By Tim Inwood

There has been a great deal of news coming from
Washington D.C. these days concerning firearms. The
decision in the Shelly Parker case has certainly
shaken up the political establishment, and I for one
have been delighted by it. As a political junkie I can
hardly wait to see what the courts do next. I only
pray it is the right thing. But for a town that
virtually banned all private possession of handguns in
1976, there seems to be quite a few people packing
pistols in Washington D.C. these days. Illegally, I
might add.

Yes, we are all aware of the violent crime
being committed with firearms in the District, but
until recently not much attention has been paid to the
other crimes committed with guns. Those crimes are
committed by the elite ruling class who carry firearms
for their defense. Naturally, I think they should have
the right to do that. According to the U.S. Constitution
they do have that right. It is that they have
prohibited the rest of us from exercising that right,
and their resistance to over turning it, that I view
as so infuriating. What kind of black heart must one
possess to watch such carnage in the streets and still
deny the people the ability to protect themselves? If
anyone should have the hammers of Hell come down on
them for violating the very anti-gun ordinances that
they advocate it is the erudite masters of our
government who demand for themselves what they deny to
us, the people.

You see, when Washington D.C. enacted their gun ban in
1976 they did not exempt members of Congress or their
staffs from the ban. The only handguns permitted were
those owned prior to 1976 that were registered with
the city. Also exempt were the various police agencies
in Washington, including the Washington D.C. Metro
Police, Capitol Hill Police, Federal agencies who
authorize carrying firearms and of course the US
Military. So it should be no surprise there has been
some chatter concerning the arrest of Phillip
Thompson, who is an aide to Senator Jim Webb (Democrat
of Virginia), in the aftermath of Mr. Thompson’s
arrest for carrying the Senator’s gun.

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By Ed Killoran

Earlier this month I heard about a “discussion” of Second Amendment gun rights to be held March 20 at St. John’s Church in downtown Columbus. From the church’s website:

“What is the Role of Guns in America Today?

Join us for this provocative discussion as we explore the issue of gun control versus ownership rights.” and “Come separate fact from fiction and rhetoric from reality.”

Presenting the “discussion” was Dr. Saul Cornell, Professor of History at the Ohio State University and director of the so-called Second Amendment Research Center. He has delivered invited lectures at Oxford University, Columbia University, Duke, NYU Law School, UCLA Law School, Stanford Law School, and Vanderbilt University Law School. He has also written a couple of books, the most current being, A Well Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America (For an excellent review of this book from Second Amendment scholar and attorney David Hardy, click here to download in .pdf format.)

I arranged my evening schedule to attend, suspicious of how there could be discussion with only one speaker, but hoping to hear news of the recent D.C. court ruling or other “discussion” of Second Amendment issues. However, Cornell’s opening remarks previewed the tone of the remainder of the evening, that is, a LECTURE on the need for gun control!

By John R. Lott Jr.

It is a remarkable con job.

Over the last six months, the Police Executive Research Forum, the chief executives of primarily large police departments, has gotten the media concerned that the country is threatened by a sudden upsurge in violent crime and murder. A New York Times story on March 9th started the current round of hysteria with the headline that “Violent Crime in Cities Show Sharp Surge.”

An earlier front page story in January in USA Today caused a similar ruckus.

One wonders whether the reporters ever thought of getting a critical comment for their story.

The Police Executive Research Forum report sounded the alarm: “The FBI statistics reflect the largest single year percent increase in violent crime in 14 years.”

It becomes a lot less scary when one realizes that the violent crime rate fell for 13 straight years, a total drop of 39 percent, before increasing in 2005 by less than 1 percent.

Click here to read the entire commentary at FOXNews.com.