Another Look At The Parker, Heller Cases: ...Unarmed law-abiding citizens vs. heavily armed criminals - guess who's been winning. If D.C. City Council members regulated water the way they "regulate" gun ownership, residents could expect desert-dry water pipes and registration of garden hoses...Essentially, the appellants claim a right to possess what they describe as "functional firearms," by which they mean ones that could be "readily accessible to be used effectively when necessary" for self-defense in the home... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/JanetMLaRue/2007/11/15/supreme_court_may_target_second_amendment?page=full&comments=true --- Overreaction To Virginia Tech Shootings: W. Gerald Massengill chaired the Virginia Tech Review Panel that minutely probed the April 16 shootings in Blacksburg. Mr. Massengill is also the former superintendent of the Virginia State Police. Thus, when he comes out in favor of ending the exemption on background checks in the sale or trade of firearms by unlicensed dealers, his is a voice that carries much resonance. We understand that. Nonetheless, we adjudge Mr. Massengill guilty of over-reaction, of throwing babies out with the bathwater. The horrific crimes of Seung-Hui Cho had absolutely nothing to do with the sale, purchase, or exchange of firearms at gun shows or auctions. Mr. Cho bought the guns he used with such deadly effect from a licensed gun dealer. That he was able to do so even though he had been found mentally ill has been resolved via an executive order from Gov. Kaine. We feel certain the General Assembly will take further corrective action in this regard come January. But remove the gun-show exemption? We do not deem this a proper course, if only because no hard-and-fast data exist linking gun violence with sales made at gun shows. Usually, these transactions are between collectors or hobbyists, and involve the sale or trade of a single weapon. Brady View: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-helmke/col-massengills-common-_b_72905.html --- Oops, Wrong House: A northwest Indiana woman shot her alleged stalker to death. Police say 41-year-old Ryan Lee Bergner broke into the woman's home in Hammond Monday night. The 51-year-old woman called 9-1-1 and hid in a closet with a gun she had been given for protection. She says she shot him when he opened the closet door and started choking her. http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=local&id=5762204 --- Nonsense In Ohio: ...The latest examples of this discrimination against those who choose to exercise their Second Amendment right to bear arms comes direct from Columbus, Ohio, where Senators continue to allow journalists to access the private information about law-abiding citizens who obtain concealed handgun licenseholders and publish it on the Internet. Meanwhile, this same body recently voted to shield the names of some public employees from view on the Internet, and the Ohio Supreme Court recently decided that the names of all Ohioans convicted of drunken driving are off-limits to newspapers... http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/article4046.html --- Missouri Student Suspended For Rifle In Truck: ...Weeks is an avid hunter. On Nov. 1, he went into the woods after school. "I decided I was going to go hunting before the football game, so I came home grabbed my .22 and an extra box of shells," Weeks told KMBC's Dan Weinbaum. After hunting, Weeks came home, ate and then went to the football game at Smithville High School. He said he forgot he had an unloaded rifle on the passenger seat of his truck. "I made the mistake of locking my keys in there, and that's when everything started getting bad," Weeks said. http://www.kmbc.com/news/14589729/detail.html --- Arizona County To Renovate Shooting Park: Pima County's Southeast Regional Park Shooting Range will be closed on Thursdays and Fridays until the end of the year for renovations. The range still will be open Saturdays and Sundays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Renovations include the construction of a shooting sports education center. The center will have an education range and a training building and will be funded in part by a grant from the state Game and Fish Department. http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/211958 --- Gun Guide For Journalists: Pity the copy editor groping through a story involving firearms. The chances of missing a mistake -or making one - are enormous. The subject of guns probably is the source of more errors in writing than anything except grammar itself. The subject has a grammar of its own, in the sense of a body of rules and principles, but as with English grammar, the internal logic is sometimes obscure and the exceptions and quirks and arcana can give you a headache. A copy editor who doesn't know the grammar of guns can be as lost as the foreigner wrestling with English - like the one who wrote the sign in the dress shop telling ladies to go upstairs and have a fit. http://www.copydesk.org/words/weapons.htm -- Stephen P. Wenger Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .