The Gazette-Enterprise

As jobs go, being a state district judge or a felony prosecutor are not the kind of positions where one should expect to make many friends.

Back in 1990, a man unhappy with the outcome of a child custody case walked into a local law firm and shot and wounded two lawyers, and stories of courthouse shootings — or shootings right outside the courthouse — are more common than many law enforcement officials would like.

Anybody considering such a visit to the office of 25th Judicial District Attorney Heather Hollub should think twice though.

All of Hollub’s legal team recently completed firearms training in preparation for acquiring concealed carry permits allowed to judges and felony prosecutors under a 2007 law.

Hollub said she wanted to thank the city of Seguin and Police Chief Kevin Kelso for arranging the training.

“We’re very appreciative of Chief Kelso,” Hollub said.

Kelso said the SPD was only too happy to help — particularly in light of the support it receives from Hollub’s office.

“We are always willing to help our partners in this profession,” Kelso said. “It’s sad that in this day all in the judicial system are needing to carry firearms, but it is a fact of life. Anything we can do to help facilitate other agency’s needs we will accommodate.”

To satisfy the requirements of the law, a prosecutor is required to receive no specialized training, but Hollub, approaching the end of her first year as district attorney, said she thought it would be good to schedule weapons training on safety grounds.

“Safety is the biggest issue for us,” said Hollub, whose office over the past 11 months has taken a stand with local police officers and sheriff’s deputies in an attempt to curtail gang-related violence in Seguin and Guadalupe County. “If people are going to carry, it’s their duty and responsibility to know how to handle the weapon properly.”

Not that there wasn’t already plenty of firearm proficiency in Hollub’s office with Investigators Frank Allenger and Johnny San Miguel, who were the top detectives in Gonzales and Seguin before going to work for Guadalupe County, and with First Assistant District Attorney Larry Bloomquist, who is a former soldier in the U.S. Army airborne corps.

Bloomquist said the firearms training provided by Seguin Police Detective Sgt. and firearms instructor Mike McCann was much different than that offered by the military.

“The military teaches combat techniques,” Bloomquist said. “This training is more toward situations we’re likely to encounter in the city or at work.”

The training included proficiency training, weapon maintenance and training in how to keep the weapon from ending up in the hands of a criminal.

Included was quite a bit of shooting, which Hollub and McCann noted the attorneys showed quite a bit of aptitude for.

One of them, Assistant District Attorney Nan Udell, got a perfect score of 250 points shooting at police silhouette targets. Others in the office came within five or so points of Udell’s perfect score, but nobody was interested in telling the public who could shoot what and how fast.

“We’ll just keep that to ourselves,” Hollub said.

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