Hi, I want to write an article for the opinion page of my unversity newspaper.  I need:

1. Is there a reliable source (not internet rumors) that confirm if Dianne Feinstein, Schumer, McCain, CA State Senator Perata,Henry Waxman, Sylvester Stallone indeed have CCWs?

2. Is there a source I can find what type of guns they are carrying and if they have hi-caps?

3. What bodyguard agency does Rosie O'Donnell have and what type of guns do they carry, and do they have hi-caps?

4. Ideally, a politically neutral source, but I want statistics (hopefully from a government agency and not the NRA) that confirm the UK's increase in crime rate since handguns have been banned.  What are the conditions of the UK ban, are guns conditionally legal for people like Madonna and Guy Ritchie who enjoy hunting and clay shooting?

5. Is there a verified source on where gangs get their guns?

Thanks.

I beleive their is Congressional testimony confirming DiFido carries a concealed weapon.

She was afraid for her life you see, as she was threatened....

Don't have a source, but hope that points you in the right direction....

of course, you could always use their method of presenting information.  submit your op-ed piece with no sources cited, and when someone questions you about the veracity of your information, tell them to prove you wrong!  chances are they won't have the slightest inclination to actually look up the information themselves...otherwise we wouldn't have the general populace believing half the crap that spews from the former HCI organization's bunghole.

i think shes got something here.

Question #1 -
A quick internet search on "Feinstein gun carry" yielded this famous quote:
"And, I know the sense of helplessness that people feel. I know the urge to arm yourself because that's what I did. I was trained in firearms. I'd walk to the hospital when my husband was sick. I carried a concealed weapon. I made the determination that if somebody was going to try to take me out, I was going to take them with me." --U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein; C-Span April 27, 1995

Further, a google search on "Celebrities concealed permit new york city" garnered this list of folks that walk with Roscoe:
Bill Cosby, Joan Rivers,Donald Trump, William F. Buckley, Jr., Arthur Ochs Sulzberger,Howard Stern, Laurence Rockefeller, Robert De Niro, just to name a few.

Question #2 -
Probably not.  You could try contacting each of the individuals and asking them straight out, but I know what I'd tell some random stranger if he asked me about my guns (hint - it wouldn't come off as very nice).

Question #3 -
See #2 above.

Question #4 -
IIRC, there was a great article from the BBC just last week about how gun crime is sky rocketing despite the fact that the Brit Guv has done everything possible to eliminate private handgun ownership.  Try searching the General Discussion forum for a link to it.

Question #5 -
No.

re: # 5 -

Source :common sense

Would a gang banger pay retail thru a legitimate gun dealer, or buy a gun for a fraction of that cost from another gang banger????


Or maybe this "law abiding gang banger" would just steal a gun.

Get the book "More Guns, Less Crime."

You can't fight lies with facts.

A public figure can suppress the publication of a concealed permit application, so it's absence proves nothing.  Go with it! They either have them or are carrying illegally, you chose.

And they're all using illegally acquired hi-cap magazines (bought in another state since they're illegal in CA).  Don't try and use logic like "they had them before the ban," if they have them now, they're illegal.

And Rosie's bodyguard carried a loaded handgun to a schoolyard!  So much for the value of laws against criminal conduct with firearms.

Gangs' guns are smuggled in among the tons of marijuana from Mexico every month.  If you can smuggle in drugs, you can smuggle in firearms.  Verified?  Absolutely, but you have to protect your source, but it's top level in the Federal government.  And that's the truth!

So far so good.  This link here:
http://www.stentorian.com/2ndamend/dianne_f.html
says he found out that DiFi relinquished her CCW a while ago.  I don't want to use dated information and look like an idiot!!

So far so good.  The BBC article is also very useful.

I'd really like to know if CA State Senator is carrying.

I wasn't aware that she gave it up.  Keep up the good work.

I found some good articles.  It was hard finding them from non RKBA/NRA type sites so I don't look like a pissed activist.

The article I'm writing won't address more guns, less crime or the constitutionality/illegality of passed laws because it's a tough sell.  Right now I'm just addressing the elitist mentality of the current laws.  I'll post it on here once I get it published in the paper.  Who knows, the editor may ax my submission, but it's worth a try.

In Cali I believe you have to list the firearm on your permit. DiFi made a big deal of taking hers off the permit.Only problem was she had two.I remember reading this in the Rifleman or another NRA mgazine.

Good luck in finding something in a reliable source(i.e. mainstream news media).  As we all know the U.S. mainstream news media and anti-gunners are on the same side.  Unless there is special incident such as so and so shot an intruder breaking to their residence, you will find nothing. There was a incident in where a homeless person was shot in a Hollywood Calif eatery.  The shooter was not arrested, and had possessed a CCW.  There was only one report, and the shooter was NEVER revealed.

Skunk-a-guy,
why not try things the easy way.

Call the PR person at the NRA (or better yet the Administrative Assistant to the President) -probably would help if you're a member but call anyway - explain what you're doing and why and ask them for help.

I've found that moving up-the-organization can cut time and bullschitt.  The President of American Express and I once had a fine ten minute conversation.  Not only was my problem cured but he seemed genuinely interested in talking with a real customer.

[smoke]

It matters not if she gave it up... she [b]had[/b] it at one time, while she was trying to pass laws against guns.  And her reasoning for having a gun is the same as anyone else that desires to carry - self defense.

So what if her situation has changed, and she doesn't have to walk through that 'hood any longer.  She still felt it was okay for her to have one while others were denied the right.

Here's what I have...I may have to abridge it (or the editor will) depending on the size limit.  I contacted the school newspaper (which had some pretty right-wing and anti-vegetarian and anti-peacenik opinion articles as of late) about submitting it.  We'll see what happens.  I'll scan it for you guys when it gets published.  Let me know if there's any errors (grammatical or factual) that you guys catch so I don't look like an ass! :)

Gun Control Advocates Smack of Elitism and Hypocrisy
Gun control seems to be a pretty hot topic these days.  California’s "common sense" gun laws seem to be model of gun control legislation in other states.  While each of us may have our own opinion on gun control laws, there is a frightening pattern among gun control advocates in the government and media. My problem with gun control advocates is that they don't live by the same rules that they wish to impose on the rest of us.
Did you know California State Senator Perata, responsible for banning so-called "Assault Weapons" in California is packing heat?  According to the San Francisco Examiner (August 20, 1999), Senator Perata is licensed to carry a 9mm Beretta handgun.  Senator Perata said, "I think it's time to get to the heart of the issue, and that is regulating handguns in a way that's consistent with the inherent danger both to the possessor and to the people around them."
A little background information.  By California state law, a law enforcement agency may issue a citizen a permit to carry a concealed weapon (CCW) if the applicant demonstrates a sufficient need, good moral character and a clean background.  California is a ‘may issue’ state, meaning the decision of whether you are granted a license or not lies with the chief law enforcement officer (the police chief of a city, or the county sheriff).  Many other states are ‘shall issue’ states and some like Arizona are ‘open carry’ states.  In most jurisdictions in California, CCWs are extremely difficult to obtain except for the social elite: wealthy and politically-connected celebrities and of course, politicians.

"Banning guns addresses a fundamental right of all Americans to feel safe," Dianne Feinstein said, (Associated Press, 11/18/93).  "If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an out right ban, picking up every one of them...I would have done it. I could not do that. The votes weren't here."  (60 Minutes, 2/5/95).  She wants to ban guns?  Fair enough.  If she feels that strongly against having a gun, why did she carry a .38 S&W revolver when promoting gun legislation to control us unruly peasants?  "I know the sense of helplessness that people feel. I know the urge to arm yourself because that's what I did. I was trained in firearms. I'd walk to the hospital when my husband was sick. I carried a concealed weapon. I made the determination that if somebody was going to try to take me out, I was going to take them with me."  Her reasoning for carrying a concealed weapon makes sense (self-defense), but what makes her life any valuable than the rest of ours?  To be fair, Feinstein has since given up her CCW, but if you were a Senator and had a taxpayer funded security detail, I guess you wouldn’t need to be carrying a .38 revolver.
Now take everyone's favorite action hero, Sly Stallone.  Access Hollywood has a film clip of Stallone in London: "Until America, door to door, takes every handgun, this is what you're gonna have. It's pathetic. It really is pathetic. It's sad. We're living in the Dark Ages over there."  However, an LA Weekly article from December 1998, states that Rambo has received his license to carry from Chief Cooke of Culver City.  (Unfortunately for Sly, the CCW covers only handguns, so he'll have to leave his RPG-7 and M-60 at home.  At least he knows how to box like a mother).  Double standard?  He should have said, “Until America, door to door, takes every handgun except for mine.”
Let’s not forget America's nicest talk show personality, Rosie O'Donnell.  According to an E! news article back in May of 2000, Rosie has hired an armed bodyguard to accompany her son to school.  Rosie, who is a strong proponent of gun control, addresses the issue of hypocrisy when she felt the people should be disarmed, while a hired gun is sitting in class (unarmed while on school grounds, she promises) to protect her son.  This is what she had to say: "I don't personally own a gun," O'Donnell says. "But if you are qualified, licensed and registered, I have no problem."  However, back in 1999, she felt differently: "I don't care if you want to hunt, I don't care if you think it's your right. I say, sorry, you are not allowed to own a gun, and if you do own a gun I think you should go to prison."  Also that year as quoted in the Ottawa Sun: “I think there should be a law…that no one can have a gun in the U.S. If you have a gun, you go to jail. Only the police should have guns."  Rosie thinks guns are OK only if they are guarding her son from other feisty (possibly gun-toting?) kindergarteners.  Rosie is an official emcee with the Million Mom March.

I add that about Rosie because last year, Barbara Graham, an anti-gun activist that helped organize the Million Mom March in Washington, was recently convicted of shooting and paralyzing an innocent man, Kikko Smith, who she blamed for her son’s murder.  She shot him while he was fleeing, and a bullets struck his head, foot and back, collapsing a lung and shattering his spine, and he lost all movement below the waist.  She begged for leniency from the courts, and strangely, leaders of the MMM group supported her during the trial.  The police found several handguns at her home and identified one weapon at her home as a Tec-9, supposedly unregistered, which is classified as an ‘assault weapon’ under Federal law, who the aforementioned Senator Perata had helped ban in the State of California.  I feel safer now.  Hopefully some bloodthirsty anti-gun activist won’t try to kill me because my name sounds like someone else’s (Graham confused ‘Kikko’ with ‘Teacco’ the man who she accused of killing her son).
Maybe guns should be outlawed.  But somehow the strongest political proponents of gun control feel that they don't have to live by the rules that they wish to impose on the rest of us.  Smells like hypocrisy and elitism to me.  I’m worth more than you.  Gun control for everyone but me.  Senators Perata and Feinstein, Sly, and Rosie (or rather, your son’s bodyguard), put down your guns, try packing some honesty and integrity instead, and then maybe we’ll support your agenda.  Oh yeah, and if you want to avenge someone’s death, shoot the right guy.

Jeff--
Super Senior, Criminology, Law & Society, Music and Information & Computer Science minor.