Ohio Cites Vow Court Fight Over Pre-Emption: Ohio's big cities plan to head to court to block the component of recently passed HB 347, which strips them of their home-rule authority to maintain local restrictions on firearms. http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-28/1166379254190230.xml&storylist=cleveland --- New York Gun Owners Upset That Names Are Published: The Journal News published a list of more than 30,000 handgun owners in Westchester and Rockland counties, as part of "Falling Through the Cracks," the paper's Dec. 10 report that found that thousands of registered handguns were unaccounted for because there is no system to secure the weapons of permit holders who die. http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061217/NEWS01/612170348/1018/NEWS02 Legislators Jump On Board: In response to The Journal News article, a few state legislators are calling for stricter record-keeping for New York State pistol licenses. http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061217/NEWS01/612170345/1018/NEWS02 --- South Dakotans Lead In Carry Permits: More than 41,000 South Dakotans have permits to carry handguns or conceal them in their cars - the highest rate per capita in the nation, an Argus Leader analysis shows. Records show that 7.4 percent of South Dakota adults had such a permit as of June 30. Next closest are Indiana and Pennsylvania, with 6.4 percent of adults licensed to carry a handgun. http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061217/NEWS/612170334/1001 Related Articles: http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006612170339 http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061217/NEWS/612170336/1001/NEWS --- NYPD To Return To Revolvers? A community activist calls on the NYPD to reduce the ammo capacity of their 9mm pistols or return to six-shot revolvers. (LASD approved optional .45's as the only means to get deputies to voluntarily reduce the ammo capacity of their pistols.) http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/480740p-404554c.html --- Wrong House, More Details: Article from last Thursday offers more details about the young Ohio woman who shot two home-invaders who broke into her home and began beating her boyfriend. One of the intruders died at the scene. http://dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/12/14/20061214-A1-02.html --- Ruger Trims New Hampshire Operations: Citing a drop in firearm sales for itself and the entire firearm industry, Ruger is offering voluntary buyout packages to senior employees, changing its pay structure and selling off some property in New Hampshire to help cut costs. (Ruger makes its revolvers, shotguns and all rifles except police carbines in New Hampshire. With Colt virtually out of the revolver business and S&W having destroyed its legendary revolver trigger actions, it would be a shame for Ruger to reduce revolver production.) http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2006/12/17/gunmaker_offering_buyouts/ --- Free NRA Program For High-School Students: The National Rifle Association is now accepting applications for the 2007 NRA Youth Education Summit, a free summer program for high school sophomores and juniors. http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061215/FALLON01/612150364/1029/FALLON --- LaPierre vs. Bloomberg: Wayne LaPierre calls for the BATFE to "enforce existing laws" in order to shut down NYC's Mayor Bloomberg's extra-legal program to catch out-of-state FFL's making straw-purchase sales. http://www.nranews.com/blogarticle.aspx?blogPostId=98 --- From The Firearms Coalition: NRA Candidate Surveys Now Posted We have had a number of inquiries about the NRA Candidate Survey we reported on in the latest Hard Corps Report and The Knox Report in Shotgun News. Copies of the survey are also posted there at: http://firearmscoalition.org/links/ At issue is a statement in survey question 6. that NRA does not oppose expanding "Instant Checks" to include private sales at gun shows. This was a fall-back position adopted by NRA back in 1999 when a very bad gun show bill was looking inevitable. We contend that NRA needs to revert back to a principled position on this issue, not start from a compromise, "fall-back" position. NRA also repeatedly declares their full support for all of the current restrictions on machine guns and such. This even though Wayne LaPierre promised to work to repeal the ban on new machine guns that he allowed to be attached to Volkmer-McClure back in 1986. He has never taken any steps to follow through on that promise and now NRA is stating its unqualified endorsement of the laws as they exist. This is a problem. The latest Hard Corps Report is now available on our site: http://firearmscoalition.org/HCR/current.pdf ****************** Stay up to date with the most current information on the fight to preserve gun rights by joining the Firearms Coalition an receiving the Hard Corps Report every other month. --- South Africans Fight Back: This is what it has come to - while two would-be robbers lay dying in the street outside a Joburg restaurant this week, their potential victims looked on and laughed... But the police warn people not to take the law into their own hands... http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20061216094637499C802638 -- Stephen P. Wenger Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .