Public Support For "Gun Control" Wanes: The other day, when two armored
car guards were gunned down in Philadelphia by attackers who never even
bothered to stop and say, "This is a stick-up,'' the chief of police
lamented that it's time that the candidates for president of the United
States start spotlighting the question of gun control...Public support
for stricter gun control has reached a low ebb in modern times,
according to a new report of the Gallup Poll. Just 51 percent of
Americans believe that laws governing the sale of firearms should be
made more strict. Those saying laws ought be kept the same or made more
lenient are running at a comparable 47 percent in the early-October survey.
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2007/10/support_for_gun_control_dwindl.html
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The Buyback Boondoggle: D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton has a great
idea. She wants to spend $50 million of taxpayer money... your money...
to fund "gun buybacks" nationwide. But there's a big problem with that
old idea: The federal government already tried subsidizing gun buybacks
during the Clinton administration. And in 2001, they stopped funding
gun buybacks because "the results of gun buybacks are minimal." That's
what the Department of Housing and Urban Development said, not me. They
don't work.
http://www.nranews.com/blogarticle.aspx?blogPostId=316
---
How Can Universities Teach When They Will Not Learn?: We will never stop
the next school shooter - or any school or workplace shooters - by
psychoanalyzing or profiling them, giving them time and opportunity, but
by better preparing the target to respond immediately. Disarming
students means waiting for someone to arrive. It means waiting for
someone else to protect you or get kicked out of school. All the
profiling is nothing more than a stalling tactic to avoid the obvious:
arming students and workers as they choose in order that they operate on
their citizen authority when facing grave danger in the absence of first
responders.
http://mensnewsdaily.com/2007/10/11/school-shootings-how-do-universities-teach-when-they-will-not-learn-basics/
---
Another One Who Will Not Learn: ...Katz, an Oregon high school teacher,
says she wants to have her pistol at school to defend herself from her
disgruntled ex-husband or to prevent a school shooting. This seems like
a bit of a stretch - arming teachers can not be the best way to solve
these problems. First of all, plenty of teachers and school faculty have
problems with ex-spouses. This does not entitle them to carry a gun on
campus. There are already safety mechanisms in place at high schools,
and teachers carrying pistols would just undermine them. Many high
schools have law enforcement on campus. They are trained to deal with
threats to teachers and students alike. Police are the only people who
need to be carrying guns on a high school campus, not teachers.
http://media.www.thebatt.com/media/storage/paper657/news/2007/10/11/Opinion/Armed.And.Educating-3025887.shtml
---
More On Student Suspended For Advocating Campus Carry: Hamline
University prides itself on its commitment to diversity. Its website
boasts that "Hamline's five schools have more than 4,500 students, and
each one of these students is different ...Hamline isn't a place where
you 'fit in,' conforming to the Hamline mold. Rather, Hamline 'fits in'
you, welcoming your unique contributions and valuing who you are."
"Unless you're an advocate for gun rights," Hamline administrators might
have added. Hamline suspended graduate student Troy Scheffler shortly
after he sent two emails to school officials deriding the university's
ban on concealed weapons and suggesting that lifting the ban would help
deter school shootings. In order to be considered for re-admission,
Scheffler has been required to undergo a psychological evaluation.
http://thephoenix.com/TheFreeForAll/PermaLink,guid,f73ff297-ff00-4c9f-91a0-396f165e7af4.aspx
http://www.thefire.org/index.php/torch/#8480
---
Empty-Holster Protest Scheduled In Connecticut: When students wear
holsters on their belts next month, they will be protesting the law, not
breaking it. It's part of the "Empty Holster Protest," organized by the
Students for Concealed Carry on Campus (SCCC) chapter at UConn, which
aims to call attention to the 'gun-free-zone' around campus. Chris
Kopencey, a 3rd-semester political science major, and Andrew Dodson, a
part-time student majoring in electrical engineering, have helped
organize the protest to push for students already licensed in the state
to be allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus. "Every school is a
gun-free-zone, but it does not stop them [criminals] from bringing a gun
on campus," said Kopencey. Students will wear empty pistol holsters on
their belts but will otherwise go to class as normal.
http://media.www.dailycampus.com/media/storage/paper340/news/2007/10/11/News/ProGun.Protests.Take.Aim-3026998.shtml
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John Lott On Kids And Guns: ...Convincing patients not to own guns or to
at least lock them up will cost more lives than it will save. It also
gives a misleading impression of what poses the greatest dangers to
children. Accidental gun deaths among children are fortunately much
rarer than most people believe. Consider the following numbers. In 2003,
for the United States, the Centers for Disease Control reports that 28
children under age 10 died from accidental shots. With some 90 million
gun owners and about 40 million children under 10, it is hard to find
any item as commonly owned in American homes, as potentially as lethal,
that has as low of an accidental death rate.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/lott/lott57.html
---
ABC Pushes Bloomberg Line: The burden of gun violence has largely fallen
to the big-city mayors, some of whom are taking steps to keep illegal
firearms from entering their borders. Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New
York City and Mayor Jerramiah Healy of Jersey City are among those who
have moved most aggressively to combat gun trafficking even though their
cities are in states with strict illegal gun laws. It's difficult to
obtain a permit to own a gun and even harder to legally carry a gun in
New York and New Jersey, but that hasn't stopped the sale and use of
illegal weapons. That's because guns laws are regulated by the
individual states and weapons tend to enter the states with tough
control laws from nearby states with weak laws.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3704240&page=1
---
Another Warning-Shot Incident: A motorist who shot and wounded a
belligerent hitchhiker Wednesday at a highway rest area acted in
self-defense, police say...Shaw told deputies he pointed the gun at
Kneer and fired when Kneer did not back off, telling them he meant it as
a warning shot. But the shot struck Kneer in the head. Harum said it
appeared to be a clear case of self-defense and he does not expect the
motorist to be charged with any crime. "He was pretty upset, and from
what the deputies tell me, remorseful," Harum said. "It's pretty sad."
(If you're not prepared. legally and emotionally, to shoot someone,
don't introduce a firearm to a conflict.)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/335144_hitchhiker12.html?source=mypi
---
New Submachine Gun Called "Revolutionary": Industry experts say the
weapons are unlike any other now on the market and could shake up the
firearms world. What makes the weapons special, company and industry
officials say, is a new patented operating system that substantially
reduces recoil and muzzle climb when fired. The recoil, or kick, of a
conventional weapon is directed backward into a shooter's shoulder,
causing the gun to rise off target. TDI's "Super V" bolt-and-slide
mechanism directs the energy downward in front of the trigger.
http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=134495&ran=238163&lpos=spot3&lid=homePO
--
Stephen P. Wenger
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
