Historic on many counts, Sen. Obama’s speech accepting the Democratic nomination can be read here.

As part of a comprehensive address of America’s problems and his proposed solutions, Sen. Obama also spoke directly to the post-Heller gun debate in America:

…The — the reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than they are for those plagued by gang violence in Cleveland, but don’t tell me we can’t uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals.

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A discussion of whether we can have common-sense gun laws in America has officially been entered into the race for President.

We’ll update with video tomorrow.

Update (9:30am, 8/29):

Watch the video here:

No, the dog isn’t psychic.

His owner is just a little too susceptible to canine influence when a gun is around.

In the Tallequa Daily Press:

A self-inflicted gunshot wound suffered Tuesday night by a Qualls man is being ruled accidental.

Randal McGowen, 43, was treated for injuries after shooting himself in the right leg above the knee. The round exited in the inner thigh area and was fired with a .22-caliber pistol. McGowen said a family dog jumped into his lap, causing him to pull the trigger.

Remember: guns don’t shoot people in the leg, the dogs of “law-abiding gun owners” do.

What were these adults thinking?

Clearly, they weren’t thinking at all.

From the Beaver County Times:

… [State Police Cpl. Robert P.] Cogley issued a press release stating that the boy, Trey Rosenberger Gordon, spent the weekend with his mother and three adults at a camp off Swedetown Road in Spring Creek Township.

The mother was identified as Jessica A. Rosenberger of Monaca in the boy’s obituary in Wednesday’s Times.

The press release stated that around 11 a.m., Rosenberger and her companions were in the kitchen and dining room preparing breakfast. Trey walked into the living room, where a loaded .44-caliber Magnum revolver rested on top of a chair.

He climbed up the chair, grabbed the pistol and shot himself in the forehead, the press release said.

Rosenberger rushed the boy to Med Express, a hospital in nearby Ridgway. He was pronounced dead at 12:47 p.m.

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Adults who make the risky decision to keep a gun with children close by have a grave responsibility to keep that weapon unloaded and locked away.

According to this report, the adults in little Trey’s life did not fulfill that responsibility, and now a child is dead because of it.

This would be a Stupid Gun Trick were it not for the obvious domestic violence subtext to the story.

In the Chambersburg (Pennsylvania) Public Opinion:

Police say a Lurgan Township man accidentally shot himself after an argument with his wife escalated. Pennsylvania State Police, Chambersburg, said that Nathan Runk, 23, 11042 Roxbury Road, loaded a rifle during an argument with his wife on Aug. 11 around 1:45 a.m. and then slipped and fell.

The rifle slipped partially out of his hands, causing him to accidentally fire the gun and injure his face.

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The system failed Dorene Seidl.

According to this report, not only did a judge deny Seidl’s plea for a domestic violence restraining order against her husband – who reportedly had a history of domestic violence and suicidal threats – but authorities also allowed him to keep his firearms.

Yet a week after Seidl told a judge she was “afraid of him and what he could do,” her husband allegedly shot her to death.

He reportedly also had a concealed carry permit, which in the eyes of some automatically makes him a “law-abiding gun owner.”

He would be at least the seventh concealed carry permit-holder to be charged with murder since July 5.

In the Louisville Courier-Journal:

Earlier this month, Dorene Seidl claimed in a domestic violence petition that her husband, William Seidl, threatened to commit suicide on Aug. 5 and asked her, “Do you want to go with me?” before pulling out a gun.

In her petition, filed in Jefferson Family Court, Dorene Seidl said she had previously removed the bullets from her husband’s gun and, after he tried to get the bullets back, she walked to her daughter’s home and had her call the police.

“In the past, he has put a gun to my head and I knew what he was building his way up to,” Dorene Seidl said in her petition, filed Aug. 7.

But she said police told her William Seidl had a permit for the gun, so there was nothing she could do.

…

In an interview today, [Judge Joseph] O’Reilly said that his prayers are with the Seidl family. O’Reilly said that after listening to an hour of testimony last week, hearing from both of the Seidls and a witness, he could not find by a “preponderance of the evidence,” as required by state law, that domestic violence had occurred.

“I had no legal basis to issue a domestic violence order and I did not,” he said.

Police say that after Dorene Seidl was shot William Seidl, 68, barricaded himself in the home, creating a nearly four-hour standoff with police Monday night.

Dorene Seidl was pronounced dead at the scene about 8 p.m., once the standoff ended, Robinson said. Her husband was charged with one count of murder.

A police citation says that when authorities arrived at Seidl’s residence, he told them that he shot his wife. He also said that they had been having problems and that she came to the house to get personal items when the shooting occurred.

Before the shooting Monday, there had been four previous police runs to the home, police said.

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