‘What a Waste’ NRA Lashes Out at Dick's Sporting Goods for Destroying Unsold Firearms

Dick's CEO Edward W. Stack 

"Following all of the rules and laws, we sold a shotgun to the Parkland shooter in November of 2017. It was not the gun, nor type of gun, he used in the shooting," he continued. "But it could have been."

So if it was would they destroy all the shotguns? If they hate the assault rifles that much why not donate them to a police department somewhere. What if Cruz bought a knife from Dick's to use on his rampage? Where does it stop? Why is it everything and everybody is to blame, particularly the NRA, but the shooter who actually perpetrated the crime is treated like another victim in the Parkland shooting? 

When I see a gun with two legs walk into a school then it's time to abolish the second amendment.

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On Tuesday, the National Rifle Association criticized Dick's Sporting Goods over its decision to destroy unsold firearms.

"@DICKS decision isn't focusing on the actual problem, what it is doing is punishing law-abiding citizens," the NRA tweeted. "What a waste, and what a strange business model."

.@DICKS decision isn't focusing on the actual problem, what it is doing is punishing law-abiding citizens. What a waste, and what a strange business model. #DefendTheSecond #2A #NRA http://ms.spr.ly/6017rFV5U 

— NRA (@NRA) 12:36 PM - Apr 17, 2018

Dick's Sporting Goods is in the process of "destroying" firearms and accessories that the company pulled from shelves after a February 28 policy change, according to a report last week from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

At the end of February, the company's chairman and CEO Edward W. Stack announced that Dick's Sporting Goods would no longer sell "assault-style rifles, also referred to as modern sporting rifles." Stack also noted that following the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the company's main retail store (Dick's) no longer carried the aforementioned rifles; now its 35 specialty Field & Stream stores will follow suit.

"We are destroying the firearms in accordance with federal guidelines and regulations," a spokesperson for Dick's, which is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pa., told the Post-Gazette last week. The parts will be recycled by a salvage company.

Companies can sometimes return unsold merchandise to the manufacturer for a partial refund, HuffPost notes. It's not clear if Dick's had that option.

Following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and the renewed push for gun control measures, Stack wrote a letter outlining its new firearm and accessory policies.

"We support and respect the Second Amendment, and we recognize and appreciate that the vast majority of gun owners in this country are responsible, law-abiding citizens," Stack wrote. "But we have to help solve the problem that's in front of us. Gun violence is an epidemic that's taking the lives of too many people, including the brightest hope for the future of America – our kids."

"Following all of the rules and laws, we sold a shotgun to the Parkland shooter in November of 2017. It was not the gun, nor type of gun, he used in the shooting," he continued. "But it could have been."

In addition to stopping sales of assault-style rifles at its Field & Stream specialty stores, Dick's stated they would no longer carry high-capacity magazines or sell firearms to those younger than 21, and they renewed their policy on not carrying bump stocks. The company also called on lawmakers to pass "common sense gun reform," including the banning of assault rifles, high-capacity magazines, and bump stocks, enact universal background checks, and more.

Walmart also made firearm policy changes following the Parkland shooting; the retailer raised the minimum age for purchasing ammunition and firearms. In 2015, Walmart stopped carrying assault-style rifles.

These policy changes caused a social media backlash earlier this year and threats to boycott.

‘What a Waste’ NRA Lashes Out at Dick's Sporting Goods for Destroying Unsold Firearms

Delays keep inspectors from reaching alleged chemical weapons attack site in Syria

They're not fooling anybody. 

Probably be another 10 days or so. Assad and Putin have to remove all the dead bodies and then sanitize it. 

Check out these dead children.

No gaping wounds, no limbs blown off, not a drop of blood to be seen. 

Why do you suppose that is?

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International inspectors were still waiting to visit the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria on Wednesday, as the U.S. accused the Syrian government and its ally Russia of trying to cover up the evidence.

It has been 11 days since the alleged attack on Douma, a town outside Damascus that at the time was controlled by the Army of Islam, a rebel group that surrendered in the days after the attack.

The U.S., France, and Britain launched missile strikes against suspected chemical weapons facilities one week later, after concluding that Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces were behind the attack.

The three countries did not make their evidence public, and both the Syrian government and its ally Russia have denied any chemical attack took place. Russia has accused rebels of staging the attack with support from Britain, an allegation that Britain has strongly denied.

Syrian state media reported Tuesday that inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons had entered Douma, but the Syrian government later said that only a U.N. advance security team had entered.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Tuesday the U.S. did not believe the inspectors had entered Douma, and that the evidence was at risk of decaying as delays dragged on.

"We've seen that the Russian government and the Syrian government — their whole goal in this is to try to cover up. Their goal is to try to deflect attention," she said. "But the fact of the matter is that Bashar al-Assad is responsible yet again for gassing and killing innocent men, women and children."

There was no comment from the OPCW or the U.N.'s security department.

Russia's military said it uncovered a chemical weapons stockpile left behind by rebels in Douma on Tuesday. The claim could not be independently verified.

Survivors reached by the Associated Press said they were overwhelmed by the smell of chlorine on the night of April 7. Activists say at least 40 people were killed. Many were found with foam around their mouths, an indicator for suffocation. Medical workers said they treated symptoms including difficulty breathing and fainting.

The U.N.-mandated Independent International Commission on Syria has documented more than 30 chemical attacks in Syria between 2013 and the end of 2017 — and says at least 25 of them were carried out by the Syrian military. For the rest, it had insufficient evidence to determine the perpetrator.

Delays keep inspectors from reaching alleged chemical weapons attack site in Syria

American politics summed up beautifully in one meme

American politics summed up beautifully in one meme

Lunatics assemble at Trump Tower

These useful idiots would make great target practice for Assad's chemical weapons.

Lunatics assemble at Trump Tower

DOJ IG releases explosive report that led to firing of ex-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe

This was how CNN broke the story:

Report cites lack of candor by Andrew McCabe

Liberalese for liar.

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DOJ inspector general says former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe misled multiple investigators over his role in a news media disclosure; chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge reports from Washington.

Andrew McCabe, onetime acting FBI director, leaked a self-serving story to the press and later lied about it to his boss and federal investigators, prompting a stunning fall from grace that ended in his firing last month, says a bombshell report released Friday by the Justice Department's internal watchdog.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz, appointed by President Barack Obama, had been reviewing FBI and DOJ actions leading up to the 2016 presidential election.

The report, handed over to Congress on Friday and obtained by Fox News, looked at a leak to The Wall Street Journal about an FBI probe of the Clinton Foundation.

The report says that McCabe authorized the leak and then misled investigators about it, leaking in a way that did not fall under a "public interest" exception.

"[W]e concluded that McCabe’s decision to confirm the existence of the CF investigation through an anonymously sourced quote, recounting the content of a phone call with a senior department official in a manner designed to advance his personal interests at the expense of department leadership, was clearly not within the public interest exception," the report says.

McCabe was fired from his role as FBI deputy director last month by Attorney General Jeff Sessions just days before he would have been eligible for a lifetime pension after it was determined that he misled investigators reviewing the bureau’s probe of Hillary Clinton’s email server.

Sessions said that McCabe “made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor − including under oath − on multiple occasions.”

President Trump reacted to the report Friday in a highly charged tweet saying McCabe "LIED! LIED! LIED!" Trump also used the social media platform to describe allegations of collusion between his campaign and Moscow as "all made up by this den of thieves and lowlifes!"

The report faults McCabe for leaking information of an August 2016 call to Wall Street Journal reporter Devlin Barrett for an Oct. 30, 2016, story titled “FBI in Internal Feud Over Hillary Clinton Probe.” The story -- written just days before the presidential election – focused on the FBI announcing the reopening of the Clinton investigation after finding thousands of her emails on a laptop belonging to former Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner, who was married to Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

The Journal's account of the call says a senior Justice Department official expressed displeasure to McCabe that FBI agents were still looking into the Clinton Foundation, and that McCabe had defended agent's authority to pursue the issue.

"Among the purposes of the disclosure was to rebut a narrative that had been developing following a story in The WSJ on Oct. 23, 2016, that questioned McCabe’s impartiality in overseeing FBI investigations involving [Clinton], and claimed that McCabe had ordered the termination of the [FBI's Clinton Foundation investigation] due to Department of Justice pressure," the report says.

That leak confirmed the existence of the probe, which then-FBI Director James Comey had up to that point refused to do. The report says that McCabe "lacked candor" in a conversation with Comey when he said that he had not authorized the disclosure and didn't know who had done so.

The IG also found that he also lacked candor when questioned by FBI agents on multiple occasions since that conversation, where he told agents that he did authorize the disclosure and did not know who was responsible. 

McCabe has denied doing anything wrong. "This attack on my credibility is one part of a larger effort not just to slander me personally, but to taint the FBI, law enforcement and intelligence professionals more generally," McCabe said in a statement after his firing last month.

In a letter submitted by McCabe’s counsel after reviewing a draft of the report, McCabe argues that “the OIG should credit Mr. McCabe’s account over Director Comey’s” and complains that the report “paints Director Comey as a white knight carefully guarding FBI information, while overlooking that Mr. McCabe’s account is more credible for at least three key reasons ...”

McCabe's counsel, Michael Bromwich, in a statement to Fox News, slammed the OIG report. "The core weakness of the OIG report is the lack of any understandable motive for his alleged wrongdoing. It is undisputed that Mr. McCabe was one of three senior FBI officials authorized to share information with the media, including on sensitive investigative matters," he said.

"He chose to exercise that authority in October 2016, during one of the most turbulent periods in the history of the bureau, with the knowledge of Director Comey and other senior members of FBI management. His purpose was to protect the institutional reputation of the FBI against false claims, including that a sensitive investigation was being shut down for political reasons."

McCabe and Bromwich seemingly sought to diminish the credibility of Comey, blasting his "recollection" as "not at all clear."

"Mr. McCabe’s recollection of discussions he had with Director Comey about this issue is extremely clear; Director Comey’s recollection is, by his own acknowledgment, not at all clear. And yet two of the lack of candor allegations are based on Director Comey’s admittedly vague and uncertain recollection of those discussions. "

Later on Friday, Bromwich had another statement on McCabe's behalf, raising the specter of further legal action: “We have for some time been actively considering filing civil lawsuits against the president and senior members of the administration that would allege wrongful termination, defamation, constitutional violations and more. The distinguished Boies Schiller law firm has recently joined us in this project. This is just the beginning."

And, retweeting Trump's Twitter barrage, Bromwich had this to say: "Thank you for providing even more material for the defamation suit we are actively considering filing against you and your colleagues. Stay tuned."

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said that the report showed that the decision to fire McCabe "was the correct one."

"According to the inspector general report, Mr. McCabe repeatedly lied under oath about the disclosure of information to a reporter. In doing so, he not only violated FBI policy, but he may have committed a federal crime," he said in a statement.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said that while she can't disregard McCabe's actions, "I'm disappointed the context wasn't given more weight."

“The rush to fire McCabe late on a Friday night, just hours before he was to retire, casts a tremendous shadow over the integrity of this process," she said in a statement. "There’s really no way to look at McCabe’s firing other than overtly political."

McCabe has been in the news since his firing, particularly over a GoFundMe campaign which raised more than $500,000 for a legal defense fund.

McCabe also wrote a dramatic op-ed for The Washington Post in which he again denied lying to or misleading investigators, and talked of the humiliation he had undergone over the probe and the way in which he was fired.

“Not in my worst nightmares did I ever dream my FBI career would end this way,” he wrote.

DOJ IG releases explosive report that led to firing of ex-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe