By Chad D. Baus

While sky-high gun and ammo sales, and comments from Obama cabinet officials advocating new gun bans continue to dominate media coverage, a couple of pieces of legislation are being held up in Congress due to the attachment of pro-gun amendments.

Earlier in the Spring, when Democrats pushed a bill which sought to give the District of Columbia congressional representation, pro-gun legislators introduced an amendment designed to restore gun rights in the District. The bill, which had a great deal of momentum and was expected to pass, ground to a halt when enough Democrats joined Republicans in voting for the amendment. The Democrats' successful election strategy of running pro-gun candidates in rural districts had back-fired on the majority's liberal leadership.

Last week, it happened again. A bi-partisan coalition of pro-gun Senators (27 Democrats and one independent joining 39 Republicans) succeeded attaching an amendment that would restore self-defense rights to visitors of the country's national parks to a bill purported to "reform" the credit card industry.

The principle sponsor of the amendment, Republican Sen. Tom Coburn, initially said he expected the amendment to be nixed in a conference committee. This week, however, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has signaled that there are enough pro-gun votes in the House to concur with the Senate amendment, and also to move ahead with efforts to restore gun rights to D.C. residents.

By Jim Irvine

The Geauga Constitutional Council hosted "The 2nd Amendment Forum" on April 24. They had a capacity crowd that turned out to hear about gun rights and what can and must be done to protect them.

In addition to emcee Ed Corsi, speakers included Senator Tim Grendell, Geauga Sheriff Dan McClelland, Arizona Sheriff Richard Mack, and myself.