Correction: It has been brought to my attention that, while the article about the out-of-uniform campus police officer pointing a handgun at a professor's head as part of a "security drill" was published in a Virginia newspaper, the college itself is actually located in North Carolina. --- Debate Continues Over National-Park Carry: Visitors to some national parks would be able to start packing heat along with their tents and picnic baskets under a proposal being considered by the Interior Department that would ease restrictions on loaded firearms in the parks...The most recent revision of the rules came in 1983, but parks advocates say the restrictions date at least to the 1930s and mainly were designed to prevent poaching. The NRA praised Kempthorne's move, noting that 48 states now have processes that allow people to legally carry firearms for self-defense, compared with six states in 1982. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/27/AR2008022703131.html?hpid=sec-nation --- Obama's Second Amendment Limited To Hunting, Target Shooting: ...Obama evidently considers that de facto prohibition a "common-sense regulation," since he recently cited Washington's law as an example of constitutionally permissible gun control. "The notion that somehow local jurisdictions can't initiate gun safety laws to deal with gangbangers and random shootings on the street isn't borne out by our Constitution," he said...It's not surprising that Obama sees nothing unconstitutional about this situation, since he does not acknowledge that the Second Amendment has anything to do with self-defense. "As a former constitutional law professor, Barack Obama understands and believes in the constitutional right of Americans to bear arms," his website claims. "He will protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport, and use guns for the purposes of hunting and target shooting" (emphasis added)... http://reason.com/news/show/125180.html --- Most Americans Believe Second Amendment Protects Individual RKBA: ...Nearly three out of four Americans - 73% - believe the Second Amendment spells out an individual right to own a firearm, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll of 1,016 adults taken Feb. 8-10. Yet for decades, federal judges have seen the Constitution differently, allowing a range of gun-control measures imposed by governments seeking to curb gun violence... (Seemingly good poll results but 1,016 seems like a fairly small sample.) http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-02-26-guns-cover_N.htm --- Poll Claims Few Arizonans Support Campus Carry: Arizonans are overwhelmingly against a measure that would allow licensed, concealed handguns in schools, according to a Cronkite-Eight Poll released Tuesday. Seventy-three percent of those polled said they oppose SB 1214, sponsored by Sen. Karen Johnson, R-Mesa, which won endorsement Monday from a Senate committee on a 4-3 party-line vote. Twenty percent supported the idea, and 7 percent were unsure. The bill originally would have applied to all schools but was amended to cover only community colleges and state universities. That change occurred after the poll was conducted, but Bruce Merrill, a retired Arizona State University professor who directs the poll, said he doesn't think that change would have affected the results much. (I suspect that this poll is more a part of the media campaign against that bill than a result.) http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/78038.php Related Commentary: List member Charles Heller responds to one of the diatribes against SB 1214. http://www.libertywatchradio.com/blog --- Campus-Carry Campaign Grows: Since the tragic string of college campus shootings across the country, students have organized a national campaign to allow handguns in classrooms. Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, an Internet-based organization, is claiming to have over 15,000 members nationwide. The group has already staged "empty-holster" protests in several states, and 14 Ohio campuses have established their own chapters. Stephen J. Feltoon, a University of Miami graduate and psychology major, is the Midwest regional director of the student group. "The group started about two days after the Virginia Tech shootings," said Feltoon. "We were just trying to gather like-minded individuals and it just blossomed into the national campaign." http://www.mountvernonnews.com/local/08/02/27/campus.guns.html --- Maryland Ammo-Serialization Bill Opposed: A crime-fighting plan to require serial numbers on all ammunition sold in Maryland was denounced Tuesday by gun supporters, including the president of a Washington County sportsmen's group. Ammunition would be tracked through a state police database, paid for by a tax of 5 cents per round, starting Jan. 1, 2009. "This gives law enforcement the DNA trail of the bullet," giving police a jump on investigations otherwise bogged down by lab-testing delays, Russell Ford said. (It's actually one more step to make firearms and ammunition too costly for the average citizen.) http://www.herald-mail.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=187133&format=html --- "Gun Control" Non Sequiturs: ...The NIU murderer, Steven Kazmierczak, legally purchased the shotgun and three handguns he used, which did not qualify as "assault weapons," from a licensed dealer on three trips over seven months, and there does not seem to have been anything about his background that disqualified him from owning firearms. So the only possibly relevant suggestion offered by Helmke is to reimpose a 10-round federal limit on the size of magazines. But considering that Kazmierczak fired the shotgun six times and the handguns 48 times; that it takes just a few seconds to switch magazines; and that police arrived about six minutes after the attack started, by which time Kazmierczak already had killed himself, it is doubtful that the death toll was any higher than it would have been had he been carrying 10-round magazines. In fact, I cannot recall reading an account of a mass murder in the U.S. where "high capacity" magazines made a demonstrable difference... http://reason.com/blog/show/125190.html --- "Gun Control" Claims More Victims: ...The problem at Virginia Tech was not that there were guns on campus - only the campus police and gunman were armed - but that it was a "gun-free zone." As a result, there were not enough people carrying guns to neutralize the gunman once he began his rampage. He should have been outgunned after his first shots. To a criminal or deranged person bent on killing, a gun-free zone is a free-fire zone. As is obvious from all such incidents, the police arrive too late to prevent multiple killings...Consider that in all such incidents, the shooters are not so deranged as to attack police stations, shooting ranges, or gun shows. They have enough presence of mind to assail unarmed people in gun-free zones because they will encounter no effective resistance. (The one incident in which an individual was foolish enough to threaten to kill hostages where guns were prevalent was at a shooting club in California in July 1999. The gunman was promptly shot by an employee, without harm to the hostages.) http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/larosa4.html --- Massachusetts Disarms Toll Collectors: Gun-toting toll collectors have been stripped of their sidearms by Mass Pike brass after secretly carrying them for decades without formal training, the Herald has learned...But union officials said they are going to fight to allow the toll collectors to keep their weapons, even though a Pike review found the guns were not being properly maintained, with firing pins misaligned and other problems. LeBovidge said he forced 16 Turnpike toll collectors and couriers to turn in their firearms after finding that the only instruction they received was target practice at a private firing range in Dorchester. He said the employees were carrying .38-caliber handguns to protect themselves while transporting cash from toll booths to a central holding facility. (I sympathize with these guys, who could be targeted for robbery, but, deep down, feel that in a state that seeks to disarm its populace, the fewer armed state employees, the better.) http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1076234&srvc=home&position=also --- Iraqi Army Convert To M16's: In a move that could be the most enduring imprint of U.S. influence in the Arab world, American military officials in Baghdad have begun a crash program to outfit the entire Iraqi army with M-16 rifles. The initiative marks a sharp break for a culture steeped in the traditions of the Soviet-era AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifle, a symbol of revolutionary zeal and third-world simplicity that is ubiquitous among the militaries of the Middle East. (Of note, despite Israel having developed an excellent Kalashnikov derivative, the Galil, most Israeli troops carry M16's, which I assume are furnished on Uncle Sam's dime.) http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,162878,00.html?ESRC=eb.nl -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .