Pistol Packin' Mamma's

Great article supporting a right so primal that we see it exercised by very nearly every warm blooded creature on the face of the Earth...A Mother's right and responsibility to defend her children from the dangers posed by a violent world.

I encourage all readers to click the link in the headline and read the comments to the article on it's original website. The public opinion tide may just be turning.


Mothers In Arms

July 29, 2008 by Kathy McManus

Moms pack many things—endless lunches, bottles, diapers, snacks, toys, wipes, overdue library books, and of course kids.

But does a responsible mom also pack a gun?

The question was recently raised on the website BabyCenter, which chronicles all things motherhood, from conception to inconceivably picky eaters and back-talking three year olds.

On the site, a mom blogger described the terrifying experience of a mother who was attacked at home in a safe neighborhood by a rapist with a gun. The woman fought, the attacker fled, and the blogger posed a question: “Do you think that every mother should own a gun?”

The point-blank debate about point-blank defense revealed that some moms are packing heat.

“I carry a Keltec 380 (small pistol) on my hip everyday,” revealed a mother of a one year old and a two year old. “I feel comfortable knowing that I will be able to defend my kids and I if we are in a life-threatening situation.”

Another mother—eight months pregnant and with a toddler—wrote that her husband works the night shift, and “our gun is the only way I could defend myself and my children should someone intend to do us harm.”

And there was this disclosure from a police officer mom: “I keep a loaded 9mm in my Coach diaper bag.”

Suddenly, it seems, mothers with guns are everywhere--movie star moms included. Recent news reports quote actress Angelina Jolie as saying she keeps a gun at home for security, and that “if anybody comes into my home and tries to hurt my kids, I've no problem shooting them.”
Tell us what you think: Should a mother’s responsibility to protect her children include having a gun?

Source: The Responsibility Project Sponsored by Liberty Mutual

PBS Says "Most Americans Support Gun Ownership"

I never thought I would see the day when PBS was airing comments in support of gun rights!

Florida Bank Customer Stops Bank Robber

For the love of God, if you are ever involved in a justified use of force incident, DO NOT SPEAK TO THE MEDIA!

Bank Customer Stops Knife-Wielding Robber

Customer: 'I Split Him Like A Pinata'

POSTED: 12:24 pm EDT May 1, 2010

WESH TV Orlando

TITUSVILLE, Fla. -- An armed robbery at a Titusville bank Friday night was thwarted by a customer, police said.

It was the second incident in as many days in the area that a Good Samaritan had taken down a bank robber.

"I should have blown him away," said David, who asked not to have his last name released.

He was a customer at Riverside Bank when a man held up the place with a knife.

When the robber ran out, David said he chased him through the mud in his socks and caught him.

"I split him like a piñata," David said. "There were $20 (bills) all over the place."

David had his .357-caliber Magnum on him. He said his concealed weapons permit and right to carry a gun are very important to him.

"Everybody get a gun," David said.

Another concealed weapons permit holder, Ruben Torres, foiled a bank robber in Palm Bay 24 hours earlier. In that case, the guy gave up easily. This was different, David said.

"He was trying to use his knife," he said. "I pistol-whipped him and split his head open and got blood all over me." Police identified the suspect as 55-year-old Michael Peterson, of Titusville.

He was put under observation at a nearby hospital before being taken to jail.

New Mexico No Longer Recognizes Utah CFP

New Mexico DPS Press Release

New Mexico No Longer Recognizes Utah Concealed Carry License

April 23, 2010
Contact: Peter Olson
(505) 827-3361

Santa Fe—Effective immediately New Mexico will no longer recognize concealed carry licenses issued by the State of Utah for the purposes of reciprocity in New Mexico, as the requirements for licensure in Utah do not meet the standards required in New Mexico statute. Rules governing the concealed carrying of weapons and issuance of licenses require that training and other provisions be as stringent or substantially similar to New Mexico requirements.

Questions concerning licenses obtained from Utah by New Mexico residents have made it necessary to reevaluate which states will be recognized as valid in New Mexico.

“We’ve had situations where certain concealed carry instructors in New Mexico solicit clients with the promise that if they train here and obtain a Utah license, which entails significantly less training than does a New Mexico license, it will qualify here,” said Department of Public Safety Secretary John Denko. “This is incorrect, and is nothing less than an effort to circumvent New Mexico concealed carry requirements which are designed to protect the public safety while honoring individual rights under the Second Amendment of the constitution.”

The state will also review the status of eighteen other states currently recognized on an informal basis, with the intent of entering into written agreements with these states to ensure compliance with New Mexico law. These states are: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wyoming.

New Mexico currently has a written reciprocity agreement in place with Texas; the status of this agreement will remain unchanged.

Chicago Mayor Takes His Anti-Gun Fight to World Court

Chicago Mayor Daley: Send Gun Industry to World Court

April 27, 2010
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter

Six years after the state Supreme Court dismissed his $433 million lawsuit against the gun industry , Mayor Daley today called for a change of venue — to the World Court normally reserved for disputes between nations and crimes against humanity.

Wrapping up the sixth annual Richard J. Daley Global Cities Forum , Daley convinced more than a dozen of his counterparts from around the world to approve a resolution urging "redress against the gun industry through the courts of the world" in The Hague.

"This is coming from international mayors. They're saying, 'We’re tired of your guns, America. ... We don't want those anymore because guns kill and injure people,' " Daley told a news conference at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

"If we ship over poison to a country, don’t you think we should be responsible for it? That’s what they’re saying: 'Be responsible for what you manufacture and sell in my country.' ... You have to think outside the box. You have to be [aggressive] about how you protect your people."

Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard Casauban noted that the Mexican government is waging a brutal war against drug cartels that get “85 percent” of their weapons from the United States.

"The U.S. government says, 'We cannot do a lot of things to stop this,'" Casauban said. "We should take actions with legal effects in order to stop this trade between the United States and Mexico."

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter acknowledged that using the World Court is a long-shot. But, he said “you never know until you try” and it’s worth a try to counter the political muscle and money of the National Rifle Association.

"We have to do different things. The political establishment in many state capitals — and certainly in Washington — [is] so deathly afraid of the NRA that people cannot make the right decision for their own constituents," Nutter said.

He added, "People are being killed every day in the United States of America with illegal weapons. I love the 2nd Amendment. [But], I have a 1st Amendment right not to be shot."
Gun violence also dominated a panel discussion earlier in the day at the Global Cities Forum.
It happened when Daley argued that Chicagoans have to "open our hearts and our pocketbooks" to save another generation from being lost.

"We don't say, 'Come to us.' Government has to go to them. They’re isolated. Maybe they have a substance abuse problem. The grandmother is 70 years old and raising grandchildren. ... We have to intervene in a different way we never have before. We have to have more homes for children, such as Boys and Girls Town to help them at earlier ages,” the mayor said.

"This idea of losing a 14-year-old to gangs and drugs in America is unacceptable. It is not a criteria we should ever live with."

Daley’s 1998 lawsuit accused the gun industry of creating a public nuisance by using irresponsible suburban gun shops to flood the city with guns that traffickers supplied to criminals.

The city and the county sought reimbursement for policing, emergency services and prosecutions tied to gun violence using nuisance laws normally reserved for polluters. In 2004, the state Supreme Court refused to create, what it called "an entirely new species of public nuisance liability."

Source: Chicago Sun – Times