Obama Opposes CCW: Democrat Barack Obama on Tuesday insulted millions of legally-armed American citizens when he told a Pennsylvania newspaper that concealed carry poses a threat to innocent people, and he should immediately apologize for that remark, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today. Senator Obama, quoted by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, admitted, "I am not in favor of concealed weapons. I think that creates a potential atmosphere where more innocent people could (get shot during) altercations." http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/obama-should-apologize-for-insulting,337320.shtml --- Philadelphia Council Expected to Pass Nine Infringements Today: City Council is expected to pass a series of nine gun-control measures today - including one that failed in the state House of Represenatives this week - that could set up a showdown between Mayor Nutter and the state. City Council's package is similar to one introduced last year, but which expired without the state-legislation required to enact it. Without any hope of approval from the legislature, Council members Darrell L. Clarke and Donna Reed Miller introduced new bills this year that do not require state approval. Mayor Nutter has promised to sign the bills and enforce the law, even if it's contrary to Supreme Court rulings prohibiting the city from creating its own gun laws. Such an action would invariably result in a legal challenge, observers say. http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20080403_Phila__City_Council_takes_up_gun_control_today.html --- South Carolina Lowers Handgun Age: People as young as 18 can now buy and own handguns in South Carolina. Governor Mark Sanford signed a bill into law Wednesday to lower the minimum age from 21. "People who are old enough to fight and die in the military should be able to purchase handguns, and the bill will put our laws more in line with those of other states," Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said. The law went into effect immediately. (Note that federal law prohibits licensed dealers from selling handguns to anyone under the age of 21.) http://www.wltx.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=60469 --- South Carolina Governor to Get CCW-Confidentiality Bill: All eyes are on Gov. Mark Sanford to see if he'll approve a bill making a list of S.C. residents with concealed-weapons permits private. Currently, the information is available to anyone who requests it from the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED.) Those on the list have passed a background check and taken at least eight hours of handgun training, allowing them to carry a gun into certain public places. Last month, The State newspaper requested the list and learned one in five lawmakers has a permit while only one in 50 South Carolinians over the age of 21 has one. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Mike Pitts, R-Laurens, has passed both the House and Senate with little resistance. The governor is waiting for the bill to be ratified before saying whether he'll sign it into law. http://www.thestate.com/local/story/362928.html --- West Virginia Schools May Offer Hunting Courses: West Virginia schools can soon offer courses in hunting if their principals approve the change in curriculum. Governor Manchin signed legislation yesterday to allow the 10-hour course in the state's public schools. The original bill would have mandated that schools offer the course. It was changed to give principals the option of whether to offer the class - a move Manchin spokeswoman Lara Ramsburg says the governor supported. The new law's goal is to teach firearms safety and boost the sale of hunting licenses. http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/17224589.html --- RKBA Bills Killed in Tennessee: Two gun bills were killed for the year in the Tennessee legislature Wednesday - including the "guns-in-bars" bill to allow people with gun-carry permits to take firearms into places that serve alcohol. The other bill would close public access to the identities of Tennessee's 191,208 gun-carry permit holders - 28,601 of whom live in Shelby County. Both bills were backed by the National Rifle Association, which had issued an "action alert" to its Tennessee members Friday to contact lawmakers in support of the legislation. http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/apr/02/guns--bars-bill-doesnt-pass-first-test/ --- Arizona Campus-Carry Bill Amended Again: To get her gun bill through the first legislative skirmish, state Sen. Karen Johnson needed to scratch language that would have let people carry concealed weapons on public K-12 campuses in Arizona. Now, the Mesa Republican says she will have to give up more ground in the battle over her divisive proposal if it has any chance of surviving in the state Legislature...But under amendments Johnson plans to propose on the Senate floor, students, teachers and administrators who want to carry a gun on campus would have to go through additional gun training and pass a shooting proficiency test. That would earn them a special sticker that would be displayed on their concealed-carry weapons permit. Residents can obtain a permit after eight hours of gun training and a background check. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0403guns0403.html --- Rule Five Reminder: The Prescott Police are asking the public's help in trying to recover a black Glock Model 22, .40-caliber handgun that an officer left in the restroom at Fry's, 950 Fair St., between 8:05 and 9 a.m. on March 24..."Officer John File was at our substation next to Fry's and needed to use the restroom," explained Lt. Ken Morley, Prescott Police. He took the gun out of the duty holster and placed it on the back of the toilet. File received an emergency call and left the restroom without reholstering his gun onto the belt. (Rule Five: Maintain control of your firearm.) http://www.dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&subsectionID=1&articleID=53923 Rule Five Reminder, Part 2: A 16-year police officer with a spotless record faces disciplinary action for dumping two handguns in a city sewer. Patrolman Emilio Morales told authorities he was trying to help a longtime friend who had gotten the guns from her sister. The sister was having domestic problems and wanted the guns out of her house. The friend didn't want the guns either and asked Morales to get rid of them, Chief Cel Rivera said. "It was extremely poor judgment and clear violation of policy," Rivera said. http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/120712526318500.xml&coll=2 --- Oops, Wrong House: A senior citizen in Pasadena caught a burglar in his home and held him at gunpoint until police arrived. Tom Walker told Suzanne Collins he just didn't want the young man to get away with it. Erick Bjorntwedt, 22, headed to the courthouse on four counts of burglary and destruction of property. Police say he went on a crime spree in Pasadena until he was stopped by a 74-year-old homeowner dressed in long johns. "He came in, I put the pistol up toward his head. I said, `Get down on the floor.' I said, `No, get down with your face on the floor,'" Tom Walker said. Walker said he left out the expletives he used when confronting the burglar in his home at 4 a.m. http://wjz.com/seenon/tom.walker.burglary.2.689796.html --- Army Seeks New Ammo Source for Afghanistan: Perhaps not surprisingly, U.S. Materiel Command is hunting around for new suppliers of ammunition for Afghanistan's military. Just as a reminder, the New York Times late last month revealed that the U.S. military had awarded a contract worth as much as $300 million to a company "led by a 22-year-old man whose vice president was a licensed masseur." The Times reported, that among other problems, the military lacked any standards for "nonstandard" ammunition (i.e. ammunition meant for Soviet-made weapons), so old, badly packaged equipment was showing up in Afghanistan... http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/04/army-seeks-new.html --- From AzCDL: The tremendous pressure YOU have been putting on the Senate is having an impact! We are expecting SB 1214, an AzCDL requested bill, to be debated in the Senate Committee of the Whole (COW), and hopefully voted on in Third Read, this Thursday, April 3, 2008. This is the last chance for SB 1214 to be heard in the Senate this session. AzCDL has been working with the sponsor, Senator Karen Johnson, behind the scenes to get the needed votes. An amendment has been crafted, and will be proposed during the COW session, to assuage the concerns of the hold-outs and fence sitters. SB 1214 would restore the right of adults with Concealed Weapons (CCW) permits to carry concealed firearms on public college and university property. The proposed amendment would require an additional skills test for CCW permit holders who choose to carry inside school buildings. It also allows colleges and universities to establish storage policies for weapons that are not in the possession of the permit holder. While AzCDL does not endorse these additional restrictions, without them Campus Carry has no chance in this legislature. And, like all other laws, nothing is cast in concrete. As we've proven in the past, restrictions can be eased when the predicted "blood in the streets" scenarios fail to materialize. It's very important that the Senate knows there is tremendous support for SB 1214. We want them to get thousands of supporting emails! Please take the time to send a polite note to your Senator, and let them know that you want them to vote for SB 1214 in the Senate COW and during Third Read. This is not the time for cut-and-paste emails. Personal letters work best. Please be sure to include your own name, address, and phone number in all correspondence. You can find your Senator here: http://www.azleg.gov/alisStaticPages/HowToContactMember.asp If you wish to contact every Senator, following the talking points are the email address lists of the entire Senate in semi-colon, comma separated and simple list formats. Use the format compatible with your email software. Below are some talking points you may want to use when communicating with your Senator. SB 1214 TALKING POINTS: · Voting against SB 1214 is an admission that murdered students are an acceptable trade-off to appease special interests. · Federal law (18 USC § 922(q)(2)(B)(ii)) already provides an exception, for concealed weapons (CCW) permit holders, on the restriction regarding the possession of firearms on school property. SB 1214 complies with Federal law by removing the current restrictions on public college and university property. In addition to satisfying State mandated firearms training requirements, which include a written and skills test, CCW permit holders must be 21 year old ADULTS, and undergo routine background checks by the Department of Public Safety (DPS) to verify that they are the most law-abiding of the citizenry. · The presence of armed, law-abiding citizens is a proven crime deterrent. Since the fall of 2006, state law in Utah has allowed licensed individuals to carry concealed handguns on the campuses of all public colleges. Also, concealed carry has been allowed for several years at both Colorado State University (Fort Collins, CO) and Blue Ridge Community College (Weyers Cave, VA). This has yet to result in a single act of violence at any of these schools. · Where law-abiding adults have access to firearms, violence ends quickly. On December 7, 2007, an armed CCW permit holder in Colorado stopped Matthew Murray during his church shooting spree. In 2002, at Virginia's Appalachian Law School, a shooting spree ended when two armed adult students confronted the attacker, and persuaded him to surrender. In 1997, the vice-principal of a high school in Pearl, Mississippi, armed himself and ended a shooting rampage without firing a shot. · Restrictive laws, not access to firearms, have led to a rise in school shootings. Prior to 1968, any child could buy a gun through the mail. Most schools had shooting clubs, and it was common for students to store their rifles in classrooms. Yet, school shootings were almost unheard of. Now, with irrational gun bans in place everywhere, anyone determined to do a lot of harm knows that they can literally get away with murder on school grounds, because no one will stop them until it's too late. On April 16, 2007, twenty-seven students and five faculty members at Virginia Tech lost their lives to a madman who possessed one distinct advantage over his victims - he wasn't concerned with following the "gun free zone" rules. Nineteen of his thirty-two victims were over twenty-one, the legal age for obtaining a concealed handgun permit in Virginia (and Arizona). · Concealed weapons would no more distract college students from learning than they currently distract moviegoers from enjoying movies or office workers from doing their jobs. In Arizona, the rate of concealed carry permits to the general population is about 1%. That means that one out of a hundred people has a permit to carry a concealed weapon. So, statistically speaking, a packed 300-seat movie theater contains three individuals legally carrying concealed weapons, and a shopping mall crowded with 1,000 shoppers contains ten individuals legally carrying concealed weapons. Students who aren't too afraid to attend movies or go shopping and who aren't distracted from learning by the knowledge that a classmate might be illegally carrying a firearm shouldn't be distracted from learning by the knowledge that a classmate might be legally carrying a firearm. · Opponents of SB 1214 will claim that law enforcement won't be able to tell the difference between armed defenders and armed assailants when they eventually arrive on the scene. This has not been an issue with concealed carry permit holders in other walks of life, for several reasons. First, real-world shootouts are typically localized and over very quickly. Police rarely encounter an ongoing shootout between assailants and armed citizens. Second, police are also trained to expect both armed bad guys and armed good guys, from off-duty/undercover police officers to armed citizens, in tactical scenarios. Finally, concealed weapon permit holders are trained to use their firearms for self-defense, respond properly to a police presence, and not run through buildings looking for bad guys. The biggest distinction between the armed assailants and the armed citizens is that the armed assailants would be running around shooting unarmed victims. · The courts have consistently ruled that the police do not have an obligation to protect individuals. In 1856 the Supreme Court held that law enforcement officers do not have a duty to protect a person. In 1982, (Bowers v. Devito) a federal court of appeals said: "There is no constitutional right to be protected by the state against being murdered by criminals and madmen." (686 F.2d 616, at 618) Below are the email addresses of the Senate in both semi-colon and comma separation formats, along with a simple list of email addresses for those who encounter email address formatting problems. Use the list that is compatible with your email software. Semi-colon format: paboud@azleg.gov; aaguirre@azleg.gov; callen@azleg.gov; marzberger@azleg.gov; tbee@azleg.gov; rblendu@azleg.gov; rburns@azleg.gov; mburtoncahill@azleg.gov; kcheuvront@azleg.gov; jflake@azleg.gov; jgarcia@azleg.gov; pgorman@azleg.gov; rgould@azleg.gov; cgray@azleg.gov; lgray@azleg.gov; ahale@azleg.gov; jharper@azleg.gov; jhuppenthal@azleg.gov; kjohnson@azleg.gov; llandrumtaylor@azleg.gov; bleff@azleg.gov; dmccunedavis@azleg.gov; rmiranda@azleg.gov; tohalleran@azleg.gov; cpesquiera@azleg.gov; rrios@azleg.gov; vsoltero@azleg.gov; jtibshraeny@azleg.gov; tverschoor@azleg.gov; jwaring@azleg.gov Comma format: paboud@azleg.gov, aaguirre@azleg.gov, callen@azleg.gov, marzberger@azleg.gov, tbee@azleg.gov, rblendu@azleg.gov, rburns@azleg.gov, mburtoncahill@azleg.gov, kcheuvront@azleg.gov, jflake@azleg.gov, jgarcia@azleg.gov, pgorman@azleg.gov, rgould@azleg.gov, cgray@azleg.gov, lgray@azleg.gov, ahale@azleg.gov, jharper@azleg.gov, jhuppenthal@azleg.gov, kjohnson@azleg.gov, llandrumtaylor@azleg.gov, bleff@azleg.gov, dmccunedavis@azleg.gov, rmiranda@azleg.gov, tohalleran@azleg.gov, cpesquiera@azleg.gov, rrios@azleg.gov, vsoltero@azleg.gov, jtibshraeny@azleg.gov, tverschoor@azleg.gov, jwaring@azleg.gov Stay tuned! As relevant legislation is introduced and progresses, we will keep you up to date via these Alerts: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AZCDL_Alerts/ These alerts are a project of the Arizona Citizens Defense League (AzCDL), an all volunteer, non-profit, non-partisan grassroots organization. Join today! AzCDL - Protecting Your Freedom http://www.azcdl.org/html/join_us_.html Copyright © 2008 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 .