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Drunk, Wandering Streets, Cop Leaves Handgun on Sidewalk

Jay — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:03:05 +0000

We are here to protect you: Chatham Borough police Sgt. Roy George is facing department disciplinary charges by allegedly leaving a backpack containing a loaded handgun on a sidewalk in Westfield after a night of drinking. Westfield police at 11 p.m. on Oct. 12, 2009, got a call about an intoxicated person walking [...] Related posts:

Location, Location, Location and the Handgun

Illinois Gathering Supports Concealed Carry

Jay — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:52:27 +0000

More than 8000 people showed up to support a bill that would allow citizens of the State of Illinois to obtain a concealed carry permit to carry a handgun. The rally featured Otis McDonald whose name is the principal in McDonald V Chicago which the Supreme Court is currently working on an opinion. According to the [...] Related posts:

No Bars in Tennessee

Rustmeister — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:27:00 +0000

Found this at the state site concerning liquor by the drink:BASIC RESTAURANT REQUIREMENTS (T.C.A. 57-4-102(19)(A))1.A public place kept, used, maintained, advertised and held out to the public as a place where meals are served and where meals are actua...

Why Romney will have a very difficult time running for president.

John Lott — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:28:00 +0000

"I Never Really Called Myself Pro-Choice"

People can judge for themselves whether he ever said that he was "pro-choice."

Ozark County, MO Man Stops Violent Home Invader

The LearnAboutGuns.com Author — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:01:03 +0000

As reported, an Ozark County, Missouri man reportedly used his gun to stop a violent home invader: Police say that one man broke into the home of another and refused to leave after multiple warnings. When the intruder became violent, the homeowner reportedly feared for his safety and fired in self defense. The intruder was struck [...]

Interview On RealTalkFM Internet Show

Rick "9mm" Ector — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:25:00 +0000

Here's the replay of an interview I did earlier tonight. I shared some info that would be interest to Detroiters who are concerned about crime.

Obamacare and tax funded abortions

One Sensible Progressive — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:57:00 +0000

I'm watching The Rachel Maddow Show right now, and Ms. Pelosi is dancing around the question of abortion funding in the Senate Healthcare bill like Michael Flatley in Lord of the Dance (as Chandler from Friends said, "His legs flail about as if in...

Thursday Night Quotation

Jay — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:07:37 +0000

For whoever habitually suppresses the truth in the interests of tact will produce a deformity from the womb of his thought. - Sir Basil H. Liddel-Hart?

Teddy’s Tusks

Sebastian — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 01:22:36 +0000

Apparently a thief made off with one of Teddy Roosevelt’s hunting trophies. The thief is probably lucky Teddy is dead. Related posts:Maybe She Needs To Talk to Hil Again Invest a Little, Save a Lot Mixed Messages Related posts:

Happy Birthday Bro

Brigid — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 01:01:00 +0000

To my big brother Roger. Happy Birthday.People ask me, did you miss growing up without sisters? No, because you all taught me what adventure was all about. A piece of plywood, several inner tubes, a pair of roller skates to get it to the water, and of course, the necessary milk boxes to sit on. It was grand.Even if I had to be the safari photographer and not get a chance to go down with the

iver johnson arms

brittanyhigh — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:58:20 +0000

i just got a old pistol given to me and i know nothing about it other than its is an iver johnson the pat. number is aug 25.96 is there anyone that can tell me something about it

USFWS Plan to Restrict Giant Invasive Snakes Seeks Public Comment

AmmoLand — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:09:21 +0000

Proposed rule to designate the Burmese python and 8 other large constrictor snakes as “injurious wildlife” the designation will prohibit the importation and interstate transportation of these species...

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USFWS Plan to Restrict Giant Invasive Snakes Seeks Public Comment

Kruger Optical taps Rich Babcock as National Sales Manager

AmmoLand — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:34:10 +0000

I’m really excited about this opportunity, Babcock said. I hope I can build on the previous success of the Kruger Optical team...

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Kruger Optical taps Rich Babcock as National Sales Manager

Department of Education Shotguns

Sebastian — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:02:41 +0000

Ed Friedman explains what they are for. Who would have thought fraudsters and embezzlers in the Department of Education were so dangerous? Maybe the Federal Government needs to think about its hiring practices. Related posts:Obama’s Pick for Education Secretary Two Things to Read Counterfeit? Related posts:

New Jersey Takes Step Towards Bear Hunt

AmmoLand — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:52:49 +0000

A recent decision by the New Jersey Fish and Game Council (FGC) moves the state closer to its first bear hunt in five years...

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New Jersey Takes Step Towards Bear Hunt

AR-15 Left on Roof Found

Jay — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:50:01 +0000

A Dayton, Ohio police officer placed his AR-15 on the roof of his car last month and drove off. Hilarity did not ensue. James Hardin’s weapon was found in a drug bust and the FBI is now in possession of the weapon. The quote below is indicative of how Dayton will handle the issue: Lt. Chris Williams, [...]

Marine General Wanted 6.8 SPC

Murdoc — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:40:02 +0000

Mattis pushed for 6.8mm ammo Before Marines in Afghanistan received enhanced 5.56mm rounds last month, an influential four-star general advocated behind the scenes for an option that packs even more punch: 6.8mm ammunition… The Corps first consid...

Introducing ‘Keane Insights,’ NSSF’s Government Relations Blog

AmmoLand — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:14:55 +0000

NSSF has launched a new blog focusing on public policy, legislation, regulation and legal issues affecting the firearms industry...

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Introducing ‘Keane Insights,’ NSSF’s Government Relations Blog

Whoa! Detention Hall Is Going To Be A Whole New Thing!

Syd — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:36:56 +0000

You know I’m fond of shotguns, but what in the hell does the Department of Education need with sawed-off shotguns? Solicitation Number: EDOOIG-10-000004 Notice Type: Combined Synopsis/Solicitation Synopsis: Added: Mar 08, 2010 10:39 am The U.S. Department of Education (ED) intends to purchase twenty-seven (27) REMINGTON BRAND MODEL 870 POLICE 12/14P MOD GRWC XS4 KXCS SF. RAMAC [...]

Gun Motivator of the day: Gun Free Zones.

Miguel — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:36:08 +0000

The Hill Newspaper is counting noses on House Health Care Vote

John Lott — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:31:00 +0000

The headline "House Democrats' 'no' votes are piling up on healthcare reform" tells the story.

More than two dozen Democrats are expected to vote against the healthcare reform bill that will hit the House floor in the coming weeks.

At least 25 House Democrats will reject the healthcare reform legislation, according to a survey by The Hill, a review of other media reports and interviews with lawmakers, aides and lobbyists. Dozens of House Democrats are undecided or won't comment on their position on the measure.

The 25 opposed include firm "no" votes and members who are likely "no" votes. Most Democrats on The Hill's whip list are definitely going to vote no, but others, such as Reps. Lincoln Davis (Tenn.) and Harry Teague (N.M.), could vote yes.

However, The Hill has not yet put Democrats who are insisting on Rep. Bart Stupak's (D-Mich.) language on abortion in the "no" category. Stupak has said there are 12 Democrats who supported the House bill in November who will vote no unless his measure blocking federal funding of abortions is melded into the final bill.

If leadership doesn't make changes to the abortion language and Stupak does indeed have 12 votes in his pocket, it will be very difficult to pass a bill. Yet if they do change the provisions, supporters of abortion rights in the House will threaten to vote no. . . .

So Democrats are trying to pass the bill without requiring a vote.

Would House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow House Democratic leaders try to cram the Senate version of Obamacare through the House without actually having a recorded vote on the bill?
Not only is the answer yes, they would, they have figured out a way to do it, according to National Journal's Congress Daily:
"House Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter is prepping to help usher the healthcare overhaul through the House and potentially avoid a direct vote on the Senate overhaul bill, the chairwoman said Tuesday.
"Slaughter is weighing preparing a rule that would consider the Senate bill passed once the House approves a corrections bill that would make changes to the Senate version.
"Slaughter has not taken the plan to Speaker Pelosi as Democrats await CBO scores on the corrections bill. 'Once the CBO gives us the score, we'll spring right on it,' she said."

Waiting for…

Rio Arriba — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:18:00 +0000

Peanut butter!Sometimes I'll sit down for a snack of peanut butter and crackers. They love peanut butter, and they know the sound of the jar being opened as well as the sound of the top of the cracker container coming off.I've always made it a rule to ...

Ducks Unlimited Lauds Montana Legislation To Protect North Fork Habitat

AmmoLand — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:14:14 +0000

Sens. Max Bacus and Jon Tester introduced The North Fork Watershed Protection Act that protects the North Fork of the Flathead Drainage...

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Ducks Unlimited Lauds Montana Legislation To Protect North Fork Habitat

McDonald v. Chicago: What constitutes a win?

cbaus — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:00:00 +0000

By Jim Shepherd

Most of the conversational around the industry since Tuesday's Supreme Court oral arguments in the McDonald v. Chicago case has been pretty optimistic. It seems a foregone conclusion that the Supreme Court will vacate both firearms restriction ordinances in Chicago and its suburb, Oak Park, lllinois.

But there's been very little said about Otis McDonald, the 76-year old retired maintenance engineer who's the primary name on a lawsuit that may become yet another fundamental rib in American jurisprudence.

McDonald and his wife live in the far South side of Chicago where they've watched their neighborhood deteriorate from familial to downright dangerous. Despite having his home wired with burglar alarms "wired right into the police station" and owning a legal firearm (a shotgun), McDonald said he felt he would be better protected if he also had a handgun. His rationale was simple: a handgun would be easier for an aging husband or wife to handle.

Despite the fact that Chicago police point out the fact that it's mainly property crimes in his neighborhood, they can't deny the fact they've gotten worse. Burglaries and thefts in McDonald's area risen from 881 in 2006 to 1,215 in 2008 (the latest figures available). Murders have remained steady at 17 per year.

So, Otis McDonald joined the Illinois State Rifle Association, hoping to find an answer. What he found was attorney Alan Gura, looking for Chicago residents to bring a challenge to the city's handgun ban - and a broader interpretation to the Heller decision.

For Gura, McDonald was a perfect case, an elderly black man seeking to protect himself and his neighbors in a neighborhood going downhill. McDonald, on the other hand, saw the situation as an answered prayer. Today, he still maintains his reason for wanting the ban overturned was a simple one, "I was doing this for me."

As expected, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against McDonald and the other defendants, holding that the Supreme Court had ruled -more than 100 years ago - that the Second Amendment applied only to the federal government.

Chicago, like other cities with a liberal political philosophy, believes, unlike Otis McDonald, that allowing law-abiding citizens to possess handguns will create a wave of handgun violence, firearms accidents and suicides that trump any possible good a handgun could bring.

In a city where handguns were used in 410 of 412 murders in 2008, it would seem that the criminal element had empirically proven that handguns were more than present in the city. Overwhelmingly by the criminal element.

And as has been pointed out many times, the criminal element isn't concerned with the law. They are unmoved by boundaries adhered to by law-abiding citizens.

Speaking with the NRA's special counsel, former Solicitor General Paul Clement, following the oral arguments, he said the argument he presented to the court on behalf of the National Rifle Association (accorded a portion of Gura's time) was pretty simple "Does," Clement asked, "a citizen in Chicago have the same right as a citizen in Washington, D.C. We believe the only answer is 'yes'".

In presenting the only argument of the morning that wasn't constantly interrupted by the sometimes sarcastic justices, it would seem Clement made a compelling case for a simple argument.

If the Supreme Court were to find that they didn't, Clement said, it would be equivalent of the court saying "our decision on Heller really wasn't all that big a deal."

No one thinks that likely.

That unlikelihood is despite the fact that the three remaining justices who dissented on Heller still worked - energetically at times- to make the case for gun regulations. As Justice Stephen declared flatly during one of his more vocal points, "guns kill."

That's where the philosophical divide between gun owners and gun opponents seems irreconcilable.

To those who oppose firearms, it's the tool that ultimately makes the decision to act, not the person using it.

To gun owners, that's simply absurd.

Unfortunately, in situations where, as Chief Justice Roberts pointed out, "politics will still decide" emotional parades of weeping relatives will influence enough voters to keep the issue at a rolling boil.

Meanwhile, I have no way of knowing if the U.S. Supreme Court will take a look at a decision last week from the Supreme Court of the state of Washington regarding Second Amendment rights. But they should.

In that opinion, Justice Richard B. Sanders wrote a paragraph in his decision that could prove to be a critical point:

"Supreme Court application of the United States Constitution establishes a floor below which state courts cannot go to protect individual rights. But states of course can raise the ceiling to afford greater protections under their own constitutions."

(pg 18. No. 82154-2, State of Washington v. Christopher William Sieyes. http://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/pdf/821542.opn.pdf)

That simple bit of writing may go a long way toward establishing states' recognition of the fact that a Supreme Court decision is not the far limit of a law; it's the minimums for protection. This decision says the decisions from the high court establish a broad-brush national minimum - one designed to work in all jurisdictions.

It also says that while states may go further to guarantee rights. That recognizes -at least in Washington's State Supreme Court - that it may be necessary to do more to protect individual rights.

That would seem to reinforce recent legislative measures passed by Tennessee and Montana that extend firearms rights. Their new laws say firearms made, sold and kept only in those respective states are exempt from all federal laws.

On Wednesday, the Wyoming legislature passed a similar measure that actually assigns fines and sentences for any state or federal official trying to any federal gun law on firearms and sold in Wyoming. Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal says he'll sign the bill into law.

That extension of rights is admittedly, not much more than a symbolic push back at the federal government's current tendency to try and regulate, well, everything, but it is a definite message that residents of these states will vigorously protect their constitutional rights.

Finally, the Washington State decision establishes an instance of twenty-first century law with a lower court recognizing the intent -and appropriateness - of the Supreme Court in most instances.

It is especially significant for the Heller ruling, recognizing a first step in guiding the states in creation of jurisprudence at all levels of the court systems that will provide a web of overall guidance on the Second Amendment and firearms rights.

It wouldn't be accurate, however, to say that the individual interpretation of the Second Amendment is now written in stone.

Earlier this week, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg - one of the three remaining dissenting justices in Heller - comment that perhaps a "future court" would reverse the Heller decision.

For those who hold an individual right the founding fathers considered to be "granted by the Almighty" can't be taken away by the stroke of a pen, we can only hope that the comment was Ginsberg's wish and not a prophecy. Regardless, barring something sudden change in the makeup of the court, it seems unlikely she will serve long enough to vote on that reversal.

But there is only one rule regarding the Supreme Court that seems to always be quoted and believed: the court will do what the court will do.

That's why it's the Supreme Court. It's also why we'll be watching, and we'll keep you posted.

Republished from The Outdoor Wire.

GRE Round Up for Mar. 11

David Codrea — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:07:00 +0000

There's some good stuff being turned out. I hope you're availing yourself of it, and importantly, sharing these links via emails, on blogs and forums, with your local newspaper editor, etc.A common complaint is media bias and absence of representation ...

We’re the Only…

David Codrea — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:51:00 +0000

I'm running out of time for today. I didn't want to let the work correspondent FFFW put into compiling this go to waste (and he tells me he only had time to send me about a quarter of what he's found), so I'm presenting his email below without going t...

When meat thermometers are outlawed …

Sebastian — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:47:02 +0000

… you can guess the rest. Thank God for California’s strict gun laws preventing this man from getting a gun. Someone could have gotten hurt. Related posts:Mall Mass Killing Because It Works So Well! Frommer’s Travel Guide Advocating AZ Boycott? Related posts:

Georgia Archery Students Aim High At 4Th Annual NASP State Tournament

AmmoLand — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:44:52 +0000

While Woodlawn captured the highest overall score at the 4th Annual National Archery in the Schools Program...

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Georgia Archery Students Aim High At 4Th Annual NASP State Tournament

We’re the Only Ones Flagging the Play Enough

David Codrea — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:44:00 +0000

A sheriff's deputy assaulted and locked up a musician for 13 hours, and threatened to throw him in prison for 3 years, because he didn't like the way the musician treated the flag during a show, the musician claims in Tulsa Federal Court. [More]So what...

NRA: More Popular than Obama

Sebastian — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:40:45 +0000

Good for us, bad for the Administration. Maybe it’s time for him to come around a full 180 and help push a major piece of pro-2A legislation through Congress. Maybe then we can lend President Obama some of NRA’s popularity with voters. Unfortunately, I give the odds on that somewhere south of having Rahm Emanuel [...] Related posts: