Obama Supported Complete Ban on Handguns: During his first run for
elected office, Barack Obama played a greater role than his aides now
acknowledge in crafting liberal stands on gun control, the death penalty
and abortion - positions that appear at odds with the more moderate
image he has projected during his presidential campaign...Both versions
of the 1996 questionnaires provide answers his presidential campaign
disavows to questions about whether Obama supports capital punishment
and state legislation to "ban the manufacture, sale and possession of
handguns." He responded simply "No" and "Yes," respectively, to those
questions on both questionnaires.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0308/9269.html
---
More Support for Florida Parking-Lot-Storage Bill: ...These bills
reaffirm the existing right of law-abiding citizens to possess firearms
in their locked motor vehicles in business parking lots. The legislation
justly provides employers with immunity from civil liability, making it
clear that employers cannot be held liable for armed criminal acts -
immunity they do not now have. Under these bills, employees could not
have a firearm outside their vehicles, in the workplace, or in vehicles
leased or owned by the employer. Hard-working men and women are not
immune from criminals in their employers' parking lots. Nor are they
impervious to carjackers, robbers or rapists during their commute or as
they run errands before or after work. Those working the graveyard shift
or commuting after working overtime deserve a means of self-defense if
they want it. And hunters, target shooters and other lawful gun owners
should be able to pull into parking lots at convenience stores, motels,
fast food restaurants or even gas stations without facing harassment and
prosecution...
http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080331/OPINION05/803310337/1006/OPINION
---
Legislator Defends Oklahoma Campus-Carry Bill: One bill in the Oklahoma
Legislature might completely change the way Oklahomans define university
campus security. House Bill 2513, authored in part by Jason Murphey,
R-Edmond, would allow 21-year-old and older students of any public
university in Oklahoma to carry a concealed weapon, provided they have a
valid Carry and Conceal Weapon permit...The bill states that students
who are authorized to carry the weapons must obtain consent from the
university president, but also states that it is not meant to allow
colleges to prohibit students from carrying them. Murphey said that if
the bill is passed and a university prohibits licensees from carrying
guns into any certain place, university officials must then provide
metal detectors or another security barrier to ensure students' security
without self-defense. (Article fails to mention that students would also
be required to have undergone military or law-enforcement training in
order to qualify for campus carry.)
http://www.edmondsun.com/local/local_story_091122117.html
---
Oklahoma Stand-Your-Ground Law to Be Weighed by Court: Defense attorneys
are seeking immunity from prosecution for a man charged with
manslaughter while defending himself from what police say began as an
incident of road rage. The incident has become a legal quandary for
Oklahoma's Stand Your Ground Law, which went into effect in 2006. The
Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals is being asked to order Tulsa County
District Judge William Kellough to hold a hearing to determine whether
Kenneth Ray Gumm, 67, should be granted immunity in the death of Dale
Allen Turney, 47.
http://newsok.com/article/3223208/1206962540
---
South Carolina May Revise Age Requirements: Gov. Mark Sanford has not
yet decided what he'll do with a bill awaiting his signature that lowers
South Carolina's minimum age to buy and sell guns from 21 to 18,
spokesman Joel Sawyer said Friday. South Carolina is one of 18 states -
and the only one in the South - that has set 21 as the age for handgun
ownership, according to the National Rifle Association. Wyoming has no
handgun age requirement; in Montana, it's set at 14; in Vermont, 16,
according to the NRA...State Rep. Mike Pitts filed the bill to help out
a national gun wholesaler located in Lexington County where employees
younger than 21 were filling gun orders over the phone - something state
Attorney General Henry McMaster said was not allowed because of their age...
http://www.thestate.com/statewire/story/359297.html
---
Charges Against School Principal Dropped: All charges have been dropped
against a Wirt County Middle School principal accused of bringing guns
onto school grounds. Defense attorney George Cosenza says they filed a
motion to dismiss the charges based on a specific statute. He says in
this case the firearms were in the trunk of Hoover's car and the
ammunition was in the glove box. Judge Robert Waters then dismissed the
gun charges against Hoover Monday in Wirt County court. Wirt County
superintendent Daniel Metz says Hoover remains under suspension.
http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/17171486.html
---
Man Sentenced in Fort Dix Plot: A 25-year-old man who admitted he
supplied guns and ammunition to friends accused of plotting to attack
soldiers at the Fort Dix military base in New Jersey was sentenced on
Monday to 20 months in prison, a term that exceeds the federal
guidelines but falls short of the five years prosecutors had sought. The
man, Agron Abdullahu, an ethnic Albanian who immigrated to the United
States in 1999 from a refugee camp in Macedonia, has already served
almost 11 months in prison and could be released by year's end, his
lawyer said. "I wish I never let them use my guns," Mr. Abdullahu said
at a hearing Monday morning before the sentence was pronounced. "I'm
sorry. I can't turn back time."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/nyregion/01dix.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin
---
Later May Be Too Late: ...Every revolutionary family had personal
weapons in 1775. This didn't concern the British as much as their
growing supply of munitions, which included cannons. It is the supply of
munitions that allow for a protracted conflict; a weapon without
ammunition is an expensive club, at best...It should be a foregone
conclusion that if the Supreme Court rules against the Second Amendment
the Federal government, like the British in 1775, will seek to cut off
the availability of manufactured ammunition to the US public. This
leaves only two options at the moment. First: to stock up with factory
manufactured ammunition for the weapons owned or Second: invest in the
machinery and components needed to reload our own ammunition... (Note
the reference to privately owned cannon, which would contradict the
assertion that the Second Amendment applies only to handguns and
shoulder guns.)
http://www.lewrockwell.com/case/case27.html
---
Pilot in Negligent Discharge Identified: The US Airways captain whose
gun discharged in the cockpit of a Charlotte-bound flight Saturday is a
former Air Force pilot who lives in Pittsburgh. The pilot, James
Langenhahn, declined to discuss the shooting Thursday night. "As much as
I'd like to talk about it," he told the Observer, "I can't right now."
..Other details released Thursday also indicate that the gun's holster
is being investigated in the shooting. Some pilots have criticized the
locking holster system for the Heckler & Koch USP pistol as
inappropriate for the program that arms pilots. Transportation Security
Administration procedures require a pilot to transfer the gun and
holster from his flight bag to his belt multiple times during a flight,
pilots said in interviews. The holster system is designed with a lock
that goes behind the trigger, preventing the gun from firing. But some
pilots say that when the gun isn't snapped tightly into the holster, or
becomes loose during transfers, the lock can end up in front of the
trigger...
http://www.charlotte.com/109/story/555828.html
TSA Predicts More Armed Pilots: More than one in 10 of the nation's
airline pilots carry a handgun while flying, and the number will
continue to grow, according to a Transportation Security Administration
projection. The TSA, which has declined to disclose the number of armed
pilots, revealed in a recent budget document that 10.8 percent of
airline crewmembers were authorized to carry guns. The Federal Air
Marshal Service, a TSA agency that runs the armed-pilots program,
reports that 85,000 to 90,000 pilots and crewmembers flying domestic
passenger and cargo planes are eligible to carry a gun. That puts the
number of armed pilots at about 9,500, a figure Air Marshal spokesman
Nelson Minerly did not dispute. The marshal service keeps the exact
number confidential. The TSA projects the program to grow to 16.5
percent of eligible pilots by 2011.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0401pilot-guns0401.html
---
Bringing a Knife to a Gunfight: An Israeli hitchhiker shot dead a
knife-wielding Palestinian in the West Bank on Monday afternoon after
the man tried to stab him and a companion as they waited for a ride near
the settlement of Shiloh. An investigation into the incident ascertained
that the two hitchers spotted a man running toward them, carrying a
knife with a 20-cm blade. One of the two hitchhikers pulled out his
personal weapon and shot the man.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/970302.html
---
More Young Women Hunting: ...According to a recent National Survey of
Hunting, Fishing and Wildlife Associated Recreation done by the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service, there has been an 11% decline in the number
of hunters nationwide from 1991 to 2006. As a partial response to that
decline, many states are trying to attract more women to the sport, and
the effort is showing signs of success. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
survey published in 2007 shows that the number of female hunters, about
10% of the nation's 12.5 million hunters, has grown slightly since 1991,
but it showed significant growth among the youngest female hunters.
According to the survey, 304,000 girls ages 6 to 15 hunted from 2001
through 2006 - a 50% increase in the number of young girls hunting from
1991 through 1996.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-03-31-hunting-girls-women_N.htm?csp=34
---
Tangentially Related: Article discusses advances in the treatment of
tinnitus, an affliction that affects many shooters.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/health/research/01tinn.html?ref=health
--
Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
