[D.C.] City Attorney General says weakening D.C.'s gun control laws will help terrorists:
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." [emphasis added] ...
Comment: Maybe we should just ban terrorists from having "assault weapons", which is evidently D.C.-speak for most guns, including semi-auto pistols. Or perhaps the anti-gun D.C. brain trust could just ban terrorism. Because that will probably work about as well as their last gun ban.
John Lott says "gun-free" zones are magnets for mass murder attacks:
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.
At some point, you would think the media would notice that something is going on here, that these murderers aren’t just picking their targets at random. And this pattern isn’t really too surprising. Most people understand that guns deter criminals.
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.
Even when attacks occur, having civilians with permitted concealed handguns limits the damage. A major factor in determining how many people are harmed by these killers is the amount of time that elapses between when the attack starts and someone is able to arrive on the scene with a gun.
For years I would tell news people about the fact that every single multiple victim public shooting in the US involving more than three people killed took place in one of these gun-free zones. [emphasis added] ...
Another article debunking the "90% myth" of illegal guns in Mexico from U.S.:
ALEXANDRIA, La. (BP)--"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. ...
Comment: The 90% figure isn't merely misleading, it's false.
Newsbusters weighs in on the 90% myth as well:
Apparently, America’s love of firearms has not rubbed off on our Mexican neighbors quite as much as the mainstream media led us to believe.
It has been widely reported that 90 percent of the weapons used in the Mexican drug cartel wars come from America. As it turns out, that statistic is simply incorrect. According to the figures obtained from ICE and ATF officials by Fox News, only about 17 percent of the weapons recovered from cartel-related crime scenes in Mexico actually originate in the United States.
...
So to summarize, ninety percent of the traced weapons that Mexico decides to give back to us come from the United States – a sample which doesn’t include the vast majority of the weapons found. Seventy-three percent outside the mark is very selective truth-telling by the mainstream media.
Sun Tzu was never wiser than when he said “All warfare is based on deception.” So when Ben Tracy (CBS News), Andrea Mitchell (NBC News) and myriad hosts from CNN all claim that the Mexican drug war is the fault of lax gun laws in the United States, you know they're all reading from the same playbook.
Comment: The follow up question for some smart reporter to ask the ATF is, of the 17 percent of guns traced to the U.S., how many of those were so-called DCS (direct commercial sales) transfers, approved by the U.S. government, and sold to the Mexican government, i.e., the Mexican military and Mexican law enforcement.
NSSF: Firearm sales continue to surge:
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. ...
[West Virginia] Guns, ammo demand outstripping supply:
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- 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.
"It's to the point that it is an investment," he said, "not like 'Oh, I'll have it on hand.' "
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. ...
[Oklahoma] Bill would authorize deadly force to save unborn babies:
OKLAHOMA CITY -- 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."
The group Americans United for Life came to state lawmakers and asked for the bill that Thompson co-authored. It's called the Use of Force For the Protection of the Unborn Act.
"You have the right to use lethal force, if needed, to protect your unborn baby," he said.
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. ...
NRA-ILA backs bill to protect veterans' gun rights:
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."
To be clear, no court has declared these veterans mentally incompetent. They've simply designated a family member or other representative to handle their fiduciary matters. Which is resulting in them being found mentally unfit to possess firearms.
That's wrong and ought to be illegal.
That’s the goal of U.S. Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), who introduced the Veterans' Second Amendment Protection Act. It would mandate that no veteran’s right be denied unless a judicial authority finds that person to be a danger to himself or others. ...
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