The National Shooting Sports Foundation has learned that the United Nations has filed its first firearms trace request. The move by the United Nations, which has long advocated for civilian disarmament, raised 288 concerns from the NSSF. “Firearms trace data is a law enforcement tool to help aid in specific criminal investigations,” said NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Lawrence G. Keane. “Our concerns with this trace request stem from UN-efforts to impose arms trade control treaties that would lead to a ban on the civilian possession and ownership of firearms, possibly even in the United States despite Second Amendment protections and the recent Supreme Court decision (Heller v. District of Columbia) reaffirming that Americans have an individual right to keep and bear arms.” Some foreign states and well-funded non-governmental organizations, like the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), are using arms trade-control talks at the United Nations to restrict or ban the private ownership of firearms. Taurus SLIMs Now Available in 380 ACP, 40 S&W. Taurus will chamber its popular SLIM pistol in two new calibers, 380 ACP and 40 S&W. The 708 SLIM 380 ACP offers 7+1 rounds, and the 740 SLIM 40 S&W offers 6+1 rounds. The SLIMs weigh 19 ounces, measure 6.24 inches long and are less than an inch thick. Brady Setbacks. The NRA-ILA recently pointed out that the Brady Campaign continues to lose battles vital to the gun-control group. Brady lost Heller two years ago (in which the group’s two theories about the Second Amendment were rejected by the Supreme Court, one of them by five justices and the other by all nine). In 2009, Brady tried to cast tourists carrying guns for protection in national parks as dangerous. The latest Brady boo-boo occurred when Brady lawyer Dennis Henigan claimed, “The evidence is overwhelming that the ‘shall-issue’ concealed carry laws have been a disaster for public safety. . . . [T]he scholarly research shows that the laws generally have been ‘associated with uniform increases in crime.’” The nation’s violent crime rate is at a 35-year low. Marlin to Close Plant. Marlin Firearms Co., a Connecticut gun manufacturer founded in 1870, will close its North Haven plant and lay off 265 employees, according to a report in the Hartford Courant. A statement from Remington Arms, the North Carolina firm that owns Marlin, said the plant will close in mid-2011. The statement did not say whether the work will move, or be absorbed into other plants owned by Remington.
