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CA: Self Defense And The Chelsea King Case
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“Every person out there should be exposed to some kind of self-defense training,” she says. “It can’t hurt. It only gives you more options. According to Bureau of Justice statistics, in the majority of cases when there is an attempted sexual assault, in the majority of those times when women do take self-protective measures, it’s successful in thwarting an assault. If you do nothing, the chances are about 100 percent that you’re going to be assaulted.”
William Desy agrees. ... “I would highly encourage everyone to take a self-defense class, not just for the physical skills part of it, but because it really forces people to question their surroundings and to be more alert and more aware,” says Desy. |
FL: Lifting Brevard parks gun ban shows why locally controlled limits needed
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However, the law makes no mention of county parks or recreation areas. That has caused the county to wisely make parks, children’s playgrounds, Little League baseball fields and soccer fields, the beach and other locations gun-free zones unless a gun owner first obtains a special county permit.
...
None of this was an issue until a Titusville gun owner and Fort Myers attorney objected to the no-guns-allowed rule posted at places such as the Enchanted Forest nature preserve in Titusville, and the county Web site.
That caused county attorneys to review state law and find that any local firearm regulation is pre-empted by the Legislature, which dictates all gun statutes.
Commissioners didn’t have to give in so fast. |
2nd Amendment's time has passed
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Nowadays, we are used to the concept of a sunset provision. We've come a long way from the times of the Militia Act of 1792, which required each able-bodied male citizen to be enrolled and come with his own musket. That certainly indicates that the sun set long ago.
The National Guard concept took over in 1903, and has a different approach.
For the next hundred years, though, the nation's highest court — confronted with various gun lobbies — found it expedient to keep dodging its responsibility. By continuing to promote a defunct Second Amendment, the Supreme Court is creating legislation on its own and is in conflict with our Constitution. That being the case, the court should be regrouping on this issue. |
Double Standard: NPR Applies Varying Terminology on Gun Rights vs. Abortion
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However, David Boaz, the executive vice president of the Cato Institute, pointed out on the Cato @ Liberty blog in a post on March 2, NPR plays fast and loose on how it describes advocacy based on what so-called civil liberty it is reporting on. Boaz compared how NPR described the proponents of the right to bear arms in this story, traditionally a right-of-center issue, often deemed "gun advocates" or "gun rights advocates," to its reporting on so-called abortion "rights," a left-of-center issue. |
CA: Ink Out Loud -- Carrying a Constitutional concept too far
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Starbucks stated it complies with local laws. "In this case, 43 of the 50 U.S. states have open carry weapon laws. Where these laws don't exist, we comply with laws that prohibit the open carrying of weapons. The political, policy and legal debates around these issues belong in the legislatures and courts, not in our stores," it said.
Recently Starbucks Coffee appealed in a press release that groups on both sides of the open carry gun issue "refrain from putting Starbucks or our partners [employees] into the middle of this divisive issue."
...
By all means if you are a law-abiding, responsible citizen, stand-up for, and exercise your rights, but don't do it at the expense of other people's peace of mind. |
Starbucks Sticks to Its Guns on Firearms
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Businesses can choose to ban guns from their premises. And Starbucks said Wednesday that it complies with local laws in the 43 states that have open-carry weapon laws.
"Were we to adopt a policy different from local laws allowing open carry, we would be forced to require our partners to ask law abiding customers to leave our stores, putting our partners in an unfair and potentially unsafe position," the company said in its statement.
It said security measures are in place for any "threatening situation" that might occur in stores.
Starbucks asked both gun enthusiasts and gun-control advocates "to refrain from putting Starbucks or our partners into the middle of this divisive issue." |
CA: Think there's a burglar? Police say get away and call them
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South Bakersfield resident Raymond Michel arrived home with his wife and grandchildren Wednesday afternoon when his wife noticed signs that someone else had been in the house. Michel armed himself with a handgun, found the intruder holding a rifle in an upstairs bathroom and shot at him, police said.
Michel missed, but the intruder, identified by police as John Jenaro Garner, dropped to the floor and Michel held him at gunpoint until officers arrived. An arraignment for Garner, who was also wanted on a misdemeanor warrant, has been scheduled for Friday. |
The Constitution Matters: It Means What It Says
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The Constitution and the Second Amendment are in the spotlight this week on two fronts. First is that oral arguments are being held in the McDonald v Chicago case to possibly apply the holding in Heller to the states.
In addition, Senators are beginning their evaluation of the judicial nomination of Berkeley professor Goodwin Liu to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a vote that will tell a great deal about Senator Reid’s adherence to Constitutional principles such as those specified in the Second Amendment. |
IN: Lawmakers running down to wire in Indianapolis
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Thursday, the short session in the Indiana Legislature is supposed to wrap up, or will it? There are still many unresolved key issues left before state legislators as the midnight deadline approaches.
The house has passed gun legislation because lawmakers are under the gun to close out this session, as pressure comes from leaders to end it by as early as midnight Thursday.
You could tell at the table outside the Speaker’s office there was a line forming, maybe some sort of pot luck, possibly an indication that they may be burning some midnight oil.
Earlier Thursday afternoon the House took up a gun bill that would allow you to bring your gun to work and keep it locked up inside your car, trunk or perhaps the glove compartment. |
CA: National Park Service admits to stopping gun owners
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Now it's Jerry Brown's turn to answer some questions. I submitted the following at 12:16 am March 4, 2010 to the Office of the Attorney General,
Bureau of Firearms and via the General Comment / Question Form. I have asked the National Park Service substantially similar questions but they have not replied to my inquiry.
...
Jerry Brown, in his capacity as Attorney General filed a friend of the court brief asking the United States Supreme Court to incorporate the 2nd Amendment to the States. He is now running for Governor of the State of California. Elections for Governor is this state are held in off years which makes it very difficult for a Democrat to be elected to the office of Governor. |
MD: Gun control makes us less safe
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Gun control, which started in the slave codes, has a champion today right here in Maryland. Sen. Brian Frosh has introduced the sorely misnamed Gun Safety Act of 2010.
Under the bill, anyone who wishes to buy a gun [would have] to first have a designation placed on his or her driver's license, reminiscent of yellow stars for Jews. This would be a new police approval process prior to a purchase, in addition to the background checks required by federal law. Higher fees will pay for the new bureaucracy, making self defense harder for the poor. |
Guns for All, Privileges or Immunities for None
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So Scalia asked Gura ... on Tuesday: “Mr. Gura, do you think it is at all easier to bring the Second Amendment under the Privileges and Immunities Clause than it is to bring it under our established law of substantive due…process?... Why are you asking us to overrule 150, 140 years of prior law, when—when you can reach your result under substantive due—I mean, you know, unless you are bucking for a—a place on some law school faculty…?”
Scalia, reputedly a constitutional originalist, flashed some ugly colors with that laugh-provoking comment: He’d rather go with the easy precedential flow—even given a substantive due process argument that he openly admits he thinks is wrong but which he’s “acquiesced” to... |
SC: Bullets and baristas: Starbucks-goers should pack heat
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No matter what states allow, there is no reason to ban the ownership and carry of firearms in this country. Being allowed to openly carry a firearm in public does not make the citizenry violent, and guns only become dangerous when they aren’t handled properly or someone has intent to harm others. Situations can arise where law enforcement is unavailable and the influence and power of a firearm is needed. And guns don’t have to be fired to keep a violent criminal from hurting innocent people. The display of a firearm is quite enough to deter that intent. |
MT: Second Amendment on the streets
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Members of the Bitterroot group Celebrating Conservatism hosted a roadside rally in Hamilton yesterday opposing restrictive gun control measures in the U.S. Those gathered reportedly carried a variety of guns, including a semi-automatic rifle held by prominent group member Duane Sipe.
Ravalli Republic reporter Sepp Jannotta did a great job of highlighting the fact that there's no grand federal scheme at present to limit Second Amendment rights.
Ed.: Guess the writer hasn't heard of the BATFE, NFA, etc.. |
WV: Delegates Approve Gun Sales Tax Holiday
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West Virginia would suspend sales taxes on gun purchases during the first weekend of October under legislation that unanimously passed the state House of Delegates Feb. 26.
The Second Amendment Appreciation Act would mandate that the first weekend of every October become a sales tax holiday for gun purchases. The lead sponsor, Delegate Scott Varner, D-Marshall, said the holiday could actually bring in increased tax revenues, given that bargain-hunting shoppers likely will buy other things that are taxed.
"The idea is to get them in to purchase the firearm and, along with that, you get all the ancillary benefits," he said. |
MS: Sales tax holiday for guns is dead bill
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A bill creating a two-day sales tax holiday for guns and ammunition in honor of Second Amendment Weekend has died amid lawmakers’ concerns over the state budget.
Rep. Warner McBride, D-Courtland, authored House Bill 1207, which had 39 cosponsors, including several from South Mississippi. But the House Ways and Means Committee didn’t take up the bill. Lawmakers wanted more information about the proposal, McBride said.
“I think we’d all like to have better numbers on what it means to the general fund,” McBride said.
The legislation would waive sales taxes on rifles, shotguns, handguns and ammunition on Friday and Saturday of Labor Day weekend. |
Roberts the Restrained
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After the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision struck down constitutionally baseless case law prohibiting corporate participation in the political process, Chief Justice John Roberts was swiftly deemed a “radical.” Jeffrey Rosen, legal affairs editor of The New Republic, considered Roberts the leader of “a narrow majority of conservative judicial activists.” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) went so far as to say that Roberts “misled” the judiciary committee during his confirmation. Yet Tuesday’s oral arguments in McDonald v. Chicago, where the court is likely to protect the Second Amendment’s guarantees from the substantial interference of state governments, reveal how little Roberts’s critics grasp his jurisprudence. |
Old McDonald hadn't an arm
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IT HELPS to have a sympathetic plaintiff. Otis McDonald is a 76-year-old African-American grandpa. His folks were sharecroppers in Louisiana. He grew up hunting squirrels, racoons and possums. He served in the army and worked hard all his life. And now he lives in a rough part of Chicago, where teenage thugs have broken into his modest house three times, pinched his TV and threatened to kill him. He wants a handgun to defend his family. And the city of Chicago says he can’t have one. |
NY: N.Y. High Court Judge Takes Colleagues to Task Over Constitutional Issue in Gun Case
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In a rare written dissent, Judge Robert S. Smith has taken his six colleagues on the New York Court of Appeals to task for not finding the "substantial constitutional question" that would allow them to review a judge's denial of a pistol permit to a Westchester County, N.Y., attorney.
Smith said the refusal of the court to hear an appeal in Kachalsky v. Cacace (pdf), SSD4, highlights the "amorphous definition" that the judges have come to attach to "substantial" and how it is at odds with provisions in Article 6, §3(b)(1), of the state Constitution and provisions of CPLR 5601 and 5602 governing when the court recognizes a right to appeal in civil cases. |
If Gun Ownership is a Right Then What Is Health Care, Chopped Liver?
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On March 2, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in, McDonald v. City of Chicago. This case pertains to a Second Amendment challenge to Chicago's ban on handguns. From media reports, it appears the high court may be paving the way for gun rights on a national basis. A Chicago Tribune article had Justice Kennedy saying, " 'the individual right to bear arms' is a 'fundamental' right, like the other protections in the Bill of Rights." This got me to thinking about health care and how we should view it. Now, if at least one justice of our Supreme Court believes that owning firearms falls within the Bill of Rights, shouldn't being healthy be given (at least) the same pedestal as gun ownership? |
VA: Bill to repeal 1-gun-a-month rule fails to advance
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Republicans and gun rights advocates cried foul when the subcommittee was created earlier in the week and given the authority to kill bills without a vote of the full committee. Though the practice is common in the House, the Senate rules call for subcommittees to make recommendations to the full committee.
One likened the effortless rejection of 10 pro-gun bills to the "Ides of March," the fateful day Julius Caesar was assassinated. Republicans suggested they would try to demand a full committee vote on Monday.
"If the Senate can't follow their own rules you start wondering why people should follow the Senate's rules?" said Philip Van Cleave, president of the pro-gun Virginia Citizens Defense League. |
OK: Senate Approves Oklahoma Firearms Freedom Act
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State Sen. Randy Brogdon has won Senate approval for the Oklahoma Firearms Freedom Act. The measure passed with overwhelming bipartisan support—a vote Brogdon says mirrors the values of most Oklahomans. The Senate approved Senate Bill 1685 on Wednesday on a vote of 39 to 3.
“As a private citizen and as a state senator, I believe it is important that we guard against the continued erosion of the Bill of Rights, including the right to protect ourselves and our families,” said Brogdon, R-Owasso. “This legislation reaffirms our Second Amendment rights.”
Under the provisions of Senate Bill 1685, no firearms or ammunition manufactured in Oklahoma and remaining in the state could be subject to any federal regulations... |
DE: Markell objects to gun bill
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Gov. Jack Markell has blasted proposed legislation that would bar Delaware's housing authorities from prohibiting their tenants to own firearms.
The effects of House Bill 357 would go far beyond Delaware's four housing authorities and extend to almost every facet of life, Markell wrote in a letter Wednesday to Millsboro Democratic Rep. John Atkins and Georgetown Republican Sen. Joe Booth, sponsors of the bill.
The legislation, Markell wrote, "will put the public at significant risk if enacted. This legislation prohibits state and local governments, our universities and colleges, our schools and others from imposing or enforcing common sense measures designed to protect our citizens from illegal gun violence." |
WA: Itchy Trigger Finger
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Instead, we have 16 pages of admittedly elegant prose from Justice Richard Sanders rehashing much of the history of gun rights in our country that was set forth in the Heller U.S. Supreme Court decision, including references to the Federalist Papers and historical anecdotes such as that “reconstruction Republicans sought to empower black freedmen to resist oppression at the hands of resurgent white supremacists in the South.” Justice Sanders concludes with a nice rhetorical flourish that the Second Amendment right to bear arms “is necessary to an Anglo-American regime of ordered liberty and fundamental to the American scheme of justice.” |
MA: City’s police sharpen their watch on crime
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The program uses existing technology such as cameras focused on major city streets, the department’s gunshot detection system, and the 911 dispatch center to relay information about a crime almost instantaneously to investigators.
The $500,000 intelligence hub, known as the Real Time Crime Center, is the latest in the department’s efforts to combine shoe-leather police work with technological savvy to monitor and thwart criminals.
“This is going to be the real nerve cell of operations in the city,’’ Commissioner Edward F. Davis said, standing in the center, a roughly 10-by-12-foot room that until recently had been an office foyer.
Submitter's note: Slaves buying their own chains. |
ME: Police partner with license plate readers
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AAA national spokesman Troy Green said the auto club supports the readers being used to recover stolen cars, but he said the organization is concerned about their use "solely as a revenue generator" or to create records of vehicle movements.
Maine state Sen. Dennis Damon, a Democrat, said he's worried about the potential for abuse. He has sponsored a bill requiring any Maine department using the camera systems to purge the stored images of scanned plates after 21 days. The bill was approved by a transportation committee last month, he said.
The American Civil Liberties Union also is concerned about the systems being used to compile vehicle movement records, legislative counsel Christopher Calabrese said. |
Second Amendment -- Still 'The Palladium of Liberties'
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"The ultimate authority ... resides in the people alone. ... The advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation ... forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition." --James Madison
James Madison's words regarding the "ultimate authority" for defending liberty (Federalist No. 46) ring as true today as in 1787, when he penned them.
Likewise, so do the words of his appointee to the Supreme Court, Justice Joseph Story, who wrote in his 1833 "Commentaries on the Constitution," "The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of |
MT: Packing heat in Montana
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If anybody was looking to take a Constitutional right, or anything else, away from the well-armed folks standing along Hamilton’s main drag Wednesday, they might well have been in for a nasty fight.
Never mind the impressive arsenal at hand - there was everything from assorted pistols to hunting rifles to a bayoneted 1816 muzzle-loading musket to a PTR 91 .308 caliber assault rifle - a message was on display, brought with intent by the roughly fourscore who lined U.S. Highway 93. |
NJ: Nude Snow Woman
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FULL STORY BELOW:
Police told a Rahway, New Jersey family to cover their nude snow woman after an anonymous complaint.
Maria Conneran's family sculpted Venus de Milo in last week's snow outside their home on Colonia Boulevard.
Gonzalez says Sgt. Dominick Sforza was apologetic when he went to the house and asked the family to dress the snow woman.
The family added a green bikini top and a blue sarong bottom.
The snow woman melted as the temperatures warmed up this week.
SUBMITTER'S NOTE: The cop was apologetic, but he did it anyway. |
NY: Police Abduction by Quota
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Adil Polanco, a five-year veteran of the NYPD’s 41st Precinct in the Bronx, confirmed to WABC that police are under relentless official pressure to make arrests and issue summonses in order to meet arbitrary quotas.
“We are stopping kids walking upstairs to their house, stopping kids going to the store, young adults … [i]n order to keep the quota,” discloses Officer Polanco. “Our primary job is not to help anybody, our primary job is not to assist anybody, our primary job is to get those numbers and come back with them.”
Like other decent people who become police officers out of a genuine desire to protect the rights and property of individuals — yes, such people do exist — Polanco is severely disillusioned by the reality of his profession.
“I’m not going to keep arresting innocent people, I’m not going to keep searching people for no reason, I’m not going to keep writing people [citations] for no reason, I’m tired of this,” declared a visibly disgusted Polanco. |
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