Media Gear Up for Heller Ruling: ...The guns case - including
Washington, D.C.'s ban on handguns - is widely expected to be a victory
for supporters of gun rights. Top officials of a national gun control
organization said this week that they expect the handgun ban to be
struck down, but they are hopeful other gun regulations will
survive...The dispute over gun rights poses several important questions.
Although the Second Amendment was ratified in 1791, the court has never
definitively said what it means to have a right to keep and bear arms.
The justices also could indicate whether, even with a strong statement
in support of gun rights, Washington's handgun ban and other gun control
laws can be upheld...
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080615/D91AISC80.html
The Right to Arm: Most Americans believe that owning a gun is the right
of every citizen. According to a Gallup poll, 73 percent of the U.S.
public believe that the Second Amendment guarantees individuals the
right to gun ownership. Therefore the Heller decision, which is expected
any day now, could play a pivotal role in the 2008 presidential
campaign. Former Ohio Secretary of State-turned-pundit Kenneth Blackwell
calls it "the Roe v. Wade" of gun rights and suggests that the case (and
its results) will ripple beyond District borders to impact "90 million
American gun owners."
http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/jun/16/the-right-to-arm/
What to Watch for in D.C. v. Heller: ...Either way, here are key points
to look for when the opinions arrive. As you'll see, many of them only
come into play if a majority of the Court interprets the Second
Amendment as securing an individual constitutional right to arms. Since
I think this is the more likely (but by no means guaranteed!) outcome,
I'll run with that assumption in much of what follows...
http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2008/06/what_to_watch_f_1.html
GOA Establishes Defend Our Guns Fund: ...As many of you already have
observed, we dare not wait for the Court's ruling before planning our
next step, lest those who support a watered-down individual right to
keep and bear arms snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. To that
end, we at Gun Owners Foundation are establishing a special Defend Our
Guns (DOG) fund to allow our committed and courageous legal team to lay
the groundwork for the next battle in the Second Amendment war between
those of us who love liberty and those who would allow the government to
disarm us as the first step to our own enslavement...
http://www.borderfirereport.net/guest-authors/the-uncompromisable-right-to-keep-and-bear-arms.html
Second Amendment Petition:
http://patriotpetitions.us/second/
---
An Illustrated Guide to Obama's Gun Grabbing: ...Obama's campaign
explicitly only recognizes the right to own firearms for "the purposes
of hunting and target shooting," and insists on "commonsense
regulation." What is commonsense regulation according to Barack Obama?
It depends on which Barack Obama you believe is telling the truth. In
1998 Obama stated a desire to "ban the sale or transfer of all forms of
semi-automatic weapons." Many people confuse semi-automatic firearms,
which use the energy created when a gun is fired to eject the spent
cartridge and load a fresh round, with automatic weapons, more commonly
known as machine guns. Semi-automatic firearms are the most common
firearms sold in America today....Obama has since dishonestly contested
the issue, but his handwritten notes on a 1996 questionnaire show that
he advocated a hardline position against handguns in Illinois, favoring
a "ban [on] the manufacture, sale, and possession of handguns." He noted
no exceptions...
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/an-illustrated-guide-to-obamas-gun-grabbing/
---
A Hoosier Apologizes to Illinois: This has weighed heavily on my heart
for years and now I finally must get it out into the open. As your
direct neighbor to the east I must apologize for Indiana's part in
helping to dramatically increase the incidents of crime in Illinois. You
see, for many years my state of Indiana has allowed law-abiding
residents to carry concealed handguns, and criminals know it is a bad
idea to attack a Hoosier. Nothing says "no" to those intent upon doing
harm to a citizen quite like a bullet hole in their chest. Because of
that, Hoosier criminals are quite aware that it is much safer to do
their evil deeds in places where people like Chicago Mayor Daly, Gov.
Blagojevich, and Sen. Obama prefer residents to be completely helpless...
http://hubpages.com/hub/An-Open-Letter-of-Apology-to-the-Good-Folk-of-Illinois-From-a-Hoosier
---
Jesse Jackson and Followers Picket DS Arms: Reverend Jesse Jackson took
his fight for tougher gun laws to the northwest suburbs on Saturday.
Jackson led a vigil outside DS Arms, a gun maker located in Lake
Barrington, (IL) and was joined by people who had lost loved ones to gun
violence. Jackson says the vigil is part of his effort to pressure state
and federal lawmakers to pass 'common sense' gun laws. The activist
wants to revive the ban on assault weapons and limit the number of guns
buyers can purchase...
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=6206101
---
Arizona Already Has Law on Guns and Mental Health: ...The Arizona
Revised Statutes are clear. ARS 36-540 subparagraph N states, "If a
person has been found, as a result of a mental disorder, to constitute a
danger to self or others and the court enters an order for treatment
pursuant to subsection A of this section, the court shall grant access
to the person's name, date of birth, Social Security number, date of
commitment and, on termination of treatment by court order, date of
termination to the Department of Public Safety to comply with the
requirements of Title 13, Chapter 31 and Title 32, Chapter 26." ...A
judge determined that David Nickolas Delich, the suspect in the killing
of Tucson police Officer Erik Hite, was a danger to himself or others in
2004, after this law was passed in 2003...
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/243732
---
Oops, Wrong Councilman: A City Councilman in Eastern Kentucky says he
was about to be the victim of a robbery, when he pulled out a gun and
fought back. Magoffin County Sheriff Bob Jordan says three people
approached Royalton City Councilman Ray Nichols at his home. Police say
one of them threatened to rob and kill Nichols. After the threats
Nichols says he opened fire because he thought his life was in danger.
Police haven't made any arrests in the case. Deputies say they have
notified surrounding hospitals and emergency agencies to see if anyone
may have been treated for a possible gunshot wound.
http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/19948859.html
---
The Racist Origins of California's CCW Law: ...Stringent regulations
against carrying concealed firearms or explosives, and prohibition
against possession of other deadly weapons become effective on August 7,
under the Hawes bill signed by Governor Richardson. The new measure will
install a uniform licensing system for carrying concealed weapons.
Licenses now in existence will become inoperative December 31,
1924...Possible unconstitutionality of the provision against possession
of weapons by non-naturalized residents was admitted in McKissick's
letter to the Governor urging signing of the bill, but he pointed out
that if this clause should be held invalid the rest of the act will not
be affected and that if it can be sustained that it will have a
"salutary effect in checking tong wars among the Chinese and vendettas
among our people who are of Latin descent."
http://transsylvaniaphoenix.blogspot.com/2008/06/racist-origins-of-anti-gun-concealed.html
---
More Than Half of Violent Deaths Are Suicides: More than half of all
violent deaths are suicides, a quarter are homicides and the typical
victim is an African-American man in his 20s. In 2003, the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention began operating the National Violent
Death Reporting System, a data collection program with 17 participating
states. The 2005 report includes data from 16 of them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/10/health/research/10stat.html?_r=1&ref=health&oref=slogin
And Here It Comes...: ...In a paper published in the May issue of the
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Steven Sumner, a third-year med
student (who conceived the project), and Dr. Peter Layde, codirector of
the Injury Research Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin, found
that local background checks, which are optional and used by just a
handful of states, were more effective than the federal background
checks mandated by the Brady law. The report, which has the elegant
simplicity of the best research, compared the homicide and suicide rates
in states that perform only federal checks with states that do
state-level checks and those that perform local-level checks. The
local-level checks were associated with a 27 percent lower firearm
suicide rate and a 22 percent lower homicide rate among adults 21 and
older, the legal age to purchase a gun. (The state checks also reduced
gun violence, but by much less.)
http://www.newsweek.com/id/141500
---
Surprise in Canada: Awakened before dawn by police officers who battered
down the door to his home, Basil Parasiris said he acted in self-defence
when he shot at a stranger at his bedroom door. A jury agreed yesterday,
acquitting the Montreal-area businessman of first-degree murder in the
shooting death of Constable Daniel Tessier, a father of two. The verdict
was the latest slap in this case for the Laval police. The trial had
revealed that the force's search warrant relied on dubious evidence and
didn't allow a night-time raid; that officers didn't properly check
whether Mr. Parasiris owned guns; and that they fired by mistake into a
child's bedroom...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080614.ACQUIT14/TPStory/National
---
There's a Reason God Put Those People on an Island: A one-legged Royal
Navy veteran was arrested after he rescued his neighbour from being
harassed by two men. Stephen Beerling, 52, dialled 999 and raced to help
the women and her baby after hearing screams during the night. But he
was arrested when officers spotted a retractable truncheon he had picked
up in case he had to protect himself. Mr Beerling, a Liberal Democrat
councillor, was arrested, locked up for 12 hours and charged with
possessing an offensive weapon...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1026255/One-legged-war-veteran-saves-mother-baby-thugs---arrested-carrying-truncheon.html??10
---
From John Farnam: (This one got misplaced and overlooked for
yesterday's mailing.)
13 June 08
Instructors:
During this current election year, there is no shortage of commercial
Small-Arms Instructors. I'm hearing of new names in this Industry
nearly every day. It has been my honor to know and influence some. We
are indeed blessed with this enthusiastic, new generation of aspiring
Instructors, and I surely hope we in the existing/fading generation are
serving them as well as we need to.
Americans are nervous, and should be! Fuel costs are slowing world
commerce, and we all know that, when goods don't move across
international borders, armies will!
The knowledge and skills we do our best to pass on have been gleaned at
great price, over many decades, indeed many centuries. Our Art must not
only be preserved, but refined and advanced as we all sit on this
precipice in world history. America, indeed all of Western
Civilization, is in desperate need of competent Gunmen/Operators. We
can't have too many!
Retail gun sales are way up, but those subsequently seeking respectable,
serious training still represent only a minuscule minority. Gun
manufacturers are providing us with superior products, yet, even among
these people, practical knowledge of the way their products are carried,
trained with, and used is scant.
Practical, true weapons skills reside in an expanding Priesthood, both
in-and-out of law enforcement and in-and-out of the Military.
Oftentimes however, the bigger the institution, the more uninspired and
out-of-date the training.
That is the reason devoted, private-sector consultant/trainers
constitute the core of our Priesthood. Small deeds done are better than
great deeds planned! We are able to move faster and more boldly than
anyone else, and we are not constrained, nor even influenced, by inane
political agendas, nor internal squabbling, nor sterile, irrelevant
competitions. We have the honor of Leading the Way!
For one, I prefer eccentricity, driven by a passionate pursuit of
excellence, over mediocrity, driven by a banal pursuit of money. When
true to our Art, our training is neither "fun," nor "entertaining," nor
"relaxing," nor "safe." It is strenuous, dangerous work. Anything
less, and we're kidding ourselves, and defrauding our students.
I know serial cynics who try to entertain their students, and, yes, some
of that is necessary in order to maintain their interest, but we can
never lose sight of the importance of what we're doing and of our Place
in history. We are on the Forward Edge of the Battle Area for the
survival of this Civilization!
When listening to some, for whom I have scan respect, I'm reminded of The
Pirates of Penzance:
"I am the very model of a modern Major-General
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral
I know the Kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical
I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse
.. ad nauseam"
Well, as Hubert Humphrey said, "The 'right' to be heard does not
automatically imply a 'right' to be taken seriously!"
Never forget that "what you are" says more about you than what you
profess to believe. What you believe is more important than what you've
managed to acquire, and whom you inspire will go forth and do far more
noble deeds than will those you impress.
Follow me!
/John
(While John and I are of similar age chronologically, I am probably at
least one generation younger than him as an instructor. I have never
harbored the illusion that I would build a "brand-name" school. Rather,
I have used all means, including correspondence, my website and my book,
to try to expose what I have felt were fallacies in the world of
firearms training. Strangely, over the last decade or so, I have noticed
some of the concepts I have advocated being expressed by others with
much larger audiences than mine.)
--
Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
