No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.3.4/299 - Release Date: 3/31/2006 Alabama House Finally Passes Stand-Your-Ground Bill: After several tries, Alabama's House of Representatives finally agreed on a bill that removed the duty to retreat before resorting to deadly force in the face of many criminal attacks and also immunizes the defender against lawsuits. http://www.wtvynews4.com/news/headlines/2545836.html --- Confidentiality Not Covered By Kansas CCW Legislation: It appears that the bill that created licensed CCW for Kansas failed to address the issue of privacy of records. Its sponsor hopes that confidentiality will be part of subsequent regulations. http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/mar/31/concealed_carry_sponsor_concerned_about_privacy_re/?kansas_legislature --- Kansas Cops Split Over CCW: Police officials in Sedgwick County do not agree on the benefits of allowing the public they are sworn to serve to obtain licenses to carry concealed handguns. (It's amazing how police executives can ignore the experience of their brethren in other states, who have generally found licensees to be the most law-abiding and cooperative citizens.) http://www.arkvalleynews.com/web/isite.dll?1143810469671 --- DeLay Should Rely On Lawyers For Protection: The Houston Chronicle editorializes against the efforts of Tom DeLay to regains his CHL, which was suspended following his politically motivated indictment on felony charges. The paper counsels him to leave his handgun at home and rely on his lawyers for protection. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/3760616.html --- Disparity Of Force?: What do you call it when one Navy SEAL threatens to kill another with his bare hands and is shot fatally when he persists in his attack? Prosecutors in Virginia Beach VA are calling the shooting second-degree murder. (If an ordinary person is threatened by an individual highly trained in unarmed fighting skills it is a disparity of force, which may justify resorting to deadly force by the defender.) http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1137835057812&path=!news&s=1045855934842 --- Do Criminals Wear Body Armor? One of several arguments for placing shots in the pelvic area is that most body armor does not extend below the belt. Here is an incident from Ohio in which a convicted drug dealer, who lost a gunfight with state troopers, was found to be wearing a ballistic vest. http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-33/1143513245177530.xml&storylist=newsmichigan --- Winchester Plant Has Closed: Article from England announces the layoff of the remaining employees and reviews the firm's history. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C11069-2113500%2C00.html Related Article: http://www.rep-am.com/story.php?id=4857 --- Oops, Wrong Building: A Japanese burglar found himself in a bear hug by 289-pound sumo wrestler after he tried to take advantage of an unlocked door in a building where 20 of the wrestlers were staying. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/31032006/323/shocked-burglar-arrested-sumo-wrestlers.html --- Interesting Approach In Venezuela: The mayor of Caracas, the capital city, is proposing to take up to 2,000 handguns being replaced by the Metropolitan Police and distribute them to "neighborhood security groups." (No information is provided as to the political make-up of those groups.) http://www.thedailyjournalonline.com/article.asp?CategoryId=10717&ArticleId=233446 --- From Gun Week: New Orleans Attorney Says NRA, SAF Have 'No Standing' by Dave Workman Senior Editor In a game of words and legal briefs, the latest play run by the attorney representing the city of New Orleans in a lawsuit filed against the municipality by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and National Rifle Association (NRA) has been to claim that neither organization has legal standing to file such a lawsuit on behalf of members in the city. In a separate motion, responding to a move by NRA and SAF to have New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin and Police Superintendent Warren Riley held in contempt for failing to comply with a court order issued in September, New Orleans attorney Joseph V. DiRosa Jr. said the city has not been able to find any allegedly seized firearms owned by citizens in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Also, DiRosa contends in his response to the court that, "Assuming . . . that the allegations" about gun seizures are true, "record keeping during those times were spotty at best." DiRosa said the New Orleans Police Department complex "has been abandoned due to the flood waters, including the Central Property and Evidence Room, located below ground in the basement of the building." He also argues that NRA, SAF and citizens who submitted affidavits telling how their guns were seized "have yet to provide any proof of ownership or even identifying information on the weapons allegedly seized." SAF and NRA took the city and neighboring St. Tammany Parish to federal court last September following several reports that police were seizing firearms from law-abiding citizens following the monster storm. On some occasions, citizens were disarmed at gunpoint, by roving groups of police, often from out of state. Those police came to the city to help restore order after looters and other criminals had taken control of New Orleans streets. In his latest motion regarding dismissal of the lawsuit DiRosa noted that "An association has standing to file suit on behalf of its members only when its members would have standing to sue in their own right; when the interests at stake are germane to the organization's purpose; and when neither the claim asserted nor the relief requested requires individual participation in the lawsuit." This is exactly why SAF participated in the lawsuit, said SAF founder Alan Gottlieb. The city was in chaos, and the organization has hundreds of members and supporters in the New Orleans area who simply, on their own, could not just head for the nearest federal courthouse to demand a restraining order against the authorities, he explained. "Those three criteria fit perfectly here," added plaintiffs' attorney Steve Halbrook, who noted that DiRosa "has filed no motion to dismiss for lack of standing, he only throws that in, in a reply brief on a different subject." DiRosa further argues that "the Second Amendment does not create a constitutional right or protection vis-à-vis a municipal defendant, and merely pleading that it does, does not create subject matter jurisdiction." In his brief to the court opposing a motion for contempt filed last month by SAF and NRA attorneys, DiRosa argued that the city has "been unable to locate any such weapons in possession of the New Orleans Police Department." However, in their original motion, NRA and SAF attorneys referred to witnesses, including New Orleans police officers, who are willing to testify that New Orleans cops did take guns from hurricane survivors. Prominent attorney Ashton O'Dwyer was disarmed by New Orleans police, and an unidentified officer, quoted in the NRA/SAF motion, stated, "I am not real proud of it, but if they were nice, most of the guys kept them, if they were crap, they tossed them in the river or in the canal." In nearly all of the gun seizures, gunowners were not given any receipt by police for the firearms that were taken. In some cases, though, people have been able to get their firearms returned. This article is provided free by GunWeek.com. For more great gun news, subscribe to our print edition. VPC Focuses on Drop in FFLs As Gun Sales Remain Constant by Joseph P. Tartaro, Executive Editor April 1, 2006 In 1992, the Violence Policy Center (VPC) issued an anti-gun study entitled "More Gun Dealers Than Gas Stations." That study claimed that the number of Americans who then held Type 1 federal firearms licenses (FFLs) outnumbered gas stations 245,000 to 210,000. The main target of the VPC report was the so-called kitchen-table or part-time gun dealer that the anti-gunners illogically linked to an illegal trade in firearms. They ignored sociological studies of a comparable era which proved that few criminals obtain their firearms from licensed dealers--or even at gun shows, another bugaboo of the anti-gun community. However, coming as it did during the Clinton Administration, which was more than receptive to new restrictions on firearms owners and the firearms industry, the VPC study led to changes in federal regulations and law. At the direction of the White House, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) began denying new licenses or license renewals to people who could not demonstrate enough firearms sales to qualify as being "engaged in the business." Then, as part of the 1993 Brady Act, the license fees for new FFLs were increased from $10 a year to $200 for the first three years and $90 for each three-year renewal period, and applicants for new FFLs or renewals were required to notify the chief law enforcement officer of their community of their intent to apply for a license. The next year, with passage of the Clinton gun ban, applicants were required to submit photographs and fingerprints with their FFL applications, as well as proof that their businesses complied with all state and local laws, including zoning laws. While the FFL fee increase may have contributed some to a decline in the number of licensees, the zoning laws probably accounted for the greatest reduction in their number. Relevance Back in 1992, no one seemed to question the relevance of an equation linking the number of FFLs to gas stations, and apparently no one is giving that much thought today, as the VPC issues an update on its FFL vs. gas station study. The new study, issued in March, is entitled "An Analysis of the Decline in Gun Dealers: 1994 to 2005." As with most VPC activities which lack grassroots support among the American people, the new study was largely funded by grants from several foundations, including The Herb Block Foundation, the David Bohnett Foundation, the Joyce Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Needless to say, the latest VPC report was greeted with much joy in the anti-gun community. GunGuys.com noted: "A word of good news from the VPC today: the number of gun dealers in the United States since 1994 has gone into freefall-from 245,628 then to 54,902 in 2005. "The number of gun dealers in America has dropped by 190,726 since 1994 according to a new study released today by the Violence Policy Center. They found that the number of Type 1 FFLs plummeted 78%: from 245,628 in 1994 to 54,902 in 2005." According to the anti-gunners, the 1992 VPC publication focused national attention on "abuses by FFL holders" and surmised that the bulk of the FFLs were held by what they termed "illegitimate" kitchen-table dealers who operated out of their homes, garages or offices. They go on to claim, without any evidence, that an unknown percentage of these "kitchen-table" dealers were actively involved in criminal gun trafficking. The new VPC study claims that as the result of policy recommendations contained in the first study: "today only five states have more gun dealers than gas stations." The chart in the study claims that those five states are Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Wyoming. Why this is significant or relevant, I don't know. Truth is, there are a lot of reasons why the number of gun dealers has been declining, some of which have to do with new trends in retailing. Since the 1992 study was issued, large sporting goods chain stores have been building box stores all over the country and some chains have been buying up other chains. Faced with competing against the big guys, more and more small retailers have been closing their doors. Meanwhile, the number of gas stations has also been declining for reasons that have to do with aftermarket automobile service and changes from gas stations to neighborhood delicatessens. Crime Down GunGuys.com may think this is good news, but why is not clear. For reasons that sociologists and criminologists believe have little to do with gun laws, violent crime has also been in a freefall. At the same time, while there may be fewer Type 1 FFLs in America, the number of guns being sold and in private possession has been increasing. If the VPC focus on the number of federally licensed gun dealers ever had any relevance, it would seem to be somewhere out in left field today. While the Brady Act which first required a waiting period for a background check for prospective handgun buyers only went into affect in 1994, the transition to the National Instant Check System (NICS) for all firearms purchases didn't replace the waiting period until Nov. 30, 1998. From that date through Dec. 31, 2004, the FBI reports that a total of 53,107,772 background checks have been conducted through NICS. Of these, 26,993,482 were processed by the federal NICS Section and 26,114,290 were processed by the NICS Point-of-Contact (POC) states. (The FBI also reports that from Nov. 30, 1998, to Dec. 31, 2004, the NICS Section has denied a total of 406,728 firearm transfers and witnessed a steady decrease in the national denial rate. The NICS denial rate [based on NICS Section statistics only] decreased from 1.43% reported in 2002 to 1.36% in 2004.) Roughly 8.5 million transactions have cleared through the NICS system every year for the last five years, with about half going though the FBI's federal NICS center and the other half going though the POC states. No matter how many FFLs are issued, the figures on new and used firearm sales have been pretty constant. VPC Wish List But ignoring that fact, the VPC report concludes with a series of seven recommendations for policy actions: 1. All federally licensed firearms dealers should be required to operate from a storefront business, not a residence. Licenses should be limited to businesses devoted primarily to the sale of firearms. Gun shops should be conspicuously identified to the public as such. This will reduce the number of dealers ATF must monitor. 2. ATF should have the authority to suspend a dealer's license or assess civil penalties--in addition to revocation authority--when a dealer violates the law. 3. ATF's ability to inspect a licensee's premises to ensure compliance with recordkeeping and other requirements should be expanded from once a year to at least four times per year. 4. The "loophole" which allows dealers to divert firearms from their business inventory to their "personal collections" and then sell those guns without performing the Brady background check should be eliminated. 5. Dealers should be required to safely and securely store their inventories of firearms. 6. Local law enforcement agencies and regulators should closely monitor dealers in their areas to ensure that they are in compliance with all applicable local laws including business licensing, zoning, and any pertinent local firearm restrictions such as bans on "assault weapons" and "armor-piercing" ammunition. 7. Congress should rescind the provision included in ATF's fiscal year 2005 and 2006 spending authorizations prohibiting the agency from denying licenses to persons who do not meet the "engaged in the business" test for business activity. Stay tuned. This article is provided free by GunWeek.com. For more great gun news, subscribe to our print edition. -- Stephen P. Wenger Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .