By Jim Shepherd

When United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia penned the majority-opinion in the landmark Heller decision last year, he was roundly criticized by legal scholars (primarily from the dissenting position) for having created a document that left many legal questions regarding firearms unanswered.

Justice Scalia's response was simple: the broad decision was written, and the lower courts would use the Heller decision to create legal precedents from other cases going forward. In other words, precedent-setting cases on the nuances of the matter of the individual right to keep and bear arms enumerated by the Second Amendment would follow.

Seems Justice Scalia was as on target with that estimation as he was in the majority opinion.

Less than a year after Heller, the Circuit Courts of the United States seem to be headed back to the Supreme Court with contrary findings on gun rights. It is highly likely the Supreme Court will, once again, hear a case and decide another piece of precedent-setting law.

Amend Constitution by Statute, Using EPA Laws

By Dave Kopel

"The National Parks Service has announced it will not challenge a court order that temporarily stops the late-term Bush administration policy of allowing CCW-permit holders to carry in National Parks."

That's the news media's backwards way of saying the bureaucrats running the National Parks are delighted they don't have to allow CCW-permit holders to exercise their civil rights in the parks, at least for now.

By Dave Yost

Congress will consider legislation next month that would require people wanting to speak in public to first undergo a background check and pay a permit fee.

The U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance has joined the nation's leading conservation organizations in sending a letter to Rush Limbaugh urging the talk radio personality to cease his support of America's number one opponent of sportsman traditions, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).

The groups who sent the letter are: the Archery Trade Association, Boone and Crockett Club, Catch a Dream Foundation, Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation, Conservation Force, Dallas Safari Club, Delta Waterfowl, Ducks Unlimited, Houston Safari Club, Masters of Foxhounds Association of North America, Mule Deer Foundation, National Shooting Sports Foundation, National Trappers Association, National Wild Turkey Federation, North American Bear Foundation, North American Grouse Partnership, Pheasants Forever, Pope and Young Club, Quail Forever, Quality Deer Management Association, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Texas Wildlife Association, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance, Whitetails Unlimited, Wildlife Forever, Wildlife Management Institute, and the Wild Sheep Foundation.

COLUMBUS, OHIO - Saturday, May 2 marks the second annual Youth Turkey Hunt hosted by Gov. Ted Strickland, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife.

"Ohio has a rich outdoor heritage and seeks to motivate seasoned sportsmen to pass on the traditions to the next generation," said Sean Logan, director of the ODNR. "Governor Strickland's youth turkey hunt will pair young people from across the state with hunting mentors in a manner inspired by Ohio's apprentice hunter program."

Survey will help agency gauge feasibility of web-based access program

COLUMBUS, OHIO - The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife has teamed up with the Ohio Farm Bureau to consider a pilot program that will help manage local deer herds and expand hunter access.

The two agencies are exploring the possibility of developing a web-based deer hunter access program. Through the program, which would be run on a trial basis in selected counties, landowners could review a searchable database of deer hunters and select hunters to whom they would grant hunting permissions. A survey, available at wildohio.com, will help determine deer hunters' interest in participating in such a program.

By Glenn Garvin

Media snicker of the day: those crazy gun nuts, worried that the government is out to snatch their constitutional rights along with their AK-47s. 60 Minutes is the latest to have a chuckle, playing a commercial for a Washington, D.C.-area firearms show that that urges viewers to "Celebrate the Second Amendment and get your guns while you still can!"

My own hunch is that the sheer number of Americans who own guns (the low estimate is something over 40 million) will keep their Second Amendment rights off the endangered-species list for the foreseeable future. Their First Amendment rights, however, may be another matter. Those are taking a beating these days, right in the place that's supposed to be America's rowdiest free-speech zone: college campuses.

On April 18, 2009, Republican Prosecutor Dave Yost announced he will seek his party's nomination for Attorney General in 2010, saying Ohio needs "a prosecutor, not a politician" in the State's top law enforcement job.

"The Attorney General's office is the backbone of Ohio law enforcement," Yost said. "I've been on the front lines of criminal justice and in the courts -- I know what's needed by the men and women who carry the badge, and I'll make sure they get it."

By Steven Loos

Having spent a fair amount of my impressionable years shooting alongside my WW2 veteran grandfather, I was fortunate to have been taught early on the great responsibility that owning a firearm brings.

As far back as I can recall I have always understood owning a firearm had a deeper meaning. Later in life, and much to my surprise, I would come to understand that not all owners share this belief.

Taken from the most recent "Page Nine" Alan Korwin's "The Uninvited Ombudsman Report"

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STARTERS:

In a stunningly clever move, president Barack Obama, speaking from Mexico, announced support for an international firearms treaty that could have far-reaching effects on U.S. gun ownership -- without needing to pass legislation and deal with normal congressional representation. See item #1 in the Page Nine report below. If ratified by the Senate, the treaty, which is already written, would become law and supercede even the U.S. Constitution, as specified in the Constitution itself (Art. VI).