During his Senate confirmation
hearings in January, Attorney
General Alberto Gonzales said he
favors extending the expired federal
so-called “assault weapons ban.â€
Congress allowed the ban on the
importation and manufacture of
certain semiautomatic firearms and
multiple capacity ammunition
feeding devices to expire last Sept.
13. Gonzales said his brother Tony
is a SWAT officer in Houston, TX
and that “I worry about his safety
and the types of weapons he will
confront on the street. The President
has made it clear that he stands
ready to sign a reauthorization of
the federal assault weapons ban if it
is sent to him by Congress. I, of
course, support the President on
this issue.â€
Administrators at Kent State
University in Ohio have refused to
recognize a Second Amendment
club as an official student group,
according to the Leadership
Institute’s Campus Leadership
Program. Officials at Kent State’s
Office of Campus Life refused to
consider the Second Amendment
Club’s application for recognition,
said student Luke Adams, who
founded the club this past fall. “We
asked Kent State to recognize our
Second Amendment group,†said
Adams, “and they treated us like
second-class citizens.†The club
had planned to educate students
about responsible and safe gun
use through education and events,
such as trips to shooting ranges.
“By banning the Second
Amendment Club, Kent State
limited their students’ First
Amendment rights to free speech
and assembly,†said Jim
Eltringham, Director of Public
Relations for the Campus
Leadership Program.
“One of the basic human rights
that constantly has to be defended
is the right to keep and bear arms,â€
writes columnist Doug Giles. “Why
did the original founders of this
great American experiment toss this
given, no-duh, entitlement into the
Constitution? Well…it wasn’t so that
we would be guaranteed that we
could hunt squirrels and
woodchucks without serving time,
as great as that is. It was for the
purpose of defending ourselves
against perps when the cops are
running a little late, and for the
purpose of protecting ourselves
against the government should the
system go south. What concerns
me is how both the Federal and
State governments, driven by rapid
lawmakers, continue to be such a
pain in the derriere with respect to
the right to possess a firearm.†Giles
is the author of Political Twerps,
Cultural Jerks, Church Quirks.
In the Commonwealth of
Virginia, the State Senate by a 20-
17 vote rejected SB 807, a bill that
would have required background
checks on all private sales at gun
shows. Before the vote, some
people opposed to gun shows
cited fictional characters in a novel
in their shameless attack on legal
firearm transactions. Virginia State
Senators Ken Cuccinelli, Ken Stolle,
Creigh Deeds and John Edwards
led the opposition to the anti-gun
proposal.
Since “several city supervisors
in San Francisco want to ban
handguns there on the mere
presumption that such a law would
prevent crimes, accidents and
suicides,†said CCRKBA Chairman
Alan M. Gottlieb, let the Board of
Supervisors “take an important step
for public safety†and close the
Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge has
been a popular suicide platform for
more than 65 years. “It is an absolute
certainty that closing the bridge
would prevent suicides, and
perhaps many accidents as well.
And just for the sake of argument,
one seriously might question
whether any of the more than 1,300
fatal falls from the bridge since 1937
were cleverly concealed homicides.â€
In Wyoming, State Rep. Becket
Hinckley introduced House Bill 298,
to allow law-abiding citizens to carry
concealed firearms without a
license. The measure would leave
in place the state’s current
concealed carry permit system for
the purpose of reciprocity with other
states. This bill has been referred to
the House Minerals, Business and
Economic Development Committee.
Another Wyoming bill,
House Bill 271, would appropriate
money from the General Fund to
build and maintain a public shooting
range in Laramie County. It has
been referred to the House Travel,
Recreation and Wildlife Committee.
