By Chad D. Baus

She didn't raise a musket above her head during her speech at the Republican National Convention, and there have not (yet?) been cries of "from my cold dead hands" on the campaign trail, but for all the renewed enthusiasm among the pro-gun voting block, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin might as well have done both.

Many Americans are coming to the realization that Sarah Palin is truly "one of us", but perhaps no others saw it as quickly as did America's gun owners.

By John Longenecker

Something for non-gun owner voters to understand about candidates' views on guns and a new ticket...a real new ticket.

The subject came up in the Democrat Convention, 2008.

The Democrat view of banning guns will never touch crime, because it focuses on the iron and not the behavior of criminals. It profoundly ties the hands of victims to respond, and this results in scarring injuries numbering in the millions each year. Please visit www.FBI.gov for precise figures on crimes by type, by type of weapon used, and, of course, numbers of gun-related deaths.

At the Democrat Convention, and in the discussion of automatic weapons, Senator Patrick Kennedy remarked that 30,000 people die from gun violence.

Mr. Kennedy, America does not see 30,000 gun deaths every year, much less by fully automatic weapons. America sees about 10,177 total gun deaths in 2006 and every year on the average over the last decade and largely – here it comes, wait for it – crime-on-crime shootings. These are not shootings from lawful gun owners, such as your constituents, they are shootings in Crime.