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AK: Rewritten deadly force bill clears first committee
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A rewritten bill expanding the right to use deadly force in self-defense cleared its first committee Monday. That's over the objection of the Department of Law, which maintains it will encourage unnecessary violence.
Current law authorizes use deadly force in self-defense to stop a few specific crimes, including robbery, sexual assault, kidnapping and murder. But if someone can safely withdraw, he's obligated to do so. That duty to retreat doesn't apply at home or the workplace.
Rep. Mark Neuman, a Republican from Big Lake, is the sponsor. His bill essentially eliminates the duty to retreat. |
TX: East Texas militia member has been in 'self-imposed prison' for a decade
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More than a decade after the constitutional militia movement went back to the American political underground, the 60-year-old carpenter remains holed up along the muddy Trinity River.
Gray, his sons and an undetermined number of women and children haven't left their 47-acre farm in 10 years, fearful that Gray will be sent to prison for assaulting a state trooper.
It was self-defense, Gray says, claiming the traffic stop that led to his arrest was a setup by political enemies.
Law enforcement has waited him out for a decade, making no attempts to confront him. That's because Gray told authorities he won't be taken alive. He has threatened to shoot anyone who tries to arrest him. |
WI: Wisconsin Carry Inc Appoints Joseph Louis Olson to Board of Directors
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Wisconsin Carry, Inc. is pleased to announce that Joseph Louis Olson, has been appointed to our Board of Directors. Mr.
Olson is a trial attorney and a member of the Litigation Practice Group of Michael Best & Friedrich LLP. Mr. Olson’s talents have been recognized by his inclusion in Milwaukee Magazine’s list of “Rising Stars” in 2006, 2008 and 2009.
Inclusion on this list is limited to the top 2.5% of Wisconsin Attorneys under the age of 40. Mr. Olson’s principled legal expertise will be a valuable asset to Wisconsin Carry, our membership, and the carry rights of law-abiding Wisconsin gun owners. Founded in 1848, Mr. Olson’s firm Michael Best & Friedrich has a reputation as a leading law firm in the Midwest. |
Obama hasn't followed through on one promise - gun control
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Earlier this month, I was interviewed by a reporter from Politico regarding Barack Obama's recent White House chat with John Walsh of America's Most Wanted. During their tet-a-tet video-op, the President endorsed the notion of expanding the federal DNA data base to include biological samples from all persons arrested, regardless of offense and regardless of subsequent findings of guilt or innocence.
As an aside, I expressed my disappointment that the President had not followed through with his own campaign pledge to repeal restrictions on another important federal data base--one which traces guns connected to criminal activity back their first retail sale. |
ID: Senate approves made-in-Idaho gun law
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The Idaho Senate approved legislation that would tell the federal government it couldn’t regulate firearms made entirely in Idaho. The plan heads back to the House for approval, due to several changes made by the Senate Monday. The plan’s original House sponsors said the legislation is modeled after similar laws in other states and intended to raise a constitutional challenge to the federal government’s oversight of business between states.
The Idaho Firearms Freedom Act is one of several plans approved by Idaho lawmakers pushing back against federal control. “We’ve given up, as citizens and states, a tremendous amount of freedom,” said Sen. Monty Pearce, R-New Plymouth. |
Is God Necessary for a People Trained to Arms?
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Mark A. Taff
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Certainly many atheists lead great and good lives and make fine, upstanding, armed citizens. (I’m no theologian but I believe Ayn Rand, who died in 1982, is no longer an atheist; she’s up there somewhere and God has probably allowed her to rename it “Galt’s Gulch,” or at least “God’s Gulch.”) I just disagree that atheism works on a grand scale to encourage values we need in a free society. I believe this is why communists sought to destroy religion and family. In talking with people about armed self-defense, it’s amazing how frequently I hear: “I’m afraid I would shoot someone.” I usually take this kind of statement to mean they are afraid of shooting an innocent person... |
DC: More women may be turning to firearms
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American women are buying guns and taking aim on firing ranges in growing numbers, according to a recent study and interviews with gun-shop owners.
A 2009 study found 70 percent of shop owners reported more female buyers.
The study, conducted by the National Shooting Sports Foundation and Southwick Associates, also found 80 percent of the female gun-buyers who responded said they purchased a gun for self-defense, followed by 35 percent for target practice and 24 percent for hunting. |
Is Violence Never Necessary?
