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The RKBA and the 2010 Senatorial Elections: Will the 2011 Senate be friendlier to the Second Amendment than the current Senate? While the 2010 election will result in gains for Republicans, both parties contain pro-rights and anti-rights candidates. In 2006 and 2008, this meant that the anti-Republican deluge did little harm to the net numbers of Second Amendment supporters in Congress. While some conservatives wish that the NRA would not support pro-gun Democrats, the long-term survival of the right to keep and bear arms depends on gun rights having friends in both major parties. We saw what happened during the George H.W. Bush administration, when the White House believed that gun owners had nowhere else to go, and so Republicans could triangulate to support some anti-gun laws. This year, if N = the number of Republican Senate gains, then the pro-gun gain will probably be more than ½ N, but less than N. This gain could be significant, because it would produce enough pro-rights Senators to defeat a filibuster. On the other hand, if 2011 brings us a Democrat-controlled Senate with a Majority Leader other than Harry Reid, pro-Second Amendment bills will never get a vote. So moving from East to West, let's examine the races, taking into account the NRA grades that the candidates have received in present or past elections… (David Kopel is one of the leading legal scholars of the RKBA, not only in the US but back to the Bible and around the world. Whether or not it is by intent, his analysis seems to endorse NRA's tacit support for Harry Reid.)
http://newledger.com/2010/09/gun-rights-and-the-2010-senate-elections/
Meanwhile, on the House Side…: The NRA's pro-incumbent instincts work out to the benefit of another endangered Democrat: The NRA-ILA has just endorsed Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin of South Dakota. This might be a good time to check out my interview with Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action. I didn't want to berate Cox; there's a great deal of logic to the organization's aim to establish allies on both sides of the aisle, and there's something principled about sticking with endangered lawmakers who stick with them. But it seems like a lot of rural Democrats who represent districts that voted for Bush and McCain have figured out that when they're accused of being liberals, as long as they never vote wrong on guns, they can always point to their NRA endorsement and use that as cover. I'd hate for America's foremost gun rights organization to turn into a life preserver for a bunch of liberal lawmakers who give lip service to the rest of our Constitutional rights. The Republican challenger for this seat, Kristi Noem, is a solid supporter of the Second Amendment and she won't vote for the stimulus or vote to make Nancy Pelosi Speaker…
http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/248070/noem-then-how-can-you-endorse-em
The Interview: …Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action, talked to National Review Online about the group's approach to endorsements and how the organization ended up backing some figures who are not so popular with grassroots conservatives…
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/247820/staying-target-jim-geraghty
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Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics: …Unsurprisingly, MAIG bases its claim that ten states supply the largest of proportion of "interstate crime guns" by using gun tracing reports from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives – despite the fact that such reports have long been discredited as a statistical source. Says the Congressional Research Service: "Trace requests are not accurate indicators of specified crimes…traces may be requested for a variety of reasons not necessarily related to criminal incidents." The reason, of course, is that not all guns used in crimes are traced, and that not all guns traced were used in crimes. Different law enforcement agencies have different policies on gun tracing, making the results useless for statistical analysis. I once had a firearm traced during a routine traffic stop. Is that a "crime gun?" Bloomberg would have you believe that it is… The MAIG report features all sorts of quasi-academic terms mixed with methodologically unsound conclusions. It tries to claim, for example, that certain types of gun laws (which, remarkably enough, coincide exactly with gun control advocates' wish lists) result in lower "export rates." (Never mind that a basic tenet of statistics is that "correlation does not imply causation." Simply because two things are associated does not mean one causes the other.) But one relatively new piece of fluff tries to claim that "Time to Crime" ("TTC") of two years or less – that is to say, the time from point of original sale to recovery from a crime – is an indicator of illegal gun trafficking… But watch how meaningless statistics can morph into "factoids" that "everybody knows." …Percentage of guns recovered now becomes percentage of guns sold. This went out to tens of thousands of viewers across the state, as well as those who viewed the organization's web site. Similarly, the news org gleaned from the report that North Carolina ranked in the top ten exporters of so-called "crime guns." Never mind that when factored for population, North Carolina drops to 20th in the country in "crime guns" exported per 100,000 inhabitants (a rate of 18.9), behind such crime gun dens of iniquity as Vermont (22.8)…
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-charlotte/mayors-gun-tracing-report-latest-sound-bite-for-gun-control
…If you're interested, you can wade through statistics on trace data and exports and "time to crime"...what strikes me is, this whole effort seems more an indictment on existing gun control edicts than the lack of laws. The Gun Control Act of 1968 pretty much limits "legal" personal interstate firearm transfers to those utilizing licensed dealers, and the "prohibited persons" committing the vast majority of violent crimes are forbidden by law to even touch a gun, let alone carry and use one. And theft, another major source for "crime guns," is illegal as well. With those basics established, what point is there in wading through the minutiae? What's clear is that Bloomberg, a chronic control freak with taxpayer-funded armed bodyguards, is intent on dictating what guns we can own, and how we must conduct ourselves with what he allows us to possess. The whole point of this effort is to frighten the public and pressure politicians to pass even more citizen disarmament laws that, like all the edicts that have been enacted before, will only harass the "law-abiding." It's no accident that the violent crime plague is the worst in cities already under the (illusion of) control of Bloomberg & Co. Their "solution" is to extend their enlightened rule over the rest of us, who have no problem controlling ourselves and who just want them to leave us alone. But that's not to be, as a sampling of opportunistic jockeying in the wake of the Bloomberg report show us…
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/report-shows-mayors-against-your-guns-desperation-to-be-relevant
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Campus Gun Bans: Yesterday was a sad and harrowing morning at the University of Texas in Austin. A young man with an AK-47 assault rifle fired a number of rounds into the air as he ran past frightened onlookers at 8 a.m. He then dashed into the school's library where police say he shot himself… Coincidentally, the shooting occurred on the day that conservative author John R. Lott, Jr., a proponent of concealed-handgun laws, was to speak at the University of Texas law school about crime and how it is affected by citizens who own guns and carry concealed handguns… Guns bans don't deter crime, says Lott – an argument he made yesterday evening when speaking at a local book store, near where the first shots were fired, instead of at the university's law school. "Would you put up a sign in front of your house saying 'This is a gun-free zone?" he told the Austin American-Statesman before delivering his lecture. "That makes no sense because it tells the criminal there's not going to be any guns there. Yet we put signs like that up at our schools and universities. ... There's a tremendous advantage to having concealed-carry laws, because the shooter doesn't know who has a weapon." "Some places like the UT campus are targeted by gunmen because they know the potential victims won't be armed," Lott went onto tell more than 100 people – a crowd that Students for Concealed Carry on Campus Vice President Kory Zipperer told the Statesman was larger than expected…
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/09/concealed_carry_laws_and_a_sho.html
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Federal Bill Would Protect Lead Ammo: Following continued attacks by anti-hunting groups to ban traditional ammunition (ammunition containing lead-core components) under the Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) of 1976, Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) earlier today introduced legislation to clarify the longstanding exemption of ammunition under the act. The bill is being championed by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) – the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry. "We applaud and thank Sen. Lincoln for introducing this commonsense measure today," said NSSF President and CEO Stephen L. Sanetti. "This bill will help to ensure that America's hunters and shooters can continue to choose for themselves the best ammunition to use." … (Lincoln is obviously running scared after her infamous vote on government takeover of health care.)
http://www.rightsidenews.com/2010092911782/us/politics-and-economics/senator-introduces-bill-to-protect-traditional-ammunition.html
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Both Sides Unhappy with New Jersey CCW Bill: …Last week, Van Drew introduced legislation to allow New Jersey residents who pass background checks, complete a course in firearms safety, pass a test on the lawful use of force and pay a $500 annual fee to carry a pistol or revolver. Under current state law, only someone who demonstrates to the local police chief a "justifiable need" to carry a gun and gets badge of approval from a state judge can be issued a permit to carry a handgun. Relatively few citizens prove their case… Van Drew sees the $500 annual fee as a way to put dollars in the depleted state treasury. He also thinks changing the carry laws now could mitigate possible lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of current state carry laws in light of U.S. Supreme Court decisions striking down handgun bans in Chicago and Washington, D.C… Van Drew knows getting his bill through the majority Democratic legislature will be an uphill battle and will probably be opposed by both sides of the gun controversy. He's right. Scott Bach, president of the Association of Rifle and Pistol Clubs, termed the $500 fee outrageous and the provisions of the bill to qualify for the carry permit "excessive." Brian Miller, executive director of Ceasefire NJ, accused Van Drew of kowtowing to the "pro-gun forces of darkness." … (Linked page includes poll.)
http://www.nj.com/hudson/voices/index.ssf/2010/09/morgans_corner_both_sides_like.html
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California City Waffles on Open-Carry Arrests: The story is not over, if anything it is just beginning. Here is the latest move by the City of Manhattan Beach. The Manhattan Beach Hometown Fair has backed down on its threat of arrests. Today, the Chief of Police Rod Uyeda issued a two page press release which read as a condemnation of our individual, fundamental, Constitutional right to carry weapons for the purpose of self-defense, which the United States Supreme Court declared in its Heller Decision back in 2008 and left no doubt that it also applies to all States and local governments this June in its McDonald Decision. Although the Fair has backed down from its threats of arrest, the City has taken upon itself to redefine what constitutes a school ground under California Penal Code 626.9 - Under the law of the State of California, possession of firearms on public property within 1,000 feet of a school ground are restricted to being unloaded and in locked containers unless the school has granted written permission…
http://www.examiner.com/la-in-los-angeles/fair-backs-down-police-relegate-open-carry-to-back-of-bus
A South Bay group that advocates carrying guns in public will wear unloaded weapons to this weekend's Hometown Fair in Manhattan Beach despite threats that members will be arrested if they go near American Martyrs Church and Grandview School. Harley Green, the leader of South Bay Open Carry, said members want to promote their constitutional right to carry guns and believe the city is using the church to try to keep them away. Police Chief Rod Uyeda said state law - the California Gun Free Zone Act of 1995 - prohibits anyone from coming within 1,000 feet of a school, and American Martyrs Church includes a school…
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_16198985
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Oops, Wrong Grocery Store: Police say an armed robbery suspect is facing robbery and weapons possession charges after he tried to rob a grocery store on W. Brighton Avenue. According to police, a store employee shot the robbery suspect. The attempted robbery happened just before 9pm at the Los Amigos grocery store in the 200 block of W. Brighton Avenue. Police say Rauwshan Johnson, 29, tried to commit the robbery, when he was shot in the torso by a store employee. The suspect was taken to University Hospital for treatment, released, and taken to the Onondaga County [NY] Justice Center.
http://www.9wsyr.com/news/local/story/Grocery-store-employee-shoots-attempted-robbery/2pbkUHU0h06tPLFdKVXjew.cspx
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Oops, Wrong House: A woman who opened fire on four men who tried to kicked in her door on Friday said she's fighting back and won't become a victim. The incident happened Friday in the 1100 block of Woodville Drive, police said. Stephanie, who didn't reveal her last name because she said she fears for her life, said she was awakened at about 10:30 a.m. by a noise at her front door. She said she grabbed her gun as the men tried to kick in her door. "I just saw on TV where that 81-year-old got killed and I was like, 'No. I can't go out like this. I have a 13-year-old to live for,'" she said. Stephanie said she shot through the wall at the men. "I told her if an intruder ever comes, never open the door. Shoot through the door. We can always get another door," said Stephanie's husband, who asked WAPT News not to report his name. Stephanie said the men ran after she fired the shot… The Castle Doctrine gives Mississippians the right to protect their home and themselves when they're in danger… (All's well that ends well but see the reminder on Rule Four, below.)
http://www.wapt.com/news/25182490/detail.html
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Oops, Wrong Junkyard: A junkyard owner in Fayette County [PA] was able to fight off two thieves who beat him during a burglary at his business, according to police. Investigators said when the two men saw Toby's Recycling owner Stanley Tabaj, they attacked him with baseball bats and shocked him with a stun gun. "They come in with two ball bats and a Taser and started beating on me," said Tabaj. "They hit me once there, hit me once there, broke this hand here, hit me on the elbow here with aluminum bats." Police said Sean Garland, 20, and Nathan Smith, 18, were waiting for Tabaj when he arrived to at the business in Bitner early Monday morning. After the attack, Tabaj said he was able to grab his shotgun and fired birdshot, hitting one of the suspects in the back. "I grabbed the shotgun. It was sitting there and when he went around the corner of the building, I shot him," Tabaj said. "I might be an old man, but you don't play with this old man. Believe me." … (As the castle-doctrine languishes in the legislature, I'm not sure how the shot in the back will play out legally. Tabaj would seem to have been better served had he been carrying a handgun on his person.)
http://www.wpxi.com/news/25178355/detail.html
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Oops, Wrong Pizza Parlor: Inside a cooler at an east Charlotte Pizza Hut, two would-be robbers were hitting and pistol-whipping a delivery driver. All the while, the driver said, he kept his right elbow pinned tightly against his body - holding a Glock 22 under his shirt and out of view. He didn't want to use the gun unless he was forced to, he recalled Tuesday. But as he felt one of the men lifting his shirt, nearly exposing the gun, the deliveryman opened fire. The two men killed - Gregory James Hardy and Dauntrae Wallace - were both 21-year-old convicted felons, one on probation and one awaiting trial on unrelated charges. Police were searching Tuesday night for a third suspect who fled the attempted robbery and may have been wounded. No charges have been filed against the deliveryman… Pizza Hut employees have been fired for using guns in self-defense. Chris Fuller, a spokesman for Pizza Hut's national corporate office, said that "in the interest of our employees' safety, we don't discuss our safety policies publicly." However, there have been several reports in recent years in which Pizza Hut officials said corporate policy forbids employees to have weapons while on the job. A Pizza Hut employee in Columbia resigned last year after police said he shot and killed a robbery suspect. The employee resigned, according to Pizza Hut's Fuller, because of the company's policy forbidding employees to carry firearms. In one well-publicized May 2004 case, a Pizza Hut employee in Carmel, Ind., was fired after he shot and killed a would-be robber. And in 2008, a Pizza Hut worker in Des Moines, Iowa, lost his job after he shot and wounded a robbery suspect. Both of those Pizza Hut employees were delivery drivers… (The article contains many more details.)
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/09/29/1725241/pizza-driver-hit-by-bandits-i.html
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Rule One, Rule Two Reminder: A 29-year-old Weber County man has been sentenced to prison for up to five years for critically injuring a 9-year-old boy while "dry firing" a loaded shotgun last year at a Roy trailer park. David Larry Dunlap had been using alcohol and marijuana before firing the shotgun through the window of a trailer as the boy walked by eight feet away. Dunlap told police he cleaned the shotgun, reassembled it and believed it was unloaded when he pulled the trigger on Nov. 7. The victim, Braden Schroeder, was struck by seven pellets of double-aught buckshot from his neck to his thigh, according to police. Prosecutors have said the boy was recovering, although surgeons left some of the buckshot inside his body. Schroeder, of North Ogden, was at the trailer park visiting his grandfather. Dunlap, of Riverdale, was house sitting for his grandmother. Dunlap was charged in 2nd District Court with second-degree felony discharge of a firearm and third-degree felony possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of a controlled substance. He pleaded guilty to lesser charges of third-degree felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and class A misdemeanor attempted possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of a controlled substance… (Rule One: All firearms are always loaded. Rule Two: Don't let the muzzle cross anything you're not prepared to shoot.)
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50373930-76/dunlap-shotgun-firing-degree.html.csp
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Rule Four Reminder: … According to the Peninsula Daily News and Associated Press, an unidentified man was sitting in his back yard the other day when he was struck in the nose by a falling bullet. From all indications, this projectile was fired by some people who were about a half-mile away, on the far side of some woods, apparently shooting at clay pigeons with a .22-caliber rifle. Responsible gun owners could easily explain just why, if the story is accurate, that this is monumentally stupid. Indeed, shooting at flying clay targets with a .22-caliber rifle – unless you are a bona fide trick shooter – is so far off the stupid scale it's probably impossible to measure. But this is the kind of dumb stunt with the associated consequences that gives recreational shooters a bad image. Years ago, when asked by a now-retired firearms instructor for the King County Sheriff's Department, to help cook up a training scenario, I reminded him to include in the lecture portion that "A bullet that misses the target is going to hit something else." This is something that far too many casual recreational shooters don't seem to consider when they tramp off to the open spaces and start pressing triggers… To stop this, shooters need to police themselves, or guys like the ranger are going to do it for us. Which do you prefer? If you shoot on public land, clean up your mess, and clean up any messes someone else leaves, too. If you encounter gun slobs leaving their garbage in the woods, don't feel a bit guilty about reporting them. They have it coming… (Rule Four: Always be sure of your target and what's beyond it.)
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-seattle/idiots-slobs-and-champions
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An Interesting Discussion: Not because of my role but because of the responses eventually elicited, there is some interesting material about the increased risks of frame cracks, where the barrel is mounted, on small-frame revolvers made with aluminum alloys (e.g., Airweight and Airlite guns from S&W). I introduced the topic about one-third of the way down the first page and it took me a few tries to focus the replies from those who have more knowledge of the manufacturing process than I had. I have long preferred steel-frame revolvers, not only because of lower recoil but also because of more mass to stabilize the gun against a hurried trigger stroke. More recently, I have become aware of occasional but major cracks in the frames of the guns cited. Regardless of the +P rating now stamped by the factory on J-frame Airweight guns, I will continue to recommend the use of the standard-pressure 125 gr. Nyclad hollowpoint by those who insist on saving a few ounces in weight – a choice that may be justified if a heavier gun causes visible sagging of clothing with pocket carry. As a side note, I put my carry guns on a scale yesterday and found that, loaded with CorBon's 110 gr. +P .38 Special DPX load, the S&W 640-1's I carry on the waist, with 2 1/8" underlug barrels, each weigh 25 oz. while the out-of-production 640 I carry in the pocket, with the older 1 7/8" barrel, weighs 22 oz.
http://www.makereadyforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=75&t=61999
http://newledger.com/2010/09/gun-rights-and-the-2010-senate-elections/
Meanwhile, on the House Side…: The NRA's pro-incumbent instincts work out to the benefit of another endangered Democrat: The NRA-ILA has just endorsed Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin of South Dakota. This might be a good time to check out my interview with Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action. I didn't want to berate Cox; there's a great deal of logic to the organization's aim to establish allies on both sides of the aisle, and there's something principled about sticking with endangered lawmakers who stick with them. But it seems like a lot of rural Democrats who represent districts that voted for Bush and McCain have figured out that when they're accused of being liberals, as long as they never vote wrong on guns, they can always point to their NRA endorsement and use that as cover. I'd hate for America's foremost gun rights organization to turn into a life preserver for a bunch of liberal lawmakers who give lip service to the rest of our Constitutional rights. The Republican challenger for this seat, Kristi Noem, is a solid supporter of the Second Amendment and she won't vote for the stimulus or vote to make Nancy Pelosi Speaker…
http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/248070/noem-then-how-can-you-endorse-em
The Interview: …Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action, talked to National Review Online about the group's approach to endorsements and how the organization ended up backing some figures who are not so popular with grassroots conservatives…
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/247820/staying-target-jim-geraghty
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Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics: …Unsurprisingly, MAIG bases its claim that ten states supply the largest of proportion of "interstate crime guns" by using gun tracing reports from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives – despite the fact that such reports have long been discredited as a statistical source. Says the Congressional Research Service: "Trace requests are not accurate indicators of specified crimes…traces may be requested for a variety of reasons not necessarily related to criminal incidents." The reason, of course, is that not all guns used in crimes are traced, and that not all guns traced were used in crimes. Different law enforcement agencies have different policies on gun tracing, making the results useless for statistical analysis. I once had a firearm traced during a routine traffic stop. Is that a "crime gun?" Bloomberg would have you believe that it is… The MAIG report features all sorts of quasi-academic terms mixed with methodologically unsound conclusions. It tries to claim, for example, that certain types of gun laws (which, remarkably enough, coincide exactly with gun control advocates' wish lists) result in lower "export rates." (Never mind that a basic tenet of statistics is that "correlation does not imply causation." Simply because two things are associated does not mean one causes the other.) But one relatively new piece of fluff tries to claim that "Time to Crime" ("TTC") of two years or less – that is to say, the time from point of original sale to recovery from a crime – is an indicator of illegal gun trafficking… But watch how meaningless statistics can morph into "factoids" that "everybody knows." …Percentage of guns recovered now becomes percentage of guns sold. This went out to tens of thousands of viewers across the state, as well as those who viewed the organization's web site. Similarly, the news org gleaned from the report that North Carolina ranked in the top ten exporters of so-called "crime guns." Never mind that when factored for population, North Carolina drops to 20th in the country in "crime guns" exported per 100,000 inhabitants (a rate of 18.9), behind such crime gun dens of iniquity as Vermont (22.8)…
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-charlotte/mayors-gun-tracing-report-latest-sound-bite-for-gun-control
…If you're interested, you can wade through statistics on trace data and exports and "time to crime"...what strikes me is, this whole effort seems more an indictment on existing gun control edicts than the lack of laws. The Gun Control Act of 1968 pretty much limits "legal" personal interstate firearm transfers to those utilizing licensed dealers, and the "prohibited persons" committing the vast majority of violent crimes are forbidden by law to even touch a gun, let alone carry and use one. And theft, another major source for "crime guns," is illegal as well. With those basics established, what point is there in wading through the minutiae? What's clear is that Bloomberg, a chronic control freak with taxpayer-funded armed bodyguards, is intent on dictating what guns we can own, and how we must conduct ourselves with what he allows us to possess. The whole point of this effort is to frighten the public and pressure politicians to pass even more citizen disarmament laws that, like all the edicts that have been enacted before, will only harass the "law-abiding." It's no accident that the violent crime plague is the worst in cities already under the (illusion of) control of Bloomberg & Co. Their "solution" is to extend their enlightened rule over the rest of us, who have no problem controlling ourselves and who just want them to leave us alone. But that's not to be, as a sampling of opportunistic jockeying in the wake of the Bloomberg report show us…
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/report-shows-mayors-against-your-guns-desperation-to-be-relevant
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Campus Gun Bans: Yesterday was a sad and harrowing morning at the University of Texas in Austin. A young man with an AK-47 assault rifle fired a number of rounds into the air as he ran past frightened onlookers at 8 a.m. He then dashed into the school's library where police say he shot himself… Coincidentally, the shooting occurred on the day that conservative author John R. Lott, Jr., a proponent of concealed-handgun laws, was to speak at the University of Texas law school about crime and how it is affected by citizens who own guns and carry concealed handguns… Guns bans don't deter crime, says Lott – an argument he made yesterday evening when speaking at a local book store, near where the first shots were fired, instead of at the university's law school. "Would you put up a sign in front of your house saying 'This is a gun-free zone?" he told the Austin American-Statesman before delivering his lecture. "That makes no sense because it tells the criminal there's not going to be any guns there. Yet we put signs like that up at our schools and universities. ... There's a tremendous advantage to having concealed-carry laws, because the shooter doesn't know who has a weapon." "Some places like the UT campus are targeted by gunmen because they know the potential victims won't be armed," Lott went onto tell more than 100 people – a crowd that Students for Concealed Carry on Campus Vice President Kory Zipperer told the Statesman was larger than expected…
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/09/concealed_carry_laws_and_a_sho.html
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Federal Bill Would Protect Lead Ammo: Following continued attacks by anti-hunting groups to ban traditional ammunition (ammunition containing lead-core components) under the Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) of 1976, Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) earlier today introduced legislation to clarify the longstanding exemption of ammunition under the act. The bill is being championed by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) – the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry. "We applaud and thank Sen. Lincoln for introducing this commonsense measure today," said NSSF President and CEO Stephen L. Sanetti. "This bill will help to ensure that America's hunters and shooters can continue to choose for themselves the best ammunition to use." … (Lincoln is obviously running scared after her infamous vote on government takeover of health care.)
http://www.rightsidenews.com/2010092911782/us/politics-and-economics/senator-introduces-bill-to-protect-traditional-ammunition.html
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Both Sides Unhappy with New Jersey CCW Bill: …Last week, Van Drew introduced legislation to allow New Jersey residents who pass background checks, complete a course in firearms safety, pass a test on the lawful use of force and pay a $500 annual fee to carry a pistol or revolver. Under current state law, only someone who demonstrates to the local police chief a "justifiable need" to carry a gun and gets badge of approval from a state judge can be issued a permit to carry a handgun. Relatively few citizens prove their case… Van Drew sees the $500 annual fee as a way to put dollars in the depleted state treasury. He also thinks changing the carry laws now could mitigate possible lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of current state carry laws in light of U.S. Supreme Court decisions striking down handgun bans in Chicago and Washington, D.C… Van Drew knows getting his bill through the majority Democratic legislature will be an uphill battle and will probably be opposed by both sides of the gun controversy. He's right. Scott Bach, president of the Association of Rifle and Pistol Clubs, termed the $500 fee outrageous and the provisions of the bill to qualify for the carry permit "excessive." Brian Miller, executive director of Ceasefire NJ, accused Van Drew of kowtowing to the "pro-gun forces of darkness." … (Linked page includes poll.)
http://www.nj.com/hudson/voices/index.ssf/2010/09/morgans_corner_both_sides_like.html
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California City Waffles on Open-Carry Arrests: The story is not over, if anything it is just beginning. Here is the latest move by the City of Manhattan Beach. The Manhattan Beach Hometown Fair has backed down on its threat of arrests. Today, the Chief of Police Rod Uyeda issued a two page press release which read as a condemnation of our individual, fundamental, Constitutional right to carry weapons for the purpose of self-defense, which the United States Supreme Court declared in its Heller Decision back in 2008 and left no doubt that it also applies to all States and local governments this June in its McDonald Decision. Although the Fair has backed down from its threats of arrest, the City has taken upon itself to redefine what constitutes a school ground under California Penal Code 626.9 - Under the law of the State of California, possession of firearms on public property within 1,000 feet of a school ground are restricted to being unloaded and in locked containers unless the school has granted written permission…
http://www.examiner.com/la-in-los-angeles/fair-backs-down-police-relegate-open-carry-to-back-of-bus
A South Bay group that advocates carrying guns in public will wear unloaded weapons to this weekend's Hometown Fair in Manhattan Beach despite threats that members will be arrested if they go near American Martyrs Church and Grandview School. Harley Green, the leader of South Bay Open Carry, said members want to promote their constitutional right to carry guns and believe the city is using the church to try to keep them away. Police Chief Rod Uyeda said state law - the California Gun Free Zone Act of 1995 - prohibits anyone from coming within 1,000 feet of a school, and American Martyrs Church includes a school…
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_16198985
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Oops, Wrong Grocery Store: Police say an armed robbery suspect is facing robbery and weapons possession charges after he tried to rob a grocery store on W. Brighton Avenue. According to police, a store employee shot the robbery suspect. The attempted robbery happened just before 9pm at the Los Amigos grocery store in the 200 block of W. Brighton Avenue. Police say Rauwshan Johnson, 29, tried to commit the robbery, when he was shot in the torso by a store employee. The suspect was taken to University Hospital for treatment, released, and taken to the Onondaga County [NY] Justice Center.
http://www.9wsyr.com/news/local/story/Grocery-store-employee-shoots-attempted-robbery/2pbkUHU0h06tPLFdKVXjew.cspx
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Oops, Wrong House: A woman who opened fire on four men who tried to kicked in her door on Friday said she's fighting back and won't become a victim. The incident happened Friday in the 1100 block of Woodville Drive, police said. Stephanie, who didn't reveal her last name because she said she fears for her life, said she was awakened at about 10:30 a.m. by a noise at her front door. She said she grabbed her gun as the men tried to kick in her door. "I just saw on TV where that 81-year-old got killed and I was like, 'No. I can't go out like this. I have a 13-year-old to live for,'" she said. Stephanie said she shot through the wall at the men. "I told her if an intruder ever comes, never open the door. Shoot through the door. We can always get another door," said Stephanie's husband, who asked WAPT News not to report his name. Stephanie said the men ran after she fired the shot… The Castle Doctrine gives Mississippians the right to protect their home and themselves when they're in danger… (All's well that ends well but see the reminder on Rule Four, below.)
http://www.wapt.com/news/25182490/detail.html
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Oops, Wrong Junkyard: A junkyard owner in Fayette County [PA] was able to fight off two thieves who beat him during a burglary at his business, according to police. Investigators said when the two men saw Toby's Recycling owner Stanley Tabaj, they attacked him with baseball bats and shocked him with a stun gun. "They come in with two ball bats and a Taser and started beating on me," said Tabaj. "They hit me once there, hit me once there, broke this hand here, hit me on the elbow here with aluminum bats." Police said Sean Garland, 20, and Nathan Smith, 18, were waiting for Tabaj when he arrived to at the business in Bitner early Monday morning. After the attack, Tabaj said he was able to grab his shotgun and fired birdshot, hitting one of the suspects in the back. "I grabbed the shotgun. It was sitting there and when he went around the corner of the building, I shot him," Tabaj said. "I might be an old man, but you don't play with this old man. Believe me." … (As the castle-doctrine languishes in the legislature, I'm not sure how the shot in the back will play out legally. Tabaj would seem to have been better served had he been carrying a handgun on his person.)
http://www.wpxi.com/news/25178355/detail.html
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Oops, Wrong Pizza Parlor: Inside a cooler at an east Charlotte Pizza Hut, two would-be robbers were hitting and pistol-whipping a delivery driver. All the while, the driver said, he kept his right elbow pinned tightly against his body - holding a Glock 22 under his shirt and out of view. He didn't want to use the gun unless he was forced to, he recalled Tuesday. But as he felt one of the men lifting his shirt, nearly exposing the gun, the deliveryman opened fire. The two men killed - Gregory James Hardy and Dauntrae Wallace - were both 21-year-old convicted felons, one on probation and one awaiting trial on unrelated charges. Police were searching Tuesday night for a third suspect who fled the attempted robbery and may have been wounded. No charges have been filed against the deliveryman… Pizza Hut employees have been fired for using guns in self-defense. Chris Fuller, a spokesman for Pizza Hut's national corporate office, said that "in the interest of our employees' safety, we don't discuss our safety policies publicly." However, there have been several reports in recent years in which Pizza Hut officials said corporate policy forbids employees to have weapons while on the job. A Pizza Hut employee in Columbia resigned last year after police said he shot and killed a robbery suspect. The employee resigned, according to Pizza Hut's Fuller, because of the company's policy forbidding employees to carry firearms. In one well-publicized May 2004 case, a Pizza Hut employee in Carmel, Ind., was fired after he shot and killed a would-be robber. And in 2008, a Pizza Hut worker in Des Moines, Iowa, lost his job after he shot and wounded a robbery suspect. Both of those Pizza Hut employees were delivery drivers… (The article contains many more details.)
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/09/29/1725241/pizza-driver-hit-by-bandits-i.html
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Rule One, Rule Two Reminder: A 29-year-old Weber County man has been sentenced to prison for up to five years for critically injuring a 9-year-old boy while "dry firing" a loaded shotgun last year at a Roy trailer park. David Larry Dunlap had been using alcohol and marijuana before firing the shotgun through the window of a trailer as the boy walked by eight feet away. Dunlap told police he cleaned the shotgun, reassembled it and believed it was unloaded when he pulled the trigger on Nov. 7. The victim, Braden Schroeder, was struck by seven pellets of double-aught buckshot from his neck to his thigh, according to police. Prosecutors have said the boy was recovering, although surgeons left some of the buckshot inside his body. Schroeder, of North Ogden, was at the trailer park visiting his grandfather. Dunlap, of Riverdale, was house sitting for his grandmother. Dunlap was charged in 2nd District Court with second-degree felony discharge of a firearm and third-degree felony possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of a controlled substance. He pleaded guilty to lesser charges of third-degree felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and class A misdemeanor attempted possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of a controlled substance… (Rule One: All firearms are always loaded. Rule Two: Don't let the muzzle cross anything you're not prepared to shoot.)
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50373930-76/dunlap-shotgun-firing-degree.html.csp
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Rule Four Reminder: … According to the Peninsula Daily News and Associated Press, an unidentified man was sitting in his back yard the other day when he was struck in the nose by a falling bullet. From all indications, this projectile was fired by some people who were about a half-mile away, on the far side of some woods, apparently shooting at clay pigeons with a .22-caliber rifle. Responsible gun owners could easily explain just why, if the story is accurate, that this is monumentally stupid. Indeed, shooting at flying clay targets with a .22-caliber rifle – unless you are a bona fide trick shooter – is so far off the stupid scale it's probably impossible to measure. But this is the kind of dumb stunt with the associated consequences that gives recreational shooters a bad image. Years ago, when asked by a now-retired firearms instructor for the King County Sheriff's Department, to help cook up a training scenario, I reminded him to include in the lecture portion that "A bullet that misses the target is going to hit something else." This is something that far too many casual recreational shooters don't seem to consider when they tramp off to the open spaces and start pressing triggers… To stop this, shooters need to police themselves, or guys like the ranger are going to do it for us. Which do you prefer? If you shoot on public land, clean up your mess, and clean up any messes someone else leaves, too. If you encounter gun slobs leaving their garbage in the woods, don't feel a bit guilty about reporting them. They have it coming… (Rule Four: Always be sure of your target and what's beyond it.)
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-seattle/idiots-slobs-and-champions
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An Interesting Discussion: Not because of my role but because of the responses eventually elicited, there is some interesting material about the increased risks of frame cracks, where the barrel is mounted, on small-frame revolvers made with aluminum alloys (e.g., Airweight and Airlite guns from S&W). I introduced the topic about one-third of the way down the first page and it took me a few tries to focus the replies from those who have more knowledge of the manufacturing process than I had. I have long preferred steel-frame revolvers, not only because of lower recoil but also because of more mass to stabilize the gun against a hurried trigger stroke. More recently, I have become aware of occasional but major cracks in the frames of the guns cited. Regardless of the +P rating now stamped by the factory on J-frame Airweight guns, I will continue to recommend the use of the standard-pressure 125 gr. Nyclad hollowpoint by those who insist on saving a few ounces in weight – a choice that may be justified if a heavier gun causes visible sagging of clothing with pocket carry. As a side note, I put my carry guns on a scale yesterday and found that, loaded with CorBon's 110 gr. +P .38 Special DPX load, the S&W 640-1's I carry on the waist, with 2 1/8" underlug barrels, each weigh 25 oz. while the out-of-production 640 I carry in the pocket, with the older 1 7/8" barrel, weighs 22 oz.
http://www.makereadyforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=75&t=61999
