Recent Gallup Poll: A solid majority of the U.S. public, 73%, believes the Second Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the rights of Americans to own guns. Twenty percent believe the amendment only guarantees the rights of state militia members to own guns...The Supreme Court will soon weigh in on this issue, after recently hearing the arguments in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller, in which the Washington, D.C., ban on handgun ownership by city residents is facing a Second Amendment challenge...The poll makes it clear which side Americans come down on. Gun owners (roughly one-third of the U.S. adult population) are nearly universal in endorsing the view that the Second Amendment guarantees their right to own guns. Non-owners are less likely to view the amendment this way, but a majority still do... http://www.gallup.com/poll/105721/Public-Believes-Americans-Right-Own-Guns.aspx --- The Devil Is in the Details: At issue in the D.C. vs. Heller case is not only whether or not the Supreme Court will acknowledge that the Second Amendment applies to private citizens, but also to what extent the government can restrict our ability to exercise that right. Although the phrase, "shall not be infringed" rings clear as a bell to gun owners, the judges may take a different view. Further, the term, "arms" is not specific and appears to have no legal definition despite the fact that the American people consider the term "arms" to be synonymous with "firearms or guns." While it is doubtful that the Supreme Court decision will contain a long list of specifics in terms of regulation, their opinion should convey the Court's opinion quite clearly and should be broad enough to cover a variety of scenarios. With that in mind, we would like to review several common anti-gun laws that serve no purpose other than to infringe or restrict the law-abiding citizen's ability to own or possess a firearm... (To my knowledge, the term "pocket rocket" was coined by LFI instructor Michael Izumi, when he received his Ruger SP101, converted to .357 Magnum by Rick Devoid, before Ruger offered that chambering. The term was then picked up VPC's Tom Diaz, who publicized it in a 2000 position paper [http://www.vpc.org/studies/pockcont.htm].) http://www.libertybelles.org/articles/unreasonable.htm --- Speaking from Both Sides of His Mouth?: When the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments last week about the Washington, D.C., ban on handgun ownership, U.S. Rep. Mark Udall of Colorado issued a news release saying he hoped the court would affirm the right of citizens to "keep and bear arms." But on four occasions when Udall, a Democrat running for an open U.S. Senate seat, could have voted in Congress to repeal all or sections of the gun ban, he did not. Udall campaign spokesman Taylor West said the congressman did not support the 32-year-old ban but also didn't think Congress was justified in overriding the district while the issue was before the courts. "He believes in self-rule and the rights of local government," West said. "The people should be able to set their own laws." Udall's GOP opponent, Bob Schaffer, quickly seized upon the statement, turning it into a campaign issue. Colorado voters have historically supported gun-ownership rights, said Dick Wadhams, Schaffer's campaign manager. Just recently, for example, applications for concealed-weapon permits have skyrocketed in Colorado... http://origin.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_8697333 --- Florida House Passes Limited Parking-Lot-Storage Bill: Without debate, the Florida House gave the powerful gun lobby a major victory today by passing a bill to allow employees to take their guns to work - as long as the employee has a concealed weapons permit and the weapon is left in the car. The bill (HB503) passed on a nearly party-line vote, 72-42, with Republicans largely supporting the guns-at-work legislation despite a last-minute lobbying push by business interests to kill the measure, which they called an attack on business owners' ability to regulate the workplace... http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/sfl-0326workplaceguns,0,76218.story http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/state/epaper/2008/03/27/a14a_xgr_guns_0327.html --- Anti-Gun Employers Endanger RKBA: For years, pro-gun advocates have rightfully pointed out that several key groups are a serious threat to our gun rights. Most are avowed anti-gun organizations or have some other emotion based argument for wanting to confiscate the guns of law-abiding citizens. But, a bigger and more dangerous threat continues to put our firearms rights in jeopardy - employers. Most of us need our jobs to secure the financial needs of our families and can't simply change jobs each time our employer does something to infringe on our rights. Although in a perfect world, we would never be forced to make the choice between financial need and safety, in practice people are forced to do so more often in America every day... http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/node/5540 --- Campus-Carry Debate Reflects Culture Wars: The debate over allowing those with concealed weapons permits to carry those weapons on public college campuses is a much broader and deeper conflict than it appears. Most of the participants are barely cognizant of their roles in that conflict, and that Arizona's university system is again another battleground in the culture wars. Most American universities have become advance outposts for the post-modern leftist dogmas dominating western Europe since, and partly in reaction to, the Second World War. The doctrines of internationalism, secularism, collectivism and pacifism have been adopted by most EU nations and are slowly being imposed on the rest. They have even infected most of the supposed conservative political parties there and are generally accepted throughout much of Western Europe and have permeated most American universities... http://www.explorernews.com/article/show/21693 --- Meanwhile, in Wisconsin...: This week the pro-gun rights organization Students for Concealed Carry on Campus announced that it will create a chapter on the UW-Madison campus to lobby for expanded gun rights and concealed carry on the UW-Madison campus. Although we welcome the debate on this issue, we are strongly opposed to placing more guns in the hands of students and faculty members...First, concealed carry on campus makes a police officers' job exponentially more difficult. If concealed carry on campus were permitted, officers would have to realize they may be confronting an armed person in everyday dealings with Madison residents. In the aftermath of a crisis, if a number of students have guns drawn, a police officer must find a way to distinguish good student from bad student... http://www.dailycardinal.com/article/2432 --- South Carolina CCW-Confidentiality Bill Advances: The public would not have access to the names of people who can carry concealed weapons in South Carolina under a proposal that appears to be headed to the governor's desk. The House made a small change to the proposal Tuesday and returned it to the Senate, which passed a similar measure earlier this month. Senators are expected to approve the change and send the bill to the governor's desk. The South Carolina House passed the bill unanimously last May after a Virginia newspaper put a link on its Web site with the names and addresses of that state's concealed carry permit holders. http://www.charlotte.com/205/story/552290.html --- New York County Proposes Ban on Colored Pistols: Owning or selling brightly colored guns may soon be illegal in Nassau County under a proposed ban because the painted weapons could pass as toys, police and county officials said yesterday. Suffolk County officials are considering a similar ban. The proposal in Nassau County was spurred by a Wisconsin company's introduction last week of a line of bright gun paints called the "Bloomberg Collection," which taunts Mayor Michael Bloomberg's 2006 ban of colored guns in New York City, said Nassau police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey. (So much for "progressives" being color-blind.) http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liguns0327,0,7809329.story --- RKBA Scholar Runs for Idaho Senate: Clayton Cramer s running for Idaho State Senate (District 22)...We're always saying we need more pro-RKBA candidates, yet when we get them never seem to find any time or money to help out. It makes me wonder why any candidate would ever give more than general platitudes when asked about the Second Amendment, or ever go out on a limb once elected - really - why incur the liability? Gun owners in District 22 now have an opportunity to elect someone capable of leading and teaching on the issue. Do you realize how special, rare and needed that is? Wouldn't it be nice for just once to vote for someone you know will represent your views, instead of holding your nose and doing the same old "lesser of two evils" routine? (Cramer is a recent political refugee from California.) http://waronguns.blogspot.com/2008/03/running-man.html --- BATFE Claims Increased Misuse of AK Rifles: ...Figures from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, obtained by The Associated Press through public records requests, show a marked increase in the number of AK-type weapons traced and entered into the agency's computer database because they had been seized or connected to a crime. The number of such tracings rose even while the federal assault weapons ban was in effect and has continued to climb since its expiration...ATF says the increases in the first half of the 1990s are partly the result of wider usage of its weapons database by local law enforcement agencies. But after that point, the numbers reflect a real increase in tracings of AK-type guns, the agency acknowledged... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080326/ap_on_re_us/ak47s;_ylt=A0WTcV6ZqupHH4IB6B2s0NUE --- Oops, Wrong Pharmacy: A pharmacist yesterday struggled with a robber inside a Rite Aid pharmacy in Carmel and yanked away the shotgun the man was toting, police said, shortly before officers arrived to arrest him...As the man pointed his gun toward two women who work in the store, Gallagher, who told investigators he feared the man would shoot the women, grabbed the firearm, Smith said. After a struggle, the pharmacist was able to wrest the shotgun away from the robber and fight him off, the sheriff said...The shotgun went off accidentally as a deputy was unloading it, firing a slug into the store's back wall. Investigators said the gun might have gone off due to the damage it sustained in the struggle... (Right, no way the deputy could have violated Rule Three by placing his finger inside the trigger guard.) http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080326/NEWS01/803260359/1020/NEWS04 --- Limited Details on Airliner Discharge: A US Airways pilot whose gun fired inside a cockpit said he was trying to stow the weapon as the crew got ready to land, according to a police report released Wednesday.. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0327GunOnPlane0327.html Related Article: ...Putting a gun into a holster and then threading a padlock through the trigger and trigger-guard is required every time the pilots enter or leave the cockpit. This kind of silliness has never been forced on any law enforcement or security officers anywhere in the world until now. Before this holster padlock procedure pilots with guns were forced to carry them around in a cumbersome 22 pound vault. The vault caused problems in the confined space of most cockpits...(The TSA holster is pictured, complete with pistol and lock, in this article.) http://www.crimefilenews.com/2008/03/gun-accident-in-airliner-cockpit-was.html --- Bear Spray Rated Better Than Rifle: If you're roaming bear country, your best protection against an unpleasant encounter is a can of bear spray, not a gun, according to Brigham Young University wildlife biologist Tom Smith..."The probability is the bear spray will outperform a firearm and it's easy to see why. The spray is easy to deploy. The rifle is just difficult to use," Smith said. Stopping a charging bear with bullets required, on average, four hits. (There's an old joke about the effectiveness of jingle bells and bear spray on black bear versus brown bear that concludes with the statement that you can recognize brown bear scat because it contains jingle bells and smells of pepper spray.) http://www.sltrib.com/outdoors/ci_8699976 --- Ammunition Contractor under Investigation: ...With the award last January of a federal contract worth as much as nearly $300 million, the company, AEY Inc., which operates out of an unmarked office in Miami Beach, became the main supplier of munitions to Afghanistan's army and police forces. Since then, the company has provided ammunition that is more than 40 years old and in decomposing packaging, according to an examination of the munitions by The New York Times and interviews with American and Afghan officials. Much of the ammunition comes from the aging stockpiles of the old Communist bloc, including stockpiles that the State Department and NATO have determined to be unreliable and obsolete, and have spent millions of dollars to have destroyed... http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/world/asia/27ammo.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&ref=world&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin --- Arizona Reciprocity Update: I have just updated my list of states that recognize the Arizona CWP to add Mississippi, South Carolina and West Virginia. I was able to confirm the former two on the websites of the respective states but could only confirm West Virginia on the Arizona DPS CWPU list (http://www.azdps.gov/ccw/reciprocity/documents/Reciprocal_Agreements_Current.pdf). This list, in the past, included reciprocity claims that have taken this long to confirm but it was just updated a few days ago. In addition to Alaska and Vermont, which don't require a permit for CCW, this brings the number of states recognizing the Arizona CWP to 29. Note that Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Michigan and New Hampshire require that you be an Arizona resident in order for your Arizona CWP to be recognized. -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .