Louisiana Campus-Carry Bill Pulled: One of the most controversial bills
of the legislative session, to allow concealed weapons to be carried on
the campuses of universities, community colleges and vocational
technical schools, died Monday when its chief sponsor pulled it from
consideration. Rep. Ernest Wooton, R-Belle Chasse, said he did not have
the votes to pass his House Bill 199, targeted by editorial writers and
opposition from university officials. But Wooton warned that he will
bring the bill back "at every session I can," including next year's
fiscal session during which lawmakers can file five non-fiscal bills.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/capital/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1213075843305900.xml&coll=1
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Seattle Mayor Bans Guns on City Property: Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has
signed an executive order that asks all departments to come up with a
plan within 30 days to ban guns at all property owned by the city.
Nickels signed the executive order after the recent shooting at the NW
Folklife Festival at Seattle Center that wounded two people. "At many of
our properties, including City Hall, you can bring a gun if you have a
concealed weapons permit. Under this order, people with concealed
weapons will be asked to leave or hand over their gun." It's a city rule
that cannot trump state law. The only thing the city and police can do
is kick someone with a gun out of a building or an event.
http://www.mynorthwest.com/?nid=11&sid=62822
Back to the Future: A guy walks into a crowd and shoots some people.
The mayor then proposes new gun control laws that wouldn't have
prevented the original crime. Sound familiar? Then you probably heard
about Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels' plan to ban guns in all city
facilities, particularly public event venues. This comes in the wake of
the May 24 shooting of three people at the Seattle Folklife Festival.
It seems to me we've been down this road before. Mayor Nickels is
betting you've forgotten about the 3/26/06 incident when Kyle Huff
killed six people at a late-night party in Seattle. In the wake of that
tragedy he called for stricter gun control laws...
http://www.examiner.com/x-256-Seattle-Politics--Policy-Examiner~topic5801-The-Wacky-World-of-Seattle
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Indiana City Weighs Gun Ban: An ordinance banning guns on South Bend
city property could be passed by the Common Council. The ordinance would
extend a firearms ban to all city property, regardless of state-issued
gun permits. The ordinance received a favorable recommendation in a
committee meeting early Monday. Under the proposed ordinance signs would
be posted at buildings as well as at parks. City leaders say the ban is
needed for the protection of all city employees. (Such as women who may
be targeted at work by estranged husbands or boyfriends, who know that
they will be unarmed there?)
http://www.wndu.com/localnews/headlines/19677674.html
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Report Urges More Firearms Training for NYPD: ... The report also called
for expanding hands-on, scenario-based training, said Bernard D.
Rostker, a senior fellow at RAND, who presented the findings at 1 Police
Plaza. The Police Academy now offers two six-month programs annually for
thousands of officers. Mr. Rostker said, "It would be better" if more
frequent and smaller classes were held. On requalification for officers
on the job, Mr. Rostker said New York's officers requalified twice a
year, as was the national standard, but suggested that one of the
sessions include more "street-oriented" and real-life situations. He did
add that the restraint used by New York officers was noteworthy compared
with that of other departments nationally...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/10/nyregion/10rand.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin
---
Rule Five Reminder: A 4-year-old girl shot herself in the chest Monday
after snatching her grandmother's handgun from the woman's purse while
riding in a shopping cart at a Sam's Club store, authorities said... The
girl was rushed to a hospital in critical condition and was recovering
Monday afternoon after surgery, said police department spokesman Brick
Lewis. Hospital officials would not release her condition after the
operation. Lewis said the grandmother, Donna Hutto Williamson, has a
permit to carry a concealed weapon. The purse containing the
small-caliber handgun was in the cart near the child, Lewis said. The
47-year-old Williamson, of Salley, was not immediately charged with a
crime. (Rule Five: Maintain control of your firearm. I have long argued
against off-body carry. Whenever I shop in a store with shopping carts I
see numerous purses sitting on the "shelf" at the rear of the carts
while their owners are distracted with picking items off shelves or
placing them on the checkout counter.)
http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/stories/wcnc-060908-mw-childshootsself.1742e69d.html
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Oops, Wrong House, South Carolina Version: A Laurens County homeowner
told deputies that he shot one of three men who broke into his house
early Monday morning... He told investigators that three men broke into
his home, kicked in the door of his bedroom and dragged him to another
room of the house. [Th]e man said that after the men assaulted him, he
was able to get a gun and shoot one of the intruders. The intruder was
taken to Greenville Memorial Hospital and was scheduled for surgery. No
information was available about his condition. (This is why many of us
carry firearms on our persons even inside our homes.)
http://www.wyff4.com/news/16546248/detail.html
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Oops, Wrong House, North Carolina Version: A burglar in Lincoln County
got a surprise Monday when a homeowner fired a shot at him during a
break-in... The burglar busted a window to get in. He also broke a
picture near the bedroom door... Howard said he saw a beam of light
shining under the bedroom door. He grabbed his double-barreled shotgun
and waited for the intruder. "He got it open and I mean he's coming,"
said Howard, who is a former Marine. "I was sitting there and I jammed
and fired at the same time. I figure if I shoot right along there I
about had to hit him." Investigators said they do not know how many
burglars were inside the home, but at least one person was hit. (A
double-barrel shotgun certainly beats a pocketful of rocks but has
limited ammo capacity for defensive use. Shotguns really should be
aimed, not "jammed.")
http://www.wcnc.com/news/topstories/stories/wcnc-060908-mw-lincolnhomeinvasion.16fe781b.html
---
Oops, Wrong House, California Version: An armed East Oakland homeowner
who tried to dissuade a burglary suspect with several warning shots
ended up shooting the man in the leg Monday in the most recent in a
string of incidents in which victims have shot suspects... Police said
the 37-year-old homeowner, who has lived in the house most of his life,
was home a little before 11 a.m. Monday when he saw someone walk toward
his garage, then reappear and try to pry open a back window with a
garden tool. The homeowner walked to his deck and fired warning shots
with a pistol, which seemed to drive the man away. But when the
homeowner stepped out his front door, the suspect reappeared and began
moving toward the house, as if determined to get in, according to a
statement the man gave police. The homeowner fired two more warning
shots into the ground, but the suspect kept coming forward, at which
point the homeowner shot the suspect in the upper leg... (Warning shots
are very risky; they may either lack adequate justification or be a
waste of a limited supply of ammunition. Note the shot to the upper leg,
commonly seen when shots are jerked or pushed low and to the
non-dominant side.)
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/ci_9535098
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Oops, Wrong House, English Version: Of all the gardens in all the world,
the thief had the bad luck to break into the one where Cromwell was
peacefully gnawing on his bone. The three-year-old English mastiff is a
gentle pet. But his breed are also born guard dogs - and big ones at
that. Only the thief and Cromwell know exactly what happened next. But
it can't have been friendly, as the dog's owner heard a 'scream, a roar
and a commotion' from the back garden...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1025039/Burglar-makes-mistake-choosing-22-stone-mastiffs-home-rob.html
---
From AzCDL:
HB 2634, the AzCDL-requested bill that clarifies that a person with an
expunged or set-aside felony conviction, or one who has had their rights
restored, may obtain a concealed weapons permit, passed out of the House
Final Read on June 9, 2008 by a vote of 39-16, with 5 not voting, and
has been sent to the Governor.
Unfortunately, it seems that politics may have trumped justice during
this vote. HB 2634 passed out of the House Third Read by a unanimous
vote on March 19, 2008. Sixteen Representatives changed their votes
during Final Read, including the two Democrat co-sponsors of HB 2634,
Representatives Kyrsten Sinema and Chad Campbell. You can see how each
Representative voted here:
http://tinyurl.com/6pwphb .
If your Representatives voted against HB 2634, please take the time to
voice your displeasure, and remind them it could affect how you vote in
November. You can find your Representative here:
http://www.azleg.gov/alisStaticPages/HowToContactMember.asp .
It is VERY important to contact the Governor, and urge her to sign HB
2634 into law. You can use your own message, or you can use the sample
message below. Her email address is
[email protected]. You can also fax a
letter to her at 602-542-1381.
Or you can mail it to her at the following address:
The Honorable Janet Napolitano
Governor of Arizona
1700 West Washington
Phoenix, Arizona 85007
You can also call her office, toll free, at 1-800-253-0883.
Following the sample letter are instructions on how to post your
comments on the Governor's website.
Subject: Please sign HB 2634
Governor Napolitano:
The Arizona Citizens Defense League (AzCDL) has informed me that
important legislation, HB 2634, is awaiting your signature. I urge you
to sign HB 2634 into law.
HB 2634 would make changes to ARS 13-3112 regarding the process for
obtaining a concealed weapons permit. It provides that if an applicant
has ever been convicted of a felony, they may apply for a permit if the
conviction has been vacated or if their rights have been restored,
provided that they are not currently a prohibited possessor under state
or federal law.
DPS has interpreted the current statutory language in the strictest
possible manner, in order to deny permits to people convicted of minor
felony offenses decades ago, people who have since demonstrated no
tendency towards criminal behavior. Many of these people are allowed to
purchase and posses firearms under federal law (some are even federally
licensed firearms dealers), and carry them openly under Arizona law, yet
they cannot get a CCW permit due to DPS' strict interpretation of
existing statutory law.
The proposed changes to statute would allow these people the same
protection under the law that every other citizen receives.
Again, I urge you to support sound public policy, and sign HB 2634 into law.
Sincerely,
Your Name
Street Address
City, AZ zip-code
telephone number
You can go to the Governor's website,
http://azgovernor.gov/Contact.asp,
where you will find a fill-in-the-blanks form to register your opinion.
For "subject", scroll down and select "Legislation." For "topic", fill
in HB 2634.
You can add your own polite message urging her to sign HB 2634 in the
"message/comment" area, or you can use the sample message above.
Stay tuned! Information on these and other bills can be found at the
AzCDL website:
http://www.azcdl.org/html/legislation.html
These alerts are a project of the Arizona Citizens Defense League
(AzCDL), an all volunteer, non-profit, non-partisan grassroots
organization. Join today!
AzCDL - Protecting Your Freedom
http://www.azcdl.org/html/join_us_.html
Copyright � 2008 Arizona Citizens Defense League, Inc., all rights
reserved.
--
Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
