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Gun News Daily CA AG Lockyer's SYS Buy Back Administered by Aussie Company. By William Lolli CalNRA Contributing Editor June 21, 1999 For those of you who follow these editorials, you recall that Attorney General Lockyer was hot on the trail of the illegal gun sales after the huge Pomona Gun Show bust and publicity photo-op. To refresh your memory read http://www.gunnewsdaily.com/pomona.htm to find out how several members of the press were not fooled by the photo-op and table full of guns that the AG later had to retract as bogus.Also, recall that just before the arrest of four suspects, I had called the AG office to get a more clear listing of the evidence that was actually seized during the sting operation at the gun show. (See "CA AG Lockyer's Office is Hot on the Trail")Well, things are still smelling fishy at the AG's office. For one thing, the list of seized illegal weapons given to me by Norma X of the AG's office doesn't exactly jibe with the weapons and charges of the four suspects in the AG's actual press release. (See his press release at: http://caag.state.ca.us/press/99-045.htm)What about the other weapons / contraband? Were they returned to their lawful owners? Was the list given to me by Norma X just a bunch of hooey, just like the guns on the table during the photo-shoot? At this point, can we believe an AG that deliberately misrepresents "evidence" for a publicity stunt, in future press releases? I am still trying to get an interview with one of the suspects, or their attorney, to find out if these guys are real people; or to determine if the "arrests" are as phony as the photo-op press conference was when this whole thing got started. But that isn't all. Now there is something new. A few weeks ago people began to notice, and ask questions, about the AG's web site www.sksbuyback.org.This site is a "public service" warning citizens of the dangers of owning an illegal SKS rifle after the due time has passed for CA residents to turn them in for some money, destroy them, or send those guns out of the state. Well, there I go again. I have more questions for the AG: Question 1: As of 06/21/99 the web site shows 4 SKS rifles that will be "illegal" in January of 2000, according to the AG. Really? Look closely, friends. Two are legal, and two are not. Is the AG's office playing fast and loose with the law in failing to properly identify to the general public the correct weapons? Why are they doing this? Question 2: Why is it sksbuyback.ORG and not sksbuyback.GOV? Isn't this supposed to be a government site, paid for by taxpayers, maintained by the state government as a service to citizens? What's with the ORG thing? I wanted to find out more about this ORG web site. So I went to NetworkSolutions.com and did a WHOIS lookup. What I found was really fishy. Here was a State of California web site Administered by a company I had never heard of with a Red Chinese phone number. I nearly hit the ceiling. I snap-shot a PDF file of the WHOIS page last week. I confirmed with an international operator that the international code of the People's Republic of China is 0086 and the city code of Beijing is 010. Well, that was last week. This week the Admin, Tech and Billing contacts are all Australian. Curious as I am, I called OzNIC.com and talked to "Jason". He assured me that there was no Red Chinese connection, that the folks at NetworkSolutions.com had snafu-ed the Admin Contact phone number with a Red Chinese number, that OzNIC is solely an Australian company, and that the domain name was registered on-line through their affiliate in Chicago (where the web site resides). Sure enough, Jason is right. A simple Trace-route to sksbuyback.org reveals a Chicago host. But wait a minute. Aren't there plenty of American ISPs right here in California? And shouldn't this be a .GOV since it is a GOVERNMENT web site, PAID FOR by taxpayers? Isn't the job of law enforcement to protect the public and enforce the law? Why all the photo-op sessions, grand-standing, demonizing Gun Shows, misleading the public and other law enforcement agencies on what-is-a-legal-or-illegal gun? And why a foreign administered web site? Mr. Lockyer, you are sure confusing the hell out of me, because I don't get it.
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