The Beat Goes On: The number of gun permits issued in Massachusetts surged by more than 15 percent over the past two years, reversing nearly a decade of steady declines and marking a pronounced departure for a state known for its antigun sentiment. The magnitude of the rise, evident in nearly every corner of the state, surprised law enforcement officials, and gun advocates and opponents alike. Some saw it as an echo of similar spikes across the country after President Obama's election, when heavy gun sales were attributed to fears that he would impose strict new gun laws. But with more women and elderly residents signing up for gun classes in Massachusetts, many said the increase here has also been driven by worries about crime and a growing sense of vulnerability in the wake of the financial collapse and lingering fallout of the damaged economy... The increase in Class A permits - the largest and broadest category of gun license - amounted to a jump of more than 28,000 statewide to about 224,000 as of last month, according to data provided by the state Executive Office of Public Safety and Security. The number had previously been dropping, from about 239,000 in 2001 to 192,000 in 2007. Class A permits, commonly called "a license to carry,'' are the only permits that allow individuals to carry concealed guns and own all types of legal firearms... http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/12/20/gun_permits_surge_in_state/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Massachusetts+news --- Sometimes It Is the Gun: ...Semi-automatic weapons are now pretty much the norm for law enforcement. There are still some revolvers out there, usually in back-up roles, but I am going to address semi-autos for now. The most obvious concern of the majority of people when shooting semi-auto pistols is feeding malfunctions. They can be shooter induced, but they can also be from damaged magazines, poor maintenance and incompatible ammunition. When a pistol is not feeding properly, and it isn't caused by the shooter, I usually look first at the ammunition, then at the magazines and then at the gun itself. I'll talk more about ammunition later. For now, let's look at the guns. Are the magazines, especially the feed lips, damaged? I've seen magazines with dents in the body and feed lips bent out of shape from being dropped on hard surfaces. I've seen magazine springs that are simply worn out. Magazines are relatively cheap and should be replaced if they are damaged. Even if the body of the magazine isn't damaged, the springs should be changed based on the manufacturers recommended schedule. Every department should have a responsible, qualified person who does routine inspections and maintenance on all department firearms. The guns themselves have parts, especially springs, that should be replaced periodically and all manufacturers have recommended maintenance schedules. Follow them... http://www.officer.com/web/online/Operations-and-Tactics/Sometimes-It-IS-The-Gun/3$49675 --- Sights Revisited, Again: A University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Vision Science Research Center investigator who also is an expert marksman has found a more intuitive way to aim a pistol... Opti-sight is a precision-milled half-triangle shape that replaces the traditional pistol gunsight. The design relies on subjective contours, an optics principle that explains how the subconscious mind fills in the blanks when the eye sees half of a familiar shape like a circle, square or triangle, Kraft says. The rear opti-sight notch looks like an incomplete triangle sitting atop the gun barrel. When a shooter looks through the notch, the brain tells the eye where the missing triangle apex should appear, and that apex is the precise point of aim, Kraft says. "This triangular shape that I've created allows the brain to visualize concentric triangles whose imaginary apexes focus the shooter's attention on the exact target bullseye..." (Dr. Kraft's sight is somewhat reminiscent of the triangle-within-trapezoid sight offered by Steyr [http://www.steyr-mannlicher.com/en/sportwaffen/steyr-pistole-m-a1/details/], which only seems to have gained a limited number of adherents. Sure Sight [http://www.suresight.com/] offers a similar concept, with the front sight elevated to form a complete triangle. The Advantage Tactical Sight [http://www.advantagetactical.com/perform/performanceSpecs.php] seems to resemble the latter closely, with the major exception of offering contrasting colors for the tip of the triangle. In all cases, the crucial issue is not to confuse optical aids for better target shooting with a system that will still allow sight confirmation when the brain is telling the eyes to focus on the threat. The HexSite [http://www.goshen-hexsite.com/] is designed with that as its primary purpose. Comments from list members who have experience with any of these alternative sights, in high-stress environments, are welcome.) http://main.uab.edu/Sites/MediaRelations/articles/71589/ --- Tangentially Related: ...But the appeals court reconsidered the case after a decision in June from the United States Supreme Court that prohibited prosecutors from introducing crime lab reports without testimony from the analysts who prepared them. The appeals court reversed Ms. Lopez's conviction, saying prosecutors had violated her constitutional right to confront witnesses against her by failing to put the analyst who prepared the blood-alcohol report on the stand. But now, in an unusual move, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on Jan. 11 in a new case that raises questions about how lower courts may carry out its six-month-old precedent. Many state attorneys general and prosecutors are hoping the court will overrule its decision in the earlier case, Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, before it can take root, saying it is a costly, disruptive and dangerous misstep... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/us/20scotus.html?_r=1&ref=us A police advocacy group has criticized an appeals court judgment last week overturning a law that prevented violent felons from owning body armor, saying the ruling will put officers and the public in danger. The decade-old ban was enacted after the 1997 North Hollywood shootout, a confrontation between police and two heavily armored bank robbers that injured officers and civilians. The state Legislature passed the ban in 1998 as a measure to protect police. Thursday's ruling by the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles overturned the state law, saying it was unconstitutional because the definition of body armor was too vague... The challenge to the body armor ban stemmed from the Los Angeles Police Department's 2007 arrest of Ethan Saleem, a parolee who had been convicted of voluntary manslaughter. Saleem was arrested when police noticed that he was wearing a 10-pound, bulletproof vest underneath his shirt, according to court records... (Without making any inferences or implications about why Saleem was wearing body armor, I find this concept troubling. A convicted felon has already lost the right to possess firearms, tools for active self-defense. California appears to have decided that they cannot even possess a passive tool for self-defense [PC 12370]. Most other states settle for criminalizing the use of body armor while committing a felony.) http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-body-armor20-2009dec20,0,5869498.story From John Farnam: 15 Dec 09 Additional comments on the Justice System, from a law professor and student: "Who believe only guilty people are arrested and prosecuted are falsely/foolishly confident. In fact, we now see an unlikely alliance of both Liberals and Conservatives, joining together to vehemently oppose the ever-growing list of federalized crimes. For generations, when someone committed a crime, he knew he was wrong. 'Intent' was, after all, an element of the crime. Today, we can commit a felony, and that fact that we did so never even cross our minds, until officers come to arrest us. Congress is busy passing legislation (most of which they never read) instantly converting an innumerable host of benign behaviors into federal felonies! Not labeling a package properly (according to some obscure regulation), or even presenting a gun to your son or daughter as a birthday present, may well make you a federal felon! How many good and decent people have been impoverished, and had what was left of their lives and personal reputations ruined, when 'repressed memories' were used as the basis for sexual-abuse charges? Police and prosecutors, anxious to pad their resumes, brought charges against them because some alleged 'victim' had her 'repressed memory' magically 'restored' during dubious 'therapy' sessions. Not all of these people could afford a jury trial with competent representation. With the Duke University Lacrosse Team fiasco, the Central Park Jogger Case, and other high-profile instances, we eventually learned the truth. We would be foolish to believe that there are not many other cases, that never generated headlines, which resulted in an innocent person being swept away with a 'negotiated plea.' Unless you can afford to hire stellar attorneys, the immense (and growing!) power of government can easily overwhelm you, and, when the prosecutor offers you a deal, you may have little choice but to accept." Comment: We all agree that the foregoing is not what our Founders had in mind when they wrote the 6th Amendment! /John (Amendment VI. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.) -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. The tactics and skills to use a firearm in self-defense don't come naturally with the right to keep and bear arms. http://www.spw-duf.info .