From Fox News:

As the suspect in the ambush execution of four police officers remains on the run, questions are swirling as to how and why Maurice Clemmons — an ex-con who at one time faced more than 100 years behind bars — was allowed to live free.

Clemmons, 37, of Tacoma, Wash., has an extensive, violent criminal history marked by volatile and unstable behavior, according to court records and news reports.

His criminal history includes at least five felony convictions in Arkansas and at least eight felony charges in Washington, according to The Seattle Times. He had a lengthy prison sentence commuted in 2000 by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who cited Clemmons’ youth.

This does not bod well for Gov. Huckabee. Cause ya know the Lame Stream Media is going to pounce all over this one. They will take any opportunity to bash Fox News and conservatives. Although Gov. Huckabee is not conservative enough for me by a long shot. And I’m not to happy with Gov. Huckabee’s answer to his decision. But you read it for yourself. I’m not going to “speculate” on this situation until there is more information. I can’t stand when the Lame Stream Media does that.
Technorati Tags: Washington, Police, murder, felony, Fox News, Gov. Huckabee, Arkansas, mental breakdown, prison

A former U.K. soldier says he found a discarded shotgun and turned it in to police — and now faces at least five years in prison for doing so, ThisIsSurreyToday.co.uk reported.

Paul Clarke was found guilty of possessing a firearm Tuesday after personally handing it over to Surrey Police on March 20, the Web site reported. Clarke said he spotted the gun in his garden. – FOXNews

So, the obvious conclusion is just keep the gun, since you get jailed either way.

We’ve launched our new Defensive Handguns Forum. It’s for everyone interested in armed self defense. Every conceivably relevant topic is addressed including: guns for self defense, gear, ammunition, breaking news, gun politics, RKBA, Second Amendment,  defensive tactics, concealed carry, CCW permits, deadly force issues, home defense, training, choosing a handgun, edged weapons, and so on.

It’s a place to learn and share. No prior experience necessary!  It’s the ultimate learning place for beginners and seasoned handgunners and firearms folks alike.  Get your questions answered and stay informed by checking out the hottest firearms forum on the internet!  The Defensive Handguns Forum.

Dr. Bruce Eimer
http://www.DefensiveHandguns.com
http://www.PersonalDefenseSolutions.net

What’s funny about that is the very reason we’re not having to worry about gun banning efforts is because for a long time we HAVE worried about gun banning efforts. The only reason the Obama administration is so consistently disappointing the Brady Bunch and the VPC is the President’s correct assessment that to do otherwise is political suicide. We’re not losing the RKBA precisely because we’ve been so diligent about watching political developments that threaten it. – Sebastian, PGP

This past Sunday night, May 31st, 2009, I had the pleasure of being an invited guest on Armed American Radio with show host, Mark Walters. You can listen to the show by clicking the link below:

It was a great show! Mark Walters is a very well informed and funny guy. Listen to his show, and learn and laugh. Mark is also a regular columnist for Concealed Carry Magazine. He writes “The Ordinary Guy” column. It was a pleasure and a privilege to be an invited guest on Mark’s show. Armed American Radio is a new show and I predict it is going to be big! It should be big. It addresses a very important and timely topic.

Armed American Radio (AAR) is the official radio program of the United States Concealed Carry Association. AAR broadcasts live every Sunday evening for one hour from 8 until 9PM EDT from the Intelligent Talk 920 WGKA studios in the Buckhead section of Atlanta, Georgia. If you are in the metro Atlanta area, you can listen live at WGKA 920AM on your dial. Anywhere else on the Planet Earth, you can listen to the live broadcast by visiting www.920WGKA.com.

The focus of the radio show of course is on guns, gun rights, the politics of guns and gun rights, safety and training issues, concealed carry, and everything relevant to RKBA; that is, your Right to Keep and Bear Arms. So, be a patriot and listen to the show! Protect your RKBA, your Second Amendment freedoms, and listen in. I am sure that once you check it out, you’ll be hooked. I know I am.

Mark Walters pulls no punches. He is honest and thoughtful. He knows a lot about psychology, and guns, and a lot about a lot of other things too. Check him out on Armed American Radio, and be a patriot. Whether you are new to guns, or you are experienced with firearms, concealed carry, the shooting sports, hunting, etc., you will love Armed American Radio and Mark Walters.   

Bruce N. Eimer, Ph.D.
NRA Certified Firearms Instructor
http://PersonalDefenseSolutions.net

This past Sunday night, May 31st, 2009, I had the pleasure of being a guest on Armed American Radio with show host, Mark Walters. You can listen to the show by clicking the link below:

It was a great show! Mark Walters is a very well informed and funny guy. Listen to his show, and learn and laugh. Mark is also a regular columnist for Concealed Carry Magazine. He writes “The Ordinary Guy” column. It was a pleasure and a privilege to be an invited guest on Mark’s show. Armed American Radio is a new show and I predict it is going to be big! It should be big. It addresses a very important and timely topic.

Armed American Radio (AAR) is the official radio program of the United States Concealed Carry Association. AAR broadcasts live every Sunday evening for one hour from 8 until 9PM EDT from the Intelligent Talk 920 WGKA studios in the Buckhead section of Atlanta, Georgia. If you are in the metro Atlanta area, you can listen live at WGKA 920AM on your dial. Anywhere else on the Planet Earth, you can listen to the live broadcast by visiting www.920WGKA.com.

The focus of the radio show of course is on guns, gun rights, the politics of guns and gun rights, safety and training issues, concealed carry, and everything relevant to RKBA; that is, your Right to Keep and Bear Arms. So, be a patriot and listen to the show! Protect your RKBA, your Second Amendment freedoms, and listen in. I am sure that once you check it out, you’ll be hooked. I know I am.

Mark Walters pulls no punches. He is honest and thoughtful. He knows a lot about psychology, and guns, and a lot about a lot of other things too. Check him out on Armed American Radio, and be a patriot. Whether you are new to guns, or you are experienced with firearms, concealed carry, the shooting sports, hunting, etc., you will love Armed American Radio and Mark Walters.   

Bruce N. Eimer, Ph.D.
NRA Certified Firearms Instructor
http://PersonalDefenseSolutions.net

Look at it this way: Would you put fingerprint recognition sensors on a fire extinguisher? How about a biometric sensor on a reserve parachute? No, you wouldn’t, because it needs to be as easy as possible for anybody to operate, even under duress and in harsh environmental conditions. – Tam

Now, I know my readers are very intelligent and have minds of their own. So, I will report and you decide. This report, although posted by CNS News, was reported by the AP. So let’s all be Uncooperative Readers and read between the lines on this one, shall we?

From CNS News:

Oklahoma City – Confronted by two holdup men, pharmacist Jerome Ersland pulled a gun, shot one of them in the head and chased the other away.
Then, in a scene recorded by the drugstore’s security camera, he went behind the counter, got another gun, and pumped five more bullets into the wounded teenager as he lay on the floor.

Now Ersland has been charged with first-degree murder in a case that has stirred a furious debate over vigilante justice and self-defense and turned the pharmacist into something of a folk hero.

Know that this is an ongoing saga and I will be following it as it evolves.
Technorati Tags: news, politics, guns, crime, self defense, vigiante justice

In addition, New York’s airports are gateways to the world, and you can travel to many global locations which are even stricter than New York City in their restrictions on gun ownership. You may find Cuba, Darfur, and North Korea to be especially pleasant places. – Dave Kopel, in Guns in Parks: The Hoplophobes’ Travel Guide to the United States

Read the whole thing

But its message is tantamount to saying to stop falling, let’s ban gravity. It’s not going to happen (and wouldn’t be a good thing if it was).  – Commenter Salamandyr at Althouse

You can be pretty sure no one has been killed or injured with a gun used for laser tag and permanent injuries with paintball guns are exceedingly rare. But that isn’t really relevant is it? It’s the thought that counts: – Joe Huffman

Standard problem with politicians: they would rather do something visible than do something useful.

Now I know the Left is going nu-nu bananas over this one. Good, read first and then listen.

From Newsmax:

Rush Limbaugh’s new pet project — fighting animal cruelty for the Humane Society of the United States — is riling sportsmen from coast to coast, prompting fears that the talkster typically supportive of gun rights is aiding a group they say has a secret agenda to end all hunting in America.

Almost 30 groups representing millions of hunters and sportsmen are demanding that the conservative radio commentator end his collaboration with the Humane Society and stop “helping them to mainstream their image in the minds of reasonable people.”

First off, this is not paranoia, guns owners of all types are constantly under attack by the commie left. So we/I as a gun toten momma have to always be on guard. Ha sometimes with my gun, ha he, he. Second, conservatives do not think with their hearts, but with their minds. And as such everything in in question, even other conservatives. It’s about whats right, not how popular the issue is or the person behind the issue.

Mr. Limbaugh did not answer requests for comment and has had little to say about his tacit endorsement of the Humane Society. During an interview on Fox News last week, Greta Van Susteren asked him, “Who do you admire and why?”

As Mr. Limbaugh paused, citing “brain freeze,” this exchange occurred:

“You like the Humane Society,” Mrs. Van Susteren said.

“Who?” Mr. Limbaugh asked.

“The Humane Society.”

Laughing, the radio host, who spends three hours a day talking politics, said, “Well, now, you’re getting into politics,” and quickly moved off the topic.

Oh come on now, the man eats, breeeaths and sleeeeps, “politics”. How lame an answer was that. I listen to him all the time but missed this interview and his response to the issue on his radio show; which I’m sure he addressed. I just wanted to point out that just because conservatives don’t always agree with other conservatives, it means “we are imploding”. No, it means we are “thinking”. I only hope Rush starts thinking about what this organization stands for. I mean he has “people” to research this doesn’t he. He’s rich enough to have “people” doesn’t he?
Technorati Tags: Rush Limbaugh, Humane Society of the U.S., animal cruelty, hunting, Ducks Unlimited, U.S.Sportsmens Alliance, Greta Van Susteren, news, politics, guns, Second Amendment, gun laws, cock fighting, dog fighting

From WND:

Radio talk show host Michael Savage has teamed up with the Thomas More Law Center of Ann Arbor, Mich., to file a lawsuit against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

“It is a civil rights action brought under the First and Fifth Amendments to the United States Constitution, challenging the policy, practice, and custom of the United States Government that targets for disfavored treatment those individuals and groups that are considered to be ‘rightwing extremists,’” the complaint announced today said.

Become part of WND’s re-declaration of our founders’ intent to be an independent nation

The federal agency recently targeted those individuals in its report called “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.”

Good for him. It must be nice to have money to hire lawyers. I’d love to have one on retainer, just because. he he. But seriously Folks, read the rest of the story because the government is talking about you. Not terrorist, not criminals, you. The God fearing, constitutional loving, gun toten, family oriented, average person. And if you think I’m overreacting read this:

According to the federal government, members of the suspect group of people include those who:

* Oppose restrictions on firearms

* Oppose lax immigration

* Oppose the policies of President Obama regarding immigration, citizenship and the expansion of social programs

* Oppose continuation of free trade agreements

* Oppose same-sex marriage

* Have paranoia of foreign regimes

* Fear Communist regimes

* Oppose one world government

* Bemoan the decline of U.S. stature in the world

* Are upset with the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs to China and India

Is this you????? Oh and google the report in the article and read it for yourself, the title is above.:)
Technorati Tags: michael savage, Thomas More Law Center, Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security, lawsuit, civil rights, U.S. Constitution, right wing extremist, christians, muslins

By E.J. Dionne Jr., Op-Ed of Washington Post

Try to imagine that hundreds or thousands of guns, including assault weapons, were pouring across the Mexican border into Arizona, New Mexico and Southern California, arming criminal gangs who were killing American law enforcement officials and other U.S. citizens.

Then imagine the Mexican president saying, “Well, we would really like to do something about this, but our political system makes helping you very difficult.” Wouldn’t Mexico’s usual critics attack that country’s political system for corruption and ineptitude and ask: “Why can’t they stop this lawlessness?”

That, in reverse, is the position President Obama was in last week when he visited Mexico. The Mexican gangs are able to use guns purchased in the United States because of our insanely permissive gun regulations, and Obama had to make this unbelievably clotted, apologetic statement at a news conference with Mexican President Felipe Calderón:

“I continue to believe that we can respect and honor the Second Amendment rights in our Constitution, the rights of sportsmen and hunters and homeowners who want to keep their families safe, to lawfully bear arms, while dealing with assault weapons that, as we know, here in Mexico, are helping to fuel extraordinary violence. Violence in our own country as well. Now, having said that, I think none of us are under the illusion that reinstating that ban would be easy.”

In other words: Our president can deal with all manner of big problems, but the American gun lobby is just too strong to let him push a rational and limited gun regulation through Congress.

It’s particularly infuriating that Obama offered this statement of powerlessness just a few days before today’s 10th anniversary of the massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado — and just after a spree of mass homicides across the United States took the lives of least 57 people.

No other democratic country in the world has the foolish, ineffectual gun regulations that we do. And, unfortunately, what Obama said is probably true.

Earlier this year, when Attorney General Eric Holder called for a renewal of the ban on assault weapons — he was only repeating a commitment Obama made during the presidential campaign — the response from a group of 65 pro-gun House Democrats was: No way.

Their letter to Holder was absurd. “The gun-control community has intentionally misled many Americans into believing that these weapons are fully automatic machine guns. They are not. These firearms fire one shot for every pull of the trigger.” Doesn’t that make you feel better?

Those Democrats should sit down with Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania. “Time and time again, our police are finding themselves outgunned,” Rendell said in Harrisburg last week. “They are finding themselves with less firepower than the criminals they are trying to bring to justice.”

The Democratic governor told his own state’s legislators that if they didn’t support such a ban, “then don’t come to those memorial services” for the victims of gun violence. “It’s wrong,” he said. “It’s hypocritical.”

And why can’t we at least close the gun show loophole? Licensed dealers have to do background checks on people who buy guns. The rules don’t apply at gun shows, which, as the Violence Policy Center put it, have become “Tupperware Parties for Criminals.”

But too many members of Congress are “petrified” of the gun lobby, says Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), a crusader for sane gun legislation ever since her husband was killed and her son paralyzed by a gunman on the Long Island Rail Road in 1993.

Family members of the victims of gun violence, she says, are mystified by Congress’s inability to pass even the most limited regulations. “Why can’t you just get this done?” she is asked. “What is it you don’t understand?”

Obama, at least, should understand this: He was not elected by the gun lobby. It worked hard to rally gun owners against him — and failed to stop him.

According to a 2008 exit poll, Obama received support from just 37 percent among voters in households where guns are present — barely more than John Kerry’s 36 percent in 2004. But among the substantial majority of households that don’t have guns, Obama got 65 percent, up eight points from Kerry. Will Obama stand up for the people who actually voted for him?

Yes, I understand about swing voters, swing states, the priority of the economy and all that. But given Congress’s default to the apologists for loose gun laws, it will take a president to make something happen.

AB-221 was introduced in the Wisconsin Assembly, which would require microstamping of all new semiautomatic handguns manufactured after Jan1, 2011. The bill was introduced by Leon Young, Therese Berceau, Robert Turner, Jon Richards, Tamara Grigsby, Annette Williams, Pedro Colon, Frederick Kessler, Christine Sinicki, and Sandy Pasch, cosponsored by Senators Spencer Coggs and Lena Taylor.

The bill is currently in the Committee on Criminal Justice.

If you need a reminder of why this is a bad idea, check out the NRA/ILAs writeup on the California’s law.

I’ll register my guns after the courts rule it’s legal to require registration of blacks, Jews, and homosexuals. Oh, and I’m out of ammo. – Joe Huffman

Steve Kagen, M.D. and Ron Kind, the two Wisconsin Democrat representatives who signed the letter opposing a new AWB. We appreciate your support.

Tammy Baldwin, Gwen Moore, and Dave Obey, what is your excuse? Gun owners remember these things at election time.

Hat tip SIH

Today, the Omnibus Public Land Management Act (S. 22), an important land preservation and management bill, was defeated in the U.S. House of Representatives, despite bipartisan support.  The bill would have protected over 2 million acres of wilderness in nine states, enlarged the boundaries of several national parks, and authorized land swaps that would have helped to protect western water supplies and other resources, among other features.

S. 22 actually combined well over one hundred smaller bills in a package that was presented without opportunity for amendment, under a procedure that would have required a two-thirds vote for passage.  Although there was much support, it fell two votes short of that margin.  (The bill had already passed the Senate in January.)  Oddly, S. 22 may have failed in large part because of a political battle over whether loaded guns may be carried on certain federal lands.

Although the bill had many other features, the wilderness designation provisions are especially noteworthy.  The Wilderness Act, passed in 1964, created the opportunity for Congress to designate federal land to be managed to preserve “natural conditions” without permanent human habitation or improvements. The vast majority of federal land units, managed by the Bureau of Land Management or the U.S. Forest Service, are managed for multiple uses including both motorized and less intensive recreation, resource extraction such as timber harvest and grazing, and ecosystem management.  National Park System lands are more restricted in their uses.  But designation of an area as wilderness - a designation that can apply to lands that would otherwise be managed for multiple uses – is generally much more restricted still.  Wilderness designation places land off-limits, with limited exceptions, to motorized access (including developed campgrounds, vehicular recreation, and roads in general), and most resource extraction.

S. 22 would have designated several new wilderness areas in California and in other Western states.  (See here for descriptions of some of the proposed wilderness areas contained in the bill.)  Wilderness designation for these lands is a critically important tool for preserving intact some of the last areas in our country that are not yet developed with roads and buildings.

Because wilderness designation is generally incompatible with resource extraction, proponents of expanding oil and gas leasing on federal lands are among those displeased with the bill.   Off-road vehicle enthusiasts also oppose the bill because wilderness designation is fundamentally incompatible with their recreational interests.   (Both these interest groups also are inclined to oppose enlarging National Parks lands, another feature of the bill, for similar reasons.)

But in the end, it appears that politics of firearms did the bill in.   For decades, the National Park Service had a policy that forbade possessing a loaded gun on Park Service lands.  A “midnight regulation” enacted by the Bush administration in its last days changed this rule.  The new rule is under review by the Obama administration, but gun-rights supporters hope Congress will allow guns in national parks as a matter of law rather than leave the question to be resolved by the executive branch.  And this dispute seems to have caused S. 22’s failure.  According to an AP report:

Supporters said the bill was brought up under a special rule – which severely restricts amendments – because majority Democrats were afraid that Republicans would introduce an amendment allowing guns in parks. With dozens of Democrats supporting gun rights, such a measure stood a good chance of passage, advocates and staff aides in both parties said.

A similar maneuver by Republicans – to repeal most of the District of Columbia’s gun-control laws – has jeopardized legislation giving the district a vote in the House of Representatives. The measure remains stalled as House leaders ponder their next move.  Advocates said the wilderness bill also may languish.

So it seems the Democrats lost this procedural battle, and with it the bill’s chance of passage, even with significant bipartisan support for the substance.  It’s unclear what happens next, but I’m hoping it will be resolved soon in a way that manages to protect these important lands that the vast majority of Congresspeople have expressed a willingness to protect.