Agents Find Few Southbound Guns: ...For the past five weeks, hundreds of agents participating in a newly intensified $95 million outbound inspection program have been stepping into southbound traffic lanes, stopping suspicious-looking cars and trucks... The findings? Wads of U.S. currency headed for Mexico, wedged into car doors, stuffed under mattresses, taped onto torsos, were sniffed out by dogs, seized by agents and locked away for possible investigations. No guns were found as the reporters watched; they rarely are... According to CBP, between March 12 and April 30 officers seized... Fifty-one pieces of ammunition, weapons parts and guns, a minuscule fraction of the 2,000 weapons the Mexican government estimates are smuggled south every day... http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/116595.php --- Exporting the 90% Myth: ...Hard numbers on seized firearms in Jamaica have eluded me, so far, but I have little reason to expect those numbers to be any more accurate with regard to Jamaica than has been the case with Mexico. Note also that Engel could not resist dismissing the Second Amendment as an obstacle to such a ban, because of the supposed lack of a "sporting purpose" of the firearms in question (as if 10% of the Bill of Rights was devoted to the protection of sport)... http://www.examiner.com/x-2581-St-Louis-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m5d14-Not-just-Mexico-anymore-Congressman-Eliot-Engel-expands-the-90-meme-to-Jamaica --- Do as I say, Not as I Do: What do guns have to do with credit cards? Not much. Except they both share space on a bill that lawmakers want to deliver to President Obama's desk by Memorial Day. In a surprising move, the Senate voted 67-29 on Tuesday to attach a measure that would allow guns in national parks to a bill that cracks down on credit card fees... Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., saw an opportunity to grab on to a comparatively fast-moving target, since lawmakers are under the gun to finalize a credit card bill in the next 11 days. Keeping pressure on Congress, President Obama held a town hall in New Mexico on Thursday inviting consumers who had written or called the White House about their credit card companies... (Amendments are just fine for the left if they serve the left's purpose.) http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/14/news/economy/creditcard_guns/?postversion=2009051416 --- The Beat Goes On: Grab a phone book and call every gun shop across the Valley. You will probably hear the same thing. It's been nearly impossible to keep ammunition on their shelves. Some companies, like Sportsman's Warehouse in Phoenix, have had to post signs letting people know that handgun ammo and other popular rounds are sold out. On Wednesday, the store started a new policy that customers can only buy two boxes per day. Manger Mark Russell said no one could have ever expected this level of demand. Jenni Rigs works the cast register and said she was seeing people buying boxes of ammunition by the cart full. Rigs thinks they are hoarding or stockpiling ammo... http://www.abc15.com/content/news/phoenixmetro/central/story/Why-many-Valley-gun-shops-are-sold-out-of/5wMhpPl6okyocbwho3ihcg.cspx Continuing a nationwide trend that began before November's presidential election, area gun retailers are reporting an increase in firearms sales. The result? Heightened demand has diminished ammunition availability at retail locations throughout the U.S. Although gun sales tend to go up during times of economic hardship, retailers, gun owners and industry insiders credit rising sales and declining supply to fear that President Barack Obama and a Democratically controlled Congress will enact strict gun-control measures. As shortages have grown, stores - including Wal-Marts in Ashland, Mansfield and Wooster - have limited ammo purchases on certain varieties to ensure availability to more customers. Manufacturers have cranked up production in response to demand. Winchester Ammunition has a notice on its Web site updating its production status... http://www.times-gazette.com/news/article/4587240 ...At this point there wasn't really a shortage though, just an imbalance. Industry sources say that the ammo was out there, but it was in the wrong places. Still, the news of these regional shortfalls spread and, even though manufacturers were ramping up their production, demand continued to empty shelves. The perception of a shortage became a self-fulfilling prophecy as consumers tried to beat the shortage by buying all they could find whenever they could find it. Some retailers actually began limiting purchases to no more than 4 or five boxes a day as a way to make sure more of their customers could at least get some... http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/node/6675 We are witnessing an amazing renewal of support for the Second Amendment and the values it represents. All around the country, more people are becoming gun owners for the first time. They're fed up with politicians clamoring for more gun laws instead of cracking down on violent crime. They're concerned that in these tough economic times, more criminals will turn their attention on the innocent and law-abiding citizens. These lawful Americans are making the choice to exercise their Right to Keep and Bear Arms all across the country ... even in New Jersey. In fact, New Jersey state police say applications to own a gun have nearly doubled over the past five months. If every one of those new gun owners joined the NRA and the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs, we could start to get rid of some of the draconian laws designed to trip up legal gun owners while letting violent criminals plea bargain their charges down to a slap on the wrist... http://www.nranews.com/blogarticle.aspx?blogPostId=519 --- Unintended Consequences: We should all realize the common attitudes and views of the various states' residents and voters can differ, and this is becoming apparent as more states worry over the federal government's attempts to place increasingly more restrictive laws on firearm ownership by law-abiding citizens. On the heels of the historic Supreme Court ruling last year that the Second Amendment meant U.S. citizens of sound mind and clean records had the right to own firearms, governments, both at state and federal levels, are attempting to creatively circumvent that ruling. But in doing so, they have seemingly opened a Pandora's Box of challenges and opposite effects... http://www.evesun.com/news/stories/2009-05-14/6948/Push-for-stronger-gun-laws-having-opposite-effect/ --- NRA versus Illinois CCW?: Mike and Valinda Rowe of rural Enfield have been leading the charge toward Illinois residents gaining the right to carry concealed firearms, like every other state in the Union except Wisconsin. But they say their most recent effort with a better promise of success is being impeded by, of all organizations, the National Rifle Association. For nearly 15 years, license-to-carry bills have been repeatedly introduced to the Illinois Legislature - and have repeatedly failed. The Rowes blame opposition from the Chicago and Cook County area legislators... http://www.carmitimes.com/news/x1393577478/NRA-impeding-passage-of-concealed-carry --- Florida Legislature Taxes RKBA: ...Because legislative budget officials have refused to allow the Division of Licensing to use their own trust fund money to hire necessary staff and upgrade equipment, the Concealed Weapons and Firearms Licensing program is in crisis. It is a crisis created by the legislature and anti-gun budget staffers. They refused to allow gun owners' money to be used to administer the gun owner program - as required by law - then confiscated gun owners' money for their own political purposes. THEY CREATED A SECOND AMENDMENT TAX. Right now, the concealed weapons and firearms licensing program is backlogged and overloaded due in part to the refusal of budget officials and the Legislature to allow the Division of Licensing to use its own trust fund money to hire more employees and expand/upgrade equipment... http://www.opposingviews.com/articles/opinion-nra-fights-florida-tax-on-gun-owners --- A Gun Owner's Primer on Self-Defense: The gun salesman of the year, a/k/a Barack Obama, has put guns into the hands of thousands of people who never before owned them. Maybe that is you; maybe it's one of your friends or co-workers; maybe you've owned guns for years but want to get advanced level training. If you want basic or advanced handgun training, the "Armed Self-Defense" series, over the next two weeks, will provide you guidance on... (For years I have maintained a website offering gun owners and potential gun owners what I believe to be rational information to help them get beyond the training that comes in the box with the gun and the hype in the gun magazines. I suspect the I will have several differences with the recommendations in this series but, as Grandpa Wenger used to say, "Differences in opinion are what make horse races.) http://www.examiner.com/x-2698-Charlotte-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m5d14-Armed-selfdefense-for-gun-owners-new-and-old --- Oops, Wrong House: When two men broke into her home, Wanda Bray defended herself with what she had - a bowl of chili and some household objects. "The woman fought them off," said Capt. David Honeycutt of the Claiborne County [TN] Sheriff's Department, of the 58-year-old Bray. "She threw a bowl of homemade chili and got after them with a broom." Authorities later arrested three men in connection with the home-invasion robbery, and two of them were also charged with a convenience store heist... (Mental preparedness is the second priority. It includes the commitment to fight back with whatever is at hand.) http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/may/14/bowl-of-chili-used-to-fend-off-robbers/ --- Oops, Wrong Pizza Parlor, Follow-Up: Pizza shop owner Johnny Hayes not only had a legal right to defend himself and his business with lethal force, he felt an obligation to defend his staff and customers. Still, life after this death has not been easy. Each day since has become an emotional gut check over what can't be undone. Some police officers work a whole career without firing their weapon, but after just two years of owning a 9mm handgun, Hayes killed a man with it. "I live thinking about it every day. I am still concerned for my well being more so then ever, my employees and my family," Hayes said. "I shot and killed a guy. I don't feel good about it." Last March Hayes was filling an order when someone stepped through the front door... http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=113587 -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .