[blindlaw] interesting story

[Craig Anderson]

Kathy,

Well said

Craig.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kathleen Hagen" <khagen12 at earthlink.net>
To: "NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List" <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 10:02 PM
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] interesting story


> Well, I feel I must respond to this for a variety of reasons.  First of 
> all,
> I was born and, more or less raised, in North Dakota.  North Dakotans are
> self sufficient above all else.  In fact, right now they have legislation
> pending, I hear, or maybe it's passed by now, which would exempt anyone 
> who
> shot someone in their own house in self defense from having to prove any
> fault.
>
> I live in Minnesota, and we have a love-hate relationship with gun control
> here.  I personally think anyone carrying a gun around can be a risk to
> others.  I certainly would include a blind man in that category!
>
> When I went to the South Dakota School for the Blind, (yes I went to 
> school
> in South Dakota although I was from North Dakota, but that's a story for
> another day) we got rifle training one year.  It was considered so
> scandalous in the '60's that we made it onto the Paul Harvey Radio News.
> The deal was that a policeman in Aberdeen thought that since policemen had
> to learn to shoot in the dark, that blind people could shoot, and the dark
> wouldn't impede them.  Of course, they set up classes.  No one asked 
> whether
> or not we should have shooting lessons.  The only tentative protest was
> against girls getting the training.  Of course that meant I argued
> vociferously for it.  So we trained with a .22 one-shot rifle.  At first,
> someone would stand behind each of us and tell us "move a little to the
> right, to the left, etc." to try to line us up with the target.  They
> thought maybe we would kinesthetically get used to where we should be
> holding the gun to shoot.  When that didn't work, they took an oscillator
> like you'd use for ham radio to send Morse code, and placed that behind 
> the
> target.  We were supposed to try to shoot the bulls eye by hearing the 
> beep.
> Our training took place in the bus garage, and there were too many echoes 
> to
> make that work very well.  So finally they came up with headphones that 
> were
> hooked to some kind of sonar beam.  This was about the time when they were
> introducing sonar canes, etc., so this was the new kind of gimmick. 
> Finally
> it worked.  When we were lined up perfectly, the tone would change, and 
> we'd
> know we could shoot.  I even got a sharp shooter's award for the girls 
> side.
> So, I always tell people, if a burglar comes to my house, and if I have a
> .22, and if I can get the one bullet at a time loaded in time, and if I 
> have
> sonar earphones to put on in order to hear the tone to know where to shoot
> to hit the burglar, and if he/she stands in the right place, then a gun
> might be useful to me.
> Kathy Hagen
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Scott C. LaBarre" <slabarre at labarrelaw.com>
> To: "NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List" <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 2:48 PM
> Subject: [blindlaw] interesting story
>
>
>
>
> StarTribune.com
> Blind man finds bias in denial of gun permit
> A North Dakota man who says he would only use the gun for self-defense at
> close range
> couldn't get a permit in Moorhead.
> By
> David Peterson
> , Star Tribune
> Last update: May 15, 2007 – 9:52 PM
> A North Dakota man who is styling himself as "America's first sightless
> gunslinger"
> is claiming to be the victim of discrimination because Minnesota won't 
> give
> a blind man a permit to carry a gun in public. Carey McWilliams, 33, of
> Fargo
> says he carries one anyway when he crosses the state line because his Utah
> permit is accepted in Minnesota. But he isn't sure that will
> always be so. Any use he would make of his gun, he said, would be a 
> response
> to an assault and wouldn't put anyone other than his attacker in jeopardy.
> "It would be self-defense,
> at point-blank range, with ammo that doesn't go any further than the
> assailant," McWilliams said Tuesday.
> In neighboring Moorhead, Minn., Clay County Sheriff Bill Bergquist said he
> didn't feel he had a choice but to deny the permit application.
> "I had to sign something saying he could 'safely' whatever, and I felt I
> couldn't  say that of someone who's legally blind," Bergquist said. "The
> shooting
> he's done in the past was with the help of someone. When confronted, he
> won't have that help.
> "... The application states that a person should be able to show 
> proficiency
> on the firing range and a proficiency of the weapons," he said. "That's 
> the
> issue.
> McWilliams, who says he was forced to act as his own attorney for 
> financial
> reasons, hopes to stir up help before a one-year window for appeal 
> expires.
> He has appealed for help from organizations such as Legal Aid and the
> American Civil Liberties Union, to no avail. Even if his appeal rights
> expire, he
> said, he would consider filing his own discrimination case.
> He said he has concealed-carry permits from North Dakota as well as Utah.
> States vary quite a lot in how demanding they are of people seeking 
> permits,
> he said, but he insists he can legitimately pass a marksmanship test.
> How can he see to shoot when he can't see?
> "That's the deal!" he exclaimed. "I sight in via sound, gravity, body
> position."
>
> Scott C. LaBarre, Esq.
>
> LaBarre Law Offices P.C.
> 1660 South Albion Street, Ste. 918
> Denver, Colorado 80222
> 303 504-5979 (voice)
> 303 757-3640 (fax)
> slabarre at labarrelaw.com (e-mail)
> www.labarrelaw.com (website)
>
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