Tactical Blog

Sportsmen and women from all across New York state want to start the new year by sending a message to Albany, and they are going to deliver it themselves. They plan to descend on Albany on Jan. 12, where they will try to get the attention of the New York State Legislature. The message: They are willing to fight for their right to keep and bear arms as provided under the Second Amendment.

Georgia lawmakers will soon debate major changes to the state’s firearm laws. One proposal would allow licensed gun owners to carry their weapons almost anywhere including school zones, college campuses, churches, and parts of airports.
Supporters say that more gun owners licensed to carry concealed weapons would lower the crime rate.

A Roanoke man is suing city police over an altercation with officers that he said began as an argument about his permit to carry a concealed firearm.
Aaron A. Stevenson filed a lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Roanoke alleging that his constitutional rights were violated during a May 6 traffic stop. He named two officers, Chief Joe Gaskins and the city as defendants.

A former commander in the Tennessee State Guard has lost an appeal to overturn his conviction for trying to provide his soldiers with homemade machine guns for possible use in defending the state.
On Wednesday, a federal appeals court in Cincinnati threw the case out of court.
“Whatever the individual right to keep and bear arms might entail, it does not authorize an unlicensed individual to possess unregistered machine guns for personal use,” said the three-judge panel of the Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeals.

California regulators have approved far fewer semi automatic pistols for sale in the wake of a state law that required new safety devices in 2006 and 2007.
Now, with a new bullet stamping law scheduled to take effect in 2010, the gun industry predicts it will introduce even fewer new models in California rather than install a device necessary to trace individual casings to a statewide database.

Georgia lawmakers could consider vast changes to the state’s firearm laws, including a push to allow gun owners with permits to carry their concealed weapons at a range of new areas, from churches to school zones to college campuses.

A state legislator from Norman says Oklahomans should be able to buy guns a few days each year without paying taxes on them.
State Sen. John Sparks, a Democrat, is proposing legislation that he says would set up a “Second Amendment Weekend.” If fellow lawmakers approve the measure and becomes law, all rifles, handguns and shotguns would be tax free on a few days a year.

With just two days left in the year, according to preliminary numbers from the police department, the District has had 138 homicides compared with 184 at the same time last year, setting up the city to record the lowest number of homicides since 1964, when 132 were reported killed.

While other industries have suffered massive losses during recession ravaged 2009, the firearms business seems to have had one of its best years in recent memory.
Concerns about personal safety in a crippled economy and worries that Washington, D.C. democrats would limit firearms sales prompted a gun buying frenzy this year, local and national industry insiders say.

The Clark County Shooting Park has been the target of a lawsuit by a handful of anti-gun homeowners intending to close this major shooting facility north of Decatur Boulevard in Las Vegas. The Shooting Park was established by federal legislation in November 2003 by transferring nearly 3,000 acres of land from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to Clark County.

On Tuesday, December 29, the Rhinebeck Town Board passed a comprehensive zoning plan, which includes provisions that will have a negative impact on local shooting ranges. The new plan goes into effect immediately.

Last August, in response to a handful of anti-gun homeowners looking to shut down the Clark County Shooting Park, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) sought public comment on an environmental assessment report that came under fire by the homeowners.

The Sacramento Bee today reports that Sacramento’s City Council has voted to join other cities arguing in support of Chicago’s right to regulate the posssesion and use of firearms.
Other cities invited to file briefs supporting Chicago include Baltimore, Cleveland, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia.
Sacramento City councilman Kevin McCarty, who supports the city’s involvement in the case, told the Bee that guns “are most likely to be used by assailants or people who shouldn’t have guns in the first place.”
But there is plenty of firepower on the other side of the case.

It’s nothing more than a dream, but I think that it’d be much more useful if those legislators now wishing to ban “assault rifles” would, instead, spend the same time and energy pushing for the strict enforcement of the thousands of gun laws already on the books and the immediate and harsh punishment of those who break them. Were they to do that, this nation’s gun owners would rise and stand shoulder to shoulder with them.
Unfortunately, this will never likely happen and the argument over firearms — of any type — will continue with no end in sight.

Last week, they voted to ban loaded firearms from the State House and a few other buildings. House Speaker Terie Norelli acknowledged that the vote was prompted by an incident in March in which libertarian leaning citizens shouted at legislators from the House gallery while openly carrying side arms, which is perfectly legal.
“We do want to see a return to civility where civil discourse occurs in this building,” she said.
If Norelli wants a “return to civility,” she can have security enforce the existing prohibition on yelling at legislators from the gallery. The guns didn’t yell at legislators that day.

Dangerous bears could be shot if they get within 30 yards of a home under a proposal that will be presented to lawmakers next month.
State Rep. Rick Nelson, D Middlesboro, said he will be pushing the legislation to protect Kentucky residents from criminal prosecution if they shoot black bears that they believe pose a danger.

Last week, the FBI issued its preliminary 2009 crime report, showing that the number of murders in the first half of 2009 decreased 10 percent compared to the first half of 2008.

In an effort to show its support for the Second Amendment, Harley-Davidson of Bloomington stepped up to the Herald-Times in disagreement with its new searchable database of concealed carry permit holders.

On Sunday, January 10, 2010, the Delaware State Sportsmen’s Association will be hosting the 2010 Election Year Candidates Forum and Second Amendment Rally.

The National Rifle Association has updated its proposal for changing Iowa’s law on how sheriffs must issue permits to carry a concealed weapon.
State lawmakers have said they likely will consider the proposal after the next session of the Iowa Legislature begins Jan. 11.

At Colorado State’s main campus, where the student government voted to oppose any restrictions on concealed weapons, student leaders circulated a petition urging a permissive policy.
“Students were really disregarded in a lot of the discussions,” said sophomore David Ambrose, a student senator majoring in business. “Banning concealed weapons on campus makes students second class citizens compared to the rest of Colorado.”

The city of Sacramento regulates handguns and ammunition, and the City Council is willing to go to court to continue that role.
It voted recently to join other cities arguing in support of the city of Chicago, whose gun control ordinance is under review by the U.S. Supreme Court.

West Australia’s new gun licensing system is badly flawed and is frustrating responsible gun owners who are suffering lengthy delays in their applications because of the more complicated process, the Opposition and the State Sporting Shooters Association claim.

The editors of the Bloomington Herald-Times maintain their First Amendment right to publish private information on Indiana gun owners who exercise their Second Amendment rights, but they refuse to defend their position in a nationally broadcast debate on the Fox News Channel.