Heller Decision to Be Announced Today: The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule Thursday on whether the District will be able to keep its controversial gun ban. Mayor Adrian Fenty and other top city leaders plan a noon news conference to react to the court's decision. Today is the last day the high court will issue decisions from arguments it heard this term. The gun control case is being watched closely by lawyers on both sides, because it is likely to have a national effect... http://www.nbc4.com/politics/16703852/detail.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/25/AR2008062502712.html?hpid=topnews --- Federal Judge Fails to Block Florida Parking-Lot-Storage Bill: A federal judge declined on Wednesday to stop Florida's new guns-at-work law from taking effect on Tuesday. The law, which Gov. Charlie Crist signed in April, will allow employees possessing concealed-weapons permits to keep guns in their vehicles while parked on their employer's premises. Not only will employers not be able to stop them, they won't be able to ask whether an employee has a gun in his or her car, either...Chief District Judge R. Hinkle said he was neither granting nor denying the injunction, but other obligations and the need to research the case further will probably prevent him from ruling before mid-July, he said. http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/jun/26/na-judge-wont-stop-guns-at-work-law/ Judge Calls Law "Stupid": A new Florida law intended to prohibit public and private employers alike from banning guns locked inside cars in their parking lots is so badly written it's "stupid," a federal judge declared Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle declined, however, to rule on a request for a preliminary injunction before the law takes effect next Tuesday...The law, thus, doesn't apply to a business that doesn't have any workers with a concealed weapon permit, Hinkle said. He said that means one business may have to comply, while another next door is exempt. "Stupid isn't it?" he asked while questioning an attorney for the state... http://www.jacksonville.com/apnews/stories/062508/D91HDU500.shtml --- West Virginia Expands CCW Reciprocity: West Virginians with concealed weapons permits can now legally carry a hidden handgun in about 20 states. Last year, the Legislature gave the state attorney general's office the task of working out concealed weapons agreements with other states. Prior to the legislative action, only two other states - Virginia and Kentucky - recognized concealed weapons permits from West Virginia. "My directive is to reach agreements with as many states as possible," said Tom Smith, managing deputy attorney general in charge of the push... http://www.wvgazette.com/News/200806240538 --- Armed Residents Patrol Charlotte Streets: Armed neighbors are now patrolling the Central Avenue business district in response to a shooting and three armed robberies at nearby businesses... The Neighborhood Watch Alliance, started by Scott Yamanashi, includes nightly patrols from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Yamanashi says there are up to 20 members who wish to remain anonymous. Nearly all, he says, have conceal and carry permits and take their handguns with them during their patrols. "It's the pattern of crime, the brazenness of criminals and me getting shot, which may have culminated into this movement," Yamanashi said. He was shot in the arm earlier this year while breaking up an armed robbery at the Snug Harbor Bar... http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/stories/wcnc-062508-mw-armedneighbors.3c476709.html --- NRA Supports Blackwater's California Training Facility: ...The NRA recently sent an e-mail encouraging its members to urge San Diego leaders to support Blackwater's indoor naval training center. San Diego city officials had said the project needed further review. But a federal judge ordered the city to issue a permit allowing the center to open. The city did but is also appealing that ruling. The NRA's Andrew Arulanandam says the group's support for the project should be no surprise. "If you look at the history of the NRA, the NRA was founded for this very purpose and that is to provide training for our men and women in uniform." (Good point - the NRA was founded precisely to improve the marksmanship skills of potential soldiers after the relatively poor showing by Union troops in the War Between the States. It was not founded to defend the RKBA.) http://www.kpbs.org/news/local;id=12073 --- Bloomberg Target May Settle in NYC: ...First, on June 2, the very morning that his case was to be heard in court, Wallace threw in the towel, convinced that he wouldn't get a fair trial from a judge he considered too biased. And second, even more surprisingly, by the time he decided not to show up in court, Wallace - a gun-loving, rock-ribbed, Second Amendment-quoting Georgian - had fallen in love with the city he'd vowed to fight to his "last breath." He's even thinking of moving here permanently... (My understanding is that Wallace is appealing his case to a higher court, after deciding that it was not worth the legal fees to go to trial against before the obviously biased Jack Weinstein.) http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0826,gun-ho-for-new-york,478520,1.html --- Women's Intuition: ...When a man and a woman enter a room, the female will immediately notice the people in the room - who is happy, who is not, which couples are not getting along, who is trying to score with who, who is tired, who doesn't want to be there. The male will scan the room, unconsciously noting the entrances and exits, then he will look for familiar faces and potential enemies; he will notice a burnt-out light bulb or a loose piece of flooring. Why? Because both male and female brains are hard-wired to look for and react to different stimuli... (This is a good article about mental awareness.) http://www.lawofficer.com/news-and-articles/columns/Brantner-Smith/womens_intuition.html --- Comment Online on National-Park Carry: ...The U.S. Department of the Interior has issued a proposed rule to eliminate, once and for all, this prohibition on Right-to-Carry in national parks and wildlife refuges. NRA is leading the effort to change this policy and we are very close to winning this important battle. Not surprisingly, anti-gun and anti-hunting extremists are contorting the facts to try to continue this prohibition of self-defense. They are launching e-mail broadsides in an all-out push for their supporters to oppose this common sense measure. (Read a recent HSUS attack e-mail here: https://community.hsus.org/campaign/US_2008_parks_poaching/explanation). These new rules cannot take effect until after a period of public comment. And make no mistake; our opponents are aggressively ramping up their efforts to try to convince the Secretary of the Interior to reverse his decision. To combat this effort, you must take a few moments to submit comments on this issue by June 30, 2008, by going to this web site: http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=SubmitComment&o=090000648053d497 -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .