Police pushing to get rid of the state Board of Firearms Permit Examiners say it too often overturns their careful decisions on whether someone should be allowed to have a pistol permit and carry a gun.
When considering appeals, the board has overturned permit denials and revocations in slightly more than half the cases in the past two years.

In 2012, the board overturned the police or first selectman's decisions 76 times, but upheld them in 70 cases, meeting minutes show. In 2011, the pattern was similar, with the board overturning 86 issuing authority decisions, and upholding 80.

Milford police Chief Keith Mello called these numbers "disturbing."

"Law enforcement agencies are putting in effort to determine someone's suitability," Mello said. "When we deny someone, it is because we have determined them to be unsuitable, so it is disturbing when the board overturns those."

http://www.gopusa.com/news/2013/02/06/ct-police-oversight-board-at-odds-on-firearm-permits/

DENVER - The suspended executive accused of harassing a Colorado lawmaker has been formally charged.

Franklin Sain, 42, was charged Monday with a felony charge of attempt to influence a public servant and a misdemeanor charge of harassment-ethnic intimidation.

Police said they found Sain after reviewing threatening emails and voice mails to Rep. Rhonda Fields, a Democrat from Aurora who is behind some of the gun control legislation being reviewed by the legislature.

Prosecutors said the charges allege that between February 13, 2013 and February 21, 2013, Sain sent numerous threatening emails and a voice mail message with the intent to alter or affect the Representative’s opinion or action.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/suspended-ceo-franklin-sain-formally-charged-for-alleged-threats-against-rep-rhonda-fields



Fields told 7NEWS that she was granted a restraining order against Sain. She added that Sain's weapons permit was revoked because of that order.

SPRINGFIELD -- As the state of Illinois continues to pile up unpaid bills, the agency responsible for creating Illinois’ first-ever process to issue concealed-carry permits estimates start-up costs will be $25 million.

The figure is based on the assumption that 300,000 people will apply for concealed-carry permits within the first year. Roughly 150,000 people applied for concealed-carry permits the first year after Wisconsin legalized concealed-carry in 2011, and Illinois has double the population, said Illinois State Police Lt. Darrin Clark.

“We don’t have the manpower or money right now. ... It’s really not going to be possible when we’re already facing a backlog of FOID cards,” Clark said.

A federal appellate court has ordered Illinois to enact legislation by June 8 that allows qualified people to carry concealed weapons.

http://www.dailyamericannews.com/article/20130304/NEWS/130309809

California is the only U.S. state where law enforcement officials confiscate guns from the homes of individuals not legally permitted to own them. The program, which takes guns away from criminals and the mentally ill, is being heralded as a model for the nation.

Individuals who legally purchased guns but are now disqualified are identified by analysts who match gun sales back to 1996 with databases listing criminal convictions, restraining orders and mental health detentions, UPI reports. Over the past five years, agents conducting twice-weekly sweeps have confiscated more than 10,000 guns.

However, there are still more than 19,700 individuals on the state's Armed Prohibited Persons list, and it would cost the state up to $50 million to hire more agents to catch up with the backlog, according to Attorney General Kamala Harris.

Because gun-confiscating agents do not obtain search warrants, their job involves convincing people to let them into their homes and hand over their guns, the Los Angeles Times reports. If an individual does turn over a gun, he can be arrested on suspicion of illegally owning a firearm.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/19/california-gun-confiscation_n_2717809.html

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — It was after 2 a.m. when David Aller was thrown out of the Klub Cirok Nightclub & VIP Lounge for fighting. That's when police say the 26-year-old man retrieved a loaded handgun from his car in the club parking lot and returned to threaten patrons.

Aller, who was charged with aggravated assault for the Nov. 11 incident, was also a handgun carry permit holder.

Ever since lawmakers opened serious consideration of a bill to allow permit holders to store firearms in their vehicles — no matter where they are parked — backers have maintained security won't be threatened because gun permit holders are law-abiding citizens and unlikely to commit crimes.

Public records reviewed by AP show, however, that some incidents, like the one at Klub Cirok, have the potential to become violent when guns are drawn by permit holders in parking lots. And club promoter Joe Savage said the bill is misguided.

http://www.tricities.com/news/local/article_0033d896-813e-11e2-861a-001a4bcf6878.html

Williamson, 37, was showing the Taurus .45-caliber revolver to a co-worker at the KUAF radio station. The station is in Fayetteville next to the city library but is considered a campus facility.

Williamson said he didn’t touch the gun and did nothing to jar the handgun into firing. He said he has since done research that he said showed the revolver was prone to accidental firings.

He said he brought the gun because he had planned to take the revolver to a gun range after work to shoot it for the first time. He said he was a hurry that morning and didn’t check the gun thoroughly for a round before tossing it into his bag.

Williamson said he owns several guns but will sell them now, and was able to joke that he would need the money to pay for his medical bills. He said his accident shows that guns shouldn’t be allowed on campus.

http://5newsonline.com/2013/02/26/arrest-warrant-issued-for-ua-student-who-shot-himself/

Twenty years ago this Thursday, the federal government took a step that remains a call to arms for guns rights hardliners. Many Americans remember the Waco siege as a federal raid against the compound of the Branch Davidians, a religious sect whose leader, David Koresh, was physically and sexually abusing adults and children. But for pro-gun absolutists, the Waco siege was something else. The kind of government tyranny they expect more of during the second Obama administration, and the kind of repression they are already preparing to resist.

“#USA>> Do you want *NAZI #Democrats TELLING you What you can EAT or How many Bullets you can DEFEND YOUR CHILDREN WITH? #STANDandFIGHT #tcot,” tweeted @johnmatthew19 this week using the hashtag #StandandFight encouraged by the National Rifle Association, and the hashtag #tcot or TopConservativesonTwitter favored by the organizers of the Conservative Political Action Conference being held in Washington in two weeks.

At the same time that the gun lobby is helping to fuel threatening language on the Internet, it is trying to keep secret its financial backing for key witnesses testifying about gun violence before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

One witness, David Kopel, who testified on January 30, identified at the hearing as a law school adjunct professor, received more than $108,000 in grants from the NRA’s Civil Rights Defense Fund in 2011. Another witness, David T. Hardy, testifying Wednesday as a private attorney in Tucson, Arizona, received $67,500 in grants from the same NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund in 2011. Another witness testifying Wednesday, Nicholas Johnson, a Fordham Law School professor, spoke a year ago at an NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund scholars’ seminar.

http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/02/27/senate-witness-on-weapons-ban-funded-by-gun-lobby/