www.roanoke.com

If you've been following this year's Virginia General Assembly -- and, with important proposals on topics such as background checks at gun shows youth life jacket laws, and hunting license fees out there, you should be -- you probably know there was a bill to legalize the .223 and .22-250 calibers for deer hunting.

The key word there is "was." The bill was tabled in a House committee today. (FYI, the Senate also killed the gun show background check effort.)

The debate on the .223/.22-250 issue is pretty simple: Is a .22 centerfire cartridge enough to consistently and humanely take deer?

I've heard passionate arguments from both sides.

Clearly, in the right hands and right situation, a .223 or .22-250 is plenty good. Me, I'm pretty conservative with shot selection and I'm a pretty good shot. (I credit my years of shooting at sparrows and starlings with my air rifle and not my stint on my ROTC rifle team with the good shot thing.) I'm pretty sure I would do as well with a .223 or .22-250 as I do with my .280 Rem on the whitetails around here.

On the other hand, there is no doubt less room for error with those tiny (55 - 65 gr.) bullets. And those little projectiles often don't exit, which can lead to poor (if any) blood trail. So the deer may die, but you may not find it. (I saw a hunter hit a deer with a .243 WSSM this fall and we could not find an entry hole or exit hole until we field-dressed the deer. There was no exit hole becuase the fragments lodged in the off shoulder.)

Maybe because I don't currently own one of these guns (would love a .22-250, though) I don't have strong feelings either way on this. I'm wondering what others think.

Are you disappointed this fell through? Or did that committee make the right call?

I just got an interesting press release from Jim Shockey's people, who want to clear up confusion regarding a Barrack Obama radio ad featuring Ray Schoenke. (If you listen to ESPN radio in Roanoke or Lynchburg you've probably heard the ad.) The gist of the release? Ray Schoenke is not Jim Shockey.

Who are they?

Jim Shockey is an outdoor personality, video host and writer. If you watch hunting shows or read hunting magazines, you've seen Jim Shockey killing everything from whitetails to African game.

Ray Schoenke is a former Washington Redskins player who is now the vice president of the American Hunters and Shooters Association, which could be called a moderate gun control group or moderate gun rights group, depending on your perspective.

The pronunciation's of Schoenke's name (SHON-kee) does sound kind of like SHOCK-ee. But "Ray" doesn't sound much like "Jim." At least not to me. But I guess it does to others because Shockey, according to his people, has been the target of criticism from people who think he is supporting Obama.

Here's a quote from the release:

"The fact that people don't take the time to investigate the facts before they lash out has caused substantial confusion. Many of Jim's TV sponsors, licensees and business partners have received e-mails and phone calls from angry consumers saying that they will never again buy their products."

Really? Could that many people have heard "Ray SHON-kee" and thought "Jim Shockey"? I doubt it.

I suspect that a few people (or maybe one person) heard this wrong and started sending e-mails and posting to Internet message boards. It went viral, prompting those angry e-mails from a lot of people who never heard the ad. In short: just another episode showing the potential powers and dangers of the Internet.

But, as long as we're on the subject of mistaken identity... At Sportsman's Warehouse in Roanoke there's a mount of a great 10-point whitetail killed by Mark Taylor. I get a lot of compliments on the buck. But, while I wish I had killed it, I didn't. It was another Mark Taylor.

Ah, irony...

As a commentor already mentioned below, Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell has advised the State Police to stop releasing the list of the state's 135,000 concealed weapons permit holders, and the State Police says it will follow the recommendation.

Here's the lead of Roanoke Times reporter Laurence Hammack's story, which appeared on the paper's front page today:

"An editorial writer's botched attempt to highlight an open record -- the list of Virginians licensed to carry a concealed handgun -- resulted Friday in the record being closed."

Pretty well sums it up, huh?

Read the whole story HERE.

This story isn't over, of course. Next up will be legislative action to try to firm up rules about what is sensitive and what isn't.

I just got this news of yet another big change in U.S. firearms business from Jim Shepherd at the Outdoor and Shooting Wires:

"SPECIAL BULLETIN

From The Outdoor & Shooting Wires

Remington Arms Company, Inc. one of the nation's oldest continually-operating firearms companies, is being acquired by an affiliate of Cereberus Capital Management, L.P. The $370 million dollar acquisition includes the assumption of all of Remington Arms Company, Inc.'s liabilities and product lines.

Remington CEO Tommy Millner released a statement characterizing the transaction as "an acknowledgment of the Remington tradition, its strong brand, and the excellent products built over 191 years…"

The acquisition gives Cereberus two gun companies, Remington Arms and Bushmaster. Sources familiar with both companies say Remington will quickly add an AR-style rifle platform to complement their M24SWS Sniper Weapon System while Bushmaster will likely add signature branded ammunition and products.

Remington also includes a total line of shotshell, centerfire, rimfire and handgun ammunition and manufacturing under the Remington and UMC brands. For many years, Remington has remained the number one producer of both rifles and shotguns in the US domestic market.

Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC provided financing commitment and advisor services to Cereberus in the acquisition, expected to close in June 2007.

We will have complete details and reaction to the acquisition in the Friday, April 6, 2007 editions of The Outdoor and Shooting Wires."

As many of you may already know, The Roanoke Times decision to post a database of all concealed weapons permittees in the state was the subject of a segment on CNN's Paula Zahn Now show.

The segment appeared last night, when Rich Sanchez was sitting in for Zahn.

I missed the show but have read the transcript. You can read it HERE. You'll have to scroll through the first two stories.

The segment's producers managed to track down a couple of Virginians who were profoundly impacted by the posting of the database, including a parole officer and a woman who lives in fear of her abusive ex-husband. That man is serving a 36-year prison sentence, and the story didn't indicate when he is scheduled to be released, just that the woman was terrified that "if" he gets out he'll come after her.

No one from the newspaper appeared on the segment, preferring to let the March 25 editorial apology and the paper's decision to pull down the database after a day serve as the paper's statements on the subject.

Two weeks after a Roanoke Times editorial writer's column about Virginia's concealed weapons permit list, which included a temporary posting of the entire database on our Web site, the newspaper has acknowledged that it didn't give proper thought into the potential ramifications of the setting up the database.

One line is: "The potential for harm is something we should have given far greater thought to in making the decision."

The apology -- yes, that word is used -- is today's lead editorial. You can read it HERE.

I've read it a couple times and I've got some thoughts. I could sit here for the next half-hour writing up those comments, but I'd rather go sit on the porch, enjoy my coffee and read the rest of the paper. So that's what I'm going to do.

Maybe I'll just pepper my comments in with any you all might have regarding the apology, and whether or not you think it is appropriate and sufficient.

The Letters to the Editor section also includes a sampling of the letters the paper received. HERE they are.

And for all you new Christian Trejbal fans out there, his column is HERE. Today his targets include drivers of "gas-guzzling" sport utility vehicles. Yep, I'm one of those too.

Finally, I did end up taking my girls "fishing" Friday afternoon. My Roanoke Times column today is about our adventure is HERE. I don't blast anyone.

I spent a couple hours this morning at the range with benchrest shooter Mark Schronce of Pulaski, whom I'm doing a feature on for The Roanoke Times. (For pictures of him you'll have to wait for the article.)

Schronce is getting ready for the season and was getting his rifles zeroed. As I'd hoped he was more than willing to let me (and our photographer, Kyle Green) pop off a few rounds with this beauty, the creation of local gunsmith Richard Franklin.

We were shooting at 100 yards -- point blank in Schronce's terms. It was windy but I still put all three shots in about a half-inch group.

With this gun (chambered for 6mmBRX cartridge), Schronce set an International Benchrest Shooters 600-yard record last year with a five-shot group at less than 2 inches. I saw the target and it actually included something of a flyer, a single shot well out from the others, which were in about a 1-inch group.

That is just sick, and I mean that as a compliment.

Given how much attention this concealed handgun carry permit database thing has generated, I figured anyone in Virginia who has a permit had to know by now what had happened.

I was wrong.

Yesterday evening I was talking to a friend who is an avid hunter and shooter. I said, "I'm guessing you were on the list."

He replied, "What list?"

He's a smart guy. But he doesn't read The Roanoke Times, in print or on-line, doesn't pay much attention to local TV news, and doesn't see many of us sportsmen types at work. So he was clueless. And, yes, he was on the list even though he didn't realize it.

While plenty of folks are still pretty hot over this, things are quieting down. Our last two news stories haven't gotten near the Web views that our stories on the subject were getting last week. But the stories are still getting attention. Yesterday I talked with reporter Laurence Hammack, who's been covering this as a news story for us, and he said that this is the first time he's ever had his voicemail box fill up, that's how much feedback he's been getting.

Our two most recent stories have been really interesting.

In a large article Sunday, Laurence looked into how Virginia compares to other states in terms of how much concealed carry info is public. If you didn't see it, you can read the story HERE. With the story there's a link to an informative graphic.

Interestingly, he found that the Argus Leader newspaper in South Dakota maintains that state's concealed carry permit database on its Web site, but the list includes only the names and the city, town or county of residence, without specific addresses. You can see the entire package the paper did on concealed carry permits HERE.

The South Dakota database has generated some complaints, but not to the level we saw here. I have kin in South Dakota and I was not surprised to spot one of my relatives on the list. In an e-mail exchange yesterday he gave no indication that he has a problem with the database as it is.

Today, our Richmond reporter Mike Sluss reported that the controversy has prompted the state's Freedom of Information Act Advisory Council to study how much of the permit list data should be available to the public. His story is HERE.

There's no certainty the council will find anything wrong with the current system. But it might. Plenty of folks have taken great pleasure pointing out the irony that the paper's decision to make the database public to kick off Sunshine Week could end up prompting tighter protection of that information.

In case you haven't seen it, CLICK HERE to read another story by Roanoke Times news reporter Laurence Hammack regarding the fallout from Christian Trejbal's editorial and the temporary posting of the conealed carry permit holder database on the Roanoke.com Web site.

Laurence is one of our best reporters and I hope everyone agrees with me that he has done a good job objectively covering this story for The Roanoke Times this week.

In this story he writes about how some state legislators are already exploring what kind of action could be taken to keep potentially sensitive information that is currently open to the public, such as the concealed carry permit list, from getting into the wrong hands.

I think most of us could see this coming.

Any predictions on whether or not the General Assembly will be able to pass such legislation next winter?

Jim Shepherd, who produces the Shooting Wire and Outdoor Wire newsletters, is as plugged into the outdoor world as just about anybody I know. If there's a topic of importance out there, he's on it.

Not only does Jim have great news judgement, he's an excellent writer who doesn't start typing until he's done the research and done some thinking, whether or not his column is an objective report or an opinion piece supported by that research.

I've been wondering when Jim would offer his thoughts on the concealed carry permit list thing here at The Roanoke Times and I got my answer this morning. Any guess as to his position?

You can read his piece HERE.