A 34-year-old man tried to make good on threats he had made to his ex-wife, but was himself shot instead. Despite , a court order demanding he stay away from his ex and her home, the man broke into her house. The woman was ^ fearful, as her ex-husband had previously called her several times threatening to kill her. She immediately picked up the phone and began to dial 9-1-1. The intruder hit her in the face and knocked the phone out of her hand. Another man, who lives in the home, picked up a .30-30 Win. rifle and shot the woman's attacker in the leg. The wounded man was airlifted to a local hospital. Sheriff's deputies say they had responded to the same house numerous times prior to the shooting. (Times-News, Hendersonville, NC, 12/28/03)

Alex Patlakh, owner of Rush Jewelers in North Philadelphia, shot one of a pair of thugs during an attempted robbery and was wounded in the struggle when a bullet grazed his head and another hit him in the shoulder. It was not the first business robbery the Patlakh family had experienced. In 1999, Patlakh's son, Brogdan, was killed when his jewelry store was robbed. This latest attempt occurred just before 9:45 a.m. Two men stood at the door of the shop and motioned that they wished to enter. Patlakh pressed a buzzer to open the door and the men came inside, asking to look at some jewelry. One man suddenly drew a gun, and a struggle ensued. Shots were exchanged, leaving Patlakh and one of the robbers wounded. The second robber escaped. (The Philadelphia inquirer, Philadelphia, PA, 12/18/03)

Mario Cassola and his sister Lia Mercuri, co-owners of Vinny's Pizza in Rockford, 111., are no strangers to crime as one of their deliverymen was beaten and robbed, and their restaurant had been burglarized. When two armed men burst into the pizzeria one Monday night, the brother sister team fought back and won. After the men entered the establishment, one man began beating Cassola about the head with a hammer while the second man aimed a rifle at him. Cassola shook off the blows and grabbed his assailant, then used him as a human shield against the man with the rifle. While her brother held the men's attention, Mercuri pulled out a gun they kept at the restaurant and began firing. The two bandits fled empty handed. Police later recovered the hammer and rifle and arrested Michael Buck and Vaughn Gulley in connection with the crime. (Rockford Register Star, Rockford, IL, 11/19/03)

Two men entered Ann's Market one night in an apparent robbery attempt, and one of them was shot by a store employee. Inside the store, one of the would-be robbers brandished a handgun. Upon seeing the gun, the clerk on duty pulled a firearm and shot his assailant. The accomplice then fled the store. The wounded crook faces robbery and firearms violations charges-once he is released from the hospital. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Pittsburgh, PA, 01/04/04)

Two armed men tried to hold up a tire store, but a teenage employee with a shotgun got the best of them. The men entered, the store armed with pistols and wearing black masks. A 16-year-old employee grabbed a shotgun in the shop's office and, after a tense 30-second standoff, the would-be bandits vacated the premises. (Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville, FL, 12/08/03)

Uzair Khan and two other employees at Dani's Food Mart were preparing to close the store just before midnight when a young man-his face partially disguised entered the store and began waving a handgun around. Khan later told police that he immediately handed the gunman the cash drawer and begged him to leave. The robber, later identified as Melvin Dugger, seemed in no hurry to leave and kept looking around the store. "I begged him not to shoot me," Khan said. "But he kept looking around. He wouldn't leave." Fearing he would be shot, Khan drew a handgun and shot Dugger, who dropped the cash drawer and his gun and ran from the store. Police discovered his body behind a nearby apartment building. (Macon Telegraph, Macon, GA,12/19/03)

A man shot and killed a dog menacing his family when the dog charged within a foot of his wife and child. Mother and child first encountered the snarling animal in their driveway. The mother told her child not to move as she used her cell phone to call her husband who was inside the home. When the man tried to get his family inside to safety, the dog charged them and he shot it. Police had warned the dog's owners earlier that day of complaints filed by other neighbors. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle, WA, 13/10/03)

"Democrats would be foolish to continue using the term gun control ... ." That admonition from Americans for Gun Safety-run by former Clinton/Gore and Schumer operatives-was secretly presented to Democratic Party strategists in what AGS calls a "blueprint" for "Taking Back the Second Amendment." It tells candidates to morph "gun control" into a sweet sounding "gun safety" message.

If anti-gun politicians put the AGS "blueprint" into practice, the words "gun control" will disappear from their vocabularies and their anti-freedom agenda will be wrapped in a phony embrace of the Second Amendment. Beware. "Taking Back the Second Amendment" is a deceit that assumes gun-rights voters are too stupid to recognize the end game-the loss of our liberty.

"The problem that Democrats have on the gun issue," says AGS, "has far less to do with the typical policies they espouse than the rhetoric they employ." AGS cites the results of its own opinion polling that found, "Only 8% of voters believe that the Second Amendment does not protect an individual's right to own a gun"-a minority stand linked to the Democratic Party. To take back the Second Amendment, AGS says their political language needs an overhaul.

"Taking Back the Second Amendment." "What stunning arrogance. The Second Amendment belongs to every citizen-it's not a fly-by-night notion to be embraced by cynical politicians to swindle the public to gain high office.

The Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) says its partnership with AGS will produce "an inclusive message combining progressive policy positions with language that embraces the shared values of most Americans ... . Among the shared values it is talking about is the belief in the Second Amendment. In parsing plain language, "values" is one word AGS just doesn't get and never will. It's telling politicians to talk about "values" they do not believe in-to merely spout gun-owner friendly rhetoric.

U.S. Sen. Zeil Miller (D-Ga.) said it best when he spoke passionately at the 2002 NBA Annual Members Banquet: "Whenever I hear politicians talking about gun control, it makes me wonder if they understand my values or my way of life.'

"Way of life.'' That's the sum and intensity of values That's not something that gun owners can ever be conned out of by a soothing political pitch, a scam scripted by AGS.

Yet AGS advises candidates to "Implement Your Gun Plan and Watch Gun Votes Roll In.'' Well, that's what the enemies of freedom did in 1994 after Bill Clinton's gun ban was enacted, and it cost him his rubber-stamp Congress. In 3000 the "votes rolled in" over Al Gore's "gun plan," and the loss in his home state of Tennessee cost him the White House. And in the 2002 elections voters elected a solid gun-rights majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and increased the margin in the U.S. Senate.

In all of those elections "the votes rolled in" for real Second Amendment supporters because NRA was free to tell voters the truth-debunking the "Blizzard of Lies" from the Brady Campaign or AGS or the Violence Policy Center. And voters overwhelmingly believed us.

A recent Zogby Int'l poll asked a broad cross-section of voters, "Do you agree or disagree the NRA is right to fight gun control legislation on both federal and state levels?" Sixty-four percent of voters across the board agreed. Among gun owners, the NRA-favorable response was 78 percent.

Our ability to reach people with the truth is what our enemies fear most. NRA was the clear target when a radical majority in Congress enacted a broadcast blackout for groups such as NRA, making it a crime to speak through paid TV or radio ads, 30 days before a primary election and 60 days before a general election, if we even allude to a candidate to Federal office.

And now the U.S. Supreme Court has done the unthinkable-it has upheld the broadcast speech ban. Our enemies can get all the free airtime they want, under the guise of "news," from big media like CNN, NBC, ABC and CBS broadcasters who regularly ridicule our values. Yet we are supposed to remain silent, That's not going to happen. NRA will not be silenced. Not now, not ever. That is why we are forming the NRA Television & Radio Broadcasting Network-a nationwide effort to get our message out by directing our audience to forums that are not covered by the speech ban-like the Internet-where we can still practice free political speech, and where Americans can get up-to-the-minute information, like our political preference charts, and where we can tell NRA's side of the news.

Until we can change the law, we must fight the gag rule in the only way left to us by forming our own network. But it is only possible with direct help from NRA members, your friends and neighbors. Without your contributions, the American public will merely see the network news presentation of the Brady Campaign's "Blizzard of Lies" or the candidate scam concocted by ACS.

Without your contributions, the truth will be locked out. You must not let that happen.