Supremes Reject New York City Gun Suit: New York City's nine-year lawsuit accusing gun makers of flooding illicit markets with their firearms came to an end on Monday, when the United States Supreme Court refused to consider a lower court's dismissal of the case. Without comment, the justices decided not to review a ruling by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which declared on April 30 that federal law protected the manufacturers from such suits. The appeals court had overturned a decision by Judge Jack B. Weinstein of Federal District Court in Brooklyn, who ruled in 2005 that the suit could proceed despite protests by gun makers like Beretta U.S.A., Browning Arms, Colt Manufacturing, Glock and Smith & Wesson. The gun companies had complained that a federal law passed just two months earlier shielded them from such suits... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/washington/10guns.html?_r=1&ref=washington http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-09-2009/0004985469&EDATE= http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200903091032DOWJONESDJONLINE000306_FORTUNE5.htm --- DC Sued over Handgun Rule: The Second Amendment Foundation and three Washington, D.C. residents today filed a lawsuit challenging a regulation by District of Columbia city government that arbitrarily bans handguns based on a roster of "acceptable" handguns approved by the State of California. The District is using this list despite a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court last summer that protects handguns that ordinary people traditionally use for self-defense. This scheme could eventually bar the ownership of any new handguns. Attorney Alan Gura, representing the plaintiffs in this case, noted that District bureaucrats "told Tracy Ambeau Hanson her gun was the wrong color." Americans are not limited to a government list of approved books, or approved religions, he said. A handgun protected by the Second Amendment doesn't need to appear on any government-approved list either. "The Springfield XD-45 is approved for sale in Washington," Gura noted, "so long as it is black, green, or brown, but her bi-tone version is supposedly 'unsafe.'" ... http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-09-2009/0004985260&EDATE= http://marktaff.com/the-news/42-gun-rights/101-will-dc-city-council-ever-learn-their-lesson.html http://www.dcexaminer.com/local/DC-rejects-womans-handgun-over-color-40983407.html --- That Nasty NRA: Every time I hear that gun issues have ground the D.C. voting rights bill to a halt in the House of Representatives, I wonder to myself: Didn't the U.S. Supreme Court already strike down D.C.'s ban on handguns as unconstitutional? The answer of course is "yes." So why is it still an issue? Well because, despite what some advocates would have you believe, the gun issue isn't about constitutional rights... Thanks to the Supreme Court, D.C. citizens can keep and bear arms. They simply have to register them, and cannot have any of the semi-automatic variety. Only radical gun rights advocate suggest these are unconstitutional limitations - and if they are unconstitutional, then under-armed D.C. citizens can gain redress through the courts... http://www.usnews.com/blogs/robert-schlesinger/2009/3/9/the-nras-cheap-gun-trick-on-washington-dc-voting-rights.html --- The Beat Goes On: For gun owners, it's 1994 all over again. Even before U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's comments that President Barack Obama's administration would like to reinstitute the federal Assault Weapons Ban, local gun stores were experiencing a surge of demand for both firearms and ammunition. But after Holder's Feb. 26 comment, demand surged. "We'll sell as many guns in a day now as we used to in a month, and supplies have dried up," said Jay Woodbury, owner of Jay's Guns & Accessories in Panama City. "You cannot get what you need, like ammunition. We're out of ammunition in several calibers. Guns that normally I could just pick up the phone and order, now they're telling me six months to a year, if we ever get them. I'm 600 guns per store below what I'd normally stock and probably a million rounds of ammunition below what I'd normally stock." ... http://www.newsherald.com/news/city_72469___article.html/debate_gun.html Many Inland Northwest residents are firearms owners but these days they're finding that shooting them is becoming more difficult because gun stores aren't able to keep up with the growing demand for ammunition. For a while now the country's supply of ammunition has been running in short supply. Some types of ammunition, such as 5.56 mm, are in short supply because it's being produced to support American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. However there's also a fear involved that the Obama administration might put either a ban on certain types of weapons and there might also be increased taxes placed on ammunition. This has some people stockpiling ammo just in case... http://www.kxly.com/Global/story.asp?S=9975493 --- Why People Are Arming Themselves: Only hours before I took a class in order to carry a concealed handgun on Sunday, a man walked into the First Baptist Church of a St. Louis suburb and fatally shot the pastor with a 45-caliber pistol. This was on the same day that a man named Anthony Carter was shot in Chattanooga at the Emma Wheeler Homes and on the very same afternoon that LaTonya Stoudemire was critically stabbed on the city's Heaton Street. As I studied the others who were taking the firearms class yesterday, it did not appear that a soul among them would shoot a minister, gun down anyone at the Emma Wheeler Homes or viciously slash a woman on Heaton Street with a razor. The fact that we do not know why any of these three horrors occurred was precisely why people all across America are flocking to gun stores and arming themselves in an unprecedented effort of self defense... http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_146374.asp --- Tough Time to Be a Gun Owner: It's a tough time to be a gun owner in the United States. Everywhere you look these days, it seems there is some new gun-control measure being proposed by the state or federal government. Last month, state Rep. Angel Cruz of Philadelphia introduced House Bill 375, which would require Pennsylvania gun owners to register every gun they own, every year at a cost of $10 per gun. Gun owners would have to be fingerprinted and photographed and that information would be held by the Pennsylvania State Police... Similar to House Bill 375, U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois in January introduced Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009. A junior at Julian High School in Chicago, Blair Holt was killed on a public bus May 10, 2007, while riding home from school when he used his body to shield a girl who was in the line of fire after a young man boarded the bus and started shooting. Rush's proposed act would set up a national gun registry maintained by the U.S. Attorney General's office... http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/234644 --- Oops, Wrong Store: A strange case of violence in a small town in central Utah Monday morning left a would-be robber dead and a small community in shock. Centerfield resident Antonio Ramos, 42, was killed when one of the women he was robbing grabbed his gun and shot him in the head. Surveillance video from the store captured the robbery and Ramos' final moments on tape... Just after midnight, police say Ramos approached an employee as she was taking out the garbage, pointed a gun at her and forced her inside. Ramos told one employee to tie up the other, and then tried to tie up the second worker himself. A few moments later, video shows the gunman put down his .22-caliber rifle and slip it onto the counter. The clerk who was already tied up appears to remain calm and, in a brief moment, goes for the gun. She grabbed the rifle and fired, striking the robber once in the head. When police arrived, Ramos was dead... http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=5802132 http://www.sltrib.com/ci_11871720?source=most_viewed --- Oops, Wrong Pizza Man: ...Officials say four people tried to rob a pizza delivery man Saturday night, but the man ended up shooting and killing one of the attackers... Lexington County Sheriff James Metts says 18-year-old Jason Todd Beckham, 20-year-old Carlos Renard Dates, 18-year-old Justin Towan Roundtree and 17-year-old Paul Andrew Sturgill, Jr. placed an order with the Pizza Hut on Irmo Drive for two large pizzas to be delivered to a home on Avery Place Lane... The delivery man, 43-year-old Christopher Steven Miller, told deputies Sturgill was standing on a sidewalk outside the home when Miller arrived to deliver the pizzas. Miller told deputies Sturgill asked him whether Miller could make change for a $100 bill, and Miller saw that Sturgill had no cash in his wallet. Miller says he saw two men run out of some nearby woods towards him, and tried to run away. However, Miller says Sturgill began to punch him. While Sturgill was hitting him, Miller told deputies that he took a .45-caliber handgun from his fanny pack and shot Sturgill in the upper torso... http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9968442 A pizza deliveryman, who said Monday he has been held up twice before, fired shots that killed a teenager during a holdup because he feared he would die and not see his wife and 5-year-old daughter again. "I believe everyone has the right to defend themselves if their lives are threatened," Christopher Miller, 43, said in a statement issued through police. Miller, who said he has delivered pizza for about 10 years, has resigned because Pizza Hut bans employees' carrying weapons, corporate spokesman Chris Fuller said... http://www.thestate.com/local/story/709391.html --- Rule Two, Rule Three Reminder: A Lake County sheriff's deputy accidentally shot herself Friday morning while unloading her weapon from her vehicle's trunk as she prepared to report to work at the county courthouse. The 46-year-old deputy, who has served on the force for 22 years, shot herself in the right hand and abdomen around 8:05 a.m. in the Lake County Government building's parking deck, said Lake County Sgt. Christopher Thompson. She shot herself with the firearm issued to her by the sheriff's department, he said. (Rule Two: Don't let the muzzle cross anything you're not prepared to shoot. Rule Three: Keep your finger out of the trigger guard, up on the frame, until your sights are on the target and you're prepared to fire. It sounds as though "unloading," in this case, refers to removing the handgun from the trunk, not removing the ammunition from the handgun.) http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1452834,sheriff-deputy-shoots-self-lake-county-022709.article --- Rule Three Reminder: A Daytona Beach policeman and member of the agency's SWAT team shot himself in the leg as he practiced at a gun range in Flagler County, police said. Ladislas Szabo was reholstering his gun when it accidentally went off and he shot himself in the right knee, said Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood and the Flagler County Sheriff's Office. The bullet from Szabo's .45-caliber Kimber handgun traveled down his leg and lodged itself in the 42-year-old officer's foot. Szabo has been a member of the tactical unit for the past two years, the chief said. The shooting occurred at the Flagler Gun & Archery Club in Bunnell on Feb. 21 and Chitwood believes Szabo was practicing. The officer participates in shooting competitions and the gun he was using that day was one of his personal weapons. The holster Szabo was using is also the type used in competitions, Chitwood said... http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Local/newFLAG02030609.htm --- Shooters Party Gains Strength in Australia State: Greens MP Lee Rhiannon said gun control was one area where the NSW government has been weak, with around 10,000 additional firearms registered in the state each year since 2004. She said the gun lobby has increased its power in NSW because the state government needs the support of the two Shooters Party MPs in the upper house to pass "unpopular" legislation. "The gun lobby has become very powerful in NSW because of the close relationship between the Shooters Party and the NSW Labor government," Ms Rhiannon said... (Note that the objection is to the rise in legally registered firearms.) http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/769092/gun-lobby-gaining-power-in-nsw-greens --- Tangentially Related: ...Tinnitus is not a new phenomenon. Hippocrates spoke of it. Beethoven had it. Pete Townsend, lead guitarist for the Who, describes a serious case. William Shatner and David Letterman, who both have it, discussed it on a Letterman show. They all describe the same thing: ringing, roaring, hissing, chirping, buzzing or clicking when there is no external sound generator. Scientists generally think the starting point for the condition is the inner ear, the cochlea. There are tens of thousands of cells in the cochlea, each tipped with hair bundles called stereocilia. They are instrumental in converting incoming sound vibrations to neural activity that is distributed, via the auditory nerve, to various parts of the brain for processing... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/09/AR2009030902266.html?hpid=sec-health -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .