More on NRA's Role in McDonald: We've made no bones of the fact that McDonald v. Chicago is our favorite case of the current Supreme Court term. The case has it all: a hot-button political issue (gun control), a set of fascinating constitutional questions, and plenty of pre-game controversy... Specifically, the story involves groups of lawyers working on the gun-rights side of the ledger, those arguing the Supreme Court should shoot down a Chicago gun-control ordinance. In the 2008 Heller v. District of Columbia case, in which the Supreme Court shot down Washington D.C.'s gun-control law, it was, according to the WaPo, an "upstart band of libertarian lawyers" that handled the lifting for the gun-rights side, with the powerful National Rifle Association on the sidelines. But leading into McDonald, the NRA has vowed not to be relegated to the sidelines again. And a recent decision by the justices has ensured that the organization will, yes, have its say this time around. The court's move might also signal the way they're feeling on one of the more high-profile constitutional issues as well... Why might Clement need time when the attorney for those challenging the ordinances, Alan Gura (pictured), seemed to do just fine on his own in the Heller case? The answer lies in the fact that Gura and Clement will push different constitutional solutions to a court that might be looking to apply the Second Amendment to the states, and therefore shoot down the gun-control laws at play. The WaPo explains that the court has done that with most of the amendments - but not the Second - by relying on the "due-process clause" of the 14th Amendment... (Jones errs in citing Heller v. District of Columbia. The District was actually the plaintiff, having taken the gamble of appealing the ruling of the Court of Appeals.) http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2010/02/08/lawyer-fight-plot-thickens-in-huge-high-court-gun-control-case/ ...Well, having argued that petitioners' counsel Alan Gura insufficiently covered the argument that the Second Amendment should be "incorporated" against the states via the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause, the NRA has now filed a brief that fails even to reference the four biggest cases regarding incorporation and substantive due process. That is, the NRA reply brief contains no mention of Washington v. Glucksberg (1997), Benton v. Maryland (1969), Duncan v. Louisiana (1968), or Palko v. Connecticut (1937). (The NRA did cite those cases in its opening brief.) What is more, it also lacks a discussion of Judge O'Scannlain's magisterial Ninth Circuit opinion in Nordyke v. King (2009), which the Supreme Court might as well cut and paste regardless of which constitutional provision it uses to extend the right to keep and bear arms to the states! ... http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2010/02/08/nra-shoots-itself-in-the-foot/ --- Imam Blames RKBA for Ft. Hood Massacre: Imam Zaid Shakir came to speak at my school, Claremont McKenna, on December 9th to respond to the "tragedy of Ft. Hood." Rather than respond to the massacre of American servicemen, Shakir spent the evening indicting the United States - saying "we were born in genocide." The reason for the Ft. Hood Massacre, according to Shakir? Not jihad or Islamic fundamentalism, but the "pervasiveness of violence in our society" and because of Americans' "easy access to guns." For those wondering who Mr. Shakir is, he's the go-to expert on Islamic issues for the mainstream media. The New York Times describes him as a "leading intellectual light," while rap scholar, Cornel West says "he is one of the towering principle [sic] voices not only in contemporary Islam, but in American society," according to this biography. Most recently, he was described by John Esposito as one of the "500 Most Influential Muslims." ... (If access to firearms were not routinely denied to service members on military bases, Hasan's rampage would have been terminated much sooner.) http://biggovernment.com/cjohnson/2010/02/08/access-to-guns-not-jihad-to-blame-for-ft-hood-says-noted-islamic-scholar/ --- Civil Rights and the RKBA: ...In the early 1960s, I taught at Tougaloo College - a black school in Mississippi. My wife, Eldri, and I were extremely active in the civil rights movement and, among other things, I was chairman of the strategy committee of the Jackson Movement during the historic demonstrations in the spring and summer of 1963. I was beaten and arrested many times and hospitalized twice. This happened to many, many people in the movement. No one knows what kind of massive racist retaliation would have been directed against grassroots black people had the black community not had a healthy measure of firearms within it. When the campus of Tougaloo College was fired on by KKK-type racial night-riders, my home was shot up and a bullet missed my infant daughter by inches. We received no help from the Justice Department and we guarded our campus - faculty and students together - on that and subsequent occasions. We let this be known. The racist attacks slackened considerably. Night-riders are cowardly people - in any time and place - and they take advantage of fear and weakness. Later, I worked for years in the Deep South as a full-time civil rights organizer. Like a martyred friend of mine, NAACP staffer Medgar W. Evers, I, too, was on many Klan death lists and I, too, traveled armed: a .38 special Smith and Wesson revolver and a 44/40 Winchester carbine. The knowledge that I had these weapons and was willing to use them kept enemies at bay. Years later, in a changed Mississippi, this was confirmed by a former prominent leader of the White Knights of the KKK when we had an interesting dinner together at Jackson... http://www.saf.org/pub/rkba/general/GunsVersusKKK.htm http://volokh.com/2010/02/08/how-the-right-to-arms-saved-the-non-violent-civil-rights-protesters/ --- Support and Defend...?: An East Palo Alto police detective is taking heat in online forums for allegedly posting comments from his Facebook account that advocate shooting Open Carry gun advocates. Detective Rod Tuason apparently made the remarks in response to a friend's status update, which joked that gun advocates who carry unloaded weapons in plain view as a political statement should start doing so in places such as Oakland, Richmond and East Palo Alto "and not limit themselves to hoity toity cities." ...After several more comments in the thread, Tuason apparently joked that officers should shoot the advocates, who have made recent headlines throughout the Bay Area for sipping coffee at cafes and performing other everyday acts with visible weapons. "Sounds like you had someone practicing their 2nd amendment rights last night!" Tuason wrote. "Should've pulled the AR out and prone them all out! And if one of them makes a furtive movement ... 2 weeks off!!!" It's unclear when Tuason made the comments, but they attracted the attention of gun rights advocates after blogger and lawyer Kevin Thomason posted a screen grab of the thread and a link to Tuason's Facebook page on his Web site Sunday... Thomason urged his readers to contact East Palo Alto council members to complain. Reached by phone Monday, Thomason said he wanted to comment but couldn't because he works with a nonprofit foundation that wouldn't want him to speak publicly on the matter... http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14361484 --- Maryland Bill Would Require License to Purchase Firearms: Delegate Sandy Rosenberg,(D), District 41, Baltimore City has introduced HB820: Firearms safety Act of 2010. The text isn't officially attached to the bill as of yet but here's what we think will be included in the bill. * Notation on your drivers license denoting you as legally able to buy a gun. * Mandatory fingerprinting to be licensed to purchase a firearm. * Increased fees for the processing of gun applications. There are potentially some other noxious things included in the bill that refer to dealers surrendering their records of sales to the Maryland State Police, thus providing them a registration list of even non-regulated firearms. We expected this to land in the Senate first and believe we will see it there by Tuesday morning. Make no mistake, this bill would fundamentally change the nature of gun ownership in Maryland unlike anything we've seen in over a decade. It is our responsibility to shut this affront to our liberties before it ever sees the light of day in a hearing... http://www.ammoland.com/2010/02/08/maryland-license-to-purchase-a-firearm/ --- Illinois Bill Threatens Gun Shops: The Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) is warning gun owners about a new attempt by the state legislature to quietly stifle gun ownership even further throughout the state, known as HB 180. In what is already one of the most hostile anti-gun states in the country, this bill would impose sweeping new regulations on gun shops that would increase costs and excessively complicate the process of purchasing a firearm. For instance, it would make even the very existence of all gun shops subject to the arbitrary whims of the Illinois State Police by creating yet another intrusive government licensing process in which the police would have sole discretion over who gets to sell guns. It would also require that all guns be registered with the state and enable any police officer anywhere to completely shut down a shop at will in order to conduct frivolous searches and "records reviews." Never mind the staggering nationwide drop in crime that accompanied record gun sales in 2009 (as I noted here). 48 other states have figured out that an armed citizenry is the solution, rather than the problem, yet Democrats here in Illinois still continue to insist on disarming law-abiding citizens and treating our constitutional right to bear arms as some kind of scourge on humanity... http://www.examiner.com/x-17412-Macon-County-Conservative-Examiner~y2010m2d8-Illinois-house-to-declare-war-on-gun-ownership --- North Carolina City Misapplied Riot Law: On Friday, February 5, the city of King, North Carolina responded to heavy snowfall in the area by using a 40-year-old statute to ban the sale and possession, outside the home, of all firearms and ammunition. The proclamation was reportedly made by Mayor Jack Warren and posted in area restaurants and businesses... While many are questioning both the reasonableness and constitutionality of the King ordinance, it appears to be fully supported by the North Carolina General Statutes. Passed in 1969 - an era of race riots following the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King - Article 36A of Chapter 14 contains provisions for suspending carriage of firearms, ammunition and "dangerous substances" during states of emergency, and allows mayors and other local government officials to impose states of emergency... Ironically, the state house representative for the district in which King is located, Rep. Bryan Holloway, was a cosponsor of legislation which could have prevented Warren's abuse of power. Under Section 3 of House Bill 257: "No Seizure of Lawful Firearms in Emergency," lawfully possessed firearms and ammunition would have been exempted from the riot law... One of the primary sponsors of HB 257, Rep. Mark Hilton (R-Catawba) advises that he is looking into revamping the bill slightly to conform to chamber rules under which it could be re-introduced in the second year of the legislature's two-year session, commonly referred to as the "short session." (This could prove to be a case of turning lemons into lemonade, if this abuse provides the impetus to protect citizens from "emergency" restrictions on the RKBA.) http://www.examiner.com/x-2698-Charlotte-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2010m2d9-King-NC-misuses-riot-law-to-ban-guns-and-ammunition --- Montana to Consider Lead-Bullet Ban: Rob Domenech and his research associates didn't know what they were looking for when they started testing the blood of golden eagles along Montana's Rocky Mountain Front three years ago. What they found was lead. In some cases, lots of it... Domenech, executive director of Raptor View Research Institute, was one of hundreds of people to send comments to the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission in what has become a controversial proposal to ban lead shot on state-owned wildlife management areas. The commission meets in Helena Thursday to consider on the idea. Unlike the vast majority of the commentators, Domenech and his associates say they support such a ban, or at least, they say, there's enough question about the effects of lead on wildlife - and people - that Montana ought to begin educating hunters about the benefits of lead alternative ammunition. Gary Marbut, executive director of the Montana Shooting Sports Association, said that the agency made no scientific case in favor of the ban and that hunters and gun owners have reason to be suspicious of such proposals... http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_7f364060-1513-11df-9e8f-001cc4c002e0.html --- Non Sequitur from New Jersey Attorney: ...Contrary to the argument that guns are an invaluable asset for home protection, they are in fact virtually useless. Proper weapon maintenance requires that the gun be "safe-kept" after use. That means the weapon should be checked to be sure it is unloaded and then securely "locked down." Locking down the weapon requires that it be secured, preferably under lock and key. Having checked the weapon to be sure it is unloaded, the ammunition should then be safe-kept in another locked location. This prevents an unauthorized user, whether a child, intoxicated individual, impulsive personality type or criminal, from creating mayhem while blasting away with the "home protection device." So what happens when one hears window glass breaking as an intruder attempts to enter? If the firearm is safely secured, there won't be enough time to confront a criminal with your weapon. A burglar is not going to wait while you unlock the gun and go to another location to load up with bullets. But to do otherwise, that is, ignore safe weapon handling practices and keep the gun on the nightstand fully loaded, only invites disaster... (There is absolutely no maintenance requirement that a firearm be locked away unloaded after cleaning. This practice may be recommended for sporting guns but does not apply to those in use for defensive purposes.) http://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/iannarelli_020910.html --- Self-Defense Shooter Faces Lawsuit: The mother of a man whose death was ruled justified under Florida's "stand your ground" law filed a wrongful death lawsuit Friday against the man who shot her son. A civil complaint in Hillsborough Circuit Court says that Charles Podany, 49, acted "with reckless disregard" when he shot 24-year-old Casey Landes on Feb. 29, 2008, in a neighborhood dispute... Podany had been bicycling through the neighborhood near his Bay Hills Circle home on the night of the incident when he asked a man in a fast-driving pickup to slow down, according to sheriff's and court records. After Podany and the driver spoke with each other, Landes, who was a passenger in the truck, approