The Beat Goes On: When he takes office, President-elect Barack Obama has plans to push for an economic stimulus package - upwards of $800 billion put toward tax cuts, infrastructure projects, school construction and other initiatives to help the struggling economy. But even before Obama is sworn in, his election has led to an inadvertent economic stimulus package - for firearms dealers. With speculation swirling among gun-rights advocates that Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress will pursue gun-control legislation, news reports have documented steep increases in gun sales across the country. The trend is present in North Central Florida as well... http://www.ocala.com/article/20090103/ARTICLES/901031007/-1/LIVING04?Title=Loading__locking_up But Not in South Dakota?: On the heels of news that South Dakota sheriff's offices issued a record number of gun permits in 2007 comes word that the number of people submitted for background checks to buy firearms dropped during the 2008 fiscal year. Bob Boland, resident agent in charge of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives office in Sioux Falls, says it's hard to figure out why background checks diminished while some gun dealers were reporting more firearm sales... (South Dakota carry permits do not appear to qualify for the NICS background-check exemption [http://www.atf.treas.gov/firearms/bradylaw/permit_chart.htm].) http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail6162.cfm?Id=0,78507 --- Roy Boehm, "First SEAL," Has Died: Roy Boehm of Punta Gorda, a cantankerous retired U.S. Navy lieutenant commander who fought three wars, started the Navy's first SEAL team and shared his harrowing adventures - and his battles against military bureaucracy - in an autobiography, has completed his last mission. Roy Boehm, who had struggled with health problems for many years, died at home Tuesday night. He was 84... http://www.sunnewspapers.net/articles/tsnews.aspx?ArticleID=429300&pubdate=1/3/2009 --- How to Be a Survivalist in an Economic Decline: This reprise of a 2005 posting, following the economic collapse in Argentina, contains some interesting food for thought. As to bottom-feeding pistols versus revolvers, if the rest of you prefer the former, it will help keep down prices on vintage S&W's for me. However, those of us who prefer revolvers and carry them seriously for social work, generally carry more than one. http://www.peakoilandhumanity.com/Further_reading_folder/what_an_economic_decline_looks_like.htm --- From John Farnam: 2 Jan 09 Overseas Travel: Since 2007, the US State Department has issued all passports with embedded RFID (radio-frequency ID) chips. These hold a digital copy of your personal information, including your photograph. All newly-issued, or renewed, passports contain this RFID chip. Be aware that these devices are designed to be read at non-contact distances, and foreign travelers carrying passports can thus be remotely identified as Americans, and targeted as such, defeating any attempt to blend with local scenery. Unintended consequences? There is a company that sells security sleeves that blocks RFID access, info is here: _http://www.idstronghold.com/content/products_ (http://www.idstronghold.com/content/products) Probably a good idea! You can also get a passport "card," which can be used to enter CONUS from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda. These passport cards also have an imbedded RFID, but it does not contain personal information. Instead, it merely accesses records in a secure database at the State Department. Adults who already have a passport may apply for the card. Once again, I do not recommend travel outside CONUS right now. In fact, even most major metro areas within CONUS are good places to stay away from! /John (I have worked for two employers who issue employee ID's that are coded electronically with what I assume are RFID's. I don't know the details of the technology involved but those of a former employer could be read by door-control proximity readers at distances of a few feet while those of my current employer must be held very close to the reader to open the door. "CONUS," for those who don't recognize the term, is the military acronym for Continental United States) 2 Jan 09 Brits just can't win! Fatal stabbings in the UK reached a record high last year. There were 277 knife murders between April 2007 and April 2008, or five every week! That is the highest rate since record-keeping began in the 1980s. And, closer to home, in liberal Madison, WI, violent homicides are also setting records! Only two of which were the result of gunshot wounds. The balance of (unarmed) victims there were stabbed and/or beaten to death. Conversely, violent homicide rates in US states and cities where gun-ownership levels are high, and where concealed-carry permits are easy to get, are consistently down from past years. It looks as if gun-control, or, for that matter, knife-control, hasn't achieved the (professed) desired result. Imagine that! That is, unless helpless, dependant, cowering sheep, standing among heaps of dead/maimed victims (but, of course, no courageous, audacious, self-reliant heroes) is the real goal! /John 3 Jan 09 The Seldom-Articulated Agenda: From a friend in PA: "A local woman, the parent of an elementary-school child who was playing soccer at a tournament, recently showed up at the game openly wearing a Glock pistol (in a belt holster). She had a valid, State-issued CCW Permit. This part of our State has experienced a recent spike in violent crime. Upon seeing the pistol, another parent called police. Police arrived and interviewed the gun-carrying woman. They quickly determined that she did indeed have a valid CCW permit, was a home-owner in the Community of many years, and had no criminal record. She was neither arrested nor detained, but police did (illegally) seize her Glock pistol. Shortly thereafter, the Sheriff arbitrarily revoked her CCW Permit, and refused to return her pistol. At great personal expense and inconvenience, the woman appealed. At the hearing, a courageous District Judge took only a short time to side with the woman, ordering the Sheriff to return her pistol, and reinstate her CCW Permit, immediately. The judge went on to caustically scold the Sheriff, pointedly accusing him of abuse of office. This Sheriff, like those in the UK, sees private arms possession as a 'privilege,' to be capriciously extended, or withdrawn, at his whim. He doubtless sees other individual rights in the same light! Even today, protected, perfumed, insulated, pretentious, and utterly self-consumed, these privilege-seeking courtiers, unlike the rest of us, have little to personally fear from violent criminals. On the other hand, what scares the snot out of them is armed rebellion on the part of an exasperated, taxed-to-death, and routinely mistreated citizenry. Small wonder they work tirelessly to create a disarmed, impoverished, helpless, dependant, and terrorized populace. Of course, citizens like that accomplish little, and such a system virtually guarantees the decline and eventual demise of the Nation, but despotic politicians don't care, so long as they're on top!" Comment: It is obvious to me that the majority of elected American politicians at the Federal level, and also the vast majority of high-level bureaucrats, believe this Nation, over the next very few years, is destined to fall from its current status as a World Power, and will, shortly thereafter, cease to exist altogether, descending unceremoniously into the dustbin of History. In fact, Bill Clinton, when President, said as much, with a straight face, and BHO is echoing the identical sentiment even now! It is also obvious to me that, during our projected national decline, these politicians will make a sincere effort to guarantee they are personally spared all unpleasant consequences. For example, there is apparently no limit to the amount of our money they are willing to spend, in good times and bad, in an effort to protect/insulate themselves and maintain privileged lifestyles. When this nation is thus successfully invaded, and those few among us who survive are subsequently enslaved, the privileged status of these politicians will remain unchanged (if they have anything to say about it). They will be only too happy to fully collaborate with new magnates, and, like Vichy French, drive on as if nothing had happened. The difference is, there will be no United States to come to the rescue! /John (Comments on the Melanie Hain case: Pennsylvania does not require a permit for open carry, thus the issue of whether Mrs. Hain had a permit is irrelevant to the incident. While I do not recall the degree to which the judge may have castigated the sheriff, he also castigated Mrs. Hain for carrying openly when she could have legally carried more discreetly. You may or may not agree with the judge in this regard but John's friend in PA provided a somewhat lopsided account. The sheriff, in turn, acted irrationally in revoking her permit if his intent was to get her to stop flaunting the fact that she is armed; without a permit, her only legal recourse would have been open carry.) -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .