Obama - Small-Town Americans Cling to Guns in Bitterness: Sens. John
McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday criticized Sen. Barack Obama
as a condescending, out-of-touch elitist over remarks made Sunday and
again last night in which the Illinois senator said small-town Americans
are "bitter" and cling to guns and religion as symptoms of
frustration... In the remarks earlier this week, which surfaced
yesterday on the Huffington Post Web site, Mr. Obama told the
closed-door fundraiser that "you go into these small towns in
Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs
have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them." Mr. Obama
told the San Francisco crowd that these economic struggles would
unsurprisingly make small-town residents become bitter or back
conservative social issues. "It's not surprising then they get bitter,
they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like
them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to
explain their frustrations," he said.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080412/NATION/485473677/1001
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/obama_bitter_voters/2008/04/11/87356.html
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Philadelphia Mayor, Council Defy State Law: Mayor Nutter likened himself
and City Council members yesterday to the band of rebels who formed this
country as he signed five new gun-control laws that defy the state
legislature and legal precedent. "Almost 232 years ago, a group of
concerned Americans took matters in their own hands and did what they
needed to do by declaring that the time had come for a change," Nutter
said as he signed the bills in front of a table of confiscated weapons
outside the police evidence room in City Hall. "We are going to make
ourselves independent of the violence that's been taking place in this
city for far too long," he said.
http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20080411_Nutter_defiantly_signs_five_gun_laws.html
SAF Comments:
http://www.sunherald.com/447/story/484597.html
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CHP Applications Rise in Virginia: Doug and Cheryl Camden were raised
around guns but agreed not to keep them in their house after they got
married and began raising five children of their own. Then violent crime
began to dominate daily news reports. Several businesses near their
Chester, Va., restaurant were robbed, home invasions seemed to increase
and the world just seemed to be getting much more dangerous. "It's to
the point where you can't walk through the park without getting
attacked," Mr. Camden said. So the Camdens are following the path taken
by a sharply increasing number of Virginians: They're applying for
concealed weapons permits so they can begin carrying a gun for
self-protection.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20080412/METRO/225668733/1004
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/11/AR2008041103711.html
---
Ohio Castle-Doctrine Bill Amended in Hearing: On Wednesday, April 9, the
Senate Judiciary Committee on Criminal Justice held a 5th hearing for
Senate Bill 184, the Castle Doctrine bill. Amendments to the bill were
adopted via a Substitute Bill, which can be downloaded via a link below.
Sub SB184 offers a revised and more descript language to Castle Doctrine
compared to the language originally introduced. The bill spells out that
the criminal must be engaged in a felony act against a victim at the
time a victim defends themselves. Examples included rape, murder,
kidnapping and felonious assault, among a few other violent acts. The
bill will also extend the "no duty to retreat" language to the victim's
vehicle. Castle Doctrine will shift the burden of proof to the
prosecutor instead of the victim in proving whether it was clearly an
act of self defense.
http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/node/5590
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New York County Hesitates on Weapon Ban: There's no ban on weapons in
Oswego County government buildings, at least for now. After hearing from
six county residents who opposed the ban including the pistol permit
holder whose actions prompted the proposal and one judge who supported
it, legislators voted Thursday to send the proposed law back to
committee. "For further discussion," said Legislature Chairman Barry
Leemann, R-Amboy, "or they may throw it out." As proposed, the law would
have banned rifles, shotguns, handguns, imitation pistols, explosives,
knives and items such as scissors from being brought into county buildings.
http://www.syracuse.com/poststandard/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1207904188107241.xml&coll=1
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Universities Consider Concealed-Carry Laws: After the North Illinois
University and Virginia Tech shootings, college students must not only
worry about the rising cost of tuition or whether they failed their math
tests, but also whether their campuses are safe. This need for safety
has some people advocating permission to carry concealed weapons on
campus, which is not permitted at the UA. Supporters argue that
"carrying" could help stop shootings on campus before they escalate. If
something were to happen and a person with a weapon was there, the
aggravator could be stopped before he managed to do more harm, said
Travis Robinson, member of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, a
nationwide organization advocating guns on campus.
http://media.www.thetraveleronline.com/media/storage/paper688/news/2008/04/11/News/Universities.Consider.ConcealedCarry.Laws-3318036.shtml
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Wisconsin Students Call for Campus Carry: In the wake of the recent
killings in the Madison area, a student group advocating for the
concealed carrying of weapons on campus has been gaining more attention.
Bret Bostwick, campus leader of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus,
said he first thought of starting a University of Wisconsin chapter of
the group after the Virginia Tech shooting last year. After the
shooting, he said he wondered whether the tragedy "could have played out
any differently. We can't say for sure that a concealed handgun license
holder in one of those classrooms would have prevented the shooting, but
we can say for certain it would even the odds," he said... According to
Bostwick, concealed carry laws are actually the norm in the country, and
Wisconsin and Illinois are the only two states that don't have some form
of a concealed carry law.
http://badgerherald.com/news/2008/04/11/students_advocate_fo.php
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Texas Professor Organizes SCCC Chapter: Don't be surprised if some of
your North Lake classmates show up wearing an empty holster during the
week of April 21. It's all part of a nationwide effort to focus
attention on a ban barring students (and faculty) from bringing weapons
onto campus - even if they have concealed-carry permits. Leading the
charge is Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, or SCCC, a grassroots
movement of more than 22,000 college students scattered across the
country. Tim Gottleber, a North Lake UNIX instructor, said he recently
became the SCCC's campus leader for North Lake because of a sense of
obligation to his students.
http://www.northlakecollege.edu/newsregister/2008/03_31_08/UpInArms.html
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California City Proposes Warrantless Gun Searches: A six-month pilot
program where Oakland police officers would knock on doors and ask
permission to search homes for guns got the green light from the City
Council's public safety committee Tuesday night. It goes to the full
council Tuesday, when the council will meet at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 1
Frank Ogawa Plaza. The consent-to-search program, as it is called, is
based closely on a similar effort launched in St. Louis in 1994 and on
ongoing programs in Boston and Washington, D.C. The idea is simple: To
ask parents for permission to search their homes for weapons their
children may be hiding...The St. Louis effort fizzled after initial
success, but Oakland's Deputy Police Chief David Kozicki said that in
Washington, police officers say they cannot keep up with requests from
parents to search their homes. Such is the interest in the program, he
said. (I seem to recall that police in Boston and DC have backed off in
the face of organized opposition from their communities.)
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_8868701?source=most_viewed
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Oops, Wrong House: A home intruder was shot by a homeowner in Moore on
Friday, police said, amid reports that another culprit might have
escaped. Police said a resident at 1300 Odom Way, near 12th Street and
Santa Fe Avenue, found a burglar inside the home and shot him in the
buttocks. The homeowner held the burglar at gunpoint until police
arrived. A neighbor told authorities that another possible burglar was
seen getting away.
http://www.koco.com/news/15857154/detail.html
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Rule Three Reminder: Howard County police said that an undercover
officer questioning two teenage boys accidentally fired a round from his
gun, shooting both teens...According to police, two undercover officers
were patrolling the area for drug activity and attempted to question the
two teens. Officials said that when one of the officers was getting out
of his patrol car, his gun accidentally went off, shooting through both
boys with one round. (Rule Three: Keep your finger out of the trigger
guard, up on the frame, until your sights are on the target and you're
prepared to fire.)
http://www.wbaltv.com/news/15818917/detail.html
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No Charges in Rule Four Violation: Prosecutors are not expected to file
charges against a Missouri man who fatally shot his wife while he was
trying to install a satellite TV system in their home. Henry County
investigators ruled that Patsy Long's March 22 death was accidental. Her
husband, Ronald Long, fired his .22 caliber pistol from inside their
Deepwater home after he couldn't punch a hole through the exterior wall
using other means. The sheriff's office said the 34-year-old woman was
hit in the chest by the second of two shots. (Rule Four: Always be sure
of your target and what's beyond it.)
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/missouristatenews/story/9A89796AB2D16A9C86257426004E47CD?OpenDocument
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Ruger Recalls SR9 Pistols: We have determined that some Ruger SR9
pistols manufactured between October 2007 and April 2008 can, under
certain conditions, fire if dropped with their manual safeties in the
"off" or "fire" position. The pistols will not fire if the manual safety
is in the "on" or "safe" position. We will retrofit all Ruger SR9
pistols starting with serial number prefix "330" (330-xxxxx) with these
new parts at no charge to our customers. (Recall that I and others
generally counsel against purchasing a newly designed firearm until it
has been in production for at least one year.)
http://www.ruger.com/SR9Recall/
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The Newhall Incident, CHP Summary: As mentioned earlier, the murder of
four young California Highway Patrol officers in an April 1970 incident
is generally credited with having prompted the concept of survival
training for American police officers. Much of what is taught as tactics
to private citizens is the spillover from that movement.
http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/1255/
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NRA-ILA Alerts: Alerts for various states are posted on the NRA-ILA website.
http://www.nraila.org/GrassrootsAlerts/read.aspx
---
CCRKBA Urges Calls to Georgia Governor: The Citizens Committee for the
Right to Keep and Bear Arms urges Georgia gun owners to contact Gov.
Sonny Perdue in support of HB-89, which will update Georgia's
right-to-carry statute. "This sensible reform legislation passed by
overwhelming numbers," said CCRBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. "Not only does
it resolve some problems for legally-armed Georgia citizens, it also
prohibits entrapment of gun dealers in the kind of stings mounted two
years ago by anti-gun billionaire New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg that
recently put at least one Georgia gun dealer out of business. "By
passing this responsible update," he continued, "Georgia lawmakers have
shown they trust armed citizens, and Gov. Perdue should follow their
lead and sign this measure."
http://www.ccrkba.org/pub/rkba/press-releases/call.ga.governor.htm
---
From GOA: Gun Owners of America alerted you on Tuesday to the looming
battle over Senate legislation that will determine whether or not you
will be able to carry a gun on lands controlled by the National Park
Service. The showdown has been postponed until later, as Senator Tom
Coburn of Oklahoma (who had planned to offer the pro-gun amendment)
determined he didn't have enough votes. Senator Coburn does plan to
find another vehicle to offer his amendment at a later date. So please
stay tuned...Nickelodeon has contacted Gun Owners of America and offered
us a wonderful opportunity to get out the pro-gun message to young
people. They want some teenagers (between 11-15 years of age) to appear
on the May 13 taping of Nick News which will run later that month...
http://www.gunowners.org/a041108.htm
--
Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
