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NC: Lawsuit intends to fend off gun curbs
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The same day the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that gun rights advocates saw as an open door to challenge the constitutionality of firearms restrictions, a lawsuit was filed in federal court in North Carolina seeking an injunction against the governor and others from declaring states of emergency that restrict who can carry guns in public.
The suit was filed Monday by Second Amendment Foundation, Grass Roots North Carolina and three individuals against Gov. Bev Perdue, Reuben F. Young, secretary of the state Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, Stokes County and the City of King. |
Post-McDonald: Anti-gunners clearly will push the limit
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It hasn’t taken long for Chicago Mayor Richard Daley to make clear his intentions to push the limit on how the Windy City is going to respond now that the Supreme Court has essentially sounded the death knell for the city’s 28-year-old handgun ban.
McDonald v. Chicago was a landmark victory for the Bellevue, WA-based Second Amendment Foundation for sure, but it was also a win for gun rights all over the United States because it incorporated the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights to apply as a limit on state and local governments. Chicago’s Corporation Counsel, Mara Georges, made it clear that the city is going to furiously fight to discourage as many of its citizens as possible. |
VA: Richmond judge dismisses homicide case
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A Richmond judge dismissed a homicide case yesterday at the request of prosecutors, who have concluded that last month's shooting of Jameal Smith was an act of self-defense.
Authorities have reclassified the case as a justified killing, which lowers from 20 to 19 the total number of homicides that Richmond police are reporting for this year.
Yesterday, Judge David Eugene Cheek Sr. of Richmond General District Court dismissed a murder charge against Andre Russell Harvin, 51, in the death of his girlfriend's son, Jameal Smith, 18.
Smith was shot and killed May 27 in the home his mother shared with Harvin in the 5500 block of Euclid Avenue in the city's Fulton area. |
Thomas springs to life to support gun rights for blacks
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Thomas, the only black justice, sided with the court's conservative majority in a 5-4 vote to give Otis McDonald, a 76-year-old black man from Chicago, the right to buy a handgun. In his lawsuit to repeal Chicago's restrictive handgun law, McDonald said he needed a gun to protect himself -- not from a white mob but from young black ``gangbangers' who were terrorizing his suburban Chicago neighborhood.
Thomas agreed with McDonald, concluding that owning a gun is a fundamental part of a package of hard-won rights guaranteed to black people under the 14th Amendment. And just because some hooligans in Chicago or Washington, D.C. misuse firearms is no reason to give it up. |
Al Sharpton: 90% of my callers support the Supreme Court’s gun rights decision
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A good one via the Radio Equalizer, and a perfect illustration of my point last night about how gun-rights supporters have won the national debate on this issue. A law-abiding citizen has the right to protect himself, especially when the police can’t protect him: In a sane world, there’d be nothing partisan about that point of view. And increasingly, there isn’t.
Speaking of self-defense, and in light of the good reverend’s surprise that his audience might feel this way, for your companion reading I want you to dive into the history lesson tucked away in Clarence Thomas’s concurrence in Monday’s gun-rights decision. Scroll down to page 41 of his opinion (page 107 of 214 in the total PDF document) and go from there. |
IL: Gun Debate Draws Hundreds To South Side Meeting
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A topic drawing heated debate right now is guns in the hands of Chicago homeowners. On Wednesday night, hundreds of people on both sides joined forces at a town hall meeting on the South Side. CBS 2's Pamela Jones reports.
Gun owners aimed at protecting themselves say the concept is simple. If you legally own a handgun, you should be able to carry it where you can use it for self-defense.
"People aren't just afraid in their homes, they're afraid in the streets," said Don Mastrianni, owner of Illinois Gun Works.
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High Court Expands Second Amendment
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The Second Amendment extends to the city and state level, a split Supreme Court ruled Monday in a 5-4 decision overturning Chicago's ban on handguns. The decision voids the 1982 ordinance that barred Chicagoans from having handguns in their homes.
In 2008, the high court held that the Second Amendment protects the right to keep and bear arms for self-defense, striking down a Washington, D.C., law banning handgun possession.
The underlying case involves Chicago and one of its suburbs, Oak Park, which banned handgun possession.
Four Chicago residents sued the city, claiming the ban "left them vulnerable to criminals." |
CA: 1st Degree Murder Off Table In BART Case
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The judge in the murder trial of former BART officer Johannes Mehserle has decided to instruct the jury not to consider a first degree murder conviction in the killing of Oscar Grant.
Judge Robert Parry said there's an absence of premeditation or deliberation on Mehserle's part and therefore insufficient evidence to support a first degree murder charge. He has withdrawn that option for jurors.
The instructions to the jury will be to consider second degree murder, as well as the lesser charges of manslaughter, both involuntary and voluntary. If they consider voluntary manslaughter, the jurors will have to consider "heat of passion" or "imperfect self-defense." |
SC: "I’ve got an intruder in my house...at gunpoint."
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Here is something that 911 in Chicago never hears: “We’ll, I’ve got an intruder in my house and I’ve got him at gunpoint.”
But that’s 911 in Spartansburg, S.C., heard on Saturday morning. Ken Easler, 73, came home from the farmer’s market and discovered a burglary in progress upstairs. He grabbed his gun, put in a clip and waited downstairs.
Easler ordered the suspect into the bathroom at gunpoint and called 911.
Later he told WYFF: “I said, ‘We’ll, I’ve got an intruder in my house and I’ve got him at gunpoint’.”
Police came and picked the burglar up. |
TX: Hopson supports Supreme Court Second Amendment ruling
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Texas State House of Representatives member Chuck Hopson praised the U.S. Supreme Court for its 5-4 decision in McDonald v. City of Chicago.
“In these times of ever increasing government intervention in our daily lives it is crucial to have a Supreme Court that understands the importance of protecting our liberty,” Hopson said.
The McDonald v. City of Chicago decision brings an end to the nearly 30 year-long ban of handguns in the City of Chicago and sets a new legal precedent for handgun legislation across the nation. |
IL: On gun control, there's the Constitution and there's Daley's rules
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As Independence Day approaches, let's remember that our Founding Fathers created a marvelous document to protect individual freedoms from the aggressions of government.
We call this the Constitution.
But along The Chicago Way, there is another text, full of decrees. The dusty scroll must be buried deep in a vault at City Hall, because few, if any, have ever seen it.
Still, Chicagoans know its power. Some may call it the Edict of Shortshanks. Others call it The Mayoral Carta. But most refer to it simply by its common name:
The Daleytution. |
WA: The African-American Second Amendment
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Clarence Thomas – standing alone in a concurring opinion – took the most fascinating position in the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment decision this week.
It has to be one of the blackest writings ever to come out of the court, including anything authored by Thurgood Marshall. In arguing that gun ownership is “essential to the preservation of liberty,” Thomas dwells on the long and horrifying history of white massacres of unarmed or poorly armed African Americans in the South, especially after Reconstruction fell apart following the Civil War. |
MA: Will Kagan tip the balance?
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The Heller decision...was predicted to cause the capital to break out in Wild West shootouts and an increase in gun deaths...
In actuality, murder and gun crime have dropped significantly in the D.C., giving credence to the argument that the only people affected by restrictive gun laws are honest and responsible gun owners. Washington responded to the decision by requiring applicants to pay fees over $550, make four trips to the police station, and take two different tests.
These regulations are also being challenged, with the argument that they resemble the "literacy tests" that prevented voter registration and were deemed a civil rights violation, and that case will likely be heard by the Supreme Court as well. |
UT: Utah Concealed Gun Permit Honored in Other States
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As we now know, on Monday, June 28, the United States Supreme Court held up that the Second Amendment guarantees Americans that their fundamental right to keep and bear arms cannot be infringed by state and local governments.
Before this victory for the Second Amendment, Utah already had what might be called its own “cottage industry” in place regarding guns and licenses. It comes in the form of a concealed weapons license and its reciprocity with other states. |
Why The Second Amendment Goes Entirely Too Far
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Unrestricted gun ownership is a hazard and a danger to the lives and safety of all Americans. The decision handed down by the Supreme Court on Monday called tough local laws against gun ownership unconstitutional in an extremely vague 5-4 ruling. Exactly what the repercussions will be from the decision will likely not be felt for some time, as lawsuits begin to trickle up the court system for further clarification.
A point beyond arguing, however, is just how detrimental to the American people lax gun control is, and Rocks Off can prove it with today's video. There is no reason to allow someone to sing Lionel Richie's "Hello" while holding an assault weapon. It doesn't matter how good a singer he is, or that he has a "right" to do it. |
It's going to be hard to miss Justice Stevens
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The second man is the 80-year-old Chicago Korean War vet who recently defended his home with a handgun when he fatally shot a burglar. The third is an elderly man in Perry Hall, Md., who did the same thing earlier this year.
McDonald and the other two men realize something the John Paul Stevenses of the country just don't get: That having the liberty to defend your life and your home is a fundamental American right. It's a right that is not to be compromised, not to be discussed or debated, and sure as hell not subject to the tortured logic and whims of people like Stevens.
Just what were those elderly heroes in Chicago and Perry Hall supposed to do when they were confronted with armed burglars? Call Stevens? |
UT: Lawmakers want concealed weapons for (almost) everyone
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Some state lawmakers want to loosen Utah’s already liberal gun laws by following the Last Frontier’s example and allowing any legal gun owner to pack a concealed weapon without a permit.
Americans’ constitutional gun rights don’t start with permit training, and they aren’t restricted to the home, said Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, R-Orem. This summer he is crafting a bill based on an Alaska model to remove the permit requirement while continuing to provide the option for those who want a license that other states with gun restrictions will honor. He had been calling the proposal “Alaska carry,” but after this week’s Supreme Court ruling on handguns he is pitching it as “constitutional carry.” |
CA: Supreme Court right to overturn Chicago handgun ban
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As it did in 2008, the court again rationally ruled that the right to bear arms is an individual right, not a collective one. All of the other rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights are individual; a "collective right" makes little sense.
However, the court also ruled that the Second Amendment right to bear arms is far from absolute. Alito wrote that the ruling "does not imperil every law regulating firearms," and there is not a "right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose."
Just how broad gun rights are remains uncertain, except in the case of absolute bans on handguns. What is far more certain is the flood of litigation that is already under way. |
NC: Triad Residents Weigh In On Gun Rights Decision
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Many city residents say they support a Supreme Court ruling this week that strengthens Second Amendment protections concerning the right to bear arms.
In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that Americans have the right to own a gun for self-defense regardless of where they live. A majority of the justices ruled for the plaintiffs who challenged a handgun ban implemented by the city of Chicago. The ruling means that state, county and municipal governments will have a higher legal bar to clear in order to implement restrictions on firearms.
“I believe we do have the right to own firearms,” said High Point resident Kevin Smith, 23, who was shopping on N. Main Street on Tuesday. “It’s in the Constitution.” |
CO: Longmont moves on handgun ban amid pro-gun victory at Supreme Court
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At a meeting this spring where the Longmont City Council was discussing the possibility of a new shooting range for police officer training, a resident and outspoken advocate of Second Amendment rights walked into the room wearing a handgun holstered on his hip.
Everyone in the room could see the weapon carried by Paul Tiger, a political activist who pleaded guilty in 2007 to menacing a traffic-control flagger with a handgun.
Mayor Bryan Baum told Tiger, who has run for numerous elected positions in Boulder County as a Libertarian candidate, not to bring the gun again. Baum said a council meeting, where emotions can sometimes run high, is no place to be packing heat. |
CA: Gun Violence Prevention Group Worries About Open Carry
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Some local organizations, such as the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence in Los Angeles, said that they are concerned about an upcoming South Bay Open Carry firearm demonstration.
Pro-gun activists will be promoting their right to openly carry an unloaded gun as they clean up trash around town on July 10. The California open carry law allows them and others to wear unloaded firearms in public.