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Glenn Beck spent almost the entire week repeating that we must never resort to violence. Of course those in power repeated the same thing because for all the control they think they have, they are cowards. For them, it is fine to control us at the point of a gun but when the tables are turned, they cry “foul”. There is something we need to consider, however. Our protests have fallen on deaf ears. Even if the government changes hands, realistically there is little hope for resurrecting the republic through our normal means. This government now holds absolute power of life and death. If we cannot rely on our protests or our electoral activities to motivate our leaders to respect our rights and liberties, do we just give up? |
IA: Contrived Iowa Shall-Issue Gun Controversy Distracts from Common Goals
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In the fight to protect our Second Amendment rights, it's unfortunate that quite often gun owners will stand against other gun owners and try to make the perfect the enemy of the good. Such is the case in the struggle to turn Iowa from what's called a "may-issue" state, where local authorities have unlimited discretion over who gets licenses to carry concealed firearms, into a "shall-issue" state where local authorities must issue a license to anyone who meets certain well-defined objective criteria, such as taking a training course, and passing a criminal background check. Many gun owners feel this does not go far enough, and advocate states merely repeal their laws that criminalize carrying of concealed weapons... |
Lautenberg's Gun Ban For 8-Yr-Old Cub Scout Terrorist
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Mikey Hicks, an 8-year-old Cub Scout from New Jersey is currently on the terrorism watch list!
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If a harmless child is on the terrorist watch list how many other law abiding Americans and children are on this list? Over 1 million people are currently on the terrorist watch list.
Lautenberg's bill seeks to ban gun sales to those on the terrorist watch list. It is appalling to think that a regular American seeking to purchase a gun to protect his or her loved ones or go hunting could be blocked from purchasing a firearm because somehow their name is erroneously on the terrorist watch list. |
IA: Gun rights debate pending in Iowa House
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County sheriffs would no longer have broad authority to deny gun permit applications if a bill pending in the Iowa House becomes law. The bill sets up statewide standards for judging who may receive a permit to carry a concealed gun.
After a two-hour debate, the Iowa Senate overwhelmingly passed the bill Saturday morning on a 44 to four vote. Senator Steve Sodders, a Democrat from State Center, is also a deputy Marshall County sheriff and Sodders stuck up for his boss and other sheriffs.
“People who have concerns about the sheriff, if they’re not issuing enough concealed weapons permits, can run for sheriff or can get somebody to run against them,” Sodders said. Sodders, though, wound up voting “yes” for the bill. |
DC: Federal judge goes after gun owners
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The decision will almost certainly be appealed, but that, too, may place gun ownership rights in further jeopardy as the case record appears flawed in one critical respect.
Stephen P. Halbrook, the attorney who filed this suit against the District, correctly argued that gun ownership for the purpose of self-defense is a fundamental right. Such rights compel the courts to apply a "strict scrutiny" to restrictive laws to ensure that they are narrowly tailored to serve a significant governmental interest. Gun control advocates insist that public safety is just such an interest, but Mr. Halbrook declined to cite the direct empirical evidence needed to establish a record for higher courts on whether gun control reduces crime. |
MD: Md. Senate approves self-defense bill
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The Maryland Senate has endorsed a measure that would protect people from lawsuits if they use deadly force to defend themselves at home or work in certain circumstances.
Senators voted 45-2 Monday in favor of the bill. The legislation says a person must "reasonably" believe the lethal force is necessary to fend off the attack. It also stipulates that the amount and nature of the force must be "reasonable."
Current law in Maryland says a person must not use deadly force unless they believe they are in danger of serious bodily injury.
The bill now moves to the House of Delegates for consideration. |
Uphold, rather than second-guess, the Constitution
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George F. Will writes in his March 28 column ["A citizenship birthright? Maybe not."] that the 14th Amendment should not apply to the children of illegal immigrants born in the United States because "in 1868 there were and never had been any illegal immigrants because no law had ever restricted immigration." By that reasoning, the Second Amendment should not apply to semiautomatic weapons because in 1789 there were and never had been any semiautomatic weapons and the First Amendment should not apply to communication on the Internet, television or radio because in 1789 there were and never had been any forms of electronic communication. |
MA: Attorney pushes to end Billerica gun-rights case
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Attorney Brenden McMahon may have found a powerful ally in the U.S. Supreme Court, but he wants his Billerica client's gun-ownership case dismissed without the high court's help.
Earlier this month, the state Supreme Judicial Court's ruling in Commonwealth vs. Richard Runyan shot down a Lowell District Court judge's decision to dismiss the Billerica gun case and, in doing so, upheld the constitutionality of the state law that requires gun owners to lock their weapons in their own homes.
It was a case watched closely by gun-control proponents and gun owners' groups. But those two groups are now waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court's pending decision in McDonald vs. Chicago... |
NY: SUNY Cortland professor to give talk on gun-rights case
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Robert Spitzer, a distinguished service professor and chair of the SUNY Cortland Political Science Department, will discuss the pending Supreme Court case of McDonald v. City of Chicago, a gun-rights case, at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Main Street SUNY Cortland, 9 Main St.
Author of three books and numerous articles on the Second Amendment, Spitzer will discuss "Gun Rights to the States: Incorporation and the McDonald Case."
The talk is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served and a question-and-answer period will follow Spitzer's talk. |
Report From Liberal Cable Outlet Shows That More Guns Equals Fewer Firearms Deaths
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“This is why,” said Gottleib, “anti-gun groups have lost their momentum and their credibility. They failed to gain traction even with a Democrat-controlled Congress and anti-gun White House. They are so desperate for attention that they have now declared war on private businesses just to generate publicity. Their high-profile campaign of hysteria against Starbucks for complying with state laws that allow concealed and open carry in their coffee shops is based on an issue they fabricated just to grab headlines and television face time, and the public knows it.” |
Shrinking View Of Government
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Who are these people? And what are their underlying grievances that provoke such deep and abiding wrath? Who they're not is simply an ad hoc group of Americans exercising their constitutional right to protest. There is a thread that connects the Tea Party to other fringe organizations that are, since the election, experiencing a resurgence.
Perhaps the one belief shared by these groups — tea baggers, militias, conspiracists, friends of liberty, oath keepers, survivalists, conservative talk radio and television, birthers, patriots, libertarians, secessionists — is that the federal government is the problem, not the solution. |
MI: Another Federal Set-Up
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Larry
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But again, all the Michigan Nine did was talk: these guys had a website, and played in the woods. Rachel Maddow of MS-GE delightedly explained tonight that those arrested did not actually have to do anything to be found guilty. So these working-class Americans are to be put in super-max government cages for the rest of their lives, except when they are being raped or treated in the single-payer prison medical system, for “seditious conspiracy,” a concept beloved of totalitarian regimes. |
You Say You Want a Revolution? Think Again.
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So, thank you all who sent me a kind invitation to share a mess kit and a fight, but when you Thomas Jefferson wannabes grab your AK-47s, pull on your surplus camouflage uniforms, and go rushing off into the mountains please count me out and don’t wait up. I’ll be watching the slaughter from afar, Barcelona perhaps, Amsterdam more likely, and doubtless I’ll wish good luck and God speed to you all.
As of right now this country is simply not prepared for secession, civic disobedience, or rebellion; and under the current regime they all would be considered the same in the eyes of the ruling elite. Any move in that direction would be setting you up for a hopeless task; to free a people that neither wish for liberty or could handle it if won. |
Causus Belli
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The first thing that must be understood is that while the murder any human being is the most serious crime one can commit, it is not necessarily a crime to kill a police officer.
Defensive use of lethal force against criminal aggression is morally legitimate and legally protected, even -- no, make that "especially" -- when the aggressor is clothed in the habiliments of the state's punitive priesthood. This is not the view of some obscure, unsavory self-styled Christian militia group from Michigan. It is the long-established view of the United States Supreme Court as expressed more than a century ago in the ruling John Bad Elk v. The United States. |
Ohio Fraternal Order of Police opposes gun law changes in new bill
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Many people choose to carry a small handgun in a coat pocket, for example. That is perfectly legal until you get into a car, then it is a felony. A woman can carry a handgun in her purse with no problem, but if she sets her purse on the floor and tosses her coat over it she's committing a felony because the purse isn't in plain sight. How does any of that make things safer for law enforcement?
The arguments against Restaurant Carry are absurd. Every state surrounding Ohio allows it, as does approximately 40 states altogether. It is more of a hazard to law enforcement that a concealed handgun licensee is required to leave his or her firearm in the car when they go into a nice restaurant to eat where it is vulnerable to theft. |
NY: Levy grazed by gun question
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Steve Levy got caught in a gun trap on "Keeler in the Morning" earlier today, saying he supported the rights of families to protect themselves but then got tripped up about the history of Remington Arms -- the centuries-old gunmaker that was founded in upstate New York. |
DC: Police "Sometimes the Worst Drivers": AAA
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Police in and around the nation's capital don't have an easy job, but there is one area that they could improve upon: their driving.
Local police officers have been involved in hundreds of "preventable accidents" every year -- aka, "vehicular collisions that could have been avoided had the drivers adhered to traffic laws and basic roadway etiquette," according to a report in the Washington Examiner.
D.C. police officers managed to wreck it up 237 times last fiscal year, and 600+ more times the year before, while Montgomery County police tallied 385 collisions in fiscal 2009, and 57 preventable accidents so far this fiscal year. |
MI: Christian militia accused of plotting to kill cops
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The wife of one of the defendants described Hutaree as a small group of patriotic, Christian buddies who were just doing survival training.
"It consisted of a dad and two of his sons and I think just a couple other close friends of theirs," said Kelly Sickles, who husband, Kristopher, was among those charged. "It was supposed to be a Christian group. Christ-like, right, so why would you think that's something wrong with that, right?"
Sickles said she came home Saturday night to find her house in Sandusky, Ohio, in disarray. Agents seized the guns her husband collected as a hobby and searched for bomb-making materials, she said, but added: "He doesn't even know how to make a bomb. We had no bomb material here."
She said she couldn't believe her 27-year-old husband could be involved in anything violent. |
United States Concealed Carry Association: Web marketing experiment?
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After seeing an intriguing advertisement by the United States Concealed Carry Association (USCCA) in the NRA magazine America’s First Freedom, I decided to download some “free” shooting skills information. That’s when I began to wonder about the USCCA’s authenticity. |
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