"Progressives" Attack Another McCain Aide: In 2007, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) introduced legislation giving the Justice Department the discretion to prohibit gun sales to terror suspects. The legislation was supported by gun-control groups as well as the Bush administration. Siding with the gun industry in opposing closing this "terror gap" was Randy Scheunemann, now Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) top foreign policy adviser. Newsweek reports that Scheunemann lobbied against the bill on behalf of the National Shooting Sports Foundation... (The last I heard, suspicion differs legally from a conviction.) http://thinkprogress.org/2008/08/25/mccain-scheunemann-guns/ --- A New "Progressive" Tack: ...Trafficking should be redefined as selling out of a home, car, street, or park multiple guns that have two or more of the following characteristics: obliterated serial numbers, are stolen, are new in the box, are sold to underage buyers or people with felony records. This would still allow individuals to sell firearms privately to people they know or trust, and it would put the onus on sellers to demand a background check for those they don't know...Finally, we need to close the gun-show loophole. It is no coincidence that 13 of the top 14 crime-gun-exporting states do not require background checks for sales at shows. This loophole is exploited by buyers who obtain used guns to resell on the streets... (I thought NYC's Mayor Bloomberg said it was licensed dealers in those states that supply the guns that get resold on the street.) http://www.utne.com/2008-09-01/Politics/Shooting-Blanks.aspx --- Howard University Notes Heller Ruling: According to the Supreme Court, Americans have the right to own firearms for hunting as well as for self-defense. On June 26, the court case, District of Columbia vs. Heller, eliminated D.C.'s 32-year ban of handguns. The ban, which took effect in 1976 in a city struggling with violence, outlawed private ownership of firearms. Although the ban was lifted, this 5-4 court ruling does not guarantee every D.C. resident ownership of a handgun...Sawed-off shotguns, short-barreled rifles and machine guns are still prohibited. The firearms in the owners' homes must be stored unloaded, disassembled with either the trigger lock or gun safe secured... (Ms. Montgomery fails to note that DC considers virtually all autoloading pistols to be machine guns.) http://media.www.thehilltoponline.com/media/storage/paper590/news/2008/08/26/Metro/Landmark.Handgun.Ruling.Lifts.Firearms.Ban-3404136.shtml --- Georgia Gun Law Has Racist Past: Guns-rights advocates want to change a state firearms law that they say has a racist past. But black lawmakers say those advocates are using the story of a Reconstruction-era massacre of African-Americans to justify letting Georgians tote weapons in churches and other public places. Next month is the 140th anniversary of the Camilla Massacre, when a group largely made up of blacks heading to a Southwest Georgia Republican political rally were shot up by white locals after being warned not to bring guns to town. Gun-rights advocates say the September 1868 massacre, in which at least nine freedmen were killed and up to 25-30 were wounded, led the General Assembly to ban citizens from carrying firearms at political rallies and other "public gatherings." The aim, they say, was to keep guns away from blacks. "It was entirely about race," said Ed Stone, president of GeorgiaCarry.org... http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/08/22/guns_ban.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab --- A Call for Campus Carry in New Mexico: ...I have a concealed-carry license for New Mexico, yet I am helpless nine hours a day at my own work. I am a UNM alumna as well, and I know what it is like to walk the campus during the winter when it is dark after 5 p.m. - it's scary. I was so terrified, I usually ran to my dorm. Stand together women, and demand your right to level the playing field, to have that edge when your life is at stake. Get your concealed-carry license and have a fighting chance. I implore President David Schmidly to research the success rates of self-defense with a handgun and allow staff members, professors, students and security to conceal and carry a weapon at UNM to level the playing field against violent and arrogant criminals and to stand a chance for once. The other way is not working. http://media.www.dailylobo.com/media/storage/paper344/news/2008/08/25/Opinion/Concealed.Weapons.Should.Be.Allowed.On.Unm.Campus-3403052.shtml --- Nevada May Consider Castle Doctrine: There's a popular phrase that says "A man's home is his castle." One Valley lawmaker is trying to get a new law passed that goes even further to protect homes and homeowners' rights. It's called the Castle Doctrine, and it's been passed in more than a dozen states, but not without some controversy. The law would allow homeowners to use deadly force on a home intruder, with no regard to whether he or she's retreating. "I keep a gun in my house. It's close at hand. My children are gone, so it's ready ... Not cocked, but it's ready," said assemblyman Harry Mortenson, D-Nev... http://www.fox5vegas.com/news/17295874/detail.html#- --- Poll Claims Decreased Concern Over RKBA: The never-ending battle between gun control supporters and Second Amendment advocates has nearly fallen off the charts as a significant issue either in Nevada or the West, a Review-Journal poll says. Water issues, immigration and climate change all rate much higher as concerns for residents of Nevada, as well as neighboring Western states including Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, according to the poll by Washington, D.C.-based Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc...The Nevada poll results show that 14 percent believe current state gun control laws are too strict, with 41 percent saying not restrictive enough and 38 percent viewing them as adequate. The remainder are not sure... http://www.lvrj.com/news/27343744.html --- Western Democrats Claim to Support RKBA: "...We understand the realities of gun ownership and the rights under the Second Amendment, and we always have," the senator said. "We grew up around guns. It's something I support and Western Democrats support. So then, the question becomes, 'What are the real issues that people are struggling with?' We have to turn your attention to huge issues as health care and energy and the cost of higher education. That's where most of the people are struggling today..." (As the prospect of serving as Obama's attorney general shines on the horizon, Arizona's Governor Napolitano seems to have given up any pretense of supporting the RKBA.) http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2008/08/26/news/local/doc48b3a3c0d1b90403128513.txt --- Oops, Wrong Driver: Two assailants picked on the wrong guy when they confronted a man exiting his car in his driveway in West Hempstead on Monday night, police said. The 35-year-old homeowner was armed - carrying his licensed Glock 9-mm pistol. When one of the assailants fired at the man, he fired back. No one was hit by the gunfire on Oakford Street before the pair fled. Nassau County police said one of the attackers, Jose D. Celis, 30, of Woodfield Rd., West Hempstead, was arrested on nearby Elm Street after a search by Bureau of Special Operations officers. Police are still searching for the second attacker in the incident. The attack occurred at 9:25 p.m. Monday as the homeowner exited his car and was confronted by the two men, police said... (As John Farnam has pointed out, parking lots and driveways are among the most common locations for attacks.) http://www.newsday.com/news/local/nassau/ny-lishot0827,0,6328301.story --- With Friends Like These...: CBS4 has learned at least four people are under arrest in connection with a possible plot to kill Barack Obama at his Thursday night acceptance speech in Denver. All are being held on either drug or weapons charges. CBS4 Investigator Brian Maass reported one of the suspects told authorities they were "going to shoot Obama from a high vantage point using a ... rifle ... sighted at 750 yards." Law enforcement sources tell Maass that one of the suspects "was directly asked if they had come to Denver to kill Obama. He responded in the affirmative." (History has shown that this sort of action is precisely what is need by the left to usher in more infringements on the RKBA.) http://cbs4denver.com/investigates/assisination.plot.obama.2.802827.html -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .