Another Hint from Obama's Camp: Tonight, Barack Obama is attending a fundraiser in Newark, New Jersey. I truly hope he uses this opportunity to speak about Bukhari Washington and the tragic lunacy of allowing civilians to possess assault weapons legally...In 2004, George W. Bush and the NRA-influenced Republican congress allowed the federal ban on assault weapons to expire. While the RNC proved that the Republican are looking to identity politics to determine the election, Barack Obama appears admirably set on winning on the issues, and legally restricting assault rifles is an issue on which Democrats have the high ground... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-brown/bring-the-assault-weapons_b_124365.html From His Own Mealy Mouth: "I believe in the Second Amendment, and if you are a law-abiding gun owner you have nothing to fear from an Obama administration," Obama said. "This has been peddled again and again. Here's what I believe: The Second Amendment is an indvidual right. . . people have the right to bear arms. But I also believe there is nothing wrong with some common-sense gun safety measures." ...At the campaign event Friday, Obama said that there are "two realities about guns" in the United States, one including lawful gun owners, hunters, and sportsmen and a second that involves the flow of illegal handguns and automatic weapons into cities such as Philadelphia, where they are used by "teenage gang-bangers." http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/09/obama_and_guns_not_going_to_me.html "If you've got a gun in your house, I'm not taking it,'' Obama said. But the Illinois senator could still see skeptics in the crowd, particularly on the faces of several men at the back of the room. So he tried again. "Even if I want to take them away, I don't have the votes in Congress,'' he said. "This can't be the reason not to vote for me. Can everyone hear me in the back? I see a couple of sportsmen back there. I'm not going to take away your guns." (Note the term "sportsmen.") http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/09/05/obama-im-not-going-to-take-your-guns-away/ --- The Market Speaks: Gun sales are going boom around the country as gun owners and gun advocates brace for a potential Democrat in the White House for the first time in almost 10 years. Democrats, meanwhile, say there's no reason to worry that presidential hopeful Barack Obama would attempt to curtail access to most guns, though that hasn't stopped the buying spree..."We call it the Obama factor. People are very concerned that if a Democrat is elected they will see more restrictions on handguns and assault rifles." Godell said. "I think as a result of that we have seen steady handgun sales, and there's been an increase in the sale of assault rifles like AK-47s, as well..." http://www.marshallnewsmessenger.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/08/090608_web_guns.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=7 --- "Gun Control" in Perspective, Part 1: ...However, there is also the flip side, the gun-owners' side, which does not seem to get a very clear airing of its own arguments. Historically, while many each year may perish from the use of guns, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, die as a result of having lived under totalitarian regimes across the world where guns among the civilian populations are expressly forbidden. Though we rarely hear of them, dozens of wars are fought globally at any given time where people are targeted as a result of their race, religious or political persuasion. During the 20th Century approximately 200 million people died under totalitarian regimes: Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia and Red China are only the most glaring examples but there are hundreds more. In almost all cases, the people were first disarmed of any weapon, including hunting rifles, and later systematically rounded-up and slaughtered... http://townhall.com/columnists/PaulWeyrich/2008/09/06/gun_control_is_it_to_be_trusted?page=full --- "Gun Control" in Perspective, Part 2: An estimated 125 people were shot and killed [in Chicago] over the summer. That's nearly double the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq over the same time period...According to the Defense Department, 65 U.S. soldiers were killed in combat in Iraq. About the same number were killed in Afghanistan over that same period. In the same time period, an estimated 247 people were shot and wounded in the city... (Recall that Chicago has one of the strictest restrictions on the legal ownership of firearms in the US.) http://cbs2chicago.com/local/chicago.summer.shootings.2.810166.html --- Craiglist Sued Over Handgun Sale: A Manhattan boutique owner is suing craigslist.com for $10 million, claiming he was shot with a gun purchased on the popular Web site. Calvin Gibson, 50, who was shot six times by his schizophrenic neighbor in the East Village on July 24, believes the classified site is partially responsible. "But for defendant's negligence in failing to supervise and monitor the content of the ads placed on its Internet service, [the shooter] could never have legally obtained the handgun," according to the lawsuit filed yesterday in Manhattan federal court... (Are we to believe that someone sold a handgun over the internet without requiring that the transaction go through an FFL? Or did the shooter illegally travel out of state, to make a face-to-face purchase?) http://www.nypost.com/seven/09052008/news/regionalnews/man_shot_by_craigslist_gun_takes_aim_at__127576.htm --- Bringing a Mother to a Gunfight: When two gunmen smashed through the glass front door of her suburban Fort Worth home, Kellie Hoehn didn't think twice. The 34-year-old mother of two grabbed a shotgun that had been pointed at her face early Wednesday, starting a struggle that ended with one intruder killed with his own weapon and another in the hospital. "I wasn't going to let them get to my babies," she said, recalling the moment when she pushed up the muzzle of the shotgun, pointing it away from her children's rooms... (Someone in a forum made a comment about this incident, stating that the first rule in a gunfight is to bring a gun. Consider that if this woman had been drawing her own handgun in the time it took for her to deflect the muzzle of the shotgun, the outcome could have been different. If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.) http://www.azstarnet.com/news/256108 --- Speaking of Shotguns...: Common wisdom has it that a shotgun is the best gun to use for home defense. This advice is often supplemented with such encouraging comments as, "You don't need to aim, just point it in the general direction." Usually added to this, with a knowing look, is another supposed statement of fact that, "Just the sound of racking a shell into it is enough to get him running..." http://www.handgunsmag.com/tactics_training/hg_mattechoice_200809/index.html --- Talk About CCW: A Salinas police officer shot and killed a man Sunday after he refused the officer's order to sit and not move and then reached for something in his waistband which turned out to be an AK-47-style rifle, police said...When the officer arrived at the shopping center the man was on the sidewalk on Arcadia Way on the south side of the road, police said. After the officer got out of the patrol car and ordered the man to sit on sidewalk, the suspect began to pull the rifle out of his waistband, police said...McMillin said he did not know whether the officer had emptied his gun clip and reloaded when he fired at the suspect, but he said the suspect had managed to pull the loaded rifle out of his pants as the officer was shooting... http://thecalifornian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080901/NEWS01/809010301/1002 --- Rule Five Follow-Up: About two weeks ago I shared a report of the theft of firearms and ballistic vests from the trunk of a cruiser of a Pigeon Forge TN tactical officer. Here is a communication about the aftermath: We caught the suspect and recovered the officer's weapons and armor. The suspect was released from prison a month ago and had been on a multi county burglary spree. In addition to the Pigeon Forge officer, he hit a TVA vehicle getting sets of their class B uniforms. He got into the Pigeon Forge car by breaking the driver's window and hitting the trunk release. All their cars have been modified to keep this from happening. We are considering disabling the trunk release button on our cars also. --- NRA-ILA Alerts: Alerts for the week are posted on the NRA-ILA website. http://www.nraila.org/GrassrootsAlerts/read.aspx -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .