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WA: Prosecution fights $332,000 Gail Gerlach defense bill
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Mark A. Taff
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Gail Gerlach’s defense wanted taxpayers to cover their $332,000 bill during a Friday court hearing, but the prosecution argued that the price was too high.
A jury ruled in April of 2014 that Gerlach acted in self-defense in the shooting death of Brendon Kaluza-Graham in March of 2013. Gerlach shot and killed Kaluza-Graham after he was believed to be breaking into Gerlach's car. Since the jury found Gerlach's use of force was justified, he was able to ask for legal costs to be reimbursed by the state of Washington.
Ed.: If your state doesn't reimburse for defense costs in cases determined to be self-defense, as we do here in Washington, you should talk to your legislators. |
The True Meaning of the Second Amendment
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Mark A. Taff
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Michael Waldman’s history of the most ambiguous part of the Bill of Rights covers 200 years of uneventful jurisprudence. Then in 2008, everything changed.
“Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed.”
In his tart, concise The Second Amendment: A History, Michael Waldman quotes that statement from Abraham Lincoln by way of explaining that judges, even Supreme Court justices, are not much different from politicians when it comes to public opinion: It informs, even where it does not direct, their actions and decisions. |
Blue State Blues: Michael Bloomberg Still Doesn't Get It
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Mark A. Taff
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What Bloomberg seems not to realize is that restrictions on free speech and debate often accompany government intrusion in other areas.
Bloomberg seems to believe that we can allow the state to control our economic decisions or personal behavior--our choice of sodas, our decision to bottle-feed babies, our use of guns for self-defense--without losing control of our political, religious, and ideological expression. |
VA: Governor Signs Senate Bill 377 into Law Without Anti-Gun Amendment
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Mark A. Taff
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Last Friday, May 23, Governor Terry McAuliffe (D) signed Senate Bill 377 into law as originally passed by the General Assembly.
He did this one month to the day after the Virginia Senate rejected his anti-gun amendment, which would have created a de-facto gun registration scheme for those seeking to sell, trade or transfer their lawfully owned firearms to a gun dealer by requiring that all consent forms for transfer of a firearm determined to not be lost or stolen be kept by the dealer for at least ninety days, with no requirement to ever destroy them. |
AR: Setting the Record Straight in Arkansas
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Earlier this week my organization, JCN, released the TV ad below in Arkansas highlighting the fact that politician Leslie Rutledge opposes the adoption of a “Stand Your Ground” law in Arkansas, a topic of considerable debate in the state and of interest to JCN given its other work on Second Amendment issues. |
The Importance of the Second Amendment
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Mark A. Taff
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For millions of Americans the Second Amendment and its guarantee of the right of the individual to bear arms appears irrelevant and practically anachronistic. It seems a throwback to those earlier days of the Wild West, when many men, far from the law and order provided by the town sheriff and circuit judge, had to protect their families and land from cattle rustlers and outlaw bands. Such people are wrong. |
TX: Gun rights battles are for lawmakers
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Mark A. Taff
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It seems difficult these days for members of Open Carry Texas, a pro-Second Amendment group, to keep themselves out of the media.
That is probably by design, since the organization is hoping to convince elected officials of the virtues of passing less-restrictive open-carry legislation.
But it’s highly dubious that the attention OCT has been attracting lately will do much for its cause. And its tactics are getting tiresome.
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CT: Lawsuit Looks To Overturn Connecticut’s Assault Weapons Ban
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The law being challenged was passed by anti-gun Connecticut legislators and signed by an anti-gun Governor, riding a wave of hysteria following the December 2012 mass murder of elementary school children in Newtown, Connecticut. Those supporting the law claimed that to stop the violence, “military style” weapons must be banned.
A few days after we filed our brief, in Santa Barbara, California — the state which proudly claims to have the strictest anti-gun laws in the nation — another mentally deranged young male demonstrated that the problem is not guns. Indeed, in Santa Barbara, the shootings took place over a 10-minute period, during which there were no armed civilians who could take action to stop the shooter.
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IL: Keeping guns out of the hands of criminals
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Chicago has many law-abiding gun owners who handle their weapons safely and responsibly. The ordinance proposed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to regulate gun sales in the city is not about them. It's about Chicago's other gun owners: violent thugs who kill innocents as well as each other while terrorizing countless citizens with the ever-present threat of death by bullet.
Those are the people who have given this city a murder rate far higher than that of other big cities, including New York and Los Angeles. The measures Emanuel requests won't incapacitate all or most of them. But they would make a significant difference in how easy it is for criminals to get guns. |
CA: It’s really very simple: There are just too many guns
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The latest mass shooting (Santa Barbara), the required ensuing media carnival, and the police shootings in Salinas need some reflection.
The events are quite different but connections exist.
It should be exceedingly difficult for people to own guns. Guns are particularly dangerous because people make choices and not every citizen exhibits wise, thought out, smart actions. Often the opposite is the case.
In New Zealand, German, Australian, and Scandinavia, guns must be registered, and assault weapons are illegal. It is a long expensive process and the vast majority of people don’t bother.
In USA, gun rights supporters scream, “Second Amendment! Second Amendment!” |
Irony: Gun-Grabbing Radio Host Wants To Shoot This Conservative
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As Western Journalism reported this week, Samuel Wurzelbacher – better known as Joe the Plumber – recently penned an open letter to those who feel Elliiot Rodger’s murderous rampage in Santa Barbara, Calif. was caused by gun rights activists.
In what he admitted is a “harsh” statement, Wurzelbacher concluded that “your dead kids don’t trump my Constitutional rights.”
While he likely anticipated the criticism of leftists across the nation, his letter sparked yet another on-air tirade by perpetually outraged talk show host Mike Malloy.
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Check out these new American, Gadsden Flag lowers from Stag
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Mark A. Taff
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Stag Arms is now offering laser-engraved rifles and lowers with optional American or Gadsden Flags etched into the magwell. This is an extension of the company’s Commemorative Rifle Program which gives Stag customers the option of having their rifles laser-engraved.
One of the cool things about the flag engravings is that they’re extremely affordable. For just $15 extra you can have any Stag rifle or lower laser-engraved with your choice of the American or Gadsden Flag. |
Oversight Panel: Operation Choke Point Hurts Small Businesses
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Mark A. Taff
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Legitimate small businesses are being hurt by an Obama administration program that "chokes out" businesses it deems "high-risk," a House panel said, according to The Washington Times.
"Operation Choke Point" targets businesses the administration finds objectionable, including gun dealers, payday lenders and pornography sellers, according to a staff report by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The program is an effort to combat credit card fraud. |
Is Justice Dept. choking gun dealers with ‘Operation Choke Point?’
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Just when it appears the Obama administration can’t move without revealing another scandal, various news agencies are reporting that a Justice Department program dubbed “Operation Choke Point” is now under scrutiny, and yesterday, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) revealed that it “has been investigating the possible role of the federal government in influencing banks in their lending and business banking relationship decisions regarding companies” in the firearms industry. |
Gun prohibitionists demand ‘something,’ but offer nothing
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Three times this week, including earlier today, the gun prohibition lobby “Everytown for Gun Safety” has sent e-mails asking recipients to send postcards to Congress declaring “Not One More,” a phrase launched by Richard Martinez, who, according to today’s RT Network global news agency, “wants to close existing loopholes that make it easier for young people to purchase weapons.”
Martinez is the grieving father of one of last Friday’s Santa Barbara spree killing, and gun rights activists argue there is something of a gaping loophole in his message. |
House Democrats unveil new gun bill focused on mental health
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House Democrats introduced legislation Friday designed to keep firearms from the hands of the severely mentally ill.
Sponsored by Reps. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) and Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.), the measure would expand the list of people prohibited from buying or possessing guns to include a broader swath of mental health patients and convicted criminals.
Supporters of the proposal say it's a common-sense way to keep guns away from potentially dangerous people without encroaching on Second Amendment rights. |
GA: SWAT team throws a stun grenade into a toddler's CRIB during drugs raid leaving him in a coma with severe burns (with video)
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A family is in shock after a SWAT team threw a stun grenade into their 19-month-old son's crib during a midnight drugs raid, leaving the baby in a medically induced coma with severe burns.
Wisconsin mother Alecia Phonesavanh, her husband, Bounkham, and their children including toddler, Bou Jr., were visiting her sister-in-law in Atlanta, Georgia, when police raided the home early Wednesday.
Phonesavanh said officers threw a stun grenade, which landed in the sleeping child's crib. ...
A picture shows the charred portable crib. Most photographs of the baby's injuries are too graphic to share though one shows burns all over his face.
Ed.: The linked story contains a ***GRAPHIC*** image of severe child trauma not suitable for children. |
New Life For Some Old Guns
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Justin
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I have a very long history of loving pistols made by Heckler & Koch. Most of the pistols I currently use from HK have standard capacity magazines that exceed the limits of many states laws. I recently embarked on a project to rescue several well-used HK pistols that also fit the need for pistols that would be legal in a multitude of jurisdictions without having to use modified magazines to restrict their normal capacity. These pistols were state of the art combat pistols in their day, and were used by many elite counter-terrorist units and law enforcement officers during some of the most violent times in recent history. |
GA: Toddler badly burned by police device during Georgia drug raid
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A 19-month-old boy was fighting for his life at an Atlanta hospital on Friday after being severely burned by a "flash bang" grenade police tossed into the house to distract a drug suspect during a raid, police said.
The toddler was injured early on Wednesday when the device landed in the playpen where the child was sleeping, said Habersham County Sheriff Joey Terrell. ...
Officers used a battering ram to open the home's locked door, Terrell said.
“They opened it up just enough to get the flash bang in,” said the sheriff. Terrell called the incident “devastating” but unavoidable, as officers did not know the crib was in front of the door.
SUBMITTER'S COMMENT: Unavoidable if you're too stupid to look where you throw the grenade. |
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TO REMEMBER |
| The right of a citizen to bear arms, in lawful defense of himself or the State, is absolute. He does not derive it from the State government. It is one of the high powers" delegated directly to the citizen, and `is excepted out of the general powers of government.' A law cannot be passed to infringe upon or impair it, because it is above the law, and independent of the lawmaking power." [Cockrum v. State, 24 Tex. 394, at 401-402 (1859)] |
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