Heller May Usher in "Reasonable Regulation": The U.S. Supreme Court's Second Amendment decision last term, with its historic affirmation of an individual right to keep and bear arms, is being read as a harbinger of doom by gun-control advocates, and as cause for celebration by the National Rifle Association and its allies. In fact, it could play out exactly the other way around. District of Columbia v. Heller may finally open the door to sensible gun policy in the United States, and it could be the beginning of the end for the NRA, at least as we know it today... http://www.law.com/jsp/scm/PubArticleSCM.jsp?id=1202424712957 --- Chicago Suburb Looks to Fudge Handgun-Ban Recission: The Evanston City Council is still discussing what to do next after being "forced kicking and screaming" to amend its handgun ban last month. The change was made following a June 26 Supreme Court ruling, District of Columbia v. Heller, declaring a similar ban in Washington, D.C. to be in violation of the Second Amendment. The day after the landmark decision, the National Rifle Association brought a lawsuit against Evanston alleging its ban was unconstitutional. The City Council chose to change its ban instead of fighting the potentially expensive suit, said city corporation counsel Jack Siegel, who wrote the amendment. Now, Evanston residents can have handguns in their home for the purpose of self-protection, Siegel said. Other uses and other types of guns are still prohibited... http://media.www.dailynorthwestern.com/media/storage/paper853/news/2008/09/23/City/City-Considers.Options.After.Nra.Gun.Ban.Lawsuit-3446331.shtml --- Revenge of the Bitter Gun Owners: Last spring, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to arms, Democrats hoped the decision would neutralize the gun issue. Instead the ruling, by inviting debate over which kinds of gun control are constitutional, has made the issue more salient. That's bad news for Barack Obama, who the National Rifle Association says "would be the most anti-gun president in American history." The Democratic nominee pays lip service to Second Amendment rights while calling for "commonsense," "reasonable" restrictions. But Obama's sense of what's reasonable, while common among the left-liberal politicians and activists inside his comfort zone, may seem decidedly unreasonable to the pro-gun voters the NRA is trying to mobilize against him... http://reason.com/news/show/128973.html Related Commentary: http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/all_headlines/97532 --- From GOA: Your hard work is reaping benefits once again! Last week, we told you how the U.S. House of Representatives had overwhelmingly voted to pass a bill repealing the D.C. gun ban (HR 6842). But we also warned you that there was not much time left in the legislative session, and that Majority Leader Harry Reid might try to kill the bill. That's why we asked you to petition your Senators to urge Reid for a vote in the Senate. Well, the good news is that 47 Senators have listened to you and have cosigned a letter addressed to the Majority Leader from Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. These signatures were obtained in two short days with Senators getting ready to leave town. The bad news is that our predictions have come true. Sen. Reid is trying to use procedural maneuvers to keep the bill from coming to the Senate floor for a vote... http://www.gunowners.org/a092208.htm --- Bloomberg Touts Lawsuit Settlement: Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today announced that the last of the 27 dealers sued by New York City in 2006 for public nuisance has agreed to a settlement. The final dealer to settle, Bob Moates Sport Shop, Inc. of Midlothian, Virginia, has entered into an agreement that closely mirrors the terms of the Responsible Firearms Retailer Partnership, a collaborative project of the coalition of Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Wal-Mart. Key features of the Responsible Firearms Retailer Partnership include videotaping of sales activities; a computerized system to log crime gun traces; and the requirement that for sales flagged by the computerized system, purchasers must fill out a declaration indicating they meet the legal requirement to purchase a firearm... http://snipurl.com/3tbpq --- Georgia May Relax Carry Restrictions: Georgia lawmakers are considering allowing guns in more public places, including churches, sporting events, and even university campuses. Religious leaders were among those who spoke out against the possible changes Tuesday, saying churches, temples and mosques should remain gun-free sanctuaries. The chairman of a state Senate study committee looking at Georgia's firearms laws cautioned that any proposed legislation was in its infancy. "We're working toward a draft," said state Sen. Mitch Seabaugh, a Republican from Sharpsburg... http://www.cbs46.com/news/17544669/detail.html#- --- Ohio Open-Carry March Claims Success: The Open Carry Walk in support of OFCC member Ed Farbrother was a huge success! Over seventy people, ranging in age from 2-1/2 to 70 years old and from as far away as Cincinnati, showed up on a beautiful Saturday afternoon to support Farbrother and protest his poor treatment at the hands of the Northwood police department. After meeting up at Central Park, the group went for a walk around the block to the front of the police station and posed for pictures in front of a sign reading "Freedom is Not Free", highly appropriate for the situation at hand... http://www.ohioccw.org/content/view/4067/53/ --- Oops, Wrong House: Cleveland police are investigating a Tuesday shooting in which a homeowner shot and killed a burglar...Stacho says 65-year-old Lawrence Hanson was awakened by the sound of someone breaking into an attached section of his house. When he went downstairs to investigate, he saw signs that his house was being burglarized. Hanson returned upstairs, got dressed and grabbed his gun. Upon returning downstairs, Hanson confronted the burglar who fled on foot into the fenced in yard. Hanson followed and tried to stop the burglar. Once in the yard the burglar turned and began to move toward the home owner. Hanson told detectives that he repeatedly told the burglar to stop and that he was armed. Hanson stated that he feared for his life as the burglar closed in on him. When the suspect got approximately five feet away he shot him... (Not the best tactics - Hanson should not have left his bedroom unarmed the first time and probably would have been better off not to have followed the burglar into the yard.) http://www.wtam.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=122520&article=4285051 --- Oops, Wrong Store: A store clerk fatally shot a man in an attempted robbery Monday afternoon at 27th Street and Prospect Avenue, police said. The clerk told police that a man approached the counter of Tony's Market about 2:25 p.m. and asked for a pack of cigarettes. As the clerk turned to grab the cigarettes, he saw the man pulling a gun from his waistband, he told police. The clerk grabbed a gun he had hidden near the cigarettes and fired at the man, hitting him in the chest, according to the police. The man stumbled out the front doors and collapsed... http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/808979.html --- California Store Robbed of Guns: As many as 15 guns were taken at gunpoint Monday from a hunting and fishing retailer in Redondo Beach. The suspect walked into Turner's Outdoorsman, 2323 Hawthorne Blvd., at 10:45 a.m., and herded employees into a corner before going behind a counter and removing weapons, police said. At one point, a struggle broke out when an employee tried to intervene. "There was a struggle. He (the suspect) stepped back and fired into the ceiling," Sgt. Phil Keenan of the Redondo Beach Police Department said. The suspect put the pilfered weapons in a duffel bag and fled on foot... (I suspect that Turner's prohibits its employees from carrying firearms at work and California law, coupled with L.A. sheriff's policy, pretty much ensures that they cannot carry them away from work.) http://cbs2.com/local/robbery.gun.store.2.823301.html -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .