AR-15s Good 'Wound Ballistics' Make this Semi-automatic Fully Wonderful for Many

AR-15-style rifles were used by Bulletproof
Securities, Inc., to patrol Wisconsin's north
woods to seek anti-mining activists in 2013.
Photo by Rob Ganson.

AR-15 semi-auto rifle is civilian version of U.S. military’s M-16

Good "wound ballistics from AR-15," notes The Atlantic last year

Madison, Wisconsin—In 2013, an armed right wing militia, Bulletproof Securities, Inc. patrolled the Wisconsin north woods with AR-15-style, semi-automatic rifles frightening northern communities concerned about massacre control and devastation to the environment by a now-defunct massive, open-pit mining project.

The open display of this corporate intent to massacre was the subject of wide criticism, but not from Wisconsin Republicans.

The AR-15 is everything you need for home defense or killing terrorists and black men (what's the difference?), or a mining protestor. And, of course, young adults, students.

Now, the newest massacre from Florida using the AR-15-style rifle finds some Americans wondering if massacre is good public policy.

I have no faith in Republicans in Congress or the lunatic in the White House coming to the conclusion that massacre control is needed. Too many lunatics for whom Republicans work.

From USA Today:

Everything armed guards need for pesky Wisconsin protestors.
Pictured above is AR-15-style rifle by an employee of Bulletproof
operating without a license in northern Wisconsin in 2013.
Photo by Rob Ganson.

Dean Hazen, owner of The Gun Experts in Mahomet, Ill., and a master firearms instructor, said the reason mass shooters are turning to the AR-15 is due to a 'copy-cat' mentality more than any feature of the rifle.

'It’s really just a perception thing,' Hazen said. 'There are rifles that are more powerful and more dangerous than that, but they're not being used.'

Hazen said the AR-15 has "gotten a bad rap."

Actually, the rap on AR-15s is well-deserved, and the fact that more dangerous weapons exist does not disconfirm the recent history of American massacres from AR-15s.

From the Miami Herald, quoting a 14-year-old: "... Until we heard screaming and people, not falling, but crashing when they were barricading the door. We knew it wasn’t a joke anymore."

We could have 18 massacres a month, and Republicans would still not do anything for fear of alienating the NRA.

You want massacre control?

Vote out every Republican across America as a first step.

Below, in a video from 2017, the Atlantic's James Fallows discusses another mass shooting—who can remember which one out of the many that have occurred.

GTAC Mining Protestor Gets New Civil Rights Attorney

Katie Krow Kloth targeted by Mining
Co. and Corrupt Wisconsin DA

A woman protesting the siting of a proposed massive open pit mine in Iron County Wisconsin (since effectively withdrawn) is serving a nine-month jail sentence after Iron County's notorious District Attorney Martin Lipske insisted on filing numerous criminal charges associated with a protest in 2013.

Today, conservationist Katie Krow Kloth was granted a change of attorney, and now local Iron County attorney Anthony Stella will be representing Kloth against another criminal charge, felony bailjumping.

Attorney Anthony 'Tony' Stella is well-known throughout Wisconsin and is regarded highly in civil rights circles and the Wisconsin legal community.

The felony bailjumping charge was tacked on against Ms. Kloth by Lipske, in keeping with Lipske's penchant for employing this charge as a means of maliciously inflicting stress onto disfavored criminal and civil defendants.

This state of affairs in which a sitting district attorney runs his office in a capricious and often volatile manner is virtually unknown outside of isolated Iron County in far-northern Wisconsin.

Local residents describe Lipske, whose law license was suspended for discipline involving "dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misconduct" in 1990, as "terrorizing" the county with a sparse population of some 6,000 residents.

Lipske has been practicing in good standing since January 19, 1994, according to the State Bar of Wisconsin.

Lipske was criticized by local residents of Ashland and Iron County, (speaking on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation by Lipske), for stipulating last year to a deferred prosecution of a local politically connected man, Dennis D. Braun, involved in a child sex trafficking crime involving a 14-year-old girl who ran screaming out of hotel after being transported some 600 miles from Milwaukee to a hotel in the town of Mercer in Iron County. (Mal Contends)

Lipske minimized the incident saying, "the man only engaged in kissing the 14-year-old and providing wine." (KBJR News, Oct. 2, 2013), before agreeing to not prosecute Braun.

Braun was granted a liquor license in 2003 by the City of Hurley for an exotic establishment on Silver Street.

Mine Owners Cry 'No Money' as Iron County Board Faces Decision on GTAC Lease

"Why should Iron County be subsidizing billionaire Chris Cline at the expense of poor, local taxpayers?" (StellaReport)

Few objective Wisconsin citizens believed Gogebic Taconite's (GTAC) proposed massive open pit mine operation was a full-employment and pro-environmental center in disguise despite repeated statements by mining company officials assuring benign and encouraging results.

But some residents of Iron County will believe pretty much anything in their desperation for promised jobs and money from the Koch brothers. But reportedly, the Iron County Board is considering that it has been taken for a long ride.

GTAC funneled over $ Millions into GOP coffers and allies, including of course Scott Walker who asked that GTAC money defending his Recall election be funneled through Wisconsin Club for Growth. (Marley, Bice and Bergquist, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) GTAC coughed up $700,000 for Club for Growth at Scott Walker's urging.

Now, GTAC's lease with Iron County is up for renewal.

An Iron County attorney, Anthony Stella, is blasting GTAC's cries that it has no money and needs to lease the Iron County land for free with no payments to Iron County until 2016. (StellaReport)

Writes Stella:

This whole scenario should also be a wakeup call. Chris Cline [the billionaire behind GTAC] is not serious about this project. He can't be. He has severed the umbilical cord between him and GTAC. He is not only embarrassing Iron County, he is embarrassing [GTAC president] Bill Williams and the local GTAC employees. They have come bearing promises of a $1.5 billion investment, and now can't pony up $10K to secure the rights to property which is essential to their plans? Clearly Cline has the money. He has made the deliberate decision not to spend it on this project, just as he already instructed GTAC to lay off all the workers and stop spending any more money last fall.

WAKE UP IRON COUNTY! If GTAC can't afford to come up with $10K to pay Iron County for a year, they certainly aren't in a position to spend the millions that will be required for more drilling and testing over the next year. This is also a red flag. These guys cannot even manage a budget during this early phase. Are we going to trust that they can run a profitable mining venture? When it comes time for cleaning things up and reclamation, will they say they're out of money? If they can't honor their contracts before they've even gotten started, they can't be trusted to honor them later.

We heard excuses from Bill Williams about why nothing is happening. First he said they let employees go last fall because it was late in the year and they couldn't finish environmental work before winter. Last week we heard they would not drill this winter because no snow had been removed. Days later he told Wisconsin Public Radio they were holding off over fears that an EPA decision on a mine in Alaska might lead to a similar decision against GTAC, and he added that Iron County's proposed zoning ordinance also was a concern. But now we learn the real truth. The well has gone dry. Chris Cline won't fork over any more cash, even after generously giving $700K to his buddies in Madison.

What about Cline and GTAC's abiding concern for jobs and the environment? Turns out this was BS, and even credulous Iron County residents may begin to wonder if the proposed mine's destroying and poisoning the environment was ever a bright idea to begin with.

Stella noted last night at the Citizens Concerned about the Proposed Penokee Mine site (Facebook):

"I have had very encouraging and constructive talks with several board members in Iron County. There's reason to believe a dozen or more are open to rejection of the lease extension agreement. This needs to be approached right, including making sure they have the right legal advice going forward. There's also a lot of pressure on some of these folks, so try to resist the urge to attack board members for past decisions made. If everyone is constructive going forward, we'll get the best results. As Mike Wiggins [of the Bad River band of the Lake Superior Chippewa] said the other night, 'the parties all have a lot of mutual interests, and it's time to focus on moving forward with those instead of fighting over the past or things we can't agree on.'"

Wiggins is right, one wonders if GTAC will pull the plug as the collapse in global iron ore prices leave locals holding the bag and finding it empty.