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University Of Utah Gun-Ban Fight Continues: University of Utah President
Michael Young announced the decision to suspend the ban in an e-mail
addressed to students, faculty and staff, stating that the policy would
be suspended "temporarily." Young said the university, along with the
state attorney general's office, has requested that the university's
federal lawsuit over the gun policy be postponed to allow for discussion
between the university and state leaders about a "a possible legislative
accommodation" on the gun law.
http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/media/storage/paper244/news/2006/09/19/News/Gun-Ban.temporarily.Suspended-2284187.shtml?norewrite200609201249&sourcedomain=www.dailyutahchronicle.com
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Florida Shooting Case May Invoke Stand-Your-Ground Law: Jose Tapanes is
charged with first-degree murder after pumping two bullets into a
19-year-old man who had moved in across the street the day before. But
legal experts say the 62-year-old resident of The Acreage may have been
within his rights to shoot. He simply may have been "standing his ground."
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2006/09/19/s1a_appear_0919.html
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NRA Challenges CeaseFire Maryland "Study": The National Rifle
Association objected to CeaseFire Maryland's recent study that found
assault weapons linked to crimes in Maryland every 48 hours. "The paper
is nonsense, for a number of reasons," according to the NRA's statement
titled "CeaseFire Maryland Shooting Blanks."
http://www.examiner.com/a-295518~NRA_takes_shot_at_recent_CeaseFire_Maryland_study.html?cid=rss-Baltimore
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Nevada City May Consolidate Shooting Ranges: In what appears to be an
effort to reduce recreational shooting on open land, Carson City is
contemplating a 305-acre shooting complex.
http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20060918/NEWS/109180053
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Not The Brightest Bulbs In The Chandelier: California's Ventura County
fired three sheriff's deputies and prosecuted one for misappropriating
firearms that citizens turned in for destruction. One is suing to regain
his job. (It may be painful to see these guns destroyed but I've seen
more creative ways to handle that challenge.)
http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/county_news/article/0,1375,VCS_226_5004799,00.html
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Mississippi Cops Benefit From Confiscated Guns: Between 100 and 200
handguns, rifles and shotguns confiscated by Laurel police since 1997
will be sold or traded to benefit the police department. Chief Martin
said the sale or trade of the guns will be used to acquire new
45-caliber Glock handguns and ammunition that Laurel police officers use.
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060919/NEWS01/60919011
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Study Links Lead Levels, Heart Disease: Research suggests that even low
blood levels of lead may raise the risk of adverse heart and circulatory
outcomes. (Some rudimentary precautions regarding lead exposure are
listed at
http://www.spw-duf.info/safety.html.)
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/9/19/93608.shtml?s=he
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Interesting, If Not Directly Related: Nearly 2,100 federal air marshals
have suffered serious on-the-job injury related to the excessive time
spent flying. Unlike most other agencies, which assign light duty to
injured officers, the FAMS is actually terminating several of these people.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060920-123800-5262r.htm
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Canadian PM Stands Firm On End To Firearm Registry: "Today's laws did
not protect us and we take no pleasure on this side of the House from
having warned the previous government repeatedly over the past decade
that the gun registry would not prevent this kind of occurrence," Harper
said yesterday in the Commons.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1158617412111&call_pageid=968332188492
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Swiss Women Seek Destruction Of RKBA Tradition: A women's magazine has
collected 17,400 signatures in a bid to rid Swiss households of hundreds
of thousands of weapons. The petition comes amid discussions in
parliament over whether to scrap the country's militia army tradition
requiring guns and ammunition to be kept at home.
http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/front/detail/Women_s_magazine_hands_in_gun_ban_petition.html?siteSect=105&sid=7078309&cKey=1158678563000
---
From Gun Week:
Was SAF/NRA Suit Cause of New Orleans Chief's Firing?
by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Was former New Orleans Police Superintendent Edwin Compass fired because
his publicly-announced gun confiscation policy resulted in a lawsuit
against the city by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and National
Rifle Association (NRA)?
That seems to be the inadvertent admission of New Orleans Mayor Ray
Nagin in remarks he made to Dr. Phil McGraw on McGraw's popular
syndicated talk show late last month. Gun Week obtained a transcript of
conversations McGraw had with Nagin and with Compass, in which the
former lawman insisted he was fired.
Nagin, however, portrayed it differently, telling McGraw, "Eddie was
showing some signs that he was having a very difficult time towards the
end of dealing with the tragedy and he was breaking down on a fairly
regular basis in public. I had ordered him to stand down and to take it
easy for a minute and get away from the cameras. At first he resisted
pretty strongly. He said, 'Look, I'm going to go ahead and retire.' If
he would have said to me at that meeting, 'Look, I got it. I agree with
you and I'm going to abide by your orders,' Eddie would still be police
chief."
McGraw, according to the transcript, then asked Nagin, "He (Compass)
said that you were concerned about image and that you criticized him for
showing emotion including on my show. You know, when I asked you about
it and we talked before, I said, 'Was he fired?' and you said, 'No, he
wasn't fired.' And I said, 'If he hadn't wanted to quit, he would still
be here?' and you said, 'Yes, he would have.' "
Responding, Nagin said this: "And I still stand by that. But he had to
agree to step down because we were starting to get lawsuits."
McGraw asked, "What kind of comments were bringing lawsuits?"
And Nagin replied, "Well, he made a comment about something with guns
and the NRA fired up. And it was just a comment that kind of got us in
trouble...."
The "comment" at the center of this firestorm was Compass' announcement
that nobody other than law enforcement would be allowed to have guns. He
was quoted by various news organizations declaring, "No one is allowed
to be armed. We're going to take all the guns."
What followed was a stunning series of gun seizures from law-abiding
citizens, sometimes at gunpoint, that prompted SAF and NRA to join
forces and file a landmark federal lawsuit that brought the gun grab to
a screeching halt.
In his remarks to McGraw, Compass stated, "Well, a lot of people asked
me (why he left). The mayor, he told me, said I've done a great job for
the city but he didn't think I could do anymore for the police
department. I was...."
"So you got fired," McGraw interjected.
"Yeah," Compass replied.
Later, Compass told McGraw, "Like I always said, if you're going to be a
real leader, a real leader has to take the hit. And I had to take the
hit for the department because you could--could you imagine the problems
the department would have with half the people being loyal to me? And
for the record, I want everyone to know I have no hard feelings against
the mayor. I have no problems with the mayor. It's his prerogative to
hire and fire who he wants. You know, the truth has to come because it's
too long, and I need to get some closure with this."
SAF and NRA are still in court against New Orleans, over the city's
refusal to agree to a permanent injunction. The city has also been
dragging its feet on the return of hundreds of confiscated firearms that
are being held in a storage facility. For months, the city had insisted
that officers had not seized firearms, but when SAF and NRA went to
court to push a motion for contempt against Nagin and Police
Superintendent Warren Riley, who had been Compass' deputy chief, the
city admitted that it did have "some guns."
Now, one year after the lawsuit was filed, both gun rights groups are
still pursuing the lawsuit, but a signal appears to have been sent
across the country that in the wake of a natural or man-made disaster,
law enforcement will not be trying to confiscate firearms. Several
states have passed legislation to prohibit such confiscations, including
Louisiana.
This article is provided free by GunWeek.com.
For more great gun news, subscribe to our print edition.
--
Stephen P. Wenger
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
