No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.10.9/417 - Release Date: 8/11/2006 Surprise, Surprise: Fewer than one percent of Ohio CHL holders have had their licenses suspended or revoked in the two years that Ohio has had licensed CCW. More than half of the 100 revocations this year were due to allegations that one instructor failed to provide the mandated training. Yet, "I look at the stats and it doesn't tell me a lot, because it doesn't tell why they were suspended," said Toby Hoover, executive director of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence. http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/08/13/20060813-C6-00.html --- Pennsylvania To Consider Stand-Your-Ground Bill: Mirroring a trend among legislatures across the country, Pennsylvania lawmakers are considering a bill that would permit people to stand their ground -- and even use deadly force -- to defend themselves when threatened or endangered. (Absent from most of these articles is the fact that many states did not impose a duty to retreat prior to the passage of the stand-your-ground bill in Florida.) http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/news/115543410670050.xml&coll=1 --- Meanwhile, In Kentucky...: A Louisville newspaper complains about that state's recent castle-doctrine law being cited as the justification for a plea bargain in a case where a cocaine addict killed his dealer. (Conservatives have complained for years about lenient plea bargains. This is nothing new except that liberals can now blame a statute intended to protect those who defend themselves against violent criminals.) http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006608130364 --- UN - One Authority, One Gun: John Longenecker believes that Kofi Annan, despite protestations that a recent UN conference should not be viewed as a threat to American gun owners, tipped his hand in a recent speech. http://mensnewsdaily.com/2006/08/12/the-un-says-what-wed-fearedand-known-all-along/ --- From John Farnam: 7 Aug 06 I attended a stick/cane-fighting seminar yesterday, instructed by Peter Donello of Canemasters. Canemasters manufacturers high-quality canes and walking sticks and provides training in their use. However, I used my Cold Steel" City Stick," as did several other students. I was astonished at the number of effective moves available to the cane/stick fighter, certainly more than I can remember! Peter's knowledge is vast, and I did my best to catalog the few that I thought were most effective and easiest to learn. Range is the big advantage canes have over blades and other impact weapons. Striking and jabbing are still the premiere moves, easily done with nearly any style of cane. Some follow-up moves and holds and more comfortably accomplished with a hooked cane than with a straight stick, but either style works just fine. The real question is: What can I have with me most often that attracts the least attention? This four-hour clinic is something I recommend to everyone. The cane is a wonderful, low-profile, yet extremely effective fighting tool that most people can fit into their lives with a minimum of lifestyle disruption. Most casual observers don't even notice when you have one with you and certainly don't believe them to represent a threat. Time well spent! /John (I carried a cane on my last two trips to Mexico, in 1985 and 1986. It was rather obvious that I was not carrying it to help me walk and I noted that those people whom I preferred would keep their distance did so while others, including military and police personnel, seemed unconcerned by it.) 9 Aug 06 What if? Here is the "What if?" question that is silently circulating among federal agencies: Israel is currently fighting, as far as it is concerned, for its very national existence. Few in Israel don't believe that every, last Israeli (man, woman, child) in the entire county will be casually massacred, in place, when Iran/Hezbollah successfully invades. When that happens, all of Western Europe will do little more than scratch itself! Israel has not a friend in the world, save the USA, and the UK. Curious that the same people who don't think the United States should be fighting terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq, wildly cheer Israel for doing the identical thing in Lebanon! I guess it is okay for them, but not for us, eh? It is widely believed Israel has an arsenal of deliverable, nuclear weapons. In fact, there is little doubt that is true. Iran will have something along that line soon, and we all know Hezbollah to be simply the "provisional branch" of the Iranian armed forces. Of course, Russia and China have operational, nuclear arsenals too, as do, to a lesser extent, India, and Pakistan. In addition, there is a considerable amount of fissionable material, left over from the Cold War, that is completely unaccounted for. Heaven knows where it is! So, there is a high probability, getting higher with each passing day, that an above-ground nuke will go off, on purpose, somewhere in the world before the current crisis subsides (if it ever does). There well may be more than just one! When that happens, this is what we can look forward to here in the USA: Life, for us, will change forever. Airports will shut down immediately. In fact, all travel, save walking, will be extremely restricted. Plan on being treated like a criminal no matter where you go. Plan on not getting anywhere fast. Those caught away from home will be stranded for weeks or months. For Americans vacationing in foreign countries, even Mexico and Canada, reentry will be all but impossible. "Martial Law," or some version of it, will be imposed in every place. That means curfews, endless checkpoints, and mass detention centers, everywhere. Television and radio will be offline. Hard, reliable news will be difficult to come by. Wild rumors will circulate, unchecked. Communication via telephone, cell phone, and computer will be cut off immediately. The whole system will melt down. Restoration will be slow and tedious. It may be weeks before you know the status of separated friends and family. All sales of guns and ammunition will be stopped immediately, along with sales of liquor, fuel, and some drugs. Military mobilization, on a national level, will commence in earnest. Most roads, mass transit, heavy vehicles, busses, aircraft, and ships will be immediately commandeered for military use. Politicians, at all levels, will take extreme measures to protect themselves. The rest of us will be the recipients of little more than lip service. We'll see paranoid mayors, like Nagen in New Orleans, send their police house to house confiscating legally-owned firearms, ammunition, even food (you'll be accused of "hoarding") from good and decent people who are unlikely to resist violently. The indecency of such public criminality will never even occur to them. As we saw in New Orleans, violent criminals, individually and in gangs, will commit burglaries, robberies, arson, rape, and murder, largely unhindered by police (who will be completely overwhelmed). Those caught unprepared will, as always, make useful victims. There will be chronic shortages of everything you can imagine. Cash will become worthless. Until some universal faith in government is earned and eventually restored, the new currency will be food, ammunition, and batteries. Decent people, entire neighborhoods, will have to band together for protection. Large sections of urban areas will be considered too dangerous to enter, even by police. In France, this is the case now! Delivery of basic, infrastructure services, like water, gas, and electricity, will become intermittent and unreliable. I promise you, liberal, anti-gun snobs will be the first ones at your doorstep sheepishly begging to borrow one of yours! Many among the naive and unprepared will not live through it. Individual preparedness, including reserves of food, water, guns, ammunition, personal competence and resolve, et al, will see you through it. My advice is to get prepared now, while you still can. "What if?" is, in fact, the wrong question. "What when?" is the right one! /John (Many list members will recall Teddy Jacobson's advice to stockpile small packages of 9mm ammunition for barter.) -- Stephen P. Wenger Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .