The U.S. Department of Labor announced in mid-July that it will significantly revise a recent proposal for new “explosives safety†regulations. The original rule proposed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) would have forced the closure of nearly all ammunition manufacturers and would have forced the cost of small arms ammunition to skyrocket beyond what the market would bear, essentially collapsing the industry, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF). Then, Kristine A. Iverson, the Labor Department Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs, wrote Rep. Denny Rehberg of Montana that it “was never the intention of OSHA to block the sale, transportation, or storage of small arms ammunition, and OSHA is taking prompt action to revise†the proposed rule to clarify the purpose of the regulation.
Prominent Shi’ite and Sunni politicians called on Iraqi civilians early last month to take up arms to defend themselves after a weekend of violence that claimed more than 220 lives, including 60 who died in a surge of bombings and shootings around Baghdad, reported the Associated Press. The proposals to arm civilians reflected growing frustration over the inability of Iraqi forces to prevent attacks, while the string of bombings in the Iraqi capital showed that extremists can still unleash powerful strikes there despite the United States security crackdown. Abbas al-Bayati, a Shi’ite Turkman lawmaker, said that, in the absence of enough security forces, the Iraqi government should help residents “arm themselves†for their own protection. The call to arms for civilians was echoed by the country’s Sunni Arab vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi, who said “the people have no choice but to take up their own defense.â€
When USA Today last month editorialized in support of a “gun show loophole†ban, Philip Van Cleave, President of the Virginia Citizens Defense League (www.vcdl.org), noted in an opposing view in the same issue of the publication that in reality “there is no loophole,†and wrote that “critics use gun shows to scare you into accepting more limits.†As he pointed out, “There is nothing that can be done at a gun show that cannot be done legally outside of a gun show. The terms ‘gun show loophole’ and ‘unlicensed gun dealer’ are fabricated to mislead the public into thinking that gun shows permit gun sales that would be forbidden anywhere else. The intent of this scheme is to villainize gun shows, making the public receptive to additional restrictions. This is just the first step in a ‘private gun sale registration’ scheme. Gun banners know they must take small steps, placing more and more hurdles to gun ownership so that fewer law-abiding citizens will go to the trouble of purchasing a firearm.â€
“With an increasing number of (Oklahoma) state residents legally packing heat,†reports the Tulsa World, “more robbers may be taking away some hot lead. More than 54,000 Oklahomans are licensed to carry concealed handguns under the Oklahoma Self-Defense Act, said Jessica Brown, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. That number is up from around 31,000 in 2000 and 15,081 in 1996, after the first year of licensing. Once approved, applicants are licensed to carry concealed weapons for five years. After five years, they are required to renew their application. In the beginning, some people thought a wave of shootings by license holders would occur, but those fears have proved to be unfounded, Brown said. ‘There’s very little of that, quite frankly,’ she said. ‘Most people don’t want to hurt each other.’â€
When an unexpected knock rattled his front door in Hickory, North Carolina, 79-year-old Dwight Cook left his front porch to investigate. When he heard the sliding glass doors break, he sent his wife to the neighbors’ house and grabbed his gun. The former Army sharpshooter fired a warning shot with his caliber .22 firearm at the intruder but the shot ricocheted and hit the alleged intruder, 23-year-old Derek Scott, in the forehead. Police arrested the would-be burglar.
