His Sculpture Triggers Meltdown by Gun Enthusiasts

Gun enthusiasts are taking aim at artist Tom Brennan’s work. Brennan has melted down more than 100 firearms confiscated by Seattle police to create a sculpture that will be mounted outside the King County police shooting range. John Hosford, executive director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and a retired police officer, criticized the artist for using weapons to create an image that “guns are bad.” “At least I’m taking some of these weapons out of circulation. I would like to take more,” the 37-year-old Seattle artist said of the sawed-off shotguns, handguns and other weapons in his sculpture. The $8,000 project was funded by the King County Arts Commission. King County police officer George Minnich, who oversees the property room where confiscated guns are stored, said all the weapons given to Brennan were unsafe or illegal and the law required them to be destroyed.

Lee Atwater is looking forward to a musical interlude away from his job as Republican National Committee chairman. The former rock band member is scheduled to play guitar with musical director Paul Shaffer and the World’s Most Dangerous Band tonight on NBC’s “Late Night With David Letterman.” “I’m just tickled to play with what I think is one of the tightest bands in America,” Atwater said. The group’s drummer, Anton Fig, played in a rock-and-blues concert Atwater organized for President Bush’s inauguration.

John O’Connor is often the subject of mistaken identity. When people hear that a U.S. Supreme Court justice is in their midst, they often walk up to O’Connor and tell him how pleased they are to meet him. His wife, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, shared that and other anecdotes about her experiences on the high court with the Louisiana State University Law Center Fellows at Nottoway Plantation near Baton Rouge. Justice O’Connor spent a day at the Law Center, where she talked with students and learned to eat Louisiana’s succulent seasonal specialty, crawfish. She said her nomination in 1981 to be the first woman on the Supreme Court was a surprise to her and she was not ready for the sudden fame. “The first year made me yearn for obscurity,” she said. “The press was there constantly.”