Heller Got His Gun (Permit): The man whose lawsuit overturned Washington's handgun ban has successfully registered his revolver, ending a more than 30-year wait to keep the weapon in his home. Dick Heller walked out of D.C. police headquarters Monday, clutching a yellow firearms registration certificate stamped "approved." He gave the thumbs-up sign, grinned and said, "Victory!" Heller was among the first people to seek a gun permit under new rules adopted after the Supreme Court struck down the city's 32-year-old handgun ban in June. Heller was the plaintiff in that case. He won approval to keep a .22-caliber revolver at home after coming to police headquarters in July to be fingerprinted and take a firearms proficiency test. Police approved the weapon after completing a background check. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hCTDCtVBhc2ugiMV6sP_bPJKdG2QD92KQ15G0 --- Texas Governor Supports Arming Teachers: Texas Gov. Rick Perry indicated Monday that he supports a school district's decision to allow teachers and staff to pack guns for protection when classes start this month. Trustees of the Harrold Independent School District approved a policy change last year to allow employees to carry concealed firearms to deter and protect against school shootings. "There's a lot of incidents where that would have saved a number of lives," Perry said after a news conference in Austin. Texas law outlaws firearms on school campuses unless specific institutions allow them. District policy requires a teacher carrying a gun to school to have a Texas concealed handgun license, authorization by the district to carry the weapon, training in crisis management and hostile situations, and ammunition designed to minimize the risk of ricochet...Asked whether other districts should take similar measures, Perry said, "It's up to those local school districts..." http://www.newsmax.com/us/gun_toting_teachers/2008/08/18/123139.html And in Arizona...: An Arizona state senator is watching closely what happens in a small school district outside Fort Worth, Texas, which is the first in the nation to allow teachers to carry guns on campus. Sen. Karen Johnson, R-Mesa, fought for a similar bill during the last Arizona legislative session, but it never reached the Senate floor. Johnson still believes guns on campus are necessary... http://www.ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=937331 --- Colorado SCCC Chapter Continues Drive: Classes are still a week away, but some students at the University of Colorado-Boulder are already making themselves heard. Students for 'Concealed Carry on Campus' planned to make their case for allowing concealed weapons on campus to the CU Board of Regents Wednesday. The group was formed after the Virginia Tech shootings and said had those students been armed, the outcome may have been different. "They cowered under desks, the braver ones barricaded doors but that's all they could do," argued Jim Manley, a member of the group. He said those with concealed weapons permits are trained and have earned the right to arm themselves. "It seems foolish to allow people on one side of the street be allowed to carry a concealed weapon and not allow them to cross the street, onto campus," he said... http://cw2.trb.com/news/kwgn-cu-concealed-weapons,0,5811021.story --- Fear the Government That Fears Your Guns: In West Texas, it was not uncommon to see the bumper sticker "fear the government that fears your gun" on a lot of pick-up trucks during both terms of the Clinton administration. Like the rest of the South and much of the Midwest, we were hypersensitive to the thought of having our right to keep and bear arms infringed upon in any way. Moreover, common sense and annual FBI crime statistics taught us that 99.9% of the population only used their guns for defensive reasons, thus we were particularly leery of an administration that sought to take away our instruments of self-defense. Yet as bad as Clinton was, his push to disarm the American people would pale in comparison to what we'd see from a President Barack Obama, a man who not only wants to disarm the American people, but America's allies as well... http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=28077&s=rcme --- Businesses Buck Florida Law: Several major Florida employers are trying to get around a law allowing workers to keep guns in their cars, even as a June U.S. Supreme Court ruling supporting the right to keep handguns at home has emboldened national gun-rights lobbyists. Shortly after Gov. Charlie Crist signed into law a bill that says businesses must allow employees with concealed-weapons permits to keep guns in their cars in company lots, Walt Disney World Co. told employees it would stick to its no-guns policy. Disney claimed an exemption for employers who have a permit "to engage in the business of importing, manufacturing, or dealing in explosive materials" - in this case, the fireworks the company uses nightly to brighten the skies over four of its Florida theme parks. The company is a unit of Walt Disney Co... (I think it's a stretch to refer to firearms secured in parked vehicles as "guns in the workplace.") http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121901709944248185.html?mod=googlenews_wsj --- Michigan Open-Carry Event Uneventful: They came, they saw, they carried - and they didn't cause any problems. Members of OpenCarry.org peacefully set up shop Saturday at Veterans Memorial Park in Warren to prove a point about the Second Amendment and Michigan's gun laws. About 75 gun enthusiasts strolled through the park throughout the afternoon with sidearms strapped to their belts in plain view. The goal was to underscore that Michigan is among 44 states where it's legal to carry a gun in public without a permit, as long as it was legally purchased and registered. Concealed weapons permits are necessary for a hidden weapon... http://www.macombdaily.com/stories/081708/loc_local03.shtml --- Possible Obama VP Choice Vetoed CCW in Kansas: ...In her '02 campaign, she said she supported "the language in the Kansas Constitution" regarding the right to bear arms, a ringing endorsement of the Second Amendment. Sebelius spokeswoman Nicole Corcoran-Basso said at the time, "Like Charlton Heston, Kathleen Sebelius supports every person's Second Amendment right to bear arms." And this April, she approved a bill lifting restrictions on ownership of automatic weapons and silencers. But in '06, she earned the wrath of the NRA for vetoing a concealed-carry law, and the state legislature overrode her veto... http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2008/08/longshot_or_sen.html --- Oops, Wrong Great-grandmother: An 85-year-old great-grandmother from Lake Lynn, Fayette County kept an alleged burglar at bay using a .22-caliber pistol. According to police, a 17-year-old suspect was attempting to burglarize Leda Smith overnight. That's when Smith grabbed her gun and told the teen that she would shoot him if he moved, police said. "I had the gun on him before he turned around and said, 'you've had it,' " Smith told Channel 11-News. According to police, Smith ordered the boy to dial 911 and then gave him some advice. "Dial 911 and don't attempt to throw the phone at me, or do anything bad or I'll just shoot you," Smith said. When police arrived, they took the teen into custody. Charges have been filed against the boy and an alleged accomplice. http://www.wpxi.com/news/17223812/detail.html --- Texas Shooting Victim Hailed as Hero: A man who was shot and later died after defending his girlfriend during an attempted robbery at a Lufkin restaurant Sunday night was a "true hero," a manager said Monday. Keith Edward Labrozzi II, 24, of Lufkin, died at a local hospital after being shot multiple times by a man attempting to rob his girlfriend, manager Katherine Lynn Jeffreys, 23, outside David Beard's Catfish King, 806 S. Medford Drive, at 10:36 p.m. Sunday. Jeffreys, who was shot through the ankle, is recovering at a local hospital, said Pam Minefee, another manager. The couple has two children together, ages 3 and 1. "He was a true hero," Minefee said. "He saved his girlfriend's life and possibly others who would have been here..." http://www.lufkindailynews.com/hp/content/news/stories/2008/08/19/Armed_Robbery.html --- Wounded Warriors Compete in Skeet Shoot: ...Part of the 92-shooter field included four men from Fort Bragg, N.C. The men are part of the Army Special Operations command and belong to the Wounded Warriors. The Wounded Warriors are soldiers from Special Ops who have been injured in combat or training, but have remained on active duty...Stube said the team was glad to be a part of the shoot and support the Second Amendment. "Our duty now is to have greater community involvement," he said. "We all support the Second Amendment. But it's also about preserving the culture and values that go along with gun ownership," he added. "This is great, clean family fun." He said the Second Amendment is not just about owning a gun. "They key is for everyone to become skillful at handling a weapon," Stube said. "That way if the nation ever needs to be defended, people may be good at it..." http://www.codyenterprise.com/articles/2008/08/18/sports/sports1.txt -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .