Turkey farmer Bryan Tew was driving his tractor down the road for refueling when he noticed a strange car, its trunk open, parked in his garage. Parking his tractor in front of the car, he reached into his pickup for a .22-caliber rifle. Police say that's when a man kicked open Tew's back door and stepped outside with his arms full of electronics and money. "You ever see those cartoons where their eyes get as big as saucers? That's what he looked like, Tew said. "I yelled at him and when he saw that gun, he sat the stuff down ... and ran back into the house. The suspect slipped on the linoleum inside the home and Tew held him at gunpoint for police. "A friend of mine said your body only produces a teaspoon of adrenaline in a lifetime, Tew said. "Well, I think I used my whole teaspoon. Police are investigating the suspect's involvement in several other break-ins. (The Daily Record, Dunn, NC, 02/13/09)

Police believe an armed intruder may have used a sliding glass door to enter the home of Heath Miller, a popular middle school music teacher. Miller's dogs began barking, waking Miller and his wife. Miller retrieved his .38-caliber pistol and readied himself as the masked intruder approached the bedroom door. It is unclear who fired the first shot. When the exchange of gunfire ended, the intruder lay dead. The Millers were not injured. (Palm Beach Post, West Palm Beach, FL, 02/16/09)

Richard Creed had just finished helping a customer at his insurance agency when two men burst in wearing masks and carrying pistols. Police say the intruders forced Creed to an office in the rear of the store, which, unbeknownst to them, was where he stored a revolver. Creed kept his cool as they neared his gun. "It was none of the flashy lights, he explained. "It was, 'If you're gonna live, this is what you gotta do, and you think about it real fast. It was pretty clearheaded. Creed grabbed his revolver and shot one of the men several times, causing both assailants to run. Police apprehended the suspects and discovered that their pistols were realistic toys. (The Saginaw News, Saginaw, MI, 01/23/09)

According to police, a homeowner pulled into his driveway and watched in astonishment as a burglar carried items out of his back door. He confronted the burglar, who drew a knife and sliced the homeowner's arm. During the ensuing wrestling match, the homeowner tossed the burglar into the pool for a February swim. He retrieved a rifle before the burglar could exit the water and ordered him to stand in the middle of the pool until police arrived. (The State, Columbia, SC, 02/21/09)

The residents of an apartment complex say their typically safe neighborhood had fallen victim to a rash of break-ins. Crime reached its zenith when someone broke into an apartment occupied by a woman and her children. The woman retreated to her bedroom with the children, locked the door and armed herself with a handgun. According to police, when the suspect approached the bedroom door, the woman fired a single shot. The suspect was found outside the complex suffering from a gunshot wound. He was placed under armed guard at the hospital. (Tyler Morning Telegraph, Tyler, TX, 02/03/09)

While waiting for her school bus, a 9-year-old girl was attacked by a rabid coyote. The coyote bit her legs and badly injured her toe before 16-year-old David Miller and his grandfather could respond with a .22-caliber pistol. Miller bravely kicked the coyote, allowing the girl to run away, then he pinned the animal to the ground so his grandfather could shoot it behind the shoulder. The wounded coyote slipped Miller's grasp, charged the grandfather and bit down on the barrel of the pistol. Miller's grandfather fired a volley of shots, killing the coyote. Miller has been honored with letters of recognition for his bravery from the governor of South Carolina and the state House of Representatives. (The Herald-Journal, Spartanburg, SC, 02/14/09)

Authorities say three men with little regard for stealth broke into the home of John Easby-Smith. Hearing a ruckus downstairs, Easby-Smith grabbed his 45-caliber handgun from a bedside table and went to investigate. Encountering the burglars, he fired several shots, hitting one of the men and causing the trio to flee the home. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Little Rock, AR, 01/23/09)

A National Threat

Using rampant violence by drug cartels in Mexico, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that among "just a few gun-related things" that President Barack Obama will demand is a new harshly redefined ban outlawing so-called semi-auto "assault weapons." The reason? The Obama administration and its shills in the national media would have the public believe that American gun owners and federally licensed dealers are exclusively to blame for the mass serial murders committed by the terrorist Mexican drug cartels to protect their $30-billion-a-year across-the-border illegal drug trade.

Try this headline by ABC News: " U.S. Guns Arming Mexican Drug Gangs; Second Amendment to Blame?"

ABC's online story was illustrated with photos of 40 mm grenade launchers, fragmentation grenades and fully automatic small arms. Broadcast and online viewers were treated to images of M-60 machine guns and other strictly military weapons, while quoting BATFE officials, like Phoenix Special Agent in Charge Bill Newell claiming, "It's virtually impossible to buy a firearm in Mexico as a private citizen, so this country is where they come."

That lie appearing in hundreds of media outlets surpasses any anti-Second Amendment fraud of the past, like the totally false claims that gave us the 1994 Clinton gun ban.

A New York Times February 27, 2009 editorial, "The Drug Cartel's Right to Bear Arms," best summarizes the Obama administration's war on gun owners this way: "The Justice Department pronounced the Mexican drug cartels 'a national threat' this week, even as American gun dealers along the border were busily arming the cartel's murderous gangs ... A vast arms bazaar is rampant along the four border states, enabled by porous to non-existent American gun laws ... Licensed dealers routinely recruit buyers with clean records to foil weak laws and feed the deadly pipeline." (emphasis added) And the Times bleated about "'gun enthusiasts' free to deal battlefield rifles at weekend shows ... "

Attorney General Holder's declaration of war against the tens of millions of Americans was linked with an announcement on a nationwide drug bust, which in reality was staffed and planned during President George W. Bush's watch.

Those drug raids ultimately netted 755 felony arrests in 120 American cities and resulted in the seizure of $59 million in U.S. currency and 12,535 kilos of cocaine with a street value of $752 million.

That $811 million represents merely a small dent in the hundreds of tons of U.S. greenbacks in cartel profits and tons of drugs smuggled into and out of Mexico. The purchasing power of all this hard cash equals corruption in Mexico on an unimaginable scale.

Try this estimate from a Dec. 3, 2008 report in the Fort Worth (Texas) Weekly:

"In the last five months, 35 agents with the Mexican federal prosecutor's office were arrested for corruption. According to Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora, each was being paid between $150,000 and $450,000 monthly by the cartels. In late October, two high-ranking officials with Mexico's Office on Organized Crime, part of the attorney general's office, were arrested for supplying a Sinaloa-based cartel with information on possible drug seizures. Each was being paid $400,000 per month. An Interpol agent working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration at the American embassy in Mexico City, caught supplying the same cartel with inside information last month, was thought to have been earning $30,000 monthly."

If the cartel can afford $400,000 a month bag-money, they don't have to go to Bob's Bait and Tackle in Pima, Arizona for firearms.

You would think that some responsible individual in the media would report that with such market power in dollars, the Mexican cartels buy massive quantities of illegal arms on the open, illegal international market. Or that organized crime kingpins with unlimited drug funding obtain military arms through bribes and payoffs internationally.

No way. The in-the-tank American media is sticking to the spoon-fed notion that some of the richest, most ruthless criminals in the world, who will stop at no act of barbarism or violation of international law, are obtaining firearms from licensed dealers in the U.S. one NICS check at a time.

Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Moros-with huge U.S. assistance in financial and military arms and equipment at stake-is hewing the Obama party line saying that BATFE traces of a handful of guns prove that 90 percent of cartel weapons are of American origin. But in 2007, he said this about American gun laws:

"It's truly absurd that a person can get 50 to 100 high powered arms, grenade launchers, fragmentation grenades, and can transport this cargo to our country."

Holder, in spelling out Obama's plans for a new "assault weapons" ban, says it "will have a positive impact in Mexico at a minimum." In the same breath, by way of illustration, he said, "Some recent Mexican Army and police confrontations with drug cartels have resembled small unit combat, with cartels employing automatic weapons and grenades."

Nobody in the assembled media batted an eye at the inconsistency of the big lie.

Among those joining the Holder propaganda blitz was Paul Helmke of the Brady Campaign who in an article claiming, "The U.S. gun lobby's obstructionism takes a global toll," said, "In effect, we allow military-style weapons to be readily available .... There's no limits on the amount or type you can buy, no limits on the amount of ammunition. We're the marketplace of choice for drug gangs and dealers around the world."

As the cartel violence in Mexico and on our side of the border escalates, there will be thousands more such false claims blaming you and me and our freedom for the carnage.

To understand the Obama game plan for gun owners, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has the answer: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before."

Mexico is the crisis and banning our guns is their craven opportunity. We must have a single message to Congress and to the media.

Seal the border. Punish the guilty. Use existing federal gun and drug laws to the fullest against violent drug syndicates here and in Mexico.

Bottom line: At issue is not the absence of law, but the political will to enforce the laws both nations already possess. In the search for solutions to Mexico's ruthless criminal enterprise, American gun owners will stand resolute for enforcement of the rule of law against drug and gun traffickers.

But when it comes to our Second Amendment rights, we will yield nothing, nor should we.