Idaho Senators Block Sullivan BATFE Nomination: Idaho's senators are blocking President Bush's nominee to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, saying the agency has become overly aggressive in enforcing gun laws. Republican Sens. Larry Craig and Mike Crapo placed separate holds on the nomination of federal prosecutor Michael Sullivan, the acting ATF director for more than a year. Crapo's spokesman, Lindsay Nothern, said the senator's office has heard from a number of gun dealers, gun owners and others in Idaho who "have concerns about ATF policies regarding gun sales and even (gun) ownership. Maybe the federal government is getting a little too aggressive with people who haven't done anything wrong." http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jNl6jyIzPcvmXCr9yM2WHsCixdFQD8TG6VI81 --- Shootings Test Limits Of Texas Self-Defense Law: ...Then there was Mr. Horn's claim of self-defense under the Legislature's reformulation of the "castle doctrine" that, as of September, no longer requires a Texan to retreat before using deadly force at his own "habitation" in the face of a perceived lethal threat. Protecting a neighbor's property, however, is not included...Captain Corbett said that a plainclothes officer had pulled up just in time to see Mr. Horn pointing his shotgun at both men across his front yard, that Mr. Ortiz had at one point started to run in a way that took him closer to Mr. Horn, and that both men "received gunfire from the rear." That fact, alone, however, was not necessarily conclusive, Captain Corbett said. "It tells an investigator something, but not everything," he added. "They could still have been seen as a threat." http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/13/us/13texas.html?ref=us --- Colorado Springs May Authorize Autoloaders For Security Officers: Colorado Springs City Council members will consider allowing security guards to carry semiautomatic weapons next month. Although the change has been in the works for months, the revision is sure to draw added interest in light of Sunday's shootings at New Life Church. City Clerk Kathryn Young said she will submit a proposal to the council in January that would revise the city's security licensing laws, including the types of weapons allowed. She said the proposed measure would allow semiautomatic weapons; the current ordinance limits security guards to revolvers. Konquest Security President Michael Briggs said the New Life shootings underscore why security guards should be more heavily armed. http://www.gazette.com/articles/security_30795___article.html/weapons_guards.html --- Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition: ...The point is that gun laws will not deter criminals with evil intent and police can't be everywhere they're needed. But killers can be stopped by law-abiding citizens with guns. As the Supreme Court considers its ruling on whether the strict gun laws in the District of Columbia are constitutional, it might remember Jeanne Assam and her courageous, proper and for now legal response to a lawless act. Though four were killed at the two locations and several others wounded, many more owe their lives to Assam, who should be the new poster woman for those who wish to preserve the right to keep and bear arms. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/CalThomas/2007/12/13/praise_the_lord_and_pass_the_ammunition Assam Honored With Eleanor Roosevelt Award: For her remarkable display of heroism and courage under fire, the Second Amendment Foundation announced today that it will recognize Jeanne Assam, who confronted a gunman on Dec. 9 at the New Life Church shooting in Colorado Springs, with the Eleanor Roosevelt Award. The Roosevelt award was created by SAF founder Alan Gottlieb, co-author of America Fights Back: Armed Self-Defense in a Violent Age. The award honors exceptional women who use firearms in self-defense and the defense of others. The award is named in memory of former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who frequently carried a revolver for personal protection, even while she lived in the White House, and during the times that she campaigned in the South for civil rights. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,241345.shtml Related Commentary: http://www.goodforthecountry.com/ --- Florida Teacher Arrested For Gun On Campus: ...Lorry Coats, a secretary at Heathrow Elementary, told Seminole County Sheriff's deputies that she was walking across the school's bus ramp at approximately 7:45 a.m. Wednesday when she noticed a cell phone lying on the ground about thirty feet away from the school's administrative building. Upon closer inspection, she found a handgun in a case lying next to the phone. Coats took the gun and the phone to Barbara Nixon, Heathrow Elementary's principal, who cross-referenced the phone's number and realized it belonged to Michele McGhee, 56, a third-grade teacher at the school, according to the arrest report... http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/crime/orl-bk-teacher121207%2C0%2C7587332.story --- More Women Armed: Women packing heat! More females than ever are learning how to shoot a gun. Since 1995, the number of women learning how to shoot has nearly doubled. Ranging is ages from ten or eleven to upwards of 60 and 70, more women are gripping guns. They aren't your typical Annie Oakley, an old west women who could shoot better then men. On the first Wednesday of every month it's Ladies Night at Cleland's Outdoor World shooting range. "Typically, women are supposed to be the weaker sex," long-time shooter, Nancy Miller sarcastically added. But these women are pulling the trigger of empowerment...like Nancy Miller, who's been shooting most of her life. (Report is from Ohio.) http://nbc24.com/news/content.aspx?id=67747 --- Oops, Wrong House, Oklahoma Version: A man shot a teenage intruder tonight who he said broke into his Tulsa apartment, which has no power, police said. The youth was identified only as a 16-year-old male. The man, a 20-year-old who police also would not identify, said he had been sleeping in his apartment in the 2100 block of S 99 East Avenue about 7:30 p.m. when he was awakened by the sound of breaking glass in another bedroom, Officer Leland Ashley said. Ashley said the man then retrieved a shotgun and went into the room and discovered a person holding what he believed was a gun, but later turned out to be a flashlight. The man then shot the youth once in the hip with birdshot, Ashley said. http://newsok.com/article/3179879/1197437326 --- Oops, Wrong House, California Version: A homeowner in the 7200 block of Lindsay Road in rural southwest Bakersfield armed himself with a handgun Monday evening and fired a shot at a stranger trespassing in his fenced yard, the Kern County Sheriff's Department reported Tuesday... The man reportedly started to raise the gun in Richardson's direction. "I'm a hunter. I know what a gun looks like," Richardson said. "I shot for his leg. If I hit him, I don't know." Richardson fired just one shot, and the man reportedly ran, jumped the fence and continued running. Deputies and a police dog searched the area but were unable to find the suspect. http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/308490.html --- Bush Pardons Restore RKBA: ...In 2004, when Mr. Freeman owned a pawn and gun shop in Douglas, Ga., where he still lives, he tried to buy a gun to add to his supply. But because both his county-issued gun permit and his federal firearm license had expired, he said, he was compelled to submit to a background check. His 41-year-old felony conviction popped up...Now retired, he [Bodendieck] applied for the pardon about two and a half years ago when the old felony conviction prevented him from renewing his gun permit. "The reason I wanted it was mainly so I could get back into hunting," he said. "Deer, squirrels, stuff like that, small stuff, stuff I'd always done my whole life with my friends." http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/13/us/13pardon.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin --- Tangentially Related: A law professor at the University of Montana has begun a website that offers a bibliography for understanding the original intent of the Constitution. http://www.umt.edu/law/original-understanding/presentation.htm -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .