Today John McCain issued this statement on the DC gun ban case:

Today, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on District of Columbia v. Heller, a landmark case for all Americans who believe as I do that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms. I am proud to have joined in an amicus brief to the Court calling for a ruling in keeping with the clear intent of our Founding Fathers, which ensures the Second Amendment rights of the residents of District of Columbia are reaffirmed.

An armed citizen surprised four men who robbed him at gunpoint last week.

After being ordered to his knees, Russel Olofson warned the men that "they should think about it," according to an Orlando police report released this week.

A private investigator with military training, Olofson, 24, told police the robbers snatched his cell phone and a wallet containing his concealed-weapon permit shortly before 10 p.m. Friday outside Ridge Club Apartments.

After the robbers took his items, Olofson stood up, drew his Springfield XD sub-compact 9 mm handgun "and fired two rounds toward male #1 with the silver handgun, possibly striking him," the report states. "Males #2, #3, and #4 then ran southeast . . . and male #1 ran northeast . . ."

Robert Pierce Jr. said he became suspicious when Cook, 22, of Easton, and Wright, 22, of Newark, N.J., who were walking behind him, picked up their pace and narrowed the gap as all three made their way to S. 11th Street about 5:30 p.m. Dec. 4. Pierce said he didn't know either man but knew something was wrong when he heard them call out ''Yo,'' or ''Hey.''

Cook, Pierce said, pulled out a handgun, which he pressed to Pierce's back, then his head, and both men warned him to be quiet and dragged him a short distance. ''That's when I took the chance and pulled my gun,'' Pierce testified Friday during a preliminary hearing before District Judge Michael Koury of Wilson.

Pierce said he fired into the air and Wright ran. Cook returned fire and, Pierce said, appeared to be positioning himself to shoot him. Pierce said he aimed for Cook's legs and squeezed off another round. Cook, who had been shot in the abdomen, took off running. Pierce yelled to a man who had come out of a nearby market to call for help, then he walked the short distance to his fiancee's mother's home on Lehigh Street and told her to call police...

''I decided I was gonna fight back,'' said Pierce, who has a permit to carry a concealed weapon. He was not charged with a crime.

"I saw him coming through the doors" and took cover, Assam said. "I came out of cover and identified myself and engaged him and took him down.""God was with me," Assam said. "I didn't think for a minute to run away."

Update: Jimbo's right. She's magnificent.

“She just started walking toward the gunman firing the whole way,” said Bourbonnais, who was shot in the arm. “She was just yelling ‘Surrender,’ walking and shooting the whole time.”

I'm here at the NRA conference and already, in one of the second speeches of the morning by Sen. John Thune, the Code Pinkers have disrupted the event.

A woman interrupted Thune's speech to scream "Don't Iraq Iran!" and "I won't stand for this" and all the other regular stuff. She didn't go for the stage though--once she stopped talking, she went straight for the television cameras in the back of the room.

It really went on for quite some time--I think the organizers were reluctant to use any kind of force. Several NRA members told her to "get the hell out" and booed.

Eventually she was pushed out, with pressure at her elbow, by several organizers.

All the media expects more to come.

John McCain is up now.

Not one, not two, but three Code Pinkers disrupted McCain's address this morning at the NRA conference.

A frail, female NRA member wrestled Mendea Benjamin (a co-founder of Code Pink) out of the sight of cameras-- and security took care of the other two.

After things stabilized  McCain told them: "We beat you last night, just like we'll beat you again and again"(not an exact quote). That got him a standing ovation.

The crack about last night is in reference to the Senate resolution to condemn MoveOn.org for their advertisement against General Petraeus--which passed overwhelmingly although Hillary Clinton opposed it and Barack Obama did not vote.

What if the Second Amendment is for real? Is it possible that it should it be revered, just like the First Amendment?...

Is it possible that the Second Amendment is not a quaint and antiquated remnant of a world that will never return, but an idea as relevant and sound today as when it was written?

Is it possible that we are not talking about the right of the government to form a militia when there is no standing army, but the right of the individual to defend himself, or herself, against both tyranny and lawlessness? Maybe we are talking about the right of self-defense -- the right of the individual to take up arms against a government that wants to oppress, be it foreign or domestic. And the right of the individual to defend himself against criminals, brutes, and barbarians when local police seem unable to stop them.

Might the Second Amendment matter almost as much as the First?

I think the answer is yes.

And just like the First, the Second is practical, newly relevant, and far wiser than the watered-down alternatives.

I don't think George Bush wants to impose martial law on his fellow citizens. But he has diluted habeas corpus. And he has enlarged Big Brother. You have to stop and think about a government that wants to control the thoughts and behavior of its people.

Should such a government be permitted to disarm them as well?

Dr. William A. Petit Jr., his head bloodied and legs bound, stumbled out of a rear basement door of his two-story home here into a pouring rain, calling the name of a neighbor for help.

The neighbor heard the shouting, but so did the two men inside the house, who peeked outside from an upstairs window. They were both serial burglars with drug habits, having racked up numerous convictions for stealing car keys and pocketbooks.

This time, they took something far more precious.

The men, the authorities say, had already strangled Dr. Petit’s wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and in short order would also kill the couple’s two daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11. The elder suspect, Steven J. Hayes, 44, had poured gasoline on the girls and their mother, according to a lawyer and a law enforcement official involved in the case, in hopes of concealing DNA evidence of sexual assault. He had raped Ms. Hawke-Petit, and his partner, Joshua Komisarjevsky, 26, had sexually assaulted Michaela.

Moments after Dr. Petit escaped, as the house was being surrounded by police officers, the men lighted the gasoline. The girls were tied to their beds but alive when the gas Mr. Hayes had spread around the house was set aflame.

Tired of the usual chicken dinners, the Manchester Republican Committee is planning to arm supporters next month with Uzis, M-16 rifles and other automatic weapons for a day of target practice at a Pelham firing range.

"The thought just struck me one day: a machine gun shoot. What the heck?" said Jerry Thibodeau, the committee chairman.

Thibodeau, who is himself a hunter and skeet shooter, pitched the Aug. 5 event as a fun social gathering, as well as a demonstration of the party's support for Second Amendment rights.

The concept prompted shudders across the political aisle. Chris Pappas, the city Democratic party chairman, called the event "not just in poor taste; it is downright offensive."