Anyone who traveled behind the Iron Curtain back in those days probably didn’t have to look very hard to find groups of “workers” sitting around doing pretty much nothing, except collecting a taxpayer-funded government paycheck.

The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution provides, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." Since the Supreme Court decided District of Columbia et al. v. Heller128 S.Ct. 2783 (2008), was delivered on June 26, 2008 the Second Amendment right to "keep and bear arms" has been a subject of much debate across the nation. Pundits, scholars and courts have split on how the opinion would impact firearm regulation in the United States. While it may take years to unravel the implications of the decision, the answer has its start in McDonald, et al., v. Chicago 561 U.S. (2010)

National lawmakers were in Chicago holding a Congressional hearing on proposed gun control legislation today.

The shooters -- old, young, male, female, fat, skinny, military, civilian, laconic, voluble, Southern, Northern -- have come to the Camp Perry National Guard base outside Port Clinton, Ohio, for the 2009 National Rifle Shooting Championships (this year`s championships, which are annual, run from Aug. 14 to 18). Think of it as the Super Bowl of long-range shooting.

The Tusayan Ranger District of the Kaibab National Forest has issued a draft plan for managing off-highway vehicle (OHV) use. OHV use will be restricted to those roads and trails designated in the plan, depending on which management alternative is selected following public review and comment. Tusayan Ranger District offers four plan alternatives for managing OHV use. Alternative 1 is the status quo and is used as a baseline to compare the changes to be made in OHV use by the other alternatives. Alternatives 2 and 3 allow motorized big game retrieval up to a mile off of a designated road or trail. Alternative 4 allows no such exemption for hunters using OHVs for game retrieval. Comments on the plan are being accepted until August 30th and can be emailed to comments-southwestern-kaibab-tusayan@fs.fed.us. The plan can be found online by going to http://fs.usda.gov/goto/kaibab/projects and look for the Tusayan Travel Management Project. If you have questions about the plan or need additional information, you may call 928-635-5649.

According to The Korea Times, the Obama administration has blocked efforts by the South Korean government to sell over a hundred thousand surplus M1 Garand and Carbine rifles into the United States market. These self-loading were rifles introduced in 1926 and 1941. As rifles, they are especially well-suited to community defense in an emergency, as in the cases of community defense following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

When Canada`s auditor general tabled her December 2002 report, she set her sights on Ottawa`s controversial gun registry program. Sheila Fraser blasted the federal government for exceeding its estimated budget, saying that by the time the smoke cleared and all gun owners and their guns were registered, the program would have cost taxpayers more than $1 billion. Opposition critics were quick to point out that figure is 500 times more than the original $2-million estimate.

A Falklands veteran has accused North Wales Police of jeopardising his pest control business by limiting the terms of his gun licences. Alan Bennett, a weapons expert who served 25 years with the Welsh Guards, claims to need high-calibre rifles to stalk prey that range from deer to predators of rare birds.

In 1989, Virginia passed its first-in-the-nation state instant check statute.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was at a strip mall in north Philadelphia on Tuesday to help Rep. Joe Sestak (D Pa.) appeal to independents in his run for Senate.

The agenda item is more about housekeeping and keeping current with state law than it is denying gun owners their right to bear arms. Item No. 24 of today's agenda reads: Consideration of an order banning the carrying of handguns within the premises of various county owned and leased buildings, parks and other facilities submitted by county legal. At first glance, the order would appear to ban handguns from all county facilities. Actually, the order would ban weapons at facilities that house courtrooms, which already are gun-free zones.

A Calgary man has been sentenced to six months in jail for failing to report a registered handgun was stolen from his home nearly three years ago.