Protest Targets Maryland Gun Shop: Advocates of tougher gun laws rallied
outside a gun shop in District Heights yesterday, a shop local officials
say provides a disproportionate number of guns that are later recovered
in the District, where private handgun ownership has been banned for
more than 30 years...Of the weapons that were traced, 76 came from
Realco Guns. A distant second was another Maryland gun shop that sold 20
firearms traced to the District. There was no indication the guns were
sold illegally -- only that they were in the city illegally. (Yet it is
"lax" laws in Virginia that are frequently blamed for the failure of
DC's ban on privately owned firearms.)
http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20070829/METRO/108290041/1004
Violence Rooted In Culture, Not Gun Store: ... Excuse me, but I just
don't see why any black person would expect gun manufacturers and
dealers to help us stop killing ourselves. At Realco, guys pull into the
parking lot in big SUVs with tinted glass and spinning rims. They look
like gangbangers from a rap music video. If some gun-control advocates
had their way, Realco would reject those young black men as customers
because they fit a racial profile. And Realco would be sued for not
selling guns as surely as it was denounced yesterday for selling them.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/28/AR2007082801701.html
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Pennsylvania May Delay Computer Upgrade: Pennsylvania's top trooper said
yesterday that a controversial computer upgrade that would shut down
firearm purchases for several days next week may be pushed back weeks or
even months amid criticism from hunters and others. Col. Jeffrey B.
Miller said he plans to recommend to Gov. Rendell three alternative
dates to upgrade the state's criminal-history background database: the
end of September, the week after Christmas, or early January.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_region/20070828_State_police__Gun_data_upgrade_may_be_delayed.html
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Missouri Handgun Purchasers Deferred Taking Delivery: Gun dealers around
the Ozarks are expecting a busy day today thanks to a change in state
law that makes buying a handgun less of a hassle. "I've got 40 guns set
back by customers waiting for August 28 to pick them up," said Brent
Ball, owner of 417 Guns in Springfield. "Why pay 10 bucks if you don't
have to? I think it's a good idea. It's been a needlessly repetitive
process, where the sheriff does a background check and I do, too." The
new law eliminates the need to get a $10 sheriff's permit to buy a
handgun in Missouri.
http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070828/NEWS01/708280363/1007
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California Nears Partial Lead-Bullet Ban: California Fish and Game
commissioners signaled Monday they are leaning toward enacting a ban on
lead ammunition in deer-hunting zones within the range of the 70 condors
now flying free in the state. At the close of a daylong hearing,
commissioners asked that the formal public comment period on the
proposed ban be opened quickly so they can consider enacting the ban at
their Nov. 1 meeting.
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007/aug/28/commissioners-near-bullet-ban/
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Firearm Seizure In New Jersey Results In Lifelong Ban: A person who has
had guns seized by the police because of domestic violence cannot buy
guns later - even if the event was long ago and a restraining order has
since been dropped, a state appeals court ruled yesterday. The
three-judge Appellate Division panel said a Millburn man and his wife,
who had a nasty divorce that led to domestic violence charges and
restraining orders against both of them, could not have a firearms
purchaser identification card.
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-8/1188367183220300.xml&coll=1
---
John Lott On Virginia Tech Report: ... All these attacks shared
something in common: citizens were already banned from having guns in
those areas. Indeed, every multiple-victim public shooting of any
significant size in the United States has occurred in one of these
gun-free zones. The problem with gun-control laws is not that there
isn't enough regulation, rather that it is primarily the law-abiding,
not the criminals, who obey these laws.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,294954,00.html
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US Has Most Armed Civilians: The United States has 90 guns for every 100
citizens, making it the most heavily armed society in the world, a
report released on Tuesday said. U.S. citizens own 270 million of the
world's 875 million known firearms, according to the Small Arms Survey
2007 by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International
Studies..."Civilian holdings of weapons worldwide are much larger than
we previously believed," Krause said, attributing the increase largely
to better research and more data on weapon distribution networks. Only
about 12 percent of civilian weapons are thought to be registered with
authorities.
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/america_armed/2007/08/28/28065.html
Related Commentary:
http://www.bloggernews.net/19749
Switzerland Only In Fourth Place: Civilians in Switzerland own an
estimated 3.4 million guns - putting the country in fourth place for
weapons possession per capita, according to a report. The latest Small
Arms Survey, published by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of
International Studies (GIIS), criticises Switzerland's lack of
transparency over reliable statistics on firearms.
http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/front/detail/Swiss_rapped_over_poor_data_on_gun_ownership.html?siteSect=105&sid=8148895&cKey=1188328994000&ty=st
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Thompson, Giuliani And That NYC Lawsuit: Last week, former U.S. Senator
Fred Thompson -- who seems very likely to enter the race for the
Republican Presidential nomination -- took advantage of a recent ruling
by a maverick federal judge in Brooklyn to attack Rudolph Giuliani's
views on gun ownership. As I will show, Thompson's critique of Giuliani
on guns is pretty silly. But the issue Thompson raises is not silly at
all: How much liberty should we curtail in the war on gun violence?
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/sebok/20070828.html
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NRA Lobbying Fees: The National Rifle Association paid Ogilvy Government
Relations $180,000 to lobby the federal government in the first half of
2007, according to a disclosure form. The firm lobbied Congress and the
White House on appropriations for various federal agencies and firearms'
regulations including a law in the District of Columbia that bars
residents from keeping handguns in their homes, according to the form
posted online Aug. 7 by the Senate's public records office.
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/08/28/ap4060242.html
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Romney Played Fee Game As Governor: When Mitt Romney wanted to balance
the Massachusetts budget, the blind, mentally retarded and gun owners
were asked to help pay... Under Romney's plan for Massachusetts, the
cost of registering firearms would have jumped from $25 to $75. He also
called for increases in the cost of firearm identification cards,
application fees for a license to carry firearms, and gun dealer fees.
Gun owners said they felt unfairly targeted by Romney's proposed
increases. Democratic lawmakers applauded Romney's proposal - ultimately
raising the cost of gun licenses to $100.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-6881526,00.html
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Oops, Wrong Pharmacy, Part 3: One of Salyer's owners says a man in his
20's walked in using a fake name and asked if his prescription was
ready. That's when he pulled out a handgun, pointed it at the owner, and
demanded Loritabs (sic) and other drugs. At that point, he says his
business partner ran to the back of the store, grabbed a shotgun, and
yelled at the thief to drop his gun. The suspect turned his gun on the
armed owner, and that's when the owner shot him in the head.
http://www.kbsd6.com/Global/story.asp?S=6982664&nav=menu486_1
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More On S&W Integral Locks: ,,, I went out today to shot some .44
Magnums through several guns, including my ultralight-weight 329PD
overhauled by Jim Stroh at Alpha Precision. I've put a bunch of .44
Specials through the gun already, and in truth I took it along as a
"control" to compare the newer guns to...In the meanwhile, I STRONGLY
caution all of you about trusting your precious butts to an S&W revolver
with the integral lock using HEAVY BULLETS! Especially the ultralight
Scadium-framed revolvers like the 329, 325, 340, 357, etc.
http://michaelbane.blogspot.com/2007/08/s-revolver-safety-failure.html
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From JPFO: ...Jackson said the nationwide rallies would represent a
grassroots effort to press state and federal legislators into passing
"common sense" legislation to stem the flow of handguns and
military-style automatic weapons. Apparently Jackson is unfamiliar with
the old saying, "Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat
it." Since 1792, "gun control" laws were designed to keep black people
disarmed and helpless. Black persons, whether slave or free, had to have
a license or a judge's permission before they could carry a firearm in
Florida and Delaware. For black people, guns were banned entirely in
several states. Florida laws empowered white "citizen patrols" to invade
and search blacks' homes for guns or other weapons. None of these
policies applied, of course, to white people.
http://www.jpfo.org/alert20070828.htm
--
Stephen P. Wenger
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
