Obama Not Right for Montana: When Sen. Obama spoke with reporters in Montana earlier this month, he falsely claimed himself a defender of the Second Amendment. I say falsely, because his record clearly demonstrates his opposition to gun rights on multiple occasions and that he harbors views contrary to the Montana Constitution as well as the United States Constitution. Montana's gun laws, and especially our concealed carry laws, are some of the most pro-Second Amendment laws in the nation. Yet just this month Sen. Obama said: "I am not in favor of concealed weapons ... I think that creates a potential atmosphere where more innocent people could [get shot during] altercations." His mindset on guns is pretty clear - arm the criminals and prevent law abiding citizens from defending themselves... http://www.helenair.com/articles/2008/04/17/opinions/iverson_080417.txt Obama's Prohibitionist Past Recalled: Some Illinois gun control advocates recall Senator Obama as a "friend" who represented a "solid vote" in favor of increased restrictions on firearm sales, but they said he was never forced to vote on an all-out ban on handguns as a member of the state Senate. Mr. Obama's position on guns is drawing renewed scrutiny following Wednesday night's Democratic debate, when the Illinois senator said he never favored a handgun ban, even though a 1996 questionnaire in his name indicated he did... http://www2.nysun.com/article/74947 --- Judge Blocks Philadelphia's Infringements: A judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the city from enforcing five gun-control ordinances pending a challenge from the National Rifle Association. The NRA argues that state law prevents Pennsylvania municipalities from regulating guns, a view that even the city's crime-weary district attorney shares. "The city has no basis to pass any of these gun-control ordinances and they know it," lawyer C. Scott Shields argued on the NRA's behalf. City lawyers contend that Philadelphia can pass gun-control ordinances if the laws are outside the scope of state measures. As an example, lawyer Mark Zecca told the judge that one Pennsylvania county had banned guns at its courthouse. http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Apr17/0,4670,PhiladelphiaGunLaws,00.html http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20080417_Judge_blocks_citys_new_gun_laws.html --- Virginians Stick to Their Guns: ...Take a tour of Virginia a year after the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. You'll find little has changed. The state remains draped in memorial ribbons, bumper stickers and Tech flags, and the debate over firearms rages on. Was the easy availability of guns to blame for what happened on that campus? Should the students have been allowed to carry firearms so they could have protected themselves? Did gun laws have anything to do with it at all? http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20080418/METRO/567246176/1004 --- Kerry Challenger Supports Campus Carry: A U.S. Senate candidate supported some Framingham State College students who said yesterday, on the anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings, that they want the ability to protect themselves. Jeff Beatty, a Republican from Harwich who is vying for the Senate seat held by John Kerry, appeared at a forum yesterday hosted by students at the campus. Members of the college's conservative group have said students should have the option to carry a weapon on campus for protection. The school also is considering whether to issue guns to its police force. Beatty signed a petition circulated around the campus by school's conservative students group that calls for legislation to allow students to carry "lawful defense tools" while on campus. The group said 225 people have signed the petition. http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/x2103872126 --- Michigan Handgun Bills Clear Committee: Michigan House Bills 4490 and 4491 passed out of the Tourism and Outdoor Recreation Committee by a vote of 8 - 1. The Bills were sent to the full House April 16th. These bills would (1) eliminate the current requirement in the Michigan handgun licensure law that pistol owners obtain safety inspection certificates; (2) require that all existing records of inspection certificates maintained by local and state law enforcement officials be destroyed; and (3) eliminate the misdemeanor crime of failing to have one's pistol inspected. http://www.mcrgo.org/mcrgo/view/news.asp?articleid=3160&zoneid=6 --- Less Guns, Less Crime?: ...Back in the 1920s and 1930s, the forward-thinking German "Weimar" republic effectively banned firearms possession by just about anyone but the military, the government police, and the ruling "Junker" class, members of whom were allowed to keep their fancy hunting rifles. The ban was particularly effective among the ethnic minorities, such as the Jews. Was this effective in keeping the Jews from killing each other with handguns? Yes! Later, when millions of Jews were rounded up and sent to concentration camps including Auschwitz and Buchenwald to be exterminated - despite the fact that on some mornings the other prisoners were each given water and a piece of bread, while the Jewish prisoners were not allowed to either eat or drink - did the Jews kill anyone with a handgun in order to get some food or water to keep themselves or their loved ones from starving. No! They couldn't, because they had no handguns! You see how well that works? http://www.lewrockwell.com/suprynowicz/suprynowicz79.html --- View from the Left: ...But what the founders really had in mind, according to some constitutional law scholars, was a musket in the hands of a slave owner: these scholars believe the founders enshrined the right to bear arms in the Constitution in part to enforce tyranny, not fight it..."That the Second Amendment was the last bulwark against the tyranny of the federal government is false," he said. Instead, the "well-regulated militias" cited in the Constitution almost certainly referred to state militias that were used to suppress slave insurrections. Payton explained that the Founders added the Second Amendment in part to reassure southern states, such as Virginia, that the federal government wouldn't use its new power to disarm state militias as a backdoor way of abolishing slavery... http://www.readthehook.com/stories/2008/04/17/ESSAY-2ndAmendment-A.aspx --- Pilot Will Be Fired for Negligent Discharge: An US Airways pilot who aviation officials say accidentally fired his handgun in the cockpit during a flight will be fired, a spokesman for a flight officers group said. The airline has begun the termination process for Capt. James Langenhahn, said Mike Karn, vice president of the Federal Flight Deck Officers Association. Langenhahn told police that he was stowing his gun in the cockpit of a jet preparing to land in Charlotte, North Carolina, last month when it accidentally fired. The federal Transportation Security Administration is investigating the incident. (This incident appears to have occurred because of highly restrictive TSA rules that require pilots to lock their pistols into their holsters before exiting the cockpit. The firing appears to be a message from the airline that they would rather not have armed pilots.) http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/17/pilot.gun/index.html --- Oops, Wrong House: A homeowner who chased off two burglars and shot at one of them might have provided the clue that led Wright County deputies to the suspects. The homeowner awoke about 5:50 a.m. Tuesday to find two thieves in his Victor Township house. He grabbed his gun and fired as he chased one of them down the stairs and into the yard. The suspect got in a Chevy Tahoe that had been reported stolen and took off, the sheriff said...That night, deputies investigating a call about a car prowler in Cokato found and arrested a 20-year-old man from Blaine on outstanding warrants. He provided information tied to the home invasion, the sheriff said... http://www.startribune.com/local/17854149.html --- Head Shots Don't Always Work: Doctors say it's amazing that a 41-year-old Tampa-area woman survived after someone shot her right between the eyes while she was riding in her boyfriend's pickup truck. Doctors think she was hit with a .44-caliber bullet that broke in two pieces, each traveling under her skin and exiting behind her ears last weekend. She was released from the hospital hours later with just stitches. The woman says two cars started following their truck Saturday night and the occupants began yelling at them. At a traffic light, someone in one of the cars stood up in the sunroof and started shooting back at the truck. Part of the bullet that hit the woman exited her head, went through the back window of the truck and hit a Jeep driving behind it. (It's not clear if the bullet might have gone though the windshield before striking the woman.) http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351472,00.html -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .