CCRKBA Blasts Daley over Police Armament: Anti-gun Chicago Mayor Richard
Daley has taken one more step toward turning his city into a police
state by planning to give police fully automatic M4 carbines, while
still fighting to block the gun rights of citizens not only in Chicago
but throughout Illinois, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep
and Bear Arms said today.
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-29-2008/0004802619&EDATE=
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Lautenberg Is At It Again: Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Campaign
to Prevent Gun Violence, today praised a bill introduced by Senator
Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey that would require longer retention of
records in the Brady background check system and build in greater
safeguards when background checks reveal someone suspected of terrorist
activity. The PROTECT (Preserving Records of Terrorist and Criminal
Transactions) Act of 2008 would require the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) to retain records of approved firearm transactions
for at least 180 days. Under current Justice Department regulations and
appropriations restrictions, those records must be destroyed within 24
hours. In cases where the transaction involves a valid match to a terror
watch list, the FBI would be required to retain the record for a minimum
of 10 years. (Sen. Lautenberg is the author of the bill that
retroactively made a misdemeanor conviction for domestic violence a
disqualification for firearm ownership.)
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-29-2008/0004802670&EDATE=
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Air Marshals Grounded by Terror-Watch Lists: False identifications based
on a terrorist no-fly list have for years prevented some federal air
marshals from boarding flights they are assigned to protect, according
to officials with the agency, which is finally taking steps to address
the problem. Federal Air Marshals (FAMs) familiar with the situation say
the mix-ups, in which marshals are mistaken for terrorism suspects who
share the same names, have gone on for years - just as they have for
thousands of members of the traveling public. (Yet there are those in
Congress who would deny citizens firearm purchases on the basis of these
lists.)
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080430/NATION/946059998/1001
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Arizona Governor Vetoes CCW Measure: ...She also rejected a proposal to
reduce to a petty offense the penalty for carrying a concealed weapon
without a permit...That measure, House Bill 2630, would have made it a
petty offense punishable by a fine alone for an individual to carry a
concealed weapon without a state permit. It also would have barred
law-enforcement officials in those instances from confiscating the
weapon. "As our law-enforcement professionals will tell you," Napolitano
wrote Tuesday, "serious criminals, especially gang members, often carry
concealed weapons without permits. Our law-enforcement officers must
have the full array of enforcement options to use against these
violators, including the power to arrest the violator and confiscate his
deadly weapon." Supporters such as bill sponsor Sen. Karen Johnson, a
Mesa Republican, noted that Arizona law already grants wide leeway for
individuals to carry weapons in the open. The bill, they argued, would
have reduced criminal penalties in case of an accidental violation of
the law, such as if an individual's jacket temporarily concealed a holster.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/043024bills0430.html
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RKBA Only for Defensive Weapons?: ...The right to keep and bear arms has
to mean something. But which arms? Machine guns? No, said the
gun-owner's attorney, Alan Gura. On March 18, Gura had argued at the
Supreme Court for a right to have "arms that are appropriate for
civilian use." Speaking in Seattle last week at a meeting of the
Federalist Society, Gura drew the line between semiautomatic and
automatic weapons - that is, guns that shoot one round per trigger
squeeze and those that spray bullets. hooting one round at a time, you
can decide whom you're shooting at, one person at a time. You can make a
moral judgment. A machine gun, he said, is an "area weapon." Our state
law bans machine guns. The question then arises: If the Supreme Court
breathes life into the Second Amendment, will these and other such
restrictions (no plastic guns, etc.) stand? (Of note, the Washington
state RKBA provision was copied verbatim by Arizona, 23 years later.)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2004381535_rams30.html
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Lawsuit Prompts Bill for Oregon CHL Confidentiality: House Rep Linda
Flores today announced her intentions to introduce legislation to
protect the privacy of Oregonians with concealed handgun licenses.
Flores said "Many of these people get CHL's because they are worried
about their safety, whether it's from a stalker, a case of domestic
violence, or some other threat. Making their names, addresses and other
records public might jeopardize their security." Flores proposed her
legislation after the Medford Mail Tribune won a lawsuit to force the
Jackson County Sheriff to divulge the personal information of license
holders in that county.
http://oregonfirearms.org/alertspage/04.28.08alert.html
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Interesting Account: Being a lousy shot might well have saved Marshall
Hugo Grant's life. After Grant fired three times Monday from the doorway
of the King IGA grocery store, manager Marino Hernandez made a
split-second decision not to fire back...On Monday afternoon, Grant and
Hernandez argued after he tried to enter the store through the exit. "I
said, 'You know what? Take your business elsewhere,'" Hernandez said.
Grant then drew a handgun. Assistant manager Roberto Espinal, behind a
side counter, drew his gun. When Grant turned that way, Hernandez pulled
his gun. Grant made the first move. He backed out of the store and
started firing... (Grant was firing wildly into a target-rich
environment. Hernandez, who apparently considers himself competent with
a handgun, may or may not have been concerned with the background if he
had fired. I'm not sure I'd have made the same decision.)
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/04/29/0429groceryguns.html?imw=Y
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The Israeli Alternative to Virginia Tech: [Last] Wednesday marked one
year since the massacre at Virginia Tech by mentally-disturbed student
Seung-Hui Cho. Last week the university offered anguished parents a
settlement of $100,000 per murdered child. There are three things wrong
with this: First, even in financial terms, it is hopelessly inadequate
to redress the deaths of these talented young people. Second, it does
nothing to correct the useless, symbolic policy which facilitated their
deaths. Third, if you don't think that the policy is wrong,Virginia Tech
has no liability for the deaths it facilitated...
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=2173
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Weapon Bans Fail to Halt Surge in Murder Rate: There has been a huge
increase in being people shot, stabbed and even kicked to death since
Labour came to power. Shocking statistics released last night show a 14
per cent increase in murder and manslaughter in England and Wales
between 1998 and 2007. There was also a 28 per cent increase in deaths
from bladed weapons. Those killed by shootings increased by the same
figure. Most shockingly, there was a 57 per cent increase in deaths
caused by punching and kicking.
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/42677/Knifings-and-shootings-up-as-murder-rate-soars
--
Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
