Saddam Hussein's Pistol Featured by President George W. Bush Library

Jan. 7, 2011— -- The 9 mm Glock pistol former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein held in his lap when he was captured by American troops in 2003 is now on display at the site of George W. Bush's future presidential library.

The gun sits in the "Capturing Key Moments" display case at the Dallas exhibit, which closes February 6th.

A new video released by the museum shows President Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush describing several artifacts, including some related to his visit to Ground Zero in New York just days after the September 11th attacks in 2001.

"I walked into what felt like Hell," Bush said of the experience, when he climbed atop a fire engine that had been crushed in the collapse of the World Trade Center towers. He used a bullhorn to shout a message of encouragement to the haggard first responder teams.

"I can hear you," he hollered, as the teams began to cheer. "The rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon."

The bullhorn is now mounted front and center in the display case beside a frame holding Saddam Hussein's black pistol, confiscated during the early-morning raid called "Operation Red Dawn," which involved more than 600 troops. Saddam was found hiding in a small underground bunker.

Those two artifacts have drawn not only visitors but protests to the future site of the Bush Institute on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

"I hope that a bullhorn will not become the symbol for the entry of the United States into an unjustified war, and that a pistol of Saddam Hussein's is not seen as some strange symbol of victory in that horrendous misjudgment," said Tex Sample, a Methodist Church elder who opposed the selection of the site.

The Bush Institute calls all of the treasures on display "historic artifacts" which help define the Bush presidency.