comments inside ( ) by Stephen Wenger
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Tucked into the "Stimulus" Bill…: The stimulus bill Congress approved
late Friday provides $10 million for the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
Bureau to stop guns flowing from the U.S. to Mexico. The $787 billion
stimulus bill Democrats pushed through also provides money to build
and renovate border ports of entry and for technology at the Southwest
border. But it does not require contractors who receive stimulus money
to participate in a program designed to make sure U.S. employees are
working legally. The money allotted to the ATF is designated for
salaries and expenses of Project Gunrunner, which targets gun
trafficking networks in the U.S. An estimated 90 percent of weapons
seized in Mexico are from sources within the U.S., according to the
ATF. Many of the weapons are found in drug-related crimes…
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6263314.html
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Big Brother Ignores 80% of the Problem: Did you know that 80 percent
of the crime in this country is committed by less than 1 percent of
the population? The FBI says the one million gang members in this
country are responsible for four out of five crimes, yet the Obama
administration seems to ignore this fact to focus on gun control that
has nothing to do with breaking the back of criminal gang violence.
For example: The Obama administration only mentions gangs in the
"Urban Policy" portion of its agenda, not in crime and law
enforcement. Yet the FBI tells us "Gang migration from urban
communities to suburban and rural locations, which began more than two
decades ago, is a significant and growing problem in most areas of the
country." …
http://www.nranews.com/blogarticle.aspx?blogPostId=497
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Gillibrand Waffles on Guns: New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who
argues her pro-gun stance aims to protect hunters' rights and the
Second Amendment, last week said she and her husband, Jonathan, keep
two rifles under their bed to protect their upstate home… It drew
headshaking from Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to
Prevent Gun Violence, who expressed concern about storing guns under
beds, where children can find them and where burglars typically look
first… After meeting with a gun victim's parents in Brooklyn last week
Gillibrand said she would work for after-school programs as an
alternative to gangs and to write "the first anti-trafficking bill" to
halt the flow of illegal guns into New York. "That's not an example of
position change," she said. "It's an example of me broadening my focus
on an issue to make sure I can be a leader in areas that I think are
essential as a New York senator to protect our communities." … (I
believe that this is the first time I have agreed with Helmke – even a
broken clock tells the right time twice a day.)
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/politics/ny-usgill1612462761feb16,0,1520070.story
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The Beat Goes On: … Holtz was once a police officer in Oregon and has
owned and operated Frontier Arms for nine years. Last month the man
who has been a gunsmith since 1962 applied for a concealed weapon
permit. It is the first in his life. In recent months permit
applications have skyrocketed in Wyoming, and it has been well
reported across the country that gun sales increased both before and
after the November 2008 elections. The increase doesn't surprise
Holtz, and he knows why it's happening. "It's because of our leader
that got elected," he said, referring to President Barack Obama. Holtz
will join the roughly 2.8 percent of Wyoming residents who are
permitted to carry a concealed gun…
http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2009/02/15/featured_story/01top_02-15-09.txt
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Texas Gun Owners Oppose HR 45: Visitors and vendors at a Longview gun
show Saturday were in unison against a federal bill aimed to restrict
gun ownership… On Jan. 6, U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois introduced
federal legislation aimed at increasing license requirements and
ownership restrictions for firearms. House Resolution 45, also known
as Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009, is
named for a Chicago high school student killed on a public bus in May
2007 when another young man boarded and started shooting, Rush said.
Holt used his body to shield a girl from the line of fire and was shot
in the abdomen. Rush's legislation seeks to prohibit owning or selling
a gun without a license issued by the U.S. attorney general's office.
The bill also would make it illegal to keep a loaded firearm or an
unloaded firearm and its ammunition where there are children younger
than 18, according to the bill's text…
http://www.news-journal.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/02/15/02152009_gun_show.html
http://thefacts.com/story.lasso?ewcd=6a95102800318312
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Montana Debates Expanded-Rights Bill: At a marathon hearing Thursday,
backers and opponents of a bill to expand gun rights in Montana
painted distinctly different pictures of the state and its gun laws.
Proponents of House Bill 228 said gun owners in Montana are now held
captive by gray areas in Montana statute that could lead to them being
prosecuted for defending themselves with their firearm, or even
displaying a pistol to deter would-be attackers. But opponents said
the laws already on the books work, and that the expanded gun-rights
bill would hamper law enforcement's ability to prosecute people whom
they believe had wrongly used a gun…
http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2009/01/23/news/20hb228.txt
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Montana House Tells Feds to Back Off: Montana lawmakers fired another
shot in battles for states' rights as they supported letting some
Montana gun owners and dealers skip reporting their transactions to
the federal government. Under House Bill 246, firearms made in Montana
and used in Montana would be exempt from federal regulation. The same
would be true for firearm accessories and ammunition made and sold in
the state… "Firearms are inextricably linked to the history and
culture of Montana, and I'd like to support that," Boniek said. "But I
want to point out that the issue here is not about firearms. It's
about state rights." The House voted 64-36 for the bill on Saturday.
If it clears a final vote, the measure will go to the Senate. House
Republicans were joined by 14 Democrats in passing the measure… The
Montana bill follows fears here and elsewhere that the election of
Barack Obama as president will trigger more gun regulation. In the
months before Obama's inauguration, Montanans rushed to stock up on
guns, pushing gun sales beyond normal benchmarks despite the
recession…
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2009/02/15/bnews/br26.txt
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MT_XGR_INTERSTATE_COMMERCE_FIREARMS_MTOL-?SITE=MTKAL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-02-14-16-34-52
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Tennessee Newspaper Defends Posting Permit List: …The newspaper did
edit the state's publicly available list. We removed street addresses
and birth dates from the information to lessen any chance that
somebody might use information on the list for identify theft. As a
result, our posted list of permit holders for concealed weapons has
less information about individuals than the phone book, your voter
registration form or the credit card you use to buy dinner at a
restaurant… A mom might now check the list to see if the parents at
her kid's sleep-over next door had a concealed weapon permit. If so,
maybe it would be worth talking to them to make sure the gun is locked
up. A school official, concerned about whether teachers were bringing
guns onto school grounds, might check the list to see whether anyone
on the staff has a permit to carry, and then have a discussion about
it… (This is exactly where it becomes an invasion of privacy and why
many states, such as Arizona, keep their lists confidential. With any
luck, this action by The Commercial Appeal will result in a similar
privacy law in Tennessee.)
Related Commentary:
http://boortz.com/nealz_nuze/2009/02/gun-owners-outed-by-newspaper.html
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Arkansas Clergy Split over Church-Carry Bill: "Praise the Lord and
pass the ammunition" could take on new meaning if a measure passed
this week in the Arkansas House gains Senate approval and Gov. Mike
Beebe's signature. House Bill 1237 would allow people licensed to
carry concealed handguns to carry them in church and on church
property. The possibility of armed members in the congregation
received a mixed reaction among some Twin Lakes Area ministers. Dave
Gadbaw, pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Mountain Home, said he
thinks the proposed bill is "not a bad idea" in light of church
shootings across the country. "I find the idea of carrying a handgun
to church very disturbing," said Pastor Ron Rector of First Christian
Church of Mountain Home… (It intrigues me that some clergy are so
reluctant to tell their flocks openly that they can only rely on
prayer for protection if they wish to enter their church.)
http://www.baxterbulletin.com/article/20090214/NEWS01/90214001/1002
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=770177
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Texas Parking-Lot-Storage Bill Supported: State Sen. Glenn Hegar has
introduced Senate Bill 730, which would allow employees with concealed
handgun permits to keep weapons and ammunition secured in their
vehicles at work. Unfortunately, the Texas Association of Business is
against SB 730. The TAB's fears are unfounded. Every statistic bears
out the fact that individuals with concealed handgun permits are among
the most law-abiding citizens in Texas, and that states with concealed
handgun permits experience reductions in crime. TAB should research
the facts rather than allowing ideology to influence stands on issues.
It's the non-permit holders with guns illegally concealed in their
vehicles in company parking lots the TAB should be concerned about,
not those individuals who have taken a very good course on the use of,
dangers associated with and the laws regulating the carrying of
concealed handguns…
http://www.leader-news.com/news/2009/0214/viewpoint/017.html
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West Virginia Bill Would Allow Guns at Capitol: Bringing a gun or
other weapons to the State Capitol Complex isn't allowed. But, one
Senator believes the ban on weapons is too broad. Preston County
Senator Dave Sypolt brought Bill 147 before the Senate last week. It
proposes repealing the prohibition on bringing deadly weapons onto the
State Capitol Complex… What the Senator wants is for certified gun
owners to at least have the right to keep their weapons in their
vehicles while doing business at the capitol… Senator Sypolt even
suggests giving gun owners the option of handing over their weapons to
a guard. He says having a lock box at the entrance gates would allow
them to hand over their weapons and then get them back on their way
out…
http://www.wsaz.com/home/headlines/39645147.html
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The Arizona Connection: Freshman legislator Rep. Mike Ritze of Broken
Arrow has introduced legislation that would allow the carrying of
handguns and other firearms. Ritze's idea, which he said is identical
to an Arizona law, is being considered by the House Public Safety and
Homeland Security Committee. If passed, Ritze's bill would remove the
requirement of a license to openly carry a handgun, rifle or shotgun
as long as the weapon is in a holster, scabbard or case and wholly or
partially visible… (The problem with using the Arizona law as a model
is that it specifies that the holster be a belt holster and that the
holster be wholly or partially visible. There has been an unsuccessful
attempt to amend the Arizona law to allow the holster or the handgun
to be partially visible.)
http://baledger.com/articles/2009/02/15/news/doc49957fc8bbd1a485540994.txt
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California Gun Owners Sweat Local, State Laws: … In California, new,
sweeping federal anti-gun laws are not the main concern for gun
owners. It's rather local ordinances that could spread, along with new
state laws. In Sacramento and Los Angeles, for instance, you have to
fill out a form and leave a thumbprint to purchase center-fire
ammunition for a rifle or handgun. In the western foothills of the
central and southern Sierra, state law does not permit lead ammunition
because this area has been classified as historical condor habitat,
even though there are no condors there. You cannot use a lead .22
bullet to shoot rats, for instance. In the past, proposed laws have
tried to add taxes on ammunition sales in California. "In the last
five years in California, we've killed three ammo tax bills," Gaines
said. "One proposal wanted to add a tax of 10 cents per bullet. For a
brick of .22 shells, 500 rounds, that would add 50 bucks to the cost
just to go target shooting. Right now, that brick costs us about 10
bucks. These kinds of laws chip away at us, making firearms and
ammunition more difficult to get." He said such proposals widen the
divide between urban and rural…
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/15/SPAV15SC2J.DTL
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Enough Already in New Jersey: I do not own any guns. I do not like
guns. I am afraid of guns, even in the right hands. I even think that
some people take this Second Amendment stuff too far. Just to make
myself real clear, I am not a "gun nut." But sometimes, I've got to
agree with the "pro-gun" crowd. This comes to mind in the wake of last
week's news that Gov. Jon Corzine has signed yet another gun-control
law. In this latest piece of legislation, lawmakers stiffened the
penalties for unlawful possession of prohibited assault rifles or
machine guns. Violators could get up to 10 years behind bars… But
still, I'm somewhat troubled by this, yet another law controlling
weapons, for several reasons…
http://blog.nj.com/njv_george_berkin/2009/02/gun_control.html
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Incrementalism – Which Caliber to Ban Next?: After so-called "assault
weapons," the second most popular target of the gun prohibitionists
would probably be .50 caliber rifles. The ostensible "logic" (being
generous here) is that such rifles are "too powerful" to be entrusted
to private citizens. Nightmare scenarios of airliners being shot down,
or tanks of dangerous chemicals being breached, are breathlessly
trotted out in efforts to frighten the public. One thing never
mentioned in discussions of these potential disasters is an account of
anything like that ever happening, anywhere in the world. The very
simple reason for that is that nothing like that ever has happened…
http://www.examiner.com/x-2581-St-Louis-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m2d16-Whats-nexta-499-caliber-ban
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Then Again, Just Ban Ammo: Gun owners are alarmed over what they're
witnessing in Washington, DC and state legislatures across the
country. Realizing they could not succeed in disarming American
citizens, Liberal organizations and their political representatives
have decided to allow armed citizens to possess all the guns they
wish. The hitch is, according to political strategist Mike Baker, the
so-called gun-grabbers have decided to track ammunition for those guns
by encoding the cartridges and maintaining a database. Ammo control
laws will also stipulate that uncoded ammunition will be confiscated
either voluntarily or through coercive means, according to Baker…
http://www.newswithviews.com/NWV-News/news126.htm
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The Sky Is Falling: On Thursday Rick Kipper of Charlotte County [FL]
found out a co-worker's 10-year-old son and two other boys got in
trouble at Neil Armstrong Elementary School. "His son had been
suspended from school for bringing a gun, or actually a whole cache of
guns to school in his backpack," explains Kipper. He says the "cache
of guns" were action figure guns that can fit in your palm. "I think
this is over-zealous, it's over-stepping. It's ridiculous," insists
Kipper. He wants to know: "What is zero tolerance? Where do you draw
the line?" …
http://www.fox4now.com/global/story.asp?s=9843564
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Meanwhile, in Colorado: Marie Morrow is heading back to class after
the superintendent of the Cherry Creek School District decided the
student had been disciplined enough for bringing fake rifles used for
a drill team to school. But the issue has brought Colorado's
dangerous-gun laws into the cross hairs while districts wrestle with
when and how to enforce the law and when to use common sense… Morrow,
17, was suspended for up to 10 days on Feb. 5 after a student saw the
fake rifles in her vehicle and notified school officials. She faced
expulsion, but officials decided Friday that the amount of school she
already missed was enough of a punishment. Morrow leads the drill team
of the Douglas County Young Marines, which teaches leadership and life
skills. Morrow said she didn't realize she had the nonworking props in
her vehicle…
http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_11706871
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Oops, Wrong House: A suspected home invasion suspect has been shot and
killed following an armed confrontation with a homeowner. Palm Beach
County Sheriff's spokesman Pete Palenzuela says PBSO received a phone
call early Monday morning at approximately 1:50 a.m., saying an armed
man had broken into the residence, located at 1382 White Pine Drive.
Investigators say their preliminary investigation shows the deceased
black male suspect, who was wearing all black clothing and a black
mask, was an armed intruder. Nobody else inside the house was injured.
One of the residents is described as a local teacher. Palenzuela says
the residents' two dogs alerted the family when the suspect tried to
get in through a sliding door in the back of the home. (This account
points out the value of dogs and the relative ease of forcing open
sliding doors.)
Oops, Wrong Estranged Wife: A man was killed last Tuesday, Feb. 3,
resulting from an altercation with his alienated wife and her male
friend. Boderick Horne, 31 of Milledgeville, was found dead with
several gunshot wounds in the home of his alienated wife, Lakeisha
Horne, 28, in her duplex apartment located in River's Edge
Subdivision. Officials said that Boderick Horne had forcefully entered
his estranged wife's home confronting Lakeisha Horne and her male
friend, Keeno Weaver, a GCSU Employee. Authorities say that the males
got into an argument taking the confrontation into the kitchen when
Weaver shot Boderick Horne several times resulting in his death…
Oops, Wrong Coin Store: An armed man attempting to rob a North Park
coin shop Friday morning was killed after he and at least one of the
store's employees exchanged gunfire, police said. The man and an
accomplice went into the Old Coin Shop on El Cajon Boulevard, just
east of Texas Street, at 9:16 a.m. and confronted two employees who
were both armed with handguns, said San Diego police homicide Lt.
Terry McManus. About the same time police received a 911 call about
the robbery and while en route, shots were fired inside the business,
McManus said… (When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.)
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/feb/13/bn12shot214195-robber-shot/
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Lots of Company, Advice for Newbies: …So what should a new gun buyer
know? I ask D.H. "Gunny" Schmidbauer, a retired Marine gunnery
sergeant and firearms instructor, what gun he would recommend. Gunny
says that depends on the buyer's experience. So I create a composite
customer: a lifelong Democrat who has never owned a gun, shot his
friend's .22-caliber rifle years ago in college but now is getting
worried about the break-ins on his street. Gunny nods approvingly. Gun
people love liberal converts. He quickly answers: "A steel-framed
.357. Maybe a Ruger or Smith & Wesson Model 60." Why? Lots of wallop.
The steel frame cuts down on the kick. You can cut down on it even
more with .38-caliber ammunition. And the instructions are simple: Put
bullets in gun. Aim. Fire… (Good advice, so long as you have the hand
size and strength to work the double-action trigger. I once had a
student for whom a revolver did not point as well as a Kahr pistol,
which she decided to purchase. However, there is plenty of room to
"adjust" a revolver with aftermarket grip stocks.)
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/community/news/apopka/orl-miket1509feb15,0,6358416.column
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British Snipers in Afghanistan: British Army snipers call it 'the
Silent Assassin' and it is the weapon the Taliban fear the most. It is
the British-made L115A3 Long Range Rifle which, in recent weeks, has
killed scores of enemy fighters in Afghanistan. In a new initiative on
the front line, the Army is using sniper platoons to target the
Taliban and 'The Long', as the snipers call it, can take out
insurgents from a mile away… The L115A3 Long Range Sniper Rifle -
based on a weapon used by the British Olympic shooting team - weighs
15lbs, fires 8.59mm rounds and has a range of 1,100-1,500 yards.
(Curiously, the weight of the rifle is given in pounds but the caliber
is given in millimeters, which translate to 0.338 inches. This would
appear to be the Lapua .338 Magnum, an outstanding choice for
long-range precision work. Notice how it is the rifle, not the
operators, which is credited with eliminating the talibs.)
How about Armed Citizens?: With three Afghan government ministries in
Kabul hit by simultaneous suicide attacks this week, by a total of
just eight terrorists, it seems that a new "Mumbai model" of swarming,
smaller-scale terrorist violence is emerging… This pattern suggests
that Americans should brace for a coming swarm. Right now, most of our
cities would be as hard-pressed as Mumbai was to deal with several
simultaneous attacks. Our elite federal and military counterterrorist
units would most likely find their responses slowed, to varying
degrees, by distance and the need to clarify jurisdiction… So how are
swarms to be countered? The simplest way is to create many more units
able to respond to simultaneous, small-scale attacks and spread them
around the country. This means jettisoning the idea of overwhelming
force in favor of small units that are not "elite" but rather "good
enough" to tangle with terrorist teams. In dealing with swarms,
economizing on force is essential…
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/opinion/15arquilla.html?_r=2
Related Article: …After the three-day assault in Mumbai on luxury
hotels, a Jewish center and other sites in November left 164 people
dead, the NYPD dispatched investigators to India to see if there were
any security lessons for New York. They were struck how the 10
shooters calmly caused so much mayhem by relying on cell-phone
communication and Chinese knockoff AK-47s. The local police and
security officers, they said, were clearly overwhelmed. "Their weapons
were not sufficiently powerful and they were not trained for that type
of conflict," Kelly said. "It took more than 12 hours for properly
armed Indian commandos to arrive." … (The photos I recall of the
Mumbai incident showed police officers armed with SMLE bolt-action
rifles. I believe that this Indian version is chambered in 7.62x51mm
[.308 Winchester], a substantially more powerful round than the
5.56x45mm [.223 Remington] of the M4 and Ruger Mini-14. MG Merritt
Edson, USMC, is reported to have said, "One hundred rounds do not
constitute fire power. One hit constitutes fire power." The salient
point about Mumbai is that the police officers did not even attempt to
use their rifles.)
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/nypd_mumbai_attacks/2009/02/15/182232.html
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Tangentially Related: Reporting from Washington - Slowly over the last
few weeks, some of Barack Obama's most fervent supporters have come to
an unhappy realization: The candidate who they thought was squarely on
their side in policy fights is now a president who needs cajoling and
persuading… (Curiously absent from this account are the pleas of the
Brady Bunch and its brethren. Do they know something that the other
far-left constituencies don't or does the Los Angeles Times simply not
want to rock that particular boat at this time?)
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