Oops: I was working from memory, Sunday evening, when I typed the origins of the .44-, .36- and 31-caliber bores for cap-and-ball pistols. .44 caliber is actually 50 balls to the pound, .36 caliber is 100 balls and .31 caliber is 150 balls. I've had no luck trying to figure the logic behind the designations for buckshot other than to have noted that a #000 buckshot pellet is .36 caliber and weighs 70 gr., which is what made me realize my earlier error. None of the other sizes have a weight in grains that divides evenly into the 7,000 gr. per pound. The Rest of the Story: A list member pointed out the rationale of shotgun gauge and the similar bore nomenclature of some older blackpowder big-game rifles being determined by the diameter of the number of equal-size balls cast from a pound of lead. It is sort of the reciprocal of the British system of cannon classification. An eight-pounder cannon shot an eight-pound ball and so forth. There is a caveat, however. With cannon, the ball was cast of iron whereas for the shoulder arms it was cast of lead. In reality, they are two different scales as there is a significant difference in density between iron and lead so a one-pounder cannon would have a larger bore than a theoretical one-bore rifle or 1-gauge shotgun. --- Supremes Schedule McDonald Hearing: The U.S. Supreme Court has set a date to hear the landmark civil liberties case that will determine whether the Second Amendment prohibits state and local governments from enacting stiff anti-gun laws. Oral arguments in the lawsuit, McDonald v. City of Chicago, will be held on the morning of March 2, 2010. A decision is expected by late June or early July. It's also worth noting the amicus briefs that have been filed in the last week or so in support of the Second Amendment Foundation and other groups challenging Chicago's handgun restrictions. There are at least 30 of them - ably reposted at ChicagoGunCase.com - plus two unaffiliated ones filed by the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund and the Brady Center To Prevent Gun Violence. (The NAACP wants to ensure that any decision won't jeopardize other civil rights, and the Brady folks argue that even if the Second Amendment applies to state gun laws, the justices should adopt a deferential approach that lets nearly all of those laws survive.) ... (Article includes interesting summaries of a few of the briefs.) http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/11/30/taking_liberties/entry5841302.shtml State Legislators Support McDonald: State Rep. Chuck Hopson, R-Jacksonville, along with a group of state legislators and other elected officials from all 50 states has signed an amicus curiae, or "friend of the court" brief supporting the NRA's position that the Second Amendment is incorporated against the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. The amicus brief, bearing the signatures of 891 state legislators and other elected officials - including two governors and three lieutenant governors - was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court last week in the case of McDonald v. City of Chicago. Last week, the NRA filed its brief with the Supreme Court as Respondent in Support of Petitioner in the McDonald case. The NRA brief asks the Court to hold that the Second Amendment applies to state and local governments through the Fourteenth Amendment. "As a strong proponent of the Second Amendment, this was an easy decision for me," Hopson said. "I consider the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms to be one of the most important individual freedoms that we can have as Americans. I am licensed to carry a firearm in Texas, and do so proudly..." http://www.jacksonvilleprogress.com/local/local_story_335002617.html SEIU Affiliate Signs Brady Bunch's McDonald Brief: The Brady Center has filed a friend of the court brief in the McDonald v. Chicago case. On Saturday, we saw how they attempt to defend destruction of the right to keep and bear arms under the guise of reasonability. Yesterday, we met some un-American police chiefs who place their political career ambitions over your rights. Today, we're going to meet another signatory to the Brady brief, the International Brotherhood of Police Officers. Unlike Oath Keepers, that is current and retired military and law enforcement professionals who place their oath to support and defend the Constitution first, and thus are deemed suspect by the state-firster crowd, the IBPO consists of officers who have sworn the same oath, but who have a competing constitution to consider. Shall we compare the two preambles? ... http://www.examiner.com/x-1417-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m11d30-Why-do-SEIU-enforcers-oppose-you-having-guns --- Suicides - Gun Ownership or the Economy?: The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) recently reported that suicide rates have been rising along with the unemployment rate. The Brady Campaign claims that increased gun ownership causes more suicide. Who's right? ...The Brady Campaign claims that "easy access to guns can turn a transient crisis into a permanent tragedy" and "keeping a gun in the home raises the risk of suicide." Brady believes that "without stronger, sensible gun laws, thousands upon thousands of people will continue to die and be injured needlessly each year." ...Between 2003 and 2006, the unemployment rate dropped from 6.0% to 4.6%, but the overall suicide rate continued rising 2.2%. Firearms suicides decreased 3.5%; non-firearms suicides, up 9.0%, drove the overall rate increase. Since reaching historically low rates in 2000, the divergence becomes even more pronounced. Between 2000 and 2006, the unemployment rate increased from 4.0% to 4.6%. The overall suicide rate increased 6.0%; firearms suicide rates decreased 4.8% while non-firearms suicide rates increased 20.3%. Since 1990, there has been a relatively steady, 25.9% decline in firearms suicide rates, regardless of unemployment rates, but the same is not true of non-firearms suicides, which increased 12.2%.As a result, firearms suicides became a smaller portion of all suicides, decreasing from 61.1% in 1990 to 50.9% of the total in 2006. Meanwhile, the ATF estimates that over 81.6 million firearms, including over 36.3 million handguns, were sold to American civilians between 1990 and 2006... http://www.examiner.com/x-2879-Austin-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m11d30-Suicide-caused-by-economics-or-guns --- The Life and Death Clock: This is an impressive numerical counter of where firearm homicides rank in relation to six other causes of death and how often firearms help save lives. http://calnra.com/lifeclock/ --- Non Sequitur of the Week?: News that an armed fugitive who shot and killed four police officers near Seattle on Sunday was still at large prompted fear, anger, sorrow and something else: The desire to grab a gun. "I can tell you that most people have probably got their weapons loaded right now," a retired computer worker from Parkland, Wash., told The Times. "I think people should carry their guns and be ready," a local taxi driver told National Public Radio. It's a typical American response to an all-too-typical American incident of gun violence. It is also a striking example of the disconnect between our desire to feel safe and our insistence on loose gun laws that make us less so. The murdered officers were armed, well trained in the use of their weapons and wearing bulletproof vests. It didn't save them... Had Sunday's victims been, say, Mounties, it wouldn't necessarily have sent Canadians scrambling for the gun racks. But then, such killings are far less common in Canada. According to the FBI, the U.S. homicide rate in 2008 was 5.4 for every 100,000 people; 67% of those killings were committed with guns. In Canada, the homicide rate was 1.8 per 100,000, with 33% of the killings committed with guns. Notice a pattern? Canada has stricter guns laws than the United States, requiring owners to pass a safety course and get a license before buying a gun, rather like drivers must do here. The need for a driver's license seems obvious to most Americans - after all, a car with an untrained driver behind the wheel can be deadly... (One can debate the mental preparedness of the murdered officers, all of whom had apparently chosen a public venue to catch up on "paperwork" they were performing on laptop computers. The fact remains that one of them is reported to have wounded the assailant. As to Canadians, they simply do not have the options that most Americans do, either to own handguns or to carry firearms for self-defense.) http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-cops1-2009dec01,0,4102431.story And Who Was the Murderer?: The Pacific Northwest seems to be asking itself a question: How could a man with the criminal history of suspected cop-killer Maurice Clemmons be on the street? Here is a guy whose life history from his mid-teens to Sunday morning in Parkland reads like a bad crime novel. Simply discussing the crimes Clemmons had been convicted of or charged with should make one's skin crawl, and leave the community wondering how any judge could let this guy loose, to say nothing of a former Arkansas governor who granted this man clemency...apparently on condition that he leave the state... Convicted felons like Maurice Clemmons do not stroll into a retail gun shop and legally purchase a pistol. He would never have passed a background check, which, incidentally, is a requirement for membership in the Washington Arms Collectors, the group that operates gun shows in Puyallup and Monroe every month, and only allows members to purchase firearms from other members... (As of this morning, it appears that Clemmons came in second place in a gunfight with Seattle police officers and will not be available to face trial.) http://www.examiner.com/x-4525-Seattle-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m11d30-A-long-history-of-crime-should-send-a-signal --- Oops, Wrong Caterer: A Miami [FL] catering company turned into a crime scene Monday morning after police and paramedics rushed to help a man who had been shot. The man was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital, according to Miami Fire Spokesman Ignatius Carroll. The shooting occurred sometime after 9 a.m. inside Yolene Catering on the 5900 block of Northwest Second Avenue. Yolene Francois, the owner, told CBS4's Tiffani Helberg that her husband shot a man in self defense. She said the man had worked for them briefly. He allegedly came in demanding money and picked up a chair as if to strike him. That's when the owner allegedly shot the man, Francois said. Miami-Dade police say the owner who shot the former employee won't face charges because he shot in self defense. The former employee who allegedly assaulted the husband may face charges... http://cbs4.com/local/miami.catering.yolene.2.1340526.html --- Phoenix Gun Show: The Crossroads of the West Gun Show, this coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday, at the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Phoenix, is already a huge, multiple-building proposition in its own right. The December show, however, also includes a separate building for the annual Small Arms Review show, which emphasizes full-auto and other NFA items. If anyone attending wishes to touch base with me there and does not already have my cell-phone number, feel free to e-mail me for it prior to Friday morning. -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. The tactics and skills to use a firearm in self-defense don't come naturally with the right to keep and bear arms. http://www.spw-duf.info .