Big Brother Leaves National-Park Carry, for Now: President Barack Obama has rolled back eleventh-hour Bush administration rules on oil and gas leases, oil-shale development and offshore drilling, but the new White House hasn't budged on one policy: allowing guns in national parks. And, given Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's comments Friday, Obama might not reverse that policy any time soon - if ever. Salazar, a former Colorado senator and state attorney general, said he is reviewing the decision allowing park patrons to carry loaded and accessible weapons, but quickly pointed out the administration's respect of gun rights. "I'm a defender of the Second Amendment, and President Obama also has a respect and understanding of the Constitution and particularly the Second Amendment, but we will take a look at the issue with respect to the environmental and public-safety issues that have been raised," Salazar said in a round-table discussion with reporters. "And we will, at the appropriate time, have a decision on that issue." Three groups are suing to seek an injunction against loaded guns in national parks - which have been allowed for about two months now... (I suspect that it would be easiest for Big Brother to allow the courts to do this bit of dirty work. We'll see what happens if they deny the injunction.) http://www.sltrib.com/News/ci_11855037 --- Big Brother Voter Denied Hunter-Safety Training: ...The class was a reward of sorts. Dunkley, who wants to go hunting with his grandfather, was told he could take the class only if he brought up his grades. So he did - to a B-plus average. But when father and son arrived at the lesson, the volunteer instructor, Kell Wolf, asked if any of the students voted for President Barack Obama. Reddy, a transplanted Californian - and former Marine - raised his hand. According to Reddy and others in the room, Wolf called Obama "the next thing to the Antichrist" and ordered Reddy and Dunkley from the room. When Reddy refused, Wolf said he would not teach "liberals" and would cancel the course if Reddy didn't leave. So Reddy and Dunkley left, as did a few others... (Much as I dislike what Big Brother represents, this is probably not the best way to win people to the fold.) http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20090307_16_A1_Thirte498540&archive=yes --- Alaska May Follow Montana's Lead: State Rep. Mike Kelly says he's drafting a bill that would allow firearms restricted under federal law to be built and used in Alaska. The Fairbanks Republican says the Alaska Firearms Freedom Act is inspired by a similar bill that passed the Montana House of Representatives. It allows someone to own firearms or components restricted by the federal government, as long as they are built and kept entirely in the state. Kelly made the announcement while addressing about 400 members of the Second Amendment Task Force, a gun rights group that has urged gun owners to openly display their weapons. Kelly told the group he resents infringements on gun rights, such as having to go through a metal detector at a courthouse. (While Montana already has a firearms industry, which generally concentrates on the manufacture of late 19th-century rifles, the Alaska bill seems to encourage in-state manufacture of firearms currently restricted by the National Firearms Act, such as machine guns, short-barrel rifles and shotguns and suppressors.) http://www.aksuperstation.com/news/local/40859222.html --- Utah Parking-Lot-Storage Bill: ...Senate Bill 78 is the latest attempt by legislators to keep employers and other property owners from prohibiting gun storage in vehicles in private parking lots. Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Lehi, the perennial sponsor of this and similar bills, argues that this is not a clash of private property rights versus the right to keep and bear arms. Rather, he says, it is a clash of real property rights versus personal property rights, that is, the right of people to keep their personal possessions within the vehicles they own, regardless of who owns the land beneath the car. By that rationale, hazardous chemicals, explosives or livestock in private vehicles could not be prohibited from parking lots... (Not mentioned, in the summary of the AOL case, is that the incident occurred on a publicly owned lot, a portion of which was leased by AOL.) http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_11855497 --- Gun Collector Loses Appeal: ...On Monday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against him. "The district court correctly determined that Barsch's Fourth Amendment rights were not violated when police officers entered his house in conducting a protective sweep based on reports of multiple guns on this premises in the possession of Barsch's bipolar son, who reportedly was not taking his medication, making death threats, and saying that he had stabbed someone the night before," said a court memorandum filed Monday. "The district court also correctly determined that Barsch's Fourteenth Amendment due process rights were not violated by the sale/destruction of the weapons found in his house." ...The confiscated firearms, several of which were jointly owned by Ed and Wayne Barsch, were sold off or destroyed. Wayne Barsch was compensated $4,714 from the proceeds of the police sale, but Ed Barsch received nothing... http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_11828647?source=most_viewed --- Tactical or Tacti-Cool?: In my experience, I've found that trainers typically fall into one of two categories: tactical or tacti-cool. Tactical trainers focus their efforts on developing in their trainees the ability to induce a desired outcome with maximum certainty while minimizing the time and energy expended. Tacti-cool training, on the other hand, has a different goal: developing the ability to look cool with maximum certainty, regardless of the likely outcome or the amount of time and energy used... (Sergeant Humes makes some good points but sometimes, such as when someone is only an arm's length away, there may not be a simple answer to a complex problem and the solution may require more steps than can be learned in five minutes.) http://www.lawofficer.com/news-and-articles/articles/lom/0502/tactical_or_tacti-cool.html --- Preventing Some Unwanted Discharges: Too often unwanted discharges happen to the most highly trained of weapons handlers. They happen when there have been so many years of safe handling incorporated into your psyche that a momentary and dangerous mental lethargy sets in and suddenly, when you least expect it, when your weapon is most certainly not loaded, "Bang!" If it does happen, hopefully other automatic safeguards were engaged at that moment that your mind was not and a very real tragedy is averted... Many unwanted discharges take place just before, during, or just after the act of making a weapon "safe." It happens, when the handler is physically engaged in what he/she is doing, but they either are not mentally engaged or they are distracted. To help ensure that your mind is always mentally engaged just add the step before you clear your weapon. Stop and picture what you are about to do so that your mind becomes engaged also. Then, when you are most sincerely certain that you are mentally engaged in the clearance of the weapon, proceed with the realization that a firearm has no brain and needs to have yours properly focused for it to function wisely. http://www.policeone.com/police-products/firearms/accessories/tips/1792783-Preventing-some-unwanted-discharges/ --- Rule Five Reminder: A 12-year-old Beaumont boy was shot dead by his friend Thursday morning in a home with several loaded weapons and no parents, officials said Saturday. The suspect in the shooting, another 12-year-old boy, was arrested and booked into Riverside Juvenile Hall on suspicion of murder. His parents, Patricia Willis, 33, and Christopher Willis, 48, were arrested on charges of negligent storage of firearms and child endangerment. "We're still trying to figure out if this was accidental or on purpose," said Beaumont police spokeswoman Darci Carranza, who did not release the identity of either boy... (Rule Five: Maintain control of your firearm. Details are lacking but age 12 is an area where some parents may want kids to have access to firearms in the event of a break-in.) http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-kidshoot8-2009mar08,0,272513.story --- Mexico's Firearm Laws: ...This is not an official translation. None of the translators speak Spanish as their first language. Punctuation follows the Spanish text, even when the punctuation does not comply with modern English usage, such as the use of commas in places where modern English would not use a comma. In general, this translation does not attempt to rewrite the Mexican statute as if it were an American statute. Rather, the attempt is to provide a translation of the Mexican statute into English... http://davekopel.org/Espanol/mexican-firearms-statutes.htm --- From John Farnam: 2 Mar 09 At a Pistol Course in TX last weekend, a student brought several hundred rounds of 45ACP hardball that he had acquired from a Web Page called "Rguns." It was advertised as having been manufactured in Israel. Upon examination, I noticed that ten percent of the rounds had the bullet visibly seated too deeply. In fact, they looked as if they had been set-back during feeding. I advised him to cull-out those ones, which he did. However, shooting only those rounds which looked normal, he experienced two squibs (primer, but no powder) within ten minutes! In both cases, the bullet was blown half-way down the barrel, where it lodged. Both had to be pounded out with my LFI De-jammer. Fortunately, my instructors caught it both times, preventing him from firing another round behind the blockage. Had that happened, his pistol would probably have been ruined, and he may have been injured. I, of course, instructed the student that he would no longer be able to use any Rguns ammunition on my range, and he had to thus run out and purchase more ammunition locally in order to have enough to get through the Course. With ammunition in short supply as it is, I suspect we'll see more of this. Remember, most foreign ammunition is trash! /John (I'm not sure that all foreign ammunition is trash. I have used Fiocchi ammunition and lead-free primers without any trouble and never heard any complaints about authentic Israeli IMI ammo. I don't care to run steel-cased Wolf ammo through any of my guns but understand that their small-rifle primers are match-grade. In this case, it sounds as though a visual inspection would have yielded what is known as a "clue." I have seen this with American commercially "remanufactured" ammo and will no longer allow students to use any reloads in any of my guns which they borrow for training. Those who have trained with me probably noted the Dejammer on the ring with some of my keys. As John likes to say, "highly recommended.") 4 Mar 09 Denial, in full swing, from a friend in the Federal System: "I am attending a homeland-security/emergency-management conference. The keynote speaker was a British policeman who spoke about terrorism-prevention strategies in the UK. However, he lost all credibility when he brought up the subject of a Mumbai-style attack in the UK. He sounded like a pathetic alcoholic trying to rationalize his bad habit! While he did embarrassingly concede Britan's unarmed police are utterly incapable of dealing with such a threat, he quickly brushed all that aside and went on to state, with complete arrogance, that UK's gun prohibition make such an attack unlikely! I raised my hand and pointed out that India has nearly identical prohibitions, and none of them so much as inconvenienced terrorists. He refused to answer my question and called for a break. What a jerk! It is truly said, 'If the British weren't so dammed stupid, they wouldn't have to be so dammed brave!'" Comment: Of course, the exact opposite is true. But, the further left one goes, the more truth gets lost in political agendas. By far, the greatest deterrent to such an attack within CONUS our individual right to own, and carry, firearms. The world's terrorists are absolutely mortified of armed police and armed citizens. They know only too well that, at the moment of truth, what stands between them and success is effective, fearless, and immediate armed resistance. That is why their shameless admirers in Congress and the Executive Branch are so anxious to disarm us! However, we're Americans, and we "don't go quietly!" /John 5 Mar 09 Comments on UK terrorist "strategy," from a friend there: "I'm astonished to hear that we even have a 'strategy!' I've talked with many UK police. They freely admit that the one thing they fear most is encountering armed and properly-trained VCAs. They know and understand that they don't stand a chance! By contrast, what little firearms training to which UK police are exposed, is a joke. If you had a typical UK cop in one of your Courses, his place would be among rank beginners, grandmothers and VBCs! To make matters worse, the same can be said for all of Western Europe!" Comment: Gun bans is not just about denying firearms. More perniciously, they are about denying knowledge, life-saving knowledge that has been gleaned at great price, life-saving knowledge that will be critical to our national survival. Why would any civilization, particularly when surrounded by ravenous wolves, make "learned-helplessness" strictly-enforced, public policy? A national death-wish is the only answer I can come up with. To reverse course requires sincere and earnest repentance. Unfortunately, the one thing of which leftists are utterly incapable is humbly admitting that they are not only wrong, but have never been anything but wrong! Lording it over others is so critical to their being, that they would rather die than repent. They would rather perish than display even a modicum of humility! Accordingly, with arrogant leftists in charge, Western Civilization is doomed, and we probably won't have to wait much longer! /John ("VCA" is Farnamese for "Violent Criminal Actor." "VBC" is "Victim By Choice.") 5 Mar 09 ... as if to make the point! This, just received from a friend in Israel: "Two hours ago, we just experienced our third 'tractor attack' in two days! Initial target was a police car, with two officers in it, stopped at a stoplight. The attacker rammed his scoop into the vehicle and succeeded in flipping it over, twice. The terrorist then went after a passenger bus. A passing taxi driver stopped, got out, and put several bullets into the terrorist. That heroic act precipitously ended the attack! Never a dull moment in Jerusalem!" Comment: Western Civilization is being saved by humble, but armed, taxi drivers. Imagine that! /John (As noted earlier in the week, Israelis see this as an action by an armed citizen while The New York Times overemphasized the role of an additional police officer on the scene.) -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .