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Dingell, NRA Working on Bill to Strengthen Background Checks
Submitted by: New York State Rifle & Pistol Association
Website: http://www.nysrpa.org

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"With the Virginia Tech shootings resurrecting calls for tighter gun controls, the National Rifle Association has begun negotiations with senior Democrats over legislation to bolster the national background-check system and potentially block gun purchases by the mentally ill."

"Rep. John D. Dingell (Mich.), a gun-rights Democrat who once served on the NRA's board of directors, is leading talks with the powerful gun lobby in hopes of producing a deal by early next week, Democratic aides and lawmakers said." ...

Gun-Violence Tragedy Requires Significant Philanthropic Response
Submitted by: New York State Rifle & Pistol Association
Website: http://www.nysrpa.org

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"Watching the events at Virginia Tech this week has been heartbreaking. So many young lives, along with decent and honorable people who taught them, obliterated on an otherwise ordinary Monday; a university community in shock; families devastated."

"Watching the response has also been heartbreaking, but for different reasons."

"We see the grief counselors. We see the memorial services. We see plans to step up communications and lock down buildings when a shooter is on the loose."

"We see all the ways people try to cope with tragedy. What we don't see enough of are efforts to prevent it." ...

Still off target
Submitted by: Doug Huffman
Website: http://www.scfirearms.org

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"Blogger Bob Owens (http://confederateyankee.mu.nu) says ABC News still has not corrected its Monday report that falsely suggested the expiration of a 1994 gun law was related to the murders at Virginia Tech."

"'I'm still waiting for a retraction of the completely false story posted to the Blotter, 'Lapse of Federal Law Allows Sale of Large Ammo Clips,' Mr. Owens wrote in a comment at the ABC News site (http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter)."

"'The blog entry was not only incorrect,' he wrote, 'it was deceptive, and showed a basic ignorance of [the 1994 law ...]. ABC News and 'The Blotter' owe their readership an apology and a retraction for this blatantly incorrect and perhaps purposefully fraudulent blog posting.'" ...

A mad man is ultimately the weapon that scares
Submitted by: Bruce

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"In my day, Fort Dix, N.J., billed itself as the home of the Ultimate Weapon. That weapon, depicted by a heroic statue at the front gate, was the lowly infantryman armed only with his rifle and appearing to shout something like, �Follow me!� This was the Army�s way of countering the glamour of the other services, particularly the Air Force. It took boots on the ground � not planes overhead � to really win a war. It took, in short, the ultimate weapon. No one could kill better."

"Now from Blacksburg, Va., comes additional evidence that there is nothing as dangerous as a single man and nothing as unpredictable as the mind of man. ..." ...

Rules Should Have Barred Weapon Purchase
Submitted by: New York State Rifle & Pistol Association
Website: http://www.nysrpa.org

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"A judge's ruling on Cho Seung-Hui's mental health should have barred him from purchasing the handguns he used in the Virginia Tech massacre. But it was unclear Thursday whether anybody had an obligation to inform federal authorities about Cho's mental status because of loopholes in the law that governs background checks."

"Cho purchased two handguns in February and March, and was subject to federal and state background checks both times. The checks turned up no problems, despite a judge's ruling in December 2005 that Cho 'presents an imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness.'"

"'On the face of it, he should have been blocked under federal law,' said Denis Henigan, legal director of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence." ...

The VT massacre is not the worst school massacre in US History
Submitted by: Michigan Gun Owners
Website: http://www.migunowners.org

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"Despite widespread reporting in the mainstream media that either state or imply that the Virginia Tech Massacre is the worst in US history, I believe a school in Michigan still holds that distinction.... The perpetrator of the Bath School Massacre didn't use a gun. Perhaps that's why this story escapes mainstream reporting."

"It was 1922 in Bath, Michigan. School Board Treasurer Andrew Kehoe became upset by a property tax that had been levied to fund the construction of the school building. He apparently blamed the tax for financial hardships which led to the foreclosure on his farm. Over the course of several months, Kehoe secretly planted hundreds of pounds of dynamite and pyrotol in the Bath Consolidated School basement. ..." ...

Nugent: Gun-free zones are recipe for disaster
Submitted by: David Morris

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"Zero tolerance, huh? Gun-free zones, huh? Try this on for size: Columbine gun-free zone, New York City pizza shop gun-free zone, Luby's Cafeteria gun-free zone, Amish school in Pennsylvania gun-free zone and now Virginia Tech gun-free zone."

"Anybody see what the evil Brady Campaign and other anti-gun cults have created? I personally have zero tolerance for evil and denial. And America had best wake up real fast that the brain-dead celebration of unarmed helplessness will get you killed every time, and I've about had enough of it." ...

Fred Dalton Thompson: Signs of Intelligence?
Submitted by: Anonymous

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When people capable of performing acts of heroism are discouraged or denied the opportunity, our society is all the poorer. And from the selfless examples of the passengers on Flight 93 on 9/11 to Virginia Tech professor Liviu Librescu, a Holocaust survivor who sacrificed himself to save his students earlier this week, we know what extraordinary acts of heroism ordinary citizens are capable of.

Whenever I've seen one of those "Gun-free Zone" signs, especially outside of a school filled with our youngest and most vulnerable citizens, I've always wondered exactly who these signs are directed at. Obviously, they don't mean much to the sort of man who murdered 32 people just a few days ago."

PA: Home Invader Shot; Others Wounded Fighting Back Submitted by: New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Website: http://www.nysrpa.org	There are no comments on this story Post Comments \| Read Comments
"One man was shot during a home invasion in White Oak, and two others were hurt while fighting the intruder off, according to Allegheny County police." ...

KY: Ex-Miss America shoots thief's tires
Submitted by: Anonymous

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"Tough isn't a word necessarily associated with Miss America, but three thieves arrested after their truck tires were shot out by 82-year-old Venus Ramey might beg to differ."

"Ramey, who won the elite beauty crown in 1944, confronted one of the three robbers on her farm in Waynesburg, Ky. ..."

"'He was probably wetting his pants,' said Ramey, who balanced on her walking stick as she pulled out a snub-nosed .38-caliber handgun." ...

The cunning of evil
Submitted by: Bruce

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..."... The US gun control lobby instantly weighed in with demands for further restrictions upon the sale of firearms. Those inclined to anti-American schadenfreude in this country ... have gleefully laid the blame at the door of the National Rifle Association."

"Yet it is not the NRA that preserves the Second Amendment right to bear arms. It is the settled will of the American people. And as the Hungerford and Dunblane massacres showed in this country, the determined mass murderer will always find a way round gun restrictions. One might just as easily blame Monday's horrors on Virginia Tech's ban on students or employees carrying guns on campus, as on the ease with which firearms can be purchased in the Blue Ridge Mountains." ...

Running scared from gun control
Submitted by: Bruce W. Krafft

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"You might think the worst shooting rampage in American history would spur Congress _ the Democrats, at least _ to revive gun control efforts. Where do you think we are? England?"

"'I hope there's not a rush to do anything,' Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said last week. ...'"

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, 'We're in mourning now.'"

"President Bush said he expects a national debate on gun control but "now is not the time." It's too soon even to think about changing gun policy, let alone to discuss it, he said."

"Finally, the Democrats and the president agree on something." ...

"But as we move forward, how better to honor the memory of those killed by a deranged gunman than to try to stop such acts from happening?" ...

Common Ground on Gun Control?
Submitted by: Bruce

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The revelation that Virginia Tech shooter Cho Seung-Hui's brief stay in a Virginia psychiatric facility did not prevent him from legally buying "handguns has prompted outrage from gun control advocates. But at a time when any real gun control legislation is close to a political impossibility, even some Second Amendment activists agree that the criteria used to deem someone mentally unfit to purchase a firearm may need to be reformed." ...

Biden says aggressive gun control agenda a "liability" for Democrats
Submitted by: Bruce

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"Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden says his party must steer clear of the most far-reaching gun control proposals. Biden, who's been a U.S. Senator representing the state of Delaware for the past 34 years, says some types of gun control can be a 'liability' for Democrats."

"'I oppose registration...There is a Second Amendment, and it's real,' Biden says. ...There are certain things that I have strongly supported: eliminating cop killer bullets, assault weapons, dealing with the ability to have multiple-rounds in a gun that's semi-automatic -- 20, 25, 17, 18 rounds.'"

"Biden says it's folly to think congress could have done much beforehand to prevent this week's shooting rampage on the Virginia Tech campus. ..." ...

Let's lay down our right to bear arms
Submitted by: David Morris

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"Most days, it is not at all hard to feel proud to be an American. But on days such as this, it is very difficult."

"The pain that the parents of the slain students feel hits deep into everyone's hearts. At the University of California, Los Angeles, students are talking about little else. It is not that they feel especially vulnerable because they are students at a major university, as is Virginia Tech, but because they are (to be blunt) citizens of High Noon America." ...
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Submitter's Note: At least he agrees we have the right to bear arms.

And now, stage right, the NRA ...
Submitted by: Bruce W. Krafft

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"This winter I was driving out through the Virginia suburbs and happened to pass by a large, imposing structure right off the highway. Three big letters atop quite clearly announced the work of those inside: NRA. I mused as I moved by on how I hadn't lately heard much from these guardians against any form of gun-control. Now that will all change."

"The incomprehensible tragedy at Virginia Tech will, once again, create a clamor of calls for a reasonable approach to the unreasonable proliferation of handguns in America. And, once again, the NRA will align its considerable forces to shoot down any attempt at change." ...

CO: Gun control on campus: Recent school shooting ignites old debate
Submitted by: Bruce

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"The gun control dispute has long been a topic of debate. It divides the political platforms of Democrats and Republicans, questions constitutional limits and sets extreme stereotypes of those abiding by their respective stances."

"Today's relevant question asks if banning weapons from college campuses infringes on constitutional rights."

"CU has made its stance against guns on college campuses very clear. CU approached former Attorney General Ken Salazar in 2003 about the validity of a longstanding no-gun policy in the stir of the concealed carry bill, which allows people to carry a concealed weapon after they are approved for a permit."

"Since then, the policy has become more strict." ...

IN: Gary student pulls medieval weapon
Submitted by: Daniel L. Moulder

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"A 15-year-old girl who allegedly swung a medieval-style weapon at a teacher, striking a student who intervened, told police she was tired of being picked on."

"The Lew Wallace High School freshman swung the mace -- a spiked ball and chain attached to a wooden stick -- at a teacher Thursday morning, said Gary Police detective Sgt. Darlene Breitenstein.
The teacher wasn't hit, but a 19-year-old student who intervened was cut on her hand."

"'It's heavy, and it's metal and it's sharp,' Breitenstein said. 'I took the weapon to the detention center for the judge to see.'" ...
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Submitter's Note: Ban guns & knives & they'll still find a way to hurt you!

ME: UMaine to review firearms policy
Submitted by: Anonymous

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"University of Maine President Robert Kennedy directed Tuesday that the school�s firearms policy be reviewed after Monday�s deadly shooting at Virginia Tech University."

"Any changes wouldn't be made effective this semester, but Kennedy wants the policy examined in the context of what other universities do."

"'It could be that we don't change anything,' Kennedy said."

"UM currently allows students to have weapons on campus, but they must be registered and stored with the university�s Department of Public Safety." ...

NC: Ex-Durham Cop Found Guilty of Assault
Submitted by: jac

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"A former Durham police was found guilty Thursday of assaulting a cook outside at a Raleigh restaurant last year."

"Scott C. Tanner, 33, was sentenced to 60 hours of community service and must attend anger management classes."

"Tanner was one of two former police officers on trial for assaulting Rene Dennis Thomas, 29, in the parking lot of Blinco's Sports Restaurant & Bar on Glenwood Avenue in July 2006." ...

NY: The Right Kind Of Law
Submitted by: New York State Rifle & Pistol Association
Website: http://www.nysrpa.org

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"The telephone woke me up. The call was from a neighbor who said, 'Did you hear the gunshots? Someone just emptied their gun and it sounded like it was close by.' I hadn't heard a thing because this old lady was sleeping on the only ear that still works well. My neighbor had reported the incident, and the NYPD was now in charge, so I went back to sleep."

"I've always lived in neighborhoods where deadly popping noises have become commonplace, so perhaps my perspective on gun control is different from that of the elite pundits in New York City and from celebrities who can afford armed bodyguards. For all our tough gun control laws, chances are the gun fired that night was an illegal one. ..." ...