By Jim Irvine

On July 22, 2009, Senator George Voinovich (R-Ohio) voted against a national reciprocity amendment that would have allowed persons with a concealed handgun license to carry their guns in most other states (Amendment 1618 to S1390). Later, in trying to explain his vote, Voinovich told told editors at the Columbus Dispatch that the Republican party's biggest problem is that Ohioans just can't relate to pro-gun Republicans from the South.

And now, one month later, via a letter of response to angry constituents, Voinovich is trying to explain that he is really their friend. If you believe that, he probably has some great swampland in Florida to sell you too.

By Gerard Valentino

A recent story on ABC News proves, once again, that the establishment media takes a one-sided view of the gun issue. The story, which can be viewed here, covers a new law in Tennessee that allows people to carry guns in restaurants and bars – and is clearly slanted against gun owners.

In the report, the mainstream media trots out one of their favorite foils, a gun owner who is against concealed carry. In this case, the purported gun owner claims to believe in the right to bear arms, but also says guns should be kept at home.

We never know if the person interviewed as a "reasonable" gun owner is really unbiased, and rarely hear from people who aren't gun owners, but believe that others should have the right to carry a gun.

The gun owner in question allows another of the anti-gun reporter's favorite tricks when he sneaks in a line about vigilantes, or Dirty Harry wanna-be cops running around with a gun only to impress their girlfriend. Despite the reports claim that bar fights will now turn into gun fights not a single case where it happened was referenced, even though the anchorman admits that over 40 states already allow guns in bars.

Sportsmen Need to "Man the Battle Stations" and Block the "Czar"

By Greg R. Lawson

Battle lines between sportsmen and anti-hunting extremists seem to be hardening with each passing day. Frighteningly, it looks to get worse as a major anti-hunter is on the verge of setting up residence in a federal office with the power to block pro-sportsmen regulations for years to come.

Cass R. Sunstein may not be a household name, but make no mistake, in academic and legal circles he is a rock star. His nomination by President Obama to serve as the head of the powerful Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), otherwise known as the "Regulatory Czar", appears on track and has received a lot of accolades from those who make a living inside "the Beltway" of Washington, D.C.

Unfortunately, Sunstein's record outs him as a rabid animal rightist who has gone so far as to state that animals may deserve the right to sue and, for sportsmen, most chillingly, that "we might ban hunting altogether, at least if it's sole purpose is human recreation."

You are invited to attend a free Second Amendment workshop at Cabelas in Dundee, MI, just 20 minutes north of Toledo.

You will get information and strategies on how you can play an important role in the ongoing fight to maintain Second Amendment rights in the United States.

The impressive lineup of speakers includes:

By Dean Rieck

According to the Boston Globe, the City Council in Lynn, MA have decided to allow police to arrest students who bring baseball bats and other "weapons" to school.

However the ACLU, famous for their inconsistent stance on gun control, opposes this ordinance.

Here are the facts:

• Lynn City Council wants to be "proactive" in making schools safer, authorizing police to arrest students who "bring to school objects that could be used as weapons."

• The new ordinance defines "weapon" as any item that is otherwise legal but COULD be used to "inflict physical harm." This includes, but is not limited to, air guns, pellet guns, BB guns, fireworks, bats, and clubs."

• Authorities will know when a weapon COULD be used to inflict physical harm by deciding, apparently on the spot, if the object has a "legitimate purpose."

• Lynn Police Chief Kevin F. Coppinger justifies this ordinance by saying that previously police had to actually take kids to court. But now police could act immediately. In other words, it was just too difficult to arrest kids before and now they can act on their own authority without the burden of proof.

• The police chief noted, however, that authorities have not seen any increase in kids bringing weapons to school. It's just something they've wanted to do for a while.

By John R. Lott

In Portsmouth, New Hampshire last week, a man carried a handgun a few blocks away from the site where President Obama was scheduled to hold a town hall a couple of hours later. Was it a danger or not? The man carrying the gun, William Kostric, even had permission to have the gun on private church property while he was protesting Obama's appearance. Everybody from the New York Times to USA Today to CBS News expressed their outrage, interpreting it as a hot head threatening the president and linking it to militias and conservative talk radio. A prominent liberal radio talk show host came out saying that conservatives "want Obama to get shot." New legislation related to this incident is even being proposed in Congress.

Obviously no one wants to see a president even remotely threatened and people need to be sensitive to such things. But worrying over a law-abiding citizen legally carrying a gun several blocks and a couple of hours away from an indoor event that the president will attend is overdoing it.

Before the president's town hall meeting, an MSNBC host noted: "Apparently there is fairly significant, almost disturbing news, let us know what is happening there in New Hampshire." A reporter, Ron Allen, breathlessly responded: "There is a man in the crowd who has a gun, a handgun strapped on his lower leg. . . . And I suspect that he won't be here when the president gets here in a couple of hours time."

By Jeff Knox

The growing dissatisfaction of more and more citizens with the direction of our government and our nation presents a wonderful opportunity for rights activists to build and strengthen coalitions and grow the movement's base. The media, the administration, and Democrat leaders have broadly attempted to discredit and dismiss several large "right-wing" groups of dissatisfied and concerned citizens by lumping them all together with racist, anti-Semitic, and seditious groups and individuals.

Doing this is an unfair and inaccurate distortion which does do some damage in the short run, but it also serves to drive these mainstream activists together into a more unified front. There are always "kooks" and "undesirables" inserting themselves into any populist movement, whether "right-wing," "left-wing," or "centrist," but "lunatic fringe" aside, the core groups are discovering that they have much in common and they are beginning to coalesce into a broad-based, cooperative coalition which is becoming a powerful political force.

Bu Chad D. Baus

The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that thieves stole nearly $30,000 worth of guns, knives and ammunition during a break-in Monday at the Black Wing Shooting Center in Delaware, and the county sheriff is asking for citizens' help to recover the stolen property.

By Chad D. Baus

On Tuesday, Buckeye Firearms Association broke the news that Village of Walton Hills, OH Mayor Marlene Anielski had submitted to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg her resignation from the gun control front group known as Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG).

Since then, the news has been spread far and wide, and Anielski is doing some high-profile interviews to further explain her motivations for the resignation.

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation today accused MSNBC of using deceptively-edited video from a Phoenix, Arizona anti-tax rally on Monday to invent a racial stereotype in its on-going effort to demonize and marginalize American firearms owners as "racists."

The MSNBC video, narrated by reporter Contessa Brewer, appearing with "Morning Meeting" host Dylan Ratigan, shows an AR-15 rifle being carried over a man's shoulder. The man is part of a crowd protesting near the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, where President Barack Obama spoke. Brewer notes on camera, "Yes, there are Second Amendment rights, for sure, but also there are questions about whether this has a racial overtone. I mean, here you have a man of color in the presidency and white people showing up with guns strapped to their waist.."

"What MSNBC purposely did not reveal with the deliberately doctored video is that the man carrying that sport-utility rifle was an African-American," said SAF founder Alan Gottlieb.