Just as the city started to prepare for the event, the Supreme Court struck down a handgun ban Monday, arguing that municipalities and states must abide by the Second Amendment and issuing its 5-4 ruling on McDonald v. Chicago, a case similar to Heller v. District of Columbia in 2008. |
CO: CU gun fight shouldn't cost much-- but losing could mean more than a flesh wound for regents
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The top spokesman for the University of Colorado governing board says he wishes he "had a gun so I could blow off a few rounds."
That's how many media calls Ken McConnellogue, spokesman for university system Board of Regents, has received as CU aims to keep a gun ban that a state court effectively stripped in April.
But amid the political debate over whether students should be packing, he says the school's looming battle -- which he says won't financially strike the school -- has little to do with bullets and gunpowder, but rather political firepower.
"It's about the authority of our regents to govern our campus," McConnellogue says. "Secondarily, the issue of gun bans is there." |
Gun Laws and Mental Illness: How Sensible Are the Current Restrictions?
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This column describes federal and state laws to restrict access to firearms among people with mental illness. The contribution to public safety of these laws is likely to be small because only 3%–5% of violent acts are attributable to serious mental illness, and most do not involve guns. The categories of persons with mental illnesses targeted by the laws may not be at higher risk of violence than other subgroups in this population. The laws may deter people from seeking treatment for fear of losing the right to possess firearms and may reinforce stereotypes of persons with mental illnesses as dangerous. |
IL: Daley plans strict gun law
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Chicago Mayor Richard Daley will push for a strict handgun ordinance to replace its doomed gun ban that will likely include limiting each resident to a single handgun, requiring gun owners to have insurance and prohibiting gun stores from setting up shop in the city, his top lawyer said Tuesday.
A day after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Americans have a right to own a gun for self-defense anywhere they live, the city's chief lawyer, Mara Georges, moved quickly to alert a City Council committee of plans to propose a new gun ordinance. |
TX: Gun Rights Extended Nationwide
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This week the Supreme Court ruled Americans have the right to own a gun for self-defense no matter where they live.
Jacaman Guns and Ammo owner responds to the latest ruling from the Supreme Court.
"I don't think anyone should be deprived of owning a gun or a rifle,” said Robert Jacaman.
In a 5-4 vote on Monday, the justices made it clear that the Constitution gives Americans the right to bear an arm for self-protection. The ruling came in response to Chicago's strict ban on handguns. |
CA: Our inalienable rights to do all sorts of ugly things
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Moreover, all this was normal and acceptable in an increasingly me-above-all era where laws and court rulings seem to dictate everything but what is so obviously right.
Which is not to say that I don't think that Monday's Supreme Court decision backing the Second Amendment right to keep firearms in the home for self-defense no matter where you live is wrong.
I just think that, like so many such rulings, it does nothing to promote responsibility, safety or even civility.
The same, of course, can be said of most facets of the Constitution. This is especially true of a First Amendment that allows women to be portrayed in song as whores while also allowing me to say whatever I want in this space, more or less. |
GA: No One Injured In Walmart Shootout
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Shoppers looking for discounts at the Wal-Mart on Cobb Parkway got more than they bargained for Wednesday morning.
Around 12:30 a.m., two men started exchanging gunfire in the parking lot.
"I didn't know what was going on. I was scared to death," said Ronise Croumpler.
Croumpler and her young daughter were leaving the store when the shoot-out began.
Nobody was injured, but at least four vehicles were hit.
When police arrived, the man who fired the first shots had escaped. The second man, believed to have returned fire in self-defense, was detained and questioned. He's not expected to face charges. |
MO: Handgun use hinges on interpretation of 'self-defense'
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The issue of self-defense, police tools and the Second Amendment are again at the forefront following this week's decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down a ban on handguns.
Let me start with the Second Amendment. "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
The interpretation of this seemingly simple statement is the setting of many complicated and often contradicting arguments. What are the definitions of "militia" and "Arms" as perceived by the writers and today? What did the Founding Fathers mean by "security of a free State"? |
OR: So what is reasonable?
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The court’s opinion seemed to turn on the right of Americans to armed self-defense in their homes. But if citizens have a fundamental constitutional right to armed self-defense, how does that right disappear when they step outside their front door?
The Constitution doesn’t say anything about self-defense at home. The Second Amendment guarantees merely the right to “bear” arms. That could mean a lot of things, even to the original framers, but it certainly has a connotation of “carrying,” which people rarely do at home.
In Oregon, the right to buy a gun is not in question as long as you can pass the required background check. Where you can carry is much more uncertain. |
MD: Supreme Court handgun decision leaves room for sensible regulation
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In that light, it's difficult to see how the various restrictions that have been debated in recent years — requiring background checks for all guns purchases, for instance, or repealing a Bush era rule that allows people to carry concealed, loaded weapons into a national park — would run afoul of the court's interpretation of the Second Amendment.
Yet one can bet that the National Rifle Association and others will try to seize on the opportunity to push the envelope as far as possible and bring lawsuits against these kinds of common sense restrictions, knowing there is a sympathetic audience in the nation's highest court. That is easily the most troubling consequence of the McDonald v. City of Chicago decision. |
IL: As Chicago Mulls New Gun Law, Daley Rips High Court
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On Monday, the Supreme Court answered the following large and looming question in the affirmative: Does the Second Amendment apply to the states?
But with that, the court largely closed its mouth, declining to tell the states just what types of gun restrictions would pass constitutional muster, and which wouldn’t. Presumably, outright bans on handguns — the type of which was struck down in the court’s 2008 Heller v. U.S. ruling — lie on the impermissible side of the spectrum. |
IN: Police: Man claims self-defense in shooting of stepson
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Metro Police are investigating a shooting that left a man in critical condition Wednesday night.
It happened on the city's northwest side on Pin Oak Drive at around 9:30 pm.
Police say the shooter was the victim's 51-year-old stepfather. The stepfather told police he shot his 41-year-old stepson in self-defense when an argument that had been brewing for a few days escalated into violence. The stepfather also told police that his stepson had approached him with a knife and refused to drop it.
The stepfather told neighbors to call police after the shooting. |
Republicans Roll Over For Kagan
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"Is it safe to say that you accept the Supreme Court's decision as establishing that the Second Amendment right is an individual right? Is that correct?" Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., asked her. "Yes, sir," Sotomayor replied.
But fast-forward to this week and the McDonald v. Chicago ruling just handed down and we find Sotomayor joining a dissent that says,"I can find nothing in the Second Amendment's text, history or underlying rationale that could warrant characterizing it as 'fundamental' insofar as it seeks to protect the keeping and bearing of arms for private self-defense purposes." |
Which Caliber Works Best for Self-Defense?
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Many myths abound about caliber and stopping power. Most are just myths. Nobody would dare say a 9mm has greater stopping power than a .45 and yet many have been shot with a .45 and were hardly fazed and many have been shot with 9's whose heart beat lasted less than a half second afterward.
A .22 right between the eyes turns off the lights far faster than a .50 caliber to the stomach.
I would rather be missed by a .45 than hit by a .22!
After the first rule – always have a gun – the answer for you is truly what are you comfortable with? A .380 has more recoil ("kick") than a .45 shot out of a full-sized 1911. Can you handle the recoil? Do you have problems with one or more hands or arms that might make a difference? |
Is Your Right to Own a Gun Being Infringed?
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The odds that it is being infringed went down this week when, among other things, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark decision (.pdf) in which it held that the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms applies not only to the federal government but to state and local governments as well.
Because this isn’t a legal blog, I’m going to pass over the legal intricacies and arguments that the case involved (though they are fascinating) and go to the moral issue in question: Is it a good idea for people to have the right to own guns?
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Chicago gun control: The sequel
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After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities and states must respect the right of individuals to own handguns for self-defense, Mayor Richard M. Daley declared the justices to be divorced from reality. "They don't seem to appreciate the full scope of gun violence in America," he charged.
Daley is right. They couldn't possibly comprehend it as well as he does. Nor could the 80-year-old West Sider who awoke one recent morning to find an armed man breaking into his home — and killed him, with a firearm prohibited by the Chicago handgun ban. Not long after, another intruder was shot by a homeowner wielding a revolver. |
Chicago Decision Should Not Change Campus Gun Bans, Experts Say
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The Supreme Court decision earlier this week to reverse Chicago's gun ban should not have adverse effects on campus handgun restrictions, higher education officials predict.
The Chronicle of Higher Education has more:
...the Supreme Court made clear that an individual's right to bear arms does not undermine state and local government bans in public spaces, such as schools and colleges, said [UC Irvine Law School dean Erwin] Chemerinsky, who spoke on a panel at the annual meeting of the National Association of College and University Attorneys that discussed Supreme Court actions affecting higher education. |
Guns And The Pecking Order
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Lead plaintiff Otis McDonald, in the Chicago gun rights case, challenged the law after criminals broke into his home and made repeated threats said.
“At least the playing fields will be leveled,” he said. “I don’t have to be concerned about the young dealers and gang-bangers coming in my house, because I believe now that they think twice.”
There are many who don’t know their place in the pecking order, such as the mayor of Chicago, who support draconian fire arm law’s and seem not to understand that Mr. McDonald is absolutely correct
It seems the people of Chicago need to get a new Mayor, and now. Or continue on being unarmed crime victims. |
Chicago plans strict limit on handguns
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Chicago Mayor Richard Daley will push for a strict handgun ordinance to replace its doomed gun ban that will likely include limiting each resident to a single handgun, requiring gun owners to have insurance and prohibiting gun stores from setting up shop in the city, his top lawyer said Tuesday.
A day after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Americans have a right to own a gun for self-defense anywhere they live – a ruling that certainly means the end of Chicago’s 28-year-old gun ban – Corporation Counsel Mara Georges moved quickly to alert a City Council committee of plans to propose a new gun ordinance. |
Justice Stevens on the Bill of Rights and gun ownership
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For example, we could easily denigrate the choice to be a Catholic or a Protestant, because we observe lives of autonomy, dignity, and political equality being led by Jews, Hindus, and atheists. The market has provided many other spiritual choices, you see. Even if they are imperfect substitutes for being a Baptist, you still can have your autonomy, dignity, and political equality, so there is no need for the courts to protect you here.
We could go on, because lots of people make lots of different choices while retaining their autonomy, dignity, and political equality. These traits are held by singles (ban marriage), by teetotalers (ban alcohol) and by Spanish-speakers (ban English). But this would be politically unpopular. |
Gerard Butler to Play 'Machine Gun Pastor' in Film
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Based on the true story of Sam Childers, the movie will capture how he changed from a violent, high school dropout who started using drugs at age 11 to a Christian preacher that protects Sudanese children from the rebel group Lord’s Resistance Army.
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Last year, Childers spoke to The Christian Post about his incredible life carrying an AK-47 in rural Sudan and caring for orphans while promoting his book Another Man’s War: The True Story of One Man’s Battle to Save Children in the Sudan.
“I don’t condone violence at all,” Childers responded when The Christian Post asked about his use of heavy firearms. “I don’t believe in violence but at the same time I don’t believe that children should be raped, murdered, or cut up." |
Bracing for the Impact of Expanded Second Amendment Rights
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Otis McDonald thought he needed a gun. Not just any gun. Something more agile than his hunting shotguns. Something to deter the seedy element that had, over the years, infected his Chicago neighborhood with drugs and crime from threatening his life and breaking into his home yet again. He thought he needed a handgun. But city laws that effectively banned handgun possession by private citizens stood in his way.
Two years ago, McDonald agreed to be the lead plaintiff in a case orchestrated to challenge those laws as violations of the Second Amendment. |
Fact: Kagan is Anti-Second Amendment
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President Obama’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court is hostile to the 2nd Amendment. That is a fact. Clear and convincing evidence in the public domain proves that fact. If you hear the left argue that Elena Kagan is not hostile to the 2nd Amendment, know that those claims are proven incorrect by Kagan’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee and her lifetime of anti-gun activism.
Media Matters for America has put out a propaganda sheet claiming that it is a myth that President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Elena Kagan, is anti-Second Amendment. |
Kopel rehashes old Second Amendment myths about Kagan in Senate testimony
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In written testimony on the nomination of Elena Kagan, Colorado political commentator and law professor David Kopel advances a mélange of distortions of Kagan's record on gun issues.
Kopel, who is scheduled to be a Republican witness at Kagan's hearing, wrote his prepared testimony with attorney Stephen P. Halbrook. While Kopel and Halbrook note that Kagan has shown some solicitude for gun owners in her career, they claim that "[e]vidence of a hostile attitude towards the Second Amendment can be found at the beginning of [Kagan's] legal career." |
CT: Foley misplays arrests, liberals misplay guns
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If the Second Amendment was construed as liberals often seek to construe the rest of the Bill of Rights, individuals would have not only the right to bear arms but also the right to launch tactical nuclear weapons from their back yards. So there’s really nothing radical about the Supreme Court’s decision this week that Second Amendment rights must be recognized by states and municipalities, just as the court decided two years ago that those rights must be recognized in the District of Columbia, the federal government zone.
Yes, the right-wingers can get a bit kooky about guns... But the right of the people to be armed against the risk of overbearing government is not so kooky... |
Shooting from the lip
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Now that the Supreme Court of the United States has decided that the Second Amendment to the Constitution means that individual Americans have a right to bear arms, what can we expect?
Those who have no confidence in ordinary Americans may expect a bloodbath, as the benighted masses start shooting each other, now that they can no longer be denied guns by their betters. People who think we shouldn't be allowed to make our own medical decisions, or decisions about which schools our children attend, certainly are not likely to be happy with the idea that we can make our own decisions about how to defend ourselves. |
Free market acceptance of customer gun carry grows
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Mike Stollenwerk
Website: http://www.examiner.com/x-2782-DC-Gun-Rights-Examiner
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Last March experts were lauding Starbucks for its best business practice of accepting legal customer gun carry. Subsequently the Brady Campaign attacked Starbucks' policy to stem the rising tide of gun carry, and particularly "open carry," in public. . . .The Brady campaign effort appears to have backfired. By encouraging firms to review their policies, . . . Schnucks grocery store chain has clarified that customer gun carry is welcome in its stores. . . . |
OH: Ohio Dems Seek Gun Records To Harass Gun Owners
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In the wake of the new Supreme Court decision on the 2nd Amendment, we have this illuminating story from Ohio and if this isn't the perfect example of why American gun owners fear detailed firearm owners registration records in the hands of government officials there isn't one to be had. Ohio's State Democrat Party recently sent a letter to every county sheriff's office demanding that sheriffs send them the names and addresses of all concealed carry permit holders in their county.
There is, of course, only one possible reason that these Democrats wanted this information. Democrats wanted to harass these legal concealed permit holders. They wanted to target Ohioans that were exercising their Constitutional right and to set them up |
OK: Tasered Granny Sues Town
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An 87-year-old Oklahoma grandmother Tasered by police while she was hooked up to an oxygen machine in bed is suing the town of El Reno. Lona Varner is seeking at least $75,000, AP reports. Cops were called to Varner's home by her grandson, who told them she was suicidal, according to police. An officer used the Taser when she pulled a kitchen knife out from under her pillow and threatened cops with it, police said.
Varner—who served as a civilian volunteer on hospital ships in the Pacific during WWII—told police: "If you try and get the knife I will stab you and kill you. I killed four Japs in World War II, and I would not bat an eye killing you,” according to the police report. |
TX: On-Duty Dallas Cop Accused of Sex Assault
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A Dallas police officer has been fired and arrested on a charge of sexually assaulting a citizen while on duty.
A Dallas police statement said an investigation led to enough evidence to arrest Officer Jeffery Thorn on the first-degree felony sexual assault charge Tuesday.
According to a police report, Thorn forced a woman to perform oral sex late Thursday night. The police department's Public Integrity Unit began the investigation Friday.
The department said another officer noticed Thorn's squad card idling for some time and went to investigate.
Thorn was booked Tuesday into the Dallas County jail. Jail records show no attorney nor bond setting for Thorn.
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