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1. Update from open house at Dulles Safety Center
2. More thoughts on fixing our knife laws
3. Who needs a gun at home?
4. Va. case highlights dangers for jewelry salesmen
5. The Springfield Mall abduction and death of Bobbie Bosworth
6. Roanoke woman invents Apron Gun Holster and a new business
7. Girls, guns, and the problem with DC firearm laws [VIDEO]
8. Fast & Furious amnesia hits Attorney General Eric Holder during House testimony
9. Republicans balking on fast and furious help suppress new information
10. June 2012-Playboy discovers the right to bare arms
11. Public opinion about the National Rifle Association
12. Why indifference to gun violence is a national crime
13. Jesse Jackson: We are going to march on gun shops
14. Mother and son fight off burglars in Maryland
15. Officer shot wife in buttocks showing gun to pals
16. The Australian Gun Registry-fears that NSW is under the gun
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1. Update from open house at Dulles Safety Center
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EM Ed Levine emailed me this:
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Dulles Safety Center had their open house on June 9th!
Lots of non-gun folks asking questions and learning about VCDL! Delegate Ramadan would not even let his picture be taken WITHOUT his Guns Save Lives sticker. No memberships on site this time but many took applications and said they would join via mail or PayPal!
Please recognize the following for standing in the hot sun today:
Jonathan Taylor
Ron Adkins
Ed Levine
Brian Reynolds
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2. More thoughts on fixing our knife laws
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More good arguments for fixing our knife laws.
John Pepper emailed me this:
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Dear Phillip, in any arguments to reform knife laws the following may be of value.
When motoring in a vehicle strapped in a safety belt a good sharp knife is essential if one must cut the safety belt in an emergency to get out of being trapped in the vehicle. Most Police Officers I know carry a sharp knife for this purpose. Some have told it was a lifesaver in instances that they got someone out of a wrecked auto of truck before fire got to the victim. Seconds count in some instances.
A person still awake and able yet restrained in a tangle of the wrecked vehicle that police have not yet arrived could cut themselves and others loose to escape the chance of a gasoline fire often associated with vehicle crashes. Since there is no predicting that after a crash they would be able to reach the seat belt release latch due to nature of the ruined vehicle being crumpled and twisted metal and parts plus their own condition of possible injuries having a sharp knife may be the difference between surviving or perishing.
It seems common sense to have this life saving tool on ones person for just such an occasion. Carried on person one could probably reach a knife whereas if it were just somewhere within vehicle they may not be able too after a crash. Also useful if one is trying to help get someone else out of a crash. Aside from cutting a seat belt possible vehicle wires may be restraining a victim which a sharp knife may cut.
About sixty years ago at an overturned truck crash I saw a man burn to death. The Police Officer trying to get him out of the wreck was not able to because of entanglement in wires. He had nothing to cut the wires soon driven back by the flames. Horror as the trapped man was awake. As flames reached him he screamed for the Officer to shoot him over and over as the fire consumed him. Pleading as the flames reached him. Later when the screaming stopped I saw the officer walk off a ways wiping his eyes to stifle tears. Some other bystanders at the crash site cried as the screams faded into death. As the man screamed the officer fingered his revolver several times evidently wanting to end the mans misery yet just couldn't quite do it.
Vehicle deaths Nationwide are a large number each year. Exceeding many fatal sicknesses.
Other emergency instances can be cited that a knife could mean the difference between life and death.
If presentations are to be made at a legislative committee or session a video could be made showing instances that a knife was used to cut one free of danger.
Boaters need a knife. A necessary tool to possibly cut ropes in an emergency.
The minds eye can certainly bring up many other emergency uses of a knife to show it is a valuable life saving tool not only a weapon.
In Certain trades a knife is essential to get the job done.
Example. Sheet metal duct workers use a "Duct Knife." Wicked looking double edged long bladed knife absolutely needed to accomplish the work. It fits a sheath so not a folder like a pocket knife. In use it would be a hazard if were a folder. Have noted many are marked emblazoned into the grip,"DUCT KNIFE." Suppose this was done to prove it was a tool. Next time you are in a hardware store ask to see a duct knife.
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3. Who needs a gun at home?
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At 1 AM I am not opening the door, ESPECIALLY A REAR DOOR, until I have absolutely determined who is on the other side.
From Williamsburg Yorktown Daily: http://tinyurl.com/7d6g8hb
Dare Man Awakened by Armed Duo
By WYDaily Staff
June 01, 2012
York County investigators are looking into what appears to have been an attempted robbery early Friday morning in the Dare area.
An adult male reported he was sleeping on a downstairs couch at a residence in the 700 block of Dare Road around 1 a.m. when he was awakened by what sounded like someone knocking on a rear door of the residence. When the man opened the door he observed two black males standing on the deck, both wearing hoodies and with scarves covering their faces. At least one of the men was armed with a handgun.
The victim told police he ran upstairs and locked himself in a bedroom with the rest of the family as he called 911.
Sheriff's deputies set up a perimeter, then entered the residence to check for the suspects. Sheriff's spokesman Lt. Dennis Ivey, Jr., said the suspects weren't located, and it hasn't been determined they actually entered the residence.
Although there have been reports of similar attempts in Kiln Creek, Ivey said there have been no similar incidents reported in York County.
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4. Va. case highlights dangers for jewelry salesmen
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If the economy continues to sputter, the dangers faced by those who have valuables, such as jewelry, will only continue to climb.
Bill Hine emailed me this:
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From WTOP: http://tinyurl.com/clsn96b
Va. case highlights dangers for jewelry salesmen
By Eric Tucker
June 3, 2012
WASHINGTON - The morning started like any other for the traveling jewelry salesman as he checked out of a motel in northern Virginia and placed his luggage in the car's trunk. Then a Honda blocked him in and two black-clad men in hoods emerged, smashed his windows with a pistol and robbed him of roughly $350,000 in jewelry.
It was a crime that repeated itself for months as thieves working in concert swiped millions of dollars in merchandise from other salesmen, in bold and sometimes violent heists in locations including a New York City taxicab, outside a Holiday Inn in North Carolina and at Newark Liberty International Airport.
A case in federal court in Virginia underscores the perils faced by traveling jewelry salespeople and the ambitious efforts by law enforcement to catch the thieves. It's not a new threat, but keeping salesmen safe remains a persistent challenge as the criminal gangs have grown more sophisticated and violent.
"In the last decade, there seems to be a trend toward more sophisticated criminal enterprises," said FBI Special Agent Eric Ives, who's in charge of the bureau's major theft program. "It's not a locally based crime problem anymore."
The crimes follow a familiar pattern.
Thieves working together case jewelry stores in search of a salesman _ often a well-dressed man carrying a large case _ and tail him to the next destination, sometimes for hours. They confront the salesman, frequently slashing car tires, punching out windows, grabbing gems and maybe the courier's phone and keys, too.
Authorities say the eight men and women in the Virginia case are part of a so- called South American theft group, a label typically applied to Colombian criminals who menace salesmen. They're accused of at least 15 robberies and two car break-ins totaling about $4.6 million in jewelry, mostly along the East Coast. The majority of robberies occurred as couriers arrived at or departed from hotels.
Seven were charged in March after an extensive Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigation that relied on cell phone and bank records, undercover surveillance, E-Z Pass and GPS travel tracking _ even a decoy salesman sent into stores to gather intelligence. An eighth person has since been indicted. They have pleaded not guilty and face trial in November.
"It was a highly sophisticated ring. It was a tight-knit group. It was a group that did their homework," said Neil MacBride, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, which is prosecuting the case. "They were very patient. They were extremely mobile. They could strike quickly when they had to _ and they were dangerous."
Jewelry salespeople have long made easy targets. Robbing a lone salesman in a parking lot is less risky than holding up a store and stolen jewelry, which can be sold on the black market at marked-up prices, converted into cash or melted down for future use, is difficult to recover. The FBI says only 4.2 percent of jewelry and precious metals stolen in 2010 were recovered, compared to 56.1 percent of stolen vehicles. In the Virginia case, authorities say, the jewelry was fenced in New York through Russian brothers who owned a jewelry business.
Off-premises attacks, primarily against traveling salespeople, dropped from 113 to 78 between 2010 and 2011, partly because of a declining number of salesmen and more aggressive law enforcement, according to the Jewelers' Security Alliance, a trade group. But the crimes have become more violent, escalating from quick bag- snatch thefts to robberies that sometimes end in beatings _ or worse.
One salesman was killed in Huntsville, Texas, last year when thieves trying to escape ran him over with their car. The owner of a Connecticut jewelry manufacturer was killed in December and an associate wounded in what police called a targeted robbery.
"I think that salesmen have become far more aware of the risks and they don't fall for the trickery as easily as they did in past years," JSA president John J. Kennedy said, explaining increased violence. "So if the trickery doesn't work, that's what you do."
Leon Rozio, 68, retired after being robbed of more than $160,000 during a 2008 heist in the parking lot of a Boca Raton, Fla., jewelry store. A group of men approached his car as he waited outside for his partner and busted out the windows. One reached in and grabbed a bag of jewelry. Rozio fired his pistol at their car, which he said tried to run him over. One robber was fatally wounded, but Rozio wasn't charged because the shooting was deemed self-defense. He retired at his family's urging.
"I figured they were right," Rozio said. "These people, they have guns ... killing and all of that stuff. I had to go into retirement."
An 89-page affidavit filed in the Virginia case details a cat-and-mouse game in which the suspects are alleged to have played different roles, from coordinating with fences to surveillance to doing the robberies. The investigation revealed a level of criminal street smarts and sophistication, authorities say, as the suspects regularly switched cars and license plates and made structured cash deposits in various bank accounts. When they became suspicious they were being followed, they began communicating with a new batch of cell phones.
Some salesmen were apparently caught by surprise even though they were tracked for miles and across states. One salesman robbed in November 2010 outside his Rutherford, N.J., home had been followed since leaving Philadelphia earlier in the day, with cell phone and E-Z Pass records showing the victim and suspects traveling the New Jersey Turnpike and crossing the George Washington Bridge at nearly identical times.
Investigators countered with their own techniques.
Besides surveillance, agents also used phone and travel records to track the suspects to precise locations. Last fall, the ATF also sent a decoy salesman into a Virginia Beach jewelry store and waited for the undercover agent to be followed, deploying a SWAT team to a nearby hotel in case the suspects tried to rob him.
Though the investigation was successful, Kennedy said it illustrated that the industry remains dangerous.
"The risk is tremendous, and you have to be alert and security-minded 24- 7," Kennedy said. "You are not just a risk in downtown L.A. or leaving New York. You're at risk anywhere."
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5. The Springfield Mall abduction and death of Bobbie Bosworth
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Should malls ban guns, leaving their patrons helpless? The Springfield Mall admits that their security guards are under no obligation to protect any one.
Reminds me of the James Bond Goldfinger movie as Bond was tied up and about to have a laser cut him in half: "What do you expect me to do Goldfinger, talk?" "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die."
VA-Alert reader Paul M. emailed me this:
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The Springfield Mall abduction and death of Bobbie Bosworth: The rest of the story
By Tom Jackman
June 7, 2012
Part 1
The kidnapping and death of Barbara J. Bobbie Bosworth from the Springfield Mall in 2008 was one of the most horrific crimes in this region in recent memory. An innocent woman walking to her car on a Saturday afternoon was abducted at gunpoint, driven to Prince William County, forced into a convenience store to buy beer for her teenage attackers, and then killed when they crashed her car into a tree.
Bosworth's husband, Tom Bosworth, filed a civil suit in 2010 against the owners of Springfield Mall (Vornado Realty Trust), the security company guarding the mall (Securitas Corp.) and the owners of the convenience store (PDQ Mart in Woodbridge), who did nothing to help Bobbie Bosworth while she was in obvious distress. The case presented a number of interesting angles on the issue of whether these businesses truly bore some responsibility for Bobbie's death, as opposed to the actual kidnappers, 19-year-olds Lutchman Chandler (who also was killed in the crash) and Keith Baskerville, who was already severely mentally ill and is now in a state mental hospital.
