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There's no time like the present to take a Second Amendment case
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Now, I presume, the votes are present. Paul Clement has gift wrapped a cert petition with a bow for the Justices to review. NYS Rifle & Pistol Association II would present a simple question: "Whether the Second Amendment allows the government to prohibit ordinary law-abiding citizens from carrying handguns outside the home for self-defense." Answering this question, yes or no, would settle so much ongoing litigation. The case will be distributed for the March 26, 2021 conference. Keeping with past practice, the Court generally relists a petition once before granting. Thus, on April 1, the Court will decide whether to take this case. |
Supreme Court to discuss case that could expand Second Amendment rights
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When Supreme Court justices meet behind closed doors Friday, a conference that comes three days after the country's latest mass shooting, they are scheduled to discuss whether to add a blockbuster issue to the docket for next term: the scope of the Second Amendment.
The court has largely dodged the issue since issuing two landmark opinions in 2008 and 2010, when it held for the first time that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to keep and bear arms at home for self- defense.
Gun rights advocates and even some of the justices themselves have expressed frustration that the court has declined to further define the scope of the right as lower courts across the country have upheld restrictions. |
HI: Court: 'General' open carry not guaranteed by 2nd Amendment
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Hawaii’s strict limit on openly carrying firearms is lawful, a panel of federal appeals court judges ruled Wednesday in a lawsuit by a man who tried unsuccessfully several times to obtain a license to carry a loaded gun in public.
George Young’s lawyer said he will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. “We are hopeful the Supreme Court will grant review in Mr. Young's case,” attorney Alan Beck said.
Young wants to carry a gun for self-defense and says that not being able to do so violates his rights. His 2012 lawsuit was dismissed, with a judge siding with officials who said the Second Amendment only applied to guns kept in homes. |
SD: Governor Noem Signs Multiple Pro-Gun Bills into Law
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This past week and weekend, Governor Kristi Noem signed multiple pro-gun and self-defense bills into law. These important measures work to further strengthen and protect the Second Amendment right to self-defense in the Mount Rushmore State. Those measures enacted are outlined below:
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House Bill 1212 clarifies the use of force under South Dakota’s Stand Your Ground laws. The bill enhances your right to self-defense by strengthening and explaining when justifiable force can be used in defense of person and property, so long as the individual is not engaging in an unlawful activity and is in a place they’re allowed to be. |
MD: Make buying a gun as difficult as driving a car
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I remember well a commentary in The Baltimore Sun by a Maryland gun owner after the mass murdering of over 50 individuals in Las Vegas in 2017. He wrote how he thought “it should be more difficult to buy a gun than to drive a car, yet there’s a lot more hardship involved in getting a driver’s license.”
Maybe part of the issue is that in the discourse over gun rights and gun control in everyday conversations and in the rhetoric in legislative debates, gun rights are seldom defined — often an unfettered abstraction with no concrete referent. That way gun rights are opened-ended and beyond reproach. |
CO: Colorado Springs gun shop owner says mental health and other resources needed to combat mass shootings
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Longtime Colorado Springs gun store owner Paul Paradis was sick to hear about the mass shooting Monday afternoon that killed 10 people at a King Soopers in Boulder.
Alleged gunman Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 21, of Arvada, purchased a Ruger AR-556 pistol less than a week before the shooting. Paradis wasn’t surprised to hear that a semiautomatic firearm was used in the shooting, saying there are millions of AR-15-style firearms across America.
“Millions of people use them for hunting, enjoyment and self-defense,” he said. “I’m really tired of the broad-based attacks on people that have no ill will and have never done any harm.” |
ND: How much is right to bear arms worth?
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If there's a magic number, what would yours be?
If you are a gun-rights advocate and you believe the Constitution's Second Amendment gave individual citizens the right to carry any type of gun or "Arms," then I really want to know: How many deaths will it take for you to support tighter regulations or a ban on certain types of assault weapons? And what's your point of measure?
If it's a total number of deaths by gun violence each year that would convince you, how many deaths would that need to be? |
UT: Maybe it’s time to rethink the Second Amendment
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There comes a point where the “thoughts and prayers” offered by policymakers and those in positions of influence and authority becomes dangerously close to taking the Lord’s name in vain. As a Christian I believe in prayer. I also believe in action, as the Bible says in the book of James: “Faith without works is dead.” There is something deeply problematic about offering thoughts and prayers after every mass shooting while refusing to take the necessary actions that will save lives. |
Natural Law
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Under the “contract” government’s authority is limited to those narrow functions. When a government exceeds its limited role under the “contract” those who created it have the natural right to void the contract and change the government. That’s what we did in 1776, and we retain the natural right to do so again. The Second Amendment secures our ability to exercise that right.
That is the essence of limited government based on natural law from Aristotle down through the Iroquois Confederation and our own revolution against England. Natural law, and the rights derived from it, are not a grant from government. They supersede government, which has no legitimate authority to infringe them. Our whole concept of government is based on that idea |
PA: Defense: Victim's violent past aided acquittal for self-defense in 2019 Erie fatal shooting
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An acquittal has ended an Erie homicide trial that included evidence of "smack talk," the defendant's fear of dogs and the victim's history of violence.
A jury deliberated for about 3 hours and 20 minutes on Wednesday before announcing that they had found 36-year-old Jonathan Outlaw not guilty of all seven charges, including homicide and aggravated assault, in the death of Duane E. Buckner, 37, in Outlaw's apartment at West 24th and Liberty streets in Erie on the morning of Oct. 31, 2019.
Outlaw shot Buckner once each in the hip and back. Outlaw argued self-defense. |
NE: Increased gun interest not uncommon after mass shootings
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It’s something BigShots owner Jim Clark has seen before.
A wave of people coming to his gun range following a mass shooting, wanting to learn more about self-defense.
“We do,” Clark said. “This tragedy out in Colorado, with the number of loss of lives, where it happened, where anybody in the U.S.A could have been there. That gets people thinking that maybe they need to protect themselves.”
Firearm safety instructor Mike Mettscher says the first thing people interested in exploring firearm training should do is learn about gun laws in their state. |
NC: Sheriff's Office trying to keep up with demand as gun permit requests spike
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People attempting to obtain gun permits in Gaston County and Mecklenburg County are facing weeks, even months, of delays as demand for permits continue to surge into the spring.
The Gaston County Sheriff's Office is paying its employees overtime, and adjusting operating hours to cope with the demand for permits.
"People get upset when it's an extended time," Assistant Chief Deputy Mike Radford said. "They call up here numerous times, and they just want [the permit]. They don't see the increase and the steady numbers." |
TN: Mid-South lawmakers weigh in on gun legislation
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As the country mourns another mass shooting in Colorado, lawmakers in Washington are once again confronting calls for gun reform.
“This should not be a partisan issue, it will save lives, American lives, and we have to act,” said President Joe Biden.
On Tuesday, Biden called on the Senate to pass two bills the House recently approved that change background check laws.
The first bill would require background checks on nearly all gun purchases, including transactions involving unlicensed or private sellers. The other bill would aim to close the “Charleston loophole,” which allows the sale of a firearm to proceed if a background check isn’t completed within three days, by expanding the review period to 10 days. |
OR: Anti-Gun Bill Expected to Receive a Vote in the Senate Tomorrow
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The Senate Judiciary has approved anti-self-defense legislation, Senate Bill 554. The measure now heads to the Senate floor for a full chamber vote. The measure is expected to receive a vote as early as tomorrow, and your State Senator needs to hear from you now!
Senate Bill 554 will create new "gun-free zones" by giving authority to local governments, universities, and airports to prohibit concealed carry permit holders from carrying in local government buildings, colleges and universities (including their grounds), and airports (and grounds "adjacent" to all of these locations). |
DE: Magazine Ban & Handgun Licensing Bills Being Filed
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Draft bills are currently being circulated to restrict magazine capacities and require a license to obtain handguns. In addition, last week, House Bill 124 was introduced, to strip Second Amendment rights without due process.
House Bill 124 goes beyond federal law to strip individuals of their Second Amendment rights without due process. Among other things, it prohibits subjects of an outstanding arrest warrant, active indictment, or information for felonies or misdemeanor domestic violence, even for nonviolent offenses, from purchasing firearms. There is no process to notify someone that they have an arrest warrant against them until police act on the warrant. |
New mass shootings reveal old divisions
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California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein came to Tuesday’s hearing on gun control legislation 27 years after leading the passage of a federal assault weapons ban, 17 years since it was allowed to lapse, and the day after such a weapon was used in a mass shooting at a Colorado grocery store that left 10 dead, including a police officer.
“These things are not going to stop, members. They’re just not,” Feinstein told her colleagues on the Judiciary Committee. “I’ve sat here for a quarter of a century listening. They don’t stop. And if you give people the ability to easily purchase a weapon that can be devastating to large numbers of people, some of them will use that.” |
President Biden, Champion the Second Amendment To Both Unite and Make America Safe Again
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As one eminent historian states: “Well-regulated in the 18th century tended to be something like well-organized, well-armed, well-disciplined.” The way to Make America Safe Again,while uniting all but the lunatic fringes of the body politic is by taking more, not less, seriously the full Second Amendment.
President Biden! By restoring well-regulated militias you can create Constitutionally pristine mechanisms, in keeping them well regulated, to keep guns out of the hands of those dangerous to public safety … while putting them securely into the hands of the rest of us. The U.S. Army is not required to and does not accept those with criminal histories or psychological problems. The militias won’t either. |
Review: FN 509 LS Edge Pistol
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What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the name of the company FN America? Well, for some, it’s the FN FAL. Others might think of the M249 SAW. Perhaps you’re a science-fiction fan and the futuristic P90 is what jumps out at you, with its top-mounted, sideways-loading magazine. For handguns, purists will point out that Fabrique Nationale is engraved on the slides of countless Hi Powers, but for the bulk of folks, that will indelibly be linked to Browning, for obvious, albeit not entirely correct reasons. Point is, when it comes to handguns, FN is probably not the first company that comes to mind. |
Sebastian Bach and Dee Snider Call for Gun Control Reform Following Mass Shootings
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The exchange started when Snider responsed to a four-week old tweet by U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado, a staunch Second Amendment supporter. In the widely shared tweet, Boebert wrote, “The people who think we need more gun control are the same people who think the ‘AR’ in ‘AR-15’ stands for assault rifle.” Snider, quote-tweeting Boebert’s tweet and adding his own commentary, said, “I thought it stood for ‘You AR a fucking idiot!’ – sincerely, Dee Snider. Proud gun owner, 2nd amendment advocate AND BELIEVER IN INTELLIGENT GUN CONTROL!!! If you need an AR-15 for self defense…you are a terrible shot.” |
MN: Freedom Fighters provide security to Minneapolis Black community
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Armed with AR-15 rifles and sporting bulletproof vests, members of the Minnesota Freedom Fighters (MNFF), a Black self-defense group formed after the death of George Floyd, describe themselves as a "bridge" between the police and the African-American community.
"We're trying to show the world that we can protect our people also with arms and weapons and be trustworthy," Randy Chrisman, a 30-year-old MNFF member, told AFP.
"Basically we want to change the narrative of Black people carrying weapons," said Chrisman, who has been patrolling Minneapolis since last summer, when Floyd died while being arrested by a white police officer. |
IA: New gun laws gut permit, education requirements
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Last week the Iowa House passed – on pretty much party lines – House File 756, which makes several changes to Iowa’s gun laws.
Among many other things, HF756 gets rid of mandatory background checks for private handgun sales and the requirement that Iowans obtain a “permit to carry” from their local sheriff’s office in order to legally carry a loaded handgun in public.
These two changes to current law will result in way fewer background checks and thus more guns in the hands of people who are legally barred from possessing guns, and also more guns in the hands of people who have zero knowledge about Iowa’s laws governing legal justification – which is why I voted no on the bill. |
Review: Heritage Barkeep Single Action .22
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Introduced earlier this year, the American-made Barkeep from Georgia-based Heritage Manufacturing is an inexpensive and convertible single-action rimfire revolver that is a lot of fun to shoot.
An homage to the chopped down Sheriff's Model and Storekeeper variants of the Colt Single Action Army, the Barkeep runs a 2.68-inch barrel while keeping a near full-sized grip. The short length deletes the traditional onboard ejection rod but gives the gun a kind of old-school snub-nosed look to it. |
White House: Biden not weighing Second Amendment
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US President Joe Biden is not considering any changes to the constitutional amendment that protects the rights of Americans to bear arms, the White House said on Wednesday.
Biden is currently weighing executive action on gun control and has urged lawmakers to pass legislation tightening access to guns after the US suffered its second mass shooting in as many weeks.
But as he weighs his options, spokeswoman Jen Psaki said "no one is talking about overturning or changing the Second Amendment." |
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