More Corporate Cooperation in Violating Your Rights
Attorneys general from 18 states call on UPS and FedEx to clarify gun-purchase tracking policies
by Jack Birle - November 29, 2022 08:01 PM
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...acking-polices
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Attorneys general from 18 states are calling on UPS and FedEx to clarify their policies on shipping guns amid concerns about the companies being able to track gun owners without a warrant.
The states are requesting the leaders of two shipping companies to respond within 30 days to their letters expressing concern over new policies they allege allow the companies to "track firearm sales with unprecedented specificity and bypass warrant requirements to share that information with federal agencies."
The attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming signed on to the letter, which was sent on Tuesday.
In the letter, the attorneys general claim the companies are requiring those who hold federal firearms licenses to create "separate shipping accounts" for firearms, firearm parts, and other firearm-related products. The attorneys general also allege the new policies allow for the companies to comply with law enforcement and other *governmental authorities* in providing undo access to information on gun owners without a warrant, even if requests from those authorities are inconsistent with current laws, rules, or regulations.
The letter, led by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, asks each company several specific questions seeking to clarify if they were pressured to make the changes by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and how much information they share with the agency.
With the U.S. gun death rate hitting its highest level in nearly three decades, gun policies around the country are being debated by gun rights advocates and gun control advocates.
Montana AG: UPS, FedEx Working With Feds to Track Gun Purchases
By Nicole Wells | Tuesday, 29 November 2022 07:32 PM EST
https://www.newsmax.com/us/guns-trac...29/id/1098450/
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Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen claims shipping companies UPS and FedEx are helping the Biden administration skirt laws that prohibit the federal government from creating a national gun owner registry, according to a letter sent to the companies Tuesday.
The letter, obtained by The Washington Free Beacon, claims new shipping guidelines allow UPS and FedEx "to track firearm sales with unprecedented specificity and bypass warrant requirements to share that information with federal agencies."
Signed by Knudsen and 17 other state attorneys general, the letter says the new guidelines force licensed firearm dealers to provide detailed information about their customers who are receiving purchases through the mail. While the letter does not have undeniable proof the companies are feeding information to federal agencies, it references conversations between state officials and firearm dealers who claim they were forced to comply with such regulations.
State officials are requesting UPS and FedEx provide them with information about any recent regulation changes that might give "federal agencies a workaround to normal warrant requirements."
Knudsen said sources who spoke with his office indicated the Biden administration's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) "told [the companies] they have to do this."
"This, to me, looks like another back alley attempt to get around specific legislation and laws so ATF can say, 'We're not keeping track; it's these companies keeping track,'" Knudsen said. "We see this over and over again from this administration: When they can't pass legislation, they turn around to their buddies in private business and try to get their agenda done that way."
The attorneys general allege UPS and FedEx require federal licensed firearm dealers "to create three separate shipping accounts: one for firearms, one for firearm parts, and one for all other firearm-related products. Under this three-tier system, gun sellers cannot mix and match shipments, which reveals to your company whether they are shipping a gun, gun part, or a gun-related item."
Sellers are also reportedly required to keep paperwork on the specific items they shipped and to provide that information to the shipping company when requested.
According to the letter, both UPS and FedEx have agreed to comply with information requests from law enforcement and other government agencies, even if those requests are "inconsistent with applicable laws, rules, and regulations."
A FedEx spokeswoman told the Free Beacon the company implemented a "firearms shipping compliance program" in September 2021 that requires that licensed firearms dealers send packages containing firearms from a specifically designated account and only to those with a federal firearm license.
The state officials are asking UPS and FedEx to provide them with internal communications and documents about the alleged regulation changes within 30 days.
Knudsen said it "sure looks and smells to me like they're trying to get around the Fourth Amendment," which prohibits unlawful searches and seizures.
Work-arounds to violate your RIGHTS appear to be acceptable to many companies. Like the government, they embrace socialist, dictatorial policies against their own customers.
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Re: More Corporate Cooperation in Violating Your Rights
Texas AG Paxton to Newsmax: FedEx, UPS Gun Policy 'Suspicious'
By Solange Reyner - 01 December 2022
https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/g...01/id/1098747/
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UPS and FedEx's altered policies requiring federal firearm license holders to separately ship and track firearms, firearm parts and products seems "suspicious" and "very unlikely," said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Newsmax.
"The fact that you have FedEx and UPS adopting this unusual policy, this very far-reaching policy in relation to one type of manufacturing * guns * at the same time, is a little suspicious and seems unlikely that they just came up with this idea on their own at the same time," Paxton said Thursday during an appearance on Newsmax's "National Report."
Paxton has joined several other attorneys general to challenge the policies. The group is requesting additional information on the shipping companies' new policies and asking whether the effort was coordinated with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
"We're just trying to find out what the truth is, and that's why we've asked some questions," Paxton said. "We've also asked them to stop these policies, so if they continue these policies and find out the federal government is behind it we'll figure out what our action is and take it."
The policy, he added, could be an attempt by the Biden administration to limit the second amendment.
"They obviously are very hostile to some of our constitutional rights, the First Amendment being one of them, the Second Amendment the other one," he said. "So, they're doing what they call workarounds. They tried to do this with the OSHA vaccine mandate.
"They are very uncomfortable with freedom as it was put out by our founders and the Second Amendment is one of those freedoms that they feel very hostile towards.
"And so, yeah, I'm very concerned that if we weren't stepping in right now, they would be limiting as much as they could * Second Amendment rights. I think that's the ultimate goal is to control who owns guns and have the government make that decision as opposed to individual citizens of this country."
The leftist liberals are continuing to gain ground on subverting the Founding Principles of this country. Those Principles which were 'Self-Evident' to the Founding Fathers, and the general public of that time, are constantly, and more widely, being assaulted every day by those inside big government and those controlling big business.
Not having the votes to actually change the Constitution, they will continue to create work-arounds to destroy the very Rights upon which this nation was built. It's treasonous.
Eventually, this once-great country will destroy itself from the inside.
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Re: More Corporate Cooperation in Violating Your Rights
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ImminentDanger
Eventually, this once-great country will destroy itself from the inside.
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As foretold by Abraham Lincoln in part of his Lyceum Address...
Quote:
Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a
Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the
Ohio or make a track on the
Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide.
edited to add source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraha...Lyceum_address
Re: More Corporate Cooperation in Violating Your Rights
Slouching Toward a Socialist Surveillance State
By Judge Andrew P. Napolitano - 02 December 2022
https://www.newsmax.com/judgeandrewp...02/id/1098882/
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Fascism is a governmental system in which the means of economic production and delivery of services are privately owned but government-controlled.
Throughout history - before even getting to its racism and wars - fascism has led to the glorification of the state and the destruction of personal liberty.
It's happening here.
During the past few months, we have learned that the major credit card companies have begun to record transactions at gun shops so as to enable the feds to learn the identity of patrons.
These are lawful gun shops selling lawful products to lawful purchasers.
The credit card records do not reflect precisely what was purchased - it might have been $2,000 for a gun safe or for gun safety lessons - but they do record the purchase amount and the contact information of the purchaser.
The problem here comes about when the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives come calling with their so-called National Security Letters in order to find out who is purchasing what.
The George W. Bush-championed Patriot Act of 2001 - the most horrific congressional assault on personal liberty since the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 criminalized dissent - permits federal agents to bypass the search warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment when they want private records that are in the hands of a custodian.
These NSLs are really nonjudicial search warrants in which one federal agent has authorized another to seek your records.
Since the gun shop purchase consists of the exercise of the natural right to exchange value for a lawful product and since the product purchased is an extension of the natural right to self-defense, the former protected by the Fifth Amendment and the latter by the Second Amendment, there is no lawful reason for the feds to know who has made these purchases.
Prior to the Patriot Act, if the feds came calling upon the custodian of your records, the custodian informed you of the government's interest in your records, and you had a reasonable time period to challenge the feds in court.
Today - notwithstanding the free speech protections in the First Amendment - it is unlawful for a custodian to inform you that the feds have come calling.
Thus, the records held by your computer, telecom, financial, healthcare, utilities and credit card service providers, your physicians and lawyers, may all be accessed without search warrants and without notice to you.
Under the Constitution, where federal gun registries are not permitted, it is none of the federal government's business who has purchased what from a gun shop.
Moreover, since the U.S. Supreme Court has characterized the right to self-defense as fundamental, akin to the freedom of speech, there is no more authority under the Constitution for the feds to learn the identity of gun shop patrons than there is for them to learn the identity of bookstore patrons.
The additional danger here is to the democratic process.
These decisions to keep records of sales and make them available to federal agents were made by government bureaucrats and corporate bosses, not by Congress.
This is a creeping deterioration of the right to keep and bear arms because the feds are notoriously anti-gun, no matter who is president and no matter what the Supreme Court rules the Second Amendment protects.
Add to this the new program concocted by Visa whereby it will keep records of credit card purchases in which it will rank the purchased products' conformity with the green climate change agenda view of carbon emissions, and make those records available to the Treasury Department, and you see a further whittling away of personal privacy.
It gets worse.
Last week, Amazon.com announced a bizarre new partnership with the New York City Police Department whereby if you live in New York City and install Amazon's Ring service at the front entrance to your apartment * and thus permit Amazon to record the audio and video of all who come and go at your entrance * the NYPD will have real-time access to the same audio and video.
This is yet another example of law enforcement intruding into private property - the home - without a search warrant, without probable cause of crime and without articulable suspicion.
The Amazon/NYPD partnership - just like the credit card/BATF partnership and the Visa/Treasury partnership - was never authorized by legislation.
All these symbiotic relationships, just like the now well-known Big Tech/Department of Homeland Security (DHS) partnership producing censorship of speech the government hates and fears, were born by bureaucrats using government carrots and sticks and the acquiescence of gutless corporate chieftains willing to please their government masters.
The government's appetite for surveillance is insatiable.
Yet, the dual purposes of the Fourth Amendment - by requiring judicial search warrants based on probable cause of crime and specifically describing the place to be searched and person or thing to be seized - are to keep the government off the peoples' backs and to compel law enforcement to focus on crimes that have already been committed.
May the government lawfully engage in fishing expeditions? In a word: No.
The secondary purposes of the Fourth Amendment are to prohibit general warrants - not based on probable cause of crime and not specifying the place to be searched or the person or thing to be seized - and to require that before the government begins to gather any evidence of crime, it has articulable suspicion about the crime that has been committed and the person or place to be investigated.
Moreover, articulable suspicion alone - the threshold for commencing all criminal investigations - does not justify any search, seizure or non-public surveillance.
What we have here is the stealth use by government of private enterprise to do its unconstitutional dirty work, thus far untested in the courts but unconstitutional on its face.
What secret favors is the government giving in return?
(Bolding Mine)
And UPS/Fedex are following that same type of partnership.
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Re: More Corporate Cooperation in Violating Your Rights
Yawn.
Have you tried the Arby's burger?
That's what poofa cares about.
1 Attachment(s)
Re: More Corporate Cooperation in Violating Your Rights
YEP - Lots of indifference to the loss of freedom.
The Myth of Peace & Safety seems to be comforting to many, many voters.
As The Toilet Swirls -- Both Left & Right -- Someday it will bite you, personally, in the ...
Attachment 162254
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Re: More Corporate Cooperation in Violating Your Rights
Yet another reason I NEVER use UPiSS or FukdEx! Haven*t used them for anything in more than a decade. I use USPS for everything. They are just too Lazy and/or stupid to track anything because*, we*ll the Government runs it, so duh, of course they are!
Re: More Corporate Cooperation in Violating Your Rights
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ImminentDanger
YEP - Lots of indifference to the loss of freedom.
The Myth of Peace & Safety seems to be comforting to many, many voters.
As The Toilet Swirls -- Both Left & Right -- Someday it will bite you, personally, in the ...
Attachment 162254
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I know.
"Yawn". How appropriate.
In 2024, Michigan gun owners are going to lose their rights with regards to semi auto firearms. Pennsylvania is not far behind. Yawn.
Re: More Corporate Cooperation in Violating Your Rights
Shit is just starting to get serious...apparently some have resorted to blowing up substations and transformers in order to stop drag queen shows from being performed...no power, no show. This has occurred in two different States...which doesn't include the first event which took place some years back in CA.
Its time we had our own businesses and industries...lots of opportunity and business ideas out there...just need to get started and capitalize on the bullshit they call wokeness...which will inevitably be relabeled as wokeness bankruptcy.
Re: More Corporate Cooperation in Violating Your Rights
I've illustrated above that the new push by the liberal left is to have Gun Control pushed as a Business Mandate. Just so, another example of this strategy is just starting regarding the unproven claim that masking is necessary. Businesses (rather than the government) are being recommended (by the government) to impose mandated masking. The government (restrained by the Constitution) is asking businesses to do the dirty work that the public has demanded that the government stop doing. This is a continued assault on the underlying Founding Principles of America, against the individualism that is essential to true freedom.
Masks Creeping Back Into Major US Cities
By Nick Koutsobinas - 13 December 2022
https://www.newsmax.com/us/face-mask...13/id/1100408/
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Across the United States' major metropolitan cities, masks are creeping in over concerns of "tripledemic," the Daily Mail reported, citing viruses such as COVID-19, the flu, and the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
This past weekend, cities such as Los Angeles, New York City, as well as Washington state issued new recommendations advising residents to wear masks indoors.
"While COVID is no longer the concern it once was, America is currently being battered by its worst flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) outbreaks in more than a decade, creating a winter 'tripledemic,'" the Mail reported.
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 35,000 new flu cases, with officials comparing the winter of 2022 to the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic.
"We also encourage you to wear a high-quality, well-fitting mask to prevent the spread of respiratory illnesses," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said at a briefing last week.
In Washington state, health officers and healthcare leaders wrote a public service announcement "that everyone wear a high-quality, well-fitting mask when around others in indoor spaces to protect against both acquiring and spreading these infections to others."
In New York City, officials last week advised residents to wear masks both indoors and at crowded outdoor events. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, city health officials pointed to a surge in COVID-19 cases while advising residents mask up.
While none of the orders were mandated, it presents a recommendation for businesses to require facial coverings.
(bolding mine)
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