The case was set for trial on Monday, but settled out of court late Wednesday.
Before it settled, though, a number of jaw-dropping revelations emerged in the two years of pretrial maneuvering:
-The fake gun used in the case was stolen from The Sports Authority at the mall minutes earlier, and the mall claimed it was done with the help of an employee who provided a device to remove the gun from its packaging, then high-fived Chandler and Baskerville before they left the store. The lawyer for The Sports Authority declined to comment.
-Customers in the PDQ Mart in Woodbridge said they pleaded with the store manager to call 911, or let them use his phone to call 911, because Bosworth was clearly in trouble. But during the 14 minutes Bosworth and the two teens were there, the store manager refused. The lawyer for the PDQ Mart did not return a call seeking comment.
-Securitas argued that simply because they were the security guards for the mall they had no duty to protect Bosworth. And under Virginia law, they were right. They were dismissed as defendants. Twice. The Securitas lawyer declined to comment.
-The mall's general manager repeatedly told his superiors of the problems with gang violence there (Chandler and Baskerville were Bloods wannabes). In 2007, the manager wrote, We have the beginnings of a gang war here in Springfield. The mall may easily become the chosen battlefield. The lawyer for Vornado said he had no comment.
This would've been some trial, and forced a Fairfax County jury to balance a lot of outrageous facts with a lot of Virginia law, which says property owners are not responsible for the criminal acts of a third party. The dollar amount of the settlement is not yet public, pending a final filing.
Bobbie Bosworth was 60, a native Northern Virginian who grew up in Arlington and had been married for 24 years to the love of her life. She and Tom Bosworth lived in a carefully decorated townhouse in the Cameron Run area of Alexandria, which is where I met Tom Bosworth two days after his wife was killed. I wrote a story about their lives and their last conversation: Her phone call from the PDQ Mart on Cardinal Drive, calling him Edward, alerting him that something was wrong. He figured it out and called police, something the PDQ Mart manager standing in front of Bobbie Bosworth wouldn't do.
Bobbie Bosworth was at the Springfield Mall on Sept. 13, 2008, a Saturday afternoon, because she and her husband had both lost 25 pounds on a fitness kick, and her jeans no longer fit.
Meanwhile, according to a cross-suit that Vornado filed against The Sports Authority, Chandler and Baskerville entered the mall at 12:50 p.m., walked into The Sports Authority and grabbed a replica BB gun from a front display. Vornado alleged that Fairfax County police earlier had asked the store to move the guns away from the front, but the store declined.
The two teens took the gun to the back of the store, where a video apparently showed a Sports Authority employee who directed them to a tool or instrument he left on the shelf to open the packaging for the gun, Vornado's pleadings claim. The employee then gave one of the teens a high-five and walked away, Vornado alleged, adding that the gun was removed from the packaging in 12 seconds, and the teens left the store at 12:59 p.m.
Surveillance video in the Springfield Mall garage showed the teens entering the covered parking lot at 1:05 p.m., Vornado claimed in a separate action against Securitas. The video, including a couple of brief glimpses of the gun but no sign of any security officers shows them loitering about until 1:22 p.m., when they see Bosworth and force her into her burgundy Saturn sedan. The exact moment of the abduction was not caught on tape.
By September 2008, Springfield Mall was awash in crime. Its own Web site advised customers to use caution when using ATM machines...There is safety in numbers...Lock your doors and windows when you get in and keep them locked. Bosworth's lawsuit lists page after page of felony assaults in the years prior to Bobbie's abduction, and there was a gang-related homicide outside the Cerro Grande restaurant in December 2007.
Court records show that Springfield Mall general manager Michael Lowe warned Vornado that a gang war was brewing in Springfield and the Mall may easily become the chosen battlefield. He wrote an e-mail to Vornado telling them that the Cerro Grande homicide was directly linked to Cerro Grande's operation as a nightclub catering to gang members, mostly SSL [South Side Locos] and MS 13 [Mara Salvatrucha]. Lowe said the restaurant's own security guards wore masks to hide their identify from their own patrons.
In July 2008, Lowe wrote a memo criticizing Securitas for their poor staffing of the mall, and said they'd been told in November 2007 that their main problems were in the parking lots. In August 2008, a woman was assaulted and robbed in the parking lot outside Macy's, where Bobbie Bosworth was taken a month later.
Even a week after Bosworth's death, Lowe was outraged to find that Securitas only had one guard patrolling the exterior of the vast mall, when they were supposed to have four, court filings show.
After Chandler and Baskerville forced Bosworth back into her car and drove away, no one knows what happened in the 90 minutes before they appeared at the PDQ Mart, which is not that far down I-95 from Springfield Mall. But a surveillance video shows that Chandler walked Bosworth into the store at 2:49 p.m., they bought two six-packs of beer, and went back to the car at 2:52 p.m. That three minutes of the well-dressed woman and the shaggy teen buying beer was enough to raise suspicions in the store.
A witness testified in a deposition that she asked the store manager to call 911, but he refused. Bosworth and the teens sat in the car for seven minutes. The witness said she asked to use the manager's phone to make the call herself. She said the manager again refused.
At 2:59 p.m., Bosworth and Chandler came back into the store to use the ATM. Bosworth called her husband twice, since she didn't know the PIN, and called him Edward. The woman witness A male customer said he went over and hugged Bosworth as if she were an old friend and quietly asked her if anything was wrong.
Get the tag number, Bosworth whispered back.
At 3:01 p.m., Bosworth and Chandler went back to the car. At 3:02 p.m., they drove away. The male customer decided to follow and call 911. The manager finally gave his phone to the woman witness. The male customer called 911 while following the Saturn, but the car sped away, and soon crashed into a grove of trees.
A simple call to 911, Bosworth's lawyers, Peter Everett and Rob Stoney, wrote, when Chandler first left [the store] would likely have provided sufficient time for police intervention.
Bosworth died that day. Chandler died two days later. Baskerville survived, severely injured and previously diagnosed with mental illness. Now the courts took over.
Part 2 -
As police dug into the case, it was decided that Prince William County would lead the investigation and handle the prosecution since Bosworth died there. Keith Baskerville, 19, was indicted for felony murder. But he had suffered a severe head injury, couldn't speak for a time after the crash, and already had a history of schizophrenia.
After psychologists examined Baskerville, he was found incompetent to stand trial. When he couldn't be restored to competency, prosecutors agreed to a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity in April 2010, and he now resides in a state mental hospital.
A few months after that, in August 2010, Thomas Bosworth filed his lawsuit in Fairfax County Circuit Court against the owners of Springfield Mall (Vornado Realty Trust), the security company hired to guard the mall (Securitas Corp.) and the Woodbridge convenience store (PDQ Mart) where the kidnappers, Baskerville and Lutchman Chandler, spent nearly 15 minutes with Bosworth before speeding away and crashing.
The lawsuit, filed by Fairfax attorney Peter Everett, pointed out many of the most sensational aspects that had been uncovered since the incident: That the two suspects could be seen clearly on surveillance cameras for 17 minutes in the Springfield Mall covered parking garage, apparently waiting for a victim; that the mall had been plagued by violent crime in the years before Bosworth's abduction, even advising its customers to be careful there; and that nobody at the PDQ Mart on Cardinal Drive tried to help Bosworth, who was clearly in distress.
The lawsuit alleged that Bobbie Bosworth didn't have to die. But for the dereliction of the [PDQ Mart] employees, [Chandler and Baskerville] would not have gotten away from the premises, the suit alleged.
Securitas, which calls itself the largest security firm in the world, responded with this argument: Securitas did not owe Mrs. Bosworth a duty of care to protect her from the criminal acts of a third party.
It begs the question, What does a mall security force owe a customer? Under Virginia law, the answer apparently is Nothing. Securitas lawyer James Walker, citing state law, wrote that Generally, a person has no duty to control the conduct of a third person in order to prevent physical harm to another.
A person or business can be held liable in Virginia for a third party's acts if it has a special relationship with the plaintiff or third party, such as a store inviting customers to shop there, or having knowledge of a third party's violent past.
But the plaintiff also must show there is a bad business method either a climate of assaultive criminal activity or crime that is foreseeable and poses an imminent probability of harm, creating a duty of care for the defendant.
In December 2010, Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Charles Maxfield agreed with Securitas.
He found no special relationship between the security company and Bobbie Bosworth that Securitas had any interaction with her or the kidnappers, knew anything about the kidnappers or or witnessed any events before or after the abduction.
Indeed, in its first response to the suit, Securitas wrote that it does not know what the security cameras did or did not record or what action was taken by the police or security personnel on site. That's quality security work.
Securitas's contract was with the mall owner, Vornado, not the customer, the judge noted.
Never has the Virginia Supreme Court required the duty of protection to be a guarantee of security, Maxfield wrote. Arguably, this is in recognition of the harsh reality that crime can and does occur despite our best efforts to prevent it.
Maxfield allowed Bosworth's attorneys to amend and refile their suit. They pointed out that Securitas's contract with Vornado stated that Security guards shall have the function and duty of safeguarding the patrons of the owner's shopping center...physical protection of patrons...prevention of assaults and robbery. But Securitas raised the same legal arguments, and they were dismissed from the case again.
Vornado and PDQ took their best shots to win dismissals too, though their situations were different from Securitas: They had to acknowledge they had a special relationship with customers, by inviting them to shop on their property. But did they have such a crime problem that they had a "duty of care to Bobbie Bosworth?
Vornado argued that it did not have or want an assaultive climate. The mall does not derive any benefits from having crime on its premises and certainly does not encourage such conduct, attorney Walter Williams wrote. Put another way, the mall did not kill Mrs. Bosworth; the assailants did. Chandler and Baskerville weren't known to the mall, so their actions weren't reasonably foreseeable.
PDQ argued that there was no legal remedy for failure to act. Customers reported that they had asked the store's manager to call 911 while Bosworth was being held outside by the abductors, and the manager refused. PDQ's filings do not deny that.
There is no duty requiring a business owner or operator to take positive action to protect a business invitee from assault by third parties while the invitee is on the business premises and the assault is already in progress, lawyer Daniel Robey wrote.
But Maxfield did not release Vornado or PDQ from the case. This led Vornado to turn around and sue Securitas, saying the security company's contract would indemnify Vornado in the event of a lawsuit. Vornado later dropped the case, but can revive it now that there has been a settlement that will require Vornado to pay Thomas Bosworth.
Also in January of this year, Vornado sued The Sports Authority, and revealed that there was surveillance video showing Chandler and Baskerville stealing the replica BB gun they used on Bobbie Bosworth.
That suit made the claim that the video showed a store employee providing a tool which enabled the teens to pry the gun out of its plastic packaging, and that the employee high-fived one of the teens before walking away from them.
Through its employee, Vornado's suit alleged, The Sports Authority assisted, aided, abetted and otherwise was an active participant in Ms. Bosworth's abduction.
The Sports Authority's lawyer said the video did not show that, and even if it did, the theft of the gun was a non-violent crime and not foreseeably linked to the subsequent crime. The Sports Authority was dismissed from the case, but the video could have made a dramatic appearance at trial, along with the surveillance video from the PDQ Mart.
The trial was set for Monday. Both sides had experts lined up. Bosworth's lawyers, led by Everett and Rob Stoney, would have the frightening facts on their side, but would have to overcome:
-the legal arguments about duty of care, assaultive crime, third parties and all the criteria required in Virginia law for a plaintiff;
-the question of whether the businesses were responsible for the ultimately lethal actions of two malicious teenagers, and
-whether Bobbie Bosworth's death could have been prevented by the mall or the convenience store.
On Wednesday, Vornado and PDQ agreed to settle, Everett said. He declined to discuss the case further, as did all of the defense lawyers. When the settlement is finalized and presented to Maxfield, the dollar amount will become public record.
Springfield Mall, meanwhile, is being gutted and made over. In March, all the tenants were given 120 days to clear out, except for Macy's, Target and J.C. Penney, and a plan to create a town center-like complex is underway.
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6. Roanoke woman invents Apron Gun Holster and a new business
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EM Pat Webb emailed me this:
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From WDBJ7: http://tinyurl.com/bomkja4
Roanoke woman invents Apron Gun Holster and a new business
By Holly Pietrzak
June 8, 2012
ROANOKE, Va.
A Roanoke business woman's gun and where she keeps it has helped her launch another, new business.
Eliane Coleman Niemann has owned The Health Shelf, a full service herbal wellness center, for 18 years. She got quite a scare one day in 2009 and thought she was going to be robbed. Nothing happened, but an idea was born. It's called the Apron Gun Holster.
"I didn't want my customers to come into a health store and be talking to me about their health, and I'm doing reflexology on their feet and then seeing a pistol on my side," said Niemann.
After no luck searching for something suitable, Niemann bought material and had this apron made. She has her concealed carry permit and keeps a gun on her for protection. She encourages other small business owners and workers to do the same.
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7. Girls, guns, and the problem with DC firearm laws [VIDEO]
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Washington Times award-winning reporter Emily Miller has exploded into gun rights and continues doing battle over DC's anti-gun administration. And she's not backing down or blinking, either.
"Gun ownership goes up, crime goes down...that's how it works," explains Washington Times senior editor and recent gun owner Emily Miller.
After being the victim of a home invasion, Miller was determined to take advantage of the 2008 Supreme Court ruling striking down Washington, D.C.'s handgun ban. Miller initially thought the process of purchasing a firearm "would just be a hassle for a couple of weeks," and decided to blog her experiences at washingtontimes.com. After four months, countless headaches, and hundreds of dollars in fees, Miller is now legally able to own her Sig Sauer P229 9mm, so long as she keeps it in her home.
Miller joined Kennedy at Sharp Shooters in Lorton, VA to discuss DC's Byzantine gun laws, the surge in female gun ownership, and how she choose her firearm.
About 3 minutes.
From YouTube: http://tinyurl.com/75kd3uw
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8. Fast & Furious amnesia hits Attorney General Eric Holder during House testimony
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The Obama Administration keeps trying to bury the Fast & Furious scandal, but like a zombie, it keeps coming popping up again. Hats off to those few, like Representative Issa, who are trying to get answers and won't let go.
The Republican (see next item) and Democratic parties as a whole are both standing around with their thumb in their ear. Not very impressive.
Member Bill Hine emailed me this:
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From Fox News: http://tinyurl.com/7akbly8
Fast & Furious amnesia hits Attorney General Eric Holder during House testimony
June 7, 2012
Attorney General Eric Holder frustrated his most fierce Capitol Hill accuser and other GOP lawmakers Thursday when asked about the Justice Department's Fast and Furious weapons sting and which high-ranking Obama administration officials knew about the botched operation.
Holder sidestepped questions by GOP Rep. Darrell Issa about whether he or other Justice Department officials had even started to pull together Fast and Furious documents requested in an October 2011 subpoena Issa sent the agency.
Nothing has come from your department, not a shred of paper, Issa said tersely during a House Judiciary Committee meeting.
Issa, R-Calif., is a member of the committee. He also is the chairman of the chamber's Committee on Oversight and Government Affairs, from which he issued the subpoena. The requests were largely related to an ill-conceived and executed Fast and Furious tactic known as gunwalking, which has been linked to the 2010 death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
You are not a good witness, Issa said in frustration, after Holder essentially repeated his questions.
When admonished for not letting Holder answer questions and taking a sharp tone, Issa replied, I applaud there was hostility, frustrated he had only five minutes to ask questions.
Issa has vowed to hold Holder in contempt of Congress for failing to respond to the subpoena. Holder has testified he has given congressional investigators the requisite information.
On Monday, Issa released information about six wiretap applications that he says prove high-ranking Justice Department officials knew about the gunwalking tactic.
Issa says the applications were signed by Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, Holder's second in command.
The Obama administration has repeatedly said high-level Justice Department officials had no specific knowledge of the gunwalking tactic.
Holder has testified at least seven times before Congress on Fast and Furious and has acknowledged the program's failures.
We now know inappropriate tactics were used in an attempt to stem the flow of illegal guns across the Southwest border, he said Thursday in opening remarks. Although these law enforcement operations were focused on the laudable goal of dismantling illegal gun trafficking networks, they were flawed in both concept and execution.
The Justice Department responded to Issa's interpretation of the wiretap applications in a letter saying the agency disagrees with his assertion but is legally prohibited from commenting on the content of sealed court documents."
The gunwalking tactic had the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Arizona stage gun sales across the Mexico border with alleged arms dealers, with the hope that the thousands of weapons would lead to organizers of drug cartels. However, the guns purportedly were used in street crimes, and one was allegedly found after a shootout in which U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed.
In another tense exchange Thursday, GOP Rep. Lamar Smith asked Holder whether he or anybody else told the White House about so-called gunwalking tactic after it appeared to contribute to the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, Holder replied I don't know.
The exchange occurred during a hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee, on which Smith is the chairman.
When was anyone in the White House informed of the tactics used under Operation Fast and Furious? asked Smith, R-Texas.
Holder replied: I don't know.
When Smith asked Holder if he personally told the White House, Holder replied: There was contact between staff...I don't myself remember any direct contact.
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9. Republicans balking on fast and furious help suppress new information
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From Examiner.com: http://tinyurl.com/7jand9t
Republicans balking on Fast and Furious help suppress new information
By David Codrea
June 4, 2012
[SNIP]
Two significant insider accounts that would expand public knowledge about the government's role in the Fast and Furious gunwalking criminal enterprise are being withheld from public dissemination because the sources fear reprisals, an Armed American Radio panel discussed on last night's nationally syndicated program. This correspondent joined host Mark Walters, Producer Sean Young, guests Joe Weaver of WGUL 860 AM and blogger George Mad Ogre Hill, to examine the effects the slow pace of the investigation and a perceived lack of will to pursue serious legal consequences by the GOP leadership have had on discouraging a whistleblower and an industry source from allowing their stories to be made public.
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10. June 2012-Playboy discovers the right to bare arms
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In this humorous column VCDL EM Mike Stollenwerk makes tongue-in-cheek jabs at EM John Pierce over being quoted in a Playboy magazine article on guns.
From examiner: http://tinyurl.com/6szsnof
June 2012 - Playboy discovers the right to bare arms
By Mike Stollenwerk
May 26, 2012
[SNIP]
The open carry of properly holstered handguns, an old American tradition, is on the rise in many states. And now comes the June 2012 edition of Playboy featuring on page 60, sandwiched between Tom Cruise's interview and Danish model Stephanie Corneliussen's Mojave Desert pictorial, a centerfold-like cartoon of a man in an aloha shirt open carrying a holstered handgun on his right hip while carrying a Starbucks cup in his left hand and ominously staring down an empty parking lot. [PVC: You'd have to know John Pierce personally to really get the magnitude of that line. John is one of the most easy going people I have ever met. ;-) ]
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11. Public opinion about the National Rifle Association
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EM Dave Hicks emailed me this:
--
From The Volokh Conspiracy: http://tinyurl.com/7zwkpeq
Public opinion about the National Rifle Association
By David Kopel
June 2, 2012
In April, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found that the National Rifle Association was viewed favorably by 68% of Americans, and unfavorably by 32%. Unlike most polls, the Reuters poll apparently did not allow unsure or undecided as a choice. In each of the demographics which the poll provided Republicans, Democrats, independents, whites, and blacks the NRA was viewed favorably by at least 55%.
A 2005 Gallup Poll had found a 60/34 favorable/unfavorable view of the NRA. Previous Gallup results were 52/39 (May 2000), 51/39 (April 2000), 51/40 (April 1999, right after the Columbine High School murders), 42/51 (June 1995), and 55/32 (March 1993).
It is interesting to compare the NRA's ratings with support for handgun control. Since 1959, Gallup has been asking Do you think there should or should not be a law that would ban the possession of handguns, except by the police and other authorized persons? There have been some small changes in wording over the years, and the question is not a perfect test of support for handgun prohibition; some respondents might interpret other authorized persons simply as support for the licensing for handgun owners. However, the Gallup question is the closest thing there is to a 50-year gauge for sentiment for banning handguns.
In October 2011, Gallup found that 26% of Americans (a record low) thought that there should be such a law, and 73% did not. The 26/73 anti-/pro-handgun split is fairly close to the 32/68% anti-/pro-NRA split. After Columbine, 38% wanted the anti-handgun law, and 40% disapproved of NRA.
Likewise, Gallup in May 1993 found 54% in against the proposed law, and 55% approval for NRA.
Thus, generally speaking, over the last two decades, Americans who favor handgun prohibition appear to have accurately identified the NRA as a major obstacle to their wishes, and have viewed the NRA unfavorably. Americans who oppose handgun prohibition have viewed the NRA favorably for the same reason.
As American public opinion has evolved from a majority to a super-majority which supports the right to own a handgun, public opinion has likewise moved towards a super-majority with a favorable view of the NRA.
There are many causes for the evolution, but it seems plausible that at least part of the cause has been the increasing effectiveness of the NRA itself. To the extent that the NRA has convinced some Americans that handguns in the right hands are beneficial, then those Americans may have become more likely to view the NRA favorably. To the extent that popular NRA spokesmen (such as three-term NRA President Charlton Heston) or popular NRA programs (such as Eddie Eagle Gun Safety) have made some Americans view the NRA favorably, some of those Americans may have become less inclined to support handgun prohibition.
Because the NRA has (despite some fierce criticisms by Republicans, including in 2010) continued to support Democrats with good records on the Second Amendment, and to oppose Republicans with bad records, the NRA has avoided the problem of being identified with only a single political party. When an interest group supports only one party, that group will inevitably be viewed unfavorably by most members of the other political party.
And now that even long-time anti-gun advocates such as Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer have been affirming their support for the Second Amendment individual right, the basic premise with which the NRA is identified has become so widely supported that only politicians in very safe districts dare to dispute it publicly.
Founded in 1871, the NRA views itself as America's oldest civil rights organization, an embodiment of American freedom values. These days, it seems that most Americans tend to agree.
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12. Why indifference to gun violence is a national crime
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Egads - here comes the antis again. America isn't indifferent to crime, we just know that gun control only makes crime worse. If anybody is indifferent, it's the Brady Campaign that is indifferent to the truth!
From The Washington Post: http://tinyurl.com/bnvo4rm
Why indifference to gun violence is a national crime
By Richard M. Aborn
May 31, 2012
Richard M. Aborn is president of the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City and a former president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. He was a principal strategist behind passage of the Brady Bill in 1994 and legislation banning assault weapons and large-capacity magazines.
Every year, abhorrent acts of gun violence are met with cries of anguish, token denunciation and nothing else. The debate about guns in the United States has always been between David and Goliath. Last year, the gun lobby outspent advocates of gun control by 11 to 1, or $2.9 million vs. $260,000.
Yet gun violence has disappeared from the national political agenda, even as the United States leads its post-industrial peers with an average of eight times as many annual deaths as a result of gun violence.
In 2008, the Supreme Court established in District of Columbia v. Heller that individuals have the right to own guns and that the possession of firearms is subject to reasonable regulations. So what has changed since the 1990s, when Congress passed major legislation such as the Brady Bill and the ban on assault weapons? Why have opponents of reasonable gun-control measures gained strength while the gun-control movement has shrunk? The answers are in the heart of the questions.
The communication strategy of the National Rifle Association centers on the idea that passage of any gun-control measure is a step toward the elimination of all guns. Framing the issue this way foments an element necessary to sustaining a broad movement that votes: the personal interest of its members.
Virtually all of the long-term grass-roots political movements in U.S. history have centered on direct stakeholders with a sustainable, single-minded focus that determines not only how an individual votes but also provides a strong motivation to vote. Most supporters of the early suffragist movement, abortion rights, civil rights, gay marriage and even the NRA have had a direct stake in the outcomes of their issues.
Although living in a society free from gun violence may be a collective desire, those who support this principle commonly hold that goal among a larger constellation of beliefs. Supporters of gun control tend to be broad-based progressives who also support education reform, reproductive choice, marriage equality and other issues. In a country with low voter turnout, the ability to form single-issue voting blocs is a powerful political tool. The NRA has succeeded in doing this; the gun-control movement has not.
The decline in enthusiasm among gun-control supporters corresponds to the dramatic decrease in crime in this country. In November, 1 percent of respondents told Gallup that crime was the most important issue facing the nation, in contrast to 52 percent saying the same in 1994.
The issue is not just that the NRA has created power but also that supporters of gun control have waned. Many things can be done to take that control back, but three are critical:
First, Americans must shed the notion that the battle against violent crime has been won. More Americans were killed by gun violence last year than all American troops who have been killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. African American youths are five times as likely to be killed as a result of gun violence than their white counterparts.
Second, an alliance must be forged with gun owners. Ninety percent of gun owners support reasoned measures to keep guns from criminals and the mentally unbalanced, bipartisan polls show. Sensible people do not want to see illegal gun markets flourish or for the likes of Jared Loughner, who killed six people in January 2011 when he also wounded then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and 12 others, to lawfully buy guns. But the NRA's rhetoric has convinced gun owners that the gun-control movement seeks to ban all guns. Remove this rhetorical obstacle, and gun owners would be much more likely to support measures designed to break up illegal gun markets which is also a step toward diminishing the power of the NRA. [PVC: So the NRA gets its power from the illegal gun market? Someone should tell Wayne LaPierre. I'll bet he'd be surprised to learn that fact!]
Finally, the NRA has successfully argued that gun-control laws are ineffective while it also works to ensure there is little to no government funding for scientific research on the effectiveness of gun-control measures. Supporters of gun control have to win the effectiveness argument if we hope to win at the ballot box. Although existing research in the United States may be slim, the plunging number of gun deaths in other post-industrial nations with reasonable gun-control laws is strong evidence in support of a national policy. [PVC: Oh, yeah - the NRA should be funding "junk science!" I think such funding of unscrupulous "science" is best left to the Brady Campaign.]
The gun-control movement must convince Americans that much work remains: that illegal guns continue to destroy the lives of more American youths than many dare imagine; that our lack of national policy has a deadly impact internationally; and, perhaps most important, that the movement behind gun control does not seek to limit a law-abiding person's ability to get a gun. [PVC: The Coalition to Stop Handgun VIolence was previously called the Coalition to Ban Handguns. The Brady Campaign has called for a ban on handguns in the past. Why would we think they want to ban guns?] Continuing to be indifferent to the reality of gun violence in this country would be the most egregious offense.
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13. Jesse Jackson: We are going to march on gun shops
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Yeah, that march at gun stores across the country was supposed to happen on June 16th. Jesse's clout seems to have dried up and blown away. In the whole nation there was a total of ONE protest, which was held at a local Chicago gun store. The press didn't seem interested in covering Jesse's utter failure to turn people out to support gun control. Why? It really isn't news that no one wants any more gun control. ;-)
From Townhall.com: http://tinyurl.com/7lj5vsv
Jesse Jackson: We Are Going to March on Gun Shops
By Katie Pavlich
June 4, 2012
Last night in Racine, Wisconsin, while demanding jobs for the unemployed, Jesse Jackson decided to slam job creating gun dealers and called for a march on gun shops all over the country. h/t Katy Abram
"Guns out, jobs in."
Jackson wants to get rid of the very thing that has kept the economy afloat during Obama's presidency. The firearms industry has not only created jobs in the past three years but has also provided the government with a steady revenue stream.
NSSF today released a newly commissioned report detailing double-digit gains in jobs and other data showing the industry has been a leader in the nation's economic recovery. The report can be viewed at http://nssf.org/impact.
Firearms industry members on Capitol Hill were briefed on such remarkable statistics as the 30.6 percent increase in jobs between 2008 and 2011, a 66.5 percent increase in economic impact and a 66.5 percent increase in federal taxes paid by industry companies.
Armed with the good news of the report and recognizing that jobs and the economy are of major importance in the November elections, industry executives are meeting today with elected officials during the NSSF-sponsored Congressional Fly-In.
During difficult economic times and high unemployment rates nationally, our industry actually grew and created more than ten thousand new, well-paying jobs, said NSSF President Steve Sanetti. Our industry is proud to be one of the bright spots in this economy.
More:
Companies in the United States that manufacture, distribute and sell firearms, ammunition and hunting equipment employ as many as 98,752 people in the country and generate an additional 110,998 jobs in supplier and ancillary industries. These include jobs in companies supplying goods and services to manufacturers, distributors and retailers, as well as those that depend on sales to workers in the firearms and ammunition industry.
These are good jobs, paying an average of $46,858 in wages and benefits. And today, every job is important. In fact, in the United States the unemployment rate has reached 8.2 percent. This means that there are already 13,430,000 people trying to find jobs in the state and collecting unemployment benefits.
Not only does the manufacture and sale of firearms and hunting supplies create good jobs in the United States but the industry also contributes to the economy as a whole. In fact, in 2012 the firearms and ammunition industry was responsible for as much as $31.84 billion in total economic activity in the country.
The Country Also Benefits from the Taxes Paid by the Industry
Not only does the firearms and ammunition industry create jobs, it also generates sizable tax revenues. In the United States the industry and its employees pay over $2.07 billion in taxes including property, income, and sales based levies.
Hey Jackson, don't bite the hand that feeds you.
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14. Mother and son fight off burglars in Maryland
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Member Deborah Jane Anderson emailed me this:
--
As the old saying goes, "When seconds count..." This is another example of why you need a gun in your bedroom.
In the story below, from MyFoxDC, the mother and son victims are extremely fortunate that they weren't killed, and that they walked away from the incident with scrapes and bruises from a fight with not one, but two, burglars. Also, please note that at least one of the two perpetrators claimed he had a gun as he tried to break in -- for the 2nd time! -- and was bold enough to do so, even after the family already had barricaded themselves in a bedroom and were calling 911.
I sure hope this family considers arming themselves against any future attack.
Blessings,
Deborah Jane Anderson
From MyFoxDC: http://tinyurl.com/cb559kg
Mother and son fight off burglars in Maryland
By Wisdom Martin
June 4, 2012
MARYLAND CITY, Md. - Just a few minutes before 4 a.m. on Monday, Betty Anne O'Neill heard a noise and woke up to find a complete stranger in her bedroom with a flashlight.
"I looked up and saw this man beside my bed, grabbing my pocketbook, and I screamed at him," she says.
Her son Keith heard the noise and came upstairs.
"By the time I got to the front of the hallway, I heard my mother screaming, so I ran back to her bedroom," says Keith. "A guy was there with her purse in the hand."
Keith and his mother fought with the suspect.
"When I saw him, he stood there and just looked at me, and my initial reaction, I just grabbed him," recalls Keith. "We just started fighting. He was throwing punches, I was throwing punches and wrestling to the ground."
Eventually the burglar ran away from the home in the 200 block of Sharptown South in Maryland City. But the ordeal wasn't over.
"The second guy came in, fought with him, wrestled with him too," Keith says.
After a brief struggle, the second suspect ran away too. But it still wasn't over.
As the O'Neills barricaded themselves behind the bedroom door calling 911, one of the burglars came back and tried to force his way into the room.
"I was screaming, 'Go away. Go away. Go away,"' Betty Anne says.
"He says, 'I've got a gun, I'll shoot you,"' says Keith.
Both the suspects finally ran away just minutes before the police arrived.
Fortunately, both Betty Anne and her son Keith walked away with scrapes and bruises from the fight.
But the experience of waking up to burglars in your bedroom is something they will never forget.
"It just makes me mad that someone would come into my home, take my money, and luckily not my life, and hurt my son. It makes me angry," says Betty Anne.
Police say that same morning, a few minutes earlier, there was also a burglary in the 200 block of Elkton South. A 91-year-old woman reported she woke up with a suspect shining a flashlight in her face.
The suspect left and she found the medicine cabinets in her bathrooms had been rifled through, but nothing taken. She did not have a description of the suspect.
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15. Officer shot wife in buttocks showing gun to pals
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A gun is always loaded and should always be treated as such.
Roy Scherer emailed me this:
--
From Richmond Times Dispatch: http://tinyurl.com/74ygvro
Officer shot wife in buttocks showing gun to pals
By Associated Press
May 31, 2012
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Authorities say a central Pennsylvania police officer shot his wife in the buttocks as he was showing his department-issued gun to family and friends during a weekend cookout at his home.
Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico said Wednesday that the gun issued to Harrisburg Officer William Owens discharged and struck the officer's wife.
Marsico said he believes the shooting was an accident but charges could be filed if an investigation determines Owens acted recklessly.
Owens' wife was treated at a hospital after the incident Saturday evening.
A city spokesman said the officer has been suspended without pay pending the outcome of an investigation.
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16. The Australian Gun Registry-fears that NSW is under the gun
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A reminder that we need to change to the law to stop courts from giving out CHP holder information. Such information in the wrong hands is a very bad thing.
Member Jay Minsky emailed me this:
--
From The Daily Telegraph: http://tinyurl.com/7qgkccp
Fears that NSW is under the gun
By Mark Morri
June 1, 2012
FIFTY firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition have been stolen from registered NSW gun owners in the past 16 days, prompting fears the firearms registry has been compromised.
Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione and Police Minister Mike Gallacher on Wednesday made a public show of overseeing the destruction of 142 weapons seized in recent months.
But it has taken little over two weeks for criminals to steal more than a third of that number and put them back on the black market.
In a number of cases since May 14, when the robberies began, entire gun safes have been removed from properties with weapons inside.
Officers said criminals could access the information through a variety of sources - not just the registry.
"We have no evidence to suggest the information has come from the registry," head of the firearms and organised crime squad Detective Superintendent Ken Finch said.
He said there was no investigation into the registry at the moment - but nothing had been ruled out.
Supt Finch agreed some of the recent thefts appeared to be targeted: "Most are in rural areas where people know locals have multiple weapons."
Supt Finch said the registry was subject to strict audit provisions and not accessible by all police officers.
"Access is only granted by a local area commander when it is needed for an investigation."
He said only a limited number of civilians had access and usage of the list was strictly monitored: "Gun clubs are another possible source of information. Some robberies could be opportunistic."
Gun dealers and victims said the registry would be a gold mine to criminals as it contained details of the types of weapons, where they were stored and addresses of owners.
One robbery victim had eight guns stolen within months of being audited by police and his new address added to the registry.
"I was audited in May last year and robbed in October. I had eight weapons stolen from a secure safe," the victim said.
"I live in an estate of 70 homes and was the only place robbed. To me it was obvious I was targeted with information from somewhere.
"Call me cynical but it is too much of a coincidence.
"I have been in the same shooters club for years and never had a problem."
Police have seized more than 1400 illegal weapons since April 1.
Latest figures from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research revealed gun theft was on the increase.
In the past three years 1706 weapons were stolen - 640 in the past year.
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(VCDL). VCDL is an all-volunteer, non-partisan grassroots organization
dedicated to defending the human rights of all Virginians. The Right to
Keep and Bear Arms is a fundamental human right.
VCDL web page: http://www.vcdl.org [http://www.vcdl.org/]
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