Wyo. House panel backs concealed-carry bill
The Associated Press
Friday, February 11, 2011; 1:20 PM

 
CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- Wyoming residents would be able to carry concealed guns without a permit under a bill that has cleared a legislative committee.

The House Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee voted 8-1 Friday in favor of the bill, sponsored by Casper Republican Senator Kit Jennings. It already has cleared the Senate and now goes to the full House.

The committee amended the bill to specify that people couldn't carry concealed guns while intoxicated.

If the bill becomes law, Wyoming would join Alaska, Arizona and Vermont as states that don't require citizens to have permits to carry concealed weapons.

Supporters of the Wyoming bill say the state and federal constitutions guarantee the people's right to carry guns. Opponents warn against putting more guns into hands of people who shouldn't have them.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/11/AR2011021103552_pf.html

Utah Senate approves official state firearm

By Robert Gehrke

The Salt Lake Tribune

First published Feb 10 2011 12:44PM
Updated 3 hours ago Updated Feb 11, 2011 12:01AM

HB219 • The Utah Senate passed legislation Thursday that would make the Browning-designed M1911 — a sidearm carried by U.S. military since World War I — the state’s official gun.

“This is a substantially historic firearm,” said Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Eagle Mountain.

“As Utahns, we can claim a connection to its inventor and designer that no other state can claim.”

In designating the gun, the Senate added a recognition that firearms in the wrong hands have been the source of violence and stating that the Legislature does not condone such acts.

The bill was amended in the Senate to clarify that John M. Browning designed the gun, but never actually manufactured the weapon. Instead he gave the design to the military, which during various wars had Colt, Remington and even International Harvester and Singer, the sewing machine maker, manufacture the weapon.

“Weapons or guns especially are so demonized by certain elements of our society that I think this adds a real balance,” said Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan. “Weapons in the right hands have probably preserved freedom time and time and time again.”

Sen. Peter Knudson, R-Brigham City, said he viewed the bill as a recognition of the Browning family “who have generously given to our state over so many generations.”

Democrats questioned why the state is recognizing the gun and argued it was wasting time.

“I don’t think it does send the right message to other states,” said Senate Minority Leader Ross Romero, D-Salt Lake City, who noted that the Legislature already honored the Browning family earlier in the session. “The contributions of the individuals are important, but to designate a state firearm is not necessary.”

Sen. Daniel Thatcher, R-West Valley City, argued that having a state gun might prompt students to go to the library and learn more about the weapon and the history of the Browning family.

The House still must sign off on the amended bill before it goes to the governor.

If the measure becomes law, the semiautomatic .45-caliber pistol would take its place alongside other notable Utah icons, such as the state’s official fruit (the cherry), the official cooking pot (the Dutch oven) and the state folk dance (the square dance).

Copyright 2011 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/51230265-76/state-senate-browning-gun.html.csp

White House says no to emergency AK-47 regulation

(AP) – 15 hours ago

The U.S. agency that monitors gun sales has suffered a setback in its effort to increase scrutiny of the bulk sale of high-powered assault rifles in border state gun shops that are a chief source of weapons smuggling into Mexico.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives wants to require gun dealers in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to report the sales of two or more rifles to the same customer within a five-day period, similar to a rule that exists for handgun sales. The goal of the plan is to crack down on problem gun dealers and buyers at a time of heightened drug cartel violence along the border.

The agency asked the White House for an emergency order that would allow ATF to quickly impose the requirement without public review. But the White House denied the request and told the agency that the proposal has to undergo a standard three-month review period that is open to public comment.

The plan could still be implemented, but not on the expedited timetable that the agency had wanted

"It's not against the law, and it's not going to be against the law, for you to buy 40, 50, even 100 of these weapons and put them in the bumper of your car and drive them around or even down to the border," said ATF spokesman Scot Thomasson. "This would just allow us to put out an investigative lead at the time of the sale."

Twenty people were indicted on federal charges last month for allegedly participating in a ring that bought more than 700 guns to be smuggled into Mexico for use by a drug cartel. In that case, individuals on several occasions bought dozens of AK-47s as well as .50-caliber high-powered rifles capable of shooting down airplanes, even after rifles they purchased earlier had been seized.

For example, police in Douglas, Ariz., found nine AK-47 rifles hidden in a car bumper in late 2009.

The guns were tracked back to Sean Christopher Steward, who had bought them in a batch of 40 AK-47 type rifles at Lone Wolf Trading Co., in Glendale, Ariz., the day before.

Just five days after this seizure, Steward bought 43 more AK-47 rifles and pistols, according to court records. Altogether, Steward bought at least 143 more weapons after the seizure, mostly AK-47s from Lone Wolf.

Almost all of the hundreds of guns identified in the indictment were sold by the Lone Wolf Trading Co., which was also identified in a Washington Post investigative series last year as the top seller of weapons found at Mexican crime scenes.

The shop is in a cookie cutter strip mall off a busy Phoenix area street that also has a brake shop and a grocery store. Target practice posters outlining the human body hang on its windows facing outward.

Dozens of assault rifles blanket the walls behind the glass counter, and the handguns are displayed beneath the glass. According to court records, the store would have been paid several hundred thousand dollars for the weapons which were legally sold.

Owner Andre Howard has repeatedly refused to speak with The Associated Press. In a written statement, he said federal agencies "have limited resources of money and manpower" to tackle cartels.

Howard cooperated with law enforcement during the investigation, calling agents when individuals purchased dozens of AK-47s at a time, according to a federal official familiar with the case, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

White House Office of Management and Budget spokeswoman Meg Reilly said the Obama administration called the ATF last week, informing the agency its proposal — which had been published in the Federal Register in December — was not deemed an emergency, which would have cut short public review.

"Our objective is to ensure that any information collection in this area is as informed and effective as possible, and public comment is critical to that outcome," Reilly said.
Reilly said that to speed things along, the White House allowed for the review clock to start when ATF posted the notice in December. That means the period is almost concluded, with Feb. 14 being the last day for the public to send comments.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a proponent for the reporting requirements, said his coalition of more than 550 mayors strongly disagreed with the White House's move.
"The White House decided that the illegal trafficking of thousands of semiautomatic assault rifles from the U.S. to Mexico is not an emergency," he said. "These guns are fueling violence that has claimed more than 30,000 lives and putting our law enforcement officers at risk. ATF recognizes the emergency but we need the White House to give the agency the support it needs do its job effectively."

But Chris W. Cox, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, said the ATF had made "a blatant attempt to circumvent the legislative arena and to abuse the 'emergency rule' process."

Since 2006, the ATF has seized more than 10,000 firearms and nearly one million rounds of ammunition destined for Mexico, where the public is not allowed to purchase or possess guns. Authorities in Mexico believe that a large percentage of guns used in police assassinations and cartel bloodshed originate in the United States.

Robert Bowman, a 66-year-old Glendale resident, was at Lone Wolf Trading Co. on Feb. 4 to buy some ammunition and said he was disappointed to learn that the store would sell AK-47s in bulk.

"If it were my business and some guy came in and wanted 20 AK-47s, I'd say, 'I'll sell you two — one for the right hand and one for the left hand — but I won't sell you 20,'" said Bowman, a former Army drill instructor who owns his own construction business. "I'm a business owner myself, and I will not conduct business if I don't like where the money's coming from."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hskOdDJsWQY78pbEdI8QljUVbDag?docId=41aed40a1ad94579843d58dad64642cf

Associated Press Writers Jacques Billeaud and Amanda Lee Myers in Phoenix contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Pleasures To Trade Adult Toys For Guns

Event is scheduled for February 8-15

Claire Aiello
Web Content Manager
2:25 PM CST, February 8, 2011
HUNTSVILLE, AL

Huntsville's adult toy store definitely knows how to stay in the news.  This time, Pleasures owner Sherri Williams says her store is working to get 300 guns off the streets, trading them for adult toys.

The "Guns for Toys" event is scheduled for February 8-15 at the Pleasures drive-thru store on University Drive.  David Smith, owner and licensed gun dealer of Blue Steel Gun Works, will be at the store daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. to assess the value and condition of the guns.

"It’s my contribution to making love, not war here in Alabama, where guns are legal and adult toys are not,” said Williams.

“We’re loading our silver bullets to take aim at the hearts of gun enthusiasts who may rather kiss a woman than their gun on this Valentine's Day,” Williams added.

Williams says all guns that were used in a crime will be handed over to authorities, while all others will be auctioned off at MyPleasureStore.com.  A portion of the proceeds will benefit the victims of violent crimes through the Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission.

whnt.com/news/huntsvilleandmadisoncounty/whnt-sex-toys-owner-of-sex-toy-shop-to-trade-adult-toys-for-guns-20110208,0,528678.story

Copyright © 2011, WHNT-TV

Legislature goes off half-cocked in selection of state firearm

By Charles F. Trentelman

Standard-Examiner staff

Monday, February 7, 2011 - 10:57pm

Here's a joke about the proposed official Utah state firearm: They've got the wrong gun. Those rubes in the Legislature want to honor a non-Utah weapon.

The Legislature is debating making the M1911 Browning semiautomatic pistol, which was designed by Ogden gun maker John Moses Browning, Utah's official state firearm.
The lawmakers seem captivated by this one's supposed history "defending freedom," even though pistols have little practical combat use. I think they just feel cool with one on their hip.

Here's the problem: The M1911 is not the first gun, nor even the first pistol, Browning designed.

It was never made in Utah. It was never even made by Browning. He sold the design to Colt, in Connecticut.

And, most important, Browning himself did not think this pistol, or any pistol, was his most important invention.

What would be a better state firearm? Like the sego lily and the California gull, it should have historical ties and have been made or used in Utah. We have several options.

When I was in the Bear River Valley Muzzleloaders, I gained appreciation for mountain men who explored Utah with a rifle that was a pain in the butt to load and a nightmare to shoot. Peter Skene Ogden was probably armed with a flintlock muzzleloading rifle when he explored Ogden Valley in 1825.

Ever try to shoot a flintlock rifle?

It looks easy in movies. In real life, you aim, inhale, squeeze the trigger and try to hold the very heavy rifle on target while the flint strikes a spark in the pan, which sets off an explosion of noise, smoke and flame inches from your eyes.

If you are lucky, the bullet is fired. If you are very lucky, you hit what you hope to eat for dinner.

So, there's my first nomination: The trapper's muzzleloading rifle, carried by men who blazed trails Mormon pioneers followed.

But you say: "We want to honor Browning."

Fine. John Browning's father, Jonathan, was the official gunsmith for the Mormon exodus. Jonathan provided a slide repeating rifle and a cylinder repeating rifle, ingenious arms vastly superior to muzzleloaders, but not made in Utah.

In 1878 John, 23, was in the family's Ogden gunshop repairing a badly made single-shot rifle. He told his father, "I could make a better gun than that myself," and Jonathan, who was old and sick, said, "I wish you'd get at it. I'd like to live to see you do it."

In 1879, John patented the Browning Single Shot Rifle. He and his brothers made and sold 600. In 1883, the Winchester Repeating Arms Company bought it. Versions were marketed for almost 40 years.

Years later John was asked which was his most significant invention. He named the single-shot rifle because selling it "gave me $8,000 worth of certainty that I could invent things for which people would pay large prices."

So that's my second nomination: The Browning Single Shot Rifle. It fathered the long line of Browning-designed rifles, pistols, shotguns and machine guns, including the M1911 pistol.

Nobody makes the rifle any more, and single-shot rifles aren't as sexy as automatic pistols, but so what? This rifle is history, romance and Utah-made. The Browning Arms Museum at Ogden's Union Station has several, including John's own personal rifle.

Sadly, a historic muzzleloader or single-shot rifle isn't something you can strap on your hip and strut around with. For that reason alone I predict the Legislature will go with the M1911.

It's wrong, but being wrong never stopped those guys.
Wasatch Rambler is the opinion of Charles Trentelman. You can call him at 801-625-4232 or e-mail ctrentelman@standard.net. He also blogs at http://www.standard.net/.
http://www.standard.net/topics/utah-legislature/2011/02/07/legislature-goes-half-cocked-selection-state-firearm

Florida lawmaker suggests doctors can use gun information against you

Says gun ownership information could be recorded and collected by the federal government and insurance companies as part of the federal health care law.

Jason Brodeur on Sunday, January 16th, 2011 in comments published in the Fort Myers News-Press.

A freshman Florida lawmaker is grabbing national headlines for sponsoring a bill that would make it a felony for doctors to ask their patients if they own guns.

State Rep. Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, has filed HB 155, the Privacy of Firearms Owners Act, which seeks to punish doctors with fines up to a $5 million for asking a patient or a patient's family about gun ownership and gun habits. The proposal is a reaction to American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines, which encourage physicians to counsel parents on creating a safe home environment and offering advice to avoid preventable accidents. The long list of recommendations includes mainly innocuous tips like "Keep plastic bags and balloons away from your children," and "NEVER place an infant in front of an air bag."

Physicians also are encouraged to tell parents to remove guns from places where children live and play.

"More than 5,000 children and adolescents are killed by gunfire each year -- injuries almost always inflicted by themselves, a sibling or a friend," the doctor's group says as part of suggested counseling for parents. "Handguns are especially dangerous. If you choose to keep a gun at home, store it unloaded in a locked place. Lock and store the ammunition in a separate place."

Brodeur says the advice is out of bounds and that it infringes on people's privacy protections. The controversial measure has proven fodder for CNN's Anderson Cooper.

But what has so far been left out of the debate is Brodeur's suggestion that his bill could have even more privacy implications because of the passage of the federal health care overhaul in 2010. The law is now facing an aggressive court challenge.

Speaking to the Fort Myers News-Press, Brodeur said he's concerned about doctors asking patients about guns in the home and then allowing that information to get into the hands of the government or insurance companies.

"What we don't want to do is have law-abiding firearm owners worried that the information is going to be recorded and then sent to their insurance company," Brodeur said. "If the overreaching federal government actually takes over health care, they're worried that Washington, D.C., is going to know whether or not they own a gun and so this is really just a privacy protection."

The federal health care law is 974 pages long -- long enough for important details to get sometimes overlooked (we like this one) and long enough for outrageous claims (like here, and here, and our favorite, here.)

We wondered where Brodeur's claim fit in.

The health care law and guns

So much can be revealed by simply reading the health care law, formally called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Or if that's too much -- just try searching for keywords. We accessed the final version of the law through the White House's web site.

Then we searched for the word "gun."

Here's what we found: "(c) PROTECTION OF SECOND AMENDMENT GUN RIGHTS." So we read on.

The gun provision of the law has two main thrusts -- that no one in the government can use the health care law to collect gun information and that insurance companies cannot adjust their rates because someone owns a gun.

"A premium rate may not be increased, health insurance coverage may not be denied, and a discount, rebate, or reward offered for participation in a wellness program may not be reduced or withheld under any health benefit plan issued pursuant to or in accordance with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or an amendment made by that Act on the basis of, or on reliance upon -- (A) the lawful ownership or possession of a firearm or ammunition; or (B) the lawful use or storage of a firearm or ammunition," the law reads in part.

That gun language was added by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid specifically to placate gun owners, who argued that the health care law could be used as a way for the federal government to create a national gun registry or charge gun owners more for insurance. So to avoid any (more) backlash about the law, Reid included a provision to further protect gun owners from either seeing their insurance rates increase, or from having their names collected and entered into some federal gun owner database.

"In the face of all this abuse, Senator Reid was pressured by Gun Owners of America and his constituents into making a face-saving move," the lobbying group Gun Owners of America wrote on its blog. "He wanted to silence the pro-gun community’s objections, so he took steps to strip the bill of any gun rights concerns."

More on a gun registry

The health care law cannot be used to collect gun data, and it cannot be used to raise the insurance premiums of gun owners. But we wanted to step back and ask an even more basic question. Does the federal government keep a database of gun owners as Brodeur is asserting?

"There is no national firearms registry," said Jim Wright, a gun policy expert who teaches at the University of Central Florida.

William J. Vizzard, a criminal justice professor at California State University Sacramento who spent 27 years working for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, agreed. The government does track some high-powered weapons like machine guns, grenades and short-barreled shotguns but not common firearms like handguns and rifles. There is no searchable database, and records are kept with gun dealers, Vizzard said.

Some states do register firearms, said Daniel Vice, a senior attorney at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. But not Florida.

"To say this is a response to Obamacare would be less accurate than to say this is in response to a more general problem going on long before Obamacare," added David Kopel, research director of the conservative-leaning Independence Institute and an adjunct professor of law at the University of Denver.

Kopel said he believes the real issue is with the proliferation of electronic medical records, which means that if a doctor asks a patient about guns, a permanent electronic record will be created and maintained. And though that record cannot be expressly used by insurance companies or the government, the record exists.

His point might be worth discussing. But in this case, it's not what we're checking.

Our ruling

We left a message with Brodeur's legislative office, but did not hear back.

Brodeur told the News-Press that his bill -- which would prevent doctors from asking patients if they own a gun -- was crafted to combat privacy concerns resulting from the passage of the federal health care law.

It turns out Brodeur's trying to right a "wrong" that isn't wrong.

The health care law included specific protections for gun owners -- so they wouldn't see insurance premium increases and their information wouldn't be included in a gun owner database or registry. We find this claim False.
http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2011/feb/01/jason-brodeur/florida-lawmaker-suggests-doctors-can-use-gun-info/

February 5, 2011

A Struggle to Disarm People Without Gun Rights

By ED CONNOLLY and MICHAEL LUO

By law, Roy Perez should not have had a gun three years ago when he shot his mother 16 times in their home in Baldwin Park, Calif., killing her, and then went next door and killed a woman and her 4-year-old daughter.

Mr. Perez, who pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and was sentenced last year to life in prison, had a history of mental health issues. As a result, even though in 2004 he legally bought the 9-millimeter Glock 26 handgun he used, at the time of the shootings his name was in a statewide law enforcement database as someone whose gun should be taken away, according to the authorities.

The case highlights a serious vulnerability when it comes to keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally unstable and others, not just in California but across the country.
In the wake of the Tucson shootings, much attention has been paid to various categories of people who are legally barred from buying handguns — those who have been “adjudicated as a mental defective,” have felony convictions, have committed domestic violence misdemeanors and so on. The focus has almost entirely been on gaps in the federal background check system that is supposed to deny guns to these prohibited buyers.

There is, however, another major blind spot in the system.

Tens of thousands of gun owners, like Mr. Perez, bought their weapons legally but under the law should no longer have them because of subsequent mental health or criminal issues. In Mr. Perez’s case, he had been held involuntarily by the authorities several times for psychiatric evaluation, which in California bars a person from possessing a gun for five years.

Policing these prohibitions is difficult, however, in most states. The authorities usually have to stumble upon the weapon in, say, a traffic stop or some other encounter, and run the person’s name through various record checks.

California is unique in the country, gun control advocates say, because of its computerized database, the Armed Prohibited Persons System. It was created, in part, to enable law enforcement officials to handle the issue pre-emptively, actively identifying people who legally bought handguns, or registered assault weapons, but are now prohibited from having them.

The list had 18,374 names on it as of the beginning of this month — 15 to 20 are added a day — swamping law enforcement’s ability to keep up. Some police departments admitted that they had not even tried.

The people currently in the database are believed to be in possession of 34,101 handguns and 1,590 assault weapons, said Steven Lindley, acting chief of the firearms bureau in the state’s Department of Justice. He estimated that 30 percent to 35 percent of the people on the list were there for mental health reasons.

Despite the enforcement challenges, the state’s database offers a window into how extensive the problem is likely to be across the country. Concrete figures on the scope of the issue are difficult to come by because no other state matches gun purchase records after the fact with criminal and mental health files as California does.

“There are 18,000 people on California’s list,” said Dr. Garen J. Wintemute, director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis, who helped law enforcement officials set up the system and is working on a proposal to evaluate its effectiveness. “So we can roughly extrapolate there are 180,000 such people across the country, just based on differences across populations.”

By way of context, Dr. Wintemute said that in 2009 only about 150,000 people were prevented from buying a gun because they failed background checks, out of about 10.8 million who applied.

Only a handful of states, however, even have the ability to keep track of handgun purchases the way California does, by either requiring a license or permit to own one or simply keeping records of such purchases. Even fewer require a license or permit for other types of firearms.

California’s system came about through a 2002 law that was even supported by the National Rifle Association, in part because it was billed as a way to protect members of law enforcement. It finally got under way in earnest in 2007. But though gun control advocates consider it a model, it still has serious gaps.

The system relies on records kept by the state on handgun purchases, but the state does not retain records of most rifle and shotgun purchases. There were 255,504 long guns sold in California in 2009 alone, compared with 228,368 handguns, according to state figures.

Perhaps most important, the burden for confiscating weapons falls largely on local jurisdictions, most of which are too short on resources to do much. Some may also have been only dimly aware of how the list works.

Police departments and sheriff’s offices that request access to the list of barred owners can log in to a secure account on the state Justice Department’s Web site and get monthly updates of who is on the list in their jurisdictions, with newly added names flagged. The Justice Department also trained more than 1,300 law enforcement officers around the state on the system in 2007 and plans another round this year.

It appears, however, that in the case of Mr. Perez, the Baldwin Park police were not checking the list at all in 2008, when the shootings occurred, in part because of confusion over how to access the database.

“Nobody knew where the e-mail was or where it was going,” said Lt. Joseph Cowan, head of detectives for the Baldwin Park Police Department.

Even today, Lieutenant Cowan acknowledged, his department rarely looks at the list, and he initially said he had no idea how many people in the city were on it. (He later checked and discovered there were about 35 people in his 6.6-square-mile district.)
“We try to get on,” he said. “But with staffing levels what they are, it’s difficult.”

A total of 37 police departments and three county sheriff’s offices in the state have not even signed up to get access to the database, despite receiving yearly notices, said Mr. Lindley, of the firearms bureau.

After being contacted by a reporter, two police departments — in East Palo Alto and Redwood City — said they had not subscribed to the database but would now do so, professing some confusion about the way the system functioned.

Capt. Chris Cesena of the Redwood City Police Department said he had been under the impression that state officials would call if anyone in Redwood City showed up on the list. Only after the department signed up recently did it discover there were 29 people in the city on the list, including seven for mental health reasons.

Detective Vic Brown, a supervisor in the Los Angeles Police Department gun unit, coordinates operations to disarm the roughly 2,700 city residents on the list.

“We just don’t have enough manpower to pursue every one of these cases,” he said. “These cases go on there quicker than we can get to them.”

It is no small task to conduct the necessary background work and knock on someone’s door, Detective Brown said. A case that seems relatively low-risk will usually involve four officers. If it is considered more dangerous, it might take eight. The priority, he said, is on people newly added to the system, because they are more likely to be at the address listed.

The state Justice Department’s firearms bureau does have a small unit, with 20 agents, that tracks down people on the list. Last year, it investigated 1,717 people and seized 1,224 firearms.

The list is growing far faster, however, than names are being removed. “We’re just not a very big bureau,” Mr. Lindley said. “We do the best we can with the personnel that we have.”

The bureau is planning a sweep this spring focused on people on the list for mental health reasons. Last summer, a man from the Fresno area who had recently been released from a mental health facility was found to possess 73 guns, including 17 unregistered assault rifles.

In the case of Mr. Perez, Lieutenant Cowan, of Baldwin Park, said he learned that state agents had been scheduled to visit Mr. Perez to confiscate his weapon — two weeks after the rampage took place.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/us/06guns.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print