THE RANGEFINDER. THE RANGEFINDER Check us out on the web at Page 1

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1 THE RANGEFINDER The Newsletter of the Oak Ridge Sportsmen s Association October 2013 Volume 22 Number 10 The current membership count is at approximately members Please remember that when using any of the ORSA Ranges safety should be your #1 concern. Everyone must be diligent in observing and correcting unsafe actions by anyone on the Ranges. Also remember that you should always wear proper EYE & EAR protection regardless of whether you are shooting or just watching. ORSA WEBSITE: ORSAONLINE.ORG ORSA MEMBERSHIP INFO: JOINORSA.ORG Handgun Carry Permit Classes Our next handgun carry permit class will be Sunday, October 13, The class will be a combination of classroom and range instruction. The class starts at 11:00 a.m. at the ORSA clubhouse followed by shooting at the indoor range. The fees for the class are $.00 for ORSA members & their spouses and $60.00 for non-orsa members. The class is an 8 hour class. Since we start at 11:00 a.m. we don t break for lunch, but you are invited to bring lunch with you and/or any drinks/snacks that you d like. Space is limited so RSVP s are required. For more information and to register for the class contact Jody or Hunter Safety Course ORSA is offering the TWRA Hunter Safety Course Field Day on Friday, October 25, The class will start at 6 p.m. at the clubhouse. Prior to attending the field day you MUST take and pass the online portion of the TWRA hunter education course. You can sign up for that course at: After passing the online portion of the TWRA hunter education course you will need to sign up for the required field day. The link for the ORSA field day is: For more information contact Jerry zorsch@highland.net or NRA Range Safety Officer (RSO) Training ORSA training is offering the 9 hour NRA Range Safety Officer course on October 7 & 8, Class will be from 5: p.m. 10 p.m. each night at the club house. You must attend both nights to receive certification. This course develops NRA Certified Range Safety Officers with the knowledge, skills, and attitude essential to organizing, conducting, and supervising safe shooting activities and range operations. The cost of the class is $50 for members, $100 for non-members and will require you to RSVP to ensure enough class materials. RSVP deadline is Monday September th. To RSVP call or THE RANGEFINDER Check us out on the web at Page 1

2 For Sale Private Sale Chinese SKS semi-automatic rifle 7.62 x 39. Original military with bayonet, sling, cartridge belt, cleaning kit and 70 rds ammo. mfg about 1980; new about 1990; shot about times total. $350. Ken Chipley or or chipleykk@tds.net. Found! Found one spotting scope on the high power range. Call Ken Palmer at to retrieve. Right to Keep and Bear Arms The whole of that Bill [of Rights] is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals...[i]t establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of. Albert Gallatin to Alexander Addison, Oct 7, 1789, MS. in N.Y. Hist. Soc.-A.G. Papers, 2 What got us to a time when the mainstream media thinks it s a non-story that Chicago (here you could substitute Detroit, District of Columbia, Los Angeles or Oakland) rated dead last in federal prosecutions of gun crimes while it earned the gruesome distinction of being the murder capital of the U.S.? Why is it that the NRA five-million-plus members, has to call journalists out for not reporting bloody and startling facts? Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a data-gathering and research organization run by Syracuse University, which found that out of 90 federal jurisdictions, in 2012 Chicago ranked last for prosecuting bad guys with guns. Out of 90 jurisdictions in the country, they ranked 90th. Why doesn t any network news headline with, Shocking news on Chicago. Of all the jurisdictions in the country, Chicago s dead last on enforcement of the federal gun laws? Why doesn t the national press corps, when they re sitting down there with Jay Carney and the president and the vice president, why don t they say, Why is Chicago dead last in enforcement of the gun laws against gangs with guns, felons with guns, drug dealers with guns? However, David Burnham, co-director of TRAC, explained that according to case-by-case U.S. Justice Department information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests by TRAC, there were 52 prosecutions in Illinois North (Chicago) in 2012, or 5.52 per million in population. By this measure, compared with the 90 federal judicial districts in the U.S., the prosecution rate in Chicago was the lowest. Shouldn t journalists be asking why? Consider that in 2012 some 532 people were murdered in the city of Chicago, according to statistics compiled by the website Crime in Chicago. Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy has said 500 people were killed in 2012, but whatever the precise number of fatalities; honesty from the media is needed for the best solutions to be found. The TRAC study also determined that the number of federal weapons prosecutions has fallen nearly every year in the U.S. from a high of 11,015 in 2004 to 7,774 in In fact, according to the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS), in 2010 of the 6 million Americans who attempted to buy a gun, about 76,000 were denied. Of those, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) referred 4,732 cases for prosecution. Of these, 44 people were prosecuted and 13 were punished. "The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." (Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 184-8) Such numbers explain why felons who attempt to buy guns from gun stores and thereby subject themselves to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) know there is only a slightly higher chance they ll be prosecuted (1.7 in 10,000) than struck by lightning (1 in 10,000, according to the National Weather Service). Also, those who take money to buy guns for felons know they probably won t face any consequences not even if the guns they buy for criminals turn up at murder scenes. THE RANGEFINDER Check us out on the web at Page 2

3 In a democratically elected republic, why isn t the system more responsive to the safety of its citizens? Could the reason be that many in the media are blindly blaming guns, not criminals? Isn t this is a case of liberal, anti-gun rights ideology trumping reporting? Instead of manning up to these facts Chicago s police superintendent, Garry McCarthy, has been letting his ideology trump plain ole common sense. McCarthy expressed his views of gun rights in June He went to St. Sabina s Church in Chicago and told parishioners that the black codes, Jim Crow laws and segregation that occurred in the South were government-sponsored racism. That s true. But then he said today s federal gun laws are also government-sponsored racism. He said, I want you to connect one more dot on that chain of African-American history in this country, and tell me if I m crazy: Federal gun laws that facilitate the flow of illegal firearms into our urban centers are killing black and brown children. McCarthy s solution to reducing violent crime is to use the government to take away an individual right the Second Amendment of our Bill of Rights from law-abiding citizens everywhere. Amazingly he doesn t see the parallel between this position and the Black Codes and Jim Crow laws he called government-sponsored racism? Black Codes and Jim Crow laws once disarmed and disenfranchised people on the basis of the black race. These were government sponsored just as the restrictions preventing law-abiding citizens from carrying firearms for their protection are government sponsored. He said all that in The next year Chicago became the murder capital of the U.S. as federal prosecutors continued to fall. Isn t it time he was forced to answer some tough questions? If more in the media would ask them, Chicago residents might learn that in McDonald v. Chicago (2010) the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that whether someone lives in an inner-city or a rural county they have the same right to keep and bear arms protected by the Second Amendment in the U.S. Bill of Rights. They d certainly learn that while they re kept disarmed, the criminals with guns among them aren t being brought to justice often enough. If the main stream media would only hold government officials accountable for prosecuting criminals, Chicago and the rest of us would be better off. Then if more in the media would wonder why violent crime rates have been falling in much of the country as gun ownership has been rising, more would have to concede that freedom works. "Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in possession and under our direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands? Patrick Henry, 3 J. Elliot, Debates in the Several State Conventions 45, 2d ed. Philadelphia, 1836 Richard Stouder oakridger48@msn.com THE RANGEFINDER Check us out on the web at Page 3

4 ORSA ACTIVITIES October & November 2013 S M T W T F S September NRA Match 10 AM - 1PM 9 AM 9 AM 600 yards & 8 AM 600 yards 2 PM 2 4 PM 3 PM 7-9 PM ID 1 2 PM 9 AM Pistol ID 5-8 PM 5-9 PM ID ORSA Board 7:00 PM CH CR 4 PM to sunset 9 AM All Day CH 8 AM IDPA Match AP 10 AM 12 4 PM 6 NRA Match 600 yards 9 AM Cowboy Set Up AP 7 NRA Range Safety Officer Class 4 11 PM CH 8 Pistol NRA Range Safety Officer Class 4 11 PM CH 9 SB Cowboy Match 8: AM AP 1000 yds 8AM yards 8 AM Carry Class 10 AM - 5 PM CH 4-7 PM ID Pistol 16 Orientation 6: PM CH USPSA Match AP 10 AM CMP Games CH 8AM & 200 yards 20 Pistol Match 8 AM 5 PM CR & ID 3 Gun Nation AP 10 AM October PM 2 4 PM CMP EIC Leg 8 AM CH & 600 yards Cowboy Set Up AP PM 7 9 PM ID IDPA Meeting 2 5 PM CH 22 Pistol CH Reserved for Private Party 6 PM 11 PM AM 1 PM 1-2 PM 9 AM Pistol ID 5 8 PM AP Meeting Gander Mt. 7 PM 5 12 PistolClass 23 9 AM ID 5-9 PM R & P Meeting 6: CH Club Elections 6 13 SB ORSA Board 7:00 PM CH AM 6 9 PM 25 Hunter Safety Class 5 10 PM CH, ID, S & T, and AM all day 26 2 Steel Challenge Match AP 10 AM NRA Match 600 yards & CH 8 AM 12 4 PM 9 CMP Games 8 AM CH & 200 yards Cowboy Match 8: AM AC Pistol 16 USPSA Match AP-10 AM 17 Skeet & Annual Meeting & Elections CH 2PM 3 Gun Nation AP 10 AM Indoor Bullseye Match 9 AM 2 PM ID Orientation 6: PM CH Steele Challenge Match AP 10 AM 2 4 PM AP Meeting 7 PM Gander Mt. 27 R & P Elections 6: PM CH IDPA Match AP 10 AM Skeet & S & T - Skeet & SB - - Highpower AP Action Pistol JOAD JR Olympic Dev ID Indoor Range CR - Competition Range CH - Clubhouse THE RANGEFINDER Check us out on the web at Page 4

5 Oak Ridge Sportsmen s Association PO Box 6094 Oak Ridge, TN PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID Permit # 9 KNOXVILLE, TN ORSA Board of Directors President Tobias Albrecht III (before 10pm) treysclaysinc@earthlink.net Vice President Jerry Zorsch zorsch@highland.net Secretary Linda Oliver (before 9pm) oliverlindar@comcast.net Membership Sec Ken Palmer (before 10pm) orsamembership@gmail.com Treasurer Grant Hansen (before 8pm) granthansen@comcast.net Roads & Grounds Keith Jimmerson hkjimmerson@hotmail.com Rifle Alan Strachn alanstrachn@gmail.com Skeet & Bob Harrison bobharrisontn@gmail.com Don Wood (before 9pm) don.wood@carlisletire.com Action Pistol Mike Madden idpa45cal@comcast.net Training Officer Jody Zorsch (before 9pm) Ex-Officio Ed Johnson edjohnson144@comcast.net RF Editor Chris Melhorn cjmelhorn@melhorns.com Webmaster Chris Melhorn cjmelhorn@melhorns.com Send membership status & contact information changes to: ORSA, PO Box 6094, Oak Ridge, TN CLUB OFFICERS CMP Program Charlie Smart Junior Activities Ed Johnson NRA Secretary Dave Ellison SASS Leon Potgieter NRA Pistol Frank Buday IDPA Mike Madden IPSC/USPSA Mark Levy Steel Challenge Eric Larson Multi-Gun Bob Toner(bob@orsa3gun.com) ORSA WEBSITE: ORSAONLINE.ORG THE RANGEFINDER is published monthly by the Oak Ridge Sportsmen s Association (ORSA) and is mailed to all current members. ORSA is an organization of shooters, hunters, archers, fishermen and others dedicated to outdoor sports and conservation. A limited number of complimentary paper copies are available to interested parties and businesses on a firstcome, first-serve basis. An electronic version of this newsletter is posting in the news area of the ORSA website. Send correspondence (but NOT address changes) regarding this publication to: cjmelhorn@melhorns.com with a Subject Line: ORSA Rangefinder If you wish to submit an article to the Rangefinder for publication you must first send it to Linda Oliver, secretary, via . She will then send it out via to the board. When the board approves the article the writer will be notified that it will be included in the next issue. Membership information is available at JOINORSA.ORG THE RANGEFINDER Check us out on the web at Page 5