From a Louisiana court to Capitol Hill, 2005 will likely go down in history as a year of significant gun rights victories, but as the Roman slave told the Conqueror in Gen. George Patton’s famous little parable, “All glory is fleeting.”

On the horizon is a mid-term election year for Congress, and because of victories and legislative ground gained by gunowners during the past 12 months, anti-gunners are chomping at the bit to take control on Capitol Hill.

This was the year that was highlighted by a landmark court ruling in the wake of Hurricane Katrina that stopped the New Orleans gun grab. It was the year that Congress and the Bush Administration outlawed harassment lawsuits of gunmakers. It was the year that the California Court of Appeals nixed several of those lawsuits, filed by seven cities and two counties. And it was the year that the Minnesota legislature moved swiftly to restore carry reform after anti-gunners sued to undo that state’s handgun carry law.

A Gun Week expose uncovered a US Forest Service attempt to shut down national forest lands to shooting by misinterpretation of an obscure regulation.

And these pages carried detailed reports about a gun show operation in Richmond, VA, involving the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and officers with the Virginia State Police, Henrico County Police Department, and Richmond Police Department that may have gone way over the line.

There have been some low moments, too. Early into the year, the gun rights movement lost one of its giants when Neal Knox, founder of the Firearms Coalition and founding editor of Gun Week, passed away Jan. 17.

Columbus, OH, passed a ban on so-called assault weapons, causing the National Rifle Association to change its meeting site for the 2007 annual convention.

The year was off to a bad start on Jan. 1, when the law signed in September 2004 by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that brought .50 BMG caliber rifles, even single shots, under the state’s “assault weapon” statute took effect.

Just over two weeks later, Knox, who had also been executive director of the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) from 1978 to 1982, was gone after a battle with cancer.

One day later, anti-gun Republican New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed an ordinance in the Big Apple that, for the first time anywhere in the nation, holds gunmakers and dealers liable for injuries or deaths caused by the criminal use of their products.

Gun Week reported that membership renewals for the embattled Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA) had fallen off by more than 20% after months of bitter feuding over a letter that group’s board of directors had sent to former NRA President Kayne Robinson in June 2004. OWAA seems to be rebounding from that situation, and in the aftermath, a new group calling itself the Professional Outdoor Writers Association (POWA) was created by OWAA defectors who felt the older organization had gone politically left, and decidedly “green.”

And gun rights activists were outraged when newly-nominated Attorney General Alberto Gonzales revealed that he supported renewal of the so-called Clinton assault weapon ban.

But the gloom of winter began giving way to brighter days. The 2005 Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) show in Las Vegas was the biggest and perhaps best event ever, despite the theft of more than 20 firearms from assorted exhibitors.

Gun experts were vindicated when Maryland’s ballistic imaging program turned out to be a bust. A report from the State Police Forensic Sciences Division said the technology, widely ballyhooed by anti-gunners over the past couple of years, had “simply failed.”

Halfway around the world, authorities in New Zealand reported that they found gun registration useless in fighting crime. Gun registration was dropped in that island nation about 20 years ago due to the high cost and low benefit.

The Feb. 10 issue of Gun Week revealed that a survey by the National Association of Chiefs of Police found a whopping 93.6% of sheriffs and police chiefs support gun ownership by private citizens

In that same issue, Gun Week reported that the use of Tasers by police was coming under increasing scrutiny by watchdog groups after several people had died following their having been shot with the purportedly non-lethal weapons.

Battling the Ban
Not long after San Francisco supervisors pushed their gun ban referendum onto the ballot without a public debate, a coalition of gun rights groups, including the gay Pink Pistols, formed to battle the initiative.

“Across the pond,” it was reported that Scotland was looking at new knife laws because so many Scots were beginning to carry knives. About half of the homicides in Scotland are the result of knife wounds.

In early February, the California Court of Appeals turned thumbs down on the anti-gun lawsuits by several cities and two counties, ruling unanimously that a lower court judge had properly tossed the lawsuits back in March 2003. It was a major blow to anti-gunners who had been trying to bankrupt the gun industry by means of lawsuits.

Unfortunately, Wal-Mart decided to settle a gun sales lawsuit filed by the California attorney general for $14.5 million. The chain promised to pay $5 million in fines and spend another $4.5 million to comply with various state and federal gun laws. An investigation had been mounted in 1999 that uncovered more than 2,800 alleged violations over a three-year period from 2000 to 2003.

Anti-hunting groups started pushing an initiative to undo the dove hunting season in Michigan, and as a result, this year’s season, and the one in 2006, have been cancelled, pending the vote next fall.

Safari Club International announced that its convention this year set a record, with more than 19,700 SCI members and vendors attending the gathering in Reno, NV.

Convicted killer Claude Lafayette Dallas, who shot two Idaho game wardens dead in 1981, was released from prison after serving 22 years of a 30-year sentence.

On Feb. 20, the father of “Gonzo” journalism, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, committed suicide in his Colorado home. Despite his bizarre persona, Thompson was widely known as pro-gun.

Gun Week disclosed the contents of a report funded by the National Shooting Sports Foundation that suggested minimum hunting age limits and hunter education requirements in many states were acting as deterrents to the recruitment of new hunters. The report was compiled by the US Sportsmen’s Alliance with the assistance of Silvertip Productions.

Anti-gun Seattle, WA, Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske managed to get around any trouble over the theft of his pistol from his parked department vehicle in December. He had left the car on a downtown street while he went shopping with his wife after Christmas.

Reciprocity
In March, momentum started building for the long political battle that will be fought across the country for full concealed carry reciprocity. Executive Editor Joe Tartaro’s report on the status of that campaign headlined Gun Week’s March 10 issue, in which it was also revealed that the anti-gun Legal Community Against Violence was continuing to push a game plan on gun legislation around the country. That group’s latest effort was to distribute a 70-page document entitled: “Banning Assault Weapons—A Legal Primer for State and Local Action.”

At the same time, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a “study” about safe gun storage. Gunowners were not happy, suggesting that the NRA publish research about surgery.

Several people were gunned down at a Wisconsin hotel by a man who violated the ban on concealed carry in that state. Anti-gun Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle was blasted for having vetoed concealed carry legislation two years ago.

Federal agents conducted a major raid in Seattle, recovering a large cache of firearms that had been in the possession of two convicted felons. Those men were charged with illegally trafficking in firearms.

Good news for gunowners worried about attempts by the United Nations to spread global gun control came in March when President Bush tapped John Bolton as America’s UN envoy. Bolton led the delegation two years ago to turn back a similar UN initiative. At about the same time, global gun banners used the observance of International Women’s Day to enlist support from women for their gun control efforts.

Anti-gun New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg announced that he would introduce legislation to require that NICS records be retained on some gun buyers for 10 years.

Gun rights activists began pushing for a change in national park regulations that would allow concealed carry inside those parks by licensed citizens.

A California appeals court upheld a $24 million verdict for the victim of a defective firearm who is now paralyzed because of a negligent discharge in 1994.

All eyes were on the Arizona-Mexico border during the month of April when the Minuteman Project was launched to prevent illegal aliens from crossing the border along a stretch of desert south of Tucson.

And in Illinois, an activist with the “Million” Mom March was arrested on charges of possessing an illegal handgun, which had been defaced in an attempt to remove its serial number.

March to Reform
The long march to reform tort law began as supporters of a law to protect gunmakers from harassment lawsuits began laying the groundwork for ultimate passage of the law later in the year. However, reintroduction of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act set off a firestorm in the anti-gun camp, with the usual predictions about blood in the streets and loss of legal redress for victims of “gun crime.”

On the other end of the political spectrum, liberals began working on an effort to restore voting rights to convicted felons. Gun rights activists countered that the restoration of one civil right should be no more important than restoration of another, including the right to keep and bear arms.

A Minnesota teen was arrested after he murdered his grandfather, stole the dead man’s firearm and vehicle, then drove to a school on the Red Lake Reservation and shot several more people, killing a total of nine including a school security guard, five students and a teacher. Also killed was the grandfather’s girlfriend. What made this crime so bizarre was that the grandfather was a tribal police officer, underscoring the argument that a determined killer will get a firearm, even if he has to kill a lawman to do it.

Olympic Arms announced that its synthetic reproduction of the famed Whitney .22-caliber semi-auto pistol, sometimes called the Wolverine, had begun.

The winds of change began blowing at OWAA when several candidates for the board of directors revealed in a questionnaire that they would have been against sending the 2004 letter to Robinson that started the civil war within that organization.

Four Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers were gunned down in Alberta, setting off a debate about the inability of that country’s restrictive gun laws to prevent violent crimes.

In the Spring, a diverse coalition of civil rights groups began working on a campaign to reform the US Patriot Act. The coalition wanted Congress to review provisions of the controversial law.

Also, the FBI announced that it would create a study group on firearms and so-called watch lists to review a law that had allegedly allowed suspected terrorists to buy guns after they cleared background checks.

Gun control extremists in Florida were sent into hysterics after the legislature there approved a new self-defense reform measure that offered protections for armed citizens who had to defend themselves outside their homes.

In Philadelphia, PA, anti-gun Mayor John Street wanted a moratorium on the issuance of concealed carry licenses after the city had suffered a surge in homicides.

Spring Ahead
Tens of thousands of NRA members descended on Houston, TX, for the association’s 134th annual convention, which saw the election of NRA’s second woman president, Sandra Froman of Arizona. A Tucson attorney, Froman succeeded Robinson at the NRA helm.

As it turned out, the NRA wasn’t finished with Robinson. Less than a month after he stepped down as NRA president, Robinson was tapped to head NRA General Operations, succeeding the retiring Craig Sandler.

In a case of delayed justice, a federal indictment was issued against a Tacoma, WA, man who had purchased a rifle for convicted Beltway snipers John Allan Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo months before the killing spree in 2001, but after Muhammad’s estranged wife, Mildred, had gotten a protection order that barred Muhammad from having a firearm. Earl Lee Dancy ultimately pleaded guilty to that crime.

Further progress in the gun rights battle came in April when a Zogby International poll, conducted on behalf of the Second Amendment Foundation, revealed that an overwhelming majority of Americans reject the notion of gun bans to fight terrorism.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law the new self-defense reform measure in the Sunshine State to the wails of anti-gunners, while at the other end of the country, California gun banners were pushing legislation to require serialization of every cartridge sold in that state.

A coalition of angry outdoorsmen and women went on the warpath against federal agencies, primarily the US Forest Service, over fees that were being charged for access to public land. The Western Slope No-Fee Coalition also targeted the Bureau of Land Management.

In a bizarre development, a pro-gun column written in The Chicago Tribune drew hate mail from gunowners for author Steve Chapman. His column, relating to the Red Lake High School massacre in Minnesota, noted that no gun law could have prevented the shooting, but that didn’t stop angry gunowners, apparently spurred by misinformation on the Internet, from sending nastygrams to Chapman.

And lawmakers in Minnesota, angry over a declaration by a judge that the state’s carry reform law was unconstitutional because of a legal technicality, rushed through a new measure in a few weeks’ time, beating the adjournment date and getting the bill to Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who signed it as expected.

Alien Criminals
Gun Week sent a shockwave across the country when it published the results of an investigation in May that revealed state and federal law enforcement agencies do not track crimes committed by illegal aliens. One government source put it bluntly, telling Gun Week that there is “no uniform system” for keeping specific data on violent crimes committed by illegal aliens.

The Gun Week investigation also revealed that estimates run as high as 30% for the number of illegal aliens making up the prison population in this country. Housing them costs an estimated $1.6 billion annually. The investigation further discovered that many cities have so-called sanctuary laws or rules that prohibit police officers from ascertaining a person’s nationality when they are arrested.

A gun rights victory of sorts was scored when the US Supreme Court ruled in the Spring that foreign convictions do not prohibit firearms ownership in the United States. The case involved a Pennsylvania man who had been convicted of a firearms violation in Japan. Upon his return to this country, the man tried to buy a firearm, answered “No” to the question on the Form 4473 that asked whether he had been convicted of a felony. The man, Gary Sherwood Small, was subsequently indicted for lying on the form, and he fought the case all the way to the high court.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who vetoed a concealed carry law there, signed a state preemption law. Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano signed legislation that would enable public schools and charter schools to offer a one-semester course in firearms marksmanship, although she nixed a bill that would have allowed concealed carry in restaurants, bars and other venues where liquor is consumed.

A Missouri court ordered an anti-gun sheriff in Jackson County to issue concealed pistol licenses to two bona fide applicants who happened to be firearms instructors. However, the county made it clear that it would continue resisting the requirement to issue CPLs to other applicants.

An ex-agent for the ATF enraged gunowners when he was quoted in a Houston, TX, newspaper proclaiming, “If it wasn’t for criminals, there wouldn’t be a gun industry in this country.” Gerald Nunziato was roundly condemned for his remark. He headed the ATF’s National Tracing Center from late 1991 through 1998, primarily during the Clinton Administration.

And in a stunning admission, The New York Times noted on April 24 that “Despite dire predictions that the streets would be awash in military-style guns, the expiration of the decade-long assault weapons ban last September has not set off a sustained surge in the weapons’ sales, gunmakers and sellers say.”

That the anti-gun Times even printed that passage was enough to astonish gun activists across the country.

More Gun Battles
Gun rights activists continued rolling up their score of successes as Spring unfolded, as Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro intervened in a lawsuit filed against the city of Clyde by an Ohio gun rights organization. Petro took the side of the gun activists, filing a motion for summary judgment and defending the constitutionality of the Buckeye State’s concealed carry law.

Small ammunition manufacturers were fighting a Clinton Administration edict that continues to stand, requiring the military to render all of its used brass unusable, so that it could not be used to make remanufactured ammunition.

And internationally, the first UN “global gun treaty” started taking effect in the Spring, finally becoming effective in July. It was ratified by Poland and Zambia so that it could become a legally binding agreement.

Anti-gun New York Rep. Carolyn McCarthy introduced legislation that would make foreign convictions count against gun ownership in this country, a response to the Supreme Court ruling in the Spring.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) introduced legislation that would add .50 BMG-caliber firearms to the National Firearms Act, putting them in the same category as machineguns.

And a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit in New York upheld a New York state handgun licensing scheme, and a lower court ruling that said “The Second Amendment is not a source of individual rights.”

In another jurisdiction halfway across the country, a change in Missouri state law forced the city and county of St. Louis to start issuing concealed pistol licenses.

In Washington, DC, anti-gunners almost went into orbit when Sens. George Allen (R-VA), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), and John Cornyn (R-TX) sponsored legislation to repeal the handgun ban in the nation’s capitol.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice earned high marks from gun rights activists when she told an interviewer in May that she strongly believes in the right to keep and bear arms, and might not support gun registration. Her father was a minister in Birmingham, AL, in the early 1960s. He and some friends had to arm themselves against racist attack by the White Knight Riders, and she said that if those guns had been registered with local authorities, the guns would have been seized, leaving her father and other blacks defenseless.

The Illinois House of Representatives narrowly rejected a proposed ban on .50-caliber rifles and so-called assault weapons amid intense lobbying in late May. However, at the same time, the New York Assembly approved legislation to expand the “assault weapon” ban in the Empire State, and also passed a ban on .50-caliber rifles. However, the state Senate did not approve the bill.

In the States
At mid-year, it appeared that much of the action relating to firearms and the outdoors had definitely shifted to state legislatures.

California lawmakers continued to wrangle over bullet and handgun legislation, the latter which would require gunmakers to etch the chambers of semi-auto pistols so that fired cases would be inscribed with the number, making traces easier at crime scenes.

In a case of turnabout being fair play, the Folsom Shooting Club gun range indignantly closed its doors to use by officers with the California Department of Justice because their boss, Attorney General Bill Lockyer, was pushing the anti-gun measures.

In Oregon, the legislature unanimously approved a resolution calling upon Congress to repeal a federal law that allows fees to be charged for visiting public campgrounds.

The Rhode Island Senate okayed two gun bills that ratchet down on people who have been served with permanent restraining orders. Such citizens would be required to surrender their guns within two days to the local police, or to sell the firearms to a licensed dealer.

In Delaware, Gov. Ruth Ann Minner signed a law that allows handgun hunting for deer, while the Texas Senate okayed a bill that would allow municipal judges and district and county attorneys to carry guns inside state and federal buildings if they are licensed to carry.

The Minnesota legislature passed a bill that protects public gun ranges, while Maine lawmakers turned back three gun control measures.

On a lighter note, a contender for “Bonehead of the Year” surfaced in California when fugitive animal rights terror suspect Peter Daniel Young was apprehended by police for attempting to shoplift some music CDs at a coffee shop in San Jose. Young—who has since been convicted and sent to prison in Wisconsin—had been on the run since 1998 after being indicted by a federal grand jury for violations of the Hobbs Act and for Animal Enterprise Terrorism.

Gun Week Senior Editor Dave Workman took Second Place in the 5th annual Elmer Keith Memorial Long Range Handgun match near Spokane, WA.

Anti-gun measures died in Connecticut when time ran out during that state’s legislative session, with the threat that most of those measures will be back when the legislature convenes for 2006.

Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry signed a law that prohibits employers in that state from banning firearms locked in vehicles parked on company property by employees.

Wisconsin anti-gunners, preparing for this year’s new battle on concealed carry, capitalized on a Gallup poll that showed a majority of respondents do not favor private citizens carrying guns.

Utah passed a law allowing concealed carry on school campuses that left anti-gunners howling all the way to Richmond, VA, where a newspaper editorialized, “If you think guns don’t have any place on or near school property, don’t move to Utah.”

And in Chicago, IL, there was plenty of egg on the collective face of anti-gun Mayor Richard Daley’s administration when it was revealed that, while Chicago cops were focusing on grabbing so-called assault weapons from people, three Water Department employees were involved in operating a heroin ring right under their noses.

Throughout the year, there was much attention on legislative attempts to ratchet down on, if not outright ban, the possession of rifles chambered for the .50 BMG.

The US House of Representatives turned back an attempt to block exports of the guns to civilians, and at the same time, shooters of the big bore rifles charged NBC’s Dateline newsmagazine with bias in its June 19 report on the big guns. They pointed to an e-mail from Kristen Rand at the Violence Policy Center, alerting supporters about the segment, asserting, “The VPC worked closely with ‘Dateline’ on the piece.”

NBC spokeswoman Jenny Tartikoff denied the allegation, and insisted that Rand’s e-mail was erroneous.

The Supreme Court once again left Americans less at ease when it ruled in late June that police cannot be sued for how they enforce restraining orders. The case involved a Colorado woman who sued police there for not doing enough to prevent her estranged husband from murdering the couple’s three daughters.

Texas Gov. Rich Perry signed three bills that strengthened gun rights in the Lone Star State, including one that clarifies the definition of “traveling” as the term relates to the carrying of firearms in a vehicle.

Second Chance Body Armor announced another recall of vests made with Zylon fibers after reports continued that such bullet-resistant vests might not be safe.

And in our July 20 issue, concerns over big bore rifles gave way to a double dose of field research on the newest—and arguably hottest—varmint cartridge on the map, the .204 Ruger. Gun Week’s inimitable Handguns Editor Phil Johnston’s front page article, coupled with Workman’s evaluation of the cartridge in a No. 1 Ruger Single Shot, provided great reading for anybody enthralled with prairie dog hunting in South Dakota.

While Johnston and Workman were raining destruction on the dogs, a Virginia judge rained on the parade of sporting clays shooters when he ruled that the Old Dominion’s constitutional protection of the right to keep and bear arms does not extend to the discharge of firearms for sporting clays and other clay pigeon shooting activities on the same property as a hunting preserve.

The case stemmed from a lawsuit filed by Orion Sporting Group LLC against Nelson County after officials there approved shooting live game on Orion’s 450-acre tract, but banned the discharge of firearms for clay target shooting.

A mid-Summer Gun Week investigation, prompted by a complaint from a Colorado reader, revealed that an obscure forest regulation was apparently being wrongly used to close some areas of national forests to public shooting. The rule prohibits shooting within 150 yards of an “occupied area,” and in at least two different national forests, that rule was being wrongly interpreted to define a road as an “occupied area.”

Gun Week’s report brought this problem to the attention of Mark Rey, undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment in the Department of Agriculture. Rey assured Gun Week in an interview that “the Forest Service recognizes recreational shooting as a valid activity . . . on national forest lands.”

Progress continued slowly on a Washington, DC, court challenge to that city’s ban on handguns. The case, Parker v. District of Columbia, is a Second Amendment challenge to the DC gun ban.

Buck Knife opened its new headquarters in Post Falls, ID, moving from its base in El Cajon, CA. The new facility is large, and the corporate and social climate in the Idaho Panhandle seems very comfortable to the renowned knifemaker.

When the Columbus, OH, city council decided to poke the NRA in the eye with a sharply-worded ordinance banning so-called assault weapons, the NRA proved that it can hit back where it hurts. They pulled their planned 2007 annual convention out of Columbus and moved it to St. Louis, MO, April 13-17 of that year.

CBS aired a hit piece on gun laws when it did a “60 Minutes” report on a Brooklyn, NY, man who claimed to have been a gun runner, and had illegally shipped thousands of dollars worth of guns from the United States to Kosovo, including .50-caliber rifles. When Gun Week investigated, our report revealed that the man, Florin Krasniqi, had also been a contributor to the political campaigns of several prominent congressional anti-gunners. Calls to CBS’ “60 Minutes” were never returned, but Gun Week did learn that Krasniqi may be under investigation by the ATF.

As the Summer unfolded, anti-gun Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich vetoed three pro-gun bills, claiming they would weaken that state’s gun laws.

The US Senate passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act to the howls of anti-gunners, and sent the measure to the House, where it was later passed and sent to President Bush. This legislation was a significant victory for the firearms industry and gun rights activists, because it slammed the door on politically-motivated harassment lawsuits against gunmakers.

Gun Show Outrage
Fourth of July fireworks paled in comparison to the political fireworks touched off in mid-August over a joint enforcement operation mounted by the ATF and state and local Virginia police in Richmond that was described by one attorney as “a debacle.”

Operators and patrons of the gun show were outraged when they learned that residency information gleaned from federal 4473 forms had been turned over to Henrico County and Richmond city police to conduct “residency checks” of gun buyers at the show, while the transactions were still in progress. Officers were dispatched to the homes of gun buyers, where they asked family members various questions relating to the buyer.

Virginia attorney and gun law expert Stephen Halbrook, told Gun Week that such use of information from a Form 4473 was “highly illegal.”

The gun show operators also learned that their shows had been previously targeted, and that many patrons had been covertly photographed. Revelation that this operation had been conducted alarmed gun show operators as far away as Washington state.
In the wake of this operation, ATF officials in Washington, DC, told Gun Week that the agency would no longer participate in such “residency check” activities.

At the same time the Richmond gun show brouhaha was boiling over, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) launched a national “Border Control, Not Gun Control” campaign. As this issue of Gun Week was going to press, response to the campaign was strong, CCRKBA reported.

The plan is twofold: CCRKBA has printed tens of thousands of bumper stickers with the “Border Control, Not Gun Control” message, and it is also encouraging supporters and members to flood the White House with mail, e-mail, and telephone calls demanding that the Bush Administration take action to stop the flow of illegal aliens, while also directing its attention away from any gun control initiatives that may be in the works.

Gun Week also obtained a copy of a law enforcement “officer safety” alert originating in Columbus, OH, that detailed how convicts were teaching one another how to defeat Tasers. Cops across the country were alarmed by this discovery, especially since there had been one incident in Columbus in which a suspect had been hit with a Taser, but jumped up and ran away.

Mid-August saw a bleak observance when one of the two shooters involved in the 1998 Jonesboro, AR, school shooting that left four students and a teacher dead was released from prison because he had turned 21 and was no longer a juvenile.

Remember New Orleans
And then disaster struck. For years, New Orleans had “dodged the bullet” in terms of escaping major hurricane damage. But the Summer of 2005 will go down in history as the year that The Big Easy got clobbered.

The city that had become infamous for having filed the first municipal lawsuit against the gun industry was brought to its knees by Hurricane Katrina and a devastating flood when dikes protecting the city were breached. Hundreds lost their lives and thousands lost everything they owned. And the city lost its soul when, in the aftermath, the social fabric was shredded.

Widespread looting ensued, scores of police officers left their posts, and some were even filmed participating in the looting.

What happened next became the shame of a nation, and a rallying cry for gun rights activists across the nation. Police officials in New Orleans declared—apparently in violation of state statute and the Louisiana constitution—that all privately held firearms would be seized, and that nobody but police would have guns. The reaction was swift, and decisive.

Within hours of the first news reports of gun seizures, Gun Week was investigating to determine whether the reports were accurate. At the same time, the Second Amendment Foundation and National Rifle Association joined forces in a landmark legal maneuver that stunned New Orleans officials, and abruptly stopped Internet sniping about why none of the gun organizations were doing something to stop the seizures.

Marching into federal court, SAF and NRA attorneys secured a temporary restraining order against New Orleans and surrounding parishes where the gun seizures had occurred. As this was written, SAF and NRA attorneys were working to secure a permanent injunction.

At the same time, CCRKBA challenged the Justice Department to launch a federal investigation into the gun seizures. CCRKBA was not a party to the lawsuit.

Meanwhile, governors in Mississippi and Louisiana pledged that looters would be given no quarter in hurricane disaster zones.

The importance of this development cannot be overstated. It was the first time in American history that police had been dispatched to disarm private citizens, and the first time two leading gun rights groups had joined forces to stop it. SAF’s Alan Gottlieb and NRA’s Wayne LaPierre both told Gun Week at the time that they took the action not only to halt what they saw as an illegal gun grab, but to also put every other jurisdiction on notice that if something like this happens anywhere else in the nation, those responsible will have to reckon with NRA and SAF.

Two months later, and nearly 2,000 miles away, NRA and SAF would be joining legal forces again to challenge San Francisco’s gun-banning Proposition H, which passed by popular vote Nov. 8.

Rising to the Fall
As Summer gave way to Autumn, the legal wrangling continued in New Orleans, and San Francisco voters trooped to the polls to pass Proposition H.

Gun Week’s Sept. 20 edition carried a trio of stories relating to mountain lions, and how laws to restrict hunting the big cats have had disastrous consequences.

Gun Week also revealed that federal grant money was used to help pay for man-hours logged by Virginia police in the now-infamous Richmond gun show operation.

New York Gov. George Pataki signed legislation allowing Empire State hunters to use rifles for deer and black bear in the southern zone.

In Ohio, State Rep. Jim Aslanides filed legislation to reform that state’s concealed carry law, while anti-gunners in Michigan were promising a fight to prevent reforms from being added to that state’s self-defense statute.

In New York, a federal judge tossed out a significant portion of that state’s law regulating firearms sales at gun shows. US District Judge Charles Siragusa ruled that one off the statute’s definitions of a gun show was so broad that “it infringes on . . . constitutionally protect rights to free speech, assembly and petition.” State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has moved for an appeal.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) came under fire when it suspended the Phoenix, AZ, fire department’s Urban Search and Rescue team because they traveled to the Hurricane Katrina disaster relief operation with two armed police officers as security.

Before FEMA had time to utter any “beg your pardons,” the agency was caught up in an even worse gaffe when it was revealed that people evacuated to relocation sites were told that they could not possess firearms. Once again, SAF stepped in, followed immediately by the NRA, and the result was that FEMA rewrote its rules for staying in the relocation facilities, so that residents could bring their privately-owned firearms.

The SAF-NRA action was preceded by a Gun Week investigation that included an interview with the mayor of Baker, LA, located near Baton Rouge. It was a Gun Week inquiry to FEMA that actually set in motion the events leading to the policy change.

Conference a Hit
The 20th annual Gun Rights Policy Conference in Los Angeles was a huge success, especially because activists from across the country could celebrate the significant court victory SAF and NRA had achieved in New Orleans. Many in attendance said that LaPierre’s traditional midday speech was the best he had ever delivered, primarily because he told the audience “Remember New Orleans,” and made that a rallying cry.

Also speaking were talk hosts Michael Reagan, who recalled late President Ronald Reagan, as a father rather than a leader, and Larry Elders, who kept the audience in stitches while detailing the production of his film about Michael Moore.

Virtually every big name in the gun rights movement was in attendance.

In Wisconsin, state Sen. Dave Zien and Rep. Scott Gunderson introduced a new version of their concealed carry legislation, setting off another round of anti-gun wailing.

Gun rights got a major, and unexpected, boost in late October when voters in Brazil turned the tables on pollsters and pundits alike by voting almost 2-to-1 against a measure that would have instituted an almost total ban on private possession of firearms and ammunition. This came as a major blow to international gun control advocates, and stunned forecasters, who had been predicting the ban would sail through pretty much on the same margin by which it was defeated.

Homeland Defense Secretary Michael Chertoff announced that he would allow no more “catch and release” of non-Mexican illegal aliens. While the problem with Mexican illegal immigrants still remains, many felt this was a step in the right direction, in an effort to keep terrorists and common criminals from entering the country illegally.

Ohio gun rights activists are waiting for a state Supreme Court ruling on a case that could have a statewide impact on local gun control ordinances. The case, Cincinnati v. Colt Lee Baskin, involves the prosecution of a man for having a semi-automatic firearm with a magazine that held more than 10 rounds.

Down to the Finish
With the year almost at an end, there was ample evidence that gun rights battles are far from over. Some late-breaking developments indicate that, as LaPierre and Gottlieb had urged gunowners, people are “remembering New Orleans.”

Legislation that would prohibit the seizure of firearms from law-abiding citizens during an officially declared state of emergency was introduced in Florida by State Rep. Mitch Needleman (R-Melbourne). While the measure would still allow prohibition on the sale of firearms and ammunition, it specifically prevents authorities from confiscating guns from people, as they were from citizens in and around New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.

For the first time in a decade, a national Gallup poll showed a significant decline in public confidence in police. Gottlieb remarked that, “In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, where thousands of Americans were left to fend for themselves in an environment of looting and more serious crime, the poll results are understandable. Americans witnessed on national television why it is so important for them to be able to take care of themselves, their families, and their property. They are buying firearms and learning how to use them.”

Bad, Good Omens
A shooting at the nation’s first covered shopping mall in Tacoma, WA, Nov. 20 raised concerns among gun rights activists in the Evergreen State that anti-gun lawmakers would use the incident to press for a statewide ban on so-called assault weapons.

In Toledo, OH, a resident there has gotten back his licensed handgun three months after it was confiscated by police, who never charged him with any crime. Thomas Szych had been blamed for a riot that occurred in the city when neo-Nazis marched there, but Szych proved he was not even in the city that day. He had also been the target of complaints that turned out to be unfounded.

Perhaps indicating things to come, Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation reported that its profits for the first fiscal quarter of 2006 were up 14.7%.

With the passage of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act and its signing by President Bush, that signaled a less complicated future for gunmakers.

However, on the downside, the ATF announced that it was listing some muzzleloaders as firearms subject to the provisions of the 1968 Gun Control Act. These particular front-stuffers incorporate the frame or receiver of a firearm that is capable of accepting other barrels designed to fire conventional rimfire or centerfire ammo.

Congressional Quarterly reported that Michael Barnes was quitting as president of the anti-gun Brady Campaign.

The nomination of Alito to succeed O’Connor was greeted with a resounding sneer by the anti-gun Brady Campaign, which labeled the New Jersey jurist “Machine Gun Sammy” because of a dissenting opinion he wrote a few years ago.
Gun Week reported that hunter numbers climbed slightly last year, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation. In the same issue, we also noted that youth hunter recruitment programs are on the rise

As the year drew to a close, the CCRKBA reported on a bill that had been quietly introduced earlier in the year by Senate anti-gunners to mask a renewal of the ban on so-called assault weapons. The bill’s sponsors are Sens. Frank Lautenberg, Jon Corzine, Hillary Clinton, Charles Schumer, Jack Reed, Christopher Dodd, Daniel Akaka, Barbara Boxer, Paul Sarbanes, Richard Durbin, Barbara Mikulski and Edward M. Kennedy, all Democrats.

The Ohio Supreme Court heard a challenge to an ordinance in Cincinnati that bans possession of a semi-auto firearm with a magazine that holds more than 10 cartridges.

A federal appeals court in Washington, DC, opened the way for a Second Amendment challenge to the District of Columbia’s handgun ban.

At press time, attorneys were still working on the permanent injunction being sought against New Orleans officials over the post-Katrina gun grab, and in California, legal action was still pending in the SAF/NRA challenge of the San Francisco gun ban.
California attorney Chuck Michel told Gun Week at press time that an amicus brief in the case was being filed by the San Francisco Police Officers’ Association. He was holding out hopes that the court would rule on the lawsuit before the end of the year.

Likewise, Gun Week was still waiting for word from New Orleans on whether the court had granted the injunction. However, there are some details about what happened in New Orleans that are just now beginning to surface that Gun Week is pursuing and will report as 2006 unfolds.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals published a pair of outrageous comic books entitled Your Mommy Kills Animals and Your Daddy Kills Animals. The latter takes a shot at fathers who are fishermen.

On the horizon, legislatures all over the country will be convening, and Congress will be back in session, as politicians begin the long grind toward the 2006 elections. Through it all, Gun Week will continue focusing on big and small issues, digging out the facts and providing insight and perspective readers will not find anywhere else.