Oppose Sotomayor's Confirmation: Second Amendment Foundation is offering a service to fax all Republican senators, all Democratic and independent senators or all 99 current senators, asking them not to confirm Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court because of her dismal record on the RKBA. The charge is $19 for either of the first two groups or $29 for all the senators. I assume that SAF gets a cut from the fee, which was fine with me because they are definitely worthy of my support. (Do I expect the confirmation to be blocked? No, but the size of the opposition to it is important, particularly if Big Brother is afforded the opportunity to make a second appointment to the Supreme Court, as well as ensuring that she recuses herself from cases on which she has previously ruled.) https://secure.conservativedonations.com/saf_sotomayor_ag/?a=2472 Top Senate Republican strategists tell POLITICO that, barring unknown facts about Judge Sonia Sotomayor, the GOP plans no scorched-earth opposition to her confirmation as a Supreme Court justice. More than 24 hours after the White House unveiling, no senator has come out in opposition to Sotomayor's confirmation. "The sentiment is overwhelming that the Senate should do due diligence but should not make a mountain out of a molehill," said a top Senate Republican aide. "If there's no 'there' there, we shouldn't try to create one." Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, sounded conciliatory during a round of television interviews on Wednesday... http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/23022.html#ixzz0GnqRpGSF&B ...One subject they could raise is the Second Amendment. As David Kopel notes, in January Sotomayor was part of a three-judge Second Circuit panel that held, in Maloney v. Cuomo, that state governments have the authority to infringe on the right to bear arms. This actually is an unresolved area of the law. The Bill of Rights originally was understood to restrain the authority only of the federal government, but after the Civil War, the Supreme Court held that the 14th Amendment had extended most of these restraints to states as well, under a doctrine known as "incorporation." The Second Circuit ruling cited a Supreme Court case rejecting incorporation of the Second Amendment - but that case was decided in 1886. The high court hasn't revisited the question since, because the Second Amendment was largely neglected until last year when the justices ruled, in District of Columbia v. Heller, that it does protect the right to keep and bear arms. (For an explanation of the decades of neglect, see our interview with Alan Gura, the lawyer who successfully argued the Heller case.) ... (This is from the second article on the linked page.) http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB124344262081759057.html President Barack Obama's nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court validates the concerns of millions of American citizens who have been rushing to gun shops for the past seven months, fearing their Second Amendment rights are in jeopardy, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today. Judge Sotomayor was part of a Second Circuit Court panel that ruled in January that the Second Amendment does not apply to the states, in Maloney v. Cuomo. That is in direct conflict with a Ninth Circuit opinion earlier this spring in Nordyke v. King that the Second Amendment is incorporated to the states, and therefore does place limits on states' ability to regulate the individual right to keep and bear arms... (CCRKBA is a sister organization to SAF. The latter is blocked from certain political activity because of its status as a non-profit corporation.) http://www.ccrkba.org/pub/rkba/press-releases/sotomayor.htm Tangentially Related: As President Obama's Supreme Court nominee comes under heavy fire for allegedly being a "racist," Judge Sonia Sotomayor is listed as a member of the National Council of La Raza, a group that's promoted driver's licenses for illegal aliens, amnesty programs, and no immigration law enforcement by local and state police. According the American Bar Association, Sotomayor is a member of the NCLR, which bills itself as the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S. Meaning "the Race," La Raza also has connections to groups that advocate the separation of several southwestern states from the rest of America... http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=99420 --- When Do You Own a New Gun?: When do you own your new gun? While less than 1% of checks sent through the FBI's Instant Background Check system are turned down, one such denial has turned up an interesting question. An Examiner colleague of mine, Brigette Rodriguez, alerted me to a local gun dealer who contends that only after you buy the gun can he submit the request for the background check. His reasoning is that since you have to attest on the form that you are the buyer of the gun (to make straw purchases illegal) you must have consummated the purchase for him to legally run the background check. He had a woman who failed the background check. He explained to her that although she paid for the gun, he could not legally let her have possession. To help out however, he would resell it for her for a 20% commission... http://www.examiner.com/x-2944-Denver-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m5d26-When-do-you-actually-own-a-new-gun --- Police Layoffs Boost Gun Purchases: The first round of Toledo police layoffs, in which 75 officers were let go, may already be having an affect [sic] on gun ownership. "I just don't feel safe with the amount they're laying off," says Jonna Ewing. "I think it's going to be a longer respond time." She is spending the day at a conceal carry class. She's been thinking of getting a gun for awhile, but feels now's the time due to the recent layoffs. She's not alone. Case in point, someone in Jonna's class wears one those infamous police t-shirts: "I called 911 and all I got was this lousy garbage can" that showed up soon after the TPD cuts. Tom Urbanski runs Ski's Firearms Training & Consulting. He also teaches the conceal carry classes. For him, the layoffs mean big business as people are taking safety into their own hands... http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=10415019 --- Ohio CHL Applications Surge: The Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray (D) has released the concealed handgun license (CHL) statistics for the first quarter of 2009. The demand for concealed carry licenses has been torrid. It appears that a lot of new gun owners are not content to leave their weapon locked up at home; they want to carry it for self defense. The first quarter in 2009 continued the trend of increasing demand at an increasing rate. The 16,323 regular licenses issues was a whopping 139% increase over the same period a year earlier and was the second quarter in a row that demand more than doubled compared with the prior year. There were an additional 4,906 licenses renewed during the quarter, which is approximately 75% of the licenses expiring during the period. Add in another 41 Temporary Emergency Licenses (TELs), and Ohio Sheriffs issued a whopping 21,248 licenses in the first three months of 2009. That is more licenses than were issued for the entire year in 2006! ... http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/node/6698 --- Florida Governor Saves CWFL Funds: Florida Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed a 2 percent pay cut for about 28,000 state employees Wednesday as he signed an austere $66.5 billion state budget. It's balanced through a combination of spending cuts, federal stimulus money and higher taxes, fees and tuition. The only other line item Crist vetoed would have shifted $6 million in fees paid by concealed weapons permit applicants to cover that program's expenses to other state spending... Crist credited Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, whose department handles concealed weapons permits, with persuading him to veto the transfer of money for processing applications including criminal background checks. In a letter to Crist, Bronson wrote the shift could have dropped the concealed weapons trust fund to $2 million - not enough to respond to a recent surge of applications within the 90 days for each permit required by law. United Sportsmen of Florida, a National Rifle Association affiliate, also urged Crist to veto the transfer, arguing it would affect Second Amendment rights. http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/05/27/ap6471763.html --- Meanwhile, in Wisconsin...: Background-check fees on handgun purchases would increase less than Gov. Jim Doyle wanted, under a proposal approved by the Legislature's budget committee. The Joint Finance Committee voted 12-4 Tuesday to increase the fee from $8 to $13. Doyle had wanted to raise it to $30. The Democratic-controlled Legislature must approve the $5 fee increase before it takes effect. Republicans criticized it as unfairly taxing people who are legally buying guns. The state Justice Department does handgun background checks and the FBI does it on long-rifle buyers. Last year the state received about 47,000 requests for background checks and approved all but about 600 of them. The $8 fee has not increased since its inception 18 years ago. http://www.wkowtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=10427570 --- Texas Senate Approves RKBA Resolution: The Texas Senate passed Senate Concurrent Resolution 54 by State Senator Craig Estes (R-Wichita Falls) to express opposition to federal legislation infringing on the individual right to keep and bear arms... The resolution reasserts our "right to keep and bear arms to protect oneself, one's family, and one's possessions from either the lawlessness of other persons or the tyranny of the government." Senate Concurrent Resolution 54 specifically opposes federal gun control legislation such as the Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record Sale Act of 2009 filed in the United States Congress, which would require all firearm owners to apply for and carry a federally issued license in order to keep any firearm in their homes. http://www.weatherforddemocrat.com/local/local_story_147105123.html --- Coed under Fire for Advocating Campus Carry: A student who wants to form a gun-rights group at the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) has been threatened with disciplinary action for her efforts. Student Christine Brashier has turned to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for help after reporting that administrators banned her informational pamphlets, ordered her to destroy all copies of them, and told her that further "academic misconduct" would not be tolerated. "CCAC has demonstrated a shocking lack of respect for the rights of free speech and free association," FIRE President Greg Lukianoff said. "Across the country, students are increasingly denied the First Amendment right to debate the Second Amendment. At CCAC, this censorship trend has reached a new low." ... http://thereadyline.blogspot.com/2009/05/student-who-wants-to-form-gun-rights.html --- New Yorkers Rally against Ammo Registration: Some 200 people jammed into the County Legislature chambers Tuesday night, nearly all to send a message to legislators that a proposed law requiring gun shops to register ammunition sales won't stop crime but could halt re-election bids. "The people of your towns, villages and cities are fed up with politics as usual, taxes and politicians who don't listen ...," said Tom King, president of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association and an NRA board member, to thunderous applause. "Thank you for pushing a ludicrous gun control issue that has finally helped me rally gun owners." King estimated there are "35,000 voters in this county who are motivated gun owners." Local Law A is one of the most controversial pieces of legislation to come before the 39-member legislature in some time. All but a handful of the nearly 50 speakers at the public hearing turned a thumbs down on the measure... http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=804119 --- Oops, Wrong House: One person is dead in south Oklahoma City where a homeowner says he found an intruder in his house and opened fire. The homeowner shot and killed the man, the wife of the homeowner said. About 11:30 a.m. Scott Henson, a machinist, went home for lunch, 2200 SW 57, his wife Delores Henson said. Her husband has a concealed weapon permit and found the intruder inside. Authorities confirmed one person is dead of a gunshot wound at the scene. (It might have been wiser for the homeowner to have called police rather than entering the house on his own.) http://newsok.com/oklahoma-city-homeowner-kills-intruder/article/3372682?custom_click=masthead_topten --- Oklahoma Pharmacist Faces Murder Charge for Shooting Robber: An Oklahoma City pharmacist was charged today with first-degree murder in the May 19 shooting death of a would-be robber. Jerome Ersland: Faces a first-degree murder charge in the shooting of a would-be robber at an Oklahoma City pharmacy. Chickasha resident Jerome Ersland, 57, surrendered about noon, his attorney, Irven Box, said. He is being held without bail in the Oklahoma County Jail. Box thinks a jury will exonerate Ersland. The charge alleges Ersland shot Antwun Parker, 16, while he was incapacitated and lying on his back. Ersland's account of the incident doesn't match the video or the evidence collected at the scene, according to the affidavit written by Oklahoma City Police Detective David Jacobson. Parker was shot once in the head and five times in the stomach area. The autopsy found Parker was still alive after the head shot and died from the stomach wounds... Ersland, a disabled Army veteran, could not flee like the two women working with him, so he reached for the semiautomatic pistol in his pocket, he said when he recounted the incident for The Oklahoman last week. Ersland said he shot one of the robbers in the head then grabbed a second gun to pursue the other robber. The injured teen was trying to get up, Ersland said, so he emptied his gun into the would-be robber's chest... http://newsok.com/oklahoma-city-pharmacist-faces-murder-charge-in-shooting/article/3372941?custom_click=lead_story_title --- Armed Self-Defense, Part 5: As the fifth in the "Armed self-defense" series intended for both long-time shooters and the many new gun owners created by the Obama administration, this segment examines slightly more advanced techniques as taught by veteran instructors Tom Iradi and Scott Mauldin of Eagle Rock Training Systems. Previous segments have discussed decisions in buying firearms for self-defense, getting basic training, getting concealed handgun permits, and basic defensive pistolcraft... (I routinely teach pivots and turns with long guns but generally give higher priority to other drills with handguns - with the long gun you generally have less freedom of movement in getting the muzzle on target, hence must get properly rotated.) http://www.examiner.com/x-2698-Charlotte-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m5d27-Armed-selfdefense-Beyond-the-basics --- Firearm-Safety Device Highly Restricted: Yesterday's article was about the strict federal regulation of a safety device (improved ergonomics lead to better stability and control, and the better a firearm is controlled, the safer it is). In a comment, a reader pointed out another firearm safety device that is even more strictly regulated by the federal government (with, in many states, additional regulation by the state - to the point of outright bans). I refer, of course, to suppressors. As with vertical fore grips, the BATFE enthusiastically enforces their interpretation of laws regulating suppressors, to the extent that they have prosecuted (persecuted?) people because they possessed rubber washers - supposedly "unregistered silencer parts." ... http://www.examiner.com/x-2581-St-Louis-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m5d27-Suppressors-aka-silencers-are-for-safety -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .