Postal Rate Reminder: On May 14 the rate for basic Priority Mail goes up
from $4.05 to $4.60. If you have been waiting to purchase a copy of my
book, you may wish to do so before the rate increase.
http://www.spw-duf.info/book.html
---
SAF Wants Donaldson Blocked From Reporting Firearm Issues: The Second
Amendment Foundation today sent a letter to ABC News President David
Westin, asking that reporter Sam Donaldson be barred from ever again
reporting on gun rights issues, because he is serving as master of
ceremonies at a fund-raiser for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-30-2007/0004577038&EDATE=
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Virginia Governor Responds To Cho Incident: Virginia Gov. Timothy M.
Kaine yesterday closed a legal loophole that allowed a mentally ill
Virginia Tech student to buy the guns he used to kill 32 classmates and
faculty. Mr. Kaine, a Democrat, signed an executive order requiring
anybody ordered by a court to get mental health treatment be added to a
state police database of people barred from buying guns.
http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20070430-102850-6670r.htm
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Meanwhile, In Texas...: Gov. Rick Perry said Monday that Texans who are
legally licensed should be able to carry their concealed handguns
anywhere, including churches, bars, courthouses and college campuses. "I
think it makes sense for Texans to be able to protect themselves from
deranged individuals, whether they're in church, or whether on a college
campus or wherever they are," he said.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4763469.html
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Tennessee May Still Consider Campus CCW: College campuses won't be added
to a proposal to allow Tennesseans to carry handguns in public parks and
recreation areas - at least not yet. "That issue (of guns on campus) is
covered by an entirely separate section of the law," said state Rep.
Frank Niceley, R-Strawberry Plains, sponsor of the legislation expanding
areas where guns can be carried...
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_5514028,00.html
---
Short On Fertilizer?: In the wake of the Cho incident, MSNBC offers,
"It's sleek, light and frighteningly lethal. How the 9mm became the
weapon of choice for cops and criminals, civilians and soldiers - and a
sick young man in Virginia." (Please don't confuse them with facts.)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18246417/site/newsweek/
---
Garden & Gun Magazine Has An Awkward Debut: Garden & Gun, a glossy new
lifestyle magazine from Charleston, S.C., says it is for those who love
"an adventure-bound, art-loving, skeet-shooting lifestyle." In reality,
the magazine is less about guns than it is about gardens, "Southern
tradition" and land conservation...The name might not have raised an
eyebrow had not the premiere issue arrived on newsstands just days
before the shootings at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., on April 16.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/30/business/media/30garden.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
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Another Gun-Free-Zone Shooting: John Lott confirms that the mall in
Missouri, where a multiple-victim shooting occurred, like the Trolley
Mall in Utah, also the site of a mass-shooting incident, bans the
otherwise legal carry of firearms.
http://johnrlott.tripod.com/2007/04/brreaking-news-kansas-city-mall.html
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Oregon Sheriff's Cuts Prompt Increase In Permit Applications: Sheriff
Gil Gilbertson has been warning the public of potentially dangerous cuts
to public safety, and it looks like his message is getting through. The
sheriff's office reported nearly 430 applications for concealed weapons
permits since the first of the year. That number wasn't reached until
mid-July last year.
http://www.localnewscomesfirst.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1407&Itemid=2
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Utah Gun Show Reports Higher Attendance: Thousands flocked to the
Crossroads of the West Gun Show over the weekend, continuing a trend of
higher attendance in a year that has seen widely publicized mass
shootings and a congressional change of the guard. The two-day show at
the South Towne Exposition Center attracted about 10,000 people, much
higher attendance than usual, according to Bob Templeton of Kaysville,
general manager of the show.
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_5782860
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Oops, Wrong House: A pistol-armed Alabama man was fatally shot as he
tried to kick in the door of a home in which at least two residents had
armed themselves in response to the noise at the door.
http://blog.al.com/breaking/2007/04/huntsville_homeowner_kills_int.html
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Not The Brightest Bulb In The Chandelier: The president of the
Associated Students of East L.A. College has been charged with selling
and possessing illegal weapons, including machine guns, after
authorities viewed photographs he had posted on MySpace...At East L.A.
College, students said they knew Corwin was in the Army Reserve and was
head of the campus' 2nd Amendment Club, which focuses on gun-rights issues.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-college1may01,1,2632979.story?coll=la-headlines-california
---
South African Church-Defender Tours US: The only man in the world known
to have driven off a deadly terrorist attack on a church with a handgun
will be visiting the U.S. for a speaking and media tour later this month.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55461
---
Attention, Arizonans:
URGENT ARIZONA ALERT
-- Contact Senator McCain and urge him to drop his support of the
Schumer-McCarthy bill!
Gun Owners of America E-Mail Alert
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408
http://www.gunowners.org/ordergoamem.htm
Monday, April 30, 2007
Last week, GOA alerted you twice to the Brady Law expansion bill --
legislation that will continue the assault on your Second Amendment rights.
This bill (HR 297) is gun control, pure and simple, and it is being
pushed by the most rabid anti-gun congressmen in Washington. Current and
past sponsors include anti-gun Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Ted
Kennedy (D-MA), and Dick Durbin (D-IL). And on the House side, there's
the notorious Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), John Conyers (D-MI), Diana
DeGette (D-CO) and Pete Stark (D-CA) who are in full support of this gun
control measure.
But what is confusing a lot of pro-gun Congressmen on the Hill is the
fact that a former NRA Board Director (Rep. John Dingell of Michigan)
and a current NRA board member (Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho) are both on
record in support of this legislation.
The NRA itself told Newsweek last Tuesday that the group "backs [the]
proposed new legislation" which has become the gun control de jour in
the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings.
No wonder so many pro-gun congressmen on the Hill are confused and feel
like they are caught in a crossfire between GOA and NRA.
Newsweek reported, "The NRA's position puts the group at odds with The
Gun Owners of America, which has already launched a public campaign to
block the legislation that the NRA supports, warning that the proposal
could 'block millions of additional, honest gun owners from buying
firearms.'"
So what can we do? Or more importantly, what can YOU do?
Well, your living in Arizona gives you a very powerful voice in this
fight. Unfortunately, your Senator -- John McCain -- has previously
shown he agrees with the concept, as he was an original cosponsor in
2003 of an almost identical bill (S. 1706), introduced by anti-gun
Senator Chuck Schumer.
But as of today, Senator Schumer has not reintroduced his Brady
expansion yet. Hence, there is still time to urge Senator McCain to
reconsider his previous support of this measure. Getting Senator McCain
to reconsider would send shockwaves through the Congress and keep
pro-gun legislators from getting behind this legislation as well.
So it is imperative that you -- and as many other gun owners in the
state of Arizona as you can find -- contact Senator McCain and encourage
him to oppose this pernicious assault on our rights. You know that more
gun control is not the answer to school shootings. And that is why we
have provided you a special letter below to really help make the point
that gun control is the problem, not the solution.
ACTION:
1. Please take immediate action and contact Senator John McCain. You can
e-mail Senator McCain by using his webform at
http://mccain.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm?ID=64 -- simply cut and paste
the message below into the box provided.
Or you can contact Senator McCain by:
Phone: 202-224-2235 -- or use the toll-free switchboard at 877-762-8762
Fax: 202-228-2862
2. Circulate this email far and wide in the state of Arizona. Get EVERY
GUN OWNER you can to contact Senator McCain. Urge him to reconsider his
position on this bill and to renounce his previous support of it.
----- Pre-written letter -----
Dear Senator McCain:
I am very concerned about our Second Amendment rights. I know that you
have joined with anti-gun Senator Chuck Schumer in the past to cosponsor
legislation that is very similar to a bill that will soon be considered
in the House, HR 297. (As you probably know, this bill is being
sponsored by the extremely anti-gun Rep. Carolyn McCarthy.)
So I implore you to NOT support this legislation... to tell Chuck
Schumer that you will NOT work with him on this bill again... and that
you will instead try to REPEAL the gun control laws that create criminal
safe zones, such as the one that exists on the Virginia Tech campus
where no one is allowed to carry a gun for self-defense.
Senator McCain, before you decide to support the Schumer-McCarthy
legislation again, will you please answer these two questions for me?
First, do you think that expanded background checks will ultimately stop
evil-minded people from getting a gun and prevent school shootings? In
considering your answer, don't forget Canada, Germany and Scotland. Even
though these countries have imposed massive amounts of gun control, they
have been afflicted with school shootings in the past ten years.
Second, are you aware that current gun control laws are denying
law-abiding Americans their Second Amendment rights - sometimes
erroneously, but other times by intent? Before the Virginia Tech
massacre occurred on April 16, there were several students and
professors at that university who had publicly expressed their desire
to carry guns on campus. But gun control left them disarmed and defenseless.
More to the point, you are on record as supporting an expansion of the
Brady Law (S. 1706 in 2003). This law has already kept countless,
law-abiding citizens from exercising their Second Amendment rights.
Americans have been prevented from buying guns because of outstanding
traffic tickets, because of errors, because the NICS computer system has
crashed, because combat veterans sought treatment to deal with the
shakes after returning home and because married couples got into
screaming matches with one another (and are now disarmed as a result of
the Lautenberg gun ban that you voted for in 1996).
This should teach us that if you give an anti-gun bureaucrat an inch,
he'll take a mile. (By the way, Gun Owners of America has documented, on
its website, numerous instances of the abuses mentioned above, which
have resulted in good people being denied their gun rights FOREVER.)
Again, I hope that you will reconsider your support for the
Schumer-McCarthy legislation and renounce everything it stands for.
Please tell me that you will do so.
Sincerely,
****************************
--
Stephen P. Wenger
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
