Short Break: Now that I am retired from my former day job, I will make occasional short trips to visit friends. I will be away from home this weekend so I'm including some weekend material in today's mailing. I do not know if I will find wi fi access over the weekend so please save any non-essential mailings to me until next week. --- Weekly Reminder: HR 45 has not even gained one co-sponsor in committee and S 2099 died nine years ago. It is not necessary to forward the hysterical mailings to me. Friday, January 23, 2009 U.S. Representative Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) recently sponsored H.R. 45, also known as "Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act." The bill is, at its core and as its name implies, a licensing and registration scheme. The measure calls for all handgun owners to submit to the federal government an application that shall include, among many other things: a photo; an address; a thumbprint; a completed, written firearm safety test; private mental health records; and a fee. And those are only some of the requirements to be licensed! The bill would further require the attorney general to establish a database of every handgun sale, transfer, and owner's address in America. Moreover, the bill would make it illegal to own or possess a "qualifying firearm" -- defined as "any handgun; or any semiautomatic firearm that can accept any detachable ammunition feeding device..." without one of the proposed licenses. Additionally, the bill would make it illegal to transfer ownership of a "qualifying firearm" to anyone who is not a licensed gun dealer or collector (with very few exceptions), and would require "qualifying firearm" owners to report all transfers to the attorney general's database. It would also be illegal for a licensed gun owner to fail to record a gun loss or theft within 72 hours, or fail to report a change of address within 60 days. Further, if a minor obtains a firearm and injures someone with it, the owner of the firearm may face a multiple-year jail sentence. H.R. 45 is essentially a reintroduction of H.R. 2666, which Rush introduced in 2007. H.R. 2666 contained much of the same language as H.R. 45, and was co-sponsored by several well-known anti-gun legislators--including Barack Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. H.R. 45 currently has no co-sponsors. Rest assured that NRA-ILA will continue to monitor this bill closely, and will keep you informed of any developments if they materialize. http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Federal/Read.aspx?id=4329 Friday, May 29, 2009 In the last few weeks, NRA-ILA has received hundreds of e-mails warning us about "SB-2099," a bill that would supposedly require you to report all your guns on your income tax return every April 15. Like many rumors, there's just a grain of truth to this one. Someone's recycling an old alert, which wasn't even very accurate when it was new. There actually was a U.S. Senate bill with that number that would have taxed handguns - nine years ago. It was introduced by anti-gun Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), and it would have included handguns under the National Firearms Act's tax and registration scheme. This has nothing to do with anyone's Form 1040, of course. Fortunately, S. 2099 disappeared without any action by the Senate, back when Bill Clinton was still in the White House. We reported about it back then, just as we report about new anti-gun bills every week. Now, it's time for gun owners to drop this old distraction and focus on the real threats at hand. http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Federal/Read.aspx?id=4925 --- She's In: Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed yesterday by a Senate vote of 68-31 to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. As President Obama's first nominee, her confirmation process has been a worthy exemplar of the Senate's duty of advise and consent. All but nine Republicans opposed her confirmation, but the confirmation process was conducted respectfully and with a cool-tempered focus on her Constitutional philosophy. That marks a departure from many modern confirmation battles, most recently over Justice Samuel Alito, who was confirmed on a more partisan vote than Judge Sotomayor and was subjected to far more discourteous treatment by Vermont's Pat Leahy and other interrogators on the Judiciary Committee. She and the country can thank Judiciary's ranking Republican Jeff Sessions, who once faced nasty confirmation treatment himself... She nonetheless now becomes the nation's first Hispanic Justice, and on that score we also can't help but contrast her treatment with the way Democrats smeared and filibustered appellate-court nominee Miguel Estrada in 2001. He might otherwise have become the first Hispanic Justice in George W. Bush's second term. But elections have consequences and Judge Sotomayor's confirmation is a rightful source of pride to the Puerto Rican community. We wish her good judgment. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204908604574334851400082442.html?mod=djemEditorialPage From GOA: The Senate easily confirmed the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court. Only 31 Senators took seriously their oath to uphold the Constitution and voted against this radical anti-gun nominee, with 68 voting for confirmation. All the Democrats in attendance voted for Sotomayor, while nine Republicans joined their ranks. The Republican Senators who voted for Sotomayor were: Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Christopher Bond of Missouri, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, Mel Martinez of Florida, George Voinovich of Ohio and Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine. Many Democrat Senators campaigned on a pro-Second Amendment platform, yet voted to confirm a nominee who does not believe you have a fundamental right to self defense or an individual right to possess a firearm... http://gunowners.org/a080609.htm If you don't have the truth on your side, just make things up as you go. That seems to be the motto of the gun control movement. Misleading facts, skewed statistics, and outright lies are the meat and potatoes of their efforts to nudge public opinion in their favor... Groups like the Brady Campaign are using Judge Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court as an example of the waning power of the NRA and the gun rights movement, trying to make it seem like gun control is inevitable and people should just give up on trying to protect those rights. Yet recent polling indicates that gun rights are more popular now than they've been in many years. Gun control pundits can only hope that the lies drown out the truth in order to sway public opinion back to their side. http://www.examiner.com/x-2206-Cleveland-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m8d7-Neverending-torrent-of-lies-fuel-gun-control ...In the wake of today's Senate vote confirming Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation to the Supreme Court, the Court announced that she will be sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. on Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Supreme Court. She'll be given the constitutional oath of office in a private ceremony in the justices' conference room, followed by the judicial oath in the East Conference Room before a gathering of Sotomayor's friends and family. A formal investiture ceremony will take place on Sept. 8 with a special sitting of the Court. Holding the ceremony at the Court rather than the White House is a significant break from recent practice, and represents something of a concession to the wishes of justices who have complained that the oath-taking has become an inappropriately political event... http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2009/08/white-house-ceremony-may-not-be-popular-with-justices.html --- SAF Sues DC for Carry Permits: The Second Amendment Foundation today filed a lawsuit on behalf of three residents of the District of Columbia and a New Hampshire resident, seeking to compel the city to issue carry permits to law-abiding citizens. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of Tom Palmer, George Lyon and Amy McVey, all District residents, and Edward Raymond, a New Hampshire resident. SAF and the individual plaintiffs are being represented by attorney Alan Gura, who successfully argued the landmark District of Columbia v. Heller case in 2008 that overturned the District's handgun ban on the grounds that it was unconstitutional under the Second Amendment... "In most major American cities," said attorney Gura, "where the right to bear arms is respected, licensed permit holders have proven themselves safe and effective. Washington, D.C. already requires handgun registrants to complete the background checks and training classes required of carry permit holders throughout the country. It is pointless to deny these individuals the right to bear arms." ... (Yet, in oral arguments in Heller, it was essentially conceded that the Second Amendment did not guarantee the right to carry concealed firearms in public.) http://www.saf.org/viewpr-new.asp?id=300 The man whose Supreme Court challenge secured the right of D.C. residents to keep guns in their homes is back in court, this time filing a lawsuit on behalf of a group seeking the right of registered gun owners to carry their guns in public. Four individuals and a gun-rights advocacy group joined lawyer Alan Gura on Thursday in filing the lawsuit in U.S. District Court. It was an earlier lawsuit by Mr. Gura that forced the District to end its 30-year-old gun ban, the strictest in the United States. The lawsuit argues that the District's "laws, customs, practices and policies generally banning the carrying of handguns in public violate the Second Amendment" of the U.S. Constitution. It asks that the District issue licenses to carry guns in public to legal gun owners in the city and to people with valid carry permits from outside the city... The D.C. residents who brought the case are Tom G. Palmer, George Lyon and Amy McVey. The nonprofit Washington state-based Second Amendment Foundation is also named as a plaintiff. The three D.C. residents, who are licensed gun owners in the District, had gun-registration applications rejected by the Metropolitan Police Department because they stated their intention was to carry the loaded guns on their person outside their homes... http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/07/lawsuit-seeks-right-to-carry-guns-in-public/ --- Prohibitionists Discuss Battle for RKBA: ,,, My concern with concealed carry laws is that the few I am aware of have zero provisions that address proficiency. Most people could not hit the broad side of a barn with a hand gun. How is Joe six pack made safer by carrying a gun he couldn't hit anything with at 25 yards? After 20 years in the Marine Corps I know that a large majority of Marines can't hit much with a pistol and I expect the general public has a more dismal level of proficiency with a hand gun. Why is it we never see any discussion of proficiency when it comes laws allowing people to carry concealed weapons? ... (This is precisely why I was not enthusiastic about the Thune Amendment, a federal mandate for interstate CCW recognition. Such legislation can easily be amended imposing federal standards for permit issuance. When New Mexico finally got licensed CCW, the State Police tried to require the same "qualification" for the CHL as for their own officers. As far as I know, they relented only in deleting the 25-yard stage. And there is nothing to stop these people at proficiency standards - how about certification of need and psychiatric exams?) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/08/05/DI2009080502127.html --- The Beat Goes On: More and more people across the country, the state and the county are getting permits to carry handguns. There were 2,008 conceal and carry permits issued in Minnehaha County in all of 2008. There have already been 1,548 in 2009. The state of South Dakota issued 14,628 permits in 2008, and it's already hit 11,057 in 2009. The clerk at the Minnehaha County Sheriff's office says she takes between 10 and 50 applications for a conceal and carry permit every day, and she says the number one reason people give is they're afraid their gun rights might be taken away. "I feel that we need to act now if our rights are going to be protected," said Jordan Olson, who picked up his permit on Wednesday. Olson says he applied for a permit because he's afraid gun laws will become more restrictive now that President Obama is in office. Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead says that thinking has contributed to the sharp rise in permits. It's also led to big spikes in gun and ammunition sales. But Milstead says there still isn't any evidence the second amendment is in danger of being restricted... http://www.ksfy.com/news/local/52561032.html --- New Jersey Governor Signs New Infringement Bill: New Jersey will become the fourth state in the nation to limit handgun purchases to one every month. Gov. Corzine signed the controversial measure into law yesterday. Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer joined Corzine and called on Pennsylvania to become No. 5. The law, which is aimed at slowing gun trafficking, would make life safer in New Jersey and neighboring states by fighting trafficking, he said. "I just hope Pennsylvanians would make it safer for us by passing this bill," Palmer said at a ceremony outside Trenton City Hall. The law aims to impede "straw purchasers" - people who have clean records and buy guns legally, then pass them to criminals. The law will take effect in early January but could see some changes before then. A task force is reviewing its potential impact and will make recommendations this fall... (It looks as though it's all about pressuring Pennsylvania because New Jersey already has extremely cumbersome procedures to purchase a handgun legally.) http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/nj/20090807_Corzine_signs_law_limiting_handgun_purchases.html --- Oops, Wrong Apartment: A resident shot and killed an intruder in southwest Bakersfield after the suspect shot the resident twice, a Bakersfield Police official said. At 11:11 p.m. Thursday, police received a report of a shooting at an apartment in the 1800-block of Canter Way, police said. Police said they found an adult man outside the apartment suffering from two gunshot wounds to the torso. Inside the apartment police said they found the suspect deceased with a gun. The victim told them he was home with his wife and several friends when two suspects forced their way into the apartment. The resident armed himself with a gun and both exchanged gunfire, police said. The victim was taken to Kern Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries... (At least in Bakersfield they know the victim is not necessarily the one who got killed.) http://www.turnto23.com/news/20314499/detail.html --- Oops, Wrong Nursery: It wasn't a whole lot of cash a thief in the night was taking from W.W. Brown Nurseries. Still, owner Randy Brown was perturbed that someone had come into his barn on a couple of nights and left with the $3 or $4 in the metal cash box each time. So Brown said he decided to sleep in the barn several nights on bales of hay to see if he could catch the thief. About 10:45 Wednesday night, Brown, armed with a .22-caliber revolver, surprised the thief and fired a shot into the ground to startle the intruder. Brown said the thief then threw the cash box at him. For a time, Brown held the 24-year-old man, later identified as Andrew M. Payne, at gunpoint while waiting for Waukesha County sheriff's deputies to arrive to arrest him at the nursery, N67-W28835 Sussex Road. The man then scuffled with Brown and attempted to wrestle the gun away from him. The gun discharged, but no one was struck, according to a criminal complaint filed in Waukesha County Circuit Court... (Once again we see the misuse of a "warning shot." I have to question whether the theft of three or four dollars at a time was worth the risk of getting shot if the burglar had gained control of the revolver.) http://www.jsonline.com/news/waukesha/52590882.html --- California Police Range Cited for Lead Violations: Portraying law enforcers as lawbreakers, the state toxic substances enforcement agency has found that the Redondo Beach Police Department violated state codes after at least 800 hazardous lead bullet fragments from its outdoor firing range were found in the surrounding neighborhood, including an elementary school across the street. The Department of Toxic Substances Control report, dated Oct. 30, said the Police Department broke health and safety codes that regulate the storage and disposal of hazardous waste. The report also said that police repeatedly refused to provide range maintenance records to the agency, also a violation... Hoffman and the Police Department's then-lawyer, Carmen Trutanich, who has since been elected Los Angeles city attorney, blamed the widespread lead fragments on the nearby residents, who they allege had broken into the range and planted them in the neighborhood... http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-me-redondo6-2009aug06,0,7901230.story --- F Troop Conducts Citizens Academy: Roving through the halls of the Glendale Galleria one night earlier this year were about a dozen wannabe cops trying, with varying degrees of ridiculousness, to be covert. I know, because I was one of them. I was there as a student in an eight-week Citizens' Academy held by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, better known as the ATF. Our mission that night was to covertly observe a gun transaction involving real ATF agents posing as bad guys and to discreetly tail them to their cars. My fellow students and I had been told at our "pre-operational briefing" that it would go down in or around a cafe on the ground floor of the mall... As a reporter covering federal law enforcement in Los Angeles, I enrolled in the class to learn more about the ATF and what its agents do. (OK, I'd also heard there might be some automatic weapons involved - there were, it turned out - but more on that later)... http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-atf7-2009aug07,0,6283410,full.story --- Tangentially Related: ...A career in law enforcement led Mack to the conclusion that "the county sheriff is our nation's last line of defense for the preservation and return to fundamental and individual liberty." He put forth his ideas in his book, "The County Sheriff, America's Last Hope." Copies of the book may be ordered from www.sheriffmack.com or by writing to: PO Box 971, Pima, AZ 85543. He believes fervently and instinctively that the freedom that is Americans' by right is being taken away from them and the Constitution is being gradually eroded. To counteract this trend, he has formed a group called "USA 1-911." The name was chosen because members believe the country is in a top priority emergency situation... On Feb. 28, 1994, the day the Brady Bill went into effect, Mack filed a lawsuit in federal court in Tucson against President Bill Clinton. At the same time, Montana Sheriff Jay Printz filed a separate lawsuit. He was later joined by five others - seven sheriffs out of 3,000 in the United States. The sheriffs won in district courts, but it was appealed and went all the way to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the sheriffs in 1997. (The five-day waiting period provision expired in 1998 when the National Instant Criminal Background Check System went online and it was no longer necessary.) ... http://www.wmicentral.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20356379&BRD=2264&PAG=461&dept_id=505965&rfi=6 --- NRA-ILA Alerts: List members are encouraged to the alerts for the week, posted on the NRA-ILA website. http://www.nraila.org/GrassrootsAlerts/read.aspx --- From John Farnam: 3 Aug 09 This telling commentary, from a friend in the Federal System: "The sad reality is that the disturbingly absurd advice promulgated by the SAC you mentioned in your Quip is not is not limited to those outside the Agency. What those up the food-chain dearly want to tell us Grunts is, 'Never shoot anyone under any circumstances.' Lacking the courage to come out and say it, the chosen approach now is to make it so ponderous to comply with all 'administrative rules' involved in going after violent criminals, that it is rare indeed any more when we actually do. A mere decade ago, I had a boss who regularly sent my partner and I out, on our own, to track-down, confront, and arrest dangerous, armed bank robbers. His only guidance was some variation on, 'Arrest the son-of-a-bitch. If he resists violently, shoot him!' Now, prior to even conducting an interview, let alone an arrest, we are saddled with the absurdly cumbersome requirement to complete a lengthy, written 'arrest-plan' that must then be approved at every level of management, a tedious, insufferable process which eliminates any species of spontaneity. In many divisions, now only the SWAT team is allowed to make felony arrests. Little trust, much less confidence, is conferred upon street-SAs any more. The problem is not that we mere Grunts might get hurt. Far from it! The problem is that we might actually do our job, fire our weapons, killing some dirt-bags in the process, an event that will invariably have, God forbid, the anguished result of derailing someone's career. It is infinitely safer, from a career standpoint, to 'encourage' one's subordinates to never fire their guns at all, under any circumstance, in fact, never to 'do' anything! Many of us are trying hard to stand against this, but we do so while counting the days until the current Director finds something else to do. Extremely unlikely under the current Administration!" Comment: Owing to this flawed philosophy that has crept into the upper levels of law-enforcement, described in the foregoing, SAs, and police officers in general, are regularly exposing themselves to what can only be described as suicidal risks, in a desperate effort to avoid shooting, in cases where shooting is clearly indicated and justified. Political support from violent criminals, and their families, is an openly coveted and sought-after commodity with many sleazy, shameless politicians. Simply put, they're much happier with dead police officers than with dead criminals! And, they get elected! /John (In my latter years of volunteer service at LASD's Temple Station, management created the "Temple Wall of Fame" along the deputies' walk to their parked patrol cars. On it were posted the commendations given to the various deputies. Since the overwhelming majority of conduct that management deemed worthy of recognition was "commendable restraint" - failure to shoot at subjects who were endangering the life of the deputies - the display came to be known among the rank and file as the "Temple Wall of Shame.") 4 Aug 09 Well stated, from a long-time street-LEO, now retired: "Your last Quip eloquently explains why I abruptly separated from my department after twenty-five years of passionate public service: I wasn't tired of the job, but I could no longer stand watching a chief who would far rather see his mug in the papers, and hear his name repeated ad-nauseam on the evening news for his supposed involvement with some 'community project,' than take a chance of seeing an arrest report that indicated we police officers had actually laid hands on a miscreant. Police work is not always forceful, nor is it always a kind-and-gentle meeting-of-minds after tea and crumpets in the solarium. The V in VCA is not for 'Vacillate!' Violence of criminals actors must be confronted, contained, and controlled, quickly, and via appropriate force. There certainly are times when a strong word or two, along with a stern expression, carry the day, but most often 'appropriate force' will be acutely, immediately necessary, and will inevitably involve pain, physical contact, and inconvenience, maybe even 'deadly persuasion.' What naive 'administrators' do not grasp is that the criminal actor, not responding LEOs, determine what level of force is reasonably necessary! When officers are confronted with illegal force, it is our sworn duty to respond, without delay, with superior force, until the situation is back under control. Too often, inexperienced officers respond to violent criminals with an inappropriately low level of force, far less than is reasonably required, and sometimes they get away with it. 'Administrators' then begin to falsely believe that their officer's indecisiveness and timidity was all wonderful and reward him for his incorrect actions. When this same officer is subsequently murdered, because he didn't 'get-away-with-it' a second time, there are myriad accolades for this 'kind, gentle, wouldn't-hurt-a-fly' officer, rather than the stark recognition that the officer, in fact, committed suicide-by-stupidity, and was aided and abetted by an ill-informed, naive, self-serving System which inappropriately hired him in the first place! There is no 'safe' way to be a victim, intentionally or otherwise. Spineless shadows of men have no place in modern law enforcement, on the beat, nor in the office." Comment: As has been said before, when police confrontations get out of hand, it is invariably because first-responders failed to employ an appropriate level of force in the first place. In the end, more people are hurt than would have been if tough, decisive cops had arrived and taken charge immediately. Ultimately, indecision, hesitation, dithering, and timidity get far more officers hurt and killed than does the precise, appropriate, immediate, and unapologetic use of force. We desperately need tough cops. We need tough sergeants, lieutenants, captains, and chiefs even more! As if to make the point, a deputy chief with LAPD, who obviously needs to get out more, was recently quoted as saying, "You use it (the diminutive Fabrique National 57) on large lions, tigers and bears!" Oh my! /John 5 Aug 09 Californians nervously brace for the onslaught: A series of lawsuits against the State California, some dating back more than a decade, finally came to a crescendo today: A federal, three-judge panel has ruled that CA must release 43,000 of its 150,000 incarcerated criminals, nearly one-third of the state's prison population! This represents the latest punch-line in the joke we call "modern government." How all these premature releases will be accomplished is currently up in the air, but the mandate is set, and the State, though utterly bankrupt, will have to comply. If past experience is any guide, several eventualities are beyond doubt: (1) Most discharged inmates will re-offend within weeks of release, creating a whole new generation of victims. (2) As a result, most re-offending inmates will then be re-convicted and sent right back, probably to the same prison from whence they came, resulting in the same overcrowding that generated the "problem" in the first place. In the end, nothing will change, except that a bunch of new, innocent people will be harmed, robbed, raped, maimed, and murdered, who never would have been victimized otherwise! As with most taxpayers, I don't like the fact that millions are spent on building, staffing, and maintaining prisons. But, it is undeniably money well spent! Every minute these criminals are locked up, they are not out committing crimes, at least among the general public. Most are destined to die in prison, and that is probably the best than can be expected from their worthless lives. The only real purpose for prisons is to protect the public, not create a cushy life for convicts. "Rehabilitation" is a term we've naively invented to describe a non-existent phenomenon. No such thing ever takes place, in prisons, nor anywhere else! Crime is a habit, and habitual criminals need to be locked up permanently. The instant they get out, they re-offend, without fail. Again, neither federal judges, nor most other politicians, give a damn about public safety, insulated as they are behind an army of heavily-armed bodyguards. In fact, there is apparently no limit to the amount of our money they are willing to spend protecting/insulating themselves! Meanwhile, we ordinary, law-abiding, taxpaying peons are on our own! We can expect nothing. We are expendable pawns in political games, every bit as much as are all these newly-released inmates! /John (Unfortunately, law-abiding Californians who are just realizing that they need to be able to defend themselves and their loved ones, not only have to deal with current market conditions, they also have to pass safety tests to purchase handguns and go through ten-day waiting periods to purchase virtually all firearms.) -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .