Good evening, IFC’ers!

First off, welcome to your new and improved IFC website!  Hopefully you’ve seen it by now, but if not take a look around…We’re still working on getting all the kinks out, but if you see any glaring mistakes or notable additions we should make, please feel free to contact Barry at barry.b.snell@gmail.com and let him know.

Second, welcome to the first of what will be regular “IFC Gun News Updates.”  In these posts, you’ll find links to various interesting or thought and discussion provoking articles about happenings in the gun world or in politics…Stuff that doesn’t necessarily warrant its own post or special attention, but is still worth taking a look at.  And maybe once in awhile we’ll sneak in something just plain funny or cool, too.

Third, if you haven’t already, be sure to check out and answer Rep. Bruce Braley’s survey about Universal Background Checks.  Regardless of your political affiliation, letting your representatives know what you think is a civic duty!

So let’s get to it, shall we?!

In the news:

• Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in Nojay v. Cuomo, supporting the New York SAFE Act.
• Want to show the economic impact of concealed carriers?  U.S. Concealed Carry has a pretty cool plan!
• The NRA asks, “where’s all the .22 Rimfire?”  Well, get the answer here:

• Meet Tom Palmer, the openly gay “peacenik” defendant who managed to get the D.C. gun ban overturned in the recent Palmer v. District of Columbia.
• Will “Game Changa” Hayden, of the disturbingly popular Sons of Guns TV show, was arrested recently on allegations of child molestation.
• We all know the gun world is dominated by men, but a new and rapidly growing organization called “One Million United” seeks to change that by targeting women to educate them on the right to keep and bear arms.
• Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) introduced a bill, H.R. 4935, to demilitarize Federal regulatory agencies.
• In the wake of the U.S. Court of Appeals upholding a law called the Florida Privacy of Firearm Owners Act, ruling that doctors asking patients about firearms violates patients’ right to privacy, some doctors are upset, feeling that it’s their duty as doctors to ask.
• Want to peruse some gun related statistics while procrastinating that assignment at work?  Gallup Polls has got you covered!

This day in history – August 11:

• Babe Ruth makes his 500th home run against the Cleveland Indians in 1929.
• The first Federal prisoners arrive on Alcatraz in 1934.
• Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, is born in 1950.
• Gennadiy Nikonov, inventor of the AN-94 rifle, is born in 1950.
• Hulk Hogan is born in 1953.
• The Watts Riots begin in Los Angeles in 1965, resulting in the death of 34 people.
• The last U.S. troops depart Vietnam in 1972.
• On this day in 1975, General Anthony McAuliffe passed away.  Gen. McAuliffe is famous for his reply to the German demand for the surrender of the 101st Airborne during the Battle of the Bulge.  His reply to the Germans?  “Nuts!”
• Ronald Reagan jokes over an open mic prior to a radio address in 1984, that we will begin bombing the Soviet Union in five minutes, causing the Soviet military to increase its alert status.
• Carl Lewis wins four gold medals in track at the 1984 Olympics, tying Jesse Owens’ 1936 Munich record.
• Al Qaeda formed in 1988, in a meeting attended by Bin Laden, Al Zawahiri and Dr. Fadl in Peshawar, Pakistan.

And to close things out, here’s one of my favorite gun related photographs…This is Staff Sergeant John Boinott laying it down with his M1C atop Outpost Yoke, Korea, in 1953:

I hope you enjoyed all this as much as I did putting it together for y’all! Until the next installment!

Fighting for your Second Amendment rights in Iowa,
Barry B. Snell
IFC Communications Director
NRA Member