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TX: Shotgun-toting teen defends mom, home from burglars Submitted by: Anonymous	There are no comments on this story Post Comments \| Read Comments
A 16-year-old boy used a shotgun to defend his mother from three would-be burglars in Monte Alto early Saturday morning, the Hidalgo County Sheriffs Office confirmed. ... About 1:45 a.m., with the shotgun in hand, the boy confronted the three strangers who approached and told them to leave. Instead, they shot at him, and he fired back, hitting one in the leg.

NM: Albuquerque gun store owner challenging ATF rule
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An Albuquerque gun store has sued over a federal requirement that weapons dealers in four border states must report multiple sales of semi-automatic rifles.

Ron Peterson Firearms was among more than 8,000 gun dealers in New Mexico, Texas, Arizona and California that were ordered last month to report multiple sales of such weapons to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Peterson filed a lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, asking a judge to prevent the order from taking effect Aug. 14. It is the third such lawsuit filed this week, all contending that ATF lacks authority from Congress to require the reporting.

NY: Man who survived police shooting sues NYPD
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NEW YORK A man who was shot many times by New York City police officers last year during a fight over a gun at a Harlem block party has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the police department.

Angel Alvarez, who was hit by at least 15 bullets and spent six months in jail as a grand jury investigated the mayhem, was cleared of all criminal charges. The grand jury also declined to indict the officers involved in the August 2010 shooting that left one person dead and six wounded.

ME: Sharpshooters, novices try out six-guns, skeet shooting in introductory sessions
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
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There was a slight delay in the action Saturday afternoon at the Hampden Rifle and Pistol Club.

The six-shooters and shotguns had been left a little too long in the sun and needed to cool off before the cowboys and cowgirls could handle them. The five would-be robbers waited patiently on the range to be shot again and again by visitors seeking to try out cowboy action shooting.

Dave Bartlett brought three of his four sons Luke, 19, Zach, 15, and Chad, 13 all of Bradley to a daylong program called Introduction to Shooting Sports. To a man, they hit their targets and walked away smiling with satisfaction.

Australia: ACT black market fed by theft of legal guns
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
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The theft of legal guns is feeding Canberra's black market for firearms as authorities struggle to comprehend the scope of the illegal weapons trade in the territory.

ACT Policing has told The Canberra Times that a black market for guns exists in Canberra, but says its size is unknown.

Estimates put the number of illegal guns in Australia at between 400,000 and 700,000, compared to 2,675,785 licensed firearms.

CT: Why Stop At Guns? Submitted by: Mark A. Taff Website: http://www.marktaff.com	There are no comments on this story Post Comments \| Read Comments
Ms. Cody advocates asking the parents of her son's playmates if there are guns in the house before she is comfortable letting the children play together. I wondered why Ms. Cody stops with guns. Maybe she needs to discover if there are any poisons not properly secured, knives left on countertops, ladders not put away?

WA: Witness To Skyway Shooting Captures Suspect At Scene
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
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A witness to a shooting in Skyway captured a suspect, handcuffed him and made him sit on the ground until deputies arrived on Saturday night, KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reported.

The King County Sheriff's Office said there was an argument between two men over a drug deal. Both were carrying guns.

...

Urquhart said it was witnessed by a man who was there to use the ATM. He, too, had a gun -- and a pair of handcuffs.

"When we got here, the shooter was searched, in handcuffs and sitting down on the curb," Urquhart said.

WV: The Juvenility of Gun Lovers and NRA Members
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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What tyranny it would be if gun lovers had to treat guns for what they are: instruments to kill; and had to be restricted in their purchase, their concealment, their sale and all else with regards to guns. What tyranny it would be if the government confiscated every Saturday Night Special and every gun that was designed to kill people, to kill a multitude of them in a few seconds. It wouldnt be tyranny to me and millions of others who dont sleep with a handgun under their pillows but worry about some psychopathic nut who has the freedom to have an arsenal in his house, including the one from Norway who tired of killing with dum-dum bullets while waiting for the police to arrive to stop him.

CA: Gunslinger keeps alive art of sharpshooting Submitted by: Mark A. Taff Website: http://www.marktaff.com	There are no comments on this story Post Comments \| Read Comments
On a warm July evening at the Elks Lodge in Canyon Country, Joey Dillon is bringing back a bit of the Old West. The modern-day gunslinger twirls a pair of replica .45 caliber Cimarron Colt peacemakers for an open-mouthed audience, at times tossing them over his shoulders from behind his back. He catches both, flips them around on his index fingers and holsters them with ease.

MI: Open letter to county fair board
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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My first paying job at age 15 was parking cars at the Calhoun County Fair. I have had a booth at the fair in the past to promote my business and I have often volunteered staffing the political booth.

Unfortunately this year, I have been informed of a decision by the Calhoun County Fair Board to post a "No Weapons" sign at the fairground entrances. I have enjoyed my activities at the Calhoun County Fair for the past quarter-century (I didn't realize I was old enough to say that until just now!) and I am saddened that my presence is no longer welcome along with the rest of the concealed pistol licensees in Calhoun County.

GA: GeorgiaCarry 3d Annual Convention heavily attended
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
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GeorgiaCarry.Org (GCO) held its 3d Annual Converntion August 5-6, 2011 at the Renaissance Atlanta Waverly Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. The Convention was attended by 154 members plus additional guests for dinner, the highest turnout to date. The Convention opened with dinner and social events on Friday. Saturday was an all day affair with seminars all day and concluding with a Gala dinner and guest speaker.

VA: Cuccinelli Clarifies Guns On Campus Position
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
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A gun scare Thursday at Virginia Tech rekindled the debate about carrying firearms at state-run universities.

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli recently waded into the debate. In an official advisory opinion, Cuccinelli found a University of Virginia gun policy too restrictive and lacking in authority.

The opinion, last month, said that a George Mason University regulation, which unlike a policy has the force of law, offered a legal way to restrict firearms inside classroom buildings or at campus events but still allow weapons outdoors.

The Virginia Supreme Court upheld the George Mason regulation but found that universities cant completely ban weapons on campus, according to the opinion.

IL: Is Illinois Violating the Second Amendment?
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
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Gun-rights advocates claim that Illinois is violating the Second Amendment by prohibiting Illinois residents from being able to, in some fashion, carry a firearm in public.

A hearing on one such case, in which Michael Moore, of Champaign, and the Second Amendment Foundation Inc., a gun-rights advocacy group, are suing Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office and the state of Illinois, is scheduled Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Springfield.

The Second Amendment and Military Grade Firearms
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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We have seen a resurgence of support for the Second Amendment and in particular the understanding that it is, and always has been, an individual right. But what of Military grade weapons and why is that important? It is my contention, and many others, that the Second Amendment specifically supports military grade weaponry as its target.

The reasoning for inclusion of the Second Amendment was not to allow the citizen to attend target shooting matches, or to go hunting, or just to have a hobby it was for protection against a tyrannical government.

TX: Dayton Police Department seeks NRA Foundation grant for new equipment
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
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With financial support from a nonprofit guardian of the Second Amendment, the Dayton Police Department will bolster its law enforcement toolbox.

The department is preparing a grant application to the NRA Foundation, a nonprofit arm of the National Rifle Association. Regional grant monies that could support the department and other entities in the foundations South Texas region stem from fundraising banquets that the also nonprofit South Texas Friends of the NRA organizes, one of which will be held Aug. 16 in Beaumont.

Ashes to bullets: a different way to spend eternity
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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Some people have their bodies cremated when they die. Others are cryogenically frozen.

And there are still those who want their bodies to be buried the old-fashioned way. However, Jeanne Moos reports there is now a new option.

If you're hunting for a unique final send off, now you can turn your ashes into bullets. It's a new service offered by a company called "holy smoke."

"Are you gonna spend eternity sitting on a mantle?" Not when you can spend it in a bullet. Two Alabama game rangers dreamed up the idea.

MA: Narrow the gap in gun debate
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
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Another way to decrease gun violence is to close specific loopholes at gun shows. Doing so would not interfere with law-abiding hunters or gun enthusiasts' recreational activity, but it would help keep guns out of the hands of certain people.

Lastly, the firearm homicide rate for children under 15 years of age was estimated to be 16 times higher in the United States than in 25 other industrialized countries combined. Considering this - and that so many guns are stolen annually - it is a no-brainer to keep guns secure at home and legislation and education to support this is important.

NV: Dueling Democrats not gun-shy about embracing NRA
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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Its not often that two Democrats try to outdo each other on who can best push the National Rifle Associations legislation even in Nevada.

But that was at the heart of a skirmish between state Sen. John Lee, D-North Las Vegas, and Assembly Speaker John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, in the middle of the legislative session this year.

Now, the two Democrats are potentially facing each other in a primary for Congress, a fight that usually sees the candidates work to outdo each other on who can best appeal to the partys most liberal voters.

CO: TSA called in after passenger at DIA checks loaded gun in with luggage
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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A man flew from Denver to Kansas City on Sunday, but his pistol stayed behind.

Early Sunday morning, a man flying on Frontier Airlines checked his bag at the counter without telling airline agents he had packed a loaded gun. Transportation Security Administration agents doing a routine screen on checked baggage found the gun and called Denver police at about 6:45 a.m.

The officers found the pistol "unusual" and weren't quite sure how to unload it, police spokesman Lt. Matt Murray said.

OH: Kids and guns are a tragic mix
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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State and national policies make it harder, not easier, for Cleveland to crack down: The city's tough gun laws requiring handgun registration and outlawing assault weapons were invalidated by state lawmakers in 2006, under a spurious Ohio law forbidding stricter local gun laws. Yet despite Ohio's home-rule provisions, the law was upheld last December in a 5-2 Ohio Supreme Court ruling.

Nationally, since 2003, some enforcement efforts to trace "crime guns" have been handicapped by congressionally mandated restrictions on how much information can be shared. Gun traces should be routine -- and be made public.

VA: Guns on campus: Tech on alert
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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Gun-rights advocates point out that there is a difference between an implicitly dangerous "gunman" and a mere "man with a gun," who poses no threat and might even intervene to stop a gunman (as happened several years ago at the Appalachian School of Law). It's a legitimate point but hardly one likely to resonate among Tech officials, who endured stinging criticism for what many consider woeful crisis management in 2007. After the worst campus bloodshed in U.S. history, nobody should accuse administrators of overreacting to even a potential threat. We repeat: They did the right thing.

China: China serves as classic example of effective gun control laws
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
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s the cry for Karachis de-weaponisation has started gaining momentum and public approval with every passing hour, people at the helm of affairs in Islamabad can gain some inspiration from China where most severe gun laws were imposed in 1966 after children armed with rifles had erroneously shot out a window at the Great Hall of the People at Beijings Tiananmen Square while trying to hit a sparrow.

A peek through the history of Chinas Ministry of Public Security reveals that following the afore-mentioned incident at Beijings Tiananmen Square, an exemplary blanket ban on the sale, private manufacture, possession, import and export of both guns and bullets was introduced.

Canada: Does gun control save lives?
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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There are two basic crime scenes when it comes to gun violence in Canada. One involves weapons that are traceable - sometimes using the $1-billion long-gun registry that is likely to be scrapped by the Conservative government this fall, as promised. The other - far more common - involves guns that are not traceable because they are not registered, the registration number was erased or the guns used to kill are never found.

The looming question as MPs get set to haggle once again over the emotional long-gun registry issue is: Does it save lives?

AZ: Our NRA-defending commenters
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
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But though it sounds reasonable, it's just not true. Here are the stats:

In response to a query from Feinstein, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives reported last month that of the 29,284 weapons recovered in Mexico and submitted for tracing in 2009 and 2010, a total of 20,504 - 70 percent - were "United States-sourced firearms." Virtually all of the remaining weapons were not traceable because insufficient information was submitted.

Got that? About 70% were directly traceable to the U.S., and most of the others couldn't be traced.

WA: Armed citizen intervention in Skyway shooting ignites CCW debate
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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The successful intervention of an armed citizen in a Skyway shooting Saturday night is garnering considerable public reaction, with the majority opinion clearly supportive of the citizen who not only held the perpetrator at gunpoint, but also handcuffed him before King County Sheriffs deputies arrived.

The story is being reported by KOMO, the Seattle Times and on-line Seattle P-I.com, with public comments here, here and here, respectively. The issue is also being discussed on the Northwest Firearms, Defensive Carry and Washington Open Carry forums. Significantly, one of the public comments on the Seattle P-I.com site appears to be from the armed citizen: