“It hasn’t been this good for quite a while” wrote Sarah Brady following the election to public office of a number of anti-gun politicians last November. Brady, Chair of the anti-gun Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, wrote to supporters and prospective supporters that, “I don’t want to lose any time getting the new Congress and the White House to move our life-saving agenda forward. I want our newly elected officials to hit the ground running as much as you do. We need the new Congress to close the gun show loophole, enact a comprehensive assault weapons ban, and stop illegal gun trafficking.”
In Nashville, Tennessee, John Lewis, a 69-year-old Air Force veteran, shot alleged burglar Jerry Watson in the leg with his .357 pistol, thus stopping the burglary. “You got to be able to protect yourself,” said Lewis, according to NewsChannel5.com. “I mean I’m not going to sit here and let somebody rob me over and over and over again.” On a recent Sunday at around 10:30 at night, Lewis, whose home was broken into four times last year, heard a crash in his home. He said the person making the crash “started kicking on the door. He made more noise that anybody I’ve ever dreamed of trying to break into a house.” Lewis saw a man carrying a flashlight and a pickax. Lewis said the pistol he was carrying “went off. I had it cocked. It had a hair trigger and I touched it and it went off.”
The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), through the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has announced the final amended version of its changes to rules on the carrying of firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges. This is supposed to restore the rights of law-abiding firearm owners who wish to transport and carry guns for lawful purposes on most DOI lands, and will make federal law consistent with the state law in which these public lands are located. The new regulations are supposed to allow right-to-carry permit holders to exercise their gun rights on national park and wildlife refuges in those states that recognize such permits.
In Washington, D.C. last month, the D.C. Council voted unanimously to give preliminary approval to legislation that would require gun owners to renew their registrations every three years and to notify police annually whether they still own guns. The legislation also would require firearms owners to take a safety course and undergo a background check every six years, reported
In Green Pond, South Carolina, a man who was at home one Monday morning last November when someone tried to break into his residence apparently shot the burglar, authorities said. Colleton County deputies arrived at the home and learned that the homeowner had fired his gun at someone coming in the window but found no suspects on the property. They later got a call from a woman nearby who said her 15-year-old grandson had been shot. The boy was taken to Colleton County Regional Medical Center, treated and taken to jail. He and a 16-year-old boy and an adult were all charged with second-degree burglary, reported the Charleston Post and Courier.
The Washington Post. The Fire Arms Registration Amendment is an attempt to comply with last summer’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller overturning the city’s 32-year handgun ban. It is supposed to build on temporary legislation passed last September which among other things banned magazines capable of accepting more than 10 rounds of ammunition. Alan Gura, who was the attorney of record for the plaintiffs challenging the D.C. handgun ban in the Heller case, said requiring repeated registration will bring the city more legal problems. “None of this is going to reduce crime, but it is going to increase litigation. While I have not studied the bill, requiring people to register and re-register every year is harassment.”