YDR Opinion: City Council should be able to ban guns at meetings

I’ve been wanting to revive the Gun Toting Journalist blog since the first of the year but decided to hold off until the emotional fury over the tragic events in Arizona calmed down.  The resulting drive for more gun control was just to be expected out of the anti-gun crowd, with their ever senseless idea that more gun control is going to stop criminals from obtaining and using firearms.

Anyway,  the shooting in Arizona has resulted in a hysteria around the country that has elected officials of all levels of government concerned about their safety. At a recent MLK event, a local mayor had a police presence. I won’t go so far to say the uniformed officer was her body guard, but the said officer stood within a few feet of the Mayor for the entire event.

The hysteria in doesn’t end here. A local councilwoman is trying to buck the Pennsylvania Uniform Firearms Act by calling for a ban firearms from City Council meetings  (See the York Daily Record Opinion article here:  http://www.ydr.com/ci_17187426).

Aside from isolated incidents like the Florida school board shooting,  city council, school board and other ‘public’ meetings are peaceful.  These meeting have the same risk of having an crazed gunman as does any public event, but statistically, the threat of a serious incident is next to nothing.

From a legal and financial standpoint, trying to pass such laws are a waste of taxpayer money.  According to the UFA, only the Commonwealth of PA has the right to create gun laws. We’ve seen cities and municipalities all over the state try to overstep this law by introducing “Lost or Stolen” firearms laws in the past few years and all end with a big cost to taxpayers due to court costs and attorney fees. York City even considered trying to implement a similar law but realized that it was fruitless.  And even if they could pass a law banning firearms from City government property, where is the money going to come from for metal detectors, extra personnel to man the detectors, gun lockers for law-abiding citizens to store their weapons? Are we going to take even more law enforcement officers off the streets to “protect” our local officials?

The best solution for this problem would be for elected officials to provide for their own safety and security if they are so inclined. City council can hire security if they feel the need, but it shouldn’t come at a cost to the taxpayers they serve.  Or, they can decide to defend themselves as  at least two local mayors,  several state reps and other law-makers I’ve know through the years who entrust their safety in their own Second Amendment right.

Report: 10 states sell half of imported crime guns

Report: 10 states sell half of imported crime guns

(AP) – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON — Nearly half of the guns that crossed state lines and were used in crimes in 2009 were sold in just 10 states, according to a report being released Monday by a mayors’ group.

Those states accounted for nearly 21,000 guns connected to crimes in other states, said the survey by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, an association of more than 500 mayors led by New York’s Michael Bloomberg and Boston’s Thomas Menino.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives traced more than 145,000 guns used in crimes in 2009 and found that more than 43,000 of those weapons were sold in other states.

Forty-nine percent of those guns were sold in Georgia, Florida, Virginia, Texas, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, California or Arizona.

States were also ranked by the number of crime guns exported per 100,000 inhabitants. Mississippi led that list, followed by West Virginia, Kentucky, Alaska, Alabama, South Carolina, Virginia, Indiana, Nevada and Georgia.

Those states, the report said, have more relaxed gun laws, suggesting that “criminals and gun traffickers may favor certain states as the sources of guns.”

For example, in states that do not require background checks for handgun sales at gun shows, the crime-gun export rate was two-and-a-half times as much as the rate in states that do require such checks.

___

Online:

http://www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org/

The accuracy of this “report” comes into question right away when you look at the source, what reporter in their right mind would use an anti-gun organization like “Mayors Against Illegal Guns” to base their information? And why does it seem that these ‘reports’ never have a by-line?

The first thing that struck me was that California was one of the states on the ’10′ list. How can a state with some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country be one of the biggest suppliers of illegal guns?

The other tidbit of info left out is how many of the so-called imported guns were acquired by illegal means. And while all their numbers may look impressive, think about this. 43,000 guns were originally sold in outside states. Of that 21,000 (49%) were sold in one of ten states. That averages out to 2100 per state.

In 2009 almost 500,000 firearms were sold in Pennsylvania, so even if all 2100 guns that were used in crimes in other states came from PA in one year, that is less than 1/2 of 1%. If you consider that a good percentage of these firearms may have been originally sold in PA anytime since the 1938 Federal Firearms Act, that makes this report even more worthless.

All this report proves it that the anti-gun movement, and more importantly the Mayors Against Illegal Guns organization, continue to change or distort the facts to suit their purpose.

New PHO-TAC site is up!

I finally got my tactical photography site up and running. I’m sure to be adding more and I need to create a training gallery but I’m happy that I finally have a site worth checking out.
www.pho-tac.com

On the cover of SWAT Digest

My tactical photos have been used by the publisher of SWAT Digest for more than a year but I just got my first cover.

Calderon blasts Arizona immigration law, seeks assault weapons ban

Washington (CNN) — Mexican President Felipe Calderon addressed two of America’s most contentious political issues during a speech to the U.S. Congress Thursday, asking for a return of the assault weapons ban and blasting Arizona’s controversial new immigration law as a “terrible” endorsement of racial profiling.

CNN Story

He also urged Congress to re-impose the assault weapons ban, asserting that violence in Mexico spiked after the ban was lifted in 2004. Mexican authorities in recent years have seized 45,000 weapons that could be traced to the United States, he said, and there are now roughly 7,000 gun shops along the U.S. border with Mexico where assault weapons can be easily acquired.

More bullshit numbers out of the Mexicans and CNN reporters that don’t bother to check the facts before publishing these stories. These are the same numbers that Obama and Holder were throwing around months ago. And guess what, the numbers are just as misleading as their administration.

Only 6,000 of the 29,000 weapons seized by the Mexican government could be traced by the ATF and only 5114 of those have been traced back to being sold ” at some time” in the US. That doesn’t necessarily mean the weapons were illegally sold, they could just have well been stolen.

Get ready because it is very well possible that Obama and Holder will use Calderon’s plea for an excuse to re-instated the worthless “assault weapon ban” of 1994.

Tomorrow is the Second Amendment rally in Harrisburg

Just a reminder that tomorrow, Tuesday April 27, is the day for the Second Amendment Rally at the State Capitol in Harrisburg starting at 10am/

http://www.2arally.com/

Playing with a new desktop photography set-up

I have a couple photo shoots coming up for holsters and handguns and came up with the idea of building portable desktop background. Been working on setting this thing up for the past couple days and finally got to play around a bit tonight. Still working on the lighting, but I’m happy with the results.
To build the set, I used an “under the bed” plastic storage box, a piece of foam core, some decorative sand, silk plants and leaves and a few pieces of drift wood I scrounged at the river.

My great grandfather’s 32 S&W and my grandfather’s Case hunting knife

S&W 28-2 HIghway Patrolman 357Mag

My “never leave home without it” kit

CRKT Crawford/Kasper folder

Ontario Knife RAT 3

Open Carry customers deter armed robbery

Proof that more guns in public help defeat crime, not add to it.

From Examiner.com

Two customers displaying holstered pistols deterred an armed robbery in a Kennesaw Wafflehouse recently.
There is some debate raging in Georgia about whether people should conceal their holstered handguns while in public. Some believe that wearing handguns openly will result in a loss of the element of surprise during a criminal attack, such as an armed robbery, while others believe that wearing handguns openly deters criminal attack. For Matt Brannan and J.P. Mitchell, who carry openly as a routine, the issue is no longer academic.
Matt Brannan and J.P. Mitchell were dining in the Wafflehouse on Barrett Parkway at I-575 in Kennesaw at 4:45 in the morning recently when a scout for an armed robbery crew entered the restaurant to case it. At the time, Matt and J.P. thought he looked a little suspicious, as he was wandering around the small restaurant like he was looking for someone. Unknown to Matt and J.P., two cars full of armed robbers were parked behind the restaurant waiting for the scout’s report.
The scout saw that two of the customers were wearing holstered 1911 Springfield Mil-Spec .45 pistols, and he immediately turned and left the store.
Meanwhile, conscientious Cobb County Police Officer D. Lowe had noticed suspicious cars sitting behind the restaurant in the dark and decided to investigate. He caught men with masks and rifles who had been preparing to rob the Wafflehouse. The criminals informed the police that they had changed their mind upon discovering armed customers and were waiting for Matt and J.P. to leave. Ironically, the police car was pulling in to the parking lot just as Matt and J.P. were driving away. In other words, had Matt and J.P. not been armed, the robbery probably would have occurred before the police intervened.
Captain Jerry Quan, the Commander for Precinct One, where the Wafflehouse is located, confirmed Matt Brannan’s story as one in which the open display of a pistol deterred a well armed robbery crew.

http://www.examiner.com/x-5619-Atlanta-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2010m2d18-Open-carry-deters-armed-robbery-in-Kennesaw

Gun control quote of the day

“If you consider that there has been an average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq
Theater of operations during the past 22 months, and a total of 2112 deaths,
that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000 soldiers.
“The firearm death rate in Washington, DC is 80.6 per 100,000 for the same
period. That means you are about 25 percent more likely to be shot and
killed in the U.S. capital, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in
the U.S., than you are in Iraq.”
Conclusion: The U.S. should pull out of Washington

Why nobody invades Switzerland.

Low crime rate, 4% unemployment, mandatory military training for all men and government supplied assault rifles and ammunition. This is the lead our government should be taking from Europe.