The national media has picked up on this. It’s happening at every gun shop in the country. The explanation is pretty simple: the party that just ensconced itself in rock-solid power in Washington has long considered firearms restriction legislation to be one of its planks. Indeed, those at the pinnacle of power seem to consider it one of their priorities.

The Obama administration transition website, “www.change.gov” boldly and blatantly posted its intent to ban semiautomatic firearms and much, much more. Early this week, that particular page disappeared from the website. However, it has been archived and you can read it HERE Scroll down to “Crime and Law Enforcement”.

We’ve heard of “hidden agendas,” but rarely do we catch politicians in the very act of literally “hiding their agenda.” It’s really worth it to go to the link and dig up what they’re trying to hide.

The term “panic buying” has been used to describe this phenomenon, which began long before the election when Obama’s lead in the polls was evident, and his history of being hostile to private ownership of firearms had long since become apparent. I think “panic” may be a strong word. It’s more a matter of reasonable fear.

The strangest explanation of the buying spurt comes from a sociologist type who says it’s all about paranoid whites reacting in fear to a black President-elect who will now be Commander-in-Chief of mighty armed forces. An interesting exercise in sophomoric thought, but how does that explain all the black people I saw buying guns in the Trail Boss shop and elsewhere, all over the country? Gun dealers have spoken of the irony of how many folks buying guns right now are wearing Obama T-shirts. One observer asked, tongue only partly in cheek, “Do they know something we don’t?”

It seems like an excellent time to join the National Rifle Association, still the strongest collective voice in the nation for gun owners’ civil rights, and Second Amendment Foundation, which in my opinion has long been the most effective of the small activist groups. I would also recommend joining your state level grass roots gun owners’ organization.

When then-President Bill Clinton triggered “panic-buying sprees” with the Brady Bill and the Assault Weapons Ban, one gun industry group waggishly gave him a Gun Salesman of the Year Award. Barack Obama will clearly be in line for the next one. And, adds a friend of mine with a bullet business, “NRA Recruiter of the Year” is a possibility for Obama, too.

Kass, my favorite Chicago Tribune columnist, is a voice of practical reason and therefore a good channel to dial into. Chicago, you’ll remember, banned private ownership of handguns within the city limits, and also sales of any firearms, many years ago. Obama is on record as vehemently opposing private citizens’ rights to carry concealed handguns in public, and according to NRA, supports a 500% tax on all ordinary firearms and ammunition. So, you’ll understand the concern of our reader Long Island Mike, who wrote the following after reading my blog entry “Oh, Bummer”:

Mas
I respect you tremendously as a man who has a foot in the LE world and is an American. So I have a question for you. Now understand that I am building a scenario here of an extreme situation. If the worst of the worst happens and Mr. O, Ms. P and Mr. R all turn against the gun owners and the Feds pass a really tough AWB. Then they appoint a Supreme Court justice that tips the scales on Heller 180 degrees. What will the reaction of LE be if they start even a limited confiscation?

Mike, your question is a legitimate one. A few very experienced voices in the fight for gun owners’ civil rights believe that Obama and company may tread lightly on the gun issue, for fear of squandering the huge political capital he’s now bringing to his party, on what is essentially a culture war against firearms owners. However, the President-Elect’s history in this area – and that of the Chicago Machine culture that he seems to be so strongly building on during his administration’s formative days after the victory – makes me more than a little pessimistic.

To answer your question, I think a sweeping national confiscation of property that was lawfully purchased and responsibly owned would probably die in its nest before it could spread its wings. Even before our nation’s police were given the order to confiscate in that hypothetical situation, the execution of that order would be restrained by the courts. I’ve long believed that the Fourth Amendment is a stronger barrier to confiscation than the Second. Even if Obama appoints as US Attorney General a vehemently anti-gun personality such as Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich or, God help us, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, I suspect that the same Supreme Court of the United States that recently gave us the landmark Heller decision would follow the law, which means, our side would win.

Yes, anti-gun Supreme Court nominees will be put forward by an Obama White House, but let’s remember that most of the aging Justices due to be replaced are among the four who dissented in Heller, not from the five who concurred in the armed citizenry’s victorious Heller majority. (The new President’s ability to appoint Federal judges at a lower but still lofty level is something more important to worry about right now, IMHO.)

At the ground level, I see two strong barriers to enforcement of an unconstitutional confiscation order. At the executive level, CLEOs (Chief Law Enforcement Officers) do not like being sued. They will run such an order by their city attorney/county attorney/state attorney general before ordering enforcement. And I suspect those wise lawyers will, for the most part, say, “Don’t do it yet! Look how the Second Amendment Foundation and the National Rifle Association humiliated the New Orleans Police Department with court decisions after the Hurricane Katrina situation, and forced the confiscated guns to be given back! The precedents are against you and your officers…and, Chief, you are personally in the line of vicarious liability from such lawsuits! Wait until it’s sorted out by the higher court(s)!”

The other barrier at the ground level, I predict, would come from the street cops themselves, through their unions and fraternal organizations. “We all remember what happened in Waco and Ruby Ridge, and how the lawmen who did what they were ordered to do got dumped on. And now, you want us to do that, to the power of ten? Gonna ask our own brother and sister officers to take souvenir military rifles from their own parents and grandparents, and shoot them if they don’t turn them over? Naw…we, the police labor organizations, are filing suit to keep our officers from being ordered to carry out what appears to be an illegal, unconstitutional order.”

Long answer to a short question, Long Island Mike, but that’s what I believe would really happen in that scenario.

It looks as if we’re about to experience four years under a Chief Executive who is more inimical to the civil rights of gun owners than any of his predecessors. He’ll have as handmaidens a Vice-President and a Speaker of the House who are perhaps even more vehemently opposed to private firearms ownership than he.

I’m glad Grant Park stayed quiet. Secret Service was on the ball, and Chicago PD was out in huge numbers, riot gear handy, assisted by a reported 73 other law enforcement agencies. Turnout was less than a quarter of what the mayor invited and, probably most important, the attendees got what they wanted.

It’s a relief that, at least, this damn election is over. The pundits are saying, “It was the economy!” Uh, yeah, right. That’s why the electorate rejected the candidate who flew to Washington to work on the emergency fix, and elected the one who flew to California to party with Hollywood stars while that was going on. Yup, I got it … sorta…

Maybe Bob Hope had it right all those years ago, when he said this.

But, hey, I don’t wanna bash Democrats here. Hell, I’m an Independent, and on my local ballot, I voted for as many Democrats as Republicans. It ain’t a Party thing…it’s a “where this country is going” thing.

In the current (November/December 2008) issue of Backwoods Home magazine, editor and friend Dave Duffy wrote, “It doesn’t matter worth a damn who becomes President.”

I hope he’s right.

Stay tuned…

Hmmm…let’s look at that. I don’t recall any Presidential candidate receiving as much homicidal hostility during a campaign as Barack Obama. We are told that at least two assassination plots by white skinheads have been interdicted. Someone now invites a million people to come to the “range” and face the “target.”

Take Mayor Daley’s “invitation list” of 1,000,000 un-vetted people…In a city rife with gang culture and presently the “murder capitol” of the nation, despite Draconian gun laws that actually ban ownership of handguns (except by Chicago city council members, who are expressly allowed to carry loaded, concealed pistols). Compare that with the rule of thumb we’ve heard from so many mental health professionals that “one out of every hundred people is a psychopath.” One out of every hundred … a million people there … carry the one …

Yup, the math is right. That’s 10,000 psychopaths. In an area far too huge for screening and metal detectors to be effective. “Ten Thousand Maniacs” was a cool name for an ‘80s rock band, but it’s a most un-cool scenario for a political rally of unprecedented size at the peak pressure curve of a volatile election.

Chicagoland is not without white racists. I was there in the satellite community of Skokie three decades ago, when the American Nazis marched, mocking the substantial local community of Holocaust survivors. The cops were out in force, the racists were few in number, and it still looked pretty dangerous for a while, though the forces of order kept everything contained.

In addition to the white racists, there are those in the African-American community who have no love for Obama, and may even feel a vested interest in “creating an incident.” Chicago is the home of Jesse Jackson, who infamously said during the campaign that he would like to castrate Obama. We are also at war with an entity called Al Qaeda,, which has already murdered Americans…is familiar with American media…and has to have heard Rush Limbaugh’s prediction of a surprise McCain victory and writer-commentator Erica Jong’s recent prediction to an Italian magazine that if Obama loses, the streets will run red with blood and a “second American Civil War” will erupt. It would take only one suicidal terrorist pawn to throw a bomb or bullet at Obama in hopes of triggering just such chaos in the USA.

Chicago, our nation’s third most popular city, has the second largest police force. They’re authorized some 13,000 armed, sworn police personnel, though I think the current rolls are somewhat down from that. (LAPD, serving the second largest US city, has just under 10,000 officers, and NYPD is the largest with some 36,000 authorized.) That ain’t enough to control a million people if things flare up. I hear from usually reliable sources that Chicago PD has done something unprecedented: they’ve put out a call to surrounding departments and the State Police for assistance, supposedly requesting two-man patrol cars.

A part of America sees Barack Obama as the Martin Luther King of our time. We remember the fierce rioting (we call it “civil unrest” now) that broke out after King’s assassination forty years ago. What is going to happen if a shot rings out in Grant Park…?

If I was a Secret Service agent assigned to the Obama protection detail, I’d be waking up screaming in the middle of the night.

Paul Huebl, a retired Chicago cop who now writes a conservative blog, has noted that Grant Park is largely surrounded by bodies of water, and that on a cold night water cannons make very effective riot control devices. Many of the bridges in Chicago are drawbridges that, if lifted, would greatly limit auto/pedestrian access from Grant Park to other parts of the city. But that would only mitigate the aftermath, not prevent it.

This rally may not go down in history as the smartest move Mayor Daley has ever made or approved. However, those who’ve followed his administration will probably ask, “And this is different…how?”

Newspapers around the nation have noted that gun sales are up, everywhere. Semiautomatic rifles, the kind Barack Obama and Joe Biden have incorrectly called “assault weapons,” are flying out the doors of gun shops. So are full capacity magazines for pistols and rifles alike. Current Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate Joe Biden was a prime mover behind the onerous, decade-long Assault Weapons Ban fostered by the Clinton administration that limited magazine cartridge capacity to ten rounds. Folks are stocking up on ammo, too – not just serious collectors and hard-core gun enthusiasts, but ordinary firearms owners of every race and gender.

Both sides desperately continue to throw mud at each other, but none of the mud-balls have a rock in them solid enough to score a knockout. Maddeningly, the McCain side – the “lesser of two evils” in my view – has failed to fire its strongest ammunition: proof that Obama and Biden have provably, demonstrably lied when they said publicly that they supported citizens’ rights under the Second Amendment.

This past Sunday, I had the pleasure of being interviewed about my new book (Gun Digest Book of Concealed Carry) on the middle hour of Tom Gresham’s terrific radio program, “GunTalk.” Catch it if ya want – hey, I can use the book royalties – but you really need to hear the first hour of that show.

That hour is an in-depth, pull-no-punches interview with my old friend Rich Pearson, president of the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA), that state’s grass-roots political action group fighting for gun owners’ civil rights. Rich has been fighting Obama on this issue for years, and he has the documented truth on Obama’s positions on Second Amendment issues. Obama does not seem to believe in the concept of self-defense, opposes any private citizen being licensed to carry a concealed weapon in public, and is insistent that you have no right to own the sort of firearms that you and your parents and your grandparents used in military service to defend this great nation.

Listen to it HERE. Send it along to friends, acquaintances, relatives, and everyone else with a vote. They have a right to know that some people who want the White House have flat-out lied to them.

It gives the street cops a chance to show that they care about the most disadvantaged members of society, who so often need their assistance in disproportionate degree. It gives law-abiding armed citizens a chance to better know the boys (and girls!) in blue who protect them while they sleep, and it gives society’s designated centurions a better chance to get to know the self-sufficient Americans who are prepared to hold the line and take care of themselves until the folks with the badges get there.

Kudos to Ron Griffin and his team, mostly IDPA (International Defensive Pistol Association) shooters, who busted their butts to do something good for local charities and local cops.

I attended the eight-stage event (though I didn’t compete: it was for the South Carolina cops), and it was a helluva good match. If you patrol rural areas or communities big enough to have their own airports, there’s a chance you’ll have to interdict a small drug plane on the ground. When was the last time you actually shot around one? They had an airplane set up on the range! See photos.

More than one shooting has taken place in or around an ambulance; after all, that’s where surviving gang-bangers get loaded, and occasionally they’re down but not out, or their counterparts come back to finish the job. When was the last time you fired live ammo inside an actual ambulance, at hostile threat targets both inside and outside? At Thin Blue Line, the cops got to do both.

What goes around, comes around. Lavish props donated for the police match remained on the range the Saturday after the Thin Blue Line shoot for the armed citizens of the local IDPA group to test their skills upon. A match entry fee is same cost as a medium-priced box of ammo; most of us would find that setting up these elaborate stages is impractical and unaffordable. However, training should be authentically replicated experience, and both Thin Blue Line and IDPA deliver that in spades.

Congrats to all involved in this exemplary effort! If you’d care to donate a prize for next year’s match, or offer your services to help out on the range, or just get an idea of what’s going on and maybe see about your club doing the same locally in the future, go to www.thinbluelinesc.org. For more info on IDPA and to find a club near you, go to www.idpa.com. Finally, a tip of the Backwoods Home shooting cap to the winning squad, Anderson County Team 1, and to the high overall individual shooter, streetwise police instructor Sgt. Heath Clevenger of the York County Sheriff’s pistol team. And…a “biggest cojones” award to Sheriff John Skipper, who took time out of running for reelection to show his support for brother officers and armed citizens alike as he stood in front of an audience of 132 law-dogs and won the hard-fought, man-on-man “dueling tree shootoff” to prove himself the straightest-shootin’ high sheriff in South Carolina!

County, state, and city cops joined together for the Thin Blue Line event.

This officer fires on the move as he scoots between cover points on the “drug plane” stage. How’s this for realistic scenario props?

Note flash at muzzle of duty Glock as this officer “repels boarders” from inside an actual ambulance, live fire.

Winning team was Anderson County squad #1.

Flashlight is mounted on holstered duty Glock of Sgt. Heath Clevenger, high individual contestant.

Sheriff Skipper, right, comes from behind to win dueling tree event for fastest/straightest shooting High Sheriff. At left is Sheriff Steve Loftis.

Sheriff Skipper took time out from running for reelection to show his support for both brother/sister law enforcement personnel, and armed citizens.

My old friend Alan Korwin, a long-time fighter for the civil rights of firearms owners, had this to say after the last debate between McCain and Obama.

I ain’t no political savant, but I also try not to be a schmuck. In the last couple of days, I’ve been inundated with Democratic campaign mail quoting that phony Trojan Horse organization that pretends to be pro-gun, telling me that it’s OK to vote for Obama. Read the link above. Decide for yourself.

As you read it, please understand that the Brady Campaign, the most virulent gun-banning organization extant, has just publicly endorsed Barack Obama. Will Obama refute their support, despite the radical stances those people have taken over the years? Not hardly.

It is frustrating for me to watch a debate in which McCain never brings up the gun owners’ rights issue. Instead, I see his supporters sending out Obama rumors over the Internet, rumors which they can’t substantiate. These would-be “swiftboaters” are launching torpedoes that are backfiring and sinking their own credibility.

Hey, I don’t want to see Barack Obama elected. I see all this crap about him being a Muslim, and his name spelled “Barack HUSSEIN Obama,” and I cringe, just as I do when I see the “Osama/Obama” play on words. I think it would be particularly hypocritical for a guy named “Massad Ayoob” to play that card, and I don’t happen to be Muslim, but I just don’t think that’s the issue. The issue is, dammit, Barack Obama has provably, demonstrably lied to the public about his position on firearms ownership, and a man who will lie about one thing will lie about the other things.

It ain’t about Osama Bin Laden.

It’s about Obama Been Lyin’.

Don’t believe it…

One of the things I love about shooting is that, in many respects, it is the most egalitarian sport. Millionaires shoot alongside laborers as equals. All the color lines are crossed, and the gender lines too.

Another rare element we find in competitive shooting is that us ordinary puppies are allowed to run with the big dogs. Few of us will ever golf against Tiger Woods, or race against Jimmy Johnson in NASCAR. But, by God, we can shoot in the national championships against the best our nation has to offer, across all the rifle, shotgun, and handgun disciplines.

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of shooting the National Championships of IDPA, the International Defensive Pistol Association. This is the “concealed carry sport,” in which you have to draw a more or less stock combat handgun from under a concealing garment, and then shoot several stages of what might be called replicated defensive gunfighting scenarios. At this match, held in Allentown, PA, start positions ranged from lying in bed with the gun on a nearby table, to sitting in a chair, to astride a two-wheeler. Electronic timers tick silently and ominously behind you as you draw, shoot, take cover at various positions, reload, and shoot some more. Fastest time wins, with every point down from a perfect score adding half a second to your time.

Contestants have a choice of five divisions, determined by type of gun, and in all of them they have a crack at separating the crème de la crème from their national titles. The beauty of it is, gun people being the good folks they are, it’s a win-win situation. If you win, you “live the dream.” If you don’t, you got to shoot pretty much side-by-side with fine human beings you are proud to have as the champions of your chosen sport. Egotistical prima donnas are, thankfully, very thin on the ground in the shooting world.

If you favored a single action .45 auto like the 1911, you had to beat David Olhasso, who successfully defended his title this year in the Custom Defense Pistol division using a modern Smith & Wesson Military & Police .45. I don’t know David well, but I do know he is universally respected in the shooting community. If you prefer double action semiautomatic pistols in 9mm or .40, your division is the most popular one, Stock Service Pistol, which this year was won by Dave Sevigny, with a 9mm Glock 34 pistol. Dave is a humble, friendly young man, self-taught, whose story belongs in Reader’s Digest every bit as much as it does in gun magazines. David brought himself to the pinnacle by virtue of hard work, dedication, and self-discipline, and never has allowed it to swell his head. His score this year was the single best one posted.

If you choose a single action pistol in a medium caliber, such as a Browning Hi-Power, your division is Enhanced Service Pistol…or you can shoot a stock service pistol there, too. Rob Vogel took that route, shooting a Glock 34 to win the division. I first met Rob at the Midwestern Regional Championships in 2005, where I won the Stock Service Revolver title and he captured Enhanced Service Pistol and the overall match. I didn’t get any better in the interim, but he sure did. Rob is a career cop, and those who live where he works should feel all the safer when they sleep. Vogel travels to matches with his lovely young wife, who’s as friendly and free of conceit as he is.

If you’ve watched the “shooting shows” on cable TV, you’ve seen the awesome feats of Jerry Miculek. He may well be the fastest man with a double action revolver who has ever lived, and Jerry used one of his trademark guns, a Smith & Wesson Model 625 .45 six-shooter, to win the title in the Enhanced Service Revolver division. He repeated as National Champion there this year. They call this Louisiana man the “Ragin’ Cajun,” but he’s one of the finest and most soft-spoken gentlemen I’ve ever met in the gun world, which is so densely populated with such gentlemen. Those of us who’ve competed with him will tell you that it’s like arm-wrestling Superman, but will also tell you that Jerry is a super man. I’ve been proud to call him a friend for about a quarter century.

Another super man was the one I was after, the long-reigning champion of the Stock Service Revolver division, Curt Nichols. I first met him at the 2006 Nationals, where I noticed two things: his blinding speed with a Smith & Wesson .357 Combat Magnum, and the kind patience with which he helped all the competitors, including the ones seeking his title, through the stage he was running. Yes, you heard me correctly. Alone among the national champions, Curt devotes his time to working his butt off and supervising a stage at each such match, and does so with exemplary fairness.

In this great country, most any of us can run for President; we just ain’t guaranteed the victory. Same with shooting against national champions. Try as I might to unseat Curt, I got my backside handed to me on a silver platter. I was able to shoot a little more accurately than he, with fewer points down, but he shot so much faster that he left me in the dust. I only beat him on maybe three of the seventeen stages, and my condolence was that no one else beat him either, and Curt retained his well-deserved National Champion title. I learned at the Nationals that he is deeply involved in HAVA, a group that works for the benefit of handicapped American veterans.

I’m proud to have such men as the champions of my chosen sport. And, such women: this year the National Champion IDPA female is once again Randi Rogers, a young woman who made her first splash in the shooting world by outgunning every male on the ranch at the National Single Action Shooting Society Championships to win the overall title. She won with a Glock 34…and with skill, style, and grace toward those she had defeated.

It’s wonderful to be able to compete against national champs. It’s at least as wonderful to know that they are the fine people they are, the exemplars of the sport and the lifestyle that so many of us have chosen.

Curt Nichols, National Stock Service Revolver Champion