Michigan Stand-Your-Ground Law Reaches First Anniversary: Michigan's
self-defense act will be a year old Monday. The law allows people to use
deadly force, with no duty to retreat, if they reasonably think they
face imminent death, great bodily harm or sexual assault. They can use
deadly force anywhere they have a legal right to be...Such was
apparently the case Thursday night in Detroit. One week after a fatal
carjacking in Hamtramck, an 18-year-old would-be carjacker was killed
when his potential victim opened fire. Police said Michael Evans of
Detroit brandished a handgun as he approached a 36-year-old man from
Troy as he got into his vehicle after having dinner with friends. The
Troy man used his registered handgun to shoot Evans in apparent
self-defense.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070930/NEWS06/709300597/1003/NEWS01
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Connecticut Stolen-Gun Bill Takes Effect Today: Legislation punishing
gun owners who don't report a theft of their firearm and a bill
requiring all hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape
victims become law on Monday...The National Rifle Association has balked
about a new law that requires people to report lost or stolen firearms,
except antique guns, within 72 hours of the theft. Penalties range from
an infraction for a first offense, punishable by a fine up to $90. Any
subsequent unintentional failure to report a lost or stolen gun is a
Class D felony, subject to a fine of up to $5,000, up to five years in
prison, or both.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2007/09/30/host_of_new_laws_go_into_effect_in_ct_on_monday_1191165579/
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Myths About CCW In Schools: A very simple question is it not? To disarm
the law abiding citizens or not to disarm them? People are talking about
this question everywhere, people both for and against allowing adults to
have their 2nd amendment right to bear arms sustained, even if only in
the form of concealed carry, while on school grounds. I hear a number of
standard arguments against it used over and over again, so I am going to
discuss them here in detail.
http://dustinsgunblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/to-disarm-or-not-to-disarm-that-is.html
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Oops, Wrong Passenger: Seattle police say four teenagers picked the
wrong man to harass on a Metro bus late Friday night. Police say when
one of the teens attempted to take the man's glasses, he pulled a knife
and fought back. Police spokeswoman Rene Witt says the man began
swinging at his attackers in self defense. When the melee was over, four
of the teens had cuts, including some with superficial cuts to their
buttocks, and one had a dislocated shoulder. The man was not hurt. (It
sounds as though, unlike many gun owners, the man did not settle for the
training that came in the box with the knife.)
http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_092907_news_seattle_teens.1222ceedc.html
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Speaking Of Training...: ... Hamblin witnessed two of them exit the
car. He says they attempted to break into his home a short time later.
"I found two black males wearing white tee shirts trying to enter my
garage, bumping in my door. I feared for my life so I took action," he
says. "I shot 5-6 times, one of them dove over a car (next door)".
Hamblin says the suspects then ran off into the nearby woods... At this
time it's unclear if the third suspect took a bullet at all. "We first
believed he was shot, but we found no signs, no blood or anything that
he was actually shot," says JPD Commander Ron Sampson.
http://www.wlbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=7144543&nav=2CSf
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Rule Two, Rule Three Reminder: A Gary auxiliary police officer was
killed Saturday afternoon when a fellow volunteer officer's gun
accidentally discharged a bullet into the man's chest. Kevin Weaver, 49,
died at St. Margaret Mercy Hospital in Dyer. He and two other reserve
officers were training at Deb's Gun Range in Hammond, Hammond Police
Chief Brian Miller said. About 3 p.m., Gary police said Reserve Officer
Gerald Horton, 52, was attempting to clear his weapon when Weaver
accidentally bumped into Horton, causing Horton's gun to fire a
45-caliber round. (Rule Two: Don't let the muzzle cross anything you're
not prepared to shoot. Rule Three: Keep your finger out of the trigger
guard, up on the frame, until your sights are on the target and you're
prepared to fire.)
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/581767,CST-NWS-gary30.article
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Women On Target Event In California: Cheryl Weissmann of Camarillo owns
a 9 mm handgun, a .22-caliber automatic pistol and a Taurus revolver.
She likes to go to Shooters Paradise in Oxnard at least twice a month
and pop off a few rounds as a way to blow off steam...Ventura resident
Carly Gregory, a firearms newbie barely into her 20s, ticked off a list
of guns she shot at a clinic in Rose Valley above Ojai this summer - a
22 Smith & Wesson handgun, a 9 mm Beretta and a .357 Magnum.
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007/sep/30/women-take-aim/
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When Guns Are Outlawed...: Replica handguns that are being converted so
British criminal gangs can use them to maim and kill can be bought in
Germany without a permit...Outlawed in the UK, they are sold over the
counter in Germany as blank firers, CS gas guns and alarm pistols. They
are then smuggled into Britain and converted into lethal weapons.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article2558291.ece
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UN To Renew Attempt At Small-Arms Treaty: Britain, Japan, Australia and
others are pushing for an unprecedented treaty regulating the arms trade
worldwide, in a campaign sure to last years and to pit them against a
determined American foe, the National Rifle Association. (Is it
coincidental that the biggest backers of this move place some of the
most severe firearm restrictions on their own citizens?)
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iszvtvZ5bngmyHb3zrJeQaQ97hoAD8RVT7KG0
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From Gun Week:
Boulder District Ignoring Shooting Memo?
by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Two weeks after the US Forest Service (USFS) issued a memorandum to
every national forest and ranger district in the country that roads
"should not be considered inherently occupied areas," which would have
allowed rangers to ban shooting within 150 yards of any road, the
Boulder, CO, ranger district was continuing to enforce the prohibition.
On top of that, the ranger district's enforcement officer, Paul
Krisanits, told Gun Week, "If somebody is within 150 yards of me and
they discharge a firearm, my being there makes it an occupied area."
"That's been my take on it," he said, "and our courts have supported it."
The 150-yard shooting prohibition is detailed in a once-obscure national
forest regulation, 36 CFR 261.10(d), which prohibits shooting:
(1) In or within 150 yards of a residence, building, campsite, developed
recreation site or occupied area, or,
(2) Across or on a National Forest System road or a body of water
adjacent thereto, or in any manner or place whereby any person or
property is exposed to injury or damage as a result in such discharge, and
(3) Into or within any cave.
It's the debate over what constitutes an "occupied area" that ignited
the recreational shooting controversy more than two years ago. Gun Week
coverage of this story was at least partly credited for keeping the
spotlight on the situation, leading to the Aug. 28 memorandum, signed by
Joel Holtrop, deputy chief of the National Forest System.
The Boulder Ranger District became "ground zero" in this controversy,
because that is where the debate erupted after the district ranger
closed a popular roadside shooting area on the grounds that it was
within 150 yards of the road.
Krisanits said he has not written "a lot of tickets" for people caught
shooting in such roadside environments, but he has issued a lot of
warnings. He has not arrested anyone for recreational shooting violations.
That makes no difference to Boulder-area resident Jay Lawless, who
became furious recently when, according to his account, he was told by a
staffer at the Boulder ranger station that roads and even trails are
considered "occupied areas."
"There are precious damn few places in these mountains that aren't
within 150 yards of some trail," he said.
Lawless asserted that the USFS has a plan to shut down all national
forest lands within two hours driving time from Denver to recreational
shooting.
"In the Pike National Forest west of Colorado Springs," he said, "the
Forest Service built a nice shooting range and it can't be 20 yards off
the road. Also, up at Bailey, the Forest Service has an impromptu
shooting area up there that they've been sending people to for years."
Advised of the problem, Melissa Simpson, deputy undersecretary of
Agriculture, told Gun Week that her office would investigate.
Krisanits said he had not personally seen the Aug. 28 Holtrop
memorandum. Gun Week forwarded the text for his attention.
The memorandum is explicit in two places. Roads are not to be considered
"occupied areas." A prohibition remains against shooting along or across
a road or adjacent body of water, "or in any manner or place whereby any
person or property is exposed to injury or damage as a result in such
discharge."
Part of the problem with recreational shooting in the Boulder Ranger
District is that, according to Krisanits, there are lots of private land
parcels interspersed throughout.
"We have about 185,000 acres," he said. "It is relatively small, and
'checkerboard' would be a kind way of describing the district. We do
have some larger blocks of national forest, but when you compare it to
traditional national forest land, you would be pretty surprised by all
the private land mixed in."
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
