Internet-Access Problems Continue: I continue to be plagued by spotty internet connectivity in the early morning hours, when I normally assemble my mailings. If you fail to receive a mailing, it's more likely due to "illness" of the fiber-optic cable to this area than to any illness of my own. --- Ohio House Passes Castle-Doctrine Bill: Buckeye Firearms Association applauds the Ohio House of Representatives' 73-23 vote to pass the amended SB184. SB184 passed the Ohio Senate in April with a 31-0 vote and has now passed the Ohio House in an amended form to include technical corrections and improve laws for law-abiding gun owners in Ohio...SB184 is now headed back to the Ohio Senate where final approval is expected before summer recess. Once the amended bill is approved in the Senate, it will then go to Governor Strickland for his signature. "I am proud to support this important legislation that protects gun owners throughout the state of Ohio," Strickland stated. "I look forward to signing these common sense protections into law." http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/node/5722 Related Commentary: http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/node/5723 --- Home Town Key to Obtaining Massachusetts Carry Permit: Gun owners are complaining that local police chiefs have too much leeway in considering applications for the state's concealed weapons license, creating a frustrating patchwork of gun regulations that vary from town to town. In a letter to the state attorney general's office, gun owners say that police chiefs throw up roadblocks that are unnecessary, and possibly illegal, for gun owners to obtain a Class A license that allows the holder to carry a concealed handgun or own rifles with a large capacity for ammunition...To get a Class A license, state law says an applicant must be 21, a US citizen, and never convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor with a sentence longer than two years. Applicants must also complete a firearms safety course. The license is good for six years. But the law also gives municipalities and local police chiefs broad discretion to force applicants to meet other requirements... http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/05/29/under_the_gun_1211993648/ --- Missouri Governor Candidate Buys Gun: Getting to Ammo Alley from Jefferson City is pretty easy - you get on Highway 63 North and then take a hard right. Republican gubernatorial candidate Sarah Steelman did just that this afternoon, visiting the rural Hartsburg gun shop with the two goals: to buy a rifle for her 13-year-old son and broadcast her commitment to the Second Amendment. Steelman, currently the state treasurer, breezed into the store shortly after 3 with her son, Michael, and a couple campaign aides in tow. She staked out a place in the middle of the store - near the scopes, in front of the Glocks, an aisle or two back from the coon urine scent and the big plastic turkey - and gave a short speech explaining her purpose... http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/12070 --- Is This a Hint of McCain's Running Mate?: ...Governor Bobby Jindal understands what happened in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. He knows the righteous anger of a man who sees the bureaucracy fail us in a time of emergency. He knows it because he feels it. He's lived it. The NRA has been working to return the guns to the law-abiding gun owners who were disarmed, and soon we will have our day in court. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and his police commissioner Warren Riley will have to face their accusers, the very people they left helpless. And the NRA will win this fight, like we've won so many others... (Don't forget that the Second Amendment Foundation is also involved in the lawsuit.) http://www.nranews.com/blogarticle.aspx?blogPostId=403 --- Oops, Wrong House: Police said a 14-year-old boy who was stabbed by an intruder in his south Fort Worth home shot and killed the assailant on Wednesday. Investigators said the 14-year-old told police an older boy armed with a knife broke into his house on Buffalo Springs Drive, east of Interstate 35, at about 5:30 p.m. According to police, the two teenagers struggled before the 14-year-old grabbed his father's gun and shot the other boy. (The federal law that limits juvenile possession of firearms has an explicit exemption for self-defense within the home.) http://www.nbc5i.com/news/16420745/detail.html --- Washington Woman Cited for Carrying Shotgun: Longview police found a woman standing in front of a U.S. Bank branch. Police say they held 27-year-old Lauren K. Smith at gunpoint until she agreed to drop the weapon. Smith told police that she had been on her way to pawn the shotgun at a pawn shop shortly before 5 p.m. on Friday when her car broke down. She says she then began walking up the street with the weapon. Smith was cited for disorderly conduct, which carries a $250 fine, and released. The shotgun was handed over to one of Smith's relatives. (I have to wonder if the police would have taken the same action of the shotgun had been in a case.) http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_wa_shotgun_woman.html --- Canadian Gun Owners Respond to Toronto Mayor: In an unprecedented move, Canadian firearms owners have fired the next salvo in Toronto Mayor David Miller's vicious war of extermination against Canada's trustworthy firearms owners. On May 26th, Mayor Miller announced he would push forward a resolution to ban sport shooting clubs and businesses from the City of Toronto. Canadian Institute for Legislative Action (CILA) Executive Director Tony Bernardo stated, "If war is what David Miller wants, war is what he'll get. But he needs to remember, there is one of him and two million of us". He added, "Mayor Miller has been slandering us for years, calling us "so-called law abiding gun owners" and accusing sport shooters of "fuelling Toronto's drug and gang problems". "Miller is lying to the people of Toronto because he lacks the courage to deal with Toronto's real crime problems" http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/3271 -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .