http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2010/nov/30/ed-hinkle30-ar-683380/

Published: November 30, 2010

Hinkle: Gun-Control Logic Is Plumb Loko

By A. BARTON HINKLE/Richmond Times Dispatch

Whenever there is a shooting spree," said William S. Burroughs, "they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it."

He got that right. Take a look at the so-called gun-show loophole. Federal law requires all licensed gun dealers to conduct background checks. The "loophole" refers to the fact that some people who attend gun shows bring personal firearms to sell. This, say gun-control advocates, provides criminals with a major source of illicit weapons, so it's important to close the gun-show loophole.

There are four problems. First, the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Institute for Justice have found that only 1 or 2 percent of offenders obtained their weapons from gun shows. Second, the activity at issue -- private, person-to-person firearms sales -- is not limited to gun shows, so calling it a "gun-show" loophole is disingenous.

Third, at least one proposed remedy would put all gun shows out of business. It would define as a vendor any attendee who brought a firearm to a gun show with the intent to sell it. It then would require gun-show promoters to provide to authorities the names of all "vendors" 30 days in advance of the show. That's like asking a seafood restaurant to provide in advance the name of every diner who orders crab cakes. It can't be done.

Finally, about 5,000 gun shows take place every year. Between 2,500 and 15,000 people attend each of them. The legislation aimed at the supposed loophole, therefore, would incommode millions of law-abiding people in the faint hope of producing a reduction in crime marginal at best.

Alas, that approach is not unique to gun control. It is becoming pervasive.

Witness the current approach to airport security. Instead of using behavioral profiling to finger likely terrorists, the TSA subjects everyone to invasive and degrading scanning and pat-downs. As if a 3-year-old boy with a can of Play-Doh presented the same potential menace as a perspiring young man with a glassy stare wearing a bulky coat and chanting under his breath.

Witness also the recent paroxysm of panic surrounding caffeinated alcohol drinks. After a handful of highly publicized hospitalizations in which beverages such as Four Loko were involved, several states banned them. The FDA quickly followed suit.

In a statement that ranks right up there with "the check's in the mail" for truthiness, an FDA spokesman said "we're taking a careful and thorough look at the science and the safety of these products." In fact, the FDA decision rests on only a few marginally relevant studies, including -- kid you not -- an Internet survey of college students, and another that focused exclusively not on pre-mixed beverages sold in convenience stores, but rather on cocktails made of vodka and Red Bull.

Don't imagine for a second this will reduce college students' desire or ability to mix booze and caffeine. Already, a YouTube video has surfaced showing how to make homemade Four Loko with malt liquor, caffeine tablets, energy drinks, and Jolly Roger candies. Nor does it affect other booze/caffeine concoctions, such as rum and Coke, "Jaeger bombs," or 60-proof Allen's Coffee Flavored Brandy, the top-selling liquor in Maine.

One thing the ban will do: Make it harder rather than easier for imbibers to know how much alcohol and caffeine they're ingesting. The contents of a can of Four Loko are well known: 12 percent alcohol and about 150 miligrams of caffeine. One 23.5-ounce can equals five beers and a cup of coffee. But the amount of alcohol and caffeine in a mixed drink such as vodka and Red Bull, or rum and Coke, will vary widely depending who's pouring.

As for the countless drinkers who enjoyed Four Loko, Joose, and similar beverages responsibly, too bad. They're out of luck.

Washington soon might be going after your medicine cabinet, too, thanks to the war on meth. Reason magazine's Jacob Sullum recently summarized that war this way: The government first "encouraged pseudoephedrine-based production [of methamphetamine] by banning or restricting other precursors. Appalled by all the scary, toxic, flammable meth labs that subsequently popped up around the country, it restricted access to cold and allergy remedies containing pseudoephedrine, forcing customers to ask pharmacists for them, sign a registry, and abide by quantity limits. Those restrictions, in turn, encouraged a shift to the 'shake and bake' method for producing meth, which is less complicated and does not require as much pseudoephedrine . . . ."

But -- surprise! -- people still manage to get their hands on meth. So now some public officials, including Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, want to prohibit over-the-counter sales of products containing pseudoephedrine altogether. If you wanted to buy some Sudafed 12 Hour or Advil Cold and Sinus, you'd have to get a doctor's prescription.
Roughly 1.4 million Americans used meth last year, and a sizable share of the product comes from huge labs in Mexico. On the other hand, 15 million Americans a year use over-the-counter cold remedies containing pseudoephedrine. Wyden's goal, then, seems to be as follows: Make life even more unpleasant for 15 million cold sufferers a year in order to shift an uncertain but probably small segment of U.S. meth production from a handful of small-time shake-and-bakers to big-time Mexican drug cartels. The effect on crime would be negligible, while the inconvenience to the law-abiding would be considerable.

In other words: Wherever there is meth, Wyden wants to take cold medicine away from the people who didn't make it.

You will not be surprised to learn he also wants to close the gun-show loophole.

If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should findin each man's life sorrow and sufferingenough to disarm all hostility. --Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

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Contact A. Barton Hinkle at (804) 649-6627or bhinkle@timesdispatch.com.

Two 18 year olds challenge gun laws

by Matt Hamilton

AMARILLO, TEXAS -- As it stands right now you must be 21 in order to get a concealed carry hand gun license, but two teenagers in Lubbock want to change that.

They think if you are 18 years old you should have all the same rights as people who are 21. So they took the 32 year old laws to federal court, claiming the current laws are illegally restricting their rights to carry hand guns.


And people we spoke with agree saying if you can serve in the military then you should be able to carry a gun.

"These guys are going to fight for out country that's a lot of responsibility in the in the training in the criteria that's going to have to be established for those guys carrying the fire arm, so you know i'm not against it," said Steve Camarta the Amarillo Gun Club president.

We also spoke to a few people off camera who disagree saying they're actually against people have guns all-together. And that only law enforcement should be allowed to carry weapons.
.
No court hearings have been set yet in the cases.

http://www.connectamarillo.com/news/story_print.aspx?id=547076&type=story

To hunt or not to hunt, that is the deer question

Makayla Silva, Staff Writer

Published: 08:43 p.m., Saturday, November 27, 2010

To hunt or not to hunt, that is the deer question

It is no coincidence the height of the white-tail deer mating season coincides with the start of the firearms hunting season in Connecticut.

Last week, the firearms hunting season opened in Connecticut and will continue through Dec. 9.

With no natural predators, deer have slipped out of their ecological niche and now thrive in Fairfield County suburbia.

In the absence of significant mortality, deer populations can double in size in two years, according to Howard Kilpatrick, a biologist in the Department of Environmental Protection's Wildlife Division.

Though non-lethal methods like fencing and taste-based repellents might prove successful in some yards, Kilpatrick said successful deer management ultimately lies with hunting.

"Birth control is a possible solution for small, isolated, deer populations. It's not an option for deer in Fairfield County," he said. "It has the highest deer population in the state."

And, while deer repellents like Deer Stopper can protect an individual plant from becoming lunch, they will not reduce the deer population, Kilpatrick said.

"As more lands have been opened for hunting, and as we continue to liberalize the hunting season and allow more hunters to harvest more deer, we've started to see a downward trend in deer population," he said.

In Fairfield County, there is no limit on how many deer a hunter can harvest, and hunters are able to use bait to attract deer.

"There are now more deer harvested in Fairfield County than any other deer management zone," Kilpatrick said.

A study released at the beginning of the deer-hunting season by New York Medical College, sponsored by the Fairfield County Municipal Deer Management Alliance, suggested that deer munch away at a year-round salad bar destroying the landscape in the process.

Based on a 2003 deer-damage survey of residential properties in Bernards Township, N.J., the study found the annual projected costs of landscape destruction to reach $13.4 million in Fairfield County last year.

Deer overpopulation was projected to incur as much as $17 million in damages in some towns and up to $1,520 per household last year.

The Fairfield County Municipal Deer Management Alliance, a consortium that tries to raise awareness on the issue of deer overpopulation in Fairfield County, has recommended reducing the number of deer to 10 to 12 deer per square mile to lessen the economic impact on towns. Current estimates place the number of deer per square mile in Fairfield County at 60.

Reaching this target, however, poses the challenge of developing a comprehensive plan to reduce the deer population.

Although fencing and birth control are non-lethal remedies, hunting is considered the most effective means of removal that is both cost-effective and immediate by state agencies.

"I don't know that recreational hunting by itself is enough to reach the goal of 10-12 deer per square mile so that we have highly structural complex forest with a lot of biodiversity," Steve Patton, director of landscape programs at the Connecticut Nature Conservancy, said.

The DEP Wildlife Division recommends the use of regulated and controlled hunts to efficiently reduce and maintain deer populations.

In Weston, the Devil's Den Preserve, owned by the Nature Conservancy, launched its first controlled hunt 10 years ago.

Patton said because there was an overabundance of deer in the preserve, the forest experienced a significant reduction in the amount of regeneration of forest and shrubs.

"We are now, 10 years later, beginning to see some changes in the reduction of deer," Patton said. "It takes twice as long for a hunter to find a deer to kill because there are fewer deer and we are seeing regeneration of herbaceous species in places where they did not occur 10 years ago because of deer over browsing."

Still, Patton suggests implementing further incentives for hunters in southwestern Connecticut.

"Important for consideration is having a commercial market for venison," he said. "During a market season, hunters could sell their venison to a restaurant or a grocery in addition to providing deer to soup kitchens. That way they can enjoy a financial return for their hunting."

Deer hunting-related expenditures contributed significantly to the state's economy last year.

Deer permit sales generated $932,332 in 2008 and $840,606 in 2009 to the Connecticut General Fund, according to the 2009 DEP Connecticut Deer Program Summary.

Even more, Connecticut deer hunters spent an estimated $10 million on deer hunting related-goods and services in 2009.

Yet Priscilla Feral, president of the Darien-based Friends of Animals advocacy group, said hunting is actually losing its appeal in the state, with less than 1 percent of Connecticut residents who are active hunters. "Hunting is on the wane, and that's a triumph," she said. "Young people are opting out of hunting as a recreation, they have other things to do, with iPods and everything."

She said the roughly 30,000 registered hunters backed by the DEP, have a stranglehold on the way the state thinks about hunting.

"It's all a terrible propaganda campaign. They try to create animosity toward white-tailed deer," Feral said.

"I do not think deer need to be called overpopulated. There is an overpopulation of people. You can't continue to carve up their habitat and force them close to homes and then claim there are too many of them. It's outrageous."

Guns-in-bars opponents welcome NRA's wallets

Commentary by Gail Kerr • THE TENNESSEAN • November 28, 2010

Irony, thy name is NRA convention.

 

Two of Nashville's top tourism officials — men who used their powerful voices to fight guns in bars for fear it would damage Music City's image among visitors — are now first in line to welcome a 50,000-member convention of the National Rifle Association.

 

Yes, the NRA is coming in 2015. It will hold its 144th annual convention at the Music City Center, now under construction. The convention will bring Nashville up to $25 million in spending over three days.

And therein lies the interesting rub. Butch Spyridon, president of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau, and restaurateur Randy Rayburn, former chairman of the group that rallied to build the new convention center, are its biggest cheerleaders.

 

Both chuckled at the irony but were quick to say that opposing the expansion of gun rights is not counterintuitive to making deals to get the nation's strongest gun rights supporter to come to town.

"It doesn't change the fact that I think guns and alcohol don't mix," Spyridon said. "Our job is to fill hotel rooms. I'm a decent sales guy. The first time I met the NRA guy, I told him, 'We are the right market for this.' "
Rayburn added: "If I don't get a single diner from the NRA, so what? It will benefit all the rest of Nashville. What raises the tide in the harbor helps all boats."

'The demographics fit'

Rayburn, owner of such Nashville icons as Sunset Grill and Midtown Cafe, filed a lawsuit with nine other people asserting that a new law, sponsored by former state Sen. Doug Jackson, D-Dickson, was unconstitutionally vague.
The law allowed anyone with a legal gun carry permit to bring a gun into restaurants and bars where alcohol is served.
The Nashville and Memphis convention and visitors bureaus opposed the guns-in-bars bill.

"We've had individual visitors canceling their trips," Spyridon said then.
A Davidson County Chancery court ruled the law was indeed unconstitutional because state laws defining bars and restaurants are quite mushy.

"The heart of my worries," Rayburn said at the time, "was we are in the hospitality business."

Jackson came back with a cleaned-up law that passed. Permitted guns are now legal in Tennessee bars. An owner may opt out by posting a sign. Jackson lost his re-election bid, echoing statewide polls that show voters do not want guns in bars.

Has the NRA convention changed Spyridon's and Rayburn's minds? Both men say no. But they welcome NRA wallets.

"The NRA does a lot with country artists," Spyridon said. "The demographics fit."
Rayburn said: "More business for Nashville helps our community grow. It also proves to the bigger groups that our city can handle it."

As for whether they are concerned that NRA members will go honky-tonkin' while packing, Spyridon tossed them a back-handed compliment:
"I think the city will be pretty safe that week," he said.

Gail Kerr's column runs on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Find out more about her and contact her through her reporter page.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20101128/COLUMNIST0101/11280347/1008/OPINION01

Gun-rights advocates already lobbying Texas legislators

Posted Friday, Nov. 26, 2010

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/11/26/2660699/gun-rights-advocates-already-lobbying.html#ixzz16TzvtDcn

By Anna M. Tinsley

atinsley@star-telegram.com

There's a call to arms in Texas.
Or at least a call to let Texans carry their guns -- whether concealed or out in the open -- at colleges and pretty much anywhere else they'd like in this state.
 
Less than two months before the Texas Legislature reconvenes in January, gun advocates are already asking state lawmakers for proposals geared to give gun owners more freedom.
 

"In Texas, there's no viable reason why Texans are denied their rights the way they are," said John Pierce, co-founder and spokesman of opencarry.org, a group championing expanded gun rights nationwide. "We're talking about a tradition and history of rugged individualism that Texas embodies.

 

"For them to be off mainstream America with this, it's a shame."
 
Several gun bills have already been filed, including measures to allow guns at colleges, temporarily exempt guns and ammunition from sales taxes and exempt guns, ammunition and gun parts made in Texas from federal regulation.
 
Pierce said there's no bill filed yet to make Texas an open-carry state, allowing gun owners to freely and openly carry firearms wherever they go. But he and others who could not find lawmakers to file such a measure in 2009 are working to change that.
"I'm very optimistic," Pierce said. "I am optimistic that even if it doesn't happen in 2011, it will happen in 2013 or 2015."
 
Brian Malte said he hopes that Pierce is wrong. He said he and others at the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence say they are keeping an eye on gun-related bills in Texas.
 
"We expected to see a slew of pro-gun bills coming down the pike," said Malte, the group's director of state legislation. "But the bills are a bit extreme. ... We'll do our best to derail all of them."
 
Here's a look at some proposals state lawmakers may consider next year:
 
Open carry
 
Texas is one of seven states -- along with Arkansas, Illinois, Florida, New York, Oklahoma and South Carolina -- where handguns cannot legally be worn in plain view in any form. Texas residents may carry concealed handguns if they have a permit.
Supporters say open carry is needed because under the concealed-carry law, gun owners can get in trouble for displaying their weapon even inadvertently, such as if a jacket blows back enough to show a gun. More than 66,000 people have signed an online petition asking Gov. Rick Perry and the Legislature to make Texas an open-carry state.
 
Pierce said he hopes to have two versions of the bill to give lawmakers a choice. One version would require Texans to have a permit to carry their weapons openly. The other would require Texans to have a permit to carry concealed weapons but would allow open carry without a permit.
 
"The number of states that don't allow any form of open carry are dwindling," Pierce said. "For Texas to be one of the last holdouts on a gun issue, it just seems un-American."
 
Katherine Cesinger, deputy press secretary for Perry, said: "The governor believes that a person ought to be able to carry their weapon with them anywhere in the state if they are licensed and have gone through the proper training. He would be open to looking at any proposals lawmakers bring to the table regarding open carry."
Malte said that proposal wouldn't be best in Texas, which has so many large urban areas.
 
"I think it's kind of a crazy idea for people to be openly carrying on crowded buses or shopping malls," he said. "Perhaps in more rural areas it might not be as extreme. But for law enforcement, this could be a very troubling scenario."
Guns on campus
 
This issue, which failed in 2009, is expected to be reintroduced in the next legislative session.
 
At issue is whether to allow concealed handgun permit holders 21 and older to carry guns into college and university buildings, dormitories and classrooms. The proposal began gaining attention after the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech, which left more than 30 dead.
 
"This is another area of the law where there would be a large public policy benefit to supporting this," Pierce said. "Hopefully this will pass as well. It would be a valuable thing."
 
Utah is the only state to allow students to carry concealed weapons at colleges.
Advocates say such a law would keep students and employees safe in Texas. Opponents say allowing guns on campus could create more danger and even boost suicide rates. Republican state Rep.-elect David Simpson of Longview filed the measure.
 
Malte said he hopes that those who helped kill the bill in 2009 are active again.
 
"The sheer extreme nature of arming college students caught people's attention and took them off guard," he said. "Quite a few folks thought that would pass."
 
Constitutional carry
 
Some gun rights advocates hope that Texas lawmakers next year will follow in the footsteps of Arizona, Alaska and Vermont by making Texas a constitutional carry state, allowing concealed and open carry without permits.
 
Members of the new Lone Star Citizens Defense League are trying to find legislative support for such a proposal.
 
"Constitutional carry will basically enable Texans to carry a firearm for their personal defense without state regulation," said Shane McCrary, 38, of Odessa, who is helping spearhead the effort. "Nothing is really getting done in the state of Texas to enable our rights as honest citizens.
 
"My goal is that the soccer mom who has to go shopping or downtown -- or anywhere she needs to go -- should be able to carry a firearm in her purse so she can defend herself," he said. "We want constitutional rights for firearm ownership. If you haven't committed a crime, any place you want to be, you should have the right to carry your firearm."
 
Opponents say the proposal contradicts the reasoning that was behind concealed-handgun licensing -- which requires background checks, tests and training -- when it passed in 1995.
 
"Now they're saying, 'We're kidding,'" Malte said. "They're saying, 'We don't think anyone needs training or testing or background checks.' It's a recipe for disaster."
 
Other proposals
 
A few other proposals touch on taxes and federal regulation of guns.
 
A bill filed by Rep. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville, would add handguns, rifles, shotguns and ammunition to the list of back-to-school items that can be bought tax-free during the tax-free weekend.
 
Another would exempt guns, ammunition and gun parts that are made, sold and kept in Texas from federal regulation, including gun registration, dealer licensing rules and buyer background checks. State laws would still apply, according to the bill filed by Rep. Jodie Laubenberg, R-Parker.
 
The goal, some lawmakers have said, is to test Texas' sovereignty in relationship to the federal government. And it could lure small-gun manufacturers to Texas to make certain types of ammunition, parts and weapons that would be sold only in Texas.
 
"States don't get to pick and choose which federal laws they do and don't get to enforce," Malte said. "This is just another bill in a litany of bills that cross the logic line for most Americans."
 

Online: To sign or see the petition seeking open carry in Texas, go to www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?texasoc.

For more information about the Lone Star Citizens Defense League, go to lonestarcdl.org.

Anna M. Tinsley, 817-390-7610


Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/11/26/2660699/gun-rights-advocates-already-lobbying.html#ixzz16TzS4vB5

Michigan grandmother bags 5-point buck at age 76
The Associated Press

Friday, November 26, 2010; 5:18 PM
PORT HURON, Mich. -- Bea Leach has no idea why she enjoys deer hunting, but at 76 years old the Macomb County grandmother always is ready for firearms season.

Leach tells the Times Herald in Port Huron that on opening day she took her second deer - a five-point buck.

The Richmond resident said that as a child she watched her father take target practice.
Leach hunts from a shack at the rear of her property about 35 miles northeast of Detroit. She took her deer about 15 minutes after her son shot an eight-point buck on Nov. 15. Her 14-year-old grandson also took a deer this year.

Zachary Leach said it's "cool" that his grandmother hunts because "you don't really hear or see any grandmas that are 76 and still shooting deer."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/26/AR2010112603718_pf.html

How a London photographer’s air pistol came to be used in one of cinema’s most iconic posters

By Nigel Horne

 

LAST UPDATED 10:27 AM, NOVEMBER 26, 2010

 

One of the most famous pistols in movie history - the one held by Sean Connery in the iconic poster for the 1963 Bond film From Russia With Love - was sold at auction in London yesterday, fetching £277,250. It was ten times the estimate Christie's had put on it.

The gun has a fascinating history - not least because it was a total fake.
As every James Bond fan knows, agent 007 carried a Walther PPK. When Bond is first handed the weapon in Dr No, the Secret Service armourer Boothroyd - only later re-christened Q - informs him: "It has a delivery like a brick through a plate glass window."

But when Sean Connery and his handlers from United Artists arrived at the photographer's studio to do the publicity shots, midway through shooting the second film, From Russia With Love, they forget to bring the weapon with them.

Luckily the photographer, David Hurn, who worked for the famous Magnum agency, was a keen target shooter and kept a Walther LP-53 air pistol in his studio.
Hurn told The First Post this morning: "I took the film's publicist, Tom Carlile, to one side and said, 'Don't worry, we can use this. No one will know and they can airbrush the long barrel later'."

Once the photoshoot at Hurn's studio in the shadows of Chelsea football ground was over - it involved five girls as well as Connery - the prints were duly sent off to the designers.

There was only one problem: the message never got through about the airbrushing. Which is why the posters show 007, licensed to kill, holding an air pistol that would never stop a Smersh agent and certainly did not possess "a delivery like a brick through plate glass window".

Hurn told The First Post that he went on using the pistol for target shooting for several years after the session with Connery. He also went on to do more shoots with Tom Carlile, most notably the equally iconic publicity shots of Jane Fonda in Barbarella.
About 10 years ago, Hurn sold the pistol at Sotheby's for £14,000.

When I broke the news to him this morning that it had just fetched £277,250, he was sanguine. "It's not really surprising, I suppose. The image was used for three or four Bond films so the gun is really well known. And anything a little bit kooky like this seems to attain a huge value these days.

"Still, £277,250 would have been handy." 

Read more: http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/72052,people,news,bonds-fake-walther-ppk-fetches-277250-at-auction#ixzz16Of6XKDY