My Error: I recently commented on why ejected cases, instead fired bullets, are used to try to identify firearms that have hammer-forged barrels. I listed the Springfield Armory XD with other pistols that have polygonal rifling. Yesterday I had my first student with an XD and discovered that while its barrel is hammer-forged, it appears to be forged with land-and-groove rifling. Thus, it would be possible to distinguish a .40-caliber bullet fired from an XD from one fired from a Glock or an HK (Glock uses hexagonal rifling, HK uses octagonal rifling) but in neither case would there be toolmarks transferred to the bullet that would allow it to be linked to a specific barrel. --- Obama and the Attempt on the Second Amendment: ...During Obama's tenure, the Joyce Foundation board planned and implemented a program targeting the Supreme Court. The work began five years into Obama's directorship, when the Foundation had experience in turning its millions into anti-gun "grassroots" organizations, but none at converting cash into legal scholarship. The plan's objective was bold: the judicial obliteration of the Second Amendment... http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/obama-and-the-attempt-to-destroy-the-second-amendment/ --- Tangentially Related: Critics of Senator Barack Obama make a strategic mistake when they talk about his "past associations." That just gives his many defenders in the media an opportunity to counter-attack against "guilt by association." We all have associations, whether at the office, in our neighborhood or in various recreational activities. Most of us neither know nor care what our associates believe or say about politics. Associations are very different from alliances. Allies are not just people who happen to be where you are or who happen to be doing the same things you do. You choose allies deliberately for a reason. The kind of allies you choose says something about you... http://townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2008/10/07/the_real_obama?page=full --- Obama Ad Features NRA Member: Ben Smith points us to a new spot from the Obama campaign, "Life," that was not sent out to the press. It features a lifetime National Rifle Association member who supports the Democratic nominee. The spot has been seen in Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. "I'm a life member of the NRA," Greg West says in the spot. "I hunt, I fish, I love the outdoors. I love this country, and I support Barack Obama." An announcer then seeks to reassure skeptics. "Barack Obama supports gun rights," he says. "Our right to defend ourselves. The second amendment. That's the truth..." http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/10/06/politics/horserace/entry4504207.shtml The TV Spot: http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1008/Obama_Life_Member.html --- Hunting and Obama: You know, I'd love to believe that Obama is cool with guns and hunting, but when the nation's largest and most radical group that wants to ban hunting thinks he's peachy, it makes this middle-aged redneck think that maybe Barack is full of B'crap and his "pro gun/hunting" spiel is just another con job spun by the King of Obfuscation. But that's just me. This past week Obama added to his rogue gallery of support groups another radical band of anti-American spirit lunatics. No, I'm not talking about an additional endorsement by a new terrorist group or Black Muslim faction, or pro-abortion loon, or another communist cabal, or an extra Castro/Chavez-like dictator but rather the Humane Society (HSUS)... http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2008/10/06/hunters_against_obama?page=full --- But AHSA Prattles On...: ... "The ratings and endorsements NRA released over the weekend confirm what American Hunters and Shooters first reported a month ago: the NRA leadership overwhelmingly supports Members of Congress who put the interests of Washington corporate lobbyists ahead of the interests that hunters and sportsman have in protecting America's public lands," said AHSA President Ray Schoenke. "It's time for gun owners, hunters, and all Americans to repudiate the NRA's slash and burn culture war politics and join the movement to protect our gun rights and the lands we love - and do it in a way that unites Americans instead of dividing them...." http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/nra-leadership-still-selling-hunters/story.aspx?guid={862859F8-0DEF-435A-B468-36EB997CCC52}&dist=hppr --- Meanwhile, in Oklahoma...: ... In just two short years, Andrew Rice has experienced a remarkable change of heart when it comes to the Second Amendment. He's gone from "a proven enemy of gun owners' rights" as described by the Oklahoma Rifle Association and indifferent, if not outright hostile toward gun owners' and sportsmen's rights as described by the National Rifle Association, to a gun-toting supporter of the Second Amendment. Now, in his campaign for the United States Senate, it seems Rice has completely reversed his position in the hopes that nobody would notice! http://www.okcbusiness.com/view_release.asp?aID=2572 --- Pennsylvanians Debate RKBA as Election Nears: ... Some of those in Pennsylvania on various sides of how heavily to regulate gun ownership and use don't disagree on Americans' constitutional right to own and use them. Both presidential candidates' campaigns formed, among other focus groups, committees of sportsmen in Pennsylvania. The groups aim to take the candidates' message to hunters and anglers. Both also say they want to protect Americans' Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms... http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/511847.html --- Georgia Continues to Debate Public-Gathering Law: President Ronald Reagan explained in 1964 that "governments don't control things ... without controlling people ... [by using] force and coercion." The debate about whether to repeal Georgia's public gathering law is not about whether to allow something. It is about whether to control Georgians who want to take personal responsibility for their safety. Georgia discourages personal responsibility and self-reliance by outlawing possession of a weapon at a public gathering, even with a firearms license. It is impossible to know what constitutes a public gathering under Georgia's uniquely ambiguous law... http://www.ajc.com/search/content/opinion/stories/2008/10/02/stoneed_1002.html --- GCO Sues Over Open-Carry Incident: GCO filed a federal lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia against the Sheriff of Richmond County and a Richmond County deputy who detained a GCO member and seized his legally-carried pistol. After checking it to see whether it was stolen, the deputy confiscated the firearm until "proof of purchase" could be provided, and the Sheriff's Department then refused to return it. The deputy insisted that it is against the law to carry a pistol openly. This sort of police misconduct is fortunately rare, but it is becoming more common as more Georgians begin carrying firearms. (Following firearm-related news as I do, I can't help noticing that these incidents appear to be more commonly associated with open carry than with legal concealed carry. It can be argued that many cops may be more comfortable knowing that an individual has gone through a background check to get licensed for CCW [some jurisdictions do require licensure for open carry] and that the right to bear arms should not be infringed with license requirements. That said, those who opt for open carry, in jurisdictions where it is not common, need to be prepared to become a poster child when they are harassed or arrested for it.) http://www.georgiacarry.org/cms/2008/10/04/gco-sues-over-man-with-a-gun-incident/ --- How Many Children Die from Gunfire?: ... However, Georgia's child death rate of 73.2 (deaths per 100,000 children) continues to be higher compared to children living in other regions of the country... 69% of all child deaths were due to medical causes (infants accounted for 78% of all medical deaths). Motor vehicle incidents were the second leading cause of death (154)... (Firearms accounted for 0.2% of deaths.) http://www.childdeathreview.org/Reports/GAExecSummary2005.pdf --- FBI Warns of Suicide Attacks in US: Federal officials notified law enforcement agencies Monday of a potential al-Qaida terrorist attack in which public buildings are targeted by suicide bombers. According to NBC News, the analysis by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security describes a scenario where a dozen attackers each carrying 20 kilograms of explosives storm a building, "seal off escape and access points, and occupy it long enough to set and detonate their explosive packages." In the al-Qaida plan, according to the analysis, suicide terrorists "would be able to enter many publicly accessible buildings easily with little or no resistance from often poorly trained and lightly armed or unarmed security guards, and that an explosion from inside the building would be particularly effective..." http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/suicide_attack_al_qaida/2008/10/07/137937.html --- Why More "Gun Control" Is Good: A must-see video. http://michaelbane.blogspot.com/2008/08/more-gun-control-is-good.html --- RKBA, Switzerland vs. Canada: In this week's column, Pierre Lemieux compares Switzerland and Canada. Lemieux was recently invited to Switzerland to give a talk on "the right to keep and bear arms." After his talk, his hosts gifted him with a Schmidt Rubin M-1931 7.5 mm carbine, the rifle the Swiss army used during World War II. In his column, Lemieux describes Switzerland's revolutionary tradition and suggests this is why the right to bear arms is taken more seriously in that country than it is in Canada. Canada, he argues, "totally lacks a military culture." In addition, "Canadians... have been too nice, smiling, and trustful of authority." According to Lemieux, these two factors together explain why Canadians have allowed their government to take away more and more of their liberties... (The Swiss are actually also facing erosion of their RKBA.) http://westernstandard.blogs.com/shotgun/2008/10/lemieux-of-swit.html --- Tangentially Related: Last month a Georgia woman named DeShan Fishel was driving near a school and saw a Jeep rush past a stop signal on a school bus, clipping a 5-year-old boy. The other driver sped away. Ms. Fishel whipped a U-turn and gave chase. She stayed with the Jeep on surface streets and caught the driver on a highway in Dawson County, Ga., making him pull over. She watched the driver until police officers arrived. "All I could think about was that little kid, getting hit, and this person getting away with it," Ms. Fishel said at a news conference. "It just really upset me." ... Scientists debate how common these citizen enforcers are, and whether an urge to punish infractions amounts to an overall gain or loss, given that it is costly for both parties. But recent research suggests that in individuals, the fairness instinct is a highly variable psychological impulse, rising and falling in response to what is happening in the world. And there is strong evidence that it hardens in times of crisis and uncertainty, like the current one... http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/health/research/07fair.html?ref=science&pagewanted=all -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .