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https://vimeo.com/365065377

Pat's stated purpose for making that video is anti-gun. But, a large number of people have observed that the video is nothing more than gun porn. In fact, I borrowed the title for this journal entry from a commenter on another forum.

I think that Patrick Smith is confused about his gun gender, LOL!!

Man shoots granddaughter's boyfriend during violent home invasion, JPSO says

A Bridge City man shot his granddaughter’s boyfriend in the groin with a shotgun after the boyfriend forced his way into a house and violently beat the man, authorities said.

Miguel Ramirez, 25, of Marrero, was arrested early Monday at a Kenner hospital where he sought treatment for his wounds, said Capt. Jason Rivarde, spokesman for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Ramirez is also accused of kidnapping his 22-year-old girlfriend after attacking her grandfather, 66.

The violent confrontation began Sunday night when Ramirez and his girlfriend were involved in a “physical altercation” somewhere in New Orleans, according to Rivarde. No details were available Thursday about that incident.

After the fight, the couple went to her grandparents’ home on 15th Street in Bridge City about 11:30 p.m. to pick up their three young children, according to Rivarde. The woman went into the house to get the kids, who are under the age of 5.

The woman told her grandfather about the altercation and asked him to contact authorities for help.

But before he could call 911, Ramirez stormed into the house and began beating the grandfather, authorities said. The grandfather suffered a broken nose, severe swelling around his eyes and bruising on his face.

Ramirez then grabbed his girlfriend and dragged her out of the house, according to Rivarde.

“The grandfather, fearing that (Ramirez) is going to harm his granddaughter, gets his shotgun and fires one time,” Rivarde said.

Ramirez managed to get to his vehicle and drive off with his girlfriend.

The grandfather didn’t realize that he had wounded Ramirez, who had been shot in the groin and thigh, Rivarde said. He called 911 to report the home invasion.

Meanwhile, Ramirez drove to Ochsner Medical Center in Kenner. Emergency room doctors there notified authorities about the gunshot wounds, and Sheriff’s Office investigators arrived.

Ramirez was later booked into the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna on counts of home invasion, second-degree battery, simple kidnapping and domestic abuse-child endangerment. He was being held without bail Thursday, according to jail records.

A shotgun isn't my first choice of weapon, but they are effective!!!

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/11/us/ar-15-guns-law-atf-invs/index.html

He sold illegal AR-15s. Feds agreed to let him go free to avoid hurting gun control efforts

By Scott Glover, CNN

Updated 7:07 PM ET, Fri October 11, 2019

(CNN)For more than a year, Joseph Roh illegally manufactured AR-15-style rifles in a warehouse south of Los Angeles.
His customers, more than two dozen of whom were legally prohibited from possessing a firearm, could push a button, pull a lever, and walk away a short time later with a fully assembled, untraceable semi-automatic weapon for about $1,000, according to court records.
Roh continued his black-market operation despite being warned in person by agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that he was breaking the law.
But five years after raiding his business and indicting him, federal authorities quietly cut a deal with Roh earlier this year and agreed to drop the charges.
Why?
The judge in the case had issued a tentative order that, in the eyes of prosecutors, threatened to upend the decades-old Gun Control Act and "seriously undermine the ATF's ability to trace and regulate firearms nationwide."

A case once touted by prosecutors as a crackdown on an illicit firearms factory was suddenly seen as having the potential to pave the way to unfettered access to one of the most demonized guns in America.
Federal authorities preferred to let Roh go free rather than have the ruling become final and potentially create case law that could have a crippling effect on the enforcement of gun laws, several sources familiar with the matter told CNN. Each requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the case and its possible implications.

The guns are sometimes assembled from separately acquired parts. Under federal law, the one regulated individual part of a firearm is what's known as the frame or receiver — a piece that, among other things, provides a housing for the hammer and firing mechanism of a gun.

Though incapable of firing a round, the part is considered a gun in its own right and is subject to the same restrictions as a fully intact firearm. Manufacturers must stamp it with a serial number and licensed dealers are required to conduct background checks on prospective buyers. The restrictions are intended, in part, to keep felons and other people prohibited from possessing firearms from acquiring them piece by piece.
AR-15s, however, do not have a single receiver that meets that definition. They have both an upper and lower receiver — two parts as opposed to the single part described in the law.

At issue in Roh's case was whether the law could fairly be interpreted to apply to just the lower receiver of the AR-15, as the ATF has been doing for decades.

'There is a disconnect'
Though the trial lasted less than a week, Selna deliberated for more than year. In April, he issued a tentative order in which he determined that the ATF had improperly classified the AR-15 lower receivers in Roh's case as firearms.
He rejected the prosecution's argument that the ATF's interpretation of the regulation describing a receiver could reasonably be applied to the device at issue in Roh's case.
"There is a disconnect," the judge wrote.
Selna added that the combination of the federal law and regulation governing the manufacturing of receivers is "unconstitutionally vague" as applied in the case against Roh.
"No reasonable person would understand that a part constitutes a receiver where it lacks the components specified in the regulation," Selna wrote.
Therefore, the judge determined, "Roh did not violate the law by manufacturing receivers."

Interesting that the gun control lobby is unable to define "assault weapon" or "assault rifle", while at the same time, the ATF is also unable to define "firearm".

As a sidenote, how many are aware that a muzzle loading rifle is NOT considered a "firearm"? http://guide.sportsmansguide.com/adventures/muzzleloader-considered-firearm/

Old news, from July of this year - https://100percentfedup.com/armed-antifa-terrorist-manifesto-reveals-inspiration-by-democrat-aoc/

Odd, I do a search for Willem Van Spronsen and there seem to be zero hits from the liberal mainstream media. Fox is the sixth hit, washingtontimes and washington post a ways down from Fox. Several lesser known sites cover him, like pacificpundit, thefederalist, legalinsurrection. There is no CNN, NBC, ABC - wait, back about three pages apnews.com - https://apnews.com/6bbb56a3887e46db80516a01858b5e75

ARMED ANTIFA TERRORIST Manifesto Reveals Inspiration By Democrat AOC

Yesterday, an armed self-described member of Antifa, Willem Van Spronsen, a was shot and killed by law enforcement officers after he threw explosives at an ICE detention center in Tacoma, WA.

Seattle Times reports that this was not Van Spronsen’s first run in with law enforcement tied to an immigration detention center

Van Spronsen’s manifesto was filled with radical rhetoric frequently heard coming from the leftist media and far-left Democrat U.S. Representatives like AOC, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.

In this page of his manifesto, the Antifa terrorist adopts the term “concentration camps” used by Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) to describe detention centers on our southern border used to house illegal aliens.

In this page of his manifesto, Van Spronsen uses a term used by another radical leftist, Michael Brown’s stepfather, who called on Black Lives Matter terrorists to “burn the motherf**ker down!”, a reference to burning down the city of Ferguson, MO, after Officer Wilson was exonorated in the highly charged “hands up, don’t shoot” case, that proved the whole “hands up don’t shoot” exchange never took place. He also cites the “Proud Boys,” a group that was formed to protect free speech advocates from the violent anti-free speech terror group, Antifa.

Finally, on this page, Willem Van Spronsen makes his allegience to Antifa known, saying: “i am antifa.” He also indicates that he is part of a trans community, as he identifies his “trans comrades” a term commonly used when referring to fellow communists.

Conservative, First Amendment defender and trial lawyer, Harmeet K. Dhillon tweeted a thread likening the John Brown Gun Club, “JBGC” to a gateway drug to the violent Antifa terror group. After independent journalist Andy Ngo was severely beaten by Antifa in Portland, OR, Dhillon agreed to defend him in his case against the brutal leftist terrorists.

The fact that leftist terrorists have killed few people is not a result of their more civilized, or humane conduct. It is a result of their incompetence to terrorize people.

I just stumbled over this damned fool, while searching for AOC Manifesto. That was the subject of discussion on talk radio this morning. AOC has written a manifesto. She can be expected to shoot up a school, or a gay bar, or a synagogue soon. How many other shooters first published a manifesto, then went out to kill as many people as possible before the law caught up to them? O'Crazio is certainly crazy enough to shoot up a school!!

Just read the manifesto - it's full of acts giving American wealth away to anyone who ambles up to the border, and demands it.

Enjoy a video -
https://www.newswars.com/aoc-unveils-manifesto-a-just-society-means-rent-control-abolish-prisons-welfare-for-all-illegals/

http://v8tools.com/special.html#3803

Scroll down to the last entry. WK-01 Warm Keyboard.

Keep your hands warm!

Heated computer Keyboard keeps your hands warm for those cold shops!

Perfect for shops in the cold, winter months!
Great multi-media keys along the top
Promotes healthy blood circulation in your hands
Convenient USB connections
Patented in the USA, China and Taiwan
Safe and energy efficient
Tested to comply with FCC standards for home and office use
UL listed. The keyboard does have a separate 110v power supply.
manufacturer's suggested list:
$65.20

Now, if they offered a heated foot board to go under the desk, I could probably turn off my heat for the winter months!!

Should I put a disclaimer here? I'm not associated in any way with V8tools. And, no, this isn't a spam post, I prefer bacon.

But, I'm not done here yet! Who would have thought that browsing a tool site would find a rather well thought out opinion piece written by a PhD?
http://v8tools.com/AngryAmerica.pdf

Oh, those Angry Americans!! (I've quoted the first paragraph here, click the link for the full PDF)

THE GREAT TECH REVOLUTION: OUR BLESSING AND CURSE

  From the supporters of Donald Trump (and Bernie Sanders), to the street protesters
of Southern Europe, voters around the world are mad as hell.
“Inequality, immigration, and the establishment's perceived indifference, are firing up
electorates in a way that has rarely been seen before”- Andre Tartar, et al , Bloomberg
3/22/16.
The authors have continued to document the buildup of income inequality all over the
world in recent years and suggest that things are getting worse. The author of the
present article further suggests this global phenomenon is deeply rooted in another
global happening, the technological revolution which is altering this world inside out.
It promotes prosperity and growth, and it also creates insecurity and frustration among a
ever greater number of people around the world. Yet, the tech changes are so much a
part of our daily lives that we tend to take it for granted. Has it become the elephant in
the room that we ignore? It is the time to take a look at this elephant before it crushes
us. We will talk about a few of the things the new industrial revolution has done to us,
the impact of automation, extreme competition, tech monopolies, and the coming
recession in America. This author will also say a few things about what we can do in
the future

More articles written by Wen-Lung Chang PhD here,
http://v8tools.com/writing.html

Oh, back to the tools part of V8Tools:

I was chasing after some adjustable wrenches. Looking for extra-wide jaw adjustable wrenches. The best thing I have found is made by Sunex. Let me find the link for that - https://sunextools.com/products/9614-12-wide-jaw-adjustable-wrench/

Thing opens up to fit a 2 1/2" bolt, nut, or fitting, bigger than either my 15" or 18" Crescent brand wrenches. I already own one of these, slightly modified. Throw it on a surface grinder table, and grind the thickness of the jaws down some, and you can replace an entire set of "service wrenches". Two sets, actually - SAE and metric. Any time I have to work on a hydraulic cylinder, I reach for this Sunex to hold the shaft, while I turn the nut with a more standard wrench.

And, if anyone knows where to find a 15", 18", or even a 24" adjustable with similar features, let me know!!

I once read Schneier pretty regularly - at least once a month. Somehow, I've gotten away from his site. William Barr made his "I'm a dummy" speech on encryption in July - https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/23/william-barr-consumers-security-risks-backdoors/

Schneier has made comments on that speech twice now.

https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2019/08/the_myth_of_consumer.html

The thing is, that distinction between military and consumer products largely doesn't exist. All of those "consumer products" Barr wants access to are used by government officials—heads of state, legislators, judges, military commanders and everyone else—worldwide. They're used by election officials, police at all levels, nuclear power plant operators, CEOs and human rights activists. They're critical to national security as well as personal security.

This wasn't true during much of the Cold War. Before the internet revolution, military-grade electronics were different from consumer-grade. Military contracts drove innovation in many areas, and those sectors got the cool new stuff first. That started to change in the 1980s, when consumer electronics started to become the place where innovation happened. The military responded by creating a category of military hardware called COTS: commercial off-the-shelf technology. More consumer products became approved for military applications. Today, pretty much everything that doesn't have to be hardened for battle is COTS and is the exact same product purchased by consumers. And a lot of battle-hardened technologies are the same computer hardware and software products as the commercial items, but in sturdier packaging.

https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2019/07/attorney_general_wil.html

Barr also says:

Further, the burden is not as onerous as some make it out to be. I served for many years as the general counsel of a large telecommunications concern. During my tenure, we dealt with these issues and lived through the passage and implementation of CALEA the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act. CALEA imposes a statutory duty on telecommunications carriers to maintain the capability to provide lawful access to communications over their facilities. Companies bear the cost of compliance but have some flexibility in how they achieve it, and the system has by and large worked. I therefore reserve a heavy dose of skepticism for those who claim that maintaining a mechanism for lawful access would impose an unreasonable burden on tech firms especially the big ones. It is absurd to think that we would preserve lawful access by mandating that physical telecommunications facilities be accessible to law enforcement for the purpose of obtaining content, while allowing tech providers to block law enforcement from obtaining that very content.

That telecommunications company was GTE—which became Verizon. Barr conveniently ignores that CALEA-enabled phone switches were used to spy on government officials in Greece in 2003—which seems to have been a National Security Agency operation—and on a variety of people in Italy in 2006. Moreover, in 2012 every CALEA-enabled switch sold to the Defense Department had security vulnerabilities. (I wrote about all this, and more, in 2013.)

The final thing I noticed about the speech is that it is not about iPhones and data at rest. It is about communications—data in transit. The "going dark" debate has bounced back and forth between those two aspects for decades. It seems to be bouncing once again.

This 2016 essay 'The Value of Encryption' needs to be touched on if anyone doubts the necessity of encryption - https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2016/04/the_value_of_encrypt.html

And, finally, another 2016 blog that I'd like to see updated soon - https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/02/worldwide_encry.html

The findings of this survey identified 619 entities that sell encryption products. Of those 412, or two-thirds, are outside the U.S.-calling into question the efficacy of any US mandates forcing backdoors for law-enforcement access. It also showed that anyone who wants to avoid US surveillance has over 567 competing products to choose from. These foreign products offer a wide variety of secure applications­ -- voice encryption, text message encryption, file encryption, network-traffic encryption, anonymous currency­ -- providing the same levels of security as US products do today.

Details:

There are at least 865 hardware or software products incorporating encryption from 55 different countries. This includes 546 encryption products from outside the US, representing two-thirds of the total.
The most common non-US country for encryption products is Germany, with 112 products. This is followed by the United Kingdom, Canada, France, and Sweden, in that order.
The five most common countries for encryption products­ -- including the US­ -- account for two-thirds of the total. But smaller countries like Algeria, Argentina, Belize, the British Virgin Islands, Chile, Cyprus, Estonia, Iraq, Malaysia, St. Kitts and Nevis, Tanzania, and Thailand each produce at least one encryption product.
Of the 546 foreign encryption products we found, 56% are available for sale and 44% are free. 66% are proprietary, and 34% are open source. Some for-sale products also have a free version.
At least 587 entities­ -- primarily companies -- ­either sell or give away encryption products. Of those, 374, or about two-thirds, are outside the US.
Of the 546 foreign encryption products, 47 are file encryption products, 68 e-mail encryption products, 104 message encryption products, 35 voice encryption products, and 61 virtual private networking products.
The report is here, here, and here. The data, in Excel form, is here.

Press articles are starting to come in. (Here are the previous blog posts on the effort.)

I know the database is incomplete, and I know there are errors. I welcome both additions and corrections, and will be releasing a 1.1 version of this survey in a few weeks.

I know there are those who believe that only the government should have access to ̶g̶u̶n̶s̶ encryption.

https://dailycaller.com/2019/09/09/nikolas-cruz-parkland-shooting-stories/

‘I Want To Kill!’ — The 7 Most Shocking Stories About Parkland Shooter Nikolas Cruz Revealed In New Book

A new book co-written by Andrew Pollack, the father of a teenager killed during the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas (MSD) High School in February 2018, contains a number of shocking details about the shooter Nikolas Cruz and his erratic behavior in school.

Pollack, whose 18-year-old daughter Meadow was killed in the shooting, co-wrote the new book “Why Meadow Died: The People and Policies that Created the Parkland Shooter and Endanger America’s Students” along with Max Eden.

An excerpt from the book was published in the New York Post Monday, and the details are bizarre. Here are the seven most staggering stories.
Cruz Was Caught Masturbating In School

According to the excerpt, a female student named Paige first met Cruz and he tried to give her a hug. After the hug, a teacher told Paige, “Don’t touch him. He just got caught jerking off.”

Cruz Shouted: “I Want To Kill!”

In another incident, Cruz’s eighth grade teacher Carrie Yon told him that he was a “good kid.”

In response, he yelled, “I’m a bad kid! I want to kill!”
A Teacher Wrote That Cruz Didn’t Understand The Difference Between Violent Video Games And Reality

The same teacher, Carrie Yon, wrote in a “Functional Behavioral Analysis” of Cruz that she didn’t think he “understands the difference between his violent video games and reality.”

“He is constantly showing aggressive behavior and poor judgment. His drawings in class show violent acts (people shooting at each other) or creepy sexual pictures (dogs with large penises) … I would like to see him sent to a facility that is more prepared and has the proper setting to deal with this type of child,” she wrote.
Cruz Attempted To Commit Suicide After School

As an eighth grader, Cruz reportedly tried to commit suicide by jumping into traffic. This incident was recorded by teachers as a “minor disruption.”
Cruz Was Obsessed With “Terrorist Topics” And Was An “Excessive” Gamer

After Cruz enrolled in a special school in early 2014, a psychiatrist wrote in a report that due to “excessive gaming,” the future school shooter had a preoccupation with war and terrorism.

“He goes to YouTube to research wars, military material, and terrorist topics. Wears military related items before he goes to school. Parent stated that all of these ideas are related to his excessive gaming,” Dr. Nyrma Ortiz wrote.
School Psychiatrists Warned That Cruz Has “Dreams Of Killing Others”

In a note written by Ortiz and another therapist Rona Kelly, they report that he admitted to having “dreams of killing others and [being] covered in blood.”
Despite All Of This, Cruz Was Able To Go To MSD High School And Join JROTC

Finally, the most interesting bit of information from the excerpt is that after a short period of good behavior, Cruz was sent to MSD High, and even temporarily joined the school’s Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) program.

Eden and Pollack write:

        Nikolas Cruz couldn’t possibly have made himself any clearer. Broward schools staff knew exactly who and what he was. Yet they not only allowed him to enroll in Marjory Stoneman Douglas, they literally gave him an air gun, shaped like an AR-15, and let him practice shooting.

Indeed, there were many warning signs about Cruz and his potential for violence.

Immediately after the shooting, one MSD student told a local news reporter that “everyone predicted” Cruz being a shooter.

“Honestly, a lot of people were saying it was gonna be him.”

        “Everyone predicted it,” a student said about the #Parkland shooting. pic.twitter.com/mbzBIw8iUa

        — Vic Micolucci WJXT (@WJXTvic) February 14, 2018

Reports also indicate that the FBI was previously warned about someone posting on YouTube under the name “Nikolas Cruz,” saying he wanted to be a school shooter. (RELATED: Report: Broward School Officials ‘Did Not Follow Through’ On Nikolas Cruz’s Pleas For Help Before Massacre)

Upon being arrested, Cruz told officers that he heard “demons” and “voices.”

A few more details from CNN https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/14/us/nikolas-cruz-florida-shooting-suspect/index.html

Cruz's digital footprint
Cruz's social media posts paint what Israel called a "very, very disturbing" picture.
Israel said Cruz's digital profile contains troubling content that included a variety of gun- and violence-related posts on social media.
A user going by the name of Nikolas Cruz also included slurs against blacks and Muslims in his posts.
A law enforcement source said authorities are aware of Cruz's extremist views on social media. The investigation is in early stages and so they are gathering information. One question for investigators is whether Cruz simply espoused extremist views and used related language or was in fact tied to any groups.
Cruz's disturbing behavior also included several threatening comments under videos on YouTube and other sites. They include:

        "I whana shoot people with my AR-15"
        "I wanna die Fighting killing s**t ton of people"
        "I am going to kill law enforcement one day they go after the good people."

In September, a YouTube user going by Nikolas Cruz posted a comment to a vlogger's YouTube page, saying, "Im going to be a professional school shooter." A law enforcement official confirms the FBI received a report about the post.
A law enforcement official told CNN earlier Thursday the FBI had received two reports regarding potential threats from the shooter.
But later Thursday, a separate law enforcement official said authorities believe they only received one report, regarding the comment on YouTube. The investigation is in its early stages, the source said, and information could change as leads are investigated.

Yeah, I stole my title - https://www.xkcd.com/1022/

Exclusive: Feds Demand Apple And Google Hand Over Names Of 10,000+ Users Of A Gun Scope App

Own a rifle? Got a scope to go with it? The U.S. government might soon know who you are, where you live and how to reach you.

That’s because the government wants Apple and Google to hand over names, phone numbers and other identifying data of at least 10,000 users of a single gun scope app, Forbes has discovered. It’s an unprecedented move: Never before has a case been disclosed in which American investigators demanded personal data of users of a single app from Apple and Google. And never has an order been made public where the feds have asked the Silicon Valley giants for info on so many thousands of people in one go.

According to an application for a court order filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on September 5, investigators want information on users of Obsidian 4, a tool used to control rifle scopes made by night-vision specialist American Technologies Network Corp. The app allows gun owners to get a live stream, take video and calibrate their gun scope from an Android or iPhone device. According to the Google Play page for Obsidian 4, it has more than 10,000 downloads. Apple doesn’t provide download numbers, so it’s unclear how many iPhone owners could be swept up in this latest government data grab.

If the court approves the demand, and Apple and Google decide to hand over the information, it could include data on thousands of people who have nothing to do with the crimes being investigated, privacy activists warned. Edin Omanovic, lead on Privacy International's State Surveillance program, said it would set a dangerous precedent and scoop up “huge amounts of innocent people’s personal data.”

“Such orders need to be based on suspicion and be particularized—this is neither,” Omanovic added.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2019/09/06/exclusive-feds-demand-apple-and-google-hand-over-names-of-10000-users-of-a-gun-scope-app/#4bf4c5ca2423

Also,
Exclusive: ATN gun scope maker responds about feds demanding its app user data from Apple and Google

The Department of Justice did not contact rifle scope manufacturer American Technologies Network Corp. (ATN) before filing a court order on Thursday demanding Apple and Google turn over user data from ATN’s mobile app.

Following initial reporting on the government demand from Apple and Google of user data for the Obsidian 4 app, ATN stated on Friday that they were not aware of the government’s request for information from the tech giants until a Forbes article broke the story. ATN advised they would not be turning over user information to the DOJ unless required by law.

“ATN has not been contacted by the Department of Justice, Apple, or Google,” the company said in a statement to American Military News on Friday.

“ATN will protect its customers and their identifying data to the absolute extent possible under U.S. law. And, it will not provide any information regarding the identity of our customers to any third party unless specifically required by law,” the statement continued.

The turnover of data could affect up to 10,000 app users who have downloaded the app through the Apple Store and Google Play.

The Obsidian 4 app allows its users to pair their phone with their rifle scopes, helping users calibrate their scopes and allowing them to take video and live streams.

Initial reporting of the DOJ information request, indicated the court order was later sealed from public viewing.

Before the court documents were sealed, Forbes reported that part of the court order alleges the company’s scopes have been found in shipments to Hong Kong, Canada and The Netherlands but have not had the necessary import licenses required by the International Traffic in Arms Regulation.

A report published by the Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium also claims the scopes in question had made it into the hands of Taliban fighters.

“The manner in which the ATN Obsidian 4 application is paired with this scope manufactured by Company A supports the conclusion that the information requested herein will assist the government in identifying networks engaged in the unlawful export of this rifle scope,” part of the order reportedly read.

The DOJ’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement department is apparently seeking the data to find end users connected to the shipments of rifle scopes that violated the arms export laws.

Though the import of their products is facing government scrutiny, ATN itself is not under investigation for the alleged export violations.

  The government’s requests for app user information sparked backlash from privacy advocates who warned the court order is overly broad and threatens to gather data from innocent users.

Tor Ekeland, a privacy lawyer, said the DOJ order amounted to a “fishing expedition.”

Ekeland warned the government may begin with a focus on one specific case but eventually use the overturned data to pursue other cases against unrelated app users.

Does anyone wonder what, and who, the government might target with their next fishing expedition? How secure is your baby monitoring hardware and software? Your GPS device? Your vehicle?

by: LISA MARIE PANE, Associated Press

Posted: Sep 2, 2019 / 12:19 AM EDT / Updated: Sep 2, 2019 / 12:00 PM EDT

When law enforcement authorities gathered to discuss details of a mass shooting in West Texas that left seven people dead, there was one bit of information they refused to provide on live television: the name of the gunman.

Instead, they decided to release the name through a Facebook post. Odessa Police Chief Michael Gerke made it plain why he wouldn’t mention the name at the news conference: “I’m not going to give him any notoriety for what he did.”

Even with such restraint, it remained a challenge to curb the spread of the gunman’s name. The Odessa Police Department has fewer than 25,000 followers of its Facebook page, but the social media platform easily reaches millions of Facebook’s members around the globe and the post was shared hundreds of times. Within minutes, Twitter lit up with posts mentioning his name. Journalists and advocates on both sides of the gun debate also began spreading the word, spewing a firehose of information about the suspect.

In this era of a saturation of social media and around-the-clock news, it’s next to impossible to keep a lid on such information.

“Ultimately, the police department can only directly control what they do, and that name, that information can be reposted and retweeted and republished hundreds of thousands of time,” said Adam Lankford, a criminologist at the University of Alabama who has studied the influence of media coverage on future shooters. He and others appeal to the media to limit the volume of information about these perpetrators, saying it does little to understand the reasons for the violence or stop it in the future.

The Associated Press names suspects identified by law enforcement in major crimes. However, in cases in which the crime is carried out seeking publicity, the AP strives to restrict the mention of the name to the minimum needed to inform the public, while avoiding descriptions that might serve a criminal’s desire for publicity or self-glorification.

The “No Notoriety” movement was partly inspired by the 1999 Columbine school shooting outside Denver. The gunmen became household names and even in death appeared to motivate a whole new crop of mass shooters.

In in recent years, it has gained momentum amid a seemingly steady stream of mass shootings. The idea is to urge news organizations to refrain from naming the shooters in mass slayings and to curb the volume of biographical information about them. In New Zealand, after a mass shooter there killed 51 people at two mosques, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern refused to mention the perpetrator’s name at all.

FBI leaders, leery of inspiring copycat killers and hesitant to give them what they see as undue attention, have occasionally been reluctant in recent years to refer to them by name.

Former FBI Director James Comey expressed that concern in a briefing with reporters the day after a 2016 rampage at an Orlando nightclub, repeatedly referring to the gunman not by his name but simply as “the killer.”

“You will notice that I am not using the killer’s name, and I will try not to do that,” Comey said. “Part of what motivates sick people to do this kind of thing is some twisted notion of fame or glory, and I don’t want to be part of that for the sake of the victims and their families.”

FBI special agent Christopher Combs, who previously worked at FBI headquarters leading the bureau’s efforts to respond to mass shootings, has held to that view. As the top FBI official in San Antonio, he has overseen the bureau’s response to multiple mass shootings in Texas, including a 2017 massacre at a church in Sutherland Springs that killed more than two dozen people.

At a news conference after the shooting where officials refrained from naming the gunman, Combs said, “We don’t talk about the shooter.”

And in a television interview after the shooting, Combs said he understood that the media had to name a shooter “once,” but “after that, we certainly don’t want to draw any type of positive attention to the shooter. And we have found through studies that there are people out there that are troubled, and when they see that, they believe this is how I can show the wrongdoings that have been done to me.”

All these years later, the Columbine attack continues to motivate mass shooters, including two men who this year stormed their former school in Brazil, killing seven people. The gunman in New Zealand was said to have been inspired by the man who in 2015 killed nine black worshippers at a church in Charleston, South Carolina.

The University of Alabama’s Lankford urges journalists to refrain from using shooters’ names or go into exhaustive detail about their crimes. These attackers are trying to outdo previous shooters with higher death tolls, he said, and media coverage serves only to encourage copycats. Experts call it the “contagion” effect.

Lankford lauded the approach in Texas to avoid mentioning the name on live television. That medium is especially problematic, he said.

“There’s the issue of B-roll where the sound bite can be played over and over and over again,” he said. “They’re trying to set a moral position and a lead they hope the media will follow.”

Tom Manger, senior associate director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, said there are a number of challenges. The name of the shooter is considered public information that must be disseminated, and there’s a general thirst for information about mass shooters. As Americans consider ways to prevent future shootings, knowing more about the gunman might help figure out effective solutions.

But there are practical issues at play, too: How can the information be contained?

“It goes out in a hundred different ways,” Manger said. “Once it goes out on social media, it goes everywhere.”

For Caren Teves, the issue is personal. Her son, Alex, was among those killed in an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater in 2012. She and her husband, Tom, created the No Notoriety movement, encouraging media to stick to reporting relevant facts rather than the smallest of biographical details.

“It is a tough thing to navigate. But it’s a start,” Teves said. “We’ve never said it’s the only solution. It’s just one of them.”

It's an AP story, found on many sites - here's one - https://www.mywabashvalley.com/news/national/not-so-easy-to-prevent-the-spread-of-mass-shooters-names/

The historically racist origins of gun control are hardly a topic for debate. As noted by Cato Institute’s David Kopel, the matter of arming blacks in America was the subject of the infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision; with one Supreme Court justice warning about the rights of free blacks “to keep and carry arms wherever they went.” Kopel also notes that as a part of the Black Codes passed in the South during the early post-Civil War Reconstruction, free blacks were required to secure permission from police in order to carry firearms.

From Harriet Tubman, who carried a pistol with her during the heroic rescues of slaves, to abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who quipped “a man’s rights rest in three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box” -- there is perhaps no other group in American history whose members understand intimately the “right to self-preservation” embodied in the Second Amendment than black Americans.

It is therefore more than a little curious as to why Democrats continue to push gun control measures that are inherently, historically, and intentionally designed to disenfranchise minority groups from their Second Amendment rights.

In spite of a downward trend of gun violence in America, even as gun ownership soars, Democrats contend there is both an “epidemic” of gun violence sweeping the country, and that access to firearms is the culprit. This mindset guides virtually every part of the Democrats’ gun control agenda; with no apparent regard to who actually is or will be impacted the most by their plans.

Carried to its natural end, the philosophy of gun control virtually ensures the only people left with firearms in a Democrat-controlled America are cops, affluent whites, and criminals.

Perhaps street crime and police response times are not concerns for rich liberals hiding behind privacy fences in gated communities with private, armed security guards (can you say, “Silicon Valley?”); but for millions of Americans in urban areas ravaged by gangs and crime, firearm ownership is literally a matter of life and death.

One underpinning gun control strategy favored most by Democrats centers around price control; wherein regulatory measures squeeze both supply and the cost of production of firearms, making them cost-prohibitive to acquire and possess.

Schemes such as removing the legal shield that protects firearm manufactures and retailers from lawsuits resulting from criminal acts by end users, and resurrecting the Obama-era tactic of employing the FDIC to bully banks into not doing business with firearms retailers and manufacturers, are measures intended to dry up the lawful gun industry.

However, the actual and ultimate victims of such measures are not big businesses, but individual, law-abiding men and women whose ability to protect themselves, their families, their homes, and their small businesses will be made increasingly difficult.

We see this strategy already playing out in municipalities controlled by liberal officials. Even where technically lawful to carry a firearm, such officials delight in making firearm licensing exorbitantly expensive and time-consuming. Overly complicated testing mandates are coupled with multiple in-person filing requirements available only during regular business hours. Such measures require significant time and effort to pursue -- luxuries largely unavailable to the working poor and middle-class workers.

One of the latest proposals gaining popularity among the Democratic presidential field is to mandate that gun owners carry firearms liability insurance; another side-door tax on a constitutionally-guaranteed right.

This “death by a thousand cuts” has now become gun confiscation by a thousand regulations; with its earliest and most numerous victims being the poor and “marginalized” citizenry these very Democrat bleeding hearts claim to champion.

Democrats long have vigorously opposed every effort by Republicans to require voter identification as a prerequisite to exercising one’s right to vote. Liberals assert such mandates intentionally “suppress” the minority vote. Yet, those very same civil rights champions have no hesitancy in pressing for measures that would seriously suppress the ability of minority and poorer citizens to exercise another precious right; one that is expressly guaranteed against such suppression in the Bill of Rights. Their hypocrisy is disgraceful.

https://townhall.com/columnists/bobbarr/2019/08/21/the-notsosubtle-racism-of-gun-control-n2551961