriel http://newworldordermustbestopped.com/DanasBlog.html
There is a war on our freedoms and this includes the right to bear arms. Over the years there has been a mass indoctrination to the evils of guns, which has resulted in the systematic psychological disarmament of the American people. With less armed law-abiding citizens and more gun-free zones, the result has been more helpless victims. It has also demonstrated that we cannot rely on government to protect us from criminals. Most crime we are facing will not be solved by further gun control legislation. Furthermore tyrants like Stalin, Hitler, and Mao all sought to disarm their own citizens in order to control them and ensure their own power. Many genocide victims were deprived of the necessary means to adequately defend themselves. A clear violation of the Second Amendment took place after Hurricane Katrina, when authorities engaged in gun confiscation. In many cases, it was these same guns that kept many individuals, families, and property safe from criminals and thugs when there was no police presence. This has set the precedent for future gun grabbing in times of crisis. There is also a new program in Boston that would allow police with parental permission to search their children's rooms for guns without a search warrant. There has been legislation introduced that would ban U.S. veterans who have experienced even mild forms of Post-Traumatic Stress from ever owning a firearm. The Second Amendment is about upholding the Founding Fathers vision of a free society, and the disarming of the population is a path to tyranny. History serves as the best example, and we all need to stop being naive and thinking that it can't happen here.
There are calls for stricter gun control laws after almost every mass shooting. Taking firearms out of the hands of law-abiding citizens won't prevent such tragedies; it makes us less safe. Gun control laws do little to prevent criminals from acquiring guns, and they simply ignore any gun-free zones which in turn makes them victim disbarment zones. In many cases it was a gun that prevented a situation from further escalating. We can't rely on the police to save us as they usually show up after a crime has been perpetrated. It is our responsibility to protect ourselves and our families. Criminals fear an armed citizenry, and it is not surprising that crime tends to rise in an environment where people have lost their ability to properly defend themselves.
On the heels of a mass shooting that took place in a mall in Omaha Nebraska, there were two recent shootings in Colorado which took place some 12 hours and 70 miles apart by the same shooter. It began at a Youth Mission office and ended in Colorado Springs at the New Life Church. The gunman opened fire in the parking lot, and was later shot several times and brought down by an armed security guard. Although he later shot himself in the head, this is a good example of guns saving lives. The attacker had a backpack which contained as much as 1,000 rounds of ammunition, and the heroic actions of an armed security guard prevented anymore bloodshed. Also recently, Washington Redskin's football player, Sean Taylor became yet another victim of gun control and disarmament. Although his probation had ended, he was unable to own a gun because he had plea bargained. Someone broke into his house, and he tried to defend himself and his family with a machete. He was shot and later died. A population that is disarmed is defenseless and is more easily enslaved.
Only an armed civilian population can properly defend themselves and resist a tyrannical government. When the Nazis seized power in Germany in 1933, they immediately began massive search and seizures of firearms to further neutralize their political opponents. The Gestapo later established a system of central registration of persons obtaining firearms. Hitler's gun control and disarming of the population almost completely guaranteed that firearms were in the possession of Nazi supporters and sympathizers and made any kind of armed resistance inside Germany next to impossible. Hitler said, “The most foolish mistake we would possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquers who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing.” The Second Amendment protects the gun rights of individuals and is about preventing tyranny. Gun control and the disarming of the population threatens a nation's very survival. It should come as no surprise that the United Nations, which is essentially the mechanism for world government, wishes to gut the Second Amendment and institute a global gun ban that would include the private ownership of firearms.
The threat to the Second Amendment is also coming internationally as the United Nations has a goal of disarmament. They have actively campaigned for worldwide gun control, and have declared that civilian ownership of guns is a major cause of violence around the world. The reality is that the UN has failed miserably in preventing crimes against humanity, and has further facilitated in the disarming of populations, leaving them defenseless. Many who advocate gun control want every gun in the world to be under UN control. This includes rifles, shot guns, and hand guns. Past UN conferences and forums have proposed a ban on possession of handguns by anyone other than a government official and strategies to reduce the number of handguns in private hands. Others initiatives include a worldwide licensing of firearms registered and administrated by the UN and mandating a maximum one gun per person. They also wish to develop and implement an effective disarmament, dembilization, and reintegration program. The United Nations remains a threat to the Second Amendment , our sovereignty, and security and international laws, and treaties further jeopardize our freedoms. Only after the American people have been disarmed can world governance truly be achieved.
Gun control and the disarming of law-abiding citizens should never be a solution to reducing crime and serves as a recipe for tyranny. Criminals rarely obtain firearms legally, and gun-free zones act as safe havens for criminals and crazies alike, making us all less safe and potential victims. There is a push for tougher gun control in Europe that would include a centralized firearm registration program as opposed to one controlled by individual European Union nations. History has demonstrated that the biggest advocates of gun control and limiting self-defense are those wishing to further empower the state. The training and tactics of police departments have changed, and in the process their traditional role of serving and protecting has been largely abandoned. We need to become more self sufficient and rely less on government, and this includes our own personnel safety. In many respects we are already in a police state. We have almost lost our freedom to challenge the government, and one of the final stages will be the disarming of the American people. It is a fact that the state is the leading cause of unnatural death. An armed citizenry remains an obstacle and a threat to the New World Order's agenda and its power monopoly. We need to restore and protect the Second Amendment and support gun rights. This is not a privilege, and the right to bear arms not only protects citizens and their property, but acts as a deterrent to government tyranny.
