Five Days Late: It has been brought to my attention that yesterday's item about the dimpled sniper bullet was an April Fool joke. I had noticed the April 1 date but, as I am not into such pranks myself, did not make the association. --- From JPFO: The relatively recent Oakland, California shooting of four police officers by an illegally armed felon on parole, and using a semi automatic rifle, fell short of the "gun control" crowd's more comfortable formula. You see, it was already illegal for the paroled felon in Oakland to be in possession of any kind of firearm. However, the immediately recent shooting deaths of three Pittsburgh, Pennysylvania police officers has "assault rifles" back in the news big time. This tragedy certainly has far more spin potential for the victim disarmament vermin in Congress and the mainstream media. Apparently Richard Poplawski was a visitor and poster on a right wing, anti-Jewish website. He listened to "conspiratorialist" radio shows and watched controversial YouTube videos. In the days ahead, watch the insidious twist that this will take in the mainstream media... http://www.jpfo.org/kirby/kirby-signs.htm An insidious new meme is being propagated following the Pittsburgh slayings - that rhetoric from conservatives, gun rights activists, the "right wing" - is responsible for Richard Poplawski's alleged fear that Obama was going to take away guns. The first thing we need acknowledge is this is but one more case of the media rushing to judgment before the facts are in. There's a whole lotta speculation going on. As we've noted before, Obama's own words taken from the official White House website reveal his goal of banning an entire class of semiautomatic firearms. His attorney general has revived the call. And he's based a large part of his rationale on a demonstrable lie. We're not allowed to point that out? And reporting on their own words is now verboten? ... http://www.examiner.com/x-1417-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m4d6-Who-is-spreading-fear-hatred-and-lies-in-Pittsburgh-shooter-story Tangentially Related: A 911 dispatcher was told that the suspect in the Pittsburgh police shootings had weapons, but didn't relay that information to officers who were gunned down responding to a fight between the man and his mother. Allegheny County Chief of Emergency Services Robert Full says Richard Poplawski's mother told the dispatcher he had weapons, but that they were all "legal." Full tells the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at that point the dispatcher should have asked more questions about the guns, but didn't - and police weren't told about the weapons before they answered the call. Poplawski is jailed on charges he fatally shot three police officers and fired at nine other officers who responded later. Poplawski's public defender has declined to discuss the case. http://townhall.com/news/us/2009/04/07/911_worker_didnt_tell_pittsburgh_police_of_guns --- Criminal Use of Body Armor Not New: In shootings around the nation, police often find the gunman is wearing a bulletproof vest - and while it's an issue that has recently jumped into the spotlight, it's hardly a new problem for law enforcement. "The bad guys have used body armor going way back," said John Grebert, executive director of the New York State Police Chiefs Association, noting that gangsters in the 1920s and 1930s wore vests made from cotton padding and cloth that worked mostly against lower velocity handguns. "We still train our officers that if they have to use their weapon, to fire on two kill zones - two bullets fired at the chest, a third at the head, in case the person is wearing a vest," said Grebert, a veteran law enforcement officer who retired in 2003 after 11 years as police chief in the Albany suburb of Colonie... (Heads are difficult to hit on animate targets. Very rarely does concealable body armor cover the pelvis, which contains two relatively large neurovascular bundles laterally.) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30077411/ --- The Beat Goes On: There used to be a time when buying ammunition at Beber's Shot and Sinker in Auburn was no problem - there were rounds aplenty in stock. There also was a time when the gun racks in the store on Ensley Avenue were stocked full with 100, maybe 125, firearms for sale. Not anymore. Now, co-owner Donald Beber said, the shop has about 25 or 30 guns for sale. People who used to walk in and trade or sell their firearms no longer come around for fear the government is about to take their guns away, according to Beber. And ammunition? Forget about it... http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20090405/LOCAL/304059928/1002 --- Specious Argument against Campus Carry: When police in Binghamton, N.Y. went looking for the gunman who killed 13 people before committing suicide on Friday, the Associated Press reported they led out "a number of men in plastic handcuffs" while they sorted out who was who. Had there been someone in that immigrant community center licensed to carry a concealed handgun who had drawn their weapon and ethnically resembled the shooter, police might have shot him by mistake. Tragic as it is, the New York case may serve to support the point some in local law enforcement have made regarding Sen. Jeff Wentworth's (R-San Antonio) legislation that would allow those with concealed handgun licenses to carry their weapons on the campuses of Texas colleges and universities. Texas State Police Captain Paul Chapa acknowledges that such a shooting could happen here, but if it does and police were to encounter a student with a drawn but legal weapon, "We're not going to ask where the concealed handgun permit is, we're going to shoot." Chapa, like the rest of the university police force, has undergone "active shooter" training at the San Marcos-based Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT)... (Police have mistakenly shot their own brethren on many occasions yet this has not led to calls to disarm the police.) http://www.sanmarcosrecord.com/local/local_story_095103753.html --- Arkansas Senate Passes Gutted Confidentiality Bill: The Arkansas Senate has approved a bill that would allow the state to release the names and ZIP codes of residents licensed to carry concealed handguns. Senators voted 34-0 Monday to pass the bill by Rep. Randy Stewart of Kirby. That comes after the bill was amended from an original proposal that would have made the entire list of concealed-carry permits secret. The measure will return to the House for lawmakers to consider the changes. Stewart has said he proposed the bill after the Arkansas Times newspaper in Little Rock posted a link to an Arkansas State Police database of concealed-carry permit holders. The list had been releasable under the state's Freedom of Information Act. http://www.todaysthv.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=82980&catid=2 --- Seattle Gun Ban - Video Debate: http://www.seattlechannel.org/videos/video.asp?ID=3060913 --- From AzCDL: We need volunteers for Phoenix gun show on April 25 & 26, 2009 at the Phoenix Fairgrounds (Crossroads of the West). If you can spare a few hours we would deeply appreciate your help. AzCDL's phenomenal growth is primarily because of the hard work of our gun show volunteers. Gun shows provide a great opportunity to educate other gun owners about our hard won successes and the opportunities in this year's legislation. Come on down and spend some time observing the other volunteers. When you feel ready, step on in. If pro-active interactions are not your forte, we still need volunteers to manage the table, help hand out flyers and brochures, and keep an eye on things. Volunteers who work the AzCDL table for a few hours get into gun shows FREE! If your membership is coming up for renewal soon, stop by the table and renew at the "gun show special" rate ($10 off!). Sustaining memberships get a FREE AzCDL T-Shirt. Interested? Send an email to John: john.rosado@AzCDL.org . These alerts are a project of the Arizona Citizens Defense League (AzCDL), an all volunteer, non-profit, non-partisan grassroots organization. Join today! AzCDL - Protecting Your Freedom http://www.azcdl.org/html/join_us_.html Copyright © 2009 Arizona Citizens Defense League, Inc., all rights reserved. -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .