Just remember what Benjamin Franklin said when the Constitutional Convention wound up. A woman wanted to know what kind of government that courageous, far-sighted group had created.

"A Republic, if you can keep it," Dr. Franklin said.

And we´re still trying to keep it.

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Yesterday Missouri Gov. Bob Holden vetoed the legislature-passed concealed handgun license bill, as expected, setting up a fierce fight in the September Veto Session.

There clearly are enough votes to overturn the veto in the House, but one more vote is needed in the Senate, chief sponsor Rep. Larry Crawford said. So keep those calls and letters going in, Missourians -- and those of you who often travel to or through Missouri.

The bill that would allow people 23 and older who have taken handgun training courses to apply to their county sheriffs for permits. The bill also allows anyone 21 or older to conceal guns in the passenger compartment of a vehicle without a permit.

The veto came two days after a Jefferson City man walked into his workplace, killed three people and wounded five others. Rep. Crawford pointed out that even the security guard wasn´t armed, so the killer had taken advantage of another "gun-free environment" that created a safe place for him to maim and murder.

Early national reports didn´t say anything about the kind of gun so I figured it was a garden variety firearm -- not some "dangerous assault weapon." Correct. It was a .40 Glock.

But the antis will have a hook. The gun had belonged to the Missouri Highway Patrol, had been traded in and legally sold by a dealer (who performed the background check). You can expect it to bring another push to prohibit law enforcement from trading in or selling confiscated guns.

[This morning I heard that Gov. Holden said the state police gun trade-in policy would be reviewed -- as expected.]

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Delaware closed its legislative session Monday after passing a bill to establish a reciprocity system to recognize carry licenses from other states.

In California, this week´s hearing on banning .50 BMG rifles and ammo was canceled at the request of the sponsor, but it´s been reset for next Tuesday.

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Another request to the U.S. Supreme Court to consider a Second Amendment case was filed yesterday. This one challenges the particularly outrageous Ninth Appellate Court ruling slamming both the Justice Department and the Fifth Circuit Court´s Emerson decision that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual (though limited) right.

Given the Supreme Court´s refusal to hear any Second Amendment case since 1939, including Dr. Timothy Emerson´s appeal of his case -- allowing him to be tried and sentenced to prison for passive possession of guns in his home while under a restraining order -- it is doubtful that they will grant certiorari.

But given the recent decisions of the Supreme Court - which found rights that cannot be found in the Constitution - I am not comfortable with how this Court would rule on any Second Amendment case.

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The United Nations is having another Small Arms (including ours) and Light Weapons (crew-served) conference July 7-11. We´ll see efforts to control "illegal trafficking" in military stuff, primarily, but there will be efforts, again, to reach into private ownership.

French President Jacques Chirac is pushing a "global tax on private gun purchases" administered by the U.N. which would fund help to the poor of war-ravaged nations. The proposal came from Brazil´s President Lula, who pitched it at last month´s G-8 conference, which President Bush attended.

The global gun tax has been met with a lot of oohs and aahs from the U.N. bureaucracy, which would like nothing better than to tax guns. They have yearned for any direct U.N. tax that would give them direct control of the world´s citizenry -- going around governments.

What better way than hammering hated guns to establish the precedent they want?

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[Immediately after completing this, and sending it out (I thought), Jay, our son Jeff and I went to the Leadership Institute´s 32nd Annual National Conservative 4th of July Soiree -- a great party sponsored by a great outfit which has trained countless conservative leaders. Last night we went to a dinner and ice cream supper at the LI Building in Alexandria, then watched the D.C. Mall Fireworks show from the roof.

[It was fireworks in stereo, for equally grand displays were lighting up the sky a few miles to the south and the north. And as we headed back toward Manassas, traffic on Interstate 66 came to a halt just inside the Beltway, as all us fireworks viewers saw another immense display right beside the highway -- so close that the booms shook the car.

[I was reminded of what John Adams, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and later our second President, wrote his wife Abigail of that First Independence Day: "I believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be celebrated by pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other..."