From GOA: At long last, Teddy Kennedy has partially revealed the health care system he wants to foist on the whole country - and it isn't pretty. It won't be pretty for your pocket book... OR FOR YOUR GUN RIGHTS! ...Currently, as a result of the stimulus bill and a whole lot of other factors, the government is rapidly moving in the direction of computerizing all of your most confidential medical records and putting them into a federal database. So remember when your son was asked by his pediatrician about your gun collection? That would be in the federal database. Or remember when your wife told her gynecologist that she had regularly smoked marijuana ten years ago -- thereby potentially barring both her and you from ever owning a gun again? That would be in the database. Or if a military veteran complains to his psychiatrist that he's had emotional stress since coming back to the States, that would be in the database. Or remember when gramps was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, thereby making him a "mental defective" who would have to relinquish his life-long gun collection? That's in there too. And, while we are dangerously close to allowing BATFE to troll all of that information, TeddyCare would allow Sebelius to put EVERYONE'S private data in a database with a stroke of a pen... (Recall that, as governor of Kansas, Sebelius twice vetoed bills to create licensed CCW. It was only an override of her second veto that let Kansans discreetly carry the tools of self-defense.) http://capwiz.com/gunowners/issues/alert/?alertid=13561051&PROCESS=Take+Action --- Coming Soon, to the Supreme Court: A year ago, the United States Supreme Court issued a landmark decision establishing the constitutional right of Americans to own guns. But the justices did not explain what the practical effect of that ruling would be on city and state gun laws... One court this month upheld Chicago's ban on automatic weapons and concealed handguns, while in April a California court disagreed on the constitutional issue. The differing opinions mean that the whole issue of city and state gun laws will probably head back to the Supreme Court for clarification, leading many legal experts to predict a further expansion of gun rights... Even if the Second Amendment becomes the controlling law of every state and town, constitutional scholars say it is still unlikely that gun laws would be overturned wholesale. The Supreme Court's Heller decision last year, notes Nelson Lund, a law professor at George Mason University, "clearly indicates that governments will still have wide latitude to regulate firearms." Even the Ninth Circuit in California, while applying the Second Amendment to the states, still upheld the gun ordinance that gave rise to the lawsuit... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/us/17guns.html?_r=2&hp Gun Owners of America calls Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor "an anti-gun radical." The Second Amendment Foundation says her selection was "a slap at gun rights." Such characterizations are based mainly on Sotomayor's participation in a January decision that said state and local governments are not bound by the Second Amendment. But because it was arguably compelled by a series of 19th-century Supreme Court precedents, Sotomayor's conclusion does not necessarily signal an anti-gun bias... The bottom line is that an intellectually honest judge could have gone either way on the question of whether Supreme Court precedents foreclose incorporation of the Second Amendment. Sotomayor, a left-leaning Greenwich Village resident chosen by a president who never met a gun control he didn't like, probably is not a big fan of the Second Amendment. But this particular case does not prove it. http://reason.com/news/show/134138.html Supporters of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor claim that her Second Amendment rulings are examples of "judicial restraint." The problem is that she's restraining the Second Amendment. Judge Sotomayor has ruled twice that the right to keep and bear arms is not a "fundamental right." The second time was after the U.S. Supreme Court said that it is... If Sotomayor rejects Second Amendment rights as "fundamental" constitutional rights, how likely is it that as a member of the Supreme Court she would hold that the Second Amendment is applicable to states and municipalities through the 14th Amendment? (Article is well worth reading, with many good quotations.) http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/06/sotomayors_fundamental_flaws_1.html --- Drug Control Begets "Gun Control": During his April visit to Mexico, President Barack Obama suggested that Americans are partly to blame for the appalling violence associated with the illegal drug trade there. "The demand for these drugs in the United States is what's helping keep these cartels in business," he said. "This war is being waged with guns purchased not here but in the United States." Obama is right that the U.S. is largely responsible for the carnage in Mexico, which claimed more than 6,000 lives last year. But the problem is neither the drugs Americans buy nor the guns they sell; it's the war on drugs our government has drafted the rest of the world to fight. Instead of acknowledging the failure of drug control, Obama is using it as an excuse for an equally vain attempt at gun control... Instead of importing Mexico's prohibitionist approach to guns, we should stop exporting our prohibitionist approach to drugs. http://reason.com/news/show/133857.html --- "Gun Control" Endangers Elderly: In the wild, large predators like wolves and lions tend to select old or sick animals from the herd to attack. The reason is simple, these are the weakest animals, increasing the chance of a successful kill and decreasing the chance for injury to the predator. It is no different with human predators. Muggers, robbers, carjackers, home invaders, etc. all look for the easiest target that will give them the greatest chance of success with the least chance of injury to themselves. This is demonstrated by the recent increase in crimes against the elderly in the Columbus area, rising from an average of 55-60 incidents per month to a reported 110 for April (nearly double)... http://www.examiner.com/x-2206-Cleveland-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m6d17-Crimes-against-Senior-Citizens-show-need-for-defensive-arms --- "Gun Control" Endangers Women: The United Kingdom and Australia instituted gun bans in 1997. Between 1995 and 2006, women in the United Kingdom suffered a 76.5% increase in rape; by 2007 Australian women experienced a 29.9% increase. Meanwhile, rape decreased 19.1% in America.* Today, women are raped twice as often in the UK as America, and Australian women are raped three times as often. This is damning evidence that gun control places women at greater risk. American women are hearing this message, and more and more are arming themselves every day, not only to protect themselves and their families from harm, but to ensure our government doesn't enact laws which disenfranchise women. In support of this effort, the National Rifle Association developed the Women on Target (WOT) program to introduce women to shooting sports in a safe and fun manner. Yesterday, 61 women participated in WOT at the American Shooting Center in Houston, Texas, hosted by the Houston Daughters of Liberty... http://www.examiner.com/x-2879-Austin-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m6d16-Women-on-Target-Preparing-women-to-defend-Liberty --- The Beat Goes On: ...My views on firearms, it turns out, aren't widely shared. In California and the rest of the nation, gun sales are booming, particularly since President Obama's election. In California, 314,201 firearms were sold between November 2008 and May of this year, according to the state attorney general's office. That's a 32% increase over sales one year earlier for the same period. And across the country, the number of background checks requested for gun purchases has been way higher each month than in the same month for the previous year. It's no wonder that in February, Obama was awarded the "Gun Salesman of the Year" award by Outdoor Wire, an Internet news outlet. "I think he's got it locked up for 2009, too," says Jim Shepherd, Outdoor Wire's editor. Last week, I visited gun shop owners in Riverside and Corona to discuss their booming business... (Why did a columnist for the Los Angeles Times have to go to Riverside and Corona to interview gun-shop owners? Is it because the hostility of the City of Los Angeles to the RKBA has forced all dealers out of the city?) http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez17-2009jun17,0,2125993,full.column Shares of Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. got a boost Tuesday from an analysts' prediction the handgun manufacturer will report strong sales growth when it posts fiscal fourth-quarter results next Monday. Wedbush Morgan analyst Rommel T. Dionisio said he expects revenue to jump 6 percent over the year-ago quarter, to $88 million, as the firearms industry sees "record-setting momentum." FBI data shows the number of background firearm checks in February through April climbed 28 percent from last year. Dionisio said the company's fiscal third-quarter results showed a 26 percent sales increase after a similar jump in background checks. "We believe the sharp acceleration in sales, which began in October 2008, largely reflects the belief that the election of a Democratic presidential administration could result in tightening of gun control laws," Dionisio wrote in a note to clients. He said a key competitor, Sturm Ruger, reported a 55 percent increase in sales in its first quarter, while orders doubled and order backlog tripled. And for its March quarter, outdoor retailer Cabela's Inc. posted an 8.2 percent rise in same-store sales, or sales in stores open at least a year, due to the sale of firearms and related accessories... http://www.cnbc.com/id/31391989 --- Enough, Already: Frustrated by the expanded power of Washington, a growing number of state lawmakers are defying the federal government and passing legislation aimed at rolling back the reach of Congress and President Obama. While many measures are symbolic ones declaring the sovereignty of states, some Westerners are taking more dramatic steps. One Utah lawmaker wants to limit federal law enforcement in his state. In Montana, legislators enacted a bill that flagrantly ignores federal firearm restrictions, hoping to force a constitutional showdown... The Montana Firearms Freedom Act seeks to exempt from federal regulation any firearm, gun component or ammunition made and kept within the state's borders. The legislation, signed by Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer, becomes law Oct. 1, though federal officials will likely act quickly to keep the measure from taking effect. Legal experts are skeptical Montana will prevail in court, and even some proponents express their doubts. But supporters say the fight is a necessary step to change Washington's attitude. Similar bills have been introduced in nearly a half dozen states, and lawmakers in about a dozen more have expressed interest. "We need 15, 25, 30 states to pass these types of legislation, so that we send a clear message to the country and to the national government," said Utah Rep. Carl Wimmer, a Republican from suburban Salt Lake City... http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-west16-2009jun16,0,3422958.story --- Misguided Mayors Group Tops 400: ... The bi-partisan coalition of Mayors Against Illegal Guns today announced that the membership of the coalition has grown to more than 400 mayors, making it almost 30 times as large as when it was founded in 2006. The growth of the coalition, which now represents over 56 million Americans, was announced at the United States Conference of Mayors annual meeting in Providence, Rhode Island. Mayors Against Illegal Guns also praised a resolution by the nonpartisan U.S. Conference of Mayors, passed at its annual meeting, in support of efforts to fight illegal guns. The resolution calls on Congress to repeal the restrictions on law enforcement access to crucial gun trace data known as the Tiahrt Amendments. It also calls for the passage of legislation to achieve the Coalition's goals of fixing the broken background check system by: closing the gun show loophole, requiring background checks for gun store employees, ending gun dealer fire sales and preventing terrorism suspects from buying guns... http://www.newschannel34.com/content/developingnews/story/Mayors-Against-Illegal-Guns/2-aW0t0XXkiPNSIWbzpn6A.cspx --- Omaha May Fingerprint Gun Sellers: A proposed change in Omaha's gun ordinances could help police connect more criminals to their crimes. Dealers of secondhand guns would be required to collect the fingerprints of people selling guns to them under an ordinance proposed by City Council President Garry Gernandt... Currently, only pawnshops are required to collect fingerprints from gun sellers. Secondhand-gun shops such as Scheels, Carl Jarl Lock, Safe and Gun Co., and Guns Unlimited are not...If a gun sold to one of the shops was stolen or had been used in a crime, a fingerprint record would allow police to identify the seller, Buske said.The change also would eliminate an inequity between pawnshops and secondhand-gun dealers, Gernandt said. "I think we're leveling the playing field," he said. The City Council will conduct a public hearing on the proposal at its 2 p.m. meeting Tuesday... http://omaha.com/article/20090615/NEWS01/306159683 --- Microstamping Won't Stop Crooks: Shifting political sands in Albany can cause just about any lawful gun owner heartache these days. If you haven't heard about it already, New York Senate Bill 4397A is a big reason... According to the bill, "firearm micro-stamping is an evolutionary forensic technology that produces an alpha-numeric and geometric code onto the rear of the cartridge casing each time a semiautomatic pistol is fired." The idea is that law enforcement can then use that code to identify the owner of the pistol and generally aid investigations... To those of us who legally own guns, this just doesn't make sense. To the non-gun owner, this bill sounds logical and that's the danger here. We need the folks who don't own guns to understand what this bill will go beyond its intent. Law abiding gun owners recognize the bill will not do anything to either solve homicides or reduce illegal gun trafficking. Let me explain. The basic principle of the bill is that by requiring semiautomatic pistols to micro-stamp ammunition, law enforcement will able to trace the shell casings to the gun that micro-stamped it. Do you think criminals are going to run out and get one that can micro-stamp their ammunition? ... http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090616/SPORTS/906160333 --- Restaurant-Carry Bill Clears Arizona Senate: The state Senate revived the guns-in-restaurants bill a day after killing it. The 18-10 vote gives it final Senate approval and sends it to the House of Representatives. Senate Bill 1113 would allow owners of concealed-weapons permits to carry a gun into a restaurant that serves alcohol, as long as the person does not drink. Restaurants would be required to post a sign if they do not want guns on the premises. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2009/06/17/20090617politics-brief0617.html --- What, Not from a Gun Show?: A former state inmate pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to steal guns from a police station in the Mississippi Delta and send them to Chicago... Prosecutors said Redmond, who was part of a state inmate work program, conspired with other inmates, his girlfriend, a county road department employee and others to smuggle the guns out of the police station and send them to Chicago, where Redmond had an "Uncle Blood." At least seven of the pistols were found in Chicago, according to court records. Five machine guns and 90 pounds of marijuana also were taken from the Greenwood Police Department in 2005 and 2006. Between September 2005 and January 2006, inmates working at the police station saw guns in a locked closet, prosecutors said. They had been escorted to the closet to get supplies to perform their jobs, according to the indictment. Two of the inmates - Cedrick Lowery and Freddie "Fox" McGee - figured out a way to get into the closet by removing a ceiling tile in an adjacent room. Both men have pleaded guilty... http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-ms-missingfirearms,0,4525660.story --- Oops, Wrong House: A woman opened fire when two robbery suspects broke into her Spring home on Sunday, KPRC Local 2 reported. Harris County Precinct 4 deputy constables said the 34-year-old was alone inside the home in the Timberlane subdivision on Briarcreek Boulevard near Cades Cove Drive at about 6 a.m. Investigators said the woman opened fire when the attackers burst through her bedroom door. "She's in her bedroom, locked in her bedroom. And she could hear them rustling through the rooms about the house. She grabbed her weapon and you know, held up inside her bedroom. It wasn't until they forced their way into her bedroom, they kicked the bedroom door in. She fired several shots at the suspects," said Lt. Jeff Stauber with the Harris County Sheriff's Department. Investigators said Gerson Jonathon Linares and Shalom Mendoza, both 17, were wounded. Detectives said the teenagers, who live in the neighborhood, ran out of the home and called for help, claiming to be the victims of a shooting... (Good tactics - that's what we call the "safe-room defense.") http://www.click2houston.com/news/19752634/detail.html --- RKBA Rally in Chicago: The rally that celebrates the right to keep and bear arms returns to Chicago! ...Second Amendment Freedom Rally sponsors, Illinois State Rifle Association and IllinoisCarry.com, welcome Mr. Ralph Conner of CORE-Chicago as the featured speaker for this historical event. Mr. Conner, a long time Second Amendment activist, is featured in the newly released documentary movie from JPFO titled "No Guns for Negroes," about the racially biased history of gun control. It is important that we put our best foot forward and present the best image of Illinois firearm owners - friendly, courteous, and respectful of the other attendees and our surroundings. Suggested attire is casual/business casual. The rally is outside on the plaza, bring sunscreen if you are so inclined. There is a food court in the downstairs portion of the Thompson Center if you need to grab a quick bite before or after the event. We have been instructed to keep the entrances to the Thompson Center clear and also that we stay out of the street and not cause a traffic hazard... http://www.ammoland.com/2009/06/16/second-amendment-freedom-rally/ --- This Year's Gun Rights Policy Conference: Come meet national gun rights leaders and your fellow grassroots activists at the 24th Annual Gun Rights Policy Conference (GRPC 2009) in St. Louis, Missouri, September 25, 26, & 27, 2009. This is your once-a-year chance to network and get an insider look and plan pro-gun rights strategies for the coming year. Past GRPCs have outlined victory plans and made public the latest firearms trends. They allow you a first-hand chance to hear movement leaders - and make your voice heard. This year we'll take a look at critical issues such as: city gun bans, youth violence, "smart" guns, concealed carry, federal legislation, legal actions, gun show regulation, state and local activity. We'll also preview the upcoming court cases and revisit the U.S. Supreme Court Heller Decision... Pre-Registration for GRPC is now open! Books, monographs and other materials - enough to start a Second Amendment library - are free, as are Saturday Luncheon, Friday and Saturday evening receptions and morning and afternoon snack breaks. Other meals, travel and lodging are to be paid by attendee... http://www.saf.org/default.asp?p=GRPC --- Fight the CBP Knife Ban: ...Never in its history has BLADE undertaken such an operation. But the country has not seen this kind of sweeping knife legislation since the 1958 Federal Switchblade Act. The United States Customs and Border Protection Agency (Customs) is seeking to redefine assisted openers, as well as other knives operated with one hand, as illegal switchblades. If put into effect, the measure will drastically alter the knife landscape in the United States, and not in a good way. For more background on this push by Customs, click here. Customs threw liberty-minded folks a bone when it requested public comments on this measure. Those comments must be falling on deaf ears, because Customs denied a request by the American Knife & Tool Institute (AKTI) to extend the comment period past its deadline of June 21. Similar requests on behalf of Knife Rights and knife manufacturers were also denied... The first action of Operation Switch Hunt is to follow the money. Customs is more likely to buckle to pressure from the people who allocate its money. Overseeing Customs is the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Funding for DHS, as with all government operations, comes from the United States Congress... (I will be writing to my Congressional representative and one of my senators, one of whom serves on the House committee and one on the Senate committee which oversee DHS. Sample letters are available on the linked page.) http://www.blademag.com/article/operation-switch-hunt-begins --- From AzCDL: Yesterday (June 15, 2009), SB 1113, a Restaurant Carry bill, was voted on during Senate Third Read. Senator Jack Harper, the prime sponsor of SB 1113, recognized that SB 1113 did not have the required 16 votes to pass and switched his vote to "Nay", creating a 14-14 tie vote. This enabled him to then ask for a "Reconsideration" vote. This afternoon (June 16, 2009), the Senate again voted on SB 1113, and this time it passed by an 18-10 vote with 2 Senators not voting. In addition to Senator Harper being able to vote for his bill this time, Senator John Nelson, who was absent yesterday, was present to vote for SB 1113. Senators Amanda Aguirre (D-24) and Manny Alvarez (D-25) were successfully persuaded to change their votes to support SB 1113. If you are in their districts, please take the time to drop them a polite note thanking them for supporting SB 1113. You can find the vote details on SB 1113 here: http://tinyurl.com/SB1113Reconsideration . In other news, we have learned that the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to hold a special hearing this Friday, June 19, 2009. On the agenda should be SB 1270, the AzCDL-requested Constitutional Carry bill that removes the penalty for the lawful carrying of a concealed weapon without a permit. AzCDL's lobbyists are working hard to get the support of the committee members for SB 1270. Please help them to help you by taking the time to send a personal message to the committee members asking them to support the passage of SB 1270. Below are the email address in both semi-colon and comma separated formats of the committee members. Following that are some talking points on SB 1270. Senate Judiciary Committee members in semi-colon format: jpaton@azleg.gov; mburtoncahill@azleg.gov; kcheuvront@azleg.gov; cgray@azleg.gov; rmiranda@azleg.gov; rpearce@azleg.gov; jhuppenthal@azleg.gov Senate Judiciary Committee members in comma format: jpaton@azleg.gov, mburtoncahill@azleg.gov, kcheuvront@azleg.gov, cgray@azleg.gov, rmiranda@azleg.gov, rpearce@azleg.gov, jhuppenthal@azleg.gov SB 1270 talking points: - Applies only to law-abiding citizens and removes the penalty for the lawful carrying of firearms without a concealed weapons permit. To assist law enforcement, language has been added making it a felony for a person to carry a concealed weapon on their person or in a vehicle in the commission, or attempted commission, of a serious or violent crime. - CCW Permits would still be available to anyone who desired one. There is no disincentive created for obtaining a CCW permit by removing the penalty for not having one. The predominant reason that most people obtain CCW permits is to avoid the inconvenience associated with the NICS checks required during the purchase of firearms. Reciprocity with other states provides additional incentive for people to obtain permits. Disincentives are created by excessive rules, regulations and fees. If one wants more people to get permits, one should make them easier to get and to keep, and give them good reasons to do so. - The bill also adds additional incentives for people to obtain a permit, including adding the ability for permit holders to carry concealed weapons in non-secure public buildings. - FBI statistics show that those states (AK, VT) that currently allow law-abiding citizens to carry concealed weapons without a permit have among the lowest overall violent crime and murder rates in the nation. - Numerous studies have shown that increasing the number of armed citizens correlates to a reduction in violent crime (see e.g. "More Guns, Less Crime" by John Lott). - Despite decades of predicting wild shootouts and "blood in the streets", opponents of improvements to concealed carry laws have been proven wrong over and over again, as the envisioned carnage has failed to materialize. Law abiding citizens have proven to be exactly that. - Currently, law-abiding citizens risk arrest under ARS 13-3102.K when attempting to comply with ARS 13-3102.F ("open" carry and vehicle transportation of a weapon), due primarily to the obfuscations created by State v. Adams (189 Ariz. 235, 941 P.2d 912) and State v. Moerman (182 Ariz. 255, 895 P.2d 1018). - Since the Adams and Moerman decisions, there has been no clear, objective standard in statute that can be relied upon by the average citizen to know when he is in peril of violating a law, nor is there an objective statute by which officers can enforce the law. - Wearing a gun openly in a vehicle can be considered concealed carry. Without a permit you may be subject to arrest, as most weapons can not be seen from outside a vehicle. - Having a CCW permit and concealing a gun in a vehicle puts your non-CCW permit passengers at risk for being arrested for carrying concealed without a permit. Stay tuned! When critical legislation moves, we will notify you via these Alerts. These alerts are a project of the Arizona Citizens Defense League (AzCDL), an all volunteer, non-profit, non-partisan grassroots organization. AzCDL - Protecting Your Freedom http://www.azcdl.org/html/join_us_.html Copyright © 2009 Arizona Citizens Defense League, Inc., all rights reserved. In addition to our email Alerts, AzCDL has established a Twitter account for broadcasting very brief (140 character) Twitter updates or "tweets." Our account name is "AzCDL Alerts," for those who wish to follow our updates. Using Twitter enables us to broadcast quick informal messages. For those not familiar with Twitter, their website is http://www.twitter.com. In addition to accessing Twitter via an Internet browser, Twitter messages can also be sent and received by cell-phones capable of texting. Stay tuned! When critical legislation moves, we will notify you via Tweets and Alerts. These alerts are a project of the Arizona Citizens Defense League (AzCDL), an all volunteer, non-profit, non-partisan grassroots organization. AzCDL - Protecting Your Freedom http://www.azcdl.org/html/join_us_.html Copyright © 2009 Arizona Citizens Defense League, Inc., all rights reserved -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .