Supremes Reject New York City Gun Suit: New York City's nine-year
lawsuit accusing gun makers of flooding illicit markets with their
firearms came to an end on Monday, when the United States Supreme Court
refused to consider a lower court's dismissal of the case. Without
comment, the justices decided not to review a ruling by a three-judge
panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit,
which declared on April 30 that federal law protected the manufacturers
from such suits. The appeals court had overturned a decision by Judge
Jack B. Weinstein of Federal District Court in Brooklyn, who ruled in
2005 that the suit could proceed despite protests by gun makers like
Beretta U.S.A., Browning Arms, Colt Manufacturing, Glock and Smith &
Wesson. The gun companies had complained that a federal law passed just
two months earlier shielded them from such suits...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/washington/10guns.html?_r=1&ref=washington
http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-09-2009/0004985469&EDATE=
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200903091032DOWJONESDJONLINE000306_FORTUNE5.htm
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DC Sued over Handgun Rule: The Second Amendment Foundation and three
Washington, D.C. residents today filed a lawsuit challenging a
regulation by District of Columbia city government that arbitrarily bans
handguns based on a roster of "acceptable" handguns approved by the
State of California. The District is using this list despite a ruling by
the U.S. Supreme Court last summer that protects handguns that ordinary
people traditionally use for self-defense. This scheme could eventually
bar the ownership of any new handguns. Attorney Alan Gura, representing
the plaintiffs in this case, noted that District bureaucrats "told Tracy
Ambeau Hanson her gun was the wrong color." Americans are not limited to
a government list of approved books, or approved religions, he said. A
handgun protected by the Second Amendment doesn't need to appear on any
government-approved list either. "The Springfield XD-45 is approved for
sale in Washington," Gura noted, "so long as it is black, green, or
brown, but her bi-tone version is supposedly 'unsafe.'" ...
http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-09-2009/0004985260&EDATE=
http://marktaff.com/the-news/42-gun-rights/101-will-dc-city-council-ever-learn-their-lesson.html
http://www.dcexaminer.com/local/DC-rejects-womans-handgun-over-color-40983407.html
---
That Nasty NRA: Every time I hear that gun issues have ground the D.C.
voting rights bill to a halt in the House of Representatives, I wonder
to myself: Didn't the U.S. Supreme Court already strike down D.C.'s ban
on handguns as unconstitutional? The answer of course is "yes." So why
is it still an issue? Well because, despite what some advocates would
have you believe, the gun issue isn't about constitutional rights...
Thanks to the Supreme Court, D.C. citizens can keep and bear arms. They
simply have to register them, and cannot have any of the semi-automatic
variety. Only radical gun rights advocate suggest these are
unconstitutional limitations - and if they are unconstitutional, then
under-armed D.C. citizens can gain redress through the courts...
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/robert-schlesinger/2009/3/9/the-nras-cheap-gun-trick-on-washington-dc-voting-rights.html
---
The Beat Goes On: For gun owners, it's 1994 all over again. Even before
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's comments that President Barack
Obama's administration would like to reinstitute the federal Assault
Weapons Ban, local gun stores were experiencing a surge of demand for
both firearms and ammunition. But after Holder's Feb. 26 comment, demand
surged. "We'll sell as many guns in a day now as we used to in a month,
and supplies have dried up," said Jay Woodbury, owner of Jay's Guns &
Accessories in Panama City. "You cannot get what you need, like
ammunition. We're out of ammunition in several calibers. Guns that
normally I could just pick up the phone and order, now they're telling
me six months to a year, if we ever get them. I'm 600 guns per store
below what I'd normally stock and probably a million rounds of
ammunition below what I'd normally stock." ...
http://www.newsherald.com/news/city_72469___article.html/debate_gun.html
Many Inland Northwest residents are firearms owners but these days
they're finding that shooting them is becoming more difficult because
gun stores aren't able to keep up with the growing demand for
ammunition. For a while now the country's supply of ammunition has been
running in short supply. Some types of ammunition, such as 5.56 mm, are
in short supply because it's being produced to support American forces
in Iraq and Afghanistan. However there's also a fear involved that the
Obama administration might put either a ban on certain types of weapons
and there might also be increased taxes placed on ammunition. This has
some people stockpiling ammo just in case...
http://www.kxly.com/Global/story.asp?S=9975493
---
Why People Are Arming Themselves: Only hours before I took a class in
order to carry a concealed handgun on Sunday, a man walked into the
First Baptist Church of a St. Louis suburb and fatally shot the pastor
with a 45-caliber pistol. This was on the same day that a man named
Anthony Carter was shot in Chattanooga at the Emma Wheeler Homes and on
the very same afternoon that LaTonya Stoudemire was critically stabbed
on the city's Heaton Street. As I studied the others who were taking the
firearms class yesterday, it did not appear that a soul among them would
shoot a minister, gun down anyone at the Emma Wheeler Homes or viciously
slash a woman on Heaton Street with a razor. The fact that we do not
know why any of these three horrors occurred was precisely why people
all across America are flocking to gun stores and arming themselves in
an unprecedented effort of self defense...
http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_146374.asp
---
Tough Time to Be a Gun Owner: It's a tough time to be a gun owner in the
United States. Everywhere you look these days, it seems there is some
new gun-control measure being proposed by the state or federal
government. Last month, state Rep. Angel Cruz of Philadelphia introduced
House Bill 375, which would require Pennsylvania gun owners to register
every gun they own, every year at a cost of $10 per gun. Gun owners
would have to be fingerprinted and photographed and that information
would be held by the Pennsylvania State Police... Similar to House Bill
375, U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois in January introduced Blair Holt's
Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009. A junior at Julian
High School in Chicago, Blair Holt was killed on a public bus May 10,
2007, while riding home from school when he used his body to shield a
girl who was in the line of fire after a young man boarded the bus and
started shooting. Rush's proposed act would set up a national gun
registry maintained by the U.S. Attorney General's office...
http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/234644
---
Oops, Wrong Store: A strange case of violence in a small town in central
Utah Monday morning left a would-be robber dead and a small community in
shock. Centerfield resident Antonio Ramos, 42, was killed when one of
the women he was robbing grabbed his gun and shot him in the head.
Surveillance video from the store captured the robbery and Ramos' final
moments on tape... Just after midnight, police say Ramos approached an
employee as she was taking out the garbage, pointed a gun at her and
forced her inside. Ramos told one employee to tie up the other, and then
tried to tie up the second worker himself. A few moments later, video
shows the gunman put down his .22-caliber rifle and slip it onto the
counter. The clerk who was already tied up appears to remain calm and,
in a brief moment, goes for the gun. She grabbed the rifle and fired,
striking the robber once in the head. When police arrived, Ramos was dead...
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=5802132
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_11871720?source=most_viewed
---
Oops, Wrong Pizza Man: ...Officials say four people tried to rob a pizza
delivery man Saturday night, but the man ended up shooting and killing
one of the attackers... Lexington County Sheriff James Metts says
18-year-old Jason Todd Beckham, 20-year-old Carlos Renard Dates,
18-year-old Justin Towan Roundtree and 17-year-old Paul Andrew Sturgill,
Jr. placed an order with the Pizza Hut on Irmo Drive for two large
pizzas to be delivered to a home on Avery Place Lane... The delivery
man, 43-year-old Christopher Steven Miller, told deputies Sturgill was
standing on a sidewalk outside the home when Miller arrived to deliver
the pizzas. Miller told deputies Sturgill asked him whether Miller could
make change for a $100 bill, and Miller saw that Sturgill had no cash in
his wallet. Miller says he saw two men run out of some nearby woods
towards him, and tried to run away. However, Miller says Sturgill began
to punch him.
While Sturgill was hitting him, Miller told deputies that he took a
45-caliber handgun from his fanny pack and shot Sturgill in the upper
torso...
http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9968442
A pizza deliveryman, who said Monday he has been held up twice before,
fired shots that killed a teenager during a holdup because he feared he
would die and not see his wife and 5-year-old daughter again. "I believe
everyone has the right to defend themselves if their lives are
threatened," Christopher Miller, 43, said in a statement issued through
police. Miller, who said he has delivered pizza for about 10 years, has
resigned because Pizza Hut bans employees' carrying weapons, corporate
spokesman Chris Fuller said...
http://www.thestate.com/local/story/709391.html
---
Rule Two, Rule Three Reminder: A Lake County sheriff's deputy
accidentally shot herself Friday morning while unloading her weapon from
her vehicle's trunk as she prepared to report to work at the county
courthouse. The 46-year-old deputy, who has served on the force for 22
years, shot herself in the right hand and abdomen around 8:05 a.m. in
the Lake County Government building's parking deck, said Lake County
Sgt. Christopher Thompson. She shot herself with the firearm issued to
her by the sheriff's department, he said. (Rule Two: Don't let the
muzzle cross anything you're not prepared to shoot. 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. It sounds as though
"unloading," in this case, refers to removing the handgun from the
trunk, not removing the ammunition from the handgun.)
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1452834,sheriff-deputy-shoots-self-lake-county-022709.article
---
Rule Three Reminder: A Daytona Beach policeman and member of the
agency's SWAT team shot himself in the leg as he practiced at a gun
range in Flagler County, police said. Ladislas Szabo was reholstering
his gun when it accidentally went off and he shot himself in the right
knee, said Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood and the Flagler
County Sheriff's Office. The bullet from Szabo's .45-caliber Kimber
handgun traveled down his leg and lodged itself in the 42-year-old
officer's foot. Szabo has been a member of the tactical unit for the
past two years, the chief said. The shooting occurred at the Flagler Gun
& Archery Club in Bunnell on Feb. 21 and Chitwood believes Szabo was
practicing. The officer participates in shooting competitions and the
gun he was using that day was one of his personal weapons. The holster
Szabo was using is also the type used in competitions, Chitwood said...
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Local/newFLAG02030609.htm
---
Shooters Party Gains Strength in Australia State: Greens MP Lee Rhiannon
said gun control was one area where the NSW government has been weak,
with around 10,000 additional firearms registered in the state each year
since 2004. She said the gun lobby has increased its power in NSW
because the state government needs the support of the two Shooters Party
MPs in the upper house to pass "unpopular" legislation. "The gun lobby
has become very powerful in NSW because of the close relationship
between the Shooters Party and the NSW Labor government," Ms Rhiannon
said... (Note that the objection is to the rise in legally registered
firearms.)
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/769092/gun-lobby-gaining-power-in-nsw-greens
---
Tangentially Related: ...Tinnitus is not a new phenomenon. Hippocrates
spoke of it. Beethoven had it. Pete Townsend, lead guitarist for the
Who, describes a serious case. William Shatner and David Letterman, who
both have it, discussed it on a Letterman show. They all describe the
same thing: ringing, roaring, hissing, chirping, buzzing or clicking
when there is no external sound generator. Scientists generally think
the starting point for the condition is the inner ear, the cochlea.
There are tens of thousands of cells in the cochlea, each tipped with
hair bundles called stereocilia. They are instrumental in converting
incoming sound vibrations to neural activity that is distributed, via
the auditory nerve, to various parts of the brain for processing...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/09/AR2009030902266.html?hpid=sec-health
--
Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
