Judge Blocks Bloomberg Testimony: ...City officials said on Wednesday that Mr. Bloomberg was almost certain to take the stand next month in Federal District Court in Brooklyn and testify against the dealer, Jay Wallace, at a landmark civil trial that the mayor himself instigated by suing Mr. Wallace and 26 other gun dealers in 2006. But in an unexpected ruling from the bench, Judge Jack B. Weinstein said he did not want Mr. Bloomberg to testify out of fear that his appearance would prove too distracting... (Ignored in the NYT article's commentary is Weinstein's notoriety for lending his courtroom to litigation intended to bankrupt the firearm industry.) http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/23/nyregion/23guns.html?ref=nyregion http://www.amny.com/news/local/am-gun0523,0,2991392.story Related Articles: http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202421597024 http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/05/22/2008-05-22_gun_dealer_shoots_from_lip.html --- Chicago Alderman Should Suffer Like Other Gun Owners: Chicago Alderman Richard Mell ought to be prosecuted like any other negligent gun owner for failing to re-register his firearms under an ordinance he helped pass, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today. "I don't care if anti-gun Mayor Richard Daley supports giving Mell a break, and it doesn't matter that Mell is the father-in-law of Gov. Rod Blagojevich," said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. "For years, the draconian ordinance supported by Mell and enforced by Daley has terrorized Chicago gun owners. It's time for Mell to face his own music, and it's time for Daley to just shut up." http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-22-2008/0004819680&EDATE= FOP Chimes In: Fraternal Order of Police President Mark Donahue today decried the "double standard" that prompted Mayor Daley to endorse the idea of temporarily re-opening gun registration in Chicago after a request from Ald. Richard Mell (33rd). "We have retired police officers who have a right to carry concealed weapons across the country, and they're being barred from registering their weapons in Chicago. We've taken one of these cases to Circuit Court. Dick Mell has taken his case to the City Council," the union president said. "Whether he knows it or not, the mayor, by this agreement [to endorse a temporary gun amnesty] is establishing a double standard. One for members of the City Council, the other for everybody else." (Until the passage of the federal Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act, Illinois did not allow its own retired police officers to carry concealed firearms.) http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/964373,CST-NWS-mell21web.article --- Korwin Comments on Coverage of Arizona Campus-Carry Bill: ...Out here in the public, though, many people think this is what happened: "A bill that would ensure the civil rights of all FBI-certified, trained, permitted, specially taxed and DPS-monitored citizens to possess side arms for self-defense when on college campuses was denied a vote by the state Senate." With news coverage that perpetually casts self-defense, personal-safety and civil-rights-protection bills as students-with-guns laws, it should come as little surprise that people don't trust or rely on the media the way they used to. That coverage also perpetuates hoplophobia, a debilitating, irrational fear of weapons... http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/0522thurlets226.html --- Ohio House Supports Service Members: With a strong bi-partisan 90-3 vote, the Ohio House of Representatives has passed HB450, sponsored by Representative Bruce Goodwin (R-74)... Current Ohio law prohibits persons under the age of 21 from buying a handgun. There is an exemption for persons aged 18-20 who are properly appointed or employed as a law enforcement officer. The bill would add an exemption for active or reserve members of the armed services or the Ohio National Guard, aged 18-20 who have received firearms training...In response to recent questions about the residency of Ohioans who deploy to other states, and people from other states who are stationed in Ohio, the amendment clarifies that persons aged 21 and over in our military, either from Ohio or stationed in Ohio, meet the residency requirements for an Ohio Concealed Carry License (CHL)... http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/node/5697 --- Ohio Debates Vehicle-Carry Bill: Gun supporters and law-enforcement representatives clashed yesterday over proposed changes to relax Ohio gun laws, while the House committee chairman wondered why the State Highway Patrol was sitting silently in the back of the room. Associations representing police chiefs, police officers, county sheriffs and county prosecutors urged lawmakers not to support a National Rifle Association-backed proposal that, among other things, would allow anyone to carry a gun inside a vehicle. The multipart proposal, which could be added as an amendment to another bill and approved next week, says the gun must be unloaded. But critics say ammo could be kept within reach. http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/05/22/guncarry22.ART_ART_05-22-08_A1_NLA9661.html?sid=101 --- Pobre México! Tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de Estados Unidos: High-powered rifles and handguns used by drug cartel hit men waging a bloody war in Mexico have been traced to suspected gun smugglers in El Paso, an ATF agent testified Wednesday at a federal detention hearing in El Paso. Money and weapons flowing from the United States fuel drug trafficking and organized crime in Mexico, to the tune of about $10 billion a year, Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, Mexico's deputy federal attorney general for international affairs, said Wednesday as representatives from the U.S. and Mexico gathered in Austin to discuss border security. It was the profits from illegal gun sales that allegedly motivated Juan Carlos Meza, 23, to sell at least 19 firearms bought at El Paso gun stores to suspected hit men, an ATF agent testified at the detention hearing for Meza in the federal courthouse in El Paso. http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_9341078 Poor California, So Far from God and So Close to Nevada and Arizona: ...It used to be illegal for civilians to purchase or own assault weapons. That was before the nation's main assault gun control legislation lapsed in 2004 - and was not renewed. The Federal Assault Weapons Ban outlawed the sale or possession of 19 types of assault weapons - defined as semiautomatic firearms with specific characteristics allowing rapid-fire shooting, which includes most handguns. The 10-year ban was put in place by the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. But when it expired, the Bush administration, which had once said it would bring it to Congress for renewal, did nothing. Legislation to continue the ban introduced in Congress did not muster enough votes to get passed. While California enacted its own handgun prohibitions, which continue to be in effect today, the number of guns brought into California from bordering states overwhelm the state's efforts to restrict them, experts say... http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/ci_9344423 --- Brady Bunch Lauds Lautenberg: The President of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence announced today that the organization was endorsing New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg in the Democratic primary to serve New Jersey in the United States Senate. The organization rarely endorses primary candidates. "Senator Frank Lautenberg is a hero to those who fight to reduce gun violence in America. He has always been a courageous champion for sensible gun laws and has worked tirelessly to make our communities safer," said Paul Helmke, Brady's President. "We will do everything we can to ensure that Senator Lautenberg is re-elected." (Hidden in the Brady Bunch rhetoric is that the Lautenberg Amendment, which has "has denied guns to domestic abusers over 150,000 times," has violated the Constitutional protection against ex post facto by denying firearm ownership on the basis of old misdemeanor convictions which were not disqualifiers prior to the passage of the amendment.) http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=ind_focus.story&STORY=/www/story/05-22-2008/0004819521&EDATE=THU+May+22+2008,+01:00+PM --- Widow Will Not Be Charged in Self-Defense Shooting: North Miami police declined to press charges against a woman who shot an intruder in her home a month after her husband was gunned down in the front yard. Janepsy Cindy Mesa was in the process of moving out of the ill-fated house when she walked into a bedroom and was confronted by a man. The man, who turned out to have been an acquaintance of her late husband, was shot several times by Mesa, who then ran screaming outside and called 911. North Miami police deemed the incident a case of self-defense. http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/05/21/murder_widow_shoots_intruder_in_bedroom/2204/ --- Rule Five Reminder: West Haven police have arrested a woman after linking her gun to a photo on the MySpace social networking Web site. Police say the picture of a Bailey Middle School student pointing a gun at another student led to the arrest 38-year-old Elizabeth Paris, the mother of one of the teenagers. Paris has been charged with risk of injury to a minor, reckless endangerment and failure to properly store a firearm. Police say the charges are the result of her failure to properly lock up the weapon. Police say a 14-year-old boy visiting his friend took a gun belonging to Paris, his friend's mother. (Rule Five: Maintain control of your firearm.) http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/connecticut/ny-bc-ct--myspace-gunarrest0522may22,0,1539648.story --- Officer Convicted for Raid That Killed Elderly Woman: An Atlanta police officer was sentenced Thursday to 4 1/2 years in prison for lying to investigators about a botched drug raid that ended in the shooting death of a 92-year-old woman. Arthur Tesler, 42, was the only officer to face trial in the raid, which led to an outcry from civil rights activists and to a shake-up of the police department...Kathryn Johnston died in a hail of police bullets after narcotics officers burst into her northwest Atlanta home the night of Nov. 21, 2006, using a special no-knock warrant to search for drugs. Testimony showed that Tesler was in Johnston's back yard when other officers went in through the front door. Johnston fired a single shot at the intruders, and officers returned a volley of 39, striking her five or six times. (The key factor in Johnston's death appears to have been that she sought to defend herself from intruders in a no-knock raid, meaning that she would not have known that she was facing police officers.) http://iphone.foxnews.com/story/0/357241-Cop-Gets-45-Years-for-Lying-After-Raid-That-Killed-Woman.html -- Red's Trading Post Close to Settlement with BATFE: An Idaho gun shop that went to federal court to keep the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from stripping it of its gun license has reached a tentative settlement with the government. Attorneys on both sides told U.S. District Court Judge Mikel H. Williams on Wednesday that they had likely agreed on how to end the case. Mark Geston, an attorney representing Terry and Ryan Horsley of Red's Trading Post, said he could not yet release details, but said the proposal would allow the Twin Falls gun shop to continue operating. http://www.theolympian.com/northwest/story/456812.html --- Ammo Prices Hurt Competitive Shooters: Ammo prices are on the rise and it's forcing some competitive shooters to scale back. "Ammunition materials, lead, copper and brass have doubled, tripled, quadrupled in price," said Fred Calcagno, owner of American Sportsman in East Rochester. Competitive shooting is taking a big hit. "A box like this is $14.99, we used to sell for $7.95," said Calcagno who says ammo prices have shot up over the past few years...Calcagno says some are using smaller caliber ammo that costs less or they're scaling back on shooting altogether, passing on a favorite past time...Prices for ammunition have been rising about every 3 months or so. http://rochesterhomepage.net/content/fulltext/?cid=15954 --- Worcester (MA) PD Chooses S&W M&P45's: ...Officials at the Worcester PD indicated that they selected the M&P45 because of its unique design features, modularity and reliability during testing. After a standard testing and evaluation period, Worcester PD officials noted the accuracy of the M&P45 pistol and the ability of each officer to select the grip size of his or her preference... (Interchangeable backs straps of "palm swells" are definitely proving to be a major plus with polymer-frame pistols. Only revolvers that use a coil main spring in a manner that eliminates the front and back straps, such as Ruger's SP101 and GP100, offer such a wide range of potential adjustment of grip size.) http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/smith--wesson-wins-law-enforcement-contract-for-mp45-pistols,404308.shtml --- Big Brother Is Alive and Well: ...Yet earlier this week, a measure creating a federal fingerprint registry totally unrelated to national security passed a U.S. Senate committee almost without notice. The legislation would require thousands of individuals working even tangentially in the mortgage and real estate industries - and not suspected of anything - to send their prints to the feds. The database and fingerprint mandates were tucked into housing and foreclosure assistance bills that on Tuesday passed the Senate Banking Committee by a vote of 19-2... http://www.openmarket.org/2008/05/23/fingerprint-registry-in-housing-bill/ --- From AzCDL: Dave Kopp, AzCDL's President, co-founder, and chief lobbyist, will be interviewed by Mark Zemel of "The Arizona Right Report" this coming Sunday, May 25, 2008, between 8:10 PM and 8:45 PM. The interview can be heard on KFNX 1100 AM in Phoenix. You can also listen live at http://www.1100KFNX.com. We encourage everyone to CALL IN with questions and comments about AzCDL supported legislation, other gun bills, and the legislative process in general. Ask Dave what it's like lobbying for our rights at the Legislature, and how reality compares with the myths you heard in High School Civics. You can reach the show in the Phoenix area at 602-277-5369, or toll free at 1-866-536-1100. If enough people call in, the interview time will be extended past 8:45 PM. This is YOUR chance to get the lowdown directly from AzCDL's President, and to publicize the efforts and successes of AzCDL! Information on legislation that AzCDL is tracking can be found at: http://www.azcdl.org/html/legislation.html. AzCDL requested and supported bills that are still making their way through the process are: HB 2629, an AzCDL requested bill that clarifies when a defensive display of a firearm is justified. HB 2389, an AzCDL requested bill that clarifies that it is permissible to carry a weapon, without a CCW permit, visibly or concealed, anywhere within a means of transportation, excluding public transit. HB 2634, an AzCDL requested bill that clarifies that a person with an expunged or set-aside felony conviction, or one who has had their rights restored, may obtain a concealed weapons permit. SB 1070, an AzCDL requested bill that makes it easier for lawful gun owners who have satisfactorily completed training to obtain a permit, or renew an expired one. SB 1106, Senator Chuck Gray's bill that provides for an optional lifetime CCW permit. Let's not forget about SB 1214, the AzCDL requested bill that originally would have complied with Federal law by allowing adults with Concealed Weapons (CCW) permits to carry concealed firearms on school campuses. After being amended to allow carrying only on Universities and Colleges, the Republican controlled Senate quietly killed SB 1214, after attempting to neutralize it with more burdensome amendments. And finally, there is HB 2630, the AzCDL requested bill that would have reduced the penalty for a law-abiding person carrying a concealed weapon without a permit to a petty offense, while increasing penalties for criminals. HB 2630 was vetoed by the Governor on April 29, 2008. We encourage you to listen to Dave's radio interview this Sunday, and call in with your questions and comments! These alerts are a project of the Arizona Citizens Defense League (AzCDL), an all volunteer, non-profit, non-partisan grassroots organization. Join today! AzCDL - Protecting Your Freedom http://www.azcdl.org/html/join_us_.html Copyright © 2008 Arizona Citizens Defense League, Inc., all rights reserved. -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .