ARIZONA: House Approves State Gun

Not to be outdone by Utah, who last month became the first state with an official gun, yesterday the GOP-dominated Arizona House voted to make the Colt revolver the state's official murder weapon. Talking Points Memo reports:

The Arizona House early Wednesday narrowly approved the Colt Single Action Army Revolver as the state's official gun. The bill had been rejected earlier in an all-night session, the AP reports, but it eventually won approval by a 32-25 vote. "Anytime you see a Western movie, the revolver in John Wayne's hand is a Colt single action," Arizona state Sen. Ron Gould (R) told Reuters. "This is a historic firearm and it fits well with the story of Arizona." But state Sen. Albert Hale (D) -- former president of the Navajo Nation -- said "the gun symbolized the extinction, the extermination of those Indians who were here."

With My Rifle By My Side

New from Young Heart Books is With My Rifle By My Side, a children's guide to the importance of the Second Amendment and the right to blow away fellow humans. Unsurprisingly, the book is from God's Gentle People™. "Young Heart Books encourage the young to seek the Lord in prayer, worship in church, and love the liberties provided by the sacrifices of our country's forefathers so they may grow into tomorrow's American patriots." Glenn Beck is a big fan.

Bring Your Gun To The Beach Day

Gun nuts from a group called Open Carry staged a "Bring Your Gun To The Beach Day" this weekend in Hermosa Beach, California.

"Just because somebody is carrying a gun doesn't mean that they're a criminal," said Scott Brownlie, a 25-year-old firefighter who stood outside Peet's Coffee & Tea with an unloaded Colt M-4 Carbine slung across his back. "If a lot of people were allowed to carry more … there would be a lot less crime." Most people walked by the group without a second glance. A police spokesman said the department received no complaints about the event. Open Carry has drawn criticism from gun control groups that say police, not untrained gun owners, should be protecting the public.

Guns at church, guns at the mall, guns at the beach.

LOUISIANA: Gov. Bobby Jindal Signs Bill Allowing Guns In Church

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has signed a bill allowing people to bring firearms into church. Just in case somebody wants to go crazy during Jeebus-time.

[The] bill would authorize persons who qualified to carry concealed weapons having passed the training and background checks to bring them to churches, mosques, synagogues or other houses of worship as part of a security force. The pastor or head of the religious institution must announce verbally or in weekly newsletters or bulletins that there will be individuals armed on the property as members of he security force. Those chosen have to undergo eight hours of tactical training each year. Burns' original bill was killed by a Senate committee but he tacked its provisions onto a related bill that started out changing the period to have a concealed weapon permit from four years to five years at a cost of $25 a year. Burns contended that religious institutions in crime-ridden or "declining neighborhoods" need the added protection to ward off thieves and muggers.

Jindal also signed a bill requiring women to get an ultrasound before an abortion.

Obama's Coming For Yer Guns!

Attendees at this week's NRA convention are convinced that the president is going to make gun ownership illegal. Because Fox News told them so!

Militia Members Gather Outside DC

Militia members are gathering on a field just outside of Washington DC today in advance of their Second Amendment March on the Capitol. Outside DC city limits, they are allowed to openly brandish their weapons.

On the lineup are several heroes of the militia movement, including Mike Vanderboegh, who advocated throwing bricks through the windows of Democrats who voted for the health-care bill; Tom Fernandez, who has established a nationwide call tree to mobilize an armed resistance to any government order to seize firearms; and former Arizona sheriff Richard Mack, who refused to enforce the Brady law and then won a Supreme Court verdict that weakened its background-check provisions. Those coming to the "Restore the Constitution" rally give Obama no quarter for signing the law that permits them to bring their guns to Fort Hunt, run by the National Park Service, and to Gravelly Point on the banks of the Potomac River. Nor are they comforted by a broad expansion of gun rights in several states since his election. The brandishing of weapons is "not just an important symbol" but "a reminder of who we are," said Almond. "The founders knew that it is the tendency of government to expand itself and embrace its own power, and they knew the citizenry had to be reminded of that."

Not uncoincidentally, today's saber rattling towards our federal government comes on the 15th anniversary of the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City. JMG reader and federal employee Jimbo sends us the below photo of seven coworkers killed on that day. It hangs in the office of Jimbo's agency there.