By Chad D. Baus

She didn't raise a musket above her head during her speech at the Republican National Convention, and there have not (yet?) been cries of "from my cold dead hands" on the campaign trail, but for all the renewed enthusiasm among the pro-gun voting block, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin might as well have done both.

Many Americans are coming to the realization that Sarah Palin is truly "one of us", but perhaps no others saw it as quickly as did America's gun owners.

By Chad D. Baus

Having adopted the deceptive tactics suggested a few years ago by billionaire gun-hater Andrew McKelvey, gun and hunting ban lobbyist groups go to great lengths these days to deny that their ultimate goals are to stamp out all civilian ownership of firearms, or to eradicate all forms of hunting.

In response to warnings by grassroots pro-Second Amendment groups about these anti-gun organizations' true goals, Americans are offered assurance by the gun banners and their media friends that all they want are "sensible" or "common sense" reforms to our gun laws.

One of the loudest voices of warning about the gun ban lobby's true intentions is the National Rifle Association. And now, if one can believe the leftist Mother Jones magazine, we may have even more reason to believe the NRA when they say groups like the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Freedom States Alliance, States United to Prevent Gun Violence and the Violence Policy Center are lying about their true goals:

They had a (wo)man on the inside.

The Washington Post is reporting that Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives have agreed to allow a vote next month on a bill that would end local handgun control in the District, making it easier for D.C. residents to acquire pistols, including semiautomatics, while eliminating the strict handgun-storage requirements imposed by the city.

Even as Democrats shuttered the Capitol for the summer vacation without addressing other critical election year issues, such as energy crisis contributing to $4 gasoline, the National Rifle Association managed to force the D.C. gun ban issue onto the table by announcing that it would be grading members on whether they sign a discharge petition to force a vote on a similar, GOP-backed bill.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said in a statement that those Democrats "hope to relieve election year pressure by getting a Democratic-backed bill to the floor, out of fear that the [National Rifle Association] will run hometown ads against their reelection."

It’s not easy to get lawmakers to pay attention to issues other than energy and housing when gas is $4 per gallon and banks are announcing record losses due to failing mortgage investments.

Yet that’s exactly what the National Rifle Association is attempting to do by grading members on whether they sign a discharge petition to force a vote on an NRA-backed bill. Given the lobby’s clout, the chances are that many lawmakers will give it a serious look.

The Willoughby News-Herald has published an excellent story updating readers on the ongoing 101st running of the National Matches, which are being held at Camp Perry, a sprawling 640-acre Ohio National Guard base along Lake Erie in Ottawa County.

The Florida Chamber of Commerce and The Florida Retail Federation argued for three years that business owners had an absolute right to control their employees. That's why they kept calling it the "take-your-guns-to-work" legislation.

They claimed they could search employee vehicles and ban firearms from those vehicles in the employer's parking lot. They claimed businesses didn't care if customers had guns in cars, they only cared about their right to control employees. When the legislature passed the law protecting the rights of workers, The Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Florida Retail Federation filed a lawsuit in federal court asking the Court to throw out the law.

They argued that the law requiring businesses to allow guns in vehicles in their parking lots constituted an unconstitutional "taking" of their property. In court, the federal judge ruled against them – THEY LOST.

They argued that OSHA regulations require them to provide a safe work environment for their workers, which required them to bans guns in parking lots to comply with OSHA requirements. In court, the federal judge ruled against them – THEY LOST.

They argued that, as employers, they had an absolute right to control the conduct of their employees and could ban guns from employee vehicles in company parking lots while employees were at work. In court, the federal judge ruled against them – THEY LOST.

...Following the Supreme Court's favorable Heller decision, city officials in Washington, D.C. have been planning to obstruct D.C. citizens from exercising their right to keep and bear arms, despite the Supreme Court's clear statements. And some in Congress are planning to do something about it.

On Thursday [July 10], Representative Mark Souder (R-Ind.) introduced H. Res. 1331, a rule to govern House consideration of a modified version of H.R. 1399--the "District of Columbia Personal Protection Act."

The Ottawa County Beacon is reporting that attendees to the First Shot Ceremony for the 2008 National Rifle and Pistol Championships at Camp Perry were treated to more than just a band concert, a parachute jump that delivered the American Flag and a fly-over by a pair of F-16's from the 180th Ohio National Guard Tactical Fighter Wing from Toledo. They were also treated to a celebration of the Second Amendment by some of Ohio's elected officials.

Department of the Interior Extends Deadline for Comments Regarding Right-to-Carry in National Parks and Wildlife Refuges Until August 8

Like a quarterback taking a knee in the fourth quarter, two of Congress's most ardent opponents of our Right to Keep and Bear Arms are trying to run out the clock on efforts to enhance your right to self-defense in our national parks and wildlife refuges.

For two months, we have been asking NRA members and gun owners to submit comments in support of allowing law-abiding citizens to carry their legally-owned firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges -- and tens of thousand of you have done so. The deadline to submit comments expired on June 30 -- or so we thought.

Rather than closing the proscribed comments period as scheduled and moving toward finalizing this federal regulation, U.S. Senator Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) and U.S. Representative Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona), succeeded in delaying the implementation of the final rule by bullying the Department of the Interior (their respective congressional subcommittees have oversight of national parks) to extend the deadline for comments an additional 30 days!