Holder Headed for Confirmation: Eric Holder, who would be the nation's first African-American attorney general, appeared headed for confirmation as the first round of his questioning ended this evening before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Democrats are in the majority, and Republicans held off from the toughest questioning... http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/holder_hearings/2009/01/15/171864.html President-elect Barack Obama has a bad reputation regarding the Second Amendment right to bear arms, and it's having a dramatic effect in gun and ammo retail outlets. Gun sales across the country were up before Election 2008 - just in anticipation of a Barack Obama victory in the White House race. Now that the president-elect is poised to take the oath of office, guns are flying off the shelves... The nomination of Eric Holder for the post of attorney general of the United States sends an alarming signal to gun owners about how the Barack Obama administration will view individual gun rights, the Second Amendment Foundation warned in a news release... Holder's nomination - like the appointment of anti-gun Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel as White House chief of staff - tells American gun owners that Obama's campaign claims supporting the Second Amendment were empty rhetoric, Gottlieb argued... http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/holder_obama_guns/2009/01/15/171877.html Attorney General-designate Eric Holder conceded during his confirmation hearing Thursday that the government's options for regulating the possession of firearms have been narrowed in the wake of the Supreme Court's 2008 ruling that the Second Amendment ensures an individual right to bear arms. "Reasonable restrictions are still possible," Holder said, including measures such as a ban on the sale of what are called "cop-killer" bullets. But, he granted, "we're living in a different world" since the high court's 5-4 ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller. Holder said that he previously viewed the Second Amendment as a "collective right" to bear arms, not an individual right. The Heller ruling, Holder said, was a "very significant opinion." (If bullets can be banned because they have been given an emotionally loaded nickname, why not entire categories of firearms?) http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/01/15/holder-gun-control-options-narrowed-after-high-court-ruling/ More details of what he said: http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2009/01/holder-heller-means-exactly-dick.html --- The Beat Goes On: Gun sales across the nation jumped in December and November compared with the same months in 2007 because of fears among some gun owners that the new administration and Congress will restrict gun ownership, a new report shows. The National Shooting Sports Foundation says that data from the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System show a 24 percent increase in firearm purchaser background checks for December 2008 over December 2007. There were 1,523,426 checks in December 2008 compared with 1,230,525 that month in 2007. That increase follows a 42 percent rise in checks for November, the highest number of checks in the history of the FBI system... http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20090115/LIFESTYLE05/901150304 --- Bush Would Limit Gunrunning to Mexico: President Bush said yesterday that the United States should work to stop the movement of guns across our southern border into Mexico. At the same time, the president said Americans could help Mexico by using fewer illegal drugs. The president made the remarks while meeting on Tuesday with Mexican President Felipe Calderon in the White House... (This might be an appropriate time to recall that "W" was elected governor of Texas after promising to sign a bill that would create licensed CCW in that state; he not only signed the initial bill, he also signed at least one reform bill, relaxing restrictions on where handguns can be carried legally.) http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=41937 --- Another Look at National-Park Carry: On January 9, 2009, the National Park Service was tasked to live by the same rules that the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service and the rest of the nation use. On January 10, 2009, the earth rotated. The sun rose. The Constitution still worked. Law-abiding citizens were still, well, law-abiding. Apparently, we all survived... The old Park Service restrictions resulted in harassment of good people on roads or trails that may wind in and out of park service jurisdiction. A recent case on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia illustrates the problem... Sen. Dianne Feinstein recently blasted (no pun intended) this new respect of legal concealed weapons by saying it will create a "dangerous environment." I happen to believe that law abiding Americans with concealed weapons permits aren't too different from Sen. Feinstein when she received her concealed weapons permit in the 1970s and carried a .38 for her safety. At least now she won't be arrested for inadvertently walking on land administered by one branch of the federal government rather than land administered by a different branch of the federal government. http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=30284 --- Ammo Serialization Bill Would Ban Reloading: Reloading ammunition in Pennsylvania may become a thing of the past if a bill currently in state legislature is passed. According to the National Rifle Association-Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA), "in the last year, so-called "encoded" or "serialized" ammunition bills have been introduced in 13 states - Arizona, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Washington." The bills, if passed, would require all bullets and cartridge cases to be marked with a code and registered to the owners in a computerized database, therefore, reloading would be outlawed. "It (the bill) would eliminate reloading because there would be no way to serial it (the ammunition)," Rollin Anderson of Anderson's Gun Shop in Watsontown said. "A lot of guys that handload (reload) are not happy about it." ... (The Arizona bill has already been killed in committee.) http://www.standard-journal.com/articles/2009/01/14/news/doc496e01831fbb7815601856.txt --- Nebraska Cities Can't Ban CCW: City officials across Nebraska were reviewing their options Wednesday in light of an attorney general's opinion that said state law trumps local ordinances banning the carrying of concealed weapons... Local concealed weapons ordinances were believed to be allowed under a state law that lists the authority granted to cities and towns. But in the opinion, Attorney General Jon Bruning's office quoted portions of the concealed carry law that say a permit is "valid throughout the state" and that "a permitholder may carry a concealed handgun anywhere in Nebraska" with certain exceptions... http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10537680 --- California Sheriff Turns to Intimidation: At the board meeting today, Orange County deputies searched gun-rights supporters, especially those wearing CCW buttons, according to those who attended the meeting. Although Sheriff Sandra Hutchens said she would let the permits expire rather than revoke them, her real disdain for freedom is shown by the presence of the SWAT team and the heavyhanded searches of law-abiding residents who wanted to attend the board meeting. Did the sheriff really think that gun supporters are somehow dangerous. I've been to gun shows and gun events and have never felt safer. (The board meeting was undoubtedly about Sheriff Hutchens's attempts to re-impose Los Angeles County standards for CWP issuance in Orange County.) http://orangepunch.freedomblogging.com/2009/01/13/swat-team-searches-gun-rights-supporters/6126/ --- Arkansas Bill Would Expand Vehicle Storage: Arkansas legislators face an interesting dilemma: Leave their guns at home or park their cars off the Capitol's 20-acre campus. A law that prohibits weapons from most publicly owned buildings in the state - and their parking lots - is making a former Olympic shooter leave his guns at home when using his coveted spot adjacent to the Capitol. Representative Randy Stewart, a member of the 1980 and 1984 Olympic teams, wants to see the law changed. He said he and some colleagues must choose between their prime parking spaces and keeping a gun in their locked cars and trucks. His bill, introduced Wednesday, would also exempt parking lots at colleges... http://www.ksla.com/Global/story.asp?S=9675448 http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/249523/ --- OFCC Adopts, Adapts, Sells Gadsden Flag: ...With new threats to our liberty and gun freedoms looming ever larger, the Gadsden flag is once again making a statement for ever-vigilant Patriots and grassroots activists. Combined with the OFCC logo, this version of the Gadsden Flag is sure to convey your message loud and clear that you will not support further infringement on your rights... Made of lightweight Solar Max Nylon for maximum performance, durability, and fade resistance, this 2'x3' colorful flag features reinforced grommets for attaching to a flagpole or hung from the ceiling. Digitally printed in single reverse with a dye sublimation process, they are ideal for both indoor and outdoor use. http://www.ohioccw.org/content/view/4212/53/ --- Brady Bunch Recalls Stockton School Massacre: Twenty years ago this Saturday in Stockton, a close-knit farm city in the heart of California's Central Valley, a man with a history of arrests, mental illness and problems with alcohol shot and killed five students and wounded twenty-nine others along with a teacher at Cleveland Elementary School. The shooter, Patrick Purdy, spray-fired 106 rounds of ammunition in about two minutes using an AK-47 assault rifle equipped with a 75-round ammunition drum. The tragic shooting in 1989 spurred advocates and legislators in California into action. The California Legislature quickly passed the nation's first ban on assault weapons. And it was the beginning of a string of many legislative victories in California during the next twenty years... (It almost sounds to me as though they're lauding Patrick Purdy as one of their heroes. All that's missing is their formulaic blurb about his contribution to keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of dangerous people. Virtually everything Purdy did that day, including possession of the rifle, was already illegal)) http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/twenty-years-since-a-nightmare,682254.shtml --- Oops, Wrong House: An armed woman who stayed home sick from work Wednesday turned out to be a would-be robber's worst nightmare. Police say an alarm went off Wednesday in broad daylight in the 3300 block of Dondis Creek Drive in Dumfries, prompting the home's owner to her basement door where she found three men trying to get inside. "When she confronts them, the men take off and one of them returned," said Officer Erika Hernandez, Prince William. That is when the woman opened fire, striking the would-be robber in the upper body. Police caught him and he was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries. Police later caught the second suspect, but are still looking for the third... http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0109/585528.html --- Oops, Wrong Car: Atlanta police are calling a deadly overnight shooting a case of self defense. APD Sgt. Lisa Keyes tells Channel 2 Action News a suspected carjacker was shot and killed just after Midnight Thursday morning as he attempted to steal a car from outside the Graveyard Tavern on Glenwood Avenue in southeast Atlanta. When confronted by the suspect, Keyes says the car owner "pulled his own weapon and shot the suspect five to six times." http://wsbradio.com/localnews/2009/01/shooting-called-self-defense.html http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2009/01/15/east_atlanta_shooting.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab --- Oops, Wrong Store: A store clerk shoots a would-be robber. According to the Halifax County Sheriff's Office, the clerk called 911 to report an armed robbery at Max's Grocery in Scottsburg [VA]. The clerk told the sheriff's office a man entered the store around 6:30 p.m. armed with a handgun and demanded money. The sheriff's office said the clerk shot the suspect who then left on foot. Deputies found the suspect around 8:20 p.m. in some woods near the store. He was taken to Halifax Regional Hospital with an apparent gun shot wound to the chest... http://www.wdbj7.com/Global/story.asp?S=9666561&nav=s6ak --- Rule Five Reminder, Part 1: The man escaped with a few cuts to his arm, but the toilet made out much worse. Police say a man's gun fell out of its holster while he pulled up his pants after using the bathroom at a Carl's Jr. restaurant Tuesday. The gun fired when it hit the floor and shattered the commode... Police say they confiscated the 26-year-old man's firearm while they review the incident. The man had a concealed weapons permit. No charges are being filed... (Rule Five: Maintain control of your firearm. Most modern firearms suitable for self-defense will not fire when dropped. Under the guise of preventing incidents like this, California maintains a roster of specific models of handguns that can be sold in that state; manufacturers must submit samples annually for drop-testing.) http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090114/ap_on_fe_st/odd_toilet_shot;_ylt=Am0djmkmtM6jRMjkLdCT57HtiBIF --- Rule Five Reminder, Part 2: It happened at the Lone Ranger Market on Aldine Bender at Airline around 11:30pm. Police say the clerk shot the two armed men after they entered his store. According to the clerk, he was closing the store for the night when two men walked into the store and demanded money. The clerk had two guns. One was on the counter. The other was in his waistband. One of the suspects grabbed the gun on the counter and allegedly held it to the clerk's head while the other suspect searched the store for cash. Fearing for his life, the clerk pulled the gun he had in his waistband and fired at least twice. He hit one suspect in the chest and stomach. The other suspect ran to the front of the store and the clerk shot him as well... (While Rule Five was originally formulated with regard to civil liability for the unauthorized use of an improperly stored firearm, it clearly has tactical applications as well.) http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=6605454 --- Firearms in Pakistan: Video from 2007 shows the cottage industry that manufactures hand-made firearms in Pakistan's Khyber Pass region. Long download but worth watching. http://www.vbs.tv/full_screen.php?s=DGFE2305DC&sc=1363196 --- SHOT Show Video Coverage: At this point it looks like more fluff than content. http://www.gunsamerica.com/video/player.aspx?Channel=7 --- Talk to Big Brother: For those who are not concerned with flying below the radar, Big Brother's website offers an area where citizens can post comments on issues of concern, such as the RKBA. You can also vote on pre-existing comments, adding 10 points by voting up or deducting 10 points by voting down. http://citizensbriefingbook.change.gov/ Tangentially Related: ...The 52-year-old farmer is a conservative Democrat who bet on Republican John McCain and lost, a description that would apply to many in the white South. Now Loewer wonders about his place in Obama's America. "I'm worried that he's not gonna understand the rural way of life," he says... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/15/AR2009011504254.html?hpid=artslot --- Tangentially Related: South Korean scientists may have found a way to remove dangerous heavy metals such as lead from blood by using specially designed magnetic receptors. The receptors bind strongly to lead ions and can be easily removed, along with their lead cargo, using magnets, they wrote in an article in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, a leading chemistry journal. "Detoxification could theoretically work like hemodialysis: the blood is diverted out of the body and into a special chamber containing the biocompatible magnetic particles," they wrote in a statement... (Those not familiar with the hazards of lead to shooters are referred to my discussion of Toxic Substances, under Secondary Safety Concerns at http://www.spw-duf.info/safety.html.) http://www.newsmax.com/health/remove_metals_blood/2009/01/16/172070.html -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .