By David Kopel

“In Canada and Great Britain deceitful “safe storage” laws allow government invasion of gun owners` homes.
These laws are all part of the gun grabbers` wholesale attack on private gun ownership.

Responsible gun owners store their guns safely. For over a century, the National Rifle Association and other civic groups have done everything they can to encourage safe gun storage.

Partly as a result, the fatal gun accident rate for both kids and adults has fallen to an all-time low. In spite of this, anti-gun politicians, and the anti-gun groups are working to turn “safe storage” into a tool for disarming the American public.

Gun owners who think they have nothing to lose from a government takeover of gun storage should look at what has happened in countries such as Canada and Great Britain. There, gun owner apathy has allowed “safe storage” to become the platform for abolishing gun ownership for home protection, for invading the privacy and the homes of gun owners, and for attacking even the simple possession of firearms.”

http://www.nraila.org/Issues/Articles/Read.aspx?id=20&issue=009

“A former Texas police officer is causing a stir in jolly Old England. After leaving his job in Garland, Texas, and moving with his British wife and their three children to Reading, Ben Johnson took a job as a British bobby — and had the audacity to suggest that he might want to carry a gun while on the job.

“We should value the lives of police officers enough to properly equip them and train them to do their job,” Garland told the Washington Post, “even if that means getting rid of some old-fashioned notions.”

The “old-fashioned” notion Johnson is talking about is the very intense — and irrational — belief held by virtually all British people that guns are bad — period. According to the Post story, “Johnson’s case has caused a media furor [in England], partly because an American — a Texan no less — is claiming he feels less safe as a police officer in Britain than he did on the beat in the United States, which is routinely portrayed here as a gun-drunk Wild West.”

Two police officers have been killed with firearms and two more were stabbed to death in Britain in the last five years. During that same period, 44 officers received nonfatal firearms wounds. The most recent killing of a police officer occurred in November — a mother of three who was responding to an alarm in Bradford.

http://www.fff.org/comment/com0512f.asp

Violet Cowden, who died at 94 on April 10, in 1943 and 1944, was assigned to the Army’s Air Transport Command, she flew some of the country’s most sophisticated planes, transporting them from factories to domestic airfields or to coastal debarkation points for shipment to foreign theaters.

She was the subject of a documentary, “Wings of Silver: The Vi Cowden Story,” released last year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/24/us/24cowden.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

VENUS, Texas (AP) — Authorities say a North Texas deputy has been shot and killed in the line of duty, and a suspect also was fatally shot.

Johnson County Sheriff Bob Alford said in a news release that the shootings happened Saturday afternoon near Venus. He said the suspect was shot dead by deputies.

Venus is a town of less than 2,000 people, located about 30 miles south of Dallas-Fort Worth.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/04/23/us/AP-US-Deputy-Killed-Texas.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Would you simply give up and let them attack you?
Would you fight back with your hands?
If you had a stick, would you fight back with a stick?
If you had a baseball bat, would you use it against someone that was hurting your children?
If you had something that would stop them immediately and permanently, would you use it?

– Author Unknown

(or would you decide it’s not likely anyone would ever attack you and therefor not even think about the question?)

“As we reported on Jan. 28, May 1 is the deadline for public comments concerning a shotgun importation ban that has been proposed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. A working group within the BATFE has recommended that any shotgun (semi-automatic, pump-action or any other) that has any one of 10 specific features should be banned from importation, on the grounds that such shotguns are not “generally recognized as particularly suitable for a readily adaptable to sporting purposes.”

The features in question are:
– a folding, telescoping, or collapsible stock;
– a magazine of over five rounds or a drum magazine;
– a flash suppressor or a muzzle brake that also suppresses flash;
– an integrated rail system other than on top of the receiver or barrel;
– a light enhancing device;
– a forward pistol grip or similar protruding part;
– an “excessive” weight of over 10 pounds; an “excessive bulk” of over three inches width and/or over four inches depth;
– a bayonet lug; or
– “a grenade-launcher mount.”

The working group considers “sporting purposes” to be limited to hunting, skeet, trap and sporting clays, but not to include practical shotgun matches or recreational target shooting.

Particularly relevant will be the comments of people who use shotguns equipped with one or more of the features for hunting or any form of competitive or recreational target shooting, and people who adapt such shotguns to a sporting purpose by simple modifications, such as attaching or removing a flashlight, attaching or removing a forward grip, or installing or removing a magazine extension or magazine plug.”

http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Federal/Read.aspx?id=6576

Comments to the BATFE may be submitted by e-mail to shotgunstudy@atf.gov, or by fax to (202) 648-9601, and must be received by May 1, 2011. Faxed comments may not exceed 5 pages. All comments must include name and mailing address.

The BATFE is demanding the authority to require all of the 8,500 firearm dealers in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to report all sales of two or more semiautomatic rifles within five consecutive business days, if the rifles are larger than .22 caliber and use detachable magazines.

This reporting scheme would create a registry of owners of many of today’s most popular rifles–firearms owned by millions of Americans for self-defense, hunting and other lawful purposes.

http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Federal/Read.aspx?id=6444

This week, U.S. Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and John Ensign (R-Nev.) introduced S. 570 — “a bill to prohibit the Department of Justice from tracking and cataloguing the purchases of multiple rifles and shotguns.” The bill would prohibit the use of federal funds for a multiple sales reporting scheme proposed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Please contact your U.S. Senators and ask them to cosponsor and support S. 570.

“Express Yourself. Personalize your card with an image of your choice.”

That is the claim made by Capital One for anyone who wants to have a personal photo put on a Capital One credit card. You can even design it yourself online with a photo you upload.

But you can’t use a hunting photo. Capital One considers them unacceptable.

“Sorry, we were unable to approve the image you submitted. We will not approve any images that contain the following: “Violence, hatred, or cruelty to humans or animals, profanity obscenities or any type of death imagery.”

http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Federal/Read.aspx?id=6671&issue=

Anti-gun extremists are working overtime in Illinois to derail efforts to pass House Bill 148, the NRA-supported Right-to-Carry Bill introduced by state Representative Brandon Phelps (D-118).

On April 20, the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence (ICHV) and the Brady Campaign joined together with other anti-freedom advocates in Chicago to promote their agenda of opposing the right to personal protection.

http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Read.aspx?id=6668&issue=

“In another chapter in the ongoing attempt to blame the American gun community for Mexico’s internal strife, CBS News reports that the Mexican government has retained the New York City-based law firm of Reid Collins & Tsai to examine its options for suing U.S. gun manufacturers and distributors.

This report describes Mexico’s actions as a “novel approach,” in reality, such lawsuits have been used for decades as a tactic by anti-gun groups and governments in their attempts to bankrupt gun manufacturers and circumvent the political process.

Perhaps instead of retaining a boutique law firm from New York City to flout federal law in an attempt to attack law-abiding gun manufacturers, the Mexican government should spend the money on getting some help for the reported 125 Mexican immigration officers patrolling the 577 mile border with Guatemala.”

http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Federal/Read.aspx?id=6674

by Dudley Brown
Executive Director
National Association for Gun Rights

So what do you think? Is this shotgun OK, but...

...but this is "too dangerous" to be imported?...

...and these are "too dangerous" to be sold to American citizens?

“… the ATF hopes to use bureaucratic rule changes to ban the importation and sale of certain shotguns based on their twisted view of the “sporting purposes” clause in the 1968 Gun Control Act.

There’s one major problem.

As you know, the purpose of the Second Amendment isn’t to protect “sports.”

It’s to protect citizens — like you and me — from a tyrannical government.

This proposal by the ATF is an all-out flank attack on our right to keep and bear arms.

The ATF’s ridiculously anti-gun study suggests that certain, and in many cases very random, criteria would make a shotgun unable to be imported. Those random criteria include:

• Folding, telescoping or collapsible stocks;

• Bayonet lugs;

• Flash suppressors;

• Magazines over 5 rounds, or a drum magazine;

• Integrated rail systems;

• Light enhancing devices;

• Excessive weight (greater than 10 pounds for a 12 gauge);

• Excessive bulk;

• Forward pistol grip.

You read that right. Excessive weight and bulk will get your shotgun banned.

You and I both know, none of the items listed make a firearm more or less dangerous.

It is a list of completely arbitrary items that have more to do with appearance than anything substantial.

The ATF might as well say they don’t want anything “black” to be imported – it would be just as logical.”

The ATF has opened up a comment period – open until April 30 – by which the general public can voice their opinions on this “study.”

That means gun owners have an opportunity to voice their concerns or objections.

The ATF seems to think they quietly slip these regulations through without taxpayers and voters making a fuss.

You can send them a message by clicking here.
http://paracom.paramountcommunication.com/ct/5810294:8601052845:m:N:169953959:643139B2E9EAB9F6EDB659BB4A9805E6

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