Firearms Owners Against
Crime
"A general dissolution of principles and manners will
more surely overthrow the liberties of
E-Newsletter & FOAC
Meeting Notice
May 4, 2008
Meeting Agenda Issues:
Tim Krieger (PA House Candidate-57th District)
9.0 New Business
9.1
Election Outcome
9.2
Candidate support review-Mailings and Door to Door
9.3
Special Election Effort – 39th District PA House of
Representatives
9.4
Political Events Review and Summary and Candidate Positions and
Statements
9.5
Important State Races (Congress, State Senate, State House—Open
Races!!)
9.6
2008 Fall Breakfast Suggestions
9.7
Membership committee developments
9.8
FOAC Meeting Times/Suggestions
Events:
**ACSL Monthly Meeting: May 8th – Collier Sportsmen’s Club
**
FOAC - 2008
Meeting Schedule
Jan 13, 2nd Sunday, Feb
10, 2nd Sunday, Mar 9, 2nd Sunday, Apr 13, 2nd Sunday, May 4, 1st Sunday, Jun 8, 2nd Sunday, Jul 13, 2nd Sunday, Aug
10, 2nd Sunday, Sep 14, 2nd Sunday, Oct 12, 2nd Sunday, Nov 2, 1st Sunday, Dec 14, 2nd Sunday
**Time of Meeting: 10:00 AM
**Location:
****Coffee and Donuts will be
provided
***General Election – Nov. 4
‘Bloody’
by Dave Workman Senior Editor
While the administration of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley is nervous about a Supreme Court ruling that could threaten his city’s handgun ban, which prevents law-abiding citizens from legally owning handguns for personal protection, the mayor has been unable to stem a tide of blood spilled in what appear to be a growing number of gang related shootings.
Over the course of one April weekend, according to the Associated Press, there were 36 shootings in which nine people were killed.
And the question arises, if all of these criminals can so easily get their hands on guns, why are honest citizens being left defenseless in what may become a crossfire?
Daley convened a "gun summit" at city hall at a press conference just days after the bloody weekend, the outcome of which was almost pre-ordained since he was accompanied by anti-gun Rev. Michael Pfleger-the man who suggested "snuffing" suburban gun dealer John Riggio during a demonstration last summer outside of Chuck's Gun Shop in Riverdale.
That summit brought together members of the clergy, neighborhood activists and public officials, according to WBBM radio, the local CBS affiliate. Noticeably absent were representatives of gun rights organizations.
The Chicago Sun-Times editorialized against the violence, demanding that the city "confront the carnage." Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich analyzed the increase in violence, noting that it is largely related to gang turf warfare. She quoted sociology professor Greg Scott, who insisted that "Police need to appreciate that gang members aren't just villains to the neighborhood."
Pfleger, described by the Associated Press as "an activist on the South Side," predicted that trouble will increase when schools let out in June and the temperatures rise into the 80s and 90s this Summer.
Police have said that at least 14 of the shootings were gang-related, according to published reports, and that one involved the use of a semiautomatic rifle to shoot up a plumbing supply store.
Ironically, the surge in violence
came within days of the publication of a column by Justin Webb, North American
editor for the BBC in
Webb then noted that parts of
Perhaps not coincidentally, syndicated columnist Charley Reese wrote in The Florida Sun-Sentinel that much of the violence can be traced to certain ethnic groups.
Noting that "gun violence seems to be more prevalent among blacks and Hispanics than among whites," Reese acknowledged that, "I know that is not a welcomed thing to say, but it happens to be a fact."
In his column, headlined "Let's focus on the people who kill, not the guns," Reese admitted that "I don't know why some groups are more violent than others."
"All I'm saying," he wrote, "is if you want to solve the gun crime
problem, that's where you have to go. It won't do a bit of good to prevent some
Lutheran kid in
"But they don't want to deal with it," Reese lamented. "It's too hot a potato, too politically incorrect. So, as a smoke screen, they rant and rail about guns as if all these tools are possessed by demons that cause the guns to hop off the shelves and force people to use them. That's nonsense. Gun violence is a social problem, not a hardware problem."
But in
Last man standing:
Defiant
by Dave
Workman Senior Editor
Other
firearms dealers targeted by the questionable private gun "sting"
opera.4ion mounted by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg have folded
against the financial pressure, and one has even announced she will close her
doors next month.
But
Jay Wallace, president of Adventure Outdoors in Smyrna, GA, is standing firm
against what he insists is a false accusation, combined with a deliberate
smearing of his reputation. On May 27, in a
Wallace
is looking forward to the opportunity to vindicate himself.
"It's
time that the industry know what's going on with this case," Wallace said
in an interview with Gun Week. "My position is that I've done nothing wrong...I can prove that
I've done nothing wrong."
His
"We're
going to try our case," Renzuli said, "and
show that the basis for this lawsuit is, in fact, baseless. They (attorneys for
the city) should have done their homework before they went out and said some
pretty bad things about Jay and his business."
Cost of Defense
Wallace
is bolstered by the fact that he has gotten small contributions from people all
over the country, and even from some servicemen and women overseas, to help
fight this case, but he is particularly fond of the Second Amendment Foundation,
which has contributed several thousand dollars to his defense, and is "the
number one contributor." The National Rifle Association has also kicked
in $1,000, and he has gotten some help from the industry, but it may be small
in comparison to what Bloomberg and the city may have spent to push this case.
Contributions
are still being accepted at: Bloombergfightbackfund.com.
The
issue that frustrates Wallace the most is that, in his opinion, none of this
would have been necessary, had only Bloomberg's so-called "private
investigators" approached him up front, explained what they felt were
alleged shortcomings with his business practices, and then worked with him.
"I
would have asked `what is the problem?' and then I would have had open
discussions with them," Wallace stated, "and they would have
discovered we do things quite well in our store."
But
instead of cooperation, Wallace said, Bloomberg wanted headlines. Renzuli told Gun Week that
Bloomberg's office used raw gun trace data obtained from the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to make assumptions that simply are not
accurate.
This
trace data is retained by ATF for use in criminal investigations, but it does
not reflect that every gun being traced was involved in the commission of a
crime. Even the ATF has disavowed the use of raw data.
The Department of Justice last year warned Bloomberg's office against trying anything like his "gun stings" in the future. Bloomberg went around law enforcement, hired private investigators (one of whom has since been murdered by her mother's boyfriend) and conducted what critics have branded a "vigilante operation." The case so infuriated ATF that the agency investigated to determine whether Bloomberg committed a crime, and ATF sources did acknowledge that the Bloomberg operation jeopardized on-going criminal investigations.
Firing back, Bloomberg criticized ATF for being "asleep at the wheel" in terms of enforcement against alleged "rogue" gun dealers from whose shops firearms somehow wind up in New York.
When the smoke cleared, the Justice Department announced
that there was insufficient evidence to
prove that any of the gun dealers sued by Bloomberg had committed a
prosecutable crime. But the department warned Bloomberg that such "stings"
might run afoul of federal law.
Weak Case?
According
to Renzuli, the case against his client has some
pretty weak spots, not the least of which is the absence of a fully-recorded
transaction in the store. By some remarkable coincidence, the attorney said,
both recordings made during the transaction at Adventure Outdoor were hampered
by malfunctions. This apparently did not happen at any of the other stores
visited by Bloomberg's investigators.
There
appears to be ample reason for his suspicions. The attorney told Gun Week that during a 2007 ATF compliance audit, Adventure
Outdoors had essentially "a clean bill of health." There was a
single infraction, apparently having to do with stapling a National Instant
Check System denial form to a Federal Form 4473 that had been filled out by the
denied customer.
Wallace
said that he has a good record of cooperating with ATF, and he believes
regulating gun stores is the job of that agency, not the mayor of New York, a
jurisdiction more than a thousand miles away in another state.
"We've
set up our business to be 100% ATF compliant and then some," he said.
There might be a bit of regulation coming at Bloomberg. Wallace has also
retained former
Having
watched all of the other defendant gun shops in Bloomberg's e lawsuit
ultimately fold, Wallace feels the burden of being the only retailer remaining
so he is bearing the entire financial burden with the support he's gotten.
"I
am 100% committed," he said. "I know how I've run my business. I am
proud of the way I run my business." The New GUN
WEEK, May 15, 2008
Support Swells For
by Dave
Workman Senior Editor
The
online advertisement for Pizza Hut delivery drivers explains that "you'll
get more: more for your career, your life, your family and your future" by
taking a job with the popular pizza chain.
What
the ad doesn't say is that if you are robbed, you cannot defend yourself
because you are forbidden from being armed, in your own vehicle which is used
for deliveries, and if you do fight back, you will be immediately suspended and
very likely terminated.
That's
the case for a
Spiers' story was reported by The Des
Moines Register. Almost immediately,
messages of support for the single father started flashing across the Internet
from gun rights activists all over the country.
Meanwhile,
the suspect, identified as 19-year-old Kenneth Jimmerson,
was arrested on charges of first-degree robbery. A young woman identified as
Melanie Stout, 18, was charged with conspiracy for calling in the pizza order
that became a lure to armed robbery.
Des
Moines Police Sgt. Vince Valdez told Gun Week that the suspect has an
arrest record dating back to when he was a juvenile. Last year, Jimmerson was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon.
Spiers is licensed to carry a concealed handgun in
But
that reportedly isn't good enough for Pizza Hut, whose vice president for human
resources, Vonnie Walbert,
told the newspaper that delivery drivers are not allowed to carry guns
"because we believe that that is the safest for everybody."
Gun
rights activists suggest that Walbert tell that to
Some
activists were calling for a national boycott of Pizza Hut. Others are just
furious.
In
a Des Moines Register column, Spiers said he was
certain he was about to die when the thug aimed a gun at his head.
After
shooting the suspect, Spiers grabbed his gun and when
police arrived, he turned both his pistol and the gunman's piece over. At age
19, Jimmerson would be too young to legally carry a
handgun. The New GUN WEEK, May 15, 2008
NC High School Officials Block Rifle Team's State Competition
by Dave Workman Senior Editor
A
high school policy committee in the Wake school district near
According
to The Charlotte News Observer, Lumley and his teammates were barred from
participating in the annual North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission
competition, an event that has been going on for decades. The decision to keep
the East Wake team out of the district tournament was made by school Principal
Sebastian Shipp with the support of Area Superintendent Danny Barnes. Neither
of those officials would return calls from Gun Week, and neither did District
Superintendent Dr. Adelphos "Del" Burns or
Lori Millberg, a school director.
But
Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and
Bear Arms, was not so silent. He publicly called for the firing of both Barnes
and Shipp.
The
National Rifle Association called the decision an "outrage."
Lumley,
17, reportedly had been practicing for the tournament for months. Shipp
reportedly waited until the day before the March 15 tournament to notify Lumley
and his teammates that their - participation was barred. The News Observer
reported that Shipp used as his reason a school policy that bans firearms and
other weapons from school grounds and also prohibits students from having guns
along on school-related trips.
The
tournament is well-supervised and the marksmanship team is part of a
school-approved student chapter of the FFA (Future Farmers of America).
But
it may have been what the
"This
is an outrageous position," Gottlieb said. "Schools are places of
learning, but what lesson have Barnes and Shipp taught
with this decision: how to practice social bigotry?"
Mindful
that Lumley is a senior and this would have been his only chance to participate
in the tournament as a member of his school's team, Gottlieb said the school
district should apologize, in writing, to the teen and every other member of
the team. That apology, he said, should be signed "especially by Barnes
and Shipp."
"The
district should find a way to get Robert and his teammates into a tournament of
equal standing," Gottlieb said, "and that responsibility should be
placed squarely on Barnes and Shipp. Their actions have cheated these students
out of a valuable experience, and cheating in school should get these two
administrators expelled."
According
to WNCN News in
Other
schools around the state apparently have different policies, as some 2,000 high
school and middle school students participate in the
annual tournament, The News Observer reported. A statewide competition was held
in late April. The New GUN WEEK, May 15, 2008
‘Zero Tolerance’ Victimizes WV
School Principal
A
Principal
James D. Hoover was dismissed on a 3-2 vote by the
However,
the school board was less flexible than the circuit judge, so
The
guns apparently weren't even his. The station said
Obama's Opposition To
Licensed Concealed Carry Stirs Backlash
by Dave Workman Senior Editor
Democratic
presidential contender Barack Obama already had some credibility problems with
American gunowners, despite his repeated pronouncements in support of the
Second Amendment, but the Illinois Democrat really kicked a hornet's nest when
he declared during a
Almost
immediately, chat boards and gun rights forums lit up with furious criticism of
the freshman senator and would-be presidential nominee.
Obama
told The Pittsburgh TribuneReview that
"I am not in favor of concealed weapons. I think that creates a potential
atmosphere where more innocent people could (get shot during)
altercations."
One
of the harshest reactions came from Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens
Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. He
demanded that Obama apologize to the millions of law-abiding citizens who are
legally licensed to carry concealed handguns. Statistically, such citizens are
far less likely to ever get into trouble with the law.
Gottlieb
noted that licensed citizens "go through background checks, and in some
states complete required training courses."
"They
have stopped crimes," he observed. "They have sometimes aided police
officers."
Obama,
said Gottlieb, "should not confuse legally-armed, law-abiding Americans
with inner-city thugs, gang bangers and other criminals who carry guns
illegally."
Obama's
comments were reported on the day after a story broke about the senator's 1996
legislative questionnaire in
However,
that account was discredited when it was revealed by several sources that
Obama's handwriting was found on the pages of the questionnaire.
The
document also revealed that Obama opposes capital punishment and criminal
prosecution of juveniles as adults if they are charged with serious felonies.
He is against mandatory sentencing while he supports "alternative
sentencing."
"It's clear," Gottlieb said, "that Obama has the good guys confused with the bad guys.
Gottlieb
publicly warned Obama that "gunowners are also voters."
"You
have outrageously insulted every one of them," he said. "You owe
these good citizens an apology."
The
firearms civil rights issue was expected to surface again in a Democratic
candidate's debate in
Anti-gun
leaders in the
Judge Stops Philly
Enforcement of 5 Local Gun Laws
by Gun Week staff
Faced
with a staggering crime problem and skyrocketing murder rate,
Nutter
defended the action, arguing that he and members of the City Council are
essentially walking in the footsteps of Americans who launched the Revolutionary
War. Veteran
A
day after the mayor signed all five measures, both the
National Rifle Association (NRA) and Second Amendment Foundation (SAF)
announced they would be taking legal action against the city to force it to
comply with state law.
On
Apr. 17, Common Pleas Judge Jane Cutler Greenspan ordered the city to
temporarily halt enforcement of the five gun-control laws passed by City
Council a week earlier and signed by Nutter.
The
city was ordered to stop writing police rules for enforcing the laws and
training officers about them, at least until Apr. 28 or possible May 19, when
Greenspan had scheduled a hearing on the NRA's request for a permanent
injunction.
District
Attorney Lynne Abraham had previously said that the local laws conflict with
state laws and she will not enforce them.
The
NRA requested a temporary restraining order on behalf of its members in the
city, two firearm groups, two gun shops and four firearm owners.
In
a harshly-worded statement, SAF Foundation founder Alan Gottlieb nicknamed the
city "Killadelphia" and reminded the mayor
that he couldn't willfully violate state law and then expect anyone else to
obey it.
"How
can Mayor Nutter and the council expect anyone else, especially criminals, to obey
the law if they don't live up to the same standard," Gottlieb wondered.
"Just because the mayor doesn't like the fact that the state legislature
retains sole authority over gun laws does not give him or the city council any
right to essentially set up their own fiefdom. What kind of example does that
set? What does it accomplish?"
The
new measures include a limit on handgun purchases to one per month, a ban on
so-called assault weapons, a requirement that citizens report lost or stolen
guns to police within 24 hours, and a provision allowing police to confiscate
firearms from people who allegedly pose "a risk of imminent personal
injury."
A
fifth ordinance would prohibit people under protection orders from possessing
firearms, but that is already against federal law. The New GUN WEEK, May 15, 2008
PA House Rejects Handgun Theft Reporting Bill
The
Pennsylvania House recently rejected a measure aimed at curbing illegal handgun
trafficking, the first substantive gun restriction considered by the full
chamber in more than a decade. By a vote of 128-75, the House defeated an
amendment,-attached to a separate gun crime bill-that would have made it mandatory
to report lost and stolen handguns. The amendment won overwhelming support from
Philadelphia-area lawmakers, where polls show majority support for the
reporting requirement. House Speaker Dennis O'Brien, a Republican, was the only
representative from
O'Brien
said he could not support what he called a "flawed bill" and felt it
could have "unintended consequences" for legitimate crime victims,
such as felony charges for not reporting multiple missing weapons. "It's a
difficult vote to explain why you're not for it, but the deficiencies were
glaring."
Gun-control
proponents hailed the vote itself as a historic achievement for opening floor
debate on gun violence and forcing lawmakers to take a formal position on
controversial legislation.
The
defeat came despite impassioned pleas from
But
the final vote reflected the dominant pro-gun ideology in a state where
divisions over gun control run largely along geographic rather than party
lines. The New GUN WEEK, May 1, 2008
Pennsylvanians Turn Out For Gun Rights At
by Dave Workman, Senior Editor
On the same day the Pennsylvania
House of Representatives passed on a 200-0 vote a comprehensive gun law
package, pro-gun activists and lawmakers gathered in the Capitol Rotunda in
House Bill 1845 makes it a felony to have a firearm with an altered or erased serial number, adds state penalties for providing false information on a gun purchase form, makes it a crime to falsely report a gun stolen and extends the time from two to five years that charges can be filed against a gun buyer if a gun is traced back to a straw purchase.
Kim Stolfer, chairman of Firearms Owners Against Crime, told Gun Week that the package was the result of pro-gun lobbying to defeat a series of anti-gun amendments a week earlier. He supported the measure that was passed.
But
The Second Amendment Liberty rally saw conservative Alan Keyes deliver the keynote address, and Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, telling the crowd of more than 500 the importance of political activism and public scrutiny.
Quoted by The Harrisburg Patriot News, Keyes said the battle for gun rights requires “the courage, and the unwillingness to live in the shadow of fear.”
This was the third year for the
capitol rally, and Stolfer said the strategy developed by
Other speakers included: state Rep.
Daryl Metcalfe, a Cranberry Republican, who helped organize the event in
partnership with firearms civil rights groups across the
“A truly safe and liberty-advancing society is an armed society,” he observed.
Metcalfe was among some 40 state lawmakers from both parties who turned out for the rally and gathered on the Rotunda steps behind the microphone.
“As citizens of the
Reminding the audience that
In addition, the crowd heard
remarks from Jon Mirowitz of the Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania, Larry Pratt
with Gun Owners of America, Melanie Sellinger,
executive director of the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs and
Keyes held the limelight, however, noting, “You cannot defend your life if you give up the means of that defense. If it is your right to stand in defense of your family and your home, then you have the right and means to enable yo