Gun Purchases Soared On 'Black Friday'

FBI stats show the number of background checks done on Black Friday three years ago pales in comparison to the number done this year — a 32-percent jump. ~ CBS Sacramento

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ATF: Chore Boy Pot Scrubbers Are 'Firearms'!

By David Codrea/Gun Rights Examiner ~ The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Firearms Technology Branch has deemed “Chore Boy copper cleaning pads, along with fiberglass insulation,” a firearm, subject to registration and a $200 transfer tax, an official letter obtained recently by Gun Rights Examiner reveals.

The response to an attorney inquiry by John R. Spencer, Chief, Firearms Technology Branch, offers one of the more creatively restrictive assessments since ATF declared a shoestring to be a machinegun (http://jpfo.org/images02/shoestring.jpg).

The rationale Spencer uses:

A silencer is a firearm per U.S. Code, subject to National Firearms Act registration and transfer tax requirements.

“[S]ound/gas absorbing materials manufactured from Chore Boy copper cleaning pads, along with fiberglass insulation, constitute a silencer…”

Therefore, it is illegal for an individual to replace deteriorated material within an already- registered suppressor without an approved ATF Form 1 (http://www.atf.gov/forms/download/atf-f-5320-1.pdf), ‘Application to Make and Register a Firearm,’” along with a “$200.00 making tax” and “a ‘no-marking’ variance…since there is no viable area in which to apply a serial number to the sound-absorbing material.”

And further, an otherwise-lawful owner of a registered silencer probably ought to find something else to clean pots and pans with, as possession of an unspecified quantity of Chore Boy cleaning pads could be considered a “stockpile.” The letter is presented in the slideshow accompanying this column. The name and address of the recipient attorney has been blacked out because his office was not the source providing the letter to Gun Rights Examiner.

Continue reading on Examiner.com: ATF classifies Chore Boy pot scrubber pads NFA firearms - National gun rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/atf-classifies-chore-boy-pot-scrubber-pads-nfa-firearms#ixzz1fzGOgieJ.

Hat Tip to Mark Mayes

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Forget steaks, hamburgers, hotdogs, lamb chops, pork, chicken, quail, venison. Wipe out the Oklahoma cattle industry, the pig industry, the poultry industry, the hunting industry. Eliminate horse racing. Radical thoughts, you ask? Not so to this Barack Obama confidant, whose animal rights views would overturn all of human history and destroy the world economy.

His name is Cass Sunstein and he is President Obama's nominee to become the nation's regulatory czar, the most important government position most Americans know nothing about. He's about to become the most dangerous man in America.

The Most Dangerous Man In America

Opinion By Mike McCarville

[Note: This first appeared on March 5th and is reposted following requests that we do so.]

Sunstein, 54, has been appointed as the administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). The post, often referred to as the “regulatory czar,” is charged with coordinating the alphabet soup of federal agencies, including the EPA, Energy Department, and OSHA.

Among top officials, this is the most important position that Americans know nothing about. All major regulations—from rules on clean air to airline safety to the administration of public lands—will pass Sunstein's desk. He will become, in essence, the nation's Bureaucrat-in-Chief.

Sunstein is a Harvard Law School Professor with long ties to Obama through the University of Chicago Law School. He's a radical animal rights extremist who would overturn all of human history to ban the eating of meat and hunting. He would grant legal rights to animals and allow attorneys for them to file lawsuits.

Sunstein would ban the eating of meat, hunting, and the private ownership of firearms. He would grant legal rights to animinals and allow attorneys for them to file lawsuits. Read more about him at http://www.politicalbase.com/people/cass-sunstein/31081/.

The Center For Consumer Freedom examined Sunstein's record and asks of Sunstein's radical animal rights agenda: "Don’t believe us? Sunstein has made no secret of his devotion to the cause of establishing legal 'rights' for livestock, wildlife, and pets.

'[T]here should be extensive regulation of the use of animals in entertainment, scientific experiments, and agriculture,' Sunstein wrote in a 2002 working paper while at the University of Chicago Law school.

“Extensive regulation of the use of animals. That's PETA-speak for using government to get everything PETA and the Humane Society of the United States can't get through gentle pressure or not-so-gentle coercion. Not exactly the kind of thing American ranchers, restaurateurs, hunters, and biomedical researchers (to say nothing of ordinary consumers) would like to hear from their next 'regulatory czar.'

"A version of the same paper also appeared as the introduction to Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions, a 2004 book that Sunstein co-edited with then-girlfriend Martha Nussbaum (he's shown above at Obama's inaugural with his new friend, also an Obama confidant). In that book, Sunstein set out an ambitious plan to give animals the legal 'right' to file lawsuits.

"Animals should be permitted to bring suit, with human beings as their representatives, to prevent violations of current law...."

"We're not joking: '[A]nimals should be permitted to bring suit, with human beings as their representatives, to prevent violations of current law … Any animals that are entitled to bring suit would be represented by (human) counsel, who would owe guardian like obligations and make decisions, subject to those obligations, on their clients’ behalf.'

"It doesn't end there. Sunstein delivered a keynote speech at Harvard University’s 2007 “Facing Animals” conference. (Click here to watch the video; his speech starts around 39:00.) Keep in mind that as OIRA Administrator, Sunstein will have the political authority to implement a massive federal government overhaul."

"We ought to ban hunting, I suggest, if there isn't a purpose other than sport and fun. That should be against the law. It's time now."

Consider this Sunstein tidbit: “We ought to ban hunting, I suggest, if there isn’t a purpose other than sport and fun. That should be against the law. It’s time now.”

Sunstein also argued in favor of “eliminating current practices such as greyhound racing, cosmetic testing, and meat eating, most controversially.”

He concluded his Harvard speech by expressing his “more ambitious animating concern” that the current treatment of livestock and other animals should be considered “a form of unconscionable barbarity not the same as, but in many ways morally akin to, slavery and mass extermination of human beings.”

Concluded The Center's report: "As the individual about to assume 'the most important position that Americans know nothing about,' Sunstein owes the public an honest appraisal of his animal rights goals before taking office. Will the next four years be a dream-come-true for anti-meat, anti-hunting, and anti-everything-else radicals? Time will tell. For now, meat lovers might want to stock their freezers."

[Originally posted on March 5th. Thanks to the numerous local and national blogs that have linked to this commentary, including The Liberty Sphere, Cocked And Loaded, Fair And Biased, Southwest Radio Ministries, BatesLine, Every Blade of Grass, Red S Tater, the Oklahoma Rifle Association, The War On Guns, Leverguns, Snow Flakes In Hell, Crotchey Geek, Under The Tree, FeedBurner, Full Of Sound And Fury, Alabama River Fishing, Joke, Talk Weather, Other Dark Sides, The Mental Militia, Reason, Prison Planet Forum, Facebook, Ramblings Of Oz and others.)

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Poll Cites Fear Of Obama Gun Control

Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Americans say gun sales are up in the United States because of a fear of increased government restriction on gun ownership.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just 23% say gun sales have risen because of a fear of increased crime.

Read all the poll results at http://www.rasmussenreports.com.

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Lawmakers Stand Up For Gun Rights

Oklahoma legislators today voiced bipartisan opposition to federal efforts to impose a regime of national gun registration and licensure.

House Concurrent Resolution 1032, by Rep. John Enns (pictured), urges Congress to “oppose and defeat” the Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009.

“Oklahomans have a constitutional right to possess guns for both hunting and personal protection,” said Enns, R-Enid.

“For Congress to infringe upon that right with so-called licensure requirements makes as much sense as outlawing everything but state-run newspapers. I am pleased my colleagues, both Republican and Democrat, agree that our constitutional rights should be protected.”

The resolution notes the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the rights of citizens to own firearms and that U.S. House Resolution 45, referred to as “Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009,” would make it a federal felony to possess a firearm without a license.

The federal legislation would also allow felony charges against crime victims who do not report the theft of a weapon with three days.

“The idea that the government would bring felony charges against people whose home has been robbed is insane,” Enns said.

House Concurrent Resolution 1032 passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives on an 86-9 vote today. It now proceeds to the Senate.

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A Letter To The Oklahoman's Editor

Ed (Kelley): This story appeared in today's (Friday's) paper:

Most of the weapons being used in the Mexican drug wars — 6,290 people died last year and more than 1,000 this year — are smuggled across the border from gun dealers in the U.S.

I don't know where this came from, but it reads like U. S. gun dealers are smuggling firearms across the border. Patently, untrue. Were it true, the BATFE would be having a field day slamming the door on gun dealers. If the story had read "some firearms purchased from gun dealers are smuggled across the border into Mexico," it would be a provable statement.

And the assertion/implication that "Most of the weapons being used in the Mexican drug wars" come from the U. S. is unproven based on what the BATFE reports. Latest figure I've seen is 17 percent of the weapons seized in Mexico have been traced to U. S. sales. That number is based on this report:

In 2007-2008, according to ATF Special Agent William Newell, Mexico submitted 11,000 guns to the ATF for tracing. Close to 6,000 were successfully traced -- and of those, 90 percent -- 5,114 to be exact, according to testimony in Congress by William Hoover -- were found to have come from the U.S.

But in those same two years, according to the Mexican government, 29,000 guns were recovered at crime scenes.

In other words, 68 percent of the guns that were recovered were never submitted for tracing. (It is reported that's because they had manufacturer-of-origin markings from other counties.)

Do the math and it appears, based on these numbers, that about 83 percent of ALL the firearms recovered were not traced to the U. S. ~ Mike McCarville

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Congressional Democrats Oppose Obama Gun Ban

Sixty-five House Democrats said Wednesday that they would oppose any attempt by the Obama administration to revive a ban on military-style weapons that President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1994 and President George W. Bush let expire.

The pro-gun Democrats, led by Congressman Mike Ross, D-Arkansas, wrote Attorney General Eric Holder that they would "actively oppose any effort to reinstate the 1994 ban, or to pass any similar law."

They urged the administration to avoid a "long and divisive fight over a gun control issue" at a time when Washington needs to concentrate on the economic crisis.

The House letter came a day after Montana's two Democratic senators, Max Baucus and Jon Tester, wrote a similar letter to Holder saying the Justice Department should enforce existing laws before considering new gun ownership restrictions.

"We will strongly oppose any legislation that will infringe upon the rights of individual gun owners," they said.

The letters came after Holder, during a news conference to announce the arrest of Mexican drug dealers, said the drug cartels were obtaining high-powered weapons like the AK-47 from U.S. gun stores and said the Obama administration supported reinstituting the ban on the sale of assault-style weapons.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has said she plans to introduce legislation to bring back the weapons ban. Feinstein was an author of the 1994 bill, which banned 19 types of semiautomatic, military-style guns. The law expired under the Bush administration in 2004. Another long-term goal is requiring that all gun shows conduct background checks before selling firearms.

The National Rifle Association has said it is mobilizing to stop any assault weapons ban, and the opposition of 65 House Democrats, many from rural or conservative districts with strong pro-gun sentiments, probably would doom any legislative drive to restrict gun ownership.

Already this year, Republicans have stalled legislation that would give the District of Columbia a voting representative in the House by linking the bill to a measure significantly weakening D.C.'s gun laws.

House Democratic leaders have put off a vote on the voting rights bill out of concern that pro-gun Democrats would oppose it if it is separated from the gun measure.

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Oklahoma Concealed Carry License Holders Toe The Line, OSBI Annual Reports Show

Oklahoma holders of licenses to carry concealed weapons appear to be among the most responsible gun owners in the nation, with just 52 licenses being revoked out of 89,642 issued or renewed since 2002. And none of the revocations, it appears, involved the illegal discharge of a firearm.

Examination of reports on the state's Self Defense Act filed by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation shows that in 2008, with 18,510 licenses issued (14,273 men, 4,237 women), just four were revoked. The previous year, five were revoked with 16,426 issued. There were 35 license suspensions in the two-year period, with reinstatements for some following apparent adjudication of issues ranging from allegations of domestic abuse to failure to notify law enforcement the licensee was armed during traffic stops to being intoxicated while armed.

Last year set a new record for license approvals by the OSBI, with 18,510. The previous high was in 2004, with 17,637 approved. It is anticipated that 2009 will set another record given the interest in gun ownership, growth in firearms purchases and an increase in those taking the required class to qualify for a license to carry a concealed weapon following the election of Barack Obama as president.

The OSBI reports an 87 percent increase in concealed carry permit applications for February 2009 over February 2008.

Last year, the OSBI processed 23,166 applications and denied 697 for reasons ranging from domestic abuse to felony convictions to making false statements on the license application form. In 2007, 561 applications were denied.

By year, here's the list of license approvals with revocations in parenthesis: 2002-8,799 (9); 2003-8,228 (10); 2004-17,637 (6); 2005-10,450 (11); 2006-9,591 (7); 2007-16,426 (5); 2008-18,510 (4).

Last year, the OSBI reports, the average age of a concealed carry licensee in the state was 51.

Read last year's OSBI report at http://www.ok.gov/osbi/documents/SDA%202008%20Report%20_Jan%202009_.pdf.

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High Court Rules For Firearms Industry

WASHINGTON (AP) ~ The Supreme Court has turned away pleas by New York City and gun violence victims to hold the firearms industry responsible for selling guns that could end up in illegal markets.

The justices' decision Monday ends lawsuits first filed in 2000. Federal appeals courts in New York and Washington threw out the complaints after Congress passed a law in 2005 giving the gun industry broad immunity against such lawsuits.

The city's lawsuit asked for no monetary damages. It had sought a court order for gun makers to more closely monitor those dealers who frequently sell guns later used to commit crimes.

But the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that federal law provides the gun industry with broad immunity from lawsuits brought by crime victims and violence-plagued cities. The Supreme Court refused to reconsider that decision.

The lawsuit was first brought in June 2000 while Rudy Giuliani was New York mayor. It was delayed due to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and because of similar litigation in the state courts.

The city refiled the lawsuit in January 2004, saying manufacturers let handguns reach illegal markets at gun shows in which non-licensed people can sell to other private citizens; through private sales in which background checks are not required; by oversupplying markets where gun regulations are lax, and by having poor overall security.

The city said a state nuisance law makes it a crime to knowingly or recklessly create a condition endangering the safety or health of a considerable number of people. But the appeals court said New York's law does not qualify as an exception to federal law. It agreed with U.S. District Judge Jack B. Weinstein that the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, signed by President George W. Bush in 2005, is constitutional.

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Belief: Obama Wants More Gun Control Laws

From Rasmussen Reports ~ Forty-three percent (43%) of Americans say it is Very Likely that the Obama Administration will try to implement stricter gun control laws even though 47% see no need for such laws. Another 28% say the administration is somewhat likely to seek tougher gun control. Among gun owners 49% see stricter gun controls as Very Likely.

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Coburn Likely To Oppose Holder Nomination

Senator Tom Coburn appears ready to oppose President Barack Obama’s choice of Eric Holder for attorney general because of his position on gun control and the Second Amendment.

Coburn, R-Muskogee, said Holder doesn't believe the Second Amendment grants the right to individuals to own guns. Holder signed a brief in the Heller case, decided by the Supreme Court, arguing that the right under the Second Amendment was a collective one, meant for state militias only.

Coburn sits on the Judiciary Committee, which is scheduled to vote next week on Holder’s nomination. Senate leaders had hoped to clear Holder this week, but Republicans delayed the committee vote.

Coburn questioned Holder about gun rights at a hearing last week. Holder told Coburn that, after the Supreme Court ruled in June that the Second Amendment guaranteed an individual right to own guns, options for restrictions had "narrowed.”

Coburn said he was concerned that Holder didn’t respond definitively to the question of whether he would defend state laws allowing people to carry concealed weapons.

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Homeowner Wins Gunfight With Burglar

A Tulsa homeowner shot and killed a man who was breaking into his house early Tuesday, police said.

Shortly before 3 a.m., three individuals broke into a home in the 1300 block of North Irvington Avenue, Tulsa Police Cpl. Mark Shelton said.

Many of the 15 to 20 occupants were awake, including the homeowner, who heard the break-in and got his gun.

Two of the burglars, including one who was armed, were moving through the house when they encountered the homeowner, Shelton said.

Gunfire was exchanged. The homeowner shot one of the burglars twice in the chest, and the homeowner's wife was shot in the abdomen.

The wounded burglar left the house before collapsing and dying in the front yard. His name has not been released.

The homeowner's wife was hospitalized but is expected to recover.

The other two burglars ran from the house and were not located, Shelton said. They were described as black, in their late teens and wearing hooded sweatshirts and dark baggy pants.

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Obama, NRA Spar Over Jump In Gun Sales

From The Chicago Sun-Times ~ As gun sales shoot up around the country, President-elect Barack Obama said Sunday that gun-owning Americans do not need to rush out and stock up before he is sworn in next month.

"I believe in common-sense gun safety laws, and I believe in the second amendment," Obama said at a news conference. "Lawful gun owners have nothing to fear. I said that throughout the campaign. I haven't indicated anything different during the transition. I think people can take me at my word."

But National Rifle Association spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said it's not Obama's words — but his legislative track record — that has gun-buyers flocking to the stores.

"Prior to his campaign for president, his record as a state legislator and as a U.S. Senator shows he voted for the most stringent forms of gun control, the most Draconian legislation, gun bans, ammunition bans and even an increase in federal excise taxes up to 500 percent for every gun and firearm sold," Arulanandam said.

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Gun Sales Jump With Obama Election

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Gun sellers say the election of Barack Obama is helping them avoid the recession. Sales of new guns are booming - up an estimated 50 percent in the suburbs.

In Wednesday's Truth in Politics, CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports the gun lobby spent big trying to defeat Obama this year, outraged by his promise to reinstate a ban on military-style assault weapons. On talk radio, he was denounced as a "gun grabber." Now, as Obama heads to the White House, millions are rushing to reload.

Business has rarely been better for certified arms instructor Jan Gofron.

He's teaching a flood of new students about semi-automatic handguns as well as tactical shot guns some call "street sweepers."

The most powerful weapons are disappearing fastest from local gun shops. At Elmwood Park's Illinois Gun Works, sales started soaring as it became apparent Barack Obama would win the White House.

"Once people started to realize that the Democrats had a better chance, or seemed to have a better chance, they started getting nervous about certain gun regulations," said Illinois Gun Works' Owner Dan Mastrianni.

Recent gun sales are up nationally 42 percent. In Illinois, they are up 38 percent; and in Chicago's suburbs 50 percent.

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Obama's AG Nominee A Gun-Grabber

From Newsmax ~ Barack Obama’s nomination of Eric Holder for attorney general will not sit well with advocates of Second Amendment rights — Holder has consistently championed stronger gun-control measures.

As deputy attorney general in the Bill Clinton administration from 1997 to 2001, Holder “was a strong supporter of restrictive gun control,” according to The Volokh Conspiracy, a Web site that focuses on the legal system and the courts.

He advocated federal licensing of handgun owners, a three-day waiting period on handgun sales, rationing handgun sales to no more than one per month, banning possession of handguns and so-called "assault weapons" by anyone under age 21, a gun show restriction bill that would have given the federal government the power to shut down all gun shows, and national gun registration.

“He also promoted the factoid that ‘Every day that goes by, about 12, 13 more children in this country die from gun violence’ — a statistic that is true only if one counts 18-year-old gangsters who shoot each other as ‘children,’” noted the Web site, founded by law professor Alexander Volokh.

After the 9/11 attacks, Holder wrote an opinion piece for The Washington Post arguing that a new law should give "the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms a record of every firearm sale." He also said prospective gun buyers should be checked against the secret "watch lists" compiled by various government entities.

Earlier this year, Holder — who would become the first African-American attorney general — co-signed an amicus brief in support of the District of Columbia’s ban on all handguns and on the use of any firearm for self-defense in the home.

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.40 Caliber Pistol Wound Sobers Up Invader

BROKEN ARROW ~ A man who was shot by a homeowner after he broke into the latter’s home was released from the hospital Thursday morning and transported immediately to the Tulsa Jail, police said.

Stephen Richardson, 19, could be charged with first-degree burglary in connection with the Saturday incident at a Broken Arrow residence in the 3100 block of West Norman Circle, police said.

Police say the homeowner, identified by the Tulsa World through public records as Curtis Freeman, shot Richardson with a .40-caliber handgun after Richardson entered the home by allegedly breaking the master bedroom’s back-door window.

“The suspect threw a rock through the glass portion of the door, then reached through the window, unlocked the door, and entered the residence,” a police report stated.

Richardson entered the master bedroom and was trying to enter the hallway when he was shot, police said.

Police said the homeowner’s wife and son also were present at the time. Police say the homeowner is considered the victim in the crime.

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Control Of Shotgun Saves Texas Couple

BLUE MOUND, Texas ~ When two gunmen smashed through the glass front door of her suburban Fort Worth home, Kellie Hoehn didn't think twice.

The 34-year-old mother of two grabbed a shotgun that had been pointed at her face early Wednesday, starting a struggle that ended with one intruder killed with his own weapon and another in the hospital.

"I wasn't going to let them get to my babies," she said, recalling the moment when she pushed up the muzzle of the shotgun, pointing it away from her children's rooms.

Although the intruders told her to keep quiet, she screamed for her husband. She told her 12-year-old son, who was awakened by the sound of the shattering glass front door, to get his 5-year-old sister and hide.

"It was like a horror movie," her husband, 32-year-old Keith Hoehn, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "I thought I was a dead man. We're fighting for our lives."

With Kellie Hoehn clinging to the weapon's muzzle, her husband tackled the man who held the shotgun. She knocked the intruder in the head with a jar candle, giving her husband a chance to wrest the shotgun.

By then the tussle had spilled out onto the front lawn. Keith Hoehn shot one of the men who had a pistol, police said. Wounded, that man ran away.
Then the intruder who initially had the shotgun charged Keith Hoehn.

Kellie Hoehn told The Dallas Morning News that she screamed at her husband, "Shoot him, shoot him, shoot him."

Her husband fired the shotgun and the man fell to the ground. Then the shot man lunged a second time.

"Well, I shot him again, and I guess that was it," Keith Hoehn said.

Dakota Scott Benoit, 20, of Richland Hills, was pronounced dead at a hospital. John Garland Pierson, 25, of Haltom City, was in critical condition and in police custody at the hospital.

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DA Says Property Owner Shooting Justified

No charges will be filed against a Midwest City man who shot and killed an apparent burglar after the burglar tried to hit him with a vehicle. Oklahoma County prosecutors say 44-year-old Steven Palenko was defending himself when he shot 34-year-old Mikah Smith on July 17. Investigators say Palenko shot Smith with a shotgun after interrupting an apparent burglary attempt. He shot at Smith's car when it veered toward him as Smith was trying to drive away.

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Cole: Preserving 2nd Amendment Rights

By Congressman Tom Cole ~ On June 26, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal appeals court decision that the gun ban in Washington, D.C. is unconstitutional. This gun ban had been in place for over 30 years and during that time our nation's capital degenerated into one of the most violent, crime-infested cities in America.

Many people, myself included, believe one of the reasons for that crime wave was precisely because we disarmed the law abiding citizens and left them defenseless.

While the highest court in the land has restored the full constitutional rights of the citizens of the District of Columbia, their own city council and mayor have immediately set to work at eroding these rights.

The D.C. City Council and mayor are already hard at work coming up with heavy handed rules and regulations designed to make gun ownership in the capital city as difficult and cumbersome as possible.

Under their proposed regulations any gun that can hold more than 12 rounds would be banned, citizens would be required to register their guns and pay an arbitrary fee and all guns would be required to be kept unloaded and disassembled or equipped with trigger locks.

As one of the attorneys involved in the lawsuit remarked, "A robber basically has to make an appointment in order for a homeowner to get ready to defend themselves."

To combat the city's ongoing disregard for the constitutional rights of its citizens, I have added my name to a discharge petition - a legislative tool used to force a vote in Congress - that is being circulated in the House of Representatives. The piece of legislation that this discharge petition pushes forward is H.R. 1399, the District of Columbia Personal Protection Act. It is a bill that would provide congressional enforcement to the Supreme Court's decision and prohibit the District of Columbia government from adding restrictive provisions that would nullify the true effect of the ruling.

More specifically, H.R. 1399 would preserve D.C. gun rights in three key ways. First, it would override the storage requirements that would prevent residents from keeping a firearm ready for self-defense at home. Secondly, it would repeal the District of Columbia's registration system. Finally, the bill would reiterate the authority of an individual's constitutional right over the D.C. City Council's agenda to impose unreasonable burdens on those rights.

Over 200 Members of Congress have added their support to the District of Columbia Personal Protection Act, but it is currently stuck in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. By signing onto the discharge petition, I hope to bring it to the floor for an immediate vote. I am working to encourage my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to add their support to the petition as well.

The Supreme Court made the appropriate decision by restoring the rights of D.C. residents to keep and bear arms. Now, Congress needs to act to ensure that an overzealous local government doesn't take us down the path of eroding those rights again.

"Are we at last brought to such an humiliating and debasing degradation that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense? Where is the difference between having our arms under our own possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?" - Patrick Henry

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New DC Gun Restrictions Head To Court

The District of Columbia's new restrictions on the ownership and possession of handguns by residents is headed into federal court, as the plaintiff in the U. S. Supreme Court case that overturned Washington's 32-year-old handgun ban reacts to new restrictions.

In a complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court, Dick Heller and two other plaintiffs allege that the city's new gun regulations still violate rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

The lawsuit cites the District of Columbia's unusual ban on firearms that carry more than 12 rounds of ammunition, which includes most semiautomatic handguns.

The suit also claims that the city's regulations make it all but impossible for residents to keep a gun ready for immediate self defense in the home.

The Supreme Court struck down Washington's handgun ban June 26. The D.C. Council passed emergency legislation July 15.

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