Internet was not accessible early this morning, hence the late mailing. Pro-Obama Missouri Prosecutors Back Off: Missouri law officials, including public prosecutors, who were reportedly planning to "respond immediately" to any misleading advertisements against Barack Obama if they "might violate Missouri ethics laws," have now backed off the intimidating implications of that report, promising they have no intention of prosecuting anyone. As WND reported, prosecuting attorneys Bob McCulloch and Jennifer Joyce originally announced on KMOV-TV in St. Louis their participation in Obama's "Truth Squad," pledging to defend the candidate from untruthful ads with an undefined "immediate" response... http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=76560 --- Obama Flip-Flops Reviewed: Predicting that Barack Obama "would be the most anti-gun president in American history," the National Rifle Association has announced plans to spend $15 million to help defeat the Democratic presidential hopeful. Obama has said he has "no intention of taking away folks' guns" and that he believes strongly in the Second Amendment, the right to keep and bear arms. But his apparent support for strict handgun bans in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere worries gun advocacy groups such as the NRA. Obama's mixed messages on the issue surfaced in June, when he expressed qualified agreement with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Second Amendment rights belong not only to government-controlled militias but also to individual Americans... http://www.newsmax.com/politics/nra_obama/2008/09/29/135501.html Related Commentary: http://www.nranews.com/blogarticle.aspx?blogPostId=452 Flip-Flops on Other Issues: http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=307580787427425 --- Baltimore Mandates Reports: A new city law requiring gun-owners to notify police when their weapon is lost or stolen will help police track down the "bad guy with guns" said Baltimore City Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III Monday...The law, which takes into effect on Nov. 11, requires gun owners to alert police within two days from the time they notice their weapon is missing. Failing to report a missing weapon will be a misdemeanor carrying a $500 fine for a first offense. Subsequent violations could result in $750 fines and up to 90 days imprisonment...Andrew Arulanandam , a spokesman from the National Rifle Association, called the new law "frivolous" and said it only affects law-abiding gun owners. The initiative adds "another layer of burden for someone who has already been a victim of crime," he said... (Arguably, this sort of law makes it difficult for someone who transfers a firearm to a prohibited possessor to claim that the gun was lost or stolen at some time in the past.) http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-guns0929,0,3125329.story --- New Jersey City to Appeal: Jersey City officials vowed to appeal today an appellate court ruling issued this morning that affirmed a lower court's decision to strike down the city's one-gun-a-month ordinance. At a press conference held in front of City Hall, the city's top attorney, Bill Matsikoudis, said the appeal to the State Supreme Court would be based on the state's well-established principle of "home rule," which he said specifically allows municipalities to "regulate and prohibit" the sale of firearms as it sees fit...Adopted two years ago, the law was struck down in January 2007 by state Superior Court Judge Maurice Gallipoli on the grounds that state laws had already established "uniform procedures and requirements for the purchase and sale of firearms and issuance of permits." But in addition to appealing the unanimous appellate court ruling, the city is also pushing one-gun-a-month legislation at the state level... http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2008/09/_jersey_city_officials_vowed.html http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/jerseycity/index.ssf?/base/news-7/12227559473491.xml&coll=3 --- Open or Concealed Carry in Cleveland Arrest?: Greg Llewellyn, his girlfriend and four friends were sipping hot tea outside a West Side coffee shop on a recent August night when a pair of Cleveland police officers approached with guns drawn. Get on the ground, an officer ordered, forcing the surprised group to set aside their drinks and hit the sidewalk belly-down. An officer began searching one of Llewellyn's friends before abruptly ending the suspense and demanding to know who had the gun. "I am the one who has the weapon," the 26-year-old Llewellyn answered. The butt of a black, holstered and loaded CZ-52 pistol - a Czech-made gun - was visible tucked behind him in his belt. The officers arrested him for carrying a concealed weapon. Llewellyn protested, saying he was not trying to hide the gun, because Ohio law allowed him to openly carry it in public. The officers didn't buy his argument and sent Llewellyn to jail and confiscated his rare pistol. Unless he was truly trying to hide the gun, the law appears to be on Llewellyn's side... http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1222677007212490.xml&coll=2 http://www.ohioccw.org/content/view/4075/67/ --- Illinois Group Receives Award for Uphill Battle: It is with a great deal of honor and pride that the ISRA accepts the 2008 Affiliate of the Year Award from the Citizen's Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA). First awarded 23 years ago, the Affiliate of the Year award is bestowed upon organizations that demonstrate an exemplary dedication to the preservation of Second Amendment rights, and whose actions have helped preserve the freedoms protected by the United States Constitution. Out of hundreds of eligible organizations, the ISRA is the only group to have received this award twice. The ISRA was first recognized as CCRKBA Affiliate of the Year in 1999. This year's award was presented to ISRA President Don Moran and ISRA Executive Director Richard Pearson by CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb during the Gun Rights Policy Conference held this past weekend in Phoenix, AZ... http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/illinois-state-rifle-association-accepts/story.aspx?guid={8BF00AED-7242-4B80-B30D-5E58C92F6174}&dist=hppr --- Florida Man Acquitted in Defense of Home: A Putnam County man walked free Saturday after a jury believed he shot six people in a two-family feud to protect his home from an armed mob. The jury of six women deliberated for one hour before deciding that Baldemar Riojas, 49, was not guilty of the six counts of attempted second-degree murder for which prosecutors wanted him to serve 25 years to life in prison. Riojas fired a .22 caliber rifle at the people on April 10, 2005 when a long-simmering feud erupted at 3:58 a.m., Putnam County sheriff investigators said. One of the victims was 14-year-old Ana Diaz of Pierson, who was shot in the back and paralyzed from the waist down... http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/frtHEAD04092808.htm --- More Details on Death of Home-Invader: A woman shot and killed a man when he disregarded a protective order, broke into her home and cornered her in a bedroom, police said Monday. There were "prior incidents of violence" between the man and the unidentified 49-year-old woman, an investigator said...Milburn, 45, a registered Class 3 sex offender, was released in 2006 from the Arizona Department of Corrections after serving more than one year of a three-year sentence for kidnapping a woman at knifepoint before sexually assaulting her...Phoenix Police forwarded the case to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office for review after declining to recommend criminal charges against the woman, Scott said. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2008/09/30/20080930phxshooting0930.html --- Shooting a Member of One's Family: The Battle Creek Police Department is investigating an incident in which investigators say a man fatally shot his son. It happened during a family dispute around 7 p.m. Monday at a home on South Mason Avenue in Urbandale. When officers arrived, they found a 30-year-old man suffering from a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Police say the victim attacked his parents and that is when his father fired the gun in self-defense. (Without the details, this incident could become a statistic arguing that owning a firearm increases the chance that it will be used against you or a family member. However, if the dead family member had, instead, killed a parent with a knife, the statistic would likely not be noted.) http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9095350 --- Campus Carry Will Reduce Crime: A graduate student leaving an evening class walks along the poorly lit sidewalk to the parking lot-it is a long, cold walk in the pitch-black night, and the student grows wary as shadows begin lurking in the distance. Suddenly, someone jumps out in front of the student, immediately threatening them with force. Before the student can react, they are raped and robbed. This is a very scary scenario, and is one that happens on the SCSU campus every year... http://media.www.universitychronicle.com/media/storage/paper231/news/2008/09/29/Opinions/Allowing.Guns.On.Campus.Will.Prevent.Shootings.Rape-3457954.shtml --- If You Can't Stand the Heat...: My name is Butch Housman. Months ago I wrote a letter to the editor of this newspaper. As a result, Federal Agent Thomas Chittum asked to move the trial of my friends Leonard and Tom Elliott to Frankfort and cited my letter as cause, claiming I had "polluted the jury pool." I was named specifically before the court and was criticized for questioning both the mission of his agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, and in particular his case against the Bacon Creek Gun Shop. I didn't realize I was such an influential scribe... http://www.thetimestribune.com/letters/local_story_273105357.html?keyword=topstory --- Montana Capital Culls Urban Deer: ... The Helena Police Department recently began a program intended to reduce the adult deer population by 50 - more if the first phase is successful. Officers bait large net traps, called clover traps, with apples, grain and molasses. Adult deer caught in the traps are killed instantly with a bolt gun, similar to the device used to kill cows in slaughterhouses. The animals are then taken to a state Fish, Wildlife and Parks center, butchered and their meat donated to the needy...Across the country, from villages to cities the size of Minneapolis, deer are seen as a nuisance and are being dealt with in a variety of ways. The North American Bowhunting Coalition has an urban deer hunting program in which hunters take deer in open spaces. A Connecticut company, White Buffalo, specializes in reducing deer herds using several approaches, including trained sharpshooters... http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/us/30deer.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin --- Iraqi Cabinet Authorizes Firearms for Physicians: Iraq will allow doctors to carry guns to protect themselves after hundreds have been targeted and killed since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, the government said Monday. The government also ordered the Health Ministry to begin building high security residential compounds around the hospitals for physicians to live in, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Cabinet said in a statement. The moves come as Iraq is struggling to ease a shortage of medical workers and lure back the thousands of doctors who fled the violence plaguing the country. "By government decree, the Cabinet has ordered that each doctor be allowed to carry one weapon to protect himself," the statement said... http://www.newsmax.com/international/ml_iraq_doctors_with_guns/2008/09/29/135520.html -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .