Louisiana House Passes Parking-Lot-Storage Bill: A National Rifle Association-backed bill requiring employers to let workers to bring guns onto company parking lots received approval Friday from the state House, putting it one step from final passage...The House voted 66-35 for the measure, which had failed in the chamber earlier in the session. The Senate already has approved the proposal, but it will go back for approval of changes. If approved again in the Senate, the bill heads to Gov. Bobby Jindal, who hasn't taken a position... http://abc26.trb.com/news/wgno-gunsatwork062008,0,4374602.story --- One More Look at the Wording of the Second Amendment: The Second Amendment is not that hard to understand - not if the person reading it has a lick of sense. I'll prove it. What does this sentence (let's call it S1) mean? 'My over-exuberant neighbors having a wild party next door, my wife called the cops.' Not terrific English grammar but the meaning is clear enough. Cause: The noise made by the neighbors. Effect: A telephone call to the authorities... (I find it ironic that, in a grammatical analysis, "bear arms" gets transposed to "bare arms." http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/06/the_second_amendment_much_ado.html --- Police Concerned About Kids with Airsoft Guns: An alarm went off one night at Potowmack Elementary School in Sterling, and a surveillance camera recorded the scene: five intruders in masks and hoods darting through hallways and corridors, their assault rifles pointed. In minutes, sheriff's deputies arrived, their own guns loaded and drawn. Only after the gunmen were taken into custody did deputies discover that the assault rifles were replicas - so-called "airsoft" guns that shoot lightweight plastic BBs - and the intruders were 14-year-old boys. But during that tense confrontation June 2, 2006, fantasy and reality collided, the line blurred between teenagers who were pretending and deputies who were not... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/21/AR2008062101756.html?hpid=moreheadlines --- Arizona, Sonora Governors Sign Gunrunning Pact: The governors of Arizona and the northern Mexican state of Sonora are expected to sign a deal Saturday aimed at combatting gunrunning and sharing databases of fugitive felons on both sides of the border. The deal to be signed by Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano and Sonora Gov. Eduardo Bours Castelo will make Sonora the first Mexican state to trace illegal weapons...Until now, only Mexican federal agents have had access to the data from tracing seized weapons. Under the new agreement, Sonora state police will have the same access, just as police throughout the United States. Agents with the United States' Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will train Sonora state police on the trace system and how to identify unique weapons and recover tampered serial numbers... http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/88893.php --- Tangentially Related: ...Last July, Obama said "more young black men languish in prison than attend colleges and universities." Actually, more than twice as many black men 18-24 are in college as there are in jail. Last September he said, "We have a system that locks away too many young, first-time, nonviolent offenders for the better part of their lives." But Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute, writing in the institute's City Journal, notes that from 1999 to 2004, violent offenders accounted for all of the increase in the prison population... (It is an ugly reality of American life that firearm-related crime is more closely related to cultural differences than the availability of legally owned firearms.) http://www.townhall.com/columnists/GeorgeWill/2008/06/22/a_surprising_story_on_crime --- From John Farnam: 15 June 08 This from a friend with a State Training Academy. An example of, "When it's least expected, you're elected!" "Two of my rookie students got into gunfights over the last two weeks, one in the City, one in the County. Both used their issue Remington 870 shotguns, and both were compelled to swap from buckshot to a slug in order to complete their missions: In the first case, my officer, responding to a domestic dispute, returned fire after being fired upon by the male suspect, armed with a pistol. After firing a single round of 00 Buck at the suspect, without apparent effect, my officer concluded he was out of range. As he had been trained, he quickly and deftly swapped out to a slug (you call it an 'Ammo-Swap.' We call it a 'Select-a-Slug'), remounted the shotgun, and pressed off a single shot. The slug struck the standing suspect (range 25m) high in the center of the neck, just under his chin. Suspect was DRT, nearly decapitated. At least one of the buckshot pellets had also hit him, but failed to take him out of the fight. The second officer was responding to an armed robbery. As he exited his vehicle, he received rifle fire from a single suspect using a bolt-gun (Rem M70, 308). As our officer ran to cover, using his 870, he fired once at the suspect, again with 00 Buck. No results. Once behind cover, this officer also employed the Select-a-Slug option, and subsequently put a single slug through the suspect's sternum. Range was 20m. This suspect was also DRT! Both officers called me to let me know they were okay and how much they appreciated their training. So much for, 'Oh, come-on! When are we ever going to use this technique?' comment during range training! Two in one week!" Lesson: In much of what passes for "training," we spent entirely too much range time doing all those things we're already good at! Techniques and routines that are important, but are, by their very nature, awkward and clumsy, are seldom exercised, because, of course, we all want to look good. Well, who consistently "look good" on the range are obviously not challenging themselves and need to re-evaluate the worthiness of their ambitions! Single-handed shooting, single-handed reloading, long-distance pistol shooting (15m-40m), shotgun speed-loading and ammunition swapping, retention and disarms, low-light shooting, transition from main pistol to backup, and from backup pistol to blade are all important components of every Operator's repertoire, but are not exercised nearly as much, nor as often, as they should be. Savvy instructors at this particular state institution insisted students learned, and repeatedly exercised, ammunition-swapping with their 870 shotguns, despite all the whining! We instructors are not always popular with our students (nor should we be!), until something like the foregoing happens. Our reward comes when our student is alive and well, and is able to tell us how much he appreciates us not listening to all his whining and driving forward anyway! /John (When I took the NRA-LEAD Tactical Shooting Instructor Development School, back in June 1998, I earned the resentment of several of my classmates when I transitioned to my handgun, rather than open fire with a buckshot-loaded shotgun at a distance of about 100 yards. I did not consider an ammo swap as I was in the open. Several of the Las Vegas Metro PD officers had creative justifications for having used buckshot at that range but neither the course instructor nor I were persuaded. It is my view that, absent special barrels and chokes, buckshot should be limited to about seven yards. One list member, who heads the firearms-training unit of a department of about 100 officers, convinced me years ago that officers who carry shotguns in patrol vehicle should carry slugs as the primary load and transition to buckshot only when entering confined areas. As I recall, Remington makes a 700 series of bolt-action rifles while Winchester makes the Model 70.) 16 June 08 Weasel-words from Wal-Mart, from a friend in FL: "Over the weekend, I was shopping for ammunition, particularly 223. I went to one Wal-Mart, but they only had a few boxes of 223 in stock, which I purchased. Then, I hit the other Wal-Mart, which is the newer of the two. There, I was told that they didn't sell ammunition at all. When I asked to talk directly with the manager, he, with a straight face, said they were not selling ammunition 'because there is a high-school down the street.' When I went outside to check out his dubious tale, I discovered that the school in question is actually separated from the store by a huge South Florida Water Management Canal! I then informed him that, at the other Wal-mart I visited that same day, there are two schools practically adjacent to that store, with no canals in the way, and that they sell ammunition with gay abandon! He regurgitated and embarrassed mumble or two, exactly like a criminal suspect who just got caught in a lie, and then quickly slunk away and disappeared, saying he would 'check on it,' so softly he could barely be heard. Interesting that this 'manager' had his canned 'school-excuse' locked and loaded for any customer coming into to purchase ammunition. When his bluff was called, he came undone and slipped away like a weasel! If he had just stood up and said, 'I'm sorry sir, but this store does not carry ammunition,' and left it at that, I would have at least retained some respect for him and for Wal-Mart. But, he obviously thought he was expected to generate a glib-tongued cover-story, which turned out to be an anemic, and obvious, fabrication." Comment: I don't know where one has to go to get a straight answer any more! Bureaucracies are all the same, be they public or private. One might think that in the private sector at least, we might find supervisors who revere traditional American values, if not private gun-ownership, then at least truth, personal integrity, and insuperable self-respect. We would be disappointed! It's the same, old story: "We don't care. We don't have to!" And, they call it "management." /John (Like it or not, Wal-Mart made a corporate decision a while back to discontinue the sale of firearms and ammunition in about half their stores. My local Wal-Mart still sells both but I have been informed that the local K-Mart will be discontinuing both later this year. I had problems several years ago with another Wal-Mart store that was conducting NICS checks on firearm purchasers with valid Arizona CWP's and discovered that local managers may not always understand corporate policy.) 18 June 08 Message from the Court, from an Instructor and Attorney: "In the wake of yesterday's multi-million dollar judgement in the VA Tech shooting case, the court has sent a clear message to all institutions: The main thing the school 'did wrong' was to fail to panic quickly nor frantically enough, as the primary basis for plaintiffs' damage claims was that the university did not issue a sufficiently frenzied warning of an 'active-shooter,' nor did it 'lock-down' campus areas speedily enough. How either of those actions would have altered the outcome is, as always, lost on those in lawyer-dom. The other message is that dollars that flow to families of the dead will adequately make up for the slaughter. As for allowing, indeed encouraging, students and staff to go armed, and take other unilateral actions to look after themselves, of course, anathema to all right-thinking eggheads." Comment: Panic and Three-Stooges-style dithering are now considered virtues in academia and lawyer-dom. Self-reliance is, naturally, unthinkable. Imagine that! /John (My reading of the news reports is that it was a settlement, not the judgment of a court.) -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .