Want to Join Big Brother's Administration?: Want a top job in the Obama
administration? Only pack rats need apply, preferably those not packing
controversy. A seven-page questionnaire being sent by the office of
President-elect Barack Obama to those seeking cabinet and other
high-ranking posts may be the most extensive - some say invasive -
application ever. The questionnaire includes 63 requests for personal
and professional records, some covering applicants' spouses and grown
children as well, that are forcing job-seekers to rummage from basements
to attics, in shoe boxes, diaries and computer archives to document both
their achievements and missteps...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/us/politics/13apply.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/11/if-you-have-eve.html
... (59) Do you or any members of your immediate family own a gun?
If so, provide complete ownership and registration information. Has
registration ever lapsed? Please describe how and by whom it is used
and whether it has ever been the cause of any personal injury or
property damage... (Does this mean that those of us who live in
states that don't register firearms are ineligible to apply? Or does
this only affect those people who own animate firearms that can
cause personal injury or property damage, without being handled or
mishandled by a person? I wonder how many of us would have longer
lists of firearms, including "ownership information," than our
professional r�sum�s.)
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/national/13apply_questionnaire.pdf
.."Question 59 provides clear insight into how Obama and his people
perceive firearm owners," said ISRA Executive Director Richard Pearson.
"The questionnaire poses a number of questions asking the applicant to
reveal any unethical activities, or embarrassing Internet chats, then
wraps up by asking if anyone in the applicant's family owns a firearm.
Obviously, Obama feels that owning a firearm is akin to talking dirty in
Internet chat rooms." ...
http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=39345
"Change" Has Already Come to Gun Stores: Gun owners aren't waiting to
see what change President-elect Barack Obama will bring to Washington,
D.C., when he becomes the nation's 44th president on Jan. 20. Fearful
that an Obama administration and a Democrat-controlled Congress will
mean tighter firearms restrictions, gun buyers are stocking up on
handguns, rifles, ammunition and accessories... Dan Giles, a retired
Clark County gunsmith who stays in touch with gun sellers, said he
talked to one who reported selling 28 M-16s last Saturday alone. Gun
owners have reason to fear increased regulation under an Obama
administration, Giles said... (M16's are already about as tightly
regulated as they can be, as machine gun, under the National Firearms
Act. It's a pity that "gunsmiths" can't distinguish between M16's and
AR-15's, especially when they speak to the press.)
http://www.columbian.com/article/20081114/NEWS02/711149955
---
Getting It Partly Right: ...What Tucson-area gun dealers are
experiencing is in line with nationwide reports of people rushing to buy
assault rifles and ammunition before Obama takes office. Gun shops in
Tucson and all over the country are running low on such rifles - often
defined as semiautomatic rifles with large-capacity magazines designed
for military use - and ammunition, as panicked gun owners rush to buy...
Doug Mackinlay - owner of Diamondback Police Supply Co. Inc. - said that
just a few days before the election, he began seeing an increase in the
sale of AR-15-style rifles... (While the original select-fire AR-15 went
on to become the military M16, Once Colt took over the product, the
AR-15 has been a semi-automatic rifle, specifically designed for
civilian use, including civilian law enforcement.)
http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/267169
---
Gun-Sale Surge Reviewed: Thinking Americans know that we are seeing a
repeat of the time when Bill Clinton took office as president of the
United States. People were worried that the incoming administration
might make mischief regarding firearms laws... But some sociology prof
out in Texas, sitting high atop an ivory tower and apparently terrified
of the wide ownership of firearms in that most self reliant of states,
has cooked up some ridiculous story that the uptick in firearms sales
across the U.S. is due to - get this - a coming race war... Of course,
he also didn't factor in the appointment of John Podesta as Obama's
transition chief. Remember that name? He led the gun control initiatives
in the White House when he worked for Bill Clinton...
http://thereadyline.blogspot.com/2008/11/red-herrings.html
---
Illinois Group Fans the Flames: The ISRA is recommending that all
law-abiding Americans celebrate their 2nd Amendment rights by purchasing
a firearm or two this weekend. This recommendation comes as firearm
dealers across the nation are reporting record jumps in sales of rifles,
pistols and shotguns. Likewise, the FBI reports that requests for
gun-buyer background checks are coming in at a frenzied pace. This
plus-up in gun purchases is being attributed to President-elect Obama's
demonstrated hostility toward firearm owners and well-founded fears that
his administration will implement Chicago-style gun controls across the
United States...
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/This-a-Great-Weekend-Buy/story.aspx?guid={E955C91E-8EAA-4CEA-BC4B-1929C8ABB8C0}
---
Non Sequitur: During my nine terms in the U.S. House of Representatives,
I had a 100 percent voting record with the National Rifle Association.
Not once did I vote for gun control; not for the Brady Bill, nor
ammunition registration, not for the assault weapons ban, nor any of the
other futile attempts to fight crime by simply putting people's name on
a list... In this there is good news and bad news for gun owners. First
the good news: The federal government, your elected officials, never
have and are not now conspiring to take our guns. No such legislation
has ever been introduced in the U.S. Congress... (If it hasn't been
introduced yet, that surely guarantees that it won't be introduced under
Big Brother? Realistically, I don't expect to see confiscation
legislation in the near future - what I fear is the incremental bans on
particular types of firearms, prohibitive taxation on ammunition and
components, increasing registration and licensing schemes and the
potential of confiscation by federal troops or agents, without enabling
legislation.)
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20081113/OPINION/811130307
---
And Here's How It Happens...: I believe Obama put it best when he said,
"I think there is an individual right to bear arms, but it's subject to
common sense regulation." I would have to agree. I support civilians
having the right to possess handguns, whether it is for safety reasons
or recreational reasons. However, I am still unsure why private citizens
need access to an AR-15 or AK-47 to protect themselves or their homes...
(This student apparently has not lived where I have, where the scenario
of gangs roaming neighborhoods in search of food, water and other loot
was not too distant, whether following earthquakes, fires, mudslides or
during riots.)
http://unlvrebelyell.com/2008/11/13/gun-control-doesn%E2%80%99t-entail-prohibition/
---
Another Non Sequitur: ...Wouldn't it be funny if the run on guns was
"manufactured" by gun manufacturers and gun dealers, trying to drum up
sales in a slumping consumer economy? Not to frighten you or anything,
but Frank Krasner,--Silverado Gun Show organizer, says he called all the
major gun makers on the entire east seaboard, and not one of them has a
single assault rifle in stock "because people have snatched them up in
the past week." What a horrible thought... (Let's see - if it were a
plot by the manufacturers to sell more guns, wouldn't they have cranked
up production to take advantage of the demand they had inflated
artificially? Yes, many husbands have likely convinced their wives to
alter budget priorities to buy guns and ammo now, quite likely because
the wives also realize that any new bans will no longer contain a
ten-year sunset clause, as did the one from the Clinton administration.)
http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/opinion/display_columnist.htm?StoryID=82652
---
Speaking of Which...: ...Gun owners survived the Clinton administration
and they will survive the Obama administration. Earlier this year the
U.S. Supreme Court for the first time defined gun ownership as an
individual right, not a collective one, a ruling that would be binding
on any president. Regardless of what might be proposed in the way of new
gun laws, the basic right will remain inviolate... (And a great many gun
owners had to wait until 2004, to purchase firearms or magazines that
they had been banned from purchasing for the preceding ten years. While
the Heller decision affirmed that the Second Amendment guarantees and
individual right to keep arms, it left plenty of room for infringements
of the right to bear arms and the choice of arms to be kept or borne.)
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081113/OPINION02/811130313
---
Shooting Revives Campus-Carry Debate: After last weekend's off-campus
shooting, students are reacting to the presence of guns in the college
community. While some people believe guns are a threat, others support
their protective role. Senior Danny Dales is the campus leader for the
unofficial chapter of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. The SCCC
advocates legal adults over the age of 21 with permits to carry
concealed handguns on campuses for personal protection from all types of
violent crime. With 70 students interested in the group, he hopes it
will be a recognized organization in the spring...
http://breezejmu.org/2008/11/13/shooting-revives-concealed-carry-controversy/
---
Meanwhile, Over at Virginia Tech...: An exploding cartridge from a nail
gun was the source of gunshot-like sounds that prompted a lockdown of a
residence hall on Virginia Tech's campus Thursday, authorities said.
Police secured Pritchard Hall around 1 p.m. after two people reported
hearing something that sounded like gunfire. Officials searched every
room in the 1,000-student dormitory, and reopened it two hours later
after finding no evidence of gunshots.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/13/nail-gun-sound-alarms-va-tech-students/
---
When Seconds Count...: ...Seung Hui Cho shot 47 people, 30 fatally, in
the university's Norris Hall in just 11 minutes. That means every minute
he killed more than three people and shot a total of four. Once again,
the gunman continued shooting until a four-officer team made entry and
then he killed himself... Every minute the officer waits for back-up,
another three or more people could die... Tactical Defense Institute in
Adams County, Ohio developed one of the first "single officer response"
programs in the nation. TDI was teaching the tactic even before Virginia
Tech. Now the National School Resource Officer Organization (NSRO) is
using TDI instructors to teach school resource officers how to confront
a gunman immediately... As soon as they're confronted by any armed
resistance, the shooters typically turn the gun on themselves.
http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=d26c29ff-f134-4202-bc40-947534a6de3c
---
Only in New York City?: They called themselves a "band of brothers," and
they all wore their paratrooper badges as they stood in front of the
judge: Specialist Osvaldo Hernandez, recently returned from a 15-month
tour in Afghanistan; his lawyer, James D. Harmon Jr., a former
prosecutor who served in Vietnam; and their expert witness, Randy
Jergensen, a retired New York police detective who parachuted into
battle in Korea. They appeared in court on Thursday to argue that Mr.
Hernandez, who served a year on Rikers Island for illegal gun
possession, a felony, before joining the Army, had turned his life
around so impressively that he deserved the judge's help to realize his
dream: joining the New York police force... (Let's see, if it weren't
illegal to own a firearm without a permit, which is extremely difficult
to obtain...)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/nyregion/14soldier.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin
---
Bringing a Chair to a Gunfight: A man who charged at a police officer
with a wooden folding chair in a church parking lot in Coney Island was
shot to death on Thursday afternoon by the officer, the authorities
said... When the officers went to investigate, the man came after one of
the officers with the folding chair, the police said. He was ordered in
Spanish and English to stop and drop the chair, the police said. He kept
moving toward Officer Ortiz and was poised to strike her with the chair
when she shot him, the police said. "He continues to disregard her, and
he advances to within a foot of her," said Paul J. Browne, the Police
Department's chief spokesman. "He disregards her directives, and she
fires once and hits him in the chest." The man was taken to Coney Island
Hospital, where he was pronounced dead... (Letting someone who is
threatening with a contact weapon get within one foot of you is
extremely foolish, particularly when the weapon itself is longer than a
foot.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/nyregion/14coney.html?ref=nyregion
---
Poor Man's Arsenal Revisited: Sometime back I posted an article on
Survivalist Blog detailing a bare bones set of survival weapons that
would allow the survivor to hunt small, medium and large game for the
pot, as well as defend the retreat, all for under $350, not an easy task
at today's prices. Almost as soon as I hit the publish button, my email
inbox became flooded by readers suggesting other more expensive firearms
or those wanting to ad more weapons to my basic three gun list with some
readers becoming downright rude and offensive because I had failed to
include their preferred artillery... (The only problem with the
Lee-Enfield rifles is that the .303 ammunition is no longer widely
available and its tapered case does not lend itself to reloading as many
times as many other rifles cartridges.)
http://thesurvivalistblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/poor-mans-arsenal-revisited.html
---
The Ongoing Campaign Against Lead Bullets: Preliminary results of a
study by a University of Montana graduate student suggest that lead
bullets may be poisoning grizzly bears in the Yellowstone ecosystem. Tom
Rogers sampled blood from 13 grizzlies during hunting season and found
nearly half had elevated levels of lead, possibly because the bears had
eaten lead bullet fragments in big-game carcasses left behind by
hunters... In all, Rogers checked blood samples of 24 grizzly bears for
lead contamination. The 11 bears sampled outside of hunting season did
not have elevated lead levels... (Absorption of metallic lead is a
function of the surface area available for dissolution. A lead bullet
will pass through the digestive system with less lead absorbed than from
repeated exposure to minute particles, such as those generated as mists
when cartridges with lead-based primers and lead bullets are fired. This
is why it is crucial to wash hands and face after shooting.)
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/11/12/news/wyoming/20-grizzlybears.txt
---
Finns Sign Petition for Incremental Gun Ban: A petition signed by more
than 57,000 people demanding a ban on handguns was presented yesterday
to the Finnish government, just weeks after the second school massacre
in a year sent shockwaves through the Nordic country. The petition,
calling for a total ban on private ownership of guns with barrels
shorter than 600mm (23.6 inches), was handed over to Interior Minister
Anne Holmlund... (Note the site - Qatar's Gulf Times.)
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=253839&version=1&template_id=39&parent_id=21
--
Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
