Want to Join Big Brother's Administration?: Want a top job in the Obama administration? Only pack rats need apply, preferably those not packing controversy. A seven-page questionnaire being sent by the office of President-elect Barack Obama to those seeking cabinet and other high-ranking posts may be the most extensive - some say invasive - application ever. The questionnaire includes 63 requests for personal and professional records, some covering applicants' spouses and grown children as well, that are forcing job-seekers to rummage from basements to attics, in shoe boxes, diaries and computer archives to document both their achievements and missteps... http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/us/politics/13apply.html?_r=1&oref=slogin http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/11/if-you-have-eve.html ... (59) Do you or any members of your immediate family own a gun? If so, provide complete ownership and registration information. Has registration ever lapsed? Please describe how and by whom it is used and whether it has ever been the cause of any personal injury or property damage... (Does this mean that those of us who live in states that don't register firearms are ineligible to apply? Or does this only affect those people who own animate firearms that can cause personal injury or property damage, without being handled or mishandled by a person? I wonder how many of us would have longer lists of firearms, including "ownership information," than our professional résumés.) http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/national/13apply_questionnaire.pdf ..."Question 59 provides clear insight into how Obama and his people perceive firearm owners," said ISRA Executive Director Richard Pearson. "The questionnaire poses a number of questions asking the applicant to reveal any unethical activities, or embarrassing Internet chats, then wraps up by asking if anyone in the applicant's family owns a firearm. Obviously, Obama feels that owning a firearm is akin to talking dirty in Internet chat rooms." ... http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=39345 "Change" Has Already Come to Gun Stores: Gun owners aren't waiting to see what change President-elect Barack Obama will bring to Washington, D.C., when he becomes the nation's 44th president on Jan. 20. Fearful that an Obama administration and a Democrat-controlled Congress will mean tighter firearms restrictions, gun buyers are stocking up on handguns, rifles, ammunition and accessories... Dan Giles, a retired Clark County gunsmith who stays in touch with gun sellers, said he talked to one who reported selling 28 M-16s last Saturday alone. Gun owners have reason to fear increased regulation under an Obama administration, Giles said... (M16's are already about as tightly regulated as they can be, as machine gun, under the National Firearms Act. It's a pity that "gunsmiths" can't distinguish between M16's and AR-15's, especially when they speak to the press.) http://www.columbian.com/article/20081114/NEWS02/711149955 --- Getting It Partly Right: ...What Tucson-area gun dealers are experiencing is in line with nationwide reports of people rushing to buy assault rifles and ammunition before Obama takes office. Gun shops in Tucson and all over the country are running low on such rifles - often defined as semiautomatic rifles with large-capacity magazines designed for military use - and ammunition, as panicked gun owners rush to buy... Doug Mackinlay - owner of Diamondback Police Supply Co. Inc. - said that just a few days before the election, he began seeing an increase in the sale of AR-15-style rifles... (While the original select-fire AR-15 went on to become the military M16, Once Colt took over the product, the AR-15 has been a semi-automatic rifle, specifically designed for civilian use, including civilian law enforcement.) http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/267169 --- Gun-Sale Surge Reviewed: Thinking Americans know that we are seeing a repeat of the time when Bill Clinton took office as president of the United States. People were worried that the incoming administration might make mischief regarding firearms laws... But some sociology prof out in Texas, sitting high atop an ivory tower and apparently terrified of the wide ownership of firearms in that most self reliant of states, has cooked up some ridiculous story that the uptick in firearms sales across the U.S. is due to - get this - a coming race war... Of course, he also didn't factor in the appointment of John Podesta as Obama's transition chief. Remember that name? He led the gun control initiatives in the White House when he worked for Bill Clinton... http://thereadyline.blogspot.com/2008/11/red-herrings.html --- Illinois Group Fans the Flames: The ISRA is recommending that all law-abiding Americans celebrate their 2nd Amendment rights by purchasing a firearm or two this weekend. This recommendation comes as firearm dealers across the nation are reporting record jumps in sales of rifles, pistols and shotguns. Likewise, the FBI reports that requests for gun-buyer background checks are coming in at a frenzied pace. This plus-up in gun purchases is being attributed to President-elect Obama's demonstrated hostility toward firearm owners and well-founded fears that his administration will implement Chicago-style gun controls across the United States... http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/This-a-Great-Weekend-Buy/story.aspx?guid={E955C91E-8EAA-4CEA-BC4B-1929C8ABB8C0} --- Non Sequitur: During my nine terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, I had a 100 percent voting record with the National Rifle Association. Not once did I vote for gun control; not for the Brady Bill, nor ammunition registration, not for the assault weapons ban, nor any of the other futile attempts to fight crime by simply putting people's name on a list... In this there is good news and bad news for gun owners. First the good news: The federal government, your elected officials, never have and are not now conspiring to take our guns. No such legislation has ever been introduced in the U.S. Congress... (If it hasn't been introduced yet, that surely guarantees that it won't be introduced under Big Brother? Realistically, I don't expect to see confiscation legislation in the near future - what I fear is the incremental bans on particular types of firearms, prohibitive taxation on ammunition and components, increasing registration and licensing schemes and the potential of confiscation by federal troops or agents, without enabling legislation.) http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20081113/OPINION/811130307 --- And Here's How It Happens...: I believe Obama put it best when he said, "I think there is an individual right to bear arms, but it's subject to common sense regulation." I would have to agree. I support civilians having the right to possess handguns, whether it is for safety reasons or recreational reasons. However, I am still unsure why private citizens need access to an AR-15 or AK-47 to protect themselves or their homes... (This student apparently has not lived where I have, where the scenario of gangs roaming neighborhoods in search of food, water and other loot was not too distant, whether following earthquakes, fires, mudslides or during riots.) http://unlvrebelyell.com/2008/11/13/gun-control-doesn%E2%80%99t-entail-prohibition/ --- Another Non Sequitur: ...Wouldn't it be funny if the run on guns was "manufactured" by gun manufacturers and gun dealers, trying to drum up sales in a slumping consumer economy? Not to frighten you or anything, but Frank Krasner,--Silverado Gun Show organizer, says he called all the major gun makers on the entire east seaboard, and not one of them has a single assault rifle in stock "because people have snatched them up in the past week." What a horrible thought... (Let's see - if it were a plot by the manufacturers to sell more guns, wouldn't they have cranked up production to take advantage of the demand they had inflated artificially? Yes, many husbands have likely convinced their wives to alter budget priorities to buy guns and ammo now, quite likely because the wives also realize that any new bans will no longer contain a ten-year sunset clause, as did the one from the Clinton administration.) http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/opinion/display_columnist.htm?StoryID=82652 --- Speaking of Which...: ...Gun owners survived the Clinton administration and they will survive the Obama administration. Earlier this year the U.S. Supreme Court for the first time defined gun ownership as an individual right, not a collective one, a ruling that would be binding on any president. Regardless of what might be proposed in the way of new gun laws, the basic right will remain inviolate... (And a great many gun owners had to wait until 2004, to purchase firearms or magazines that they had been banned from purchasing for the preceding ten years. While the Heller decision affirmed that the Second Amendment guarantees and individual right to keep arms, it left plenty of room for infringements of the right to bear arms and the choice of arms to be kept or borne.) http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081113/OPINION02/811130313 --- Shooting Revives Campus-Carry Debate: After last weekend's off-campus shooting, students are reacting to the presence of guns in the college community. While some people believe guns are a threat, others support their protective role. Senior Danny Dales is the campus leader for the unofficial chapter of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. The SCCC advocates legal adults over the age of 21 with permits to carry concealed handguns on campuses for personal protection from all types of violent crime. With 70 students interested in the group, he hopes it will be a recognized organization in the spring... http://breezejmu.org/2008/11/13/shooting-revives-concealed-carry-controversy/ --- Meanwhile, Over at Virginia Tech...: An exploding cartridge from a nail gun was the source of gunshot-like sounds that prompted a lockdown of a residence hall on Virginia Tech's campus Thursday, authorities said. Police secured Pritchard Hall around 1 p.m. after two people reported hearing something that sounded like gunfire. Officials searched every room in the 1,000-student dormitory, and reopened it two hours later after finding no evidence of gunshots. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/13/nail-gun-sound-alarms-va-tech-students/ --- When Seconds Count...: ...Seung Hui Cho shot 47 people, 30 fatally, in the university's Norris Hall in just 11 minutes. That means every minute he killed more than three people and shot a total of four. Once again, the gunman continued shooting until a four-officer team made entry and then he killed himself... Every minute the officer waits for back-up, another three or more people could die... Tactical Defense Institute in Adams County, Ohio developed one of the first "single officer response" programs in the nation. TDI was teaching the tactic even before Virginia Tech. Now the National School Resource Officer Organization (NSRO) is using TDI instructors to teach school resource officers how to confront a gunman immediately... As soon as they're confronted by any armed resistance, the shooters typically turn the gun on themselves. http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=d26c29ff-f134-4202-bc40-947534a6de3c --- Only in New York City?: They called themselves a "band of brothers," and they all wore their paratrooper badges as they stood in front of the judge: Specialist Osvaldo Hernandez, recently returned from a 15-month tour in Afghanistan; his lawyer, James D. Harmon Jr., a former prosecutor who served in Vietnam; and their expert witness, Randy Jergensen, a retired New York police detective who parachuted into battle in Korea. They appeared in court on Thursday to argue that Mr. Hernandez, who served a year on Rikers Island for illegal gun possession, a felony, before joining the Army, had turned his life around so impressively that he deserved the judge's help to realize his dream: joining the New York police force... (Let's see, if it weren't illegal to own a firearm without a permit, which is extremely difficult to obtain...) http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/nyregion/14soldier.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin --- Bringing a Chair to a Gunfight: A man who charged at a police officer with a wooden folding chair in a church parking lot in Coney Island was shot to death on Thursday afternoon by the officer, the authorities said... When the officers went to investigate, the man came after one of the officers with the folding chair, the police said. He was ordered in Spanish and English to stop and drop the chair, the police said. He kept moving toward Officer Ortiz and was poised to strike her with the chair when she shot him, the police said. "He continues to disregard her, and he advances to within a foot of her," said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department's chief spokesman. "He disregards her directives, and she fires once and hits him in the chest." The man was taken to Coney Island Hospital, where he was pronounced dead... (Letting someone who is threatening with a contact weapon get within one foot of you is extremely foolish, particularly when the weapon itself is longer than a foot.) http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/nyregion/14coney.html?ref=nyregion --- Poor Man's Arsenal Revisited: Sometime back I posted an article on Survivalist Blog detailing a bare bones set of survival weapons that would allow the survivor to hunt small, medium and large game for the pot, as well as defend the retreat, all for under $350, not an easy task at today's prices. Almost as soon as I hit the publish button, my email inbox became flooded by readers suggesting other more expensive firearms or those wanting to ad more weapons to my basic three gun list with some readers becoming downright rude and offensive because I had failed to include their preferred artillery... (The only problem with the Lee-Enfield rifles is that the .303 ammunition is no longer widely available and its tapered case does not lend itself to reloading as many times as many other rifles cartridges.) http://thesurvivalistblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/poor-mans-arsenal-revisited.html --- The Ongoing Campaign Against Lead Bullets: Preliminary results of a study by a University of Montana graduate student suggest that lead bullets may be poisoning grizzly bears in the Yellowstone ecosystem. Tom Rogers sampled blood from 13 grizzlies during hunting season and found nearly half had elevated levels of lead, possibly because the bears had eaten lead bullet fragments in big-game carcasses left behind by hunters... In all, Rogers checked blood samples of 24 grizzly bears for lead contamination. The 11 bears sampled outside of hunting season did not have elevated lead levels... (Absorption of metallic lead is a function of the surface area available for dissolution. A lead bullet will pass through the digestive system with less lead absorbed than from repeated exposure to minute particles, such as those generated as mists when cartridges with lead-based primers and lead bullets are fired. This is why it is crucial to wash hands and face after shooting.) http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/11/12/news/wyoming/20-grizzlybears.txt --- Finns Sign Petition for Incremental Gun Ban: A petition signed by more than 57,000 people demanding a ban on handguns was presented yesterday to the Finnish government, just weeks after the second school massacre in a year sent shockwaves through the Nordic country. The petition, calling for a total ban on private ownership of guns with barrels shorter than 600mm (23.6 inches), was handed over to Interior Minister Anne Holmlund... (Note the site - Qatar's Gulf Times.) http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=253839&version=1&template_id=39&parent_id=21 -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .