By Chad D. Baus

Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Regina Brett, whose series on the thug culture earned her title as a top-three finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Commentary, has written another article that proves she "gets it."

That year, after the death of a teen-aged armed robber who attacked a concealed handgun license (CHL)-holder, and in response to community outrage insanely focused against the robber's victim for protecting himself, Brett wrote a series of columns that explored inner-city violence, poverty and hopelessness among black teenagers and young men.

This time, Brett's focus is on a man who police say took the lives of Lechea Crawford, 30; Rose Stevens, 25; Destanee Woods, 5; and twins Deon and Davion Primm, both 2. And once again, Brett is placing the focus where it needs to be: on the criminal that commmitted the heinous crime, rather than on the tool he used.

Editor's Note: We hate to have to say "we told you so" to the sportsmen who bought into the lie that Obama would protect their right to hunt and fish, but...we told you so.

The United States Sportsmen's Alliance is urging sportsmen nationwide to immediately contact their U.S. representatives and senators, and to "ask your congressman and two U.S. senators to urge the Obama Administration to stop the National Park Service from its plan to stop the use lead ammunition and fishing tackle on its lands."

The park service, which administers many lands that permit hunting and fishing, including National Preserves, National Recreation Areas and National Rivers, announced March 10 that it would ban lead ammunition and sinkers from its lands.

Acting NPS Director Dan Wenk stated that the NPS goal is to eliminate all lead in ammunition and tackle by the end of 2010.

Over 20 million acres of NPS land is open to hunting and would be adversely impacted by this decision.

"The National Park Service's decision is arbitrary, over-reactive and not based on science," said Steve Sanetti, president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, trade association for the firearms and ammunition industry. "Studies show that traditional ammunition does not pose a health risk to humans, or wildlife populations as a whole."

By Chad D. Baus

The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that another church in Ohio is utilizing churchgoers who are carrying a concealed weapon as part of its security strategy.

Court Also Rejects DC/Lawson Case

NEWTOWN, Conn. -- Putting an end to nine years of litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear New York City's request to continue a lawsuit that sought to hold firearms manufacturers responsible for the criminal misuse of firearms.

"We are very pleased by today's ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court to not review lower appellate court rulings that dismissed cases based on the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act," said Steve Sanetti, president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, trade association for the firearms industry. "These baseless lawsuits against responsible, law-abiding companies are the type that Congress intended to prevent by passing the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act."

By Chad D. Baus

Throughout the 2008 Presidential election campaign, Buckeye Firearms Association, the National Rifle Association and other pro-gun organizations sought to make gun owners aware of the clear and present danger that a President Barack Obama would be to the Second Amendment. One group, however, while claiming to be pro-gun, endorsed Obama, and went out of its way to attack the NRA and anyone else who suggested that a vote for Obama was a vote for gun control.

The anti-gun pedigree of the founders and leadership of that pro-Obama group, which calls itself the American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA), is well documented. Yet it would appear from a recent press release from AHSA President Ray Schoenke that even he failed to realize that he was being used by a candidate who had every intention of aggressively pushing for gun control once he assumed power.

The Washington Post is reporting that a group of pro-concealed carry students at James Madison University attempted to educate their peers recently with a bit of roll-playing.

NEWTOWN, Connecticut-- When a target shooter purchases a box of ammunition or a hunter a new deer rifle, wildlife in America benefits.

Every sportsman and woman contributes to a system that has been responsible for supporting healthy wildlife populations of both game and non-game species for the last 70 years.

The contributions, in the form excise taxes paid on sporting firearms, ammunition and archery equipment, benefit every state and have generated approximately $5.6 billion for wildlife conservation since 1939. The contribution for 2009 is a record -- nearly $336 million, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, which recently announced the Wildlife Restoration apportionment.

Introduction to IDPA Clinic

Date: March 14, 2009
Time: 9:30am - Finish
Location: Pickaway County Sportsman Range - 8100 East Route 22, Circleville Ohio 43133
Cost: $10.00 -- Free for Ladies and Juniors (12 - 18)

Deer and Turkey Expo

Date: March 20-22, 2009
Time: Fri 2pm-9pm, Sat 9am-7pm, Sun 9am-4pm
Location:Bricker Building -Ohio Expo Center(State Fairgrounds, 717 E. 17th Ave, Columbus, OH 43211
Cost: Adult 1-Day $10.00, Adult 2-Day $17.00, Adult 3-Day $23.00, Youth (6-11) $3.00, 5 & Under FREE

See our Events page for more details and other scheduled events.

Editor's Note: As you read this press release, please take special note of the lack of a single Ohio congressman on the list. It is time to contact yours and find out why!

WASHINGTON D.C. - U.S. Congressman Dan Boren, (OK-2) and U.S. Congressman Paul Broun, (GA-10), Co-Chairs of the Second Amendment Task Force (SATF) in the U.S. House of Representatives, released the following statements regarding Attorney General Eric Holder’s recent comments on the possibility of the Obama Administration seeking to reinstate a ban on sales of assault weapons.

By Bob Owens

If you, like thousands of other Americans, have Googled to find out why we are in the middle of a nationwide ammunition shortage, you would have stumbled across this 2007 blog entry.

In it, I corrected a poorly researched Associated Press story by Estes Thompson that claimed the military's consumption of ammunition was responsible for police ammunition shortages here in the United States. Few things could have been further from the truth, but it seems rather apparent, in retrospect, that the goal of that AP article wasn't to find the truth as much as it was to (falsely) lay blame for the police ammunition shortages at the feet of George W. Bush.

The real fact of the matter is that the military got the bulk of its small arms (pistol, rifle, machine gun) ammunition from one contracted ammunition plant, and that plant wasn't even running near capacity. The military's consumption clearly wasn't to blame, and anecdotal evidence and statements from ammunition manufacturers strongly suggested that police departments themselves caused the 2007 ammunition shortage by purchasing far more ammunition than they had in the past.

But what is causing our current ammunition shortages here in 2009?