Ever since I was a kid, I was frustrated by clueless people who said, “The Second Amendment is about the National Guard or something.” Yeah, right…as if one of the most carefully crafted documents in the history of the human experience, devoted to individual human rights, would somehow have strangely included states’ rights to raise militias.

For decades, Constitutional scholars have again and again determined that The Second did indeed speak to an individual right. Our current President’s first Attorney General stated that in an official opinion. It was obvious to anyone who didn’t have an agenda.

Now, at long, long last, the Supreme Court of the United States has spoken. They have confirmed – hopefully once and for all – that the Second Amendment is indeed an individual “right to keep and bear arms.” It is truly historic, a genuine “landmark decision.”

The fallout was instantaneous. In Chicago, literally fifteen minutes after the SCOTUS decision was announced, the Second Amendment Foundation and the Illinois State Rifle Association pulled the trigger of an already cocked hammer, a lawsuit challenging the Constitutionality of Chicago’s long standing ban on law-abiding citizens’ ownership of handguns. Early indications are that the Heller decision, in shooting down (pun intended) Washington, DC’s similar ban, will make the termination of Chicago’s current, onerous law a slam-dunk. Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley, raving against the decision, literally experienced a meltdown in his emotional press conference. The guy was practically babbling. Always a good thing to see in someone who has declared himself an enemy of you and your kind.

The decision came down on the first day of a Lethal Force Institute LFI-I class I was teaching in Harrisburg, PA. The 28 adult students literally cheered. Well, we had all waited a long time to hear this decision. The majority opinion written by Justice Scalia is said to be a model of logical, cogent jurisprudence.

Several of the students agreed that, to them, it would be one of those moments so pivotal to what they believed in, that they would always remember where they were when they heard the news.

Some of the more hard-core gun folks out there seem to consider the decision a failure, since it doesn’t automatically authorize everyone to carry a gun everywhere, nor allow the general public to buy machine guns the way they’d purchase a .22. These people have not figured out, apparently, that (a) none of those issues were on point to the instant case, and (b) the history of people who demand all or nothing is that they end up with…nothing. The simple fact is, the Heller decision is a landmark victory for the rights of citizens to protect themselves…a victory for civil rights of gun owners, and for the basic human right of self-protection.

I’ve been teaching more than ten hours a day, and doing class-related management stuff after hours, and have not yet had time to read the 157-page decision in all its detail. It can be found here.

We’ll be talking about this more down the line. It’s time to hear the opinions of the readers of this blog on the Heller decision.

What say you?

Mas was teaching this armed self-defense class when the Heller decision was announced.

Viewing the Mississippi flooding up close was awe-inspiring…in terms of the best of human values at work, as well as the majesty of nature. The pictures you see here were taken by significant other and I in Quincy, Illinois and Hannibal, MO.

Homes under water. Business districts under water. Bridges under water, and countless acres of farmland immersed.

But, also, an incredibly strong expression of sense of community. Neighborhood folks, military reserve personnel, Mennonite farm families, and local high school kids pulling together to fill, just in one medium size community, what a city official said was 1.3 million sandbags as they fought to keep the vast waters from spilling over the levees.

As many other commentators have noted: no riots. No looting. The National Guard coming in with shovels instead of M16s.

And, in perhaps the most whimsical picture, we observe that when their favorite watering hole happens to be a waterfront tavern, Americans don’t just abandon their regular routines…J

Says something about values in the Heartland, doesn’t it?

So here I am in Barry, Illinois, just finishing up filming my segments for the third season of Tom Gresham’s television program, Personal Defense TV, which has just switched from The Outdoor Channel to The Sportsman’s Channel. And I’m reminded again of how the world of the gun is so much like every other aspect of our world.

You know how a few minutes after an argument or a debate, we find ourselves thinking, “What I should have said was…”? And all those times where instead of “I should have said,” it’s “I should have done?”

Had a couple of those moments…

In eleven of the thirteen episodes, I was happy with the way things turned out. Several were done in only one take. There are a couple, though, that I wouldn’t mind doing over again…

One was a segment on why it’s a good idea to use a firm grip when shooting, particularly with powerful guns. We were filming at PASA Park, the outstanding shooting facility which hosts the Smith & Wesson Masters and the Single Stack pistol championships. PASA head Dick Metcalf, who also writes for Shooting Times and Guns & Ammo, lent me a Smith & Wesson Model 629 slicked up by our mutual friend, the late, great Fred Sadowski of 300 Gunsmithing Services in Denver. The ammo was powerful Hornady XTP .44 Magnum, using a 180 grain bullet that hits nearly 1600 feet per second muzzle velocity.

To illustrate that the gun can move in your hand upon recoil if you hold it too loosely, I let off one shot downrange with the camera in close-up on gun and hand. I pointed out that the revolver had started to roll back in my relaxed grasp, and that another round or two would have found the hammer blocked by the web of the hand. Then, with a proper hard hold, I ripped five more downrange rapid-fire. That’s a take! Cut, wrap, print…

Not until after the camera turned off did I notice that the light grasp had allowed the sharp edge of the cylinder latch to slice my thumb open, drawing blood. The gear was already being broken down to move to the next filming location, and an after-the-fact splice would have looked hokey. Damn…I had missed a perfect opportunity to show even better why you shouldn’t fire powerful guns with a wimpy grasp.

Another segment involved gun concealment options. With a light nylon windbreaker over my usual garb of cargo pants, shirt, and photographer’s vest, I proceeded in front of the camera to divest myself of two .45 automatics, two full size .357 Magnums, a couple of compact .22s and .32s, a trio of .380s, and so many snub-nose .38s that I lost count. When the camera stopped rolling, 25 pistols and revolvers had made it from concealment on my person to the table beside me. As they unhooked the body mike, I realized, “Dammit…I forgot a couple.” I had missed two short barrel Smith & Wessons, an all-steel .38 Chief Special and an AirLite .357. Well, there was no need for a second take – 25 makes the point about as well as 27 – but you know, I don’t think I’ll be as judgmental as I might have been the next time I read of some honest gun carrier getting arrested because he forgot he had a gun on when he went through a metal detector into a “gun-free zone.”

Woulda…coulda…shoulda…sigh.

Mas has just removed these 25 concealed handguns from the clothes he’s wearing. Vest is concealed by nylon windbreaker…and still hides two more revolvers.

All steel S&W Model 36 .38 Special and super-light S&W Model 340 .357 were literally forgotten in the inside breast pockets of concealment vest.

In my last blog entry, I talked about getting ready for a police combat shoot in New Hampshire. That match is history now, but as usual, I learned some things.

Driving to NH from the south, my adult supervisor and I stopped at the excellent Skip-J shooting range in Anderson, South Carolina to shoot in their annual Glock shoot under the GSSF (Glock Sport Shooting Foundation) system. I hadn’t practiced for the event and shot for the heck of it. Used a Glock 17 9mm and scored, well, “a gentleman’s C.” But then I entered the Major Sub event, and whattaya know…I won it.

“Major Sub” means large caliber subcompact pistol. I had my favorite Glock along, a G30. This is the carry-size, eleven-shot semiautomatic in caliber .45 ACP. However, it had a grip trimmed down to better fit my hand, and I’d forgotten that this feature was not allowed by GSSF rules in a stock gun category. An old friend lent me his G30SF, the new Glock .45 that is essentially the Glock 30 factory-produced with a gripframe that has a smaller than standard measurement front to back. His pistol was perfectly sighted in for me with Winchester 230 grain .45 hardball ammunition, and a high visibility Ameriglo front sight. Kewl! Sometimes, things just work out.

The NH shoot was another story. The course of fire was not announced until we were on the firing line. It was slower shooting than expected, and at longer range. I had been practicing for this particular tournament, but at a faster pace and on a bright, sunny range in the southland. A light rain was falling on match day, and the flat black target in the gray gloom did not give me good contrast between the front sight and the target…and I got sloppy. The first string of fourteen shots (seven, reload, and seven more with my department issue Ruger .45 auto) went to the right of point of aim. Decent group, but in the wrong place. The group was centered between the nine- and eight-point rings, and one drifted into the seven-ring. After we got in to the fifteen yard line, I only dropped one more shot out of the ten ring, and put a couple dozen into the tiny X-ring in the center, but that was too little too late.

I found a bright spot in the day, though. Rangemaster Russ Timmons announced that the overall winner was Stephanie Howland of the New Hampshire Department of Corrections (DoC). I can remember when Steph started shooting the match, a few years ago. She was not happy with her finish the first time. Instead of just slinking away, as so many people do when their first competition doesn’t find them at the top of the list, she resolved to train harder. Each succeeding year, she placed higher and higher.

And this year, she placed top overall, the first time a female officer has done so in the history of the Association, to my knowledge. She also led a DoC sweep, with her colleagues Perkins and Snyder winning the championship team honors. Congratulations, Stephanie!

Stephanie Howland’s perseverance, focus, and determination make her a role model for both genders. All things considered, I’ll take the inspiration she gave us all to a trophy, any day. Inspirations are a lot harder to come by than trophies.

Spent 9mm casing flies from the SIG P226 pistol of Ernest Perkins as he leads his team to victory at the NH Police Association state shoot of 2008. Fellow Dept. of Corrections shooter Stephanie Howland won the individual shooting championship.