Airborne Combat Engineer

Atlanta area gun dealer sues Bloomberg back

In Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s campaign to remove illegal guns from New York City’s streets, he sued 27 out-of-state gun dealerships last year over what he said were illegal sales. Most agreed to settle, while others chose to take their chances in court.

Jay Wallace, owner of a hunting and gun store in Smyrna, Ga. (just north of the Atlanta I-285 perimeter), is suing Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, claiming fraud, slander and libel.

Mr. Wallace's attorney, Bob Barr, called the approach a “rogue undercover operation,” and argued that the proper agency to address Mr. Bloomberg’s concerns about weapons was the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

DC | NY Times | Sun 2007DEC09

See the comments of people at the Candler Rd Gun & Pawn shop outside Decatur, GA (in east intown Atlanta) in the continuation

Texas Concealed Carry Law

JR @ A Keypad & a .45 links to the 77-page Texas Concealed Carry Law and Selected Statues in pdf format.

The Texas law has an IF clause which prohibits carrying firearms in the places restricted in most states (sporting events, places serving alcohol, places of worship, government meetings, and such) IF signs are posted prohibiting them.

See JR's comments for the details.

And, as JR mentioned in a comment to an earlier post, open carry of handguns is not permitted in Texas (contrary to ACE's misconception).

Univ. of Toronto shuts down gun range

Concerns about the "sinister uses" of guns in society have prompted University of Toronto officials to rid the campus of its 88-year-old sport shooting range, despite its continued popularity and spotless safety record.

"In today's world, even the perception of tolerance of guns and gun violence is seen as a negative," said Catherine Riggall, the university's vice-president of business affairs, who approved the decision recently.

Globe & Mail

So politically correct

See comments by "The Bald Guy" in the continuation

Obama calls for AWB renewal

FoxNews reports Obama has called for reinstatement of the Assault Weapons Ban to reduce inner-city violence, EVEN THOUGH "assault weapons" are almost never used for said violence.

He also wants to close "regulatory loopholes." Guess he means the so-called "gun show loophole."

[h/t Traction Control] (see links to other blogs there)

Obama's right in this observation:

We have an entire generation of young men in our society who have become products of violence, and we are going to have to break the cycle," Obama said. "There are too many young men out there who have gone down the wrong path."

But that problem will take a deeper solution than simply trying to make it harder for them to obtain guns.

Publishing lists of concealed handgun license owners

In spite of many state legislators, county sheriffs and even Governor Strickland himself attempting to talk sense into him, Sandusky Register Editor Matt Westerhold has launched an all-out assault on the privacy and security of over 2,600 concealed handgun license holders in several Northern Ohio counties.

Citing a phantom "right to know", Westerhold, editor and self-appointed public records watchdog at The Register, published the list of CHL-holders from Erie, Huron, Ottawa, Sandusky and Seneca counties.

Buckeye Firearms Association

Defiant Infidel has more and wants to know what we think of all this.

This sounded familiar, and it's because  of a precedent reported in a 14MAR2007 A-C-E Post: The database of every Virginia resident who holds a state-issued permit to carry a concealed handgun was posted on the Roanoke Times' website Sunday to accompany a column in the paper by Times editorial writer Christian Trejbal back in March.

Americans call for gun freedom

In the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy, Suzanna Happ (who's parents were killed by a gunman in a diner in 1991) is one of a growing body of Americans campaigning for the availability of more, rather than fewer, guns.

"Nobody could have stopped that guy from the first couple of murders but it sure wouldn't have been a body bag total of 32," she says.

BBC

1A is alive and well

In how many countries would this be allowed, even if only long enough to make the press? This is good. One day soon we might need to stand in camo gear behind a weak SoD under a weak Dem administration holding a "Get tough on radical Islamics!" sign.

Gates toward Congress aQ is growing, and the biggest problem is getting actionable intelligence. [UPI]

About face on guns

On Monday the New York Times uncharacteristically gave front page space to a story about liberal scholars who have -- albeit reluctantly -- come round to the individual rights view of the Second Amendment. Among the most prominent is Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe (the man reported to have pushed senators to oppose the Robert Bork nomination) who now teaches that any law-abiding American adult who wants a Colt Diamondback to safeguard his family or go 'coon hunting has the Second Amendment behind him.

It's a complicated historical issue that doubtless will wind up in the U.S. Supreme Court and become an important issue in the 2008 election. It is important that Americans understand the historical aspects surrounding the debate, and not rely solely on the empty wind of politicians' soundbites.

Christopher Orlet writes the Existential Journalist blog.

American Spectator

Things are looking up for 2A rights.

When the good guys have guns ...

John Lott, a noted economist and professor at State University of New York at Binghamton, conducted a study and found states with legally armed citizens have substantially lower crime rates.

More specifically, Lott found when a deranged shooter takes aim at the public, the body count is consistently lower when armed citizens are nearby. Lott studied multiple-victim shootings in all 50 states from 1977 to 1999, excluding shootings that were a byproduct of other crimes, such as robbery.

"When states passed (concealed carry laws) the number of multiple-victim public shootings declined by 60 percent," Lott wrote. "Deaths and injuries by 78 percent. Shootings still occur in places like schools, where guns are illegal."

A look at the real-life events behind these kinds of numbers is revealing (see the link).

[JP, Houston Chronicle]

Gun-free zone = unarmed-victim zone

Campus officials earlier this year posted the signs — a revolver stamped with a red slash — advertising the University of Kansas ban on carrying concealed firearms.

George Pisani sees them as invitations to a tragedy.

“Here’s the myth,” said Pisani, a retired KU biology instructor and gun-safety teacher. “You pass a policy saying you’re gun-free, you put up a sign, shake hands, pick flowers and say, ‘We’re all safer now.’

“The fact is you’ve just made yourself more vulnerable” to an armed madman.

The debate isn’t new. But until the massacre at Virginia Tech University, the effectiveness of “gun-free zones,” which Virginia Tech proudly claimed itself to be, was largely a back-and-forth between the usual suspects in the argument over gun rights.

Now the topic has boiled over into the mainstream, the grist for major newspaper columns, student blogs and talk shows, all asking: Are gun-free zones really a good idea?

[Kansas City Star]