Woman Is First to Register Handgun in DC: ..."They looked at me and thought, 'She doesn't fit the profile of someone coming in with a gun,' so they left me alone and I walked right past them," said McVey, who was the first and only person to register a handgun Thursday when she entered the station with her Ruger .357 Magnum in a blue plastic bag around 1 p.m..."The cops were professional, polite and courteous," McVey said. "A couple of them remarked what a nice gun it was." McVey found the cops very encouraging of her gun ownership. "I asked them, 'Do you mind good people owning guns?' " she said. "One said, 'It will help make our job easier.' " (I don't think Chief Lanier agrees with the officer's opinion.) http://www.examiner.com/a-1496295~First_to_register_handgun__owner__doesn_t_fit__profile.html --- DC Hoops: ...It gets worse: In order to legally register your handgun in the District, you'll be required to make five separate trips to the Metropolitan Police Department, and at least two separate trips to a federally licensed firearms dealer. Good luck trying to do it on your lunch hour. It's not only possible, it's almost a guarantee that anyone attempting to exercise their constitutional rights in the District would have to use a week of vacation time to jump through the hurdles the local politicians put in place. It's almost a certainty that those wanting to become legal gun owners will have to spend more time at the police station than someone arrested for violating the District's gun laws... http://www.nranews.com/blogarticle.aspx?blogPostId=422 --- Will Congress Act in Time?: ...The D.C. City Council has imposed a very burdensome system of gun registration. Only a handful of states have any registration and none has a system as complicated as that of the District. There is a solution to this tyranny. Congress can pass H.R. 1399, the "District of Columbia Personal Protection Act." The bill, which is supported by the NRA and has 247 co-sponsors, would repeal the D.C. handgun ban and the storage requirement which prohibits keeping a firearm ready for self-defense in the home, two of the provisions found to be unconstitutional in the Heller decision. Moreover, it would repeal the D.C. registration system, which is burdensome in its own right and serves as a vehicle for even more restrictions and skewed definitions. H.R. 1399 would restrict the D.C. Council's authority to impose undue restrictions upon residents' Second Amendment right. It also would repeal the ban upon semi-automatic firearms, conforming the District's law to federal legislation. It would repeal various restrictions on ammunition and the District's "Strict Liability Act," which allows manufacturers of certain types of guns "to be held strictly liable in tort, without regard to fault or proof of defect." http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulWeyrich/2008/07/21/a_persistent_threat_to_second_amendment_rights --- S&W to Offer Heller Commemorative Revolver: The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and Smith & Wesson have partnered to create a commemorative revolver designed to recognize the historical significance of the District of Columbia vs. Heller decision and to acknowledge the six original plaintiffs that united to challenge the gun ban in Washington, D.C. As part of the project, an engraved Smith & Wesson Model 442 revolver will be presented to each of the six plaintiffs - Shelly Parker, Tom Palmer, Gillian St. Lawrence, Tracey Ambeau, George Lyon and Dick Heller - for their key roles in working to protect the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Smith & Wesson will make the commemorative revolver available for consumer purchase in Fall 2008 and will direct a portion of the proceeds to the Second Amendment Foundation to acknowledge the organization's pivotal role in the Heller case and its ongoing efforts to preserve the Second Amendment rights of U.S. citizens... (Inasmuch as the Heller decision only appears to apply to keeping a revolver in the home, I have to wonder about the wisdom of selecting an Airweight model for that role. Arguably, the choice of a five-shot revolver increases the likelihood that it will fit the hands of women.) http://www.saf.org/viewpr-new.asp?id=272 ...Gun dealers will start selling the revolver this fall, with some profits going to the Second Amendment Foundation, a pro-gun legal-action group that is teaming with Smith & Wesson on the project...Some see the special pistol as a shrewd move by Smith & Wesson to target gun enthusiasts, especially those who may still be sore about the company's 2000 adoption of gun-safety measures to settle a federal lawsuit. That controversial capitulation sparked a National Rifle Association boycott... http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view/2008_07_22_A__38_special_edition_Pistol_to_mark_legal_win/ Photos: http://www.guntalk.com/site88.php --- Chicago, Where "Police Power" Is "Caprice Power": ...Illinois' 1970 Constitution provides gun grabbing counties and city councils with an invaluable mechanism so as to create two strata of gun rights in Illinois. One strata that would pass muster south of I. 80 in the more crimson part of Illinois, and another that would enable the northern regions of Illinois to infringe upon the second amendment rights of the law-abiding citizenry in cities like Evanston, Wilmette, and Chicago. The clause that enables such constitutional mischief is that pesky "subject only to the police power" in the Illinois Constitution's Article 1, Section 22 of the Bill of Rights... http://cdobs.com/archive/our-columns/mayor-daleys-chicago-where-police-power-is-caprice-power,1398/ --- Election 2008 and the RKBA: ...The gun issue may play a bigger role in the 2008 race between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain. The US Supreme Court's 5-to-4 decision in June that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to own a gun puts the focus on gun control in two ways. First, the ruling shows that the court is evenly divided and just one new appointment could alter future rulings on gun control. Second, and perhaps more important, the decision may set the high court as the arbiter for a series of individual gun cases in coming years - who can have which weapons and where...So what are Americans' attitudes toward gun control when looking through the lens of Patchwork Nation's 11 community types? It turns out that more people seem to show sympathy for Obama's views - especially in battleground communities that may be key in November... http://www.csmonitor.com/patchworknation/csmstaff/2008/0721/obama%E2%80%99s-views-on-gun-control-align-with-battleground-areas/ --- Long Island Gun Owner Sues Prohibitionist Congresswoman: An outspoken Long Island gun owner's home was raided by Nassau County detectives, who seized two dozen weapons he lawfully owns just one day after Rep. Carolyn McCarthy's office made a 911 call about him. Freeport resident Gabriel Razzano claims he was targeted in the spring raid for his "unpopular" political beliefs. He's now filed a $5 million federal lawsuit against the Nassau PD and McCarthy, charging they joined forces to strip him of his guns unconstitutionally... http://www.nypost.com/seven/07212008/news/regionalnews/gun_seizure_lawsuit_120836.htm --- Man Jailed for Gun in University-Owned Hotel: An Albany man who came to town for a conference was arrested on a felony charge and jailed for more than 18 hours because he had a gun in his hotel room. Eric Dewayne Baylis, 45, said he didn't know that the hotel was owned by the University of Georgia, which put him in violation of a state law forbidding weapons within school safety zones. Baylis, a maintenance worker with the Albany Housing Authority, was attending a four-day conference for the Georgia Housing Authority and Redevelopment Authority, held at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center & Hotel on South Lumpkin Street. His employers made the lodging arrangements and he had no idea the hotel is owned by UGA... http://onlineathens.com/stories/071808/news_2008071800326.shtml --- Firearm-Permit Applications Surge in Connecticut Suburb: ...The crimes turned Cheshire, called the "Bedding Plant Capital of Connecticut," from a town where many residents didn't bother to lock their doors to a place where people are increasingly buying guns...Gun permit applications in Cheshire, located 14 miles north of New Haven, jumped substantially after the Petits were attacked. There were 81 completed applications last year, more than double the 33 in 2006. Fifty-nine of the applications from last year were filled out after the crimes, police said... http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080721/D9224Q280.html --- Open-Carry Demonstration in Idaho: daho members of a group that advocates for the right to openly carry handguns in public are turning heads by touring Zoo Boise while packing guns on their hips. Ten members of OpenCarry.org were allowed into the zoo Saturday after some initial confusion at the entrance about whether it was legal to bring an unconcealed handgun inside. Group member Carol Schultz of Nampa says: "Coming to the zoo was something we could do together, like any family would." Schultz says she's never without her handgun that she keeps in a holster attached to a heart-studded belt. Zoo visitor Alex Lundgren of Boise questioned the group's decision to bring firearms. He says: "Legal and appropriate are two different things." http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jjjAJ_MpHfq4BdalJb3lG07cMswgD921S3880 --- Armed Clergyman Opens Fire Again: A Christian missionary whose book "Shooting Back" describes his encounter with heavily armed terrorists who attacked his church in 1993 and how he repelled them by firing back with his .38 special once again fought off an attempted hijacking by returning fire. The latest attack came while Charl van Wyk of Frontline Fellowship ministries in Cape Town, South Africa, was traveling to record a radio program with creation science lecturer Philip Stott during the Reclaiming Africa for Christ Biblical Worldview Summit... http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=69951 --- GOA Starts Olofson Relief Fund: The Gun Owners of America have launched a campaign to help support the family of a man sentenced to 30 months in jail for a rifle that misfired. Officials with GOA today announced they will be working to generate support for the wife and three children of David Olofson, on whom WND has reported in the past, while a GOA-orchestrated appeal of his conviction proceeds. "Not only is Gun Owners of American representing Olofson during his appeal, we have set up an Olofson relief fund so that his wife and mother of their three young children will be able to keep making her mortgage and car payments," Larry Pratt, chief of the organization, said in an editorial provided to WND... http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=70249 Olofson Writes from Prison: http://westernrifleshooters.blogspot.com/2008/07/vanderboegh-if-not-then-our-republic-is.html -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .