Brady Bunch President Minimizes Chicago Gun Case: ...First, the Chicago case, like the D.C. case, involves a handgun ban. Even before Heller, only a handful of cities, and no states, had such laws on the books. After Heller, only two Illinois cities - Chicago and Oak Park - retain their handgun bans. Even if the Chicago law is struck down, such a ruling would not necessarily jeopardize strict gun regulation falling short of a handgun ban. Second, the right declared in Heller is narrow in scope - the right to have handguns in the home for self-defense. If the Supreme Court holds that the Second Amendment now applies to states and localities, only that narrow right will be extended. Of course, the pro-gun ideologues will try to convince the courts in other cases to expand the narrow Heller right. In fact, Alan Gura, the same lawyer who brought both the Heller and the Chicago cases, has filed a new lawsuit in D.C. challenging the City's restrictions on carrying guns outside the home. But the Chicago case itself will not establish a broader right... (Henigan is preaching to his own choir. Perhaps his strategy for fundraising differs radically from that of the NRA but, if Heller opened the door for an as yet undecided lawsuit that could create licensed carry in DC, why would McDonald not do the same for Chicago? Chicago would not even be able to replicate DC's claim of an unusual concentration of "sensitive" government buildings.) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dennis-a-henigan/the-gun-issue-is-back-in_b_310122.html The Choir Counters: Whatever significance is attached to Chicago's failed bid to host the 2016 Olympics, it is of small importance to the rest of the country. More far-reaching and frightening is the Supreme Court's decision to take up a case challenging the city's ban on handgun ownership in the court's new term, which begins this week. The case is best considered a preview of coming attractions. The gun lobby, if it wins in the Supreme Court, is prepared to challenge every gun control law enacted at any level of government. It will usher in a scary season of assault on the common sense of citizens, law enforcement officials and others who believe that carrying today's high-powered weapons in an urbanized, mobile - and angry - society is chillingly dangerous, and deadly... Almost no one expects the conservative-leaning court to uphold Chicago's prohibition, which applies only to handguns. Owners of rifles used in hunting, for example, are unaffected by the local law. This distinction says much about the current state of gun politics. Only about a decade ago, gun rights activists often claimed that they wanted their weapons in order to hunt. They would evoke childhood memories of kinship that grew in the woods as one generation of hunters passed an ancient art on to another... http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20091005_a_slippery_slope_on_guns/ Et Tu, Los Angeles Times?: ... If you support measures to reduce gun violence, as this page does, it's tempting to hope that the court will rule that states aren't bound by the 2nd Amendment. The problem is that allowing states (and cities) to ignore this part of the Bill of Rights could undermine the requirement that they abide by others... In the Chicago case, the justices are considering whether the 2nd Amendment should be applied to the states by either the 14th Amendment's due process clause (which applies to "persons") or its privileges and immunities clause (which protects only citizens). The court should say yes, even as it reaffirms its assurance in its 2008 decision that government may still impose reasonable restrictions on the right to bear arms. This is no time for the court to start picking and choosing when it comes to the Bill of Rights. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-guns6-2009oct06,0,6190425.story --- "Public Health" Study Challenged: In Philadelphia, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania find, possessing a gun is strongly associated with getting shot. Since "guns did not protect those who possessed them," they conclude, "people should rethink their possession of guns." This is like noting that possessing a parachute is strongly associated with being injured while jumping from a plane, then concluding that skydivers would be better off unemcumbered by safety equipment designed to slow their descent. "Can this study possibly be as stupid as it sounds?" asks Stewart Baker at Skating on Stilts. Having shelled out $30 for the privilege of reading the entire article, which appears in the November American Journal of Public Health, I can confirm that the answer is yes... (This link is definitely worth clicking, to read the additional three paragraphs.) http://reason.com/blog/2009/10/05/why-skydivers-would-be-better ... Conspicuously missing from the press release and the news story were two critical limitations that were admitted in the original study. These qualifiers mean that the press release headline, as well as all the other statements and implications of causation, were quite mistaken. Perhaps defensive possession and carrying of guns helps protect the possessor and carrier, and perhaps it doesn't. But the study sheds virtually no light on the subject... So it's possible that gun possession was "perilous," in the sense of increasing the risk of the possessor's being injured. It's possible that it "did not protect those who possessed guns," in the sense that it didn't reduce the risk of the possessor's being injured. But it's also possible that it was "protective," in that it reduced the risk of the possessor's being injured, but this result is swamped by the other phenomena I point to. The study doesn't give us much extra information about which theory is correct. And yet it is publicized, and it's reported, as if it did robustly show the causal relationship. http://volokh.com/2009/10/05/guns-did-not-protect-those-who-possessed-them-from-being-shot-in-an-assault/ --- Ninth Circuit to Rehear Another Firearm-Related Case: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has agreed to sit en banc to rehear a closely watched case involving gun rights and searches and seizures by law enforcement. The case stems from an incident involving the foster mother of a man who was sought by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for allegedly firing a gun at his girlfriend. Sheriff's deputies, believing the man might be staying at the foster mother's home, searched the house and, in the process, seized the woman's gun... In her dissent, the third panel member, Judge Sandra Ikuta, said that the deputies had no probable cause to search for the broad list of items outlined in the warrant. She said that "no reasonably well-trained officer...could have concluded that there was probable cause to search for the wide variety of firearms, firearm accessories, and gang paraphernalia listed in the search warrant." Ikuta said that the gun used during the alleged assault had been identified in a photograph. "Mere possession of firearms is not, generally speaking, a crime," the judge wrote, citing the Supreme Court's D.C. v. Heller gun rights opinion from last year. Ikuta isn't likely the only one concerned about Heller. The case, and perhaps the upcoming Supreme Court review of McDonald v. Chicago, another gun case, may have influenced the circuit on Oct. 2 to rehear the case, Mann said... http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202434317593&src=EMC-Email&et=editorial&bu=National%20Law%20Journal&pt=NLJ.com-%20Daily%20Headlines&cn=20091006nlj&kw=Search%20and%20seizure%20case%20will%20be%20reheard%20by%209th%20Circuit --- Are You Really a Law-Abiding Gun Owner?: In all likelihood, you're a felon and don't even know it. Despite your best efforts to be a law-abiding gun owner, the vast number of arcane, misinterpreted and sometimes misdirected gun laws in state and federal statutes means that almost inevitably, you are a law-breaker. Maybe you drove to your favorite hunting spot, rifle in your trunk, and unwittingly passed within 1,000 feet of a school. Oops. You just violated the federal "Gun Free School Zones Act." Maybe you just went leaf-peeping on the Blue Ridge Parkway, unknowingly bringing a gun into a national park. One of the most laughable assertions made by gun control advocates is that guns are "unregulated." In truth, with (by some estimates) as many as 30,000 gun laws on the books, navigating the minefield they create becomes nearly impossible... http://www.examiner.com/x-2698-Charlotte-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m10d5-Guns-and-the-law-How-many-gun-laws-have-you-broken-today "Did you really think we want those laws to be observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them broken...There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted - and you create a nation of law breakers - and then you cash in on guilt..." - Ayn Rand (1905-1982), spoken by Dr. Floyd Ferris in Atlas Shrugged, 1957 --- Congressmen Defend Lead Bullets in National Parks: A letter signed by members of the U.S. House of Representatives' Second Amendment Task Force raising important questions about the National Park Service's intent to ban the use of traditional ammunition in parks that allow hunting has been sent to Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. The letter, which follows a similar message sent to Salazar by U.S. senators last week, was applauded by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry... http://www.ammoland.com/2009/10/05/house-members-support-traditional-ammunition-in-national-parks/ --- Bloomberg Group Misleads on Gun Shows: Michael Bloomberg's Mayors Against Illegal Guns - a group boasting some 450 members including Seattle's lame duck Mayor Greg Nickels - has petitioned President Barack Obama to adopt several alleged "reforms" MAIG is pushing that sound suspiciously like a federal crackdown on gun shows. It doesn't appear to matter to people like Bloomberg and Nickels that various studies have concluded that criminals don't get their guns from gun shows. The rare exception and the one that seems to be repeatedly exploited was the case of Columbine High School killers Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris. Three of the four guns used in that crime were bought for them by Robyn Anderson at a gun show, who was not prosecuted, but did testify in favor of background checks at gun shows. Now, full disclosure: I sit on the board of directors of the Washington Arms Collectors, which operates gun shows. The experience has provided an inside look at gun show operations... http://www.examiner.com/x-4525-Seattle-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m10d5-Gun-Politics-101-Exploiting-crimes-to-push-an-agenda-while-failing-to-provide-necessary-services --- Inspector General Critiques F Troop Expansion: ...In a 39-page report, Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said that while a proposed expansion of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) "Project Gun Runner" should enhance its ability to combat firearms trafficking along the Southwest border, other planned activities did not appear to represent "the best use of resources to reduce firearms trafficking." The report also said ATF has an insufficient number of personnel proficient in Spanish to staff the project, "which could pose significant safety and operational challenges," and noted that while ATF had implemented several Spanish-language-training pilot programs and had also made efforts to hire Spanish-proficient staff, better training and hiring were needed to "ensure effective operations and personnel safety on the new Gun Runner teams." It also said the agency needed to develop "better program measures to assess the impact" that new teams of agents have on firearms trafficking and related violent border crime. ATF received $10 million in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to support and expand Project Gun Runner, in addition to $11.9 million for the project in fiscal 2009 appropriations and supplemental funding... http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/06/anti-gunrunning-lauded-questioned/ --- "Bizarro" Is a Matter of Perspective: ...Where else but in Bizarro world would the Credit Card Act of 2009, an act designed to protect consumers against unscrupulous credit card practices, be coupled with amendment 1067, inserted by Senator Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, that allows concealed weapons to be carried into The National Park and National Wildlife Refuge system? ...Quickly following on the heels of the kind of logic that protects credit card holder's rights by endangering both humans and animals, Arizona joined 41 other states in allowing handguns to be carried into bars. I've seen enough cowboy movies to appreciate the excitement of mixing two fisted drinking with a one fisted handgun, but even the old West got civilized and had patrons check their side arms. As stated by many gun advocates, "Each person has the right to bear arms to defend themselves." However, they seem to be protecting themselves from each other. According to the FBI, states with the least restrictions on gun control, such as Arizona, Texas and Arkansas, also have the highest rate of violent crime involving firearms. Only in a Bizarro world would anyone think the combination of guns and alcohol was a good thing... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/b-jeffrey-madoff/only-in-the-bizarro-world_b_309507.html --- VCDL Protests Gun Ban at Republican Roundup: For many years Republican leaders in Virginia and their deep pocket contributors have been gathering annually at the Innsbrook "Snagajob" Pavilion in Henrico County, VA for the "Republican Roundup." The managers of Innsbrook's "Snagajob" Pavilion, out of step with most commercial establishments enforce a strict rule mandated by the Highwoods Corporation against gun carry. In 2005 the facility deployed Sheriffs deputies to escort the Philip Van Cleave, the President of the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL), from the Republican Roundup... In response to the Republican snub, VCDL has organized the "Freedom Rally" immediately outside and surrounding the entire Roundup with hundreds of picketers carrying signs and chanting against Republican hypocrisy for selecting an anti-gun venue each year for the Roundup. Speakers and music are planned, along with some "surprise" events... http://www.examiner.com/x-2782-DC-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m10d6-Virginia-gun-group-to-protest-Congressman-Cantors-roundup-on-Oct-17-2009 --- Oops, Wrong House: Investigators said the homeowner, Mark Brown, returned to his house in the 8500 block of Norton at about 9:30 a.m. when he heard someone inside. Brown grabbed a shotgun hidden under a bed and found the burglar in a bedroom, police said. The homeowner fired several shots after the burglar rushed at him from a closet. The burglar was hit three times, according to investigators. The burglar, whose name was not released, died at the scene... Brown said he felt lucky that the burglar did not find the shotgun... (No smelly brown stuff! Rule Five: Maintain control of your firearm. Brown was lucky in two regards: his unsecured shotgun was not used against him and he was able to access it before being attacked by the burglar. Perhaps he will now get his CHL, carry a handgun and purchase a safe to secure the firearms he leaves at home.) http://www.click2houston.com/news/21205738/detail.html http://www.examiner.com/x-18149-SelfDefense-Examiner~y2009m10d5-Northwest-Houston-TX-man-shoots-violent-burglar-in-self-defense ... In the latest incident, a man returning from a grocery store at 9:30 a.m. Monday shot and killed a man intruder he found hiding in a closet, said Homicide Detective C.E. Elliott. The homeowner, who had taken the day off from work, returned to the 8500 block of Norton and noticed items has been disturbed inside his northwest Houston residence. Mark Brown told police he grabbed a shotgun he kept for security, and began to search his home. He found the intruder hiding in a closet, carrying a screwdriver. A confrontation developed, and Brown fired three rounds of birdshot at the man, Elliott said... Earlier on Monday, a man who broke into a kitchen window of a home in the 13000 block of Lima, near Beechnut in Harris County, was shot by a resident. Harris County Sheriff's deputies confirmed that Johannson Rios, 19, has been charged with burglary of a habitation to commit an assault. Rios is accused of entering the resident's bedroom around 2 a.m. while the man was on the telephone with 911 operators. He was shot in the arm. Rios was taken to a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries... (It looks as though Mr. Brown was also lucky that the burglar was incapacitated by birdshot, a poor but often recommended choice for home defense.) http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6652958.html --- Speaking of Rule Five...: Tyler [TX] police say they are forwarding the case of a parent's handgun in his 4-year-old's backpack at a local school to the Smith County District Attorney's Office, which will present it to a grand jury. Don Martin, Tyler Police public information officer, said detectives have completed their investigation into the Monday incident at the St. Gregory School at 500 S. College and have decided, after a conference with DA Matt Bingham, to allow a grand jury to review the case. Tyler police were contacted by school authorities and the child's mother on Monday afternoon when a teacher discovered a loaded handgun in an overnight bag of a female student on campus. Tyler police recovered the weapon and took custody of it pending further investigation. It was determined the weapon belonged to the student's father, a local certified concealed handgun instructor [emphasis added]. http://www.tylerpaper.com/article/20091001/NEWS08/910019996 --- Ten Commandments of Concealed Carry: Carrying a lethal weapon in public confers a grave power that carries with it great responsibilities. Those who lawfully engage in the practice realize that. Those who are considering "carrying" need to know what those experienced people know... (I served my "apprenticeship" as a firearms instructor under Massad Ayoob. During that time I learned many valuable things and many that I have chosen not to continue sharing with students. I do not generally share his material when I see it posted but this article has very little with which I can quarrel. For those with little formal training it is a good introduction. For the rest of us it is a good review.) http://www.tactical-life.com/online/exclusives/10-commandments-of-concealed-carry/ --- Remington Acquires Suppressor Company: Remington Arms Company, Inc. through a wholly owned subsidiary has entered into a purchase agreement to acquire certain assets of Advanced Armament Corp (AAC). The transaction closed on October 2, 2009. Located in Norcross, Georgia, AAC is an industry-leading supplier of signature noise reduction and flash reduction devices and combat-related accessories for the military, government and commercial markets. With their innovative design concepts, technologically-advanced manufacturing techniques and core focus on the end-user, AAC silencers and accessories have been selected by major firearms manufacturers, law enforcement agencies, commercial consumers, and military organizations globally since the company's inception in 1999. AAC will continue day-to-day operations at their Georgia-based location under the guidance of company founder, Kevin Brittingham, and report to the Remington Military Products Division (MPD)... (Remington is owned by Cerberus Capital Management, which has acquired several other firearm manufacturers, including Bushmaster, DPMS and Marlin. Cerberus director George Kollitides ran unsuccessfully this year for a seat on the NRA board of directors.) http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/10/prweb2998684.htm --- Background on the Izhmash (Kalahnikov) Bankruptcy: The Russian firm Izhmash (Izhevsk Mechanical Works) holds the patents for the AK-47, and it is going broke because of all the illegal copies of its weapons being produced worldwide. Izhmash is having little success in trying to force companies in Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Israel, China and the United States to pay licensing fees for the AK-47s they produce. The typical defense is that it is a much improved rifle, with only a superficial similarity to the Izhmash AK-47. Some claim that Russia abandoned the AK-47 design in the 1970s, when they switched to the 5.45mm AK-74. Actually, the original AK-47 design was replaced in 1963, at least in Russia, by the similar (in appearance) AKM. Izhmash is 201 years old, and was originally founded by the Czarist government as a state arsenal, for the production of military weapons. In the 1920s, the firm began to produce motorcycles as well, and later, automobiles, and eventually machine tools. It has long been a major manufacturer of Russian military rifles, machine-guns and pistols... http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htmurph/articles/20091003.aspx --- Tangentially Related: ...My own contribution is on Arizona: its politics and culture. What on earth inspired me to investigate that? Well, first, it's interesting on its own. Second, you may remember an anti-Obama protest in Phoenix, while the president was giving a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. This anti-Obama protest was also a pro-gun rally, or stunt: A bunch of citizens stood around bearing their weapons, openly. They are allowed to do so in Arizona, as this is a "permissive open-carry state." So are ten others... Arthur Frommer's an interesting guy too. In 1957, he published Europe on 5 Dollars a Day. (Not sure what the price is up to now.) And here is what he said on his blog, about the protest of Broughton and his brethren. He said he was "shocked beyond measure" at what he saw, or read about. "For myself, without yet suggesting that others follow me in an open boycott, I will not personally travel in a state where civilians carry loaded weapons onto the sidewalks and as a means of political protest. I not only believe such practices are a threat to the future of our democracy, but I am firmly convinced that they would also endanger my own personal safety there." As I note in my NR piece, Frommer is a big-time booster of travel to Cuba. That state is ruled by an absolute dictatorship. On the plus side, for Frommer, ordinary citizens aren't allowed to carry guns. For sure... http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZTVmOGNkY2RkYzlkNWUwNDcxM2M3OWQxNzQwMTE5NWU= The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says that everyone can opt out of having an electronic health record included in the federally mandated national electronic-health-record system created by the stimulus law enacted in February... But individual Americans can opt to never have an EHR entered in the system, according to Dr. David Blumenthal, who is overseeing the development of the system as HHS's national coordinator for health-care information technology. "We want to make it clear that no one will ever have to use an electronic health record, if they don't want to, and that when you do have electronic health records, they'll have every conceivable privacy protection that is compatible with a useful health care system," Blumenthal told CNSNews.com during a telephone news conference last Tuesday on EHRs with Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius... (And I have a very nice oceanfront condo in Tucson available at a very reasonable probe. It is precisely this nationalization of medical records that poses such a great threat to firearm ownership. While HHS can claim that we can opt out under the February law, that option may not remain if ObamaCare passes.) http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/54999 --- From AzCDL: October will be a very busy month for AzCDL. We have four events that we will be working: A Tea Party, a Freedom Forum and two gun shows. Tea Party volunteers please contact Duke: duke.schechter@azcdl.org . Freedom Forum volunteers please contact John: john.rosado@azcdl.org . Tombstone & Tucson Gun Show volunteers please contact Tom: tom.woodrow@AzCDL.org . The Tea Party event will be on October 10, 2009 at the Tucson Electric Park, 2500 E. Ajo Way. More information can be found at: http://www.tucsonslaststand.com . This is a new venue for us. Please contact Duke (duke.schechter@azcdl.org) for more information. Another new venue will be the Freedom Forum on October 16 & 17, 2009: http://freedomforum.ccmajority.com/ . Please contact John (john.rosado@azcdl.org) for more information. On October 17 & 18, 2009, AzCDL will have a table at the Tombstone gun show. It's a perfect time of year to visit historic Tombstone. The show will be held at the old High School Gymnasium on 6th & Allen Streets. Please contact Tom (tom.woodrow@azcdl.org) for more information. On October 24 & 25, 2009, AzCDL will have a table at the gun show held at the Tucson Expo Center (free parking!). Please contact Tom (tom.woodrow@azcdl.org) for more information. As you can see, AzCDL is expanding our outreach efforts beyond gun shows, but we can only do this with your support. If you can spare a few hours to work any of these events, we would deeply appreciate your help. AzCDL's phenomenal growth is primarily because of the hard work of our volunteers all over Arizona. Gun shows and other events provide a great opportunity to educate potential members about our goals and hard won successes (http://www.azcdl.org/html/accomplishments.html). Volunteers who work the AzCDL table for a few hours get into events FREE! If your membership is coming up for renewal soon, stop by the AzCDL table and renew at the "event special" rate ($10 off!). Sustaining memberships get a FREE AzCDL T-Shirt. Not a member? Not a problem! You can join AzCDL at any of these events! These alerts are a project of the Arizona Citizens Defense League (AzCDL), an all volunteer, non-profit, non-partisan grassroots organization. Join today! http://www.azcdl.org/html/join_us_.html AzCDL - Protecting Your Freedom http://www.azcdl.org/html/accomplishments.html Copyright © 2009 Arizona Citizens Defense League, Inc., all rights reserved. -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .