Oops: It has been brought to my attention that I have twice linked articles about a school district banning firearms in vehicles parked in school parking lots, stating that the district is located in Florida. It is actually in South Carolina. --- A List Member Replies: In response to the article by Don Kates, citing the decades-long struggle by the Jehovah's Witnesses against numerous local restrictions of their rights under the First Amendment, a list member reminds us of the actual case of Murdoch v. Pennsylvania, in which the Supreme Court struck down a local license and tax for the sale by church members of their religious literature. The Court stated that the license tax was, "a flat tax imposed on the exercise of a privilege granted by the Bill of Rights. A state may not impose a charge for the enjoyment of a right granted by the federal constitution. Thus, it may not exact a license tax for the privilege of carrying on interstate commerce, although it may tax the property used in, or the income derived from, that commerce, so long as those taxes are not discriminatory... The power to impose a license tax on the exercise of these freedoms is indeed as potent as the power of censorship which this Court has repeatedly struck down." As the Supreme Court clarifies the judicial interpretation of the Second Amendment, this precedent should be kept in mind. Do not the license fees charged by the District of Columbia, for residents to keep a handgun in their homes, violate this concept? http://nesara.org/court_summaries/murdoch_v_pennsylvania.htm Speaking of Which...: ... The propriety of "may issue" permitting is now being challenged in court on the opposite coast. The District of Columbia maintains a "shall issue" or, more appropriately, a "no issue" policy. After the Supreme Court struck down the District's ban on handgun possession within the home last year, the District repealed the police chief's power to issue permits to let gun owners carry their weapons outside the home. Several plaintiffs have filed a lawsuit challenging this refusal to issue handgun-carry permits... The District will almost certainly mention that the Heller decision also did not call into question 19th-century bans on concealed carry. This ignores the fact that while concealed carry was considered the mark of a brigand, open carry was accepted and legal. Modern feelings are the reverse; concealed carry is now practiced far more often than open carry. The plaintiffs do not specify the method of carry - open or concealed - merely that the Second Amendment does not stop at your front door... http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZWZiZTdhNmU5NmQyNWY1YTJlOWFmZDllYzllMWVhNDY= --- Another List Member Replies: In response to the article about the man in California who shot himself in the foot by striking what I presume was a .22 cartridge with a hammer while holding it with a pliers, one list member shared his surprise and referred to an old study by SAAMI, which demonstrated to firefighters that their turnout gear is sufficient to prevent the penetration of bullets from ammunition that may cook off in a fire. The actual study was published in Fire Journal in January 1977. I have linked an online version of the pamphlet, which reprints the study. SAAMI also sells a related training video. Most likely, the budding rocket scientist was experimenting barefoot. http://www.saami.org/Publications/212.pdf --- Big Brother - Federalism for Drugs, Not for Guns: The Obama administration has, just this week, explicitly stated that it will not interfere with state laws permitting the medical use of marijuana... I'm not certain about Tennessee, but in Montana, the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and the Montana Shooting Sports Association (MSSA) have filed suit in an effort to force the federal government to back off from its insistence on exercising a power that is not delegated to it anywhere in the Constitution. The federal government is, presumably, planning to contest this lawsuit, and the BATFE has declared its intention to enforce the federal laws, regardless of their inapplicability under the new state laws. Is it just me, or does that sound an awful lot like using federal resources "to circumvent state laws"? I thought this administration had just made up its mind to not do that, and that's without even getting into the Obama campaign position that "what works in Chicago may not work in Cheyenne." Whatever one's position on drug laws, if state law trumps federal law (in the absence of any "interstate commerce" interests) regarding marijuana, how can it not do so when the subject is intrastate commerce in guns? http://www.examiner.com/x-2581-St-Louis-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m10d21-Medical-marijuana-and-guns-The-Obama-administrations-split-personality-on-state-sovereignty Ohio has joined with several other states, including Montana and Tennessee, in asserting independence from federal gun laws with the introduction of House Bill 315. This bill, sponsored by Representatives Morgan and Martin, would make all guns manufactured wholly within the state of Ohio exempt from federal gun regulations provided sales are within state boundaries. The Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco, and Explosives has claimed that they have the authority through the right to regulate interstate commerce because even exclusive intrastate sales of guns have an effect on gun sales nationwide. With two states already having passed similar bills, and many more being considered, this will not be an issue that can be ignored much longer and will likely head for the courts as the issue of states rights vs. federal authority are ironed out... http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2206-Cleveland-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m10d21-Ohio-joins-states-declaring-gun-independence http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/node/6944# --- CDC Evades "Research" Ban: For a decade, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been forbidden by Congress from doing research on gun-control issues. Such piddling hurdles as federal law don't matter to the Obama administration. With a wave of a hand, the CDC has simply redefined gun-control research so the ban no longer applies. They're not researching guns; they're researching alcohol sales and their impact on gun violence, or researching how teens carrying guns affect the rates of non-gun injuries. "These particular grants do not address gun control; rather they deal with the surrounding web of circumstances," wrote National Institutes of Health (NIH) spokesman Don Ralbovsky. Gun-control advocates claim that banning the CDC from examining gun control amounts to a gag order on science. After all, what can be wrong with further scientific inquiry? But the issue isn't about scientific inquiry. It is whether government resources should be used to promote an ideological agenda... The research on right-to-carry laws illustrates the problem with the CDC. Dozens of refereed academic studies by economists and criminologists using national data have been published in journals. While the vast majority of those studies find that right-to-carry laws save lives and reduce harm to victims, some studies claim that the laws have no statistically significant effect. But most tellingly, there is not a single published refereed academic study by a criminologist or economist showing a bad effect from these laws... http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/22/the-feds-take-a-shot-at-guns/ --- The Beat Winds Down?: Private equity shop Cerberus plans to float gun-maker Freedom Group soon. It had better hurry. President Barack Obama's victory sent weapon sales - and the valuations of firearms producers - shooting upward. Falling backlogs hint sales could plunge. The U.S. gun bubble may backfire... Meanwhile, insiders are preparing for a slowdown. Smith & Wesson diversified into security systems. Cerberus' decision to sell may be indicative of a top - the durability of recent demand is indeed listed as a risk factor in Freedom Group's prospectus... This bubble may already be deflating. Smith & Wesson's backlog hit $268 million earlier this year and shrank to $177 million last quarter due to cancellations and fewer orders. Considering it only stood at $50 million in April 2008, the backlog could have much further to fall. Sturm, Ruger reported roughly similar figures. This could prove painful for all involved. If sales fell to more typical levels of recent years, up to two-thirds of U.S. gun sales could disappear. And they could fall further. There are somewhere between 200 million and 300 million fireable guns (estimates vary widely) already in the U.S. Firearms have a very long lifespan if properly treated. Gun buyers may well decide their now-stuffed racks don't need more company for a few years. (Perhaps but I think a large proportion of gun owners have learned no to let their supply of ammunition dwindle.) http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/22/news/companies/america_gun_bubble.breakingviews/index.htm?section=money_latest --- Fifth Circuit Upholds Straw Purchase Conviction: A Fifth Circuit nonprecedential decision yesterday involved a challenge to the federal limits on 18-to-20-year-olds' acquisition of handguns, but didn't need to reach the Second Amendment question... "...We do not need to reach the substance of Bledsoe's arguments. Bledsoe is not being charged with violating § 922(b)(1), but of conspiring to make a false material statement in the purchase of a firearm, which she admitted doing. The Supreme Court has stated that 'a claim of unconstitutionality will not be heard to excuse a voluntary, deliberate and calculated course of fraud and deceit. One who elects such a course as a means of self-help may not escape the consequences by urging that [her] conduct be excused because the statute which [s]he sought to evade is unconstitutional.' Dennis v. United States, 384 U.S. 855, 867, 86 S. Ct. 1840, 1847 (1966). Indeed, even assuming the Government could not constitutionally prohibit Bledsoe from purchasing a firearm, 'it cannot be thought that as a general principle of our law a citizen has a privilege to answer fraudulently a question that the Government should not have asked.' Bryson v. United States, 396 U.S. 64, 72, 90 S. Ct. 355, 360 (1969). 'Our legal system provides methods for challenging the Government's right to ask questions - lying is not one of them.' Id..." (Title 18, § 922(b)(1) is the section that prohibits an FFL from selling or delivering a handgun to anyone under the age of 21.) http://volokh.com/2009/10/21/the-right-to-bear-arms-and-18-to-20-year-olds/ --- Illinois Carry Decision - the Background: In 2008 an enraged, deranged known drug dealer/crack cocaine smoker attempted a violent attack on a Central Illinois man. The FOID-carrying victim pulled his legally owned, legally carried, unloaded, disassembled, non-functioning, encased semi-automatic pistol, inserted the magazine, readied a bullet and stopped the attack abruptly... Police responded. Police rejected the gun owner's vehicular carry methods. Plus, the gun wasn't unloaded immediately after the event. Police arrested the gun owner on a questionable felony and several questionable misdemeanors. The legitimate, recordless, lawful defender was victimized twice - once by the drug-induced predator, then by police. Eventually plea bargaining, he pled guilty to the least misdemeanor to get the government out of his life. The judge returned his gun, forcing state police to reinstate his Firearms Owner Identification card. Obviously, the defendant was within his legal rights to transport and defend. Police weren't happy. The Illinois Supreme Court just unanimously ruled a vehicle's enclosed center console is a legitimate legal carrying case for transporting firearms per Illinois Criminal Code, Sec. 24-1. All justices sided with legal gun owners on methods of transporting and carry, central to the Second Amendment birthright arguments of self-defense... http://www.pantagraph.com/news/opinion/mailbag/article_14e7dae6-be94-11de-9ad2-001cc4c03286.html --- Oath Keepers Founder Plays "Hardball": As we discussed yesterday, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes appeared on MSNBC's "Hardball" with Chris Matthews. (See parts one and two.) Colleague Kurt Hofmann, the St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner also asked "How is a vow to uphold the Constitution a 'threat'?" Matthews and his special gang-up guest, Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law center did their best to make it appear that it is. Anyone at all familiar with MSNBC should not be surprised. They started with a classic trick - focusing in on points they thought they could exploit to create a negative impression, in this case, only four of the 10 orders Oath Keepers will not obey, presented with no context, of course. And Matthews used his trademark bullying style in an attempt to dismiss Stewart's direct response to questioning... (I understand that Rhodes is an attorney.) http://www.examiner.com/x-1417-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m10d21-Oath-Keepers-founder-plays-Hardball --- Massachusetts Gun Clubs Protests Proposed Regulations: Once a month on a Saturday, the Braintree Rifle & Pistol Club hosts the Second Amendment Sisters, a national organization that advocates and provides firearms training for women. Women who have never held a gun before are invited to learn to shoot. The club provides the weapons and ammunition, and the cost to the woman learning typically does not exceed $10... Norwood resident Lynne Roberts, who founded the Massachusetts chapter of the Second Amendment Sisters, named after the constitutional amendment securing the right of citizens to bear arms, wants to expand the training program to other gun clubs, and to start a "little sisters'' program for females under 18. But she says her organization may cease to operate if new regulations for gun clubs are adopted... If adopted, the regulations will require clubs to obtain special licenses, a police detail, and have one certified firearms safety instructor for every 20 attendees (or one for every five attendees if children are present) at all events that are open to nonmembers. The regulations would also require clubs to submit a safety plan to the local police department 30 days before each public event, and would ban machine guns from all public events... http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/10/22/mass_gun_clubs_all_fired_up_against_proposed_regulations/ --- Rapper Gets Better Deal than Football Star: The Grammy-winning rapper Lil Wayne has pleaded guilty to attempted weapon possession, and expects to receive a one-year jail sentence. He previously had pleaded not guilty to illegal gun possession charges that carried at least 31/2 years in prison upon conviction. Police said a gun was found on his tour bus in Manhattan in 2007. The rapper, born Dwayne Carter, won last year's best rap solo performance Grammy for "A Milli." His albums include "Tha Carter," "Tha Carter II" and "Tha Carter III." His trial had been due to start Jan. 20. (Plaxico Burress, who had already, albeit unintentionally, inflicted a measure of punishment upon himself, was not given as good a deal by NYC prosecutors and is currently serving a two-year sentence.) http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-lil-wayne23-2009oct23,0,806090.story --- Oops, Wrong Group: A parole absconder from St. Louis is believed to have shot another man in a Tuesday night robbery near downtown Jefferson City [MO], then was shot by one of his victims who acted in self-defense... Evans suffered a gunshot wound to his left hand. The man Evans is believed to have shot, a 34-year-old Jefferson City resident, underwent minor surgery Wednesday morning at University Hospital in Columbia. He was shot three times with a revolver, and his wounds were to his hands and shoulder... Police believe Evans approached a group of individuals outside the Capitol Avenue residence, brandishing a gun. He then ordered the group to go inside the residence and lie on the floor. He then began taking items from the victims. Evans ordered one of the victims to collect everyone's possessions. While this was going on, one of the victims confronted Evans with a .45-caliber gun. The victim fired at Evans to defend himself and the other victims... (Note the location of the wounds. Unless the shot is pushed or jerked low, shots have a tendency to follow the line of sight, which usually focuses on the other person's weapon. It sounds as though, this time, the robber may have been more "willing" than the victim.) http://newstribune.com/articles/2009/10/16/news_local/077local11latenight09.txt --- Oops, Wrong Hotel Room: Authorities in Ohio say a 70-year-old woman shot and killed a man who barged into a hotel room with a gun demanding money. Police say the woman was visiting Columbus for a major horse show at the state fairgrounds and was in the room Wednesday night with a few other people. They'd left the door open to provide fresh air. Police say when the intruder entered with a gun attempting to rob the group, the woman pulled out a handgun and shot him. He stumbled to the parking lot, where he was later pronounced dead. The woman was interviewed at police headquarters and was released, with no charges filed. Police have not released her name or said where she's from. The dead man was not immediately identified. (All's well that ends well but leaving a door open in a hotel room is not the wisest move.) http://www.fox8.com/news/sns-ap-oh--motelshooting,0,1307342.story --- Oops, Wrong House: An off-duty Detroit police officer shot a teenager who broke into her house Wednesday morning in the 15000 block of Couzens Street in Eastpointe, according to police. Detective Lt. Leo Borowsky said three teenagers crawled into the house through a back window about 10 a.m. The woman was upstairs when she heard glass breaking and then voices inside of her house. When she walked to the top of her stairs she saw three young men coming at her, Borowsky said. She fired one shot, striking one of the intruders. The other two fled and ran toward Gratiot Avenue where they where apprehended by police. The third suspect, who was hit by gunfire, was taken to an area hospital where he is expected to survive. "She fired because the three teenagers were coming at her and she was fearful for her life," Borowsky said. Investigators believe the incident was a random home invasion "because the neighborhood is peaceful and quiet," Borowsky said. http://www.macombdaily.com/articles/2009/10/21/news/doc4adf4e72b434e503361252.txt --- Oops, Wrong Mother: A 13-year-old boy shot his father Tuesday night to protect his mother from harm, authorities said Wednesday. Joseph "Simp" Pruitt, 46, was shot in the arm and side after threatening his wife with a 9 mm pistol, according to Baldwin County [AL] Sheriff Huey "Hoss" Mack Jr. Pruitt remained in critical condition at the University of South Alabama Medical Center in Mobile, a hospital spokesman said Wednesday. "We believe Mr. Pruitt was attempting to shoot Mrs. Pruitt," Mack said. "Their 13-year-old son became aware of this and retrieved a 20-gauge shotgun." No one involved in the incident has been arrested, he said... Baldwin County District Attorney Judy Newcomb said Wednesday that if preliminary reports are accurate, she "wouldn't anticipate any charges against the 13-year old." ...Newcomb did say charges could be filed against the father. "I know they referred to Mr. Pruitt as a victim - I'm not sure he's a victim," Newcomb said of media reports. (Federal law restricting possession of firearms by juveniles contains a specific exemption for self-defense or defense of another within the juvenile's home.) http://blog.al.com/live/2009/10/police_13-year-old_bromley_boy.html --- A Footnote from History: ... Some years later, the recurring argument of gun control surfaced. A new legislator proposed additional controls on gun ownership. The debate went on for hours. I remembered the old leather-bound "Dumpster" book . I rushed to my office, found the book and rushed back to the Chamber to join the debate. The proponent of new gun ownership controls was in hot pursuit of his opponents. I joined the fray. "Mr. Speaker." "For what purpose does the lady from Milford rise?" "To debate, Mr. Speaker." And there I was at the podium, "I object to the proposed changes to our gun laws," I said. My opponent roared, "On what basis?" "The second Constitutional amendment... the right to bear arms." I stated, firmly. My opponent was relentless. "And where is it written, that a man has the right to a private weapon? Where is that written?" "I thought you would never ask." I responded and read from the book's withered pages... http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x42388449/MARIE-PARENTE-Digging-gun-rights-out-of-a-State-House-Dumpster --- Taurus Loses Dropped-Gun Suit: An Etowah County [AL] Circuit Court jury on Thursday awarded a 28-year-old Boaz man a $1.25 million judgment in an unintended gun discharge case. The jury awarded the judgment to Adam Maroney in a lawsuit against Taurus International Manufacturing. The lawsuit, originally filed on Feb. 13, 2007, involved the unintended discharge of a PT111 9mm Millennium Taurus handgun in 2005. Maroney, who owns a business in the Sardis area of Etowah County, was leaving home for work in 2005 when the handgun unintentionally fell to the floor in his garage. According to a press release from Maroney's attorney, Todd Wheeles, the gun was in a holster with the safety in the "on" position when it struck the ground and discharged... Wheeles said he argued the safety mechanism on the handgun failed to prevent a "drop fire" and an internal safety device known as a striker block safety was defective. Tim Bumann, an attorney for Taurus International Manufacturing, said his client was disappointed with the verdict and planned an appeal. Bumann said more than 100,000 of the guns were made and this was the first suit brought against the model... (If the facts are stated accurately, it should not have mattered whether the gun was holstered or if the manual safety was applied. The internal firing-pin or striker-block safety should prevent the firing pin or striker from contacting the primer if the trigger is not pressed.) http://www.gadsdentimes.com/article/20091016/NEWS/910169989?Title=Boaz-man-awarded-1-5-million- --- Federal Switchblade Act Amended: An e-mail from KnifeRights.com reports that the "Senate has passed the conference report for the fiscal year 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill with our amendment to the Federal Switchblade Act intact." The bill now goes to President Obama for his expected signature. The bill makes technical changes in the definitions of the Federal Switchblade Act. In particular, under the revised statute, a "switchblade" is not: "a knife that contains a spring, detent, or other mechanism designed to create a bias toward closure of the blade and that requires exertion applied to the blade by hand, wrist, or arm to overcome the bias toward closure to assist in opening the knife." Earlier this year, the Customs Bureau had proposed revising several of its previous rulings; the effect would have been to bring a very large percentage of folding knives under the Switchblade Act. Knife Rights - with strong assistance from the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) and from the National Rifle Association - led a public mobilization which garnered widespread, bi-partisan congressional support. At first, the citizen activism resulted in Customs halting its proposed regulatory change. Because the Switchblade Act's original language is very broad, Knife Rights then worked for a permanent resolution to the problem, by clarifying the statute... http://volokh.com/2009/10/20/huge-win-for-knife-rights/ http://www.kniferights.org/ --- Kopel Announces New Book: Aiming for Liberty: The Past, Present and Future of Freedom and Self-Defense. That's the title of my new book, scheduled for publication December 4. It's now available for pre-order on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. In an 11-minute podcast on iVoices.org, Jon Caldara and I discuss the book. It's a collection of essays on firearms law and policy, and many other liberty issues and heroes. Topics are as old as ancient Israel and Rome, and as new as the United Nations gun control efforts and post-post-modernism. (David Kopel is an attorney and a major RKBA scholar. His work is extremely useful but scholarly in tone. I recommend it to those who have the patience for careful reading. I infer that this book contains his essays detailing how all the world's major religions support the concept of self-defense. I will purchase a copy. For those who may not be able to afford it, feel free to contact me for links to some of those essays.) http://volokh.com/2009/10/20/aiming-for-liberty-the-past-present-and-future-of-freedom-and-self-defense/ --- There's a Reason God Put Those People on an Island: ...The BBC reported recently that the British Home Office is seeking a new design for pint glasses that it hopes may reduce the number of incidents in which people attack each other with pint glasses. According to official statistics, 5,500 people are attacked with glasses and bottles every year in England and Wales. (Probably more in Scotland, though maybe they just use swords.) This public safety emergency has spurred the government into action, seeking a design that can't be used as a weapon. Designers say they are considering two basic approaches: (1) plastic, or (2) something else. First, glasses could be made from plastic, or could be coated with it so that the glass would not shatter into sharp pieces if broken. Second, "[w]e could do something more radical," said one designer, "by looking at the whole shape and substance of the pint - we could come up with something that is completely different [from] glass." Seems a lot like the first approach, and it wasn't clear what he had in mind. But he continued: "Remember that years ago people used to drink out of pewter tankards. It could be quite a significant paradigm shift." That's a great idea - I'd much rather be clubbed to death with a pewter tankard... http://shilohtv.com/?p=3268 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article6807153.ece Assaults and drunken attacks on the street have been ignored by the police rather than recorded and investigated as violent crime, an inspection report disclosed today. One in three decisions to record a violent incident that has occurred as a "no crime" was wrong, the police inspectorate said. If the findings, based on a small sample, are repeated across all forces in England and Wales an estimated 5,000 violent offences a year are not being treated as a crime by officers. Today's report will raise concerns that officers are dismissing violent offences in order to make their forces' figures look better... http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6885415.ece In an unprecedented move for British policing a team of 18 constables armed with sub-machineguns, led by an inspector and two sergeants, will operate permanently in "hotspots" in Brixton, Haringey and Tottenham. The officers, from the Met's Specialist Firearm Command SO19, will patrol estates and streets to prevent shootings and stabbings. The move, which follows a 30 per cent surge in gun crime in London this year, will be the first time in Britain that armed officers have been put on permanent patrol. The officers - some on motorbikes - will be armed with Heckler & Koch MP5 sub-machineguns capable of firing up to 800 rounds per minute and Glock semi-automatic pistols. The patrols will begin next month after a series of pilot schemes in recent weeks... (I was under the impression, several years old, that the MP5's used by British police were the semi-auto SF model.) http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23759786-armed-police-to-patrol-britains-streets-to-fight-gun-gangs.do --- Tangentially Related: More than 1,100 Los Angeles police officers and FBI agents conducted a crackdown early this morning on the "Rolling 40s" gang in an attempt to lessen its stronghold in South Los Angeles, authorities said. The gang sweep, which is targeting 75 gang members and associates, followed an 18-month investigation, said Lt. John Romano of LAPD. Most of the arrests will be made on narcotics and weapons charges, he said... (Where is F Troop? They have presumably been the lead federal agency in earlier operations of this sort. Have their agents been reassigned to other duties, such as the heightened enforcement in border areas? Or, as mentioned in the next article, are they just being given a shot at bigger targets?) http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/10/gang-sweep-1.html In a series of recent raids throughout the United States, federal authorities have arrested nearly 1,200 people who they say are connected to one of Mexico's most aggressively expanding and deadly drug trafficking cartels, known as La Familia Michoacana, law enforcement officials told The Times' Washington bureau... The investigation involved hundreds of agents and analysts from the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as well as prosecutors and other officials from the Justice Department. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. and the directors of the FBI, DEA and ATF are expected to announce the results of the effort at a news conference this morning. Representatives of all three agencies involved said they would have no comment in the meantime... http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-mexican-cartel-raids23-2009oct23,0,2644454.story -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .