A crime spree was in progress. Two people were already in the hospital with serious head injuries. Police say the suspects in that crime, a 30-year-old man and a 16-year- old boy, chose a disabled man and his wife as their next victims. The suspects broke into the home with a pellet gun and baseball bat. Despite the homeowner's spinal affliction, he proved no easy victim. He drew a handgun, causing the older intruder to flee. The younger intruder waited for authorities. "I'm a Life member of the National Rifle Association and I personally love homeowners being able to defend themselves and their families,” said Pulaski County, MO, Sheriff J.B. King. (Waynesville Daily Guide; Waynesville, MO, 11/17/07)

Sandra Hulsey didn't expect her life to change in a hardware store parking lot. "... The guy just came up and pushed me real hard with a force, like it was a car that hit me. And he was just yanking my purse ... .”he suspected purse snatcher probably did not notice Hulsey's husband, Norman, loading wood into their pickup truck. Norman grabbed his shotgun from the truck and fired a single shot, causing the suspect to run. "The sound of the shotgun and that dude burning off-it was funny,” said a witness. The suspect flagged down a police officer. "The suspect runs up to the police car saying, 'Let me in. They are shooting at me,” said the responding deputy. Nobody was injured. (ABC-KTRK, Houston, TX, 11/02/07)

Juan Amezaga and Stephen Soto were enjoying the fall weather outside Soto's apartment. The mood was shattered when two strangers walked by two or three times as if casing the neighborhood. Then the strangers approached. "What time is it?" one asked. Soto looked down at his watch, but as he raised his head the stranger said, , "Hey, run them," and drew a gun. But Amezaga and Soto are concealed carry permit holders. Soto pulled a 9 mm pistol just as the stranger shot. The bullet grazed Soto's shin, breaking the skin. Police say Soto fired two or three times, and the robbers fled. One robber stopped and again began shooting. Soto and Amezaga both returned fire and the robber fled. "It could have been real bad last night if it wasn't for the quick thinking and our concealed-weapons permits,” Soto said. "We might not even be here.” (Orlando Sentinel, Orlando, FL, 11/07/07)

Jason Moore returned home to find a strange car outside. A concealed-carry license holder, he grabbed a AS-caliber handgun from his truck and inspected the home, finding the back door kicked in. Once inside, he spied a man in the bedroom. He approached cautiously and spotted another suspect. The second man was holding Moore's own shotgun. "I fired one round and he went down," Moore said. "I immediately dialed 9-1-1 and told them not to move ... I told them that a lot.” 'The injured suspect complied, but the other claimed to be a gang member who would have Moore killed. When police arrived, they informed Moore that the injured suspect was wanted by U.S. Marshals on drug charges and his accomplice was a suspect in a homicide. "It's just scary to know . that there were two people that bad in my house and in my bedroom,” said Moore. (Yakima Herald-Republic, Yakima, WA, 11/21/07)

After someone shot through Steven Troy Stewart's living room window, the frightened Stewart began keeping a shotgun nearby. A month later, the precaution proved a lifesaver. Stewart heard glass breaking. He leapt from bed, grabbed his shotgun and walked toward the front of the house. There stood a man with a gun and a gasoline bomb. Stewart shot several times, wounding the intruder. The intruder fled with accomplices and later died. Three suspects were arrested in connection with the crime and suspicion of gang activity. In a jailhouse interview, one suspect told a local TV station they planned to kill Stewart, but he didn't know why. (The Bakersfield Californian, Bakersfield, CA, 11/08/07)

"Never Forget-Never Again"

For the countless millions of Americans who believe in the true meaning of the Second Amendment-the right to be armed to protect self, family, community, country and our individual liberty-the words "Katrina" and "New Orleans" sharply focus on very real tyranny in our times, on our soil. Throw into those defining words the name Hillary Clinton, and you will see a glimpse of a future she would wish for us all-a civilization utterly transformed.

As you will remember, that Hurricane Katrina/New Orleans tyranny was ordered by a rogue police chief who, in August 2005, issued this unconstitutional edict: "No one will be able to be armed," he declared. "Guns will be taken. Only law enforcement will be allowed to have guns." And that illegal order-in the midst of a natural disaster that produced unbridled anarchy and placed frightened citizens at the mercy of armed criminal predators-was enforced at gunpoint in house-to-house searches.

I vividly remember a stunning Fox network news video showing a 5S-yearold grandmother body-slammed and severely injured by a burly patrolman in SWAT garb because she produced a small antique revolver, innocently saying it was all the protection she needed.

And I remember chaotic scenes of homeowners handcuffed, forced to watch police search for and seize their guns at a time when they needed them most. An ABC reporter explained, "homeowners had armed themselves, in the end, police took their weapons but let them stay in their homes."

And then there was a Cox News Service headline that defines what the 21st century Right to Keep and Bear Arms means:

"Armed militia protects its New Orleans neighborhood."

The accompanying news story told of civic-minded residents who banded together in the face of a total absence of law enforcement to protect their community against roving gangs of violent criminals-many of whom flocked to New Orleans because of the news that over 270 local police officers went AWOL during the emergency.

Juxtapose that item with another headline that same week: "New Orleans Begins Confiscating Firearms, ... "

All of that injustice led to NRA's legislative battle cry, "New Orleans-Never Again-Never Forget!"

With NRA taking the lead, harnessing the outrage over the firearms confiscation all across the political spectrum, legislatures across the country enacted prohibitions against any such civil disarmament during times of emergency.

And equally importantly, the Congress acted decisively with enactment of a tough federal measure to forever outlaw such abuse at the national level.

And that brings us back to New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, who now cynically claims she is all for the Second Amendment.

When Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter's Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act of 2006 came to the floor on July 13 of that year, Hillary Clinton was among a handful of senators voting against outlawing the disarming of innocent Americans during times of disaster.

In essence, with that single recorded vote, the leading candidate in her party's bid to take the White House, voted to support the gun-ban mandate of the New Orleans police superintendent.

With her vote against Vitter's "never again" amendment, Hillary voted to disarm any innocent citizen who has the grit to keep a firearm to provide self-protection against evildoers.

With her vote, Hillary supports every aspect of the civil disarmament that marked the dismantling of the Second Amendment in New Orleans-including the refusal of government to acknowledge the existence of its secret cache of confiscated guns and its refusal to return those guns to their lawful owners once they were unearthed through NRA court action.

And with that vote, Hillary showed that her new phony support of the Second Amendment-which surfaced in an October 23, 2007, Des Moines Register (Iowa) article-is a cynical lie, insulting the overwhelming majority of Americans who know the true meaning of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

In debates and in campaign statements, Hillary Clinton insinuates that she served as the "co-President" to her husband Bill Clinton. On the issue of "gun control," and her singular enmity toward the National Rifle Association, the New York Times once reported:

"Mrs. Clinton, who is considering running for the Senate from New York, where gun control is popular, has also been more forceful than the President in directly taking on the powerful gun lobby ... "

To the prospect of Hillary ever occupying the White House again-this time, not as the ever-influential wife of the most anti-gun President in American history, but as President in her own right, bent on outdoing Bill Clinton's gun ban legacy, we say, "Never again!"

In the coming months, we must do everything possible, use every aspect of Hillary Clinton's anti-freedom, anti Second Amendment record to convince our friends and neighbors-SO million gun owners-to work to defeat her at the polls.