CCRKBA Blasts Daley over Police Armament: Anti-gun Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has taken one more step toward turning his city into a police state by planning to give police fully automatic M4 carbines, while still fighting to block the gun rights of citizens not only in Chicago but throughout Illinois, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today. http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-29-2008/0004802619&EDATE= --- Lautenberg Is At It Again: Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, today praised a bill introduced by Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey that would require longer retention of records in the Brady background check system and build in greater safeguards when background checks reveal someone suspected of terrorist activity. The PROTECT (Preserving Records of Terrorist and Criminal Transactions) Act of 2008 would require the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to retain records of approved firearm transactions for at least 180 days. Under current Justice Department regulations and appropriations restrictions, those records must be destroyed within 24 hours. In cases where the transaction involves a valid match to a terror watch list, the FBI would be required to retain the record for a minimum of 10 years. (Sen. Lautenberg is the author of the bill that retroactively made a misdemeanor conviction for domestic violence a disqualification for firearm ownership.) http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-29-2008/0004802670&EDATE= --- Air Marshals Grounded by Terror-Watch Lists: False identifications based on a terrorist no-fly list have for years prevented some federal air marshals from boarding flights they are assigned to protect, according to officials with the agency, which is finally taking steps to address the problem. Federal Air Marshals (FAMs) familiar with the situation say the mix-ups, in which marshals are mistaken for terrorism suspects who share the same names, have gone on for years - just as they have for thousands of members of the traveling public. (Yet there are those in Congress who would deny citizens firearm purchases on the basis of these lists.) http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080430/NATION/946059998/1001 --- Arizona Governor Vetoes CCW Measure: ...She also rejected a proposal to reduce to a petty offense the penalty for carrying a concealed weapon without a permit...That measure, House Bill 2630, would have made it a petty offense punishable by a fine alone for an individual to carry a concealed weapon without a state permit. It also would have barred law-enforcement officials in those instances from confiscating the weapon. "As our law-enforcement professionals will tell you," Napolitano wrote Tuesday, "serious criminals, especially gang members, often carry concealed weapons without permits. Our law-enforcement officers must have the full array of enforcement options to use against these violators, including the power to arrest the violator and confiscate his deadly weapon." Supporters such as bill sponsor Sen. Karen Johnson, a Mesa Republican, noted that Arizona law already grants wide leeway for individuals to carry weapons in the open. The bill, they argued, would have reduced criminal penalties in case of an accidental violation of the law, such as if an individual's jacket temporarily concealed a holster. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/043024bills0430.html --- RKBA Only for Defensive Weapons?: ...The right to keep and bear arms has to mean something. But which arms? Machine guns? No, said the gun-owner's attorney, Alan Gura. On March 18, Gura had argued at the Supreme Court for a right to have "arms that are appropriate for civilian use." Speaking in Seattle last week at a meeting of the Federalist Society, Gura drew the line between semiautomatic and automatic weapons - that is, guns that shoot one round per trigger squeeze and those that spray bullets. hooting one round at a time, you can decide whom you're shooting at, one person at a time. You can make a moral judgment. A machine gun, he said, is an "area weapon." Our state law bans machine guns. The question then arises: If the Supreme Court breathes life into the Second Amendment, will these and other such restrictions (no plastic guns, etc.) stand? (Of note, the Washington state RKBA provision was copied verbatim by Arizona, 23 years later.) http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2004381535_rams30.html --- Lawsuit Prompts Bill for Oregon CHL Confidentiality: House Rep Linda Flores today announced her intentions to introduce legislation to protect the privacy of Oregonians with concealed handgun licenses. Flores said "Many of these people get CHL's because they are worried about their safety, whether it's from a stalker, a case of domestic violence, or some other threat. Making their names, addresses and other records public might jeopardize their security." Flores proposed her legislation after the Medford Mail Tribune won a lawsuit to force the Jackson County Sheriff to divulge the personal information of license holders in that county. http://oregonfirearms.org/alertspage/04.28.08alert.html --- Interesting Account: Being a lousy shot might well have saved Marshall Hugo Grant's life. After Grant fired three times Monday from the doorway of the King IGA grocery store, manager Marino Hernandez made a split-second decision not to fire back...On Monday afternoon, Grant and Hernandez argued after he tried to enter the store through the exit. "I said, 'You know what? Take your business elsewhere,'" Hernandez said. Grant then drew a handgun. Assistant manager Roberto Espinal, behind a side counter, drew his gun. When Grant turned that way, Hernandez pulled his gun. Grant made the first move. He backed out of the store and started firing... (Grant was firing wildly into a target-rich environment. Hernandez, who apparently considers himself competent with a handgun, may or may not have been concerned with the background if he had fired. I'm not sure I'd have made the same decision.) http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/04/29/0429groceryguns.html?imw=Y --- The Israeli Alternative to Virginia Tech: [Last] Wednesday marked one year since the massacre at Virginia Tech by mentally-disturbed student Seung-Hui Cho. Last week the university offered anguished parents a settlement of $100,000 per murdered child. There are three things wrong with this: First, even in financial terms, it is hopelessly inadequate to redress the deaths of these talented young people. Second, it does nothing to correct the useless, symbolic policy which facilitated their deaths. Third, if you don't think that the policy is wrong,Virginia Tech has no liability for the deaths it facilitated... http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=2173 --- Weapon Bans Fail to Halt Surge in Murder Rate: There has been a huge increase in being people shot, stabbed and even kicked to death since Labour came to power. Shocking statistics released last night show a 14 per cent increase in murder and manslaughter in England and Wales between 1998 and 2007. There was also a 28 per cent increase in deaths from bladed weapons. Those killed by shootings increased by the same figure. Most shockingly, there was a 57 per cent increase in deaths caused by punching and kicking. http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/42677/Knifings-and-shootings-up-as-murder-rate-soars -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .