National-Park Carry: The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), through the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has announced the final amended version of its changes to rules on carrying of firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges. DOI's move will restore the rights of law-abiding gun owners who wish to transport and carry firearms for lawful purposes on most DOI lands, and will make federal law consistent with the state law in which these public lands are located. NRA led the effort to amend the existing policy regarding the carrying and transportation of firearms on these federal lands... (Note that this applies only to concealed carry that would be lawful in a state park in the affected state. This it would not apply in a state that does not recognize a carry permit or does not permit carry in its own state parks.) http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Federal/Read.aspx?id=4251 http://www.ccrkba.org/pub/rkba/press-releases/ccw.parks.htm http://www.doi.gov/issues/Final%20Rule.pdf A Caveat from Montana: ...The way this rule is written may have a curious effect here in Montana. The rule does not authorize open carry in National Parks, but does authorize concealed carry, consistent with state laws. Since a permit is not required for anyone to carry concealed outside the limits of a city or town in Montana, and since National Parks in Montana are outside city limits, then anyone in Montana may carry concealed in a National Park. Here's the wrinkle. Since National Parks now allow concealed carry but not open carry, your handgun (yes, this is for handguns only) must be "wholly or partially covered by clothing or wearing apparel" to be "concealed" according to Montana law. That is socially and tactically sound. But, carrying under the seat of a car is not considered "concealed" in Montana, nor is in a backpack. Those are forms of open carry here. My first take on this is that if you have a handgun with you in a National Park in Montana, it must be strapped on your person and covered by clothing, to be legal in the Park. If you get hot on a trail hike in a Park on a warm day, either don't take your jacket off, or also untuck your shirt and let it hang over your pistol. Before you drive into a National Park in Montana, you'll probably need to stop, take your pistol out of the glove box of your car, strap it on, and make sure your jacket or shirt covers it. Notwithstanding this curious wrinkle, the new rule is a HUGE step in the right direction... North Dakotans Will Not Benefit: ...On Friday, an Interior Department executive order was passed which allows people to carry concealed weapons in some national parks and wildlife refuges. North Dakota does not qualify because it does not allow guns in its state parks... http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/articles/index.cfm?id=18383§ion=Opinion Rule to Take Effect January 1: ...All other regulations regarding the possession and use of firearms on federal property will remain unchanged. According to the DOI, the action, which overturned a regulation first enacted in 1981, was taken in response to letters from 51 U.S. Senators, "both Democrats and Republicans," requesting that existing regulations be updated. The new rule will become effective on January 1, 2009... http://usgovinfo.about.com/b/2008/12/07/concealed-guns-to-be-allowed-in-national-parks.htm --- Big Brother Says Don't Buy More Guns: President-elect Barack Obama said Sunday that lawful gun owners have "nothing to fear" from his incoming administration so there is no reason for Americans to stock up on guns. Gun shops across the country have reported increased sales amid fears that Obama intends to restrict gun sales after taking office on January 20. While Obama supports gun control, he has repeatedly denied any intention of "taking away folks' guns." The right to bear arms is guaranteed in the second amendment of the US constitution and gun control is a hot-button political issue. "I believe in common sense gun safety law, and I believe in the second amendment," Obama said at a press conference Sunday. "And so, lawful gun owners have nothing to fear. "I've said that throughout the campaign. I haven't indicated anything different during the transition, and I think that people can take me at my word." http://www.newsmax.com/politics/obama_guns/2008/12/08/159380.html --- Meanwhile, In Illinois...: To meet his sales goal last month, Springfield gun shop owner Steve Swartz aimed for $1,400 a day. He reached $2,800 a day. Granted, November is deer season and hunters didn't get the fever too early this year because the fall was so warm, Swartz said. But he says that without question, many people are putting cash on the Capitol City Arms Supply counter because Barack Obama was elected president... http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/illinoisnews/story/3CC8C4ED1CA202A4862575170018A37F?OpenDocument --- And in Indiana...: Scott Herd didn't especially like the prospects of Democrats controlling the White House and Congress. So, the 37-year-old Noblesville resident did something about it. He bought a gun. Why? Because he fears President-elect Barack Obama and Congress will go after his Second Amendment right to bear arms. He's not alone. Across Indiana and from coast to coast, people are snapping up guns and ammo. "You just never know what's going to happen after an election," said Herd, who bought a .357-caliber handgun. "You got a Democrat-controlled House, Democrat president. You just never know." ... http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008812070407 --- And in Minnesota...: The gun show at the Stillwater Armory on Thanksgiving weekend featured an unlikely salesman. A flier taped to the door featured a stern-looking picture of the president-elect, with the words: ''Barack Obama: Enemy of your gun rights." While the gun show had plenty of competition from retailers starting their Christmas sales, business was brisk as people streamed in and bought up shotguns, hunting knives and at least a few semiautomatic rifles - the gun most gun-rights advocates think an Obama presidency might ban... http://www.startribune.com/local/35690579.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUF --- Americans Have the Right of Self-Defense: I am not a gun collector or firearms fancier, and I've never felt a need to carry a concealed weapon. Guns, to use a trite phrase, don't float my boat. With that said, I am a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment. Part of this is pure pragmatism. I cherish the Bill of Rights, the bedrock of individual freedoms. I know people who would gut the Second Amendment even though they claim to embrace the other nine amendments. What folly. It's rather like saying that except for a couple of murders, you live by the Ten Commandments... Like it or not, it is difficult to imagine a similar scene in communities where law-abiding citizens can obtain permits to carry concealed weapons. In Michigan, someone would have shot back... http://www.thetimesherald.com/article/20081207/OPINION02/812070311 --- Colorado Heroine May Become Cop Again: After a year of accolades that followed her shooting of a gunman who killed two teenage sisters at her church, security guard Jeanne Assam remains "low key" and says she thinks of the family of gunman Matthew Murray. "He didn't start off to be mixed up and confused. He started off to be a good person but he went down a wrong path," Assam said during a news conference after a church service Sunday. A former police officer, Assam said that now she is hoping to join the Colorado Springs police department... (While Assam is referred to as a security officer at the time of the shooting, she performed that role as a church volunteer.) http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hU4ax39rFCnqHnipVp5TCGP6TKqgD94UEQMG0 --- More Heller Commentary: ...Experts began parsing District of Columbia v. Heller within hours of the Court's pronouncement. Over the ensuing weeks, sophisticated commentary blossomed in a rich profusion of blogs, wikis, posts, threads, and chats. Now, nearly five months after the decision, does anything remain to be said? In the Internet Age, does anyone still read law reviews? They seem so twentieth-century. Yet the Justices apparently still do look at law reviews. Almost half the cases decided with signed opinions last Term cited at least one law review article. In Heller itself, the various opinions invoked over a dozen articles, including a 1940 classic from the Harvard Law Review. Indeed, last Term was a banner year not just for gun wielders like Dick Heller, but also for the editors of the Harvard Law Review. All told, the Justices cited fifteen different HLR articles - more than double the article count of any other legal periodical... http://www.harvardlawreview.org/issues/122/nov08/amar.pdf ... But here we are, less than six months after the high court ruled 5 to 4 that the District's ban on handgun possession violated the Constitution's Second Amendment, and the partisans are at their battle stations, arrayed on either shore of the Potomac like the Hatfields and McCoys of yore... Meanwhile, across the river in the District, even after the Supreme Court ruling, there's no run on guns. Only 248 weapons have been registered in the city since the July decision, police said. That could mean that D.C. residents came to like their gun ban, or it could reflect continuing confusion over just how tightly the city is going to restrict gun ownership... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/06/AR2008120602055.html --- The Chicago Gun Suit: ...On Thursday, the District Court issued an opinion and order in the NRA cases, denying the motions. A similar opinion and order, adopting the Court's rationale in the NRA cases, was entered in our case. The District Court ruled, essentially, that whatever the merits of our claims, it is bound by existing precedent holding that the Second Amendment does not apply to state and local governments. The order in our case denied not only our Rule 16 motion, but also our previously unresolved motion for summary judgment. A hearing is set in all three cases for December 9, to see where the matters now stand. Although we would have preferred that the Court had ruled in our favor, we are not disappointed. From Day One, it was clear that this case would be decided conclusively on appeal. This development takes us one step closer toward the elimination of Chicago's failed and unconstitutional gun ban, and for that, we are grateful. http://www.chicagoguncase.com/ --- Larry Pratt Addresses William and Mary Students: Larry Pratt, the executive director of the Gun Owners of America, discussed the future of the battle over gun control and analyzed gun control as public policy this Thursday evening. Gun Owners of America is a right wing, no-compromise lobbying organization. The talk was sponsored by the William and Mary Rifle Club. During the speech, Pratt spoke about the recent landmark case, D.C. v. Heller, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual's right to keep and bear arms... http://flathatnews.com/content/69630/larry-pratt-defends-second-amendment --- Oops, Wrong Pizza Man: A Dominoes [sic] delivery driver in Titusville fought back during a robbery attempt, turning the table on two would-be crooks. Jerry Johnson was making a pizza delivery when he was attacked. That's when he said he fired his gun in self-defense. "When I pulled up, I noticed it was dark. I've been doing this for like ten years. I know what it looks like. People have their lights on, they're expecting you. This looked fishy," said Johnson. It was just one shot, but it was loud enough to get Jason England out of bed. "I didn't know what it was. I just heard a loud bang," said England. One of England's neighbors had ordered the pizza on Saturday night... "They had bandannas on and they were pretty intent on hurting me. I'm glad I had my protection with me," said Johnson. "I pulled it out. I shot at one of them. He might be shot for all I know." ... http://www.myfoxorlando.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=8022066&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1 --- Oops, Wrong House: A masked teenager with a gun was shot and police are looking for one or two others that were believed to be burglarizing an assistant police chief's home Saturday night when that officer and his wife came home. Chief Carson Tranquille was pulling into the garage of his Oceanway home about 11:40 p.m. when two masked intruders approached them and pointed guns in their faces. "Chief Tranquille, obviously seeing and sensing the immediate danger that he and his wife were in, took immediate action to protect his wife and himself from a potential deadly situation," Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Rick Graham said Sunday. "Chief Tranquille fired his service weapon at the suspects, who turned and ran in different directions." ... http://www.news4jax.com/news/18221925/detail.html --- Rule Five Reminder: Authorities say a husband-and-wife burglary team robbed about 60 homes in rural eastern Missouri and deputies discovered 100 guns at the home of the man accused of selling the stolen loot online... Police said they found about 100 stolen weapons and other stolen property at Sifrit's home in Fenton. Three guns and stolen jewelry allegedly were found at his S&S Jewelers in Warrenton, which police described as a front for the illegal sale of the stolen property... If the home was unoccupied, Kibb Howard, 27, would break in and take items such as guns, jewelry and televisions, Binder said. Police said the couple admitted to stealing about 150 weapons. (Rule Five: Maintain control of your firearms. A good safe will dissuade casual burglars and delay serious ones. Layering and alarm system and/or a dog with a safe will usually create too long a delay for most burglars too risk.) http://www.azstarnet.com/news/270243 --- Palm Pistol Claims FDA Approval: A hand injury? If so, a New Jersey company claims it has invented a firearm just for you and that it has received federal approval to market the 9-mm handgun as a "medical device," perhaps even with its cost reimbursable to seniors by Medicare... Even if the gun is recognized as a legitimate medical device, Carmel has little chance of getting Medicare to pay for it, said Kevin Schulman, an expert on medical device regulation at North Carolina's Duke University Medical Center... (Palm pistols first appeared in the latter 19th century and typically used low-power rimfire cartridges.) http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=82966 --- Common Sense in England: ...Rhetoric about standing firm against terrorists aside, in Britain we have no more legal deterrent to prevent an armed assault than did the people of Mumbai, and individually we would be just as helpless as victims. The Mumbai massacre could happen in London tomorrow; but probably it could not have happened to Londoners 100 years ago... Today we are probably more shocked at the idea of so many ordinary Londoners carrying guns in the street than we are at the idea of an armed robbery. But the world of Conan Doyle's Dr Watson, pocketing his revolver before he walked the London streets, was real. The arming of the populace guaranteed rather than disturbed the peace... http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/article5299010.ece --- A Bit of Foul-Mouthed Humor: Plaxico Burress presents a video on handgun safety. (For those who did not note it in a previously linked article, Burress apparently shot himself when a Glock pistol he had stuffed into the waistband of sweatpants, without benefit of a holster, slipped down his leg, prompting him to grab for it and pressing the trigger in the attempt.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpgL5kuBpMA --- Gun Show Report: There were no mailings on Saturday and Sunday because I spent the last three days at the huge Crossroads of the West/Small Arms Review gun show in Phoenix. My cash reserve was somewhat reduced by the acquisition of two models of S&W revolvers that were lacking from my collection and I picked up an extra thousand rounds of American-made .223 cartridges. I did not pay particular attention to the autoloading firearms but overheard many remarks about how high prices have gone, particularly for the AK clones. Apparently word had not gotten out that Big Brother stated Sunday that Americans have no need to stock up on guns (and ammo). I spent the first two days seeing the show, touching base with some old friends and making a few new ones. Sunday I devoted exclusively to working one the two tables of the Arizona Citizens Defense League, where I recruited several new members - if you live in or travel to Arizona, AzCDL (http://www.azcdl.org/) is a must-join organization. Perhaps the strangest thing was that, over three days, I was actually bumped by four or five people who failed to excuse themselves - generally guns shows are the most polite venues in America. -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .