Five Years of Shall-Issue CCW in Minnesota: Five years after Minnesota
loosened its rules concerning who can legally carry handguns, we must
admit our surprise at the lack of problems that have resulted in Olmsted
County and Minnesota as a whole. Handgun owners aren't accidentally
shooting themselves. Kids aren't finding the pistol under Dad's side of
the bed and hurting each other. Vigilantes aren't taking the law into
their own hands. Police officers aren't being shot as they approach cars
during traffic stops...
http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=12&a=353142
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What Is "Rational Management"?: The Supreme Court finally bit the
bullet, ruling on the good old Second Amendment for the first time since
the Dirty Thirties. Wow! "The people" have an individual right to keep
and bear arms?!? One needn't be enlisted in either the National Guard or
Militia of Montana?!? Shazam! Handsprings and cartwheels! ...It should
be interesting. Fun, too. The high-muckety-media histrionics have been
comical. One howler was a clueless-as-usual Washington Post editorial
harrumphing that Washington DC may still "devis[e] regulations that can
provide for rational management of gun ownership."
http://www.flatheadbeacon.com/articles/article/what_is_rational_management/4616/
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The Wilmette Ban Is Dead: Wilmette's handgun ban is dead. The village
board voted Tuesday night 7-0 to repeal the 19-year-old ban, following
45 minutes of discussion and public comment. The ordinance has not been
enforced since last month's U.S. Supreme Court ruling affirming
individual gun ownership rights in the case of the District of Columbia
vs. Heller. Nonetheless, Village President Christopher Canning said
village attorney Timothy Frenzer feared legal action by opponents of the
ban if it were to remain on the books...The ban generated controversy
when it passed in 1989, in the wake of the shootings at Winnetka's
Hubbard Woods Elementary School. It generated even more headlines after
restaurateur Hale DeMar shot an intruder in his lakefront home in
December 2003. The Cook County State's Attorney's office refused to
prosecute DeMar, but the village assessed DeMar a $750 fine...
http://www.wbbm780.com/Wilmette-Handgun-Ban-Dead--7-0-Vote-Repeals-Law/2650983
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Oops, Wrong Restaurant: Diners at Pacific Grill, an upscale downtown
Tacoma restaurant, were confronted by a man who was dining alone Monday
evening. According to Tacoma Police, the man sat down and ordered beer,
then got up, went into a private dining area and demanded money from the
diners. He told them this was a robbery and demanded their wallets...
Then the man got up and confronted the same diners in the private dining
room again. "I want your money and take care of my bill now," said the
suspect. One of the doctors, who had been at target practice earlier,
pulled out his gun and ordered the suspect out, saying, "Get out of the
restaurant now!" The suspect left and was greeted by police officers
outside... (One can only hope that the physician was not armed only
because he "had been at target practice earlier.")
http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_072208WAB_restaurant_robbery_KC.810a4e71.html
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Oops, Wrong ATM: Surveillance video shows a bizarre "break-in" at a
grocery store in Butler County. Thieves try to cash in fast by taking
off with an ATM. The crooks tried using a truck as a battering ram, and
brought down the front of the store. But owners say thanks to a quick
thinking neighbor, those would-be burglars left empty handed..."I got my
gun out of my gun cabinet and told my wife to call 911. I walked
outside, and fired a shot in the air just to ruffle their feathers," he
said. It did. The would-be-burglars sped away and investigator Jim
Akers says deputies found the truck abandoned on a county road. Before
they left though, Chavez had a scare of his own. "He pulled out and
faced me, the truck did. I felt at that point, I'm in imminent danger,
and it scared me. I fired a slug through the windshield of his truck,
and put one in the grill and passenger side door," Chavez said...
(Warning shots are a tricky proposition and have been prosecuted as
negligent discharges in some jurisdictions: I discourage their use.)
http://www.kfvs12.com/Global/story.asp?S=8718320&nav=menu51_11_10
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Oops, Wrong Store - Follow-Up: ...The owner of Power Pro Battery Co.,
210 S. Penn St., Manheim, said it was the right to possess a gun that
potentially saved the life of his operations manager Tuesday and ended
the life of a would-be robber..."(The manager) had an angel in his
pocket," Roads said, "and I can only hope that I would have been as
lucky and as fortunate had it been me." ...The manager said the two men
made a noise under the steps, dropping a cell phone and a backpack and
alerting him to their presence. As the manager put the key in the front
door, the two men, wearing black clothing, baseball caps and bandannas
over their faces, walked up the stairs and followed him into the
business, pointing a TEC-9 semiautomatic weapon at his back. They pushed
him into an office five feet inside the entrance and stayed in the
hallway, with a security camera in the hallway catching most of the
action. The two men patted down the manager, taking his wallet and a
company cell phone. However, they failed to pat down his other pocket,
which contained a small-caliber semiautomatic pistol that he carried for
protection. The manager was told to open the business safe, and as the
two men briefly looked toward the door, he pulled the gun from his
pocket, firing two shots at Smith, who was holding the TEC-9... (One can
view this many ways, including as an argument for mouseguns. However, it
appears to be totally serendipitous that the robbers failed to pat down
the pocket with the gun. On the other hand, with advance warning, I have
to wonder if the manager should not already have had a gun in hand.
Shrouded revolvers, such as S&W Centennials, can be kept in the hand
with a garment, such as a jacket, draped over them, yet can still fire
without jamming.)
http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/224858
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Rule One, Rule Two Reminder: A Wiltshire police officer was airlifted to
hospital after accidentally shooting himself in the hand. The firearms
officer, who has not been named, received a gunshot wound as he was
cleaning a weapon at Wiltshire Police headquarters in Devizes. (Rule
One: All firearms are always loaded. Rule Two: Don't let the muzzle
cross anything you're not prepared to shoot. A British officer being
injured in a negligent discharge is not big news; I am, however,
disappointed that those who profess to use the Queen's English don't
know the difference between "shot by own weapon" and "shot with own
weapon.")
http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/news/headlines/display.var.2405395.0.police_officer_shot_by_own_weapon.php
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US Blamed for Deportees' Gun Skills: Deported criminals are more violent
after learning how to use semi-automatic weapons while in the United
States, said an official from a Maryland company with a workforce that
is 60 percent Hispanic..."The situation, particularly in Honduras,
Guatemala and El Salvador is getting worse because of our unemployment
here," Gladstone said. "Because a lot of gang members are being sent
back and being deported, and guess what? They're going back, the
difference from when they were there before but now they are going back,
they know how to use semi-automatic weapons because they learned up
here. And now they are back there and there is no work." (Not to mention
that they're also going back with added job skills that they learned in
the US. I have a friend in Show Low who favors .308 rifles as a result
of his service in the Honduran army - I don't believe that he had to
come to the US to learn how to fire an autoloading rifle.)
http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=32942
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From GOA: On July 10, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to
designate the Washington-Rochambeau Trail, which stretches 600 miles
from Rhode Island to Yorktown, Virginia, as a National Historic Trail.
Such a designation would place the trail under the jurisdiction of the
Department of Interior and the National Park Service, thus subjecting
the Washington-Rochambeau to the current NPS gun ban. Carrying firearms
on land controlled by the NPS is prohibited, even if the state in which
the land is located allows firearms. The only way you can legally have a
firearm anywhere on National Park land currently is by having it
unloaded and inaccessible, such as locked up in your trunk. While the
Interior Department recently (after seven years of foot-dragging)
proposed new rules to partially reverse the gun ban, they have not yet
taken effect. If and when they do go into effect, most gun owners would
still not be allowed to possess firearms on these lands because, among
other problems with the rule, open carry would remain prohibited.
Congress still needs to take action to make the gun ban repeal complete
and permanent...
http://www.gunowners.org/a072308.htm
--
Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
