RKBA Amendment Could Scuttle DC Congressional Seat: The Senate approved the D.C. Voting Rights Act on Thursday, though an amendment that would scale back the city's tough anti-gun laws complicated its outlook...The bill would add two seats to the House of Representatives - one from the largely Democratic District and one from Republican-leaning Utah, increasing the number in the House for the first time since 1913. But the bill's ultimate success was thrown into question by an amendment attached to the legislation that would peel back some of the District's strict gun control laws. The amendment was sponsored by Sen. John Ensign, Nevada Republican, and passed the Senate with a 62-36 vote. The House is expected to vote next week. If a bill is passed in the House that does not include the gun-rights amendment, which is likely, the House and Senate versions would go to conference committee, where members of both houses would iron out differences... http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/27/senate-passes-voting-rights-bill-for-dc/ The gun amendment is similar to a sweeping measure approved by the House last year that was fought by the D.C. government. It would remove the city's gun-registration requirements, limit its authority to restrict firearms and repeal the District's ban on semiautomatic guns... Ensign's measure may signal that he is the new go-to senator for gun rights groups such as the National Rifle Association. For years, their champion was Larry Craig, who retired last month... Opponents of the current bill said it violated the constitutional provision that House representatives should be chosen by the "people of the several states." Since the District is not a state, its inhabitants don't qualify for representation, they said... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/26/AR2009022601678.html ...The measure is likely to end up in the courts, however, even if a similar bill passes the House, as is expected next week. President Obama has said he will sign the legislation. The gun amendment makes the Senate measure significantly different from the bill in the House, which could slow passage. However, some members of Congress said the amendment was unlikely to survive the negotiations between the House and Senate over a final version of the bill. The amendment was a major victory for the pro-gun lobby, which has battled against the city's tough gun laws... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/us/politics/27district.html?ref=us --- Big Brother Lied, Rights Died: As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama deliberately and repeatedly lied to America's 90 million gun owners across the country when he insisted that he would not try to take away anyone's firearms, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today. CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, reacting to yesterday's remarks by Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder that the president will seek to reinstate the ban on semi-automatic firearms, said Obama "knew he was lying to the nation because his own Web site touted his plan to revive the gun ban and make it permanent. We warned America that Obama's 'support' for the Second Amendment was empty rhetoric," he stated, "and now Holder's disclosure has confirmed it. Obama was lying, and now gun rights may be dying." ... http://news.prnewswire.com/ViewContent.aspx?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/02-26-2009/0004979742&EDATE= --- The Mexican Excuse: Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama wish to reinstate the assault weapons ban, a ban of specific types of semi-automatic weapons imposed on Americans during the Clinton Administration. Oddly, the types of weapons that were forbidden were seldom used in the commission of crimes. Despite President Obama's campaign assertion that he is a supporter of the Second Amendment, the new administration is predictably going after the freedoms law abiding citizens are guaranteed in the constitution, using the excuse of preventing violence. This time the violence is in Mexico, and the excuse is that drug cartels are smuggling weapons from the US... While guns are sometimes fraudulently purchased or stolen and smuggled south, the cartels are not getting automatic weapons from the US. Fully automatic M-16's and AK-47's (machine-guns) are against the law here. The automatic weapons favored by the drug lords come from a more immediate sources, one is the Mexican army itself, which provides the foot soldiers to the cartels, fully trained and willing to fight for the high pay the cartels promise. Fully automatic Kalashnikovs, RPG's and grenades come from other places, like Venezuela, who has recently received a production license for the new AK variant from Russia and has smuggled weapons to Mexican rebel groups in the past. International arms smugglers are also contributing to the volatile mix... (Fully automatic M16's and AK-47's are not actually against the law in the US - they are just restricted so severely that straw purchasers cannot just walk into border-state gun shops and buy them.) http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/02/the_mexican_excuse_stealing_fr.html --- Ban Will Reduce Jobs, Not Crime: Responding to Attorney General Eric Holder's comment yesterday that the Obama Administration will attempt to reinstate a ban against semi-automatic rifles, the National Shooting Sports Foundation reminded Congress and all Americans that such a ban would cause jobs to be lost in a difficult economy, have no effect on reducing crime and would deprive millions of law-abiding sportsmen and gun owners of their Constitutional right to own the firearm of their choice... Holder's use of the inaccurate term "assault weapons" is one that is deliberately used by gun-ban advocates to create confusion between legally sold, semi-automatic rifles and look-a-like, fully automatic military versions. While the civilian version of these rifles may resemble their military counterparts, the civilian rifle fires only one round with each pull of the trigger. Additionally, these rifles fire ammunition calibers no more powerful than traditional-looking sporting arms. Civilian access to fully automatic machine guns has been severely restricted since 1934... http://news.prnewswire.com/ViewContent.aspx?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/02-26-2009/0004979721&EDATE= --- Pelosi Not Quite Ready: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tossed cold water on the prospect of reinstating the assault weapons ban, highlighting Democrats' reluctance to take on gun issues. Attorney General Eric Holder raised the prospect Wednesday that the administration would push to bring back the ban. But Pelosi (D-Calif.) indicated on Thursday that he never talked to her. The Speaker gave a flat "no" when asked if she had talked to administration officials about the ban. "On that score, I think we need to enforce the laws we have right now," Pelosi said at her weekly news conference. "I think it's clear the Bush administration didn't do that." Outside of the dig at the recent Republican president, that phrase is the stock line of those who don't want to pass new gun control laws, such as the National Rifle Association. The White House declined to comment on Holder's remarks, referring reporters to the Department of Justice. The DoJ did not respond to The Hill's request for comment. http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/pelosi-tosses-cold-water-on-reviving-assault-weapon-ban-2009-02-26.html --- Big Brother Boosts Firearm Stocks: The election of President Obama and a Democratically controlled Congress has been a boon to U.S. handgun makers, with sales of one pistol manufacturer climbing enough that an analyst Wednesday upgraded its stock to "Strong Buy" from "Accumulate." CL King & Assoc. analyst Jim Barrett upgraded shares of Sturm, Ruger & Co. after the Southport, Conn.-based company reported its firearm revenue soared 81 percent in the fourth quarter. "We are raising our rating, recognizing that sales are benefiting from what is clearly a one-time surge in gun sales due to the arrival of the new Democratic administration," Barrett said. Since President Obama's Nov. 3, 2008, election, Sturm's shares have climbed more than 20 percent. And shares of rival Smith & Wesson Holding Corp., based in Springfield, Mass., have shot up about 40 percent... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29389581/ Related Article: http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2009/02/26/gun-sales-stocks-obama-fear/ --- Russian Arms Industry on Verge of Bankruptcy: Not sure if it's good news or bad. If you shoot the relatively cheap Wolf or Barnaul ammo this could be bad. If you don't trust Russians (and I don't), this could be good. Anyway, one thing is for sure: if the Russkies want to jump start their dying firearms and ammunition industry, the best thing they can do is to elect Obama as President next time around. One third of Russian armament manufacturers are almost bankrupt and the industry is trying to obtain financial credit from Western banks as the loans from Russian banks are too expensive... http://transsylvaniaphoenix.blogspot.com/2009/02/russian-armament-industry-only-inches.html --- Gillibrand Reverses Stance: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand made her turnaround on a key gun-control issue official this week: She signed a letter seeking repeal of the NRA-backed Tiahrt Amendments, even though she sought to make them permanent just last June. The letter, made public yesterday, asks Attorney General Eric Holder for his support for the repeal of Tiahrt, an appropriations bill amendment that since 2003 has restricted use of federal gun-trace data. The letter was written and circulated by Gillibrand's most outspoken critic: Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola), a gun-control activist whose husband was killed in 1993 by a gunman on the Long Island Rail Road. Gillibrand acknowledged backing Tiahrt's repeal by signing the letter, an aide said, but denied making a 180-degree turn on the measure. Gillibrand said instead that Tiahrt needs to be "fixed..." http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usgill266049715feb26,0,857834.story --- Pro-RKBA Bills in North Carolina: While gun rights advocates nationwide assume a defensive stance in response to the election of Barack Obama and the stranglehold on Congress by Democrats, some state legislators and state-level groups like Grass Roots North Carolina are out of the foxholes and fighting for legislation to enhance lawful self-defense. Within the last week, no fewer than five pro-gun bills have been introduced in the North Carolina General Assembly thanks to pro-Second Amendment legislators like Representatives Mark Hilton, George Cleveland, Justin Burr, Jim Gulley, Tim Moore, Fred Steen, and Laura Wiley; and Senator Andrew Brock. More gun legislation can be expected to be introduced prior to the bill introduction deadlines of March 25 for the Senate and April 8 for the House... http://www.examiner.com/x-2698-Charlotte-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m2d26-Ambitious-gun-rights-agenda-introduced-in-North-Carolina --- Illinois Bill Would Restrict Private-Party Sales: Nearly 10 years after former Northwestern University basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong was shot and killed in Skokie, his widow championed legislation aimed at making handguns harder to buy. The proposal pushed by Sherialyn Byrdsong would require background checks of people buying a handgun privately from another individual. The background check and transaction would be performed by a licensed firearm dealer... The legislation advanced to the full House Wednesday after a 6-4 committee vote, but faces a tough road to becoming law, if history is any guide. Osterman's legislation is among a bundle of gun bills this session, with other measures pitched that would allow people to carry concealed weapons. The gun issue is a regional and ideological topic that crosses party lines in Illinois, with many Chicago area lawmakers wanting stringent gun laws and most Downstate lawmakers fervently supporting the right to bear arms... http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2009/02/house-panel-approves-measure-making-it-tougher-to-buy-handguns.html --- The Idiocy of Smart Guns: One of the fondest wishes of the forcible citizen disarmament lobby is a legal mandate that all guns (or at least all handguns) for private citizens be fitted with so-called "smart gun" technology. At this point, such technology has not yet even been developed, but that was not enough to stop New Jersey from passing a law requiring the use of such technology whenever it does become available. That was in 2002... At this point, almost seven years later, the technology still isn't available... Interestingly, one exception to New Jersey's "smart gun" requirement, whenever it goes into effect, will be police officers' guns. That seems a little odd, when one considers that although it is quite rare for people to be shot with their own guns, after being disarmed by a criminal, when it does happen, police are among the most likely victims - remember Brian Nichols? ... http://www.examiner.com/x-2581-St-Louis-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m2d26-The-idiocy-of-smart-guns --- New Hampshire Man Takes Permit Fight to Court: A year after he was denied a license to carry a concealed weapon, Exeter resident Dan Garand is taking his case to the state Supreme Court. His hired gun is attorney Penny Dean, a Second Amendment specialist, NRA-certified shooting instructor, hunting safety instructor and graduate of the "Lethal Force Institute." "If you can lawfully own a gun, you should be issued a license to carry," said Dean, who hopes to convince the state's highest court that appeals of gun license denials should be heard in superior courts. The case is scheduled for oral arguments before the Court on March 17, when Dean and Exeter attorney Dan Schwarz will each have ten minutes to make their arguments... (If memory serves, Dean is the student who shot herself while reholstering during an LFI-III course a few years back.) http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20090226-NEWS-90226032 --- Oops, Wrong Meat Market: Mohammed Abu Sayed was wiping Lotto-card scratchings from the counter of his Friendly Meat and Grocery when two men in ski masks and hoodies dashed through the front door. One pointed a revolver to Sayed's head as the other headed to the cooler for a six pack... It was the fourth attempted robbery of Sayed's convenience store since it opened in May. This time, he was ready. Sayed, 49, grabbed a .32-caliber pistol, crouched and aimed. The robbers fled, firing behind them as they ran... "I didn't shoot them. I didn't want to kill any people," he said. "But they wanted to kill me." ... (Pointing a gun you're not prepared to fire can be hazardous to your health.) http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/article979497.ece -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .