No on Koh: The Senate has a chance this week to kill the most offensive nomination of an executive-branch official since President Clinton's ill-fated selection of radical black racialist Lani Guinier for assistant attorney general in 1993. Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh is unfit to be chief legal counsel at the State Department. Senators should vote him down... The Second Amendment fares no better. In an essay called "A World Drowning in Guns," Mr. Koh endorsed a "global regulatory" regime to outlaw firearms though "rules negotiated among governments at a horizontal, intergovernmental level and interpreted through the interaction of transnational actors." Those laws, he wrote, could then be "internalized into the domestic statutes, executive practice and judicial systems of those participating nations." What he means is that international gun bans could be imposed on American citizens without a vote of the American people... http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/17/no-on-koh/ --- Colorado Governor Vetoes Background-Check Exemption: Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter vetoed a bill Friday that would have allowed some gun owners to bypass additional background checks each time they buy a gun. In a letter to lawmakers, Ritter said the bill had inadequate safeguards to prevent people who have had their handgun permits revoked. He said there also was no way to notify law enforcement that a person has a valid handgun permit because the state is barred from keeping a list of permit holders... The bill would have allowed some people with permits to carry concealed weapons to skip additional background checks each time they buy a gun. Senators agreed to change the bill to require the Colorado Bureau of Investigations to come up with one tamperproof permit card to be used across Colorado... Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry said it was Ritter's first big test as governor on gun rights issues and promised it will be an issue if Ritter runs for re-election next year. Penry also has been mentioned as a potential candidate. http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20090516/NEWS/905169989/1058 --- Connecticut to Limit Juvenile Access to Machine Guns: Prompted by the death of an 8-year-old Connecticut boy at a Massachusetts gun club, the state House of Representatives voted unanimously Thursday night to keep machine guns out of the hands of anyone under the age of 16. The House action came after the state Senate recently voted 31-2 in favor of the bill, with two Republicans voting against it. The bill, which prohibits the transfer of machine guns to children, is in response to the death of Christopher K. Bizilj, an Ashford boy who lost control of a Micro Uzi submachine gun in late October in Massachusetts and accidentally shot himself in the head... The bill now goes to Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell for her signature. http://www.courant.com/news/custom/topnews/hc-session0515.artmay15,0,5939922.story --- Arizona Governor Opposes New Infringements: Violence continues to roil south of the border between drug cartels at war with each other and the Mexican government. But Republican Gov. Jan Brewer says she opposes additional regulations intended to keep weapons purchased in this country from finding their way into the fight. "New gun laws are not the answer to increasing gun violence in Mexico," Brewer told National Rifle Association members gathered Friday in downtown Phoenix for the gun-rights group's annual convention. "The answer is to secure the border and leave the freedoms of the United States citizen alone. Don't mess with the Second Amendment," declared Brewer, an NRA member... U.S. officials say roughly 90 percent of the guns traced in Mexico originated in the United States. But the figure is widely disputed, including by Brewer, because most guns confiscated in Mexico cannot be traced... Rather than seeking a clampdown on weapons, Brewer aims for heightened border security to keep the drug wars from spilling north. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2009/05/17/20090517brewer-guns0517.html --- Some Cheese to Go with that Whine?: I have been dead wrong about the Arizona Legislature. Before the National Rifle Association brought its convention to town this weekend, I would have told you that most Arizona lawmakers were stubborn and not industrious. I apologize. I was mistaken. In recent days, Arizonans have had the opportunity to watch their elected officials work quickly and very, very hard - for the NRA. For example, last week I chatted with Rep. Frank Antenori about a piece of gun-related legislation he and others sponsored. It allows gun owners to keep firearms in their cars in the parking lot of private-property owners even if the owners object. So-called "bring your guns to work" laws have been a pet project of the NRA for a couple of years now... (Montini has a long history of seeking to undermine the RKBA in Arizona.) http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2009/05/16/20090516Montini0517.html --- Front Sight in Receivership: At 11 a.m. Monday, Front Sight Firearms Training Institute and its president, Ignatius Piazza, went into receivership. All financial transactions involving the firearms training facility - from accepting payment for classes to paying staff and vendors - must take place through a court-appointed administrator. The facility and all assets have been seized by the court, down to the hundreds of firearms included as part of new members' benefits. However, despite the ruling, this weekend at Front Sight everything was "business as usual," according to Operations Manager Rick Morello... (I have always been skeptical of Front Sight's marketing, dating from their first mailing I received when they and I were still in California. I was not shocked in the least when a list member, who is a graduate of multiple Front Sight courses, described the operation to me as a Ponzi scheme, about six years ago. The gist of the lawsuit, as I recall, was the failure of Front Sight to deliver the homes that were promised in what Piazza claimed would be "the safest community in America.") http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2009/May-15-Fri-2009/news/28773367.html --- A New Game in Town: For those who enjoy mixing costumes with timed shooting competitions, American Zoot Shooters Association offers the opportunity to dress in the styles of the 1920's and 30's and to compete with firearms appropriate to the period, such as 1911 pistols and Thompsons, in semi-auto or full-auto versions. As I have indicated before, it's important not to confuse match tactics with street tactics. http://www.zootshooters.com/index.html --- From John Farnam: 12 May 09 From a friend with the LAPD: "Saturday, LASO and LAPD combined to conduct a 'Gun Buy-Back' program. The reward was a $100.00 grocery certificate, $200.00 for an 'assault weapon,' although the term is never defined. The highly-publicized event netted only 140 guns in my Division. Only a single S&W revolver and one ageing Winchester 30-30 lever-action rifle were even operable. The rest were ancient, rusted, non-functional junk. Little more than scrap metal! Ninety-percent of the citizenry who 'participated' were old, white couples, even though my division is ninety-five percent Hispanic! Not a single gang-member, ex-con, nor doper was seen turning in anything. Our mayor, and a host of other leftist political hacks, paid the usual weary lip-service, but an LA Times editorial said it all: 'Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa... said that it took more guns off the streets of LA than there were shooting victims in the city last year. That's a highly misleading statement, implying a connection between gun homicides and specific weapons handed-in to police... Studies of municipal gun buy-back programs have never turned up a shred of evidence that they reduce firearm violence... Guns that tend to be surrendered are seldom ones used by criminals. They are usually old, broken weapons turned in by older people who would rather have a $100.00 gift-certificate to buy groceries than a rusted revolver... Good PR... is simpler than good policy.'" Comment: These days, "political hack" is a redundancy! American politics does not attract honorable people, as we see. /John (Yes, the L.A. Times did say that but they ended their editorial by saying that the city government really needed to get the state to pass more laws infringing the RKBA.) 15 May 09 Equipment that fits makes all the difference. This, from a friend in P&P in CA: "Yesterday, I trained a group of probation officers in the Art of Concealed Carry. A young woman (a lefty, with small hands) was doing her best, struggling with a SIG P226. She couldn't effectively conceal it, and decocking was clumsy and took too long. I had with me a SIG P239 DAK/9mm, with a kydex holster. I set her up, and then had her do presentations and dry-fire. We started up again, and she rocked! In no time, she was making better hits than most of the guys! The pistol fit her hand and was legitimately concealable. The holster accommodated her build, and the necessity for manually decocking was gone! Some struggle is therapeutic, but there is no reason to endlessly contend with equipment that obviously doesn't fit the student. This student was convinced and is buying her own copy of the 239 DAK next week!" Comment: Personal life-saving equipment needs to fit! With all the quality pistols available, there is usually no reason to put up with obvious mis-matches. /John (I have long argued that ergonomics in a handgun is second only to reliability. While pistols such as the conventional P226 can be mastered, if it fits one's hand, I prefer a handgun that has already decided if it wants to be single-action or double-action. While many love them, I am wary of SIG pistols prior to the P250 because the unique location of the slide-stop/slide-release makes them unfriendly for left-hand use. Even the ambidextrous placement of this tab on the P250 makes it a jealous mistress for no other brand of pistol locates this control above the grip panel. There are those who argue that this tab should not be used to release the slide, preferring a slingshot release with the non-gun hand. This may be fine when both hands are free but if the second hand is not available, the improvised techniques to release the slide compromise muzzle control and keep the gun away from the intended line of fire longer.) -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .