Bloomberg versus the NRA: They've got 4 million followers. He's got 16 billion simoleons. This could get verrrrry interesting. This being the stare-down between the National Rifle Association and Michael Bloomberg. Behemoth vs. behemoth. Since the Reagan revolution, few lobbies have been mightier than the NRA. The Second Amendment defenders rarely lose on Capitol Hill, but lose they did just a few days ago, falling short in a sit-up-and-take-notice squeaker of a Senate vote on an amendment that would have let gun owners carry concealed weapons across most state lines. Score one for Bloomie and 450 of his closest mayor buddies (they call themselves Mayors Against Illegal Guns) . . . and their D.C. lobbyists and their consultants and their ad people. Score one against the NRA and the amendment's sponsor, that rising GOP star Sen. John Thune of South Dakota... (Note the $1.1 million dollar contribution by the Joyce Foundation, which Big Brother served as a director for eight years.) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/04/AR2009080403132.html --- Tangentially Related: The Senate is gearing up for a vote that will almost certainly lead to the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor on Thursday or Friday. But a key Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee thinks that the strategies employed by his party during the hearings were effective in taking a stand against a larger principle of constitutional impartiality on the Court. "I don't believe that we should confirm anyone to the court who is not faithfully committed to follow the law whether they like it or not," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, (R-Ala.), the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee. "If they feel empowered to avoid doing that when they don't like the law then they weaken all laws and they weaken the Constitution." ... http://townhall.com/columnists/JillianBandes/2009/08/05/key_senator_thinks_sotomayor_vote_represents_crossroads?page=full --- The Hoplophobia Quiz: ...Hoplophobia should not be mistaken for outright social bigotry against firearms and the people who own them. One often leads to the other, but they are not the same thing. The social bigot believes himself or herself to be superior to the firearms owner in any number of arenas, including education and salary, whereas the hoplophobe is genuinely fearful of firearms. So I've cooked up a little quiz that may help people determine if they are suffering from hoplophobia. Give it a go and see where you stand. Results are not scientific.... http://www.examiner.com/x-4525-Seattle-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m8d3-Are-you-a-hoplophobe --- Open-Carry Musings: My friend Jubal and I often open carry together, especially when we go out of town to shop. It's an exercise of our sovereign responsibility for our own lives and safety, as well as an opportunity to educate others. It should be a given that we are also ready and able to help others in the event of an attack or other emergency. Unfortunately, that's not how some people see us at all. Having been conditioned to believe that the guns themselves are "evil" in the hands of ordinary people, and that anyone who is not a cop just might well be up to no good if they've got a gun... Perfectly legal open carry of a firearm can be mighty inconvenient, and in many places put one in grave danger from the police themselves. Most of the time we don't encounter these folks, but sometimes it happens. That's when the education often starts... (A guy showed up at the local dog park a few times, wearing an empty holster. I asked him why he bothered and he told me a few stories about experiences he has had carrying openly in the local forest; these have led him to be more discriminating about carrying openly. My comments included [a] Why wear the holster if you don't wear the gun? [b] Why not use a holster, such as a Serpa, for better retention, if you carry openly? [c] Why not carry concealed if you have had these confrontations while carrying openly? In one of the confrontations he feared that the three other hikers were going to try to take his gun.) http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/09/08/03/editor.html --- Tennessee County Likely to Ban Park Carry: The guns in parks debate will soon fire in front of Knox County Commission. The Knox County Parks and Recreation Advisory Board has recommended banning guns in all the 42 parks. The board makes its recommendation to Knox County Mayor's Office, which then pitches a recommendation to commission. Knox County already has a ban on guns in parks; however, a new state law will wipe out that come September. The law allows local city and county governments to opt out by passing a new ban.... Parks and Rec Director Doug Bataille said 26 parks contain ball fields, and some worried about putting a gun in between heated parents, coaches, and referees. "Guns would probably not be a good addition in that situation," Bataille said. The ban includes the county's greenways. Bataille said the board considered allowing guns on them. "[But] so many of those greenways are connected to either a school or a library; so then we had a real enforcement issue," Bataille said. Bataille said a uniform ban county-wide would be easier to enforce and easier for citizens to understand... http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/52398797.html --- Georgia RKBA Convention a Success: Guns, gambling, and alcohol were all present when the state right-to-bear-arms group GeorgiaCarry.Org held its first annual convention this weekend at the posh Renaissance Waverly hotel in Cobb County. Politicians and hundreds of armed Georgians showed up for the two day event, including gubernatorial candidates from the Democrat, Libertarian, and Republican parties and the state's Attorney General. The group hosted a social mixer on Friday night with dinner, followed by a poker tournament (for fun) that lasted several hours. This is probably the first time in more than a century that any location has hosted so many people paying cards while carrying pistols openly. Saturday was full of workshops on such diverse items as a two hour "grassroots lobbying" seminar taught by two real, professional lobbyists, a women's self defense seminar, and a class on assemblying your own AR-15 semiautomatic rifle from parts. During the day, attendees could browse a vendor forum in which merchants were selling everything from laser grips to .50 BMG rifles. In the afternoon, a panel including four candidates for Governor and several members of Georgia's General Assembly debated gun laws in Georgia and candidly answered specific questions from audience members, who approached the microphone wearing holstered pistols in the open... http://www.examiner.com/x-5619-Atlanta-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m8d3-Georgia-Right-to-Bear-Arms-Convention-a-Success --- California City Targets Gun-Show Signs: In a departure from its long-time complacence over illegal signs, the city recently fined a gun show promoter $4,600 for illegally tacking more than 40 posters around town. The move spurred complaints of selective and politically motivated enforcement, but city staff said it was just part of a new, "stepped up" effort. Gilroy's zoning laws bar "any off-site advertising signs" that are not on the same physical site as the business they are advertising. This includes those ubiquitous, rectangular, neon green, orange and red signs stapled to phone poles, fences and facades, often on properties lacking on-site supervision. The small, eye-grabbing signs advertise tattoo expos, gun shows, and reptile and bird exhibits, but they typically stay up after events and frustrate residents who have been complaining about the mess to Gilroy Code Enforcement Officer Scott Barron... (Some list members will recognize the name Nordyke from a recent Ninth Circuit case, pending en banc review, that incorporated the Second Amendment against the states.) http://www.gilroydispatch.com/news/258132-a-sign-of-the-fines --- Rule One, Rule Five Reminder: It was supposed to be a fun family event and a time for the Polk County Sheriff's Office to interact with the public. The fun quickly came to a halt when a 12-year-old boy fired a deputy's shotgun and injured a 3-year-old girl. The Sheriff's Office said the deputy's gun was not supposed to be loaded. It happened at Union Park in Des Moines at the annual Clowns at the Carousel Party. The 12-year-old boy who fired the gun ran away. The 3-year-old girl who was injured is recovering at Mercy Medical Center. The Polk County Sheriff's office had a couple deputies there giving tours to children of their patrol cars. Deputy Keith Onley was in the middle of a tour when his shotgun went off. The Sheriff's Office said Onley and the 3-year-old girl were standing outside the patrol car. Several other children were inside it, including a 12-year-old boy in the front seat... (Rule One: All firearms are always loaded. Rule Five: Maintain control of your firearm. Police shotguns, which normally lack firing-pin safeties, are typically carried in vehicles in "cruiser ready" condition, with the hammer down over an empty chamber. In this procedure, the final step in "readying" the shotgun involves pressing the trigger, to leave the slide free to cycle. This has resulted in an occasional surprise when it proved that there was actually a round in the chamber.) http://www.officer.com/online/article.jsp?siteSection=1&id=47787 --- Neal Knox - The Gun Rights War: Most readers of this column knew my late father, Neal Knox, as a Washington lobbyist and gun-rights hard-liner. And most of you also know that his family - particularly my brother Jeff and I, along with our mother Jay - continue the work he started with The Firearms Coalition. But in my travels, I've been dismayed to discover that many of "our guys" - from shooters at the range to industry types at the trade shows - don't really know or understand who Neal Knox was and what a significant impact he had on their rights. More importantly, they don't know or understand the history of the fight which has brought us where we are today. Imagine a west-bound wagon train with no one among them who had ever forded a river with a wagon or crossed a difficult mountain pass. Neal Knox - The Gun Rights War is the journal of an experienced guide and wagon master. He wasn't perfect and he wasn't always right, but he had a good compass and was always trying to move in the right direction.... http://www.ohioccw.org/200908044573/history-matters-neal-knox-the-gun-rights-war-is-history.html -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .