Paul Ham and his son, Jimmy, entered a mobile home on their property to repair a water leak for tenant Kevin Clark. As they walked in, the Hams encountered a couple staying with dark, William and Kristina Tuell. William . Tuell immediately began shooting at the Hams, hitting the elder Ham in the head and shooting Jimmy Ham in the face. Both Hams then ran for their house, with Tuell and his wife on their heels. The attack continued in the Hams' home as Tuell and his wife attempted to shoot the entire Ham family. Kristina Tuell was wrestled to the ground by Ham's daughter, Sherry, but managed to escape. Though wounded, Jimmy Ham finally managed to secure a gun and kill Tuell with one shot. Kristina Tuell was later arrested after a massive manhunt and faces multiple charges, including attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. Jefferson Post, West Jefferson, NC, 02/17/04)

Two men and one woman broke into the apartment of a 30-year-old college student at 5:48 a.m. One invader was armed with a pellet gun, and the three overpowered the resident and tied him up. As the intruders began to ransack the apartment, the student was able to free himself and get hold of his handgun. He fired three shots, hitting one of the burglars in the chest, and then ran from the apartment and called for help. Police discovered the body of one suspect, identified as Juan Herrera, on the stairs leading to the apartment. The other two suspects had not been apprehended. (The Salinas Californian, Salinas, CA, 03/23/04)

At 6:30 in the morning, a woman was walking from her car to her office when she noticed a car on the lot with two people inside. A man got out of the car and started toward her, his hands in his pockets, the woman realized she would not be able to reach the office door before the man reached her. Believing she was in imminent danger, the married mother of two opened her purse and drew her gun. The man reacted immediately, turning and walking back to the car, which had pulled up alongside him. The man got into the car and it sped off. Thinking quickly, the woman called police on her cell phone and provided a detailed description of the car and the couple, who were picked up within minutes of the attempted robbery.   A 9 mm handgun was found in the couple's car and they were charged with attempted armed robbery. Farmington Hills, Mich., Police Chief William Dwyer, who had not been a proponent of the state's recently enacted concealed carry law, said the situation had changed his view. "She took the appropriate action," Dwyer said, "and probably saved her life," (The Daily Oakland Press, Pontiac, MI, 03/30/04)

Lance Myers of Anderson, S.C., awoke around midnight to a thumping sound. He then heard a shuffling sound and saw a man crawling into his bedroom. Alarmed, Myers switched on a light beside his bed and the man, dressed in a black hooded shirt and jeans, jumped to his feet, holding an ax with a 3-ft. handle. Myers hastily retrieved a gun from his nightstand and told the intruder to drop the ax. When he repeated his demand to drop the ax, the man raised the ax higher and appeared. TO come at Myers, who fired one fatal shot, dropping the man instantly. Police identified the suspect as Ernest Leroy Miles, who had been arrested multiple times for burglaries, robberies and drug offenses. (Anderson Independent-Mail, Anderson, SC, 03/09/04)

A Plainview, Texas, family was awakened about 2 a.m. by the chilling sound of someone breaking a window in their home. Since his father worked nights and left him in charge, a 13-year-old took it upon himself to protect his mother and younger brother. Upon hearing the noise, the boy got his father's shotgun and, when he saw someone attempting to enter through the broken window, fired one shot. No one was injured, and the would-be burglar was not located. But Capt. Michael T. Carroll praised the boy's quick thinking that prevented his family from becoming crime victims. "We commend his bravery for protecting his mother," Carroll said. (Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Lubbock, TX, 03/20/04)

Melany Yancey was home alone when two men wearing bandannas kicked in her front door and came upstairs about 2:50 a.m. Yancey later told police that she had locked herself in her bedroom and retrieved a handgun when she first heard the commotion. The intruders then attempted to break through the bedroom door. She fired a shot in their direction, and one man fired back at her. The men then moved into another bedroom and Yancey took the opportunity to flee her house, firing two more shots at the invaders as she ran outside. She was able to call 9-1-1 from a neighbor's home. Police found one of the suspects lying on the driveway, dead from a gunshot wound to the abdomen. The other suspect remained at large. {Springfield News- Sun. Springfield, OH, 03/22/04)

If you own a Remington 700 or Winchester Model 70 bolt-action center-fire rifle, or a Remington 870 or Mossberg Model 500 pump shotgun, or a Franchi or Benelli auto-loading shotgun, or even a Marlin 1895, or an 1866 Yellowboy replica lever gun, the Clinton gun ban is as much about your guns and your future right to own any firearm as it is about so-called "semi-automatic assault rifles."

That law puts control of your guns and your freedom squarely in the hands of the likes of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinsiein (D-Calif.). In her plan for us, control of our future gun ownership is in the form of a list that she trots out to soothe some gun owners into thinking they are safe. She wants people who don't own what she defines as a "semiautomatic assault weapon" to believe she is selective in her view of firearm prohibition.

She wants them to think it's the other guy she's after.

But the list is about us all.

It is a list of long guns compiled 10 years ago from the pages of Gun Digest by Feinstein and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)-a roster of bolt-actions, single-actions, lever-actions, single-shots and semi-autos. These are guns Feinstein and her ban-the-gun axis say you may keep.

Feinstein claims there are 670 guns on that list, but it actually includes many variations of the same design and boils down to about 51 specific models.

And, of course, there are lots of guns missing from her list. And there is, as yet, no Feinstein-approved list of handguns.

Ask our English-speaking cousins in England and Australia about lists-about trusting promises.

Twenty years ago, when England started banning registered semi-auto and pump long guns from the homes of licensed gun owners, the government published lists of guns people could keep and guns people were forced to sell to government "buybacks." Most recently, when they banned possession of registered handguns, the British government published more lists of pistols and revolvers people were permitted to keep and firearms that would be "controlled" by government-controlled all the way to the shredders and smelters.

During the recent debate over Feinstein's attempt to save the Clinton gun ban from automatically" sunsetting" Sept, 13, Feinstein again held up her list of approved guns to reassure American gun owners that they had nothing to fear.

Nothing to fear?

Feinstein and her cohorts are always using the same phrases about their plans for our future. "Common sense first step" is one That comes to mind. That doesn't mean the only step; it means there are more to follow.

When Feinstein referred to her list of "good guns," the gun-ban crowd in Congress was asking firearm owners to trust their future to the promise of Dianne Feinstein that our guns are safe in her hands. Yet she really believes that the rights of all Americans-rights practiced by 80 million of us-exist at her pleasure.

This is the same Dianne Feinstein who told the Associated Press in 1993, "Banning guns addresses a fundamental right of all Americans to feel safe."

This is the same Dianne Feinstein who said on CBS "60 Minutes," fresh from seeing her Clinton gun ban enacted in 1994, "If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them ... "Mr. and Mrs. America, turn 'em all in,' I would have done it."

That's her end game. Her list of "good guns" is as much a part of her prohibitionist goal as her list of what she considers to be "bad" guns.

As long as the Clinton gun ban is on the books, which guns are banned and which guns are temporarily safe is simply a matter of adding and deleting words from columns. And making sure that law-always considered a critical "first step" by the anti-gun rights radicals-sunsets is the most important goal in our singular mission to preserve the rights of peaceable Americans.

When you hear friends say this is about "assault weapons," ask them what kind of guns they own. Most likely their guns are on Feinstein's list.

Tell your friends never to forget her angry words, "Mr. and Mrs. America, turn 'em all in."

There is only one force in the nation that stands between that vision and continued freedom. As an NRA member, that force is you.

In the coming months we must work together-one-on-one-convincing friends and neighbors that the Clinton gun ban is not about somebody else, it's about each of us and all of us.

Feinstein and Chuck Schumer are threatening to bring the gun ban extension up time and time again. Each of us must keep the pressure on our representatives and senators to make sure it is never enacted. Call them at (202) 224-3131,write them and e-mail them with a simple message: Let the Clinton gun ban sunset. Vote against any Clinton gun ban extension.