Big Brother's Anti-RKBA Policies Could Hurt Conservation: ...Sportsmen face two primary issues. On one hand is our collective concern for the future of the constitutional right to own the firearms we use for hunting and personal protection. On the other is concern for the future of wildlife and wild places. Public access to those wild places is as much of an issue as protecting them. What most people don't understand is the vast majority of funding for wildlife and wild places is tied to personal firearms ownership... The dependence of America's wildlife conservation efforts on private gun ownership was formalized in 1937 when a wiser Congress than ours today passed the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act. Commonly referred to as the Pittman-Robertson Act, this law was enacted at the behest of America's original conservationists - sportsmen who were concerned about the country's fast-diminishing wildlife and wild places... (Could an amendment to the Pittman-Robertson Act, which places a unique tax on firearms and ammunition, be the vehicle to create prohibitive taxation on ammunition? I find myself in the camp of those rejecting the Pittman-Robertson Kool-Aid.) http://www.lvrj.com/sports/36968014.html --- From Killeen to Colorado: ...As a result, Dr. Hupp became one of the Nation's leading advocates for concealed carry permits; in fact, at her urging, in 1995 the Texas Legislature adopted a "shall-issue" gun law requiring all qualifying applicants to be issued a Concealed Handgun License. In 1996, she was elected to the Texas House of Representatives, then traveled the country giving personal testimony why States should enact concealed carry laws. Most recently, she filed a friend of the court brief when the Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of Washington, D.C.'s ban on handguns for personal safety, District of Columbia v. Heller... Students for Concealed Carry on Campus (SCCC), a national advocacy group with over 30,000 members that supports the legalization of concealed carry by licensed individuals on college campuses, agrees. Last month, SCCC, two CU students and a recent CU graduate filed a lawsuit in Colorado state court seeking a ruling that CU's policy is illegal and unconstitutional! http://townhall.com/columnists/WilliamPerryPendley/2009/01/01/college_students_seek_to_use_concealed-carry_permits?page=full --- DC Relaxes Zoning for Gun Shops, Slightly: The District will allow gun stores along major commercial corridors in every corner of the city, under new rules recently adopted by the D.C. Zoning Commission. Emergency regulations issued by the commission allow gun stores to open along most commercial corridors not zoned for neighborhood retail, throughout much of downtown and in a handful of industrial zones. But because each store must be at least 300 feet away from the nearest school, library, home, playground and church, the number of specific possible locations is very limited. The rules are far less restrictive than those adopted in July - a month after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the District's 32-year-old handgun ban. The earlier regulations limited retailers to downtown, set a 600-foot buffer and required that gun store applicants obtain a special zoning exception... http://www.dcexaminer.com/local/010209-District_targets_spots_to_establish_gun_stores.html --- DC's New Gun Laws, Part 1: Washington, D.C., must be looking for more court fights, because the City Council recently passed a bill that'll trigger yet another legal battle over Second Amendment rights. Instead of respecting the Supreme Court's decision in D.C. v. Heller, the Council passed a bill that ignores the high court's ruling. Over the next few days, I'll be talking about just some of the dirty secrets buried in D.C.'s new anti-gun laws. Let's start with one provision that should have privacy rights advocates furious. In addition to the requirement to re-register a firearm every three years, the Council makes gun owners submit a letter every year to inform the city whether they still own that gun, and if not, why not! ... http://www.nranews.com/blogarticle.aspx?blogPostId=481 --- Big Brother Regime Will Strengthen NRA: With Barack Obama ready to move into the White House and his party holding healthy majorities in Congress, 2009 will be the Democrats' year. But you know who else will do well? The National Rifle Association. Too bad the gun-rights lobby doesn't issue stock. It's an easy call. Just look at how groups on the other side did during the Bush administration. Membership in the American Civil Liberties Union doubled. Donations to environmental organizations surged. In fundraising letters, the NRA is already raising the specter of "an outright ban on your guns." And brisk sales at gun stores show Second Amendment-loving citizens are worried... (While this commentary is not exactly friendly, it highlights the need to get all those new gun owners involved politically, whether in the NRA or in more active groups, such as the nascent Citizens Defense League movement.) http://www.redding.com/news/2009/jan/01/opposition-will-boost-fortunes-of-lobby-groups/ --- Ballistic-Imaging Baloney: Seven years ago, New York started a database of "ballistic fingerprints" for all new handguns sold in the state. The bill's backers sold it as a crime-solving device, arguing that the state would now have a sample of a spent shell and bullet for every new gun sold. This, they said, would help police connect future evidence from crime scenes to specific guns. Since then, the authorities have entered 200,000 newly purchased guns into the database and spent $1 million dollars a year on the system. Yet it hasn't led to a single solved crime. The only other state with such a database, Maryland, can attribute at least one conviction to the system since it was created in 2000-more than zero, but few enough that the state's own Police Forensics Division has suggested scrapping the program because of its demonstrated lack of benefits... http://www.reason.com/news/show/130311.html --- Oops, Wrong House, Georgia Version: A Covington man shot a burglar in his home Dec. 28, sending the perpetrator to the hospital, where officers with the Covington Police Department arrested him. According to the incident report, the victim was asleep when he heard someone kick open his front door and enter his home. He said the grabbed his handgun from under his pillow, loaded the weapon and ran into the living room, where he saw the burglar standing in the foyer. The victim said he fired four shots and the intruder ran. The victim then grabbed his high-powered rifle and stood guard outside his home, where officers found him when they arrived at the home... (It's a good thing that the homeowner was afforded the time to load his handgun. I have addressed before the risks of keeping handguns under pillows. While the risk of firing the gun while asleep is attenuated by keeping it unloaded, so is its defensive value. If the gun is left there 24 hours a day, it is also likely to be accessible to unauthorized users.) http://newmedia.covnews.com/news/article/5222/ --- Oops, Wrong House, Maine Version: Two police officers were hurt making an arrest in Portland Thursday. At about 9 p.m., the officers were dispatched to Berkley Street, where Joseph Verzosa, 41, was trying to get into a home, police said. The resident was holding him off with a firearm until police arrived. Police said there was no prior relationship between Verzosa and the resident. The two officers suffered minor knee injuries as they struggled with Verzosa before taking him into custody. They were treated at the hospital and released. Verzosa is charged with criminal trespass and refusal to submit to arrest. (It sounds as thought this homeowner did everything right - holding off the intruder and letting police make the arrest.) http://www.wmtw.com/news/18397327/detail.html --- Rule Five Reminder: An accidental shooting involving an unsupervised child with a loaded gun has once again brought attention to the issue of gun safety in Oklahoma. At least seven children have died in the last three years in Oklahoma as a result of accidental shootings by other children. The latest was 13-year-old Michael Contway of Chandler, who died Monday after being shot by another 13-year-old boy. State Representative Al McAffrey says he doesn't believe in taking away Second Amendment rights, but hopes lawmakers will consider a requirement for safety devices on firearms to help protect children... (Rule Five: Maintain Control of your firearm. About two years ago a list member expressed concern that I place too much effort on Rule Five. As it says below, "Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation.") http://www.kfsm.com/Global/story.asp?S=9603072 --- Tangentially Related: When President-elect Obama takes office on January 20th, he will be responsible for nominating judges to any vacancies on the federal judiciary. That includes openings on the nine-member Supreme Court, but also any of the 179 judgeships on the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal or the 678 seats on the federal district courts... http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/july-dec08/obamacourts_12-31.html -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .