California "Progressive" Continues Heller Commentary: ...Also, Council and Mayor Fenty are also taking local political risks unless the final - or even the interim ordinance is rewritten - ordinance is much more streamlined. Besides DC losing major chunks of Home Rule by immediate Congressional action, they may face major local threats - to their jobs. As I have noted before, DC is not only losing population, but the makeup of the electorate has radically changed. The voting majority is now upper income - primarily whites - but also with a large upper and middle class African Americans voting pool. Polling suggests that while these voters want: (i) a strictly regulated market in guns; but (ii) they want to participate in that market... http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2008/07/the_heller_gun.html --- GeorgiaCarry.org Profiled: ...Since, the group has quietly sued or pushed local governments to abandon ordinances restricting firearms in public parks and requiring Social Security numbers. The group successfully fought the state's probate judges over delays in issuing permits and now is suing Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. The airport challenge claims a change in state law forbids prohibiting firearms on mass transit and that includes Atlanta's terminal... http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/07/19/georgiacarry_0720.html --- Alabamans Big on Guns: Next time you walk into your favorite Alabama restaurant, look around. Chances are that two-thirds of the customers will own a gun and nearly half will have a permit to carry a concealed weapon into the establishment. That's according to the results of a new Press-Register/University of South Alabama poll. Sixty-six percent of respondents said they own a gun and 46 percent have a permit to carry a concealed weapon. The telephone survey of 424 Alabama residents was conducted Monday through Thursday, with a 5-percentage-point margin of error... http://www.al.com/news/press-register/index.ssf?/base/news/1216545372183220.xml&coll=3 --- Florida Sheriff Offers LEOSA Certification: ...On Saturday morning, 40 retired officers - many of them New York Police Department retirees - completed a shooting course at the Markham Park gun range to qualify for a relatively new kind of concealed weapons permit that is honored nationwide. The aim of the national program is to get the retirees to demonstrate that they can still handle a gun so that they may legally carry one almost anywhere and be ready to act if they happen upon a violent crime. The Broward Sheriff's Office hosted the tests and has planned additional sessions at the park on Aug. 16 and Nov. 15... http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbretired0720sbjul20,0,3807145.story --- Nonsense from Florida: ...How can it make sense to exempt a public school property from Florida's gun-toting law, but not an amusement park where far more children can be found on any given day? Where is the reason in letting people take guns to the parking lots of unprotected restaurants, while restricting them from heavily guarded nuclear power plants? Is it really rational to enact a law that prevents a person from taking a gun into the parking lot of a military base, but allows him to secretly possess one in the parking areas of hospitals and nightclubs? http://www.baxterbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080719/OPINION01/807190305/1014/OPINION --- Roadside Shooting Ruled Justified: ...Fentiman says it all began on June 28th when he was driving after dinner with his fiancée Maria. He says, "He ran back to the car, reached through the window and started hitting them." He says he saw Douglas Need attacking two women on east Philadelphia Street in York. Fentiman, a former soldier, followed to see if he could help. "He just started pounding on the door. I was absolutely in fear he was going to harm Maria... I drew my weapon and chambered a round and ordered Mr. Need to get away from me." (Perhaps it was his military training that led Mr. Fentiman to carry his pistol with an empty chamber.) http://www.whptv.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=8811d4dd-3c5b-4671-8de0-39ef07258c22 --- Pennsylvania Woman Shoots, Builds Muzzleloaders: Gerry Rubbo is neither as famous a target shooter as Annie Oakley, nor as outrageous a character as Calamity Jane. Like those two lady sharpshooters, however, the Summit Station resident has gained a reputation on the local, state and national levels as a sharpshooter. Rubbo has earned her reputation competing with firearms that both Annie and Calamity would have been familiar using -- muzzleloading rifles. Taking it a step further, most of the rifles she shoots have been built by her or her husband, Bob, in the workshop at their log home located on the Blue Mountain within a 20-mile radius of three forts used during the French and Indian War... http://www.republicanherald.com/articles/2008/07/20/sports/local_sports/pr_republican.20080720.b.pg6.pr20oddietz_s1.1814679_spo.txt --- Oops, Wrong House, Florida Version: Police say a St. Petersburg resident surprised a burglar in his house then fatally shot the intruder with his own gun. The resident walked in the back door of the house Friday afternoon and was confronted by the masked and armed burglar. The two struggled and the burglar dropped his gun. The resident picked it up and killed the intruder. Police have not yet identified either person. http://www.wflxfox29.com/Global/story.asp?S=8701707&nav=menu98_3 More Details: http://news.tampabaynewsonline.com/2008/07/18/homeowner-kills-intruder --- Oops, Wrong House, Ohio Version: An 18-year-old man armed with a BB gun was fatally shot while trying to rob the residents of a Franklinton home yesterday afternoon, police said. Police arrested his two alleged accomplices, one of whom was his brother, and charged them with murder for taking part in a crime that resulted in his death. The resident who fired the fatal shot was released after questioning by police. A Franklin County grand jury will decide whether he acted in self-defense or should be indicted for a crime, police said... http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/07/21/chapel.ART_ART_07-21-08_B3_M4AQ8R4.html?sid=101 --- Oops, Wrong Storage Shed: The Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office and Midwest City Police are investigating a fatal shooting Thursday afternoon in the 17-hundred block of Hughson Avenue. Deputies at the scene found 44-year-old Mikah Ryan Smith sitting behind the wheel of a car, bleeding from a shotgun blast to the neck. He was taken to Midwest City Regional Hospital where he was pronounced dead. The Sheriff's office says Smith had apparently been shot by a property owner who claimed he found the victim trying to break into a storage shed. The Sheriff's office says the property owner tried to stop the alleged burglar, but opened fire with the 12-gauge when the alleged burglar tried to run him over with the car. http://www.1520kokc.com/localnews/Channels/Story.aspx?ID=1017141 --- Britons Cautioned Not to Shoot Burglars: ...A new law on that subject came into force last week - section 76 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. But does it really give the householder a new legal right? That is how it is being presented. But it looks uncannily like the old law to me, now in a new act of parliament. Many people hoping for an unrestricted green light to beat up or shoot their burglars or robbers, even unto death, will be disappointed. The new law turns out to be the old law, thinly disguised. Force against an intruder must not be excessive or disproportionate in the circumstances, says the new act. In other words, reasonable. The old law, too, is based on the concept of "reasonable force"... http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/21/justice.law --- Rule Five Reminder: A 11-year-old boy who was accidentally shot while playing at a friend's home was listed on Sunday in critical but stable condition. No adults were at home when the shooting took place on Saturday, said Deputy Dawn Hanke, a Pima County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman...According to the initial investigation, the 11-year-old boy and a 13-year-old friend, who lives in the home, were "handing the gun back and forth when the shooting occurred," Hanke said... (Rule Five: Maintain control of your firearm. When kids are old enough to know that you own firearms, the best course is usually to allow them to handle them under supervised conditions, with emphasis on safe handling, in order to demystify them.) http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/249175 --- Tangentially Related: ...If John McCain were elected, the appointment of a conservative justice could immediately reshape the court. The senator from Arizona might be forced to temper his choice to accommodate confirmation by a solidly Democratic Senate, but his nominee would undoubtedly be far to the right of either Stevens or Ginsburg, potentially solidifying a five-member conservative majority. President Bush's appointments to court, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., are both relatively young and are expected to be fixtures for decades... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/07/19/ST2008071902054.html -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .