Heller Respondent's Brief Analyzed: On Monday, the brief for Respondent was filed in DC v. Heller, the Supreme Court's case involving the DC handgun ban...The first portions of each brief raise textual and historical arguments. DC argues that the preamble of the Second Amendment ("a well-regulated militia") controls and limits the main clause ("the right of the people"). DC emphasizes that militias are subject to limitless state control. The Heller brief offers well-known rules of construction from the Founding Era to argue that a preamble doesn't limit the main clause. Both sides quote Marbury v. Madison. The Heller brief contains a great deal of American history, partly based on David Young's new book The Founders' View of the Right to Bear Arms (2007), which presents General Gage's disarmament of the citizens of Boston as one of the key causes of the decision of Americans to finally resort to armed revolution, and as the kind of abuse which the Founders wanted to prevent in the new nation... http://volokh.com/posts/1202366725.shtml --- Draft Copy - Media Briefing Book On Heller: Gun Facts (http://www.gunfacts.info/) is finalizing a media briefing book on DC v. Heller. "We need more hands to collect the names and mailing addresses of reporters (crime, law, politics) in major metro areas. You can do this by searching through a newspaper's web site and looking at the bylines of reporters that are covering any of the relevant topics. We need people to work on Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, and other locations (we have D.C., Seattle, San Francisco, and some other towns covered)." Financial contributions can be made via PayPal to guy@GunFacts.info or checks can be mailed to Guy Smith, 630 Taylor Ave, Alameda, CA 94501. "I hope to send the booklets out before the end of the month in order to have them in reporter's hands before the case is argued in court. Any excess funds will be donated to an appropriate gun rights or shooting sport group." http://www.gunfacts.info/pdfs/misc/heller-brief-draft.pdf --- Congressmen, Senators Of Both Parties Express Support For RKBA: Bipartisan majorities in both the House and the Senate say they are behind gun owners in a landmark Supreme Court case. The court next month will hear arguments in a challenge to the District's ban on handguns, the most important gun rights case at the Supreme Court in 70 years. Fifty-five senators and 250 representatives have signed onto a brief that urges the justices to strike down the ban and assert that the Second Amendment gives individuals the right to own guns for their protection. http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20080208/METRO/687727763/1004 http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5523693.html http://www.montanasnewsstation.com/Global/story.asp?S=7840090&nav=menu227_2 --- License For Tyranny: There is no element in the poisonous alchemy of the globalist gun ban crowd more dangerous to American freedom than the twin evils of gun-owner licensing and firearm registration. Never forget that they exist only as precursors to gun confiscation. Registration is the key ingredient in the anti-gun rights brew marking presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's core beliefs. And photographing and fingerprinting honest American citizens as a condition of potential gun ownership is the key gun control scheme of Hillary's rival, U.S. Senator Barack Obama, D-Ill. (Interesting verbiage from the leader of an organization that refers to licenses to carry firearms as "right to carry.") http://www.nrapublications.org/standing%20guard/Index.asp --- Gun Ownership Has Long History In America: Forty kilometers west of Washington - in the southeastern U.S. state of Virginia - sits the headquarters of the National Rifle Association, or NRA. It is a non-profit research and advocacy group dedicated to promoting the interests of America's gun owners. Collecting and preserving firearms - and keeping track of significant events in the history of their development - are considered essential components of the NRA's mission. So the organization has established the National Firearms Museum. As VOA's George Dwyer reports, the objects on display there tell the story of America from a powerful and distinctive perspective. (Note that this comes from Voice of America.) http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-02-07-voa45.cfm --- South Carolina Committee Votes To Keep CWP Data Confidential: A Senate panel has agreed the public shouldn't be able to see who has a concealed weapons permit. The legislation the panel approved Wednesday would keep the State Law Enforcement Division from providing the information to public under Freedom of Information Act requests...The House bill now moves to the full Senate Judiciary Committee. http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7831875 --- Florida Bill Would Enhance Penalties For Misuse Of Semiautos: Hoping to reverse an "alarming trend," two Florida state lawmakers, both Democrats, have introduced a bill that would require stiffer mandatory sentences for criminals who use semiautomatic or automatic weapons. The legislation also targets criminals who fraudulently acquire assault weapons and sellers who "know or should have known the buyer was using false identification." http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200802/CUL20080207b.html --- North Carolina County Revises Signage: Under assault from critics that included the National Rifle Association, Pasquotank County officials have decided to change a building sign that requires gun permit seekers and sex offenders to register at the same window. Pasquotank County Manager Randy Cartwright said his office has received 17 complaints from citizens from as far away as Ohio since The Daily Advance published a story Jan. 28 about the sign in the lobby of the county's Public Safety Building. The sign, which reads "Gun permits/Sex offender registration," will be changed, he said. (Las Vegas Metro PD seats CFP applicants and registrants as convicted felons together, segregated on one side of the room.) http://www.dailyadvance.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/02/04/0205GunsSexSignFolloRM.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=7 --- North Carolina Reporter Describes CWP Process: Bob Owens joined fellow students in a cramped classroom to learn the rules for carrying a concealed handgun in his state. Between the limited definition legal self defense and number of places he is forbidden to carry a weapon, he says, "it would be far more practical to apply for a 'concealed lawyer' permit, if I could only find one small enough to shove in a holster." http://pajamasmedia.com/2008/02/gun_class.php --- Oops, Wrong Store: The owner of an office supply business shot and killed a would-be thief. It happened on Reveille and Bradford in southeast Houston. The owner heard someone trying to get into his business at midnight. He went outside with a gun and caught a man trying to steal a trailer parked behind his business. The would-be thief then tried to run over the business owner with his truck and the business owner fired back through the truck's rear window. Despite being shot, the suspect kept driving his truck for three blocks until he fell out of his truck and died on the road. (In most states the shot through the rear window could be a source of trouble.) http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=5941521 --- Physician Draws On Patient Who Beat Him With Cane: Police arrested a 51-year-old man after he beat a doctor with a cane during an office dispute before the doctor pulled a 9mm pistol, according to a report released Thursday. David A. Hungerford, of Vero Beach, faces aggravated battery and breach of peace charges following the Tuesday struggle that left Dr. David M. Glener with an injured right shoulder. http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/feb/07/doctor-pulls-pistol-fend-patient/ --- Another Gun-Free-School Incident: A man charged into a school where his estranged wife was a teacher Thursday morning, firing a gun before stabbing her as her fifth-grade class watched, police said. He later was found dead in his home after apparently shooting himself during a standoff with police...Christi Layne had filed for divorce Jan. 25. "She was terrified something like this would happen," said Rebecca Bennett, Christi Layne's attorney. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080207/ap_on_re_us/school_shooting --- Rule Five Reminder: A special agent returning to Mitchell International Airport (Milwaukee WI) left her firearm in a bathroom there Tuesday night, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said. The special agent immediately alerted authorities when she realized she left her weapon, assistant special agent in charge Guy Thomas said Wednesday. He said it was either recovered by local authorities or a civilian...He wouldn't provide details about the Milwaukee-based agent, such as how long she had been with the bureau. "It's a sensitive situation as you can imagine," he said. "The agent is embarrassed." She has not been suspended or placed on leave, Thomas said. He could not say what the outcome of the investigation would be. (Rule Five: Maintain control of your firearm.) http://www.journaltimes.com/articles/2008/02/06/local_news/doc47aa5177483e4160124818.txt -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .