Several environmentalist groups led by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) are petitioning the EPA to ban lead bullets and shot (as well as lead sinkers for fishing) under the Toxic Substances Control [...]]]> In another sideways attempt to remove the availability of firearms and ammunition, the Feds are considering a ban on lead bullets. – [source]

Several environmentalist groups led by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) are petitioning the EPA to ban lead bullets and shot (as well as lead sinkers for fishing) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Although EPA is barred by statute from controlling ammunition, CBD is seeking to work farther back along the manufacturing chain and have EPA ban the use of lead in bullets and shot because non-lead alternatives are available. But here’s the catch: the alternatives to lead bullets are more expensive. A ban on the sale of lead ammunition would force hunters and sport shooters to buy non-lead ammunition that is often double the cost of traditional lead ammunition.  A box of deer hunting bullets in a popular caliber could be upwards of $55.

Today’s face of NRA members is growing considerably younger but are nevertheless just as vigilant when it comes to defending the Second Amendment.

“It’s like this: If you lose one [...]]]> Say the National Rifle Association and many recall the image of Charlton Heston holding a rifle and proclaiming, “From my cold dead hands.”

Today’s face of NRA members is growing considerably younger but are nevertheless just as vigilant when it comes to defending the Second Amendment.

“It’s like this: If you lose one right, then the other ones are at risk,” said Julie Marshall, 23.

Marshall is a member of the Gold Country Friends of the NRA. She joined because because she’s a gun owner and wants to help educate people about the Second Amendment’s importance.

“I grew up in a family of gun owners and hunters. My mother and my grandmother loved shooting and it’s something I grew to love,” Marshall said. “I also learned to respect firearms.”-[source]

Each scout that participated on the conservation [...]]]> The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation (USSAF) and the Crosman Corporation have partnered to offer boy scouts from across the nation and around the world special passports that guides them through the 17- acre conservation trail that is part of the Boy Scouts’ National Jamboree.

Each scout that participated on the conservation trail will receive a small passport with that allows them to get stamps from all of the different stations that they attend while travelling through the trail.  At each station, the scout will be shown another facet of the many ways in which wildlife and nature are conserved in this country.

The first National Jamboree was held in Washington D.C. in 1937.  Over the years it has grown from 25,000 scouts in attendance to between 40 and 50,000.  This year’s National Jamboree also celebrates the Boy Scouts of America’s 100th anniversary.

Throughout its history, Crosman has helped support a variety of conservation and youth causes.  One of the largest is supplying all of the air rifles used by the Boy Scouts of America during their National Jamboree gathering.  Crosman has also been an indispensable partner for seven years with the USSAF and its Trailblazer Adventure Program which has turned into the largest outdoor education effort in the nation.  Later this year, Trailblazer will reach a major milestone of its own by having its one millionth participant.-[source]

The uprising was the reaction to the acquittal of four white police officers accused in the beating of King after his [...]]]> During the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles in 1992, the one news report that stuck with me was how the Korean shop owners kept their premises safe from the marauding mobs.

The uprising was the reaction to the acquittal of four white police officers accused in the beating of King after his arrest a year before.

When the verdict came it, all hell broke loose as out-of-control rioters spread from the inner city toward the affluent Westside.

The Koreans’ businesses were on the fringe of downtown and South Central L.A. where the rioting began. Those storeowners didn’t try to reason with the lawbreakers. They didn’t depend on alarm systems.

They couldn’t even rely on the police department – or the Army, Marines and National Guard – who were having their own troubles dealing with the street violence and massive destruction. It was all the cops and military could do to stop the mayhem and try to prevent the destruction and looting from spreading into Westwood, Brentwood and Bel Air.

I recall that local news reported that residents of those affluent areas suddenly became customers of local gun shops as they suddenly realized they needed ways to protect themselves.

Funny how threats to survival make people sensible.

That’s where the Korean shop owners come in. They’d planned ahead and had their firearms. When the roving mobs came into their area, they just sat in front of their stores with a shotgun across their laps, and waited.

The rioters, more interested in destruction than in getting killed, avoided those businesses and moved on to easier marks. There were a lot of those – more than 3,100 businesses looted, 7,000 fires started and a billion dollars in losses – to say nothing of the deaths and injuries.

Time magazine called it the “worst single episode of urban unrest in American history.”

But every armed Korean business was spared.

I thought of this episode as I followed the ludicrous situation facing Arizona.-[source]

“Some type of micro-stamping regulations seems all but inevitable. It is very, very likely,” the Heritage Foundation’s Theodore R. [...]]]> The United Nations is holding secret closed meetings to work out a global arms trade treaty. The agreement, which could be finished by 2012, is a threat to Americans’ Second and First Amendment rights.

“Some type of micro-stamping regulations seems all but inevitable. It is very, very likely,” the Heritage Foundation’s Theodore R. Bromund, who tracks the U.N., told The Washington Times. “Restrictions on trade between private individuals are somewhat less than 50-50, but you surely can’t rule that out. Some kind of gun registration and licensing system is an extremely likely probability.” Registration proposals cover guns as well as individual rounds of ammunition.

The Obama administration strongly supports the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty and no doubt will use the process to push for gun-control regulations that it can’t get through Congress otherwise.-[source]

The Arms Trade Treaty Prep Committee began on July 12, 2010 and will conclude on July 23, 2010. [...]]]> The Following is an up to the minute report from Julianne Versnel, Director of Operations for the Second Amendment Foundation who is representing SAF as an NGO delegate at the United Nations ATT meeting.

The Arms Trade Treaty Prep Committee began on July 12, 2010 and will conclude on July 23, 2010. Ambassador Roberto Garcia Moritan of Argentina is the Chair. On Friday, July 19, Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) representatives were told that the majority of the meetings would be closed to them. The critical discussions on the scope of the treaty will have no input from any non-governmental entity. Scope is critical in the Arms Trade Treaty process. In North America, some Pan Asian Countries and in some other parts of the world, the arms that we expect to have covered in this treaty are nuclear weapons. In much of Europe and most all of Africa, the delegates anticipate that the ATT will cover rifles, shotguns, handguns and ammunition as well.-[source]