[blindlaw] interesting story

Fri May 18 15:05:56 CDT 2007

great Dane!? I've NEVER heard of a Dane being used as a guide dog, but I'd 
want one!  Lurch.  That's great.. "yyyyyyyou rang." heh   Guy's a jerk; take 
his dog away and give it to me! *grin*
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kathleen Hagen" <khagen12 at earthlink.net>
To: "NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List" <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, May 18, 2007 12:48 PM
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] interesting story

> Speaking of guide dogs or service animals, Minnesota has really hit the 
> big
> time this week.  A blind man was arrested for domestic assault and trying 
> to
> interrupt the victim from making a 911 call.  Nice guy, right?  Well he 
> was
> arrested and taken to Ramsey County jail apparently with his guide dog in
> tow.  His dog is a great dane named Lurch.  The jail administrators 
> weren't
> very happy having Lurch there and so forbade him keeping the dog in jail
> with him.  I'm just waiting for him to show up at the disability law 
> center
> wanting to file a discrimination suit.  I just know it will happen.  Since
> I'm not doing civil rights ADA work now, thank heavens, it won't be my 
> case!
> Kathy Hagen
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Robert Munro" <r.g.munro at gmail.com>
> To: "'NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List'" <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Friday, May 18, 2007 8:24 AM
> Subject: Re: [blindlaw] interesting story
>
>
>> I'm going to mount a turret atop my guide dog.  Something mostly
>> unidirectional [like a W W one tank cannon] but with a motion picture
>> motion control stabilizer [called a "mo co" in the trade] to alleviate
>> bouncy dog movement and perhaps also a heat-seeking fine-tune aim
>> correction system --the whole able to be operated with a handy remote
>> control device.  Just gotta make SURE that the remote control radio
>> frequency is nowhere near other devices' frequencies or else occasional
>> accidental signal crossover could open up a liability situation.
>>
>> Onward!
>>
>> Rob & Pilaf
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>> Behalf Of Craig Anderson
>> Sent: Friday, May 18, 2007 8:44 AM
>> To: NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: [blindlaw] interesting story
>>
>> 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 â€“ 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)
>>>
>>> CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This message may contain confidential and
>>> privileged
>>> information. If you are not the designated recipient, you may not read,
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>>> This
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>>>
>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>
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>>
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