Michigan Stand-Your-Ground Law Reaches First Anniversary: Michigan's self-defense act will be a year old Monday. The law allows people to use deadly force, with no duty to retreat, if they reasonably think they face imminent death, great bodily harm or sexual assault. They can use deadly force anywhere they have a legal right to be...Such was apparently the case Thursday night in Detroit. One week after a fatal carjacking in Hamtramck, an 18-year-old would-be carjacker was killed when his potential victim opened fire. Police said Michael Evans of Detroit brandished a handgun as he approached a 36-year-old man from Troy as he got into his vehicle after having dinner with friends. The Troy man used his registered handgun to shoot Evans in apparent self-defense. http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070930/NEWS06/709300597/1003/NEWS01 --- Connecticut Stolen-Gun Bill Takes Effect Today: Legislation punishing gun owners who don't report a theft of their firearm and a bill requiring all hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape victims become law on Monday...The National Rifle Association has balked about a new law that requires people to report lost or stolen firearms, except antique guns, within 72 hours of the theft. Penalties range from an infraction for a first offense, punishable by a fine up to $90. Any subsequent unintentional failure to report a lost or stolen gun is a Class D felony, subject to a fine of up to $5,000, up to five years in prison, or both. http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2007/09/30/host_of_new_laws_go_into_effect_in_ct_on_monday_1191165579/ --- Myths About CCW In Schools: A very simple question is it not? To disarm the law abiding citizens or not to disarm them? People are talking about this question everywhere, people both for and against allowing adults to have their 2nd amendment right to bear arms sustained, even if only in the form of concealed carry, while on school grounds. I hear a number of standard arguments against it used over and over again, so I am going to discuss them here in detail. http://dustinsgunblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/to-disarm-or-not-to-disarm-that-is.html --- Oops, Wrong Passenger: Seattle police say four teenagers picked the wrong man to harass on a Metro bus late Friday night. Police say when one of the teens attempted to take the man's glasses, he pulled a knife and fought back. Police spokeswoman Rene Witt says the man began swinging at his attackers in self defense. When the melee was over, four of the teens had cuts, including some with superficial cuts to their buttocks, and one had a dislocated shoulder. The man was not hurt. (It sounds as though, unlike many gun owners, the man did not settle for the training that came in the box with the knife.) http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_092907_news_seattle_teens.1222ceedc.html --- Speaking Of Training...: ... Hamblin witnessed two of them exit the car. He says they attempted to break into his home a short time later. "I found two black males wearing white tee shirts trying to enter my garage, bumping in my door. I feared for my life so I took action," he says. "I shot 5-6 times, one of them dove over a car (next door)". Hamblin says the suspects then ran off into the nearby woods... At this time it's unclear if the third suspect took a bullet at all. "We first believed he was shot, but we found no signs, no blood or anything that he was actually shot," says JPD Commander Ron Sampson. http://www.wlbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=7144543&nav=2CSf --- Rule Two, Rule Three Reminder: A Gary auxiliary police officer was killed Saturday afternoon when a fellow volunteer officer's gun accidentally discharged a bullet into the man's chest. Kevin Weaver, 49, died at St. Margaret Mercy Hospital in Dyer. He and two other reserve officers were training at Deb's Gun Range in Hammond, Hammond Police Chief Brian Miller said. About 3 p.m., Gary police said Reserve Officer Gerald Horton, 52, was attempting to clear his weapon when Weaver accidentally bumped into Horton, causing Horton's gun to fire a .45-caliber round. (Rule Two: Don't let the muzzle cross anything you're not prepared to shoot. Rule Three: Keep your finger out of the trigger guard, up on the frame, until your sights are on the target and you're prepared to fire.) http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/581767,CST-NWS-gary30.article --- Women On Target Event In California: Cheryl Weissmann of Camarillo owns a 9 mm handgun, a .22-caliber automatic pistol and a Taurus revolver. She likes to go to Shooters Paradise in Oxnard at least twice a month and pop off a few rounds as a way to blow off steam...Ventura resident Carly Gregory, a firearms newbie barely into her 20s, ticked off a list of guns she shot at a clinic in Rose Valley above Ojai this summer - a .22 Smith & Wesson handgun, a 9 mm Beretta and a .357 Magnum. http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007/sep/30/women-take-aim/ --- When Guns Are Outlawed...: Replica handguns that are being converted so British criminal gangs can use them to maim and kill can be bought in Germany without a permit...Outlawed in the UK, they are sold over the counter in Germany as blank firers, CS gas guns and alarm pistols. They are then smuggled into Britain and converted into lethal weapons. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article2558291.ece --- UN To Renew Attempt At Small-Arms Treaty: Britain, Japan, Australia and others are pushing for an unprecedented treaty regulating the arms trade worldwide, in a campaign sure to last years and to pit them against a determined American foe, the National Rifle Association. (Is it coincidental that the biggest backers of this move place some of the most severe firearm restrictions on their own citizens?) http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iszvtvZ5bngmyHb3zrJeQaQ97hoAD8RVT7KG0 --- From Gun Week: Boulder District Ignoring Shooting Memo? by Dave Workman Senior Editor Two weeks after the US Forest Service (USFS) issued a memorandum to every national forest and ranger district in the country that roads "should not be considered inherently occupied areas," which would have allowed rangers to ban shooting within 150 yards of any road, the Boulder, CO, ranger district was continuing to enforce the prohibition. On top of that, the ranger district's enforcement officer, Paul Krisanits, told Gun Week, "If somebody is within 150 yards of me and they discharge a firearm, my being there makes it an occupied area." "That's been my take on it," he said, "and our courts have supported it." The 150-yard shooting prohibition is detailed in a once-obscure national forest regulation, 36 CFR 261.10(d), which prohibits shooting: (1) In or within 150 yards of a residence, building, campsite, developed recreation site or occupied area, or, (2) Across or on a National Forest System road or a body of water adjacent thereto, or in any manner or place whereby any person or property is exposed to injury or damage as a result in such discharge, and (3) Into or within any cave. It's the debate over what constitutes an "occupied area" that ignited the recreational shooting controversy more than two years ago. Gun Week coverage of this story was at least partly credited for keeping the spotlight on the situation, leading to the Aug. 28 memorandum, signed by Joel Holtrop, deputy chief of the National Forest System. The Boulder Ranger District became "ground zero" in this controversy, because that is where the debate erupted after the district ranger closed a popular roadside shooting area on the grounds that it was within 150 yards of the road. Krisanits said he has not written "a lot of tickets" for people caught shooting in such roadside environments, but he has issued a lot of warnings. He has not arrested anyone for recreational shooting violations. That makes no difference to Boulder-area resident Jay Lawless, who became furious recently when, according to his account, he was told by a staffer at the Boulder ranger station that roads and even trails are considered "occupied areas." "There are precious damn few places in these mountains that aren't within 150 yards of some trail," he said. Lawless asserted that the USFS has a plan to shut down all national forest lands within two hours driving time from Denver to recreational shooting. "In the Pike National Forest west of Colorado Springs," he said, "the Forest Service built a nice shooting range and it can't be 20 yards off the road. Also, up at Bailey, the Forest Service has an impromptu shooting area up there that they've been sending people to for years." Advised of the problem, Melissa Simpson, deputy undersecretary of Agriculture, told Gun Week that her office would investigate. Krisanits said he had not personally seen the Aug. 28 Holtrop memorandum. Gun Week forwarded the text for his attention. The memorandum is explicit in two places. Roads are not to be considered "occupied areas." A prohibition remains against shooting along or across a road or adjacent body of water, "or in any manner or place whereby any person or property is exposed to injury or damage as a result in such discharge." Part of the problem with recreational shooting in the Boulder Ranger District is that, according to Krisanits, there are lots of private land parcels interspersed throughout. "We have about 185,000 acres," he said. "It is relatively small, and 'checkerboard' would be a kind way of describing the district. We do have some larger blocks of national forest, but when you compare it to traditional national forest land, you would be pretty surprised by all the private land mixed in." This article is provided free by GunWeek.com. For more great gun news, subscribe to our print edition. -- Stephen P. Wenger Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info