God bless the US Airways pilot and crew!

.  .  .  Barack Obama!!!  (Pictured above with his favorite "hand gun")

In recognition of the unprece­dented demand for firearms by nervous consumers, The Outdoor Wire has named President-elect Barack Obama its "Gun Salesman of the Year". For me, it was a simple fact of recognizing that without President-elect Obama's frightening consumers into action, the firearms industry might be suffering the same sort of business slumps that have befallen the automotive and housing industries.

It's credit where credit is due. Mr. Obama has consistently voted against individual rights to firearms, appointed a re-tread Clinton administration full of gun banners, and made it plain to anti-gun groups that despite what he might say to the contrary, he's on their side That history, along with the unquestioned support of anti-gun organizations has spooked consumers into a buying frenzy for firearms that could be outlawed in another Assault Weapons Ban.

Manufacturers are months behind on orders for semi-automatic pistols, AR-style rifles, and anything with so-called 'high-capacity magazines, buyers we've surveyed across the country seem to have a single explanation for their rush to purchase firearms - Obama.

The buying panic is not limited to people you might be described as aficionados or even 'gun nuts'. Recently, I was in a gun store when a gentleman came and said he'd never wanted to own a gun before, but wanted to get one while he still could."

Since the November Presidential election, firearms sales have been at unprecedented levels. For December 2008 the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) recorded a twenty-four percent increase in background checks for 2008 (1,523,426) over December 2007 (1,230,525).

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain in Alaska would be
closed to oil and gas development under a bill introduced on Wednesday by
Senator Joseph Lieberman and 23 other senators.

The bill, which had been introduced last year but failed to make it out
of committee, would designate the ANWR coastal plain a wilderness area and
prohibit oil and gas drilling on its 1.5 million acres.

"The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a pristine natural treasure that
must be preserved for future generations," Lieberman, Independent-Connecticut,
said in a statement. "We do not have to choose between conservation and
exploration when it comes to our energy future; we can do both simultaneously
while moving toward a sustainable and diverse national energy policy."

While the legislation was co-sponsored by 23 other senators, it already
has a vocal opponent in freshman Alaska Senator Mark Begich, a Democrat who
began his term on January 6. Begich took the seat of Republican and long-time
drilling cheerleader Ted Stevens.

Last week, Begich blasted the legislation even before it was introduced,
calling it "misguided," and saying he would "educate" the four-term Lieberman
and other senators about the safety of modern drilling.

A 1980 law established the 19-million-acre ANWR and barred development
permanently, except in the 1.5-million-acre coastal plain, where oil and gas
drilling can occur with congressional authorization. Efforts by the Bush
administration and Republican lawmakers to make that possible have failed,
often in the face of stiff opposition from Democrats.

The US Geological Survey estimates that ANWR could hold 10.6 billion
barrels of oil and 8.6 Tcf of gas.

"Let’s not forget: Only six months ago, oil was selling for nearly $150 per barrel, while Americans were paying $4 a gallon and more for gasoline. And today, there is potential for prices to rebound as OPEC asserts its market power, and as Russia is disrupting needed natural gas to Europe , for the second time in three years.

"As I traveled throughout the country campaigning for vice president, I was glad to hear politicians, including President-elect Barack Obama, promise ‘everything was on the table’ to address America 's great challenges. I also found that when Americans were apprised of the facts, most people became supporters of responsible oil and gas drilling in Alaska . So, I want to remind our national leaders of this promise, and to make the case against this legislation that would permanently take off the table any consideration of responsible ANWR drilling."

The governor made the following points:

* Oil from ANWR represents a huge, secure domestic supply that could help satisfy U.S. demand for more than 25 years.

* ANWR sits within a 20 million acre refuge (the size of South Carolina ) but thanks to advanced technology like directional drilling, the aggregated drilling footprint would be less than 2,000 acres (about one-quarter the size of Dulles Airport ). This is like laying a two-by-three-foot welcome mat on a basketball court.

* Energy development is quite compatible with the protection of our wildlife and their habitat. For example, North Slope caribou herds have grown and remained healthy throughout more than three decades of our oil development. Most of the year, our coastal plain is frozen solid and thus characterized by low biological productivity.

* ANWR development would create hundreds of thousands of good American jobs, positively affecting every state by providing a safe energy supply and generating demand for goods and services.

* Development here would reduce U.S. dependence on unstable, dangerous sources of energy such as the Middle East , and would decrease our huge trade deficit, a large percentage of which is directly attributable to oil imports.

* Incremental ANWR production would help reduce energy price volatility. Previous price disruptions demonstrate how even relatively low levels of oil production influence world prices.

Our need to be energy independent is non-negotiable.  Alternative energy may be our future, but while we're waiting for the future to show up countries who do not like us and would enjoy watching us self destruct are in control of oil supplies we need to carry on our daily lives.  With economic uncertainty all around us why in God's name to we want to cripple ourselves in the name of "saving the environment"?  I refuse to believe that with our experience, technology, and good old American ingenuity we can't save the caribou, the environment, and our way of life.  Drill, baby, drill!

Despite assurances to the contrary, some democrats are champing at the bit to institute citizen disarmament, and like impulsive children, can't even wait for their guy to be inaugurated.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you H.R.45, Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009, introduced in the House one week ago today by Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL).

If passed, this bill would require that anyone wishing to purchase, own, or possess a "qualifying firearm" - that's any handgun, and any long gun capable of accepting a detachable magazine - would have to be licensed by the state or the federal government in a licensing program managed by the Attorney General. To get a license you would have to prove you're you, provide a passport-style photo, a thumbprint, and take a written exam which includes questions about firearms safety, safe storage, the risks of firearms ownership, and anything else the Attorney General deems appropriate. All transfers would be required to go through a licensed dealer with the exception of occasional gifts or bequests between parents, children (18 or over), and grandparents, or loans of not more than 30 days between "persons who are personally known to one another." (It actually says that. I'm not making this up.) And all transfers would have to be recorded in a "Transfer Record" established and maintained by the Attorney General.

The bill also makes it a crime for a dealer to have shoddy records or fail to appropriately cooperate with any inspectors. It makes failure to report the loss or theft of a firearm within 72 hours a felony punishable by up to 2 years in prison. Failure to keep a firearm locked up in such a way as to keep it inaccessible to anyone under 18 becomes a federal felony too.

So far this bill has no co-sponsors, but that can change in the blink of an eye.  With the recent ruling by the Supreme Court in the Heller case, it would be easy to become complacent.  Heller was the beginning, not the end of this issue.  Keep an eye on H.R. 45 and all bills like it.  The right to bear arms (like all the rest of our God given rights) is not negotiable.  Unfortunately, not everyone knows what "not negotiable" means!

Somewhere deep in an FBI complex in Virginia, a locked steel freezer carries all that is left of nine of the hijackers who carried out the attack on the Pentagon and brought down Flight 93 in Pennsylvannia.

Another secret building in New York holds the charred bone fragments of four of the fanatics who attacked the World Trade Center.

The glass containers are under 24-hour armed guard as Amer–ica still tries to come to terms with the enormity of the 2001 atrocities and the ramifications of keeping hold of the body parts of killers hailed across the Middle East as martyrs.

The FBI and coroner’s office staff are holding on to the remains while the 9/11 inquiry stays open, but eventually it may be left to the President-elect Barack Obama to decide their fate.

Although neither the terrorists’ families nor their countries of origin have asked for the body parts to be repatriated, America is split over what to do.

Some believe the remains should be treated with respect. But many of the families of the victims say the killers should be left for eternity under lock and key.