Packing a powerful pen and, sometimes, packing heat

Fort Worth lawyer Jim Hryekewicz (pictured) can lay claim to being on the winning side of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling. McDonald, et al. v. City of Chicago, et al. struck down one of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation, and Hryekewicz represented more than 40 state gun clubs that sent in an amicus brief in that case. Hryekewicz has another distinction: He makes part of his living carrying a gun. He served as a police officer with the city of Benbook before he went to law school and still works there as a cop part time. He respects the SecondAmendment, even while doing a job that puts him danger from people who are exercising their right to bear arms. “I went into law enforcement with my eyes wide open, knowing that there were limitations on what I could do and there were rights that people I encountered could have,” says Hryekewicz, a partner in Fort Worth’s Blaies & Hightower. “Guns are an instrumentality that can be used for bad purposes . . .  just like alcohol, automobiles, or if we go back to Cain and Abel, a stone.”
--- John Council