THE 2006 HERO OF THE YEAR

Jeff May is an Ojibwe Indian from Minnesota. Readers Digest named him the 2006 Hero of the Year. I had never heard of Jeff May until I opened a letter from a listener yesterday. My guess is that you have never heard of him either. Here's the story.

About two years ago a young male wearing a black trench coat walked into the Red Lake Senior High School in northern Minnesota. He was carrying not one, not two, but three guns. He started shooting and killed eight people, injuring seven more .... then Jeff May took action. A teacher? No ... Jeff May was a sophomore at Red Lack. Sixteen years old, perhaps 15. (Can't nail down his exact age). Jeff was doing algebra problems with a pencil when the shooter entered his classroom. After May saw what was happening he rushed the gunman ... armed only with the pencil. He stabbed the shooter in the side with the pencil and the two started struggling. Jeff May was shot in the face. By this time the police showed up, and the shooter killed himself. Jeff May's teacher, Missy Dodds, says he saved many of his classmates lives, and hers. Other news reports put the number of lives that Jeff May saved at a dozen. After the incident he spent a lengthy time in physical, occupational and speech therapy for his injuries.

Was Jeff May a hot-shot student athlete at Red Lake? Not known. His pictures show him to be a slightly pudgy teenager. What you can't see in those pictures is a heart the size of a basketball. Can you folks imagine this? Nothing like this could ever happen, right? Someone walks into a classroom blazing away with multiple guns, and a student -- a 16-year-old -- rushes him with a pencil? No .. this just has to be a work of Hollywood fiction. No teenager could possibly ever show such bravery. But it's not, and he did.

What happened here? Hard to say. Maybe Jeff May was raised in a culture where self-defense was praised rather than condemned. Maybe he was raised in a home with a strong father. Maybe his Ojimwe culture celebrates individualism.

Another question: Why haven't I heard of Jeff May before yesterday? We certainly get all of the gory details from every school shooting, and this Red Lake shooting in 2005 had been the worst since Columbine. Why wasn't Jeff May celebrated across this country? is it possible because his actions are politically incorrect in our current culture of government dependency?

And why is the idea of self-defense so unpopular with the left? Why, when someone acts to save their own life and the lives of others, do we invariably get some public official or politician warning us about the dangers of "taking the law into our own hands?" Remember, please, the leftist war against individualism. Self-defense is a uniquely individualist pursuit. There you are, an individual person, using deadly force to protect ... yourself! Don't you know that in this age of big-government that this is a job for the police!

About 20 legislators in South Carolina have now introduced legislation that would allow anyone in South Carolina with a concealed weapons permit to carry that weapon on a government school or college campus. The only other state in the union with such a law is Utah. Get this passed in South Carolina and you will make South Carolina school grounds among the safest in the nation. Liberals, however, are going to scream bloody murder. They will fight tooth and nail to defeat this measure .. and my guess is that they'll probably succeed.

Why is it that liberals hate the idea of an armed citizen so much? They can read the statistics just like we can. If they care to research the matter, they will learn that people with concealed carry permits simply do not commit gun crimes! So, the liberal opposition to citizens carrying guns simply cannot be excused over fears for general public safety. The facts simply don't bear those fears out. There has to be something else at work here, and there is. Liberals don't like armed individuals because they are .... individuals. Carrying a gun for self-defense is, as I said, a uniquely individual pursuit. It's a loud statement by an individual citizen saying "I own my life, and I have the right to take deadly action to defend it." The liberal believes that your life belongs to government, and that it is the government's job to protect it. Thank God Jeff May didn't buy it.

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Virginia Tells NYC to Stop Gun Stings

Attorney General Warns of Charges

Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell is warning New York to stop, by the summer, sending private agents into Virginia to look for illegal gun sales, saying that the agents could face legal action. Because of a Virginia law that goes into effect in July, New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (R) and his agents could be charged with a felony if they continue to target Virginia gun dealers with undercover sting operations, McDonnell said.

McDonnell (R) has sent Bloomberg what amounts to a cease-and-desist letter. "This was a courtesy letter to the mayor to advise him about a change in Virginia law of which he should be aware," McDonnell said Wednesday.

Bloomberg's spokesman, Jason Post, did not seem shaken: "We wish Attorney General McDonnell was as aggressive in enforcing the laws that prevent illegal guns from getting in the hands of criminals as he was in enforcing the laws that protect the gun lobby."

Convinced that illegal gun sales in Virginia contribute to violent crime in his city, Bloomberg has been arming private investigators with hidden cameras and sending them into Virginia gun stores to try to make illegal buys. The process involves "straw purchases," in which one person legally fills out a form and buys a gun for someone else. New York has filed suit against two dozen gun dealers over such practices, including six in Virginia.

In February, Town & Country Pawn Shop of Roanoke settled with New York and agreed to allow a special judge monitor their firearms sales. But several other dealers, including Bob Moate's Sports Shop in Richmond, are fighting the lawsuit in court. According to the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York police recovered 22 guns between 1994 and 2002, including some used in homicides, that they said were sold by at Bob Moate's. In March 2006, New York sent a man and woman into the store to confirm its suspicion that the store was making illegal gun sales. "Once the male investigator selected a gun and indicated a desire to purchase it, the female investigator, who had not been part of the discussion, approached the counter to make the purchase," the suit alleges. The woman filled out the required paperwork, but then the man came and paid cash for the gun, the suit says.

Richard Gardiner, the store's attorney, says his client has "no connection" to New York's gun violence. He also accuses the investigators of tricking his clients into making the sale. "If anything, these dealers are the victims," Gardiner said.

Gun rights groups are also furious, and in the spring they convinced the Republican-controlled General Assembly to intervene. The House and Senate overwhelmingly approved a law that says Virginia or federal law enforcement officials have to be present before such stings can be conducted. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) signed the law in March. "This new law strikes the proper balance between ensuring proper law enforcement and protecting the rights of law-abiding firearms dealers and those of Virginia citizens under the Second Amendment," McDonnell, a possible Republican candidate for governor in 2009, wrote to Bloomberg.

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Michigan delivery man shoots would-be robber: "A deadly shooting involving a pizza delivery man and a group of robbers has the delivery man in protective custody and police searching for one of his attackers. It happened at 10 p.m. Wednesday night at the intersection of Hammerberg Road and Stoney Brook Court on Flint's southwest side. Police say the driver tried to get out to make a delivery when one of the robbers hit him in the back of the head with a wrench. The delivery man recovered enough to grab his gun and fired several shots, hitting one of the robbers. He died near a street sign just feet from the front doors of some shocked neighbors. Police are still investigating, but here's what we've learned. The pizza delivery man claims self defense and is in protective custody. It's unclear if he'll face charges because it's simply too early in the investigation. As for the group of robbers, police are searching for one of them. One was arrested one soon after the attack... We did speak with the man who runs the Little Caesar's where the driver has worked for at least a year. He did not speak on camera, but said off camera that his drivers only carry about $25 or $30 at a time, and safety is a top and growing concern for their drivers."