Strange Case Of Plagiarism: Yesterday I shared a link to an essay, "Why
the Gun Is Civilization," which attributed the work to a retired USMC
officer. It appears that the essay was actually posted on a blog by
"Marko," then reproduced elsewhere without proper attribution.
http://munchkinwrangler.blogspot.com/2007/03/why-gun-is-civilization.html
http://munchkinwrangler.blogspot.com/2007/06/on-plagiarism.html
---
50-Caliber Ban Dies In New York Senate: The bill (A.02772) sponsored by
Eddington, D-Patchogue, would ban the use, sale or possession of
50-caliber sniper rifles as well as impose additional penalties for
felonies committed with the weapons. It was passed by the Assembly
nearly two months ago, but did not move in the Senate.
http://www.legislativegazette.com/read_more.php?story=2609
---
Ohio Newspaper Lists CHL-Holders: In spite of many state legislators,
county sheriffs and even Governor Strickland himself attempting to talk
sense into him, Sandusky Register Editor Matt Westerhold has launched an
all-out assault on the privacy and security of over 2,600 concealed
handgun license holders in several Northern Ohio counties.
http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/article3816.html
Related Article:
http://www.sanduskyregister.com/articles/2007/06/25/front/321676.txt
---
Florida Man Acquitted Of Murder Charges: A Westgate man who shot into a
Jeep, killing two men and injuring another was acting in self-defense, a
jury ruled Monday...But the prosecution said though Borden's first shots
were in self-defense, he committed murder when he stepped in front of
the Jeep and fired more rounds at the vehicle. Florida's 2005 stand your
ground law allows someone to use deadly force to avoid bodily harm and
eliminates the duty to retreat.
http://www.theledger.com/article/20070625/APN/706250885
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Utah Citizen Disarms Escaped Murderer: Authorities said a prison inmate
out for a medical appointment wrested a gun from a corrections officer
and killed him Monday, then led police on a high-speed chase in a stolen
sport utility vehicle before his capture at a fast-food restaurant.
Curtis Allgier, whose wears a swastika and the words "skin head" on his
heavily tattooed face, fired a shot in the Arby's that hit no one before
a customer at the restaurant snatched the gun, Salt Lake City police
Sgt. Rich Brede said.
http://www.azstarnet.com/news/189089
---
From CCRKBA: Rev. Jesse Jackson's headline-grabbing protest at a
suburban Chicago-area gun shop over the weekend produced further proof
that Jackson and anti-gunners like him do not understand that even gun
owners and retailers have civil rights, the Citizens Committee for the
Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.
http://www.ccrkba.org/pub/rkba/press-releases/jackson_arrested_chicago.htm
---
From GOA: Mike Hammond, legislative counsel to Gun Owners of America,
analyzes the BATFE letter of May 9, 2007, in which they give their
interpretation of the mental-health provisions of who constitutes a
prohibited possessor.
http://www.gunowners.org/ne0704.htm
---
NRA Seeks Refusal Of Bloomberg Ads: The National Rifle Association,
which has portrayed Mayor Michael Bloomberg as a villain preying on
America's gun owners, has asked local television affiliates in several
states not to air an ad created by his anti-gun group. Bloomberg's
coalition of Mayors Against Illegal Guns has purchased air time and run
ads in the districts of various members of Congress. The ads urge the
repeal of a piece of congressional legislation that the mayor argues
prevents federal authorities from sharing gun trace data with cities and
local law enforcement.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4919068.html
---
NRA Fires Back At Press Coverage: In the wake of the Virginia Tech
massacre by Seung-Hui Cho this spring, it looked as though the Second
Amendment absolutists at the National Rifle Association had reached an
unlikely accord with one of the most prominent gun-control advocates in
Congress, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy...But now the NRA, which generally
argues that any restriction on gun ownership is a slippery slope leading
to an eventual outlawing of all firearms, is trying to walk back the
impression that it is McCarthy's eager comrade against arms.
http://www.cqpolitics.com/2007/06/gun_lobby_fires_back_at_press.html
---
From Alan Korwin:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 26, 2007
Contact: Felicity Bower, info below
Many NRA Members "Confused" by Proposed Gun Bill
Five-fold increase in gun-ban list is "troubling"
Secretive passage rankles even hard core
Could be fast-tracked through the Senate this week
by Alan Korwin, Author
Gun Laws of America
http://www.gunlaws.com/books.htm
Permission to circulate granted.
The swift passage of a gun-ban bill in the U.S. House, without committee
hearings, floor debate or a recorded vote and possibly without even a
quorum present, has NRA members nationwide asking what happened.
In a nationally released memo addressing the confusion, the NRA said
this is "nothing unusual," further confusing their members. Swiftly
adopting a gun-control measure on a voice vote has not occurred in at
least fifteen years, if ever, according to Bloomfield Press, the largest
publisher of gun-law books in the country.
http://www.gunlaws.com
The NRA, long considered a feared and powerful gun-rights lobby, allied
itself with the most ardent anti-gun-rights forces in the House to
quickly push through a bill that would massively increase the NICS Index
-- the database of people who cannot pass an FBI background check for
purchase of a firearm.
Psychiatrists and doctors would have an increased role in determining
who gets on or off the list. The medical community has in the past
exhibited pronounced anti-gun behaviors, bordering in some cases on
hoplophobia, a morbid fear of weapons of any kind.
The action was taken during the morning "Suspension Calendar," normally
reserved for "non-controversial" bills. Its use to slip through an
expansion of gun control is highly irregular, with no similar action
known in the past. The bill is HR 2640, "The NICS Improvement Act,"
posted here:
http://www.gunlaws.com/DHSinNICS.htm
No one knows how many of the 21 million records Congress seeks will
truly identify Americans who lack the legal right to have a firearm. The
effect on guns already owned by people in the 21 million records seems
clear -- they would be subject to confiscation. At least, a transfer of
ownership seems a likely requirement if the law is enacted and those
people's names are poured into the list. There are no plans to notify
these people.
An error rate of just one-tenth of one percent (very low for government
work) would mean that 21,000 Americans will have their rights unjustly
denied if the bill becomes law. These people will then be forced to line
up and go through an arduous, time-consuming, complex and expensive
process to prove their innocence. The government is not required to
cooperate, though the law does provide a framework for getting rights
restored, at NRA's insistence. (The bill says agencies "shall" act to
keep records accurate, but nothing happens if they don't; no time frames
for corrections are specified.)
News reports have shed no light on the accuracy or validity of the
impending additions, or any preparations to handle a flood of appeals.
An error rate of 1% would equal 2.1 million false "guilty" verdicts.
The existing list of criminals, illegal aliens and other "prohibited
possessors" is 3,960,981 after 11 years of careful development (as of
Dec. 31, 2005). Under the proposed law, at one fell swoop, it will grow
to five times its current size. More than ten percent of American adults
would be barred from exercising the fundamental civil right to arms. The
NRA points out that Americans who have the right medical disabilities do
belong on the list.
"It's scary, when both the main defender of this civil right and the
enemies of that right combine and work to deny rights to so many people
at once," said an insider who prefers to remain anonymous. "Are the
records accurate? Can people unjustly accused swiftly restore their
rights and reclaim their place in society? Shouldn't we check the
validity before we summarily add so many people to the list, and not
just add them and let the innocent suffer? Why are the NRA and anti-gun
Democrats trying to move so fast?" Carefully checking 21 million
people's records would of course slow down the process, and delay
entering all the names.
Emails, blogs and chat rooms are filled with such questions, even as
mainstream news reports praise "the first significant gun-control
legislation in a decade," ignoring a dozen gun bills Congress has passed
in the last ten years. Despite the jubilant mainstream headlines, the
NRA memo says this is "NOT GUN CONTROL!" (emphasis theirs). After
reading the bill, it certainly seems accurate to call it gun control, a
term now used almost exclusively to refer to gun bans of one sort or
another.
In a related but unreported development, experts note that the expanded
NICS system, if combined with information from the Real ID Act, could
provide a centralized federal monitoring facility for the entire
population, under the guise of crime control. Privacy advocates have
expressed concern over the possibility, though many officials see this
as a good thing.
The Brady law, ostensibly to control handgun sales, initiated the entire
project in 1993, at a cost of $250 million, plus subsequent allocations.
The new bill adds $375 million per year for the next three years. In a
1998 surprise, the Brady Handgun law was automatically expanded to
include all firearms, not just handguns.
The new law has many built-in protective requirements, and methods of
appeal for those wrongly accused, but provides no punishment of
government agents who fail to comply or to keep records accurately,
placing the effectiveness of those safeguards in doubt. The Justice
Dept. is supposed to give Congress a list of all the agencies that are
not complying, once a year. In an odd requirement of unknown usefulness,
various mental health institutions and providers are given power to
certify former mental cases as now qualified to have guns.
In the past, federal and state officials have been known to stonewall,
delay, deceive and claim impotence when confronted with requests to have
rights restored to the innocent, or to the reformed. Congress has
refused to fund such reviews, which are required by law, since 1992,
effectively eliminating a person's chance for due process.
In a copyrighted story on 6/21/07, WorldNetDaily said:
"Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., announcing a provision to allow doctors
to ban people from owning guns... The plan allows names to be entered
into the NICS system based solely on a physician's diagnosis or
prescription of a medication: adults who have taken Ritalin and soldiers
with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder would be classified as mentally ill
and given the same opportunity to own firearms as convicted felons:
None." Simple diagnosis or medical prescription does not appear to be in
the bill as grounds for a ban. Ritalin and PTSD are not listed at the
present time, though critics of the measure are concerned that such
things could change.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/
Gun Owners of America Executive Director Larry Pratt called the scheme,
"conviction by diagnosis," which is true in cases where a person is
officially deemed dangerous and other conditions are met. GOA is a
national gun rights group opposing the measure. Pratt points out that
many people will be taken by surprise when they try to buy a firearm and
learn they have been unknowingly lumped into a category with murderers,
rapists and illegal aliens.
http://www.gunowners.org
-30-
Read some related White Papers on the subject:
http://www.gunlaws.com/updates.htm
Review books on gun rights and gun politics:
http://www.gunlaws.com/books.htm
Find a gun law anywhere in the nation on our National Directory:
http://www.gunlaws.com/links/
Get answers to common gun-rights questions:
http://www.gunlaws.com/faq.htm
For researched info on news media bias:
http://www.gunlaws.com/NewsAccuracy.htm
Join our email alert list on our home page, linked below.
WE'VE MOVED -- JAN. 1, 2007!!
Alan Korwin
Bloomfield Press
"We publish the gun laws."
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Scottsdale, AZ 85254 <-- NEW STREET ADDRESS
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because he could do only a little."
--Edmund Burke
--
Stephen P. Wenger
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
