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.