By Chad D. Baus

On March 10, 2009, a rampage killer ended the lives of ten people before taking his own life. The 28 year-old Alabama man, who went through police officer training in 2003 but did not graduate, killed several members of his family before shooting at people in seemingly random fashion from his vehicle.

While the motives of the mass murderer are still in doubt, the motives of some members of the news media covering the event will no doubt be immediately held as suspect, especially by those of us accustomed to front page anti-gun editorializing.

As is common for most "breaking news" reports, the first posts to hit the wires contained inaccuracies, many of which have continued to reverberate. Some of these are no doubt are due to the fog of war. Others are clearly based on ignorance about firearms. But typically, those of us in the pro-gun rights movement are suspicious that the real reason for all the poor reporting is the media's anti-gun bias.

What is really interesting is, in this case at least, many of these wreckless statements can be traced right back to Alabama authorities, rather than being blamed on the journalists who wrote the stories.

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation and three Washington, D.C. residents have filed a lawsuit challenging a regulation by District of Columbia city government that arbitrarily bans handguns based on a roster of "acceptable" handguns approved by the State of California.

The District is using this list despite a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court last summer that protects handguns "that ordinary people traditionally use for self-defense." This scheme could eventually bar the ownership of any new handguns.

Attorney Alan Gura, representing the plaintiffs in this case, noted that District bureaucrats "told Tracy Ambeau Hanson her gun was the wrong color." Americans are not limited to a government list of approved books, or approved religions, he said. A handgun protected by the Second Amendment doesn’'t need to appear on any government-approved list either.