Give Me a Break: The nation's capital would be more vulnerable to a terrorist attack if the District's gun laws were weakened, the city's attorney general said Friday. Peter J. Nickles testified before a House subcommittee examining the potential effect of a gun amendment attached to legislation that would give the District its first full vote in Congress. The measure sponsored by Sen. John Ensign, Nevada Republican, would repeal the city's strict gun registration requirements and restrictions on semiautomatic weapons. "The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, demonstrated something that we have known for some time: government facilities, dignitaries and public servants are prime targets for terrorists," Mr. Nickles said. "As a result, it would seem to me the District is the last place where residents across the country would want to allow assault weapons." ...As of now, police are trained to view anyone carrying a weapon as a threat, he said. Mr. Ensign's amendment would allow residents to carry guns to and from a place of business. (The terrorist attacks in Mumbai demonstrated something we have known for some time: criminals and terrorists don't obey laws and disarming law-abiding citizens only makes things easier for criminals and terrorists. While it may not be fair to compare the DC Metro cops to their counterparts in Mumbai, when seconds count, the police are, at best, only minutes away.) http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/04/attorney-general-rips-gun-amendment/ Secret Admirers: A spokesman for Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said Transportation Security Administration employees slipped an encouraging note into an Ensign staffer's luggage. Ensign spokesman Tory Mazzola said a staffer flying into Washington discovered a note in his suitcase that was signed by six TSA employees and thanked the senator for his efforts to lift the gun ban in the nation's capital, Politico reported Friday. "To Senator Ensign: Please continue to defend our conservative values with all your vigor, particularly our Second Amendment! Thank you," the note read... http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2009/04/03/Note-in-suitcase-thanks-Nevada-senator/UPI-86461238782364/ Tangentially Related: After receiving a legal memo that declared the pending D.C. voting rights bill unconstitutional, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. reached out to another lawyer on whose judgment he had relied for years. Holder contacted Deputy Solicitor General Neal K. Katyal, who served as one of his advisers in the Justice Department during the Clinton era. Katyal gave Holder, who said he had already decided that the bill passed muster, an informal view that the measure could be defended in court if Congress passed it and the president signed it. Whether that conversation was part of a bid by the country's chief law enforcement officer to gather expert advice or an override of a legal conclusion with which he disagreed is the subject of debate among veterans of the department and on Capitol Hill... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/02/AR2009040203979.html --- When Seconds Count...: The man who police say killed 13 [other] people in a shooting rampage at an immigrant community center was depressed and angry over losing his job and about his poor English skills, officials said Saturday... Four people were critically wounded in the Friday massacre, and 37 others made it out, including 26 who hid for hours in a basement boiler room while police tried to determine whether the gunman was still alive and whether he was holding any hostages, Zikuski said... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/04/AR2009040400909.html http://www.newsmax.com/us/binghamton_shootings/2009/04/04/199675.html Today in Binghamton, New York, a "suspect" shot up an immigration center as people took their citizenship exam, killing at least 13, then he died from a "self-inflicted gunshot wound." These are the facts of the story, but there are many more facts not covered in the mainstream media which have an impact on this tragedy. The main question ignored: Why do nearly all of these mass murders occur in places where law-abiding citizens (or immigrants) are disarmed by government regulation? Most mass murders occur in states, like New York, which restrict your right of self-defense. In his book The Bias Against Guns, John Lott examined the relationship between the presence of legally-carried firearms and multiple murders. He concluded: If right-to-carry laws [legal concealed carry of handguns] allow citizens to limit the amount of attacks that still take place, the number of persons harmed should fall relative to the number of shootings... And indeed, that is what we find. The average number of people dying or becoming injured per attack declines by around 50 percent... http://www.examiner.com/x-2879-Austin-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m4d3-Binghamton-massacre-death-by-government Time after time multiple-victim public shootings occur in "gun free zones" -- public places where citizens are not legally able to carry guns. The horrible attack today in Binghamton, New York is no different. Every multiple-victim public shooting that I have studied, where more than three people have been killed, has taken place where guns are banned. You would think that it would be an important part of the news stories for a simple reason: Gun-free zones are a magnet for these attacks. Extensive discussions of these attacks can be found here and here. We want to keep people safe, but the problem is that it is the law-abiding good citizens, not the criminals, who obey these laws. We end up disarming the potential victims and not the criminals. Rather than making places safe for victims, we unintentionally make them safe for the criminal... If a killer were stalking your family, would you feel safer putting a sign out front announcing, "This home is a gun-free zone"? But that is what all these places did... http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/04/03/gun-free-zones-are-a-magnet-for-attacks-like-the-tragedy-in-binghampton/ ...Some people are just too damned slow to learn. If guns are too dangerous to have in the hands of people, why should police officers carry them? And if only a half-dozen persons had been armed in this building in Binghamton this morning, I wonder how many lives might have been saved. This latter question, of course, is one that will never bother the consciences of the anti-gun crowd. I doubt that anyone will appear on MSNBC to ask it. http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/026179.html --- Maybe, Maybe Not: "The NRA is asking gunmen to refrain from mass shootings while key gun bills are before legislators," says a newscaster in a recent editorial cartoon. Unfortunately, mass gunmen didn't listen. The month that began with the Alabama, Illinois church, Germany and Oakland police killings ended with one gunman killing eight at a Cathage, NC nursing home and another killing six in Santa Clara, CA. Then April began with the killing of 14 in Binghamton, NY. No one is even counting a church shooting in Turlock, CA, the fatal shooting of five in Miami and the Mexico drug shootings which use straw bought US weapons, also in March... (Those of us who defend the RKBA note that these incidents seem to occur disproportionally when there is draconian legislation, such as HR 45, waiting in the wings; it happens enough that one has to question whether it's really coincidental.) http://www.opednews.com/articles/Binghamton-and-Carthage-Sh-by-Martha-Rosenberg-090403-77.html --- More on the 90% Myth: "When all you have is a hammer," so goes an old saying, "everything looks like a nail." Likewise, when you are committed to a bias you try every way possible to support it. A recent statement by William Hoover, assistant director for field operations at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, is being used by those who seemingly have a bias against guns and gun ownership. Hoover testified in the House of Representatives that "there is more than enough evidence to indicate that over 90 percent of the firearms that have either been recovered in, or interdicted in transport to Mexico, originated from various sources within the United States. Even though the statement is misleading, media outlets and some politicians seized on Hoover's claim and began to shout it from sea to shining sea... (Note the source.) http://www.bpnews.net/BPFirstPerson.asp?ID=30218 Yesterday, I discussed the VPC's Tom Diaz - who is now finding himself forced to retreat from the demonstrably false (but endlessly repeated) claim that "90% of the Mexican drug cartels' weapons come from the U.S. civilian market." He, in fact called the entire issue a "red herring... I pointed out that he had said nothing of "red herrings" in spreading that disinformation in a VPC report (pdf) file, and in testimony to Congress (pdf file), and nor did fellow VPC shill Kirsten Rand, in her testimony to Congress (pdf file). War on Guns and Days of Our Trailers have more. Basically, he's saying, "OK - the '90%' thing was a lie, but take our word for it that too many American guns are being smuggled to Mexico, so freedom in the U.S. has to be curtailed." Now AG Eric Holder has joined in, saying essentially the same thing... http://armedandsafe.blogspot.com/2009/04/tom-diaz-eric-holder-90-two-step.html ...Well one reason is, it's basically the sampling issue. Number one, Mexico is finding guns at the crime scene which may have no markings at all. They may be clearly Chinese or Russian weapons, and so they are not submitting those to the United States for, quote, tracing. A U.S. weapon has a serial number on it, a manufacturer on it, it says where it is made. So clearly, Mexico is not going to give over weapons to the U.S. for tracing which clearly don't come from here. We had an ICE official, special agent in charge here in Phoenix tell us, and I'm quoting from him, "Not every weapon seized in Mexico has a serial number. Those are not submitted. Only we trace weapons with U.S. markings" ... http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mike-sargent/2009/04/02/almost-ninety-percent-mexican-cartel-weapons-dont-come-u-s ...To create this misperception among the American public and fuel calls for re-implementing the "assault weapon" ban, gun control advocates have systematically misstated gun tracing reports by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE)... The fabrication was spread by the usual suspects, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Senator Dianne Feinstein and CBS newsman Bob Schieffer, among others. Especially noteworthy was the near-perjury of author and Violence Policy Center "Senior Policy Analyst" Tom Diaz in a hearing on guns and Mexico held by the Congressional Subcommittee on National Security & Foreign Affairs.. http://www.examiner.com/x-2698-Charlotte-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m4d3-Mexicali-lie-on-assault-weapons-Just-the-latest-gun-factoid --- The Beat Goes On: Firearm sales continued to surge across the country for the fifth straight month, extending a trend that began after the November elections. The increase also follows recent comments by several high-profile members of the Obama administration about re-imposing permanently and expanding the ban on modern sporting rifles. Data from the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) show background checks on the sale of firearms jumped 29.2 percent in March when compared to March 2008 and were up 27.1 percent for the first quarter of 2009 over the same quarter last year. The increase follows a 23 percent rise in February, a 28 percent rise in January, a 24 percent rise in December and a 42 percent jump in November, when a record 1,529,635 background checks were performed... http://www.ammoland.com/2009/04/03/firearm-sales-continue-climb-march-2009/ Demand for many types of ammunition is far outstripping manufacturers' ability to keep up, according to two West Virginia gun shop owners. So far in 2009, Spring Hill Rod & Gun in South Charleston has sold more than 1,000 cases of ammunition - more than a typical year's worth, owner Dan Kessel said. "There is such a backlog that I can't keep certain types on the shelf," he said. Ron Wood of Flat Top Arms in Beckley said the 2008 fall hunting season was the first time he had people buying ammunition by the case - 10 to 20 boxes, which can cost hundreds of dollars - instead of the occasional box... Kessel said his shop has had a shortage of rifle ammunition, including .223-caliber and .308-caliber Winchester cartridges, and many types used in pistols. Wood said he has had a shortage of .38 Special cartridges, among other types of ammunition. The shortage isn't just occurring in West Virginia. http://www.dailymail.com/News/200904021317 --- Oklahoma Bill Would Allow Deadly Force in Defense of Unborn: A bill in the Oklahoma Legislature would allow pregnant women to use deadly force in order to save the lives of their babies. The bill stems from a Michigan case where a woman who was carrying quadruplets stabbed and killed her boyfriend after he hit her in the stomach. The woman lost the babies and was convicted of manslaughter. Oklahoma lawmakers said they want to make sure that a woman can legally protect her unborn child. "Unfortunately, we feel we need legislation like this," said Rep. Mike Thompson. "What we want to make sure is that a woman feels safe and secure defending herself and her unborn child against any attacker." ...Oklahoma already has a law allowing a person to use force to protect himself or another person from someone else. The new bill includes an unborn child as "another" person. Oklahoma has also had a law covering the murder of unborn babies since 2005... http://www.koco.com/cnn-news/19082604/detail.html --- NRA Now Supports Veterans' RKBA: Ronald Reagan said, "Some people live an entire lifetime and wonder if they have ever made a difference in the world, but the Marines don't have that problem." I believe that's true of all our men and women in the armed forces. Their service in the cause of freedom makes a difference at home and abroad. And they deserve the full measure of the freedoms they served to protect, including the Second Amendment. But for many veterans, the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is being stripped away by government bureaucrats. The Department of Veterans Affairs is arbitrarily denying Second Amendment rights to veterans who've appointed a fiduciary representative -because they're deemed "mentally defective." ... (My recollection is that when the NRA was pushing the NICS Improvement Act of 2007, GOA opposed it specifically because GOA has viewed it a the "Veterans Disarmament Act." I suppose it's like the Heller case - it's nice to get the NRA back on the right side of the fence.) http://www.nranews.com/blogarticle.aspx?blogPostId=510 --- NRA-ILA Alerts: List members are encouraged to check the alerts for the week on the NRA-ILA website. http://www.nraila.org/GrassrootsAlerts/read.aspx --- How Canada's Cops Use the Gun Registry: ... That adds up to a staggering 3,438,729 queries from police officers last year. It's hard to imagine a federal database more intensively mined. I asked a veteran officer in an informal conversation to explain how the system is typically used. He said a cop called to domestic dispute will routinely conduct a quick computer check to see if there is a licensed gun owner at that address, and find out exactly what guns are registered there. It's not hard to imagine how discovering that a resident owns a single hunting rifle might suggest one thing to an officer; finding out the man causing the disturbance possesses several exotic weapons would indicate something else again...A few statistics help round out the picture of how the online data is used. Police most often plug a name into the system to find out if that person is a licenced gun owner and what registered guns the individual owns. They made that sort of query more than 2 million times last year, so often that this has obviously become very basic step in Canadian police work... http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/04/02/how-police-use-the-gun-registry/ --- Guatemala Further Restricts RKBA: After several months of debate, the Guatemalan Congress approved the Weapon and Ammunition Control Law, considered essential to reduce violence. The regulation reduces to one the four licenses previously granted to each citizen to buy armaments, and they are able now to buy three weapons instead of 12, as previously established. It also stipulated several requirements before granting the permit, including a clean criminal record and passing psychological assessment, income certification and proof of employment. The legislation also set between five and 15 years of imprisonment for crimes like possession, export, import, or illegal sale of weapons and ammunitions... (Of note, this report comes from Costa Rica, which, historically, has been fairly liberal with firearm licenses. Virtually all of Latin America functions on the Golden Rule - he who has the gold makes the rules.) http://insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2009/april/02/cam04.htm -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .