Monday, December 27, 2010

Where to carry and gun presentation

Is he serious? I can't tell.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

12-22-10

by permission from Stephen P. Wenger
http://www.spw-duf.info
comments in () by the same




F Troop Leader Explains Power Grab: A recent initiative by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has caught the attention of national media outlets. I wanted to make sure everyone heard from me about this law enforcement initiative so there isn't any confusion. Recently, ATF announced through the Federal Register our intent to initiate a new Demand Letter requiring the reporting of multiple sales of certain long guns by Federal Firearms Licensees, known as FFLs, in the four Southwest Border States. We took this step as a way to help gain actionable law enforcement intelligence which we believe will help reduce criminal firearms trafficking along the Southwest border. Before we can actually issue the Demand Letter we must receive approval from the Office of Management and Budget for purposes of the paperwork reduction act. We expect to receive that approval in early January, 2011…

http://www.ammoland.com/2010/12/21/atf-announces-demand-letters-for-multiple-sales-of-long-guns-in-border-states/
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Isn't Guatemala South of Mexico?:
Security forces seized a small plane, 150 AK-47 assault rifles and the equivalent of nearly $63,000 in cash Tuesday during operations against suspected drug traffickers in the northern Guatemalan province of Alta Verapaz, where a state of siege was imposed over the weekend. Authorities have also arrested 10 suspected members of Mexico's Los Zetas drug cartel since the state of siege took affect at midnight Saturday, police spokesman Donald Gonzalez told reporters. Police found 300,000 quetzales ($37,735) in cash inside a small aircraft impounded at the airport in Coban, while another 200,000 quetzales ($25,157) was discovered during the search of a private residence, Gonzalez said… Gunmen and smugglers working for Los Zetas, the former armed wing of Mexico's Gulf cartel, have been operating in Guatemala for more than two years, becoming one of the bloodiest criminal organizations in the Central American country, officials say.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2010/12/21/guatemala-seizes-plane-guns-cash-anti-drug-raids/
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Feds Seek Dismissal of Post-Office Carry Suit: Last week, Department of Justice attorneys representing the U.S. Postal Service filed a Motion to Dismiss the suit brought contesting the ban on firearms on Postal Service property. This suit was brought by the Mountain States Legal Foundation on behalf of Debbie and Tab Bonidy as well as the National Association for Gun Rights. The Bonidys live outside of Avon, Colorado in an area which does not receive home mail service. As a  result, they have to pick up their mail at the Post Office in Avon where they are provided a free mail box. The Bonidys, both of whom have Colorado concealed carry licenses, want to be able to carry a handgun for self-protection on the way to, while, and upon returning from picking up their mail. Current postal regulations prohibit possession of a firearm on USPS property including the parking lots. The Motion to Dismiss the plaintiffs' complaint seeks to have it dismissed pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). The Postal Service argues that even if all the facts are true as presented, the Bonidys have failed to state a viable claim. They argue that the Bonidy's Second Amendment claim is precluded by existing precedents of the U.S. Supreme Court and the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. They summarize their argument as follows...

http://onlygunsandmoney.blogspot.com/2010/12/bonidy-v-usps-postal-service-moves-to.html
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Strange Bedfellows:
In the latest example of unexpected political bedfellows: the state's [TX] Republican Land Commissioner – and noted gun enthusiast – Jerry Patterson will be appointed to a post in President Barack Obama's administration, the White House announced tonight. Patterson will be one of five members of the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, a panel created last October to work on restoration projects and public health programs in the area. EPA administrator Lisa Jackson will chair the task force. Patterson has been commissioner for six years, but is probably best known as an unabashed firearms supporter. He wrote the state's conceal and carry laws back in the 1990s while serving as a state senator and, while stepping into the fray during this year's heated agriculture commissioner contest, joked that he "would have shot " Democrat Hank Gilbert for his campaign tactics…

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/12/land-commissioner-jerry-patter-1.html
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Brian Aitken Seeks to Clear Name: …Christie's commutation does not clear Aitken's conviction or criminal record, and he has yet to hear from the New Jersey appellate court. He is not content with freedom, though, and plans a return to court… His case, he said, hinges on an exemption in New Jersey's gun laws that allows gun owners to transport their weapons if moving to another residence. Aitken had moved back to New Jersey from Colorado, where he purchased the guns legally in 2007, and claims he was in the process of moving from his family's home in Mount Laurel to Hoboken at the time of the arrest. When police searched his car in Mount Laurel on Jan. 2, 2009, they found handguns, locked and unloaded in a box in the trunk of his car, along with hollow-point bullets and high-capacity magazines. One officer said he also saw boxes of clothes and dishes in Aitken's car. The Burlington County Prosecutor's Office and former Superior Court Judge James J. Morley both said that Aitken's defense team did not present enough evidence at trial to support the moving exemption. Although the jury asked to see the exemption on three separate occasions, Morley refused…

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20101222_Freed__gun-owner_wants_to_clear_his_name.html
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Florida County to Lift Illegal Gun Ban: Basketball, suntan lotion, beach blanket – handgun. The new list of what's allowed in Palm Beach County parks will soon include firearms under revamped county rules that got the initial go-ahead on Tuesday. After years of banning guns from county sports fields, beaches, camp sites and other recreation areas, the local rules are being changed to allow people with concealed weapons permits to bring their guns to county parks. The final vote is Jan. 11. County officials say the change comes after a local resident alerted them that the local ban on firearms in county parks didn't comply with a state law, approved during the 1980s, that allows concealed weapons permit holders to bring their firearms to parks in Florida… (Note what one alert and determined citizen can accomplish.)

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/fl-guns-parks-palm-20101221,0,6366215.story
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More California Businesses Welcome Open Carry: Unless you don't have a computer you know that Starbucks welcomes customers who openly carry firearms (Open Carry), despite a failed campaign from the Brady Campaign to force them to change their policy. Thanks in part to the publicity the Brady Campaign gave to the South Bay Open Carry movement by protesting an Open Carry dinner at Domenick's Pizza House last month, businesses have been contacting Harley Green, the founder of the Open Carry movement in the South Bay letting him know that they too support our right to openly carry guns for the purpose of self-defense. My favorite quote is from Scott Osborn of Osborn's Automotive located at 1001 S. Pacific Coast Hwy in Redondo Beach, CA 90277: "You don't need to check your guns at my business, wear them proudly!" Other businesses welcome openly carried firearms purely because it is good business. The money of Open Carry advocates spends as well as anyone else's money… (The list is interesting and includes Albertson's Market. Unfortunately, open carry in California generally requires that the firearm be unloaded.)

http://www.examiner.com/la-in-los-angeles/businesses-increasingly-welcoming-openly-carried-firearms
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More Guns, Less Crime?: Violent crime continued to decline in Seattle, Tacoma and Bellevue during the first half of 2010, according to crime data released Monday by the FBI, yet gun ownership and the number of people licensed to carry in the Evergreen State continues to rise. This revelation, reported in this morning's Seattle Times, will make it tough for Washington CeaseFire and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence to convince state lawmakers, the press and public that more guns in circulation – and more people legally carrying firearms for personal protection – will spawn "Wild West" shootouts and "blood in the streets." It appears to be quite the opposite, and coupled with data this column noted here about more police being killed in auto crashes than shoot-outs, anti-gunners are going to face a hard sell for any new gun control initiatives they may push next month in Olympia. Meanwhile, violent crime was up slightly in Spokane during the first six months, where there were 647 such crimes reported this year, opposed to the 627 reported during the first half of 2009… (I have long cautioned against using crime rates as primary argument for the RKBA because they can vary with a great many factors.)

http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-seattle/violent-crime-stays-down-as-more-washingtonians-are-packing
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Michigan Likely to Teach Kids Firearm Safety: …The law, which passed both houses and made its way to the governor's desk this week, requires the state's education department to craft a model gun safety program for elementary schools and encourages all public schools to participate. The measure has nothing to do with teaching youngsters to use a gun, said state Sen. John Gleason, D-Flushing, who sponsored the bill. Instead, he added, it's designed to teach kids what guns are, how serious they are and what they should do if they see one: stay away and tell an adult. The lessons can be taught by the teachers and can take as little as ten minutes per year, Gleason said… (Duh! NRA's Eddie Eagle program has been doing that for years. As long as Michigan does not want to use that rather simplistic program, it would make sense to ratchet it up a bit each year, with kids learning to unload and render safe various types of firearms.)

http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2010/12/new_law_would_teach_children_g.html
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Rule One, Rule Two Reminder:
Five days after marrying her Prescott High School sweetheart, Caitlin Smith became a widow. Her new husband, Airman Steven Crawford, died Monday evening at a Minot, N.D., medical center from a gunshot wound to the abdomen. According to a Minot Police Department report, officers responded to an accidental shooting in an apartment off the Minot Air Force Base at about 7 p.m. Dec. 20… Smith noted that the shooting occurred as Crawford and friends were preparing to go to a shooting range. "From what we were told, his friend was messing around and pointed a gun, which he thought was unloaded, at Steven and pulled the trigger," Crawford stated. The police report noted that Nicholas Rouse was originally arrested for reckless endangerment. When Crawford died, the charge was amended to negligent homicide. Rouse is also in the Air Force… (Rule One: All firearms are always loaded. Rule Two: Don't let the muzzle cross anything you're not prepared to shoot.)

http://www.dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1086&ArticleID=88753
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Oops, Wrong House: Police said it was an act of self defense that claimed the life of 37-year old John F. Sharp. Sharp was shot twice after he allegedly forced his way into the home of his ex-girlfriend and began choking her. Police said Mellony Pursel attempted to fight him off and that's when her 17-year old niece intervened. "She gets a gun, fires two shots at the individual (Sharp) who is attacking Mellony and both shots hit him in the chest," said Roy [UT] police Chief Greg Whinham. "Both shots exit through him and strike Mellony[emphasis added.]." According to court documents, Pursel's life was threatened for 36-hours prior to the shooting… (Many people minimize concerns about overpenetration by bullets, citing the high miss rate of American police officers. While details are skimpy, if the wounds to Sharp were fatal, it would appear that the shots were well placed. I still counsel the use of a hollowpoint round, preferably with a known street record, and no intermingling of FMJ bullets for enhanced penetration. You can never predict which round you will need for which shot.)

http://www.abc4.com/content/news/top_stories/story/Roy-police-call-death-act-of-self-defense/vTzBEjb3L0KgxjV0gLl9PQ.cspx
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Five Months Later…: No charges will be filed in a fatal shooting at a Sampson County [NC] racetrack because it was a case of self-defense, District Attorney Dewey Hudson said Friday. Timothy McKoy, 29, of Garland, died after being shot in the head and chest on July 4 at Harrells Raceway. Investigators determined that McKoy pointed a gun on Torrey Tremayne Frederick and threatened to kill him, but the racetrack owner ordered McKoy off the property, Hudson said. A bystander gave a gun to Frederick [emphasis added], who tried to leave the parking lot but couldn't because his keys were locked inside his pickup. As the racetrack owner and a bystander tried to calm Frederick down and get the gun away from him, McKoy, who had returned to the racetrack, drew his gun again and pointed it at Frederick and the two men, Hudson said. Frederick then yelled for the men to move as he shot McKoy. Frederick then threw down the gun and jumped in a car to leave the racetrack, Hudson said… "Based upon the witness statements, it appears that McKoy was, in fact, the aggressor," Hudson said in a statement. "The shooting death of Mr. McKoy, while tragic, was justified under the law." Frederick, 32, of Ivanhoe, was charged with possession of a firearm by a felon in the case. (It is unclear if those charges are still pending. Note that he was handed the gun by a bystander, under exigent circumstances.)

http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/8792652/
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S&W Gets Tax Incentives:
Gun maker Smith & Wesson says Massachusetts has approved $6 million in tax breaks over the next seven years, enabling the company to move 225 jobs to its Springfield headquarters. Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. said under the agreement with the state Economic Assistance Coordinating Council finalized on Tuesday it will move its Thompson/Center division from Rochester, N.H. to Massachusetts and expand its headquarters and plant. The division makes hunting rifles. Smith & Wesson announced earlier this month that it planned to end production at the New Hampshire facility…

http://washingtonexaminer.com/news/business/2010/12/smith-wesson-gets-tax-incentives-will-add-jobs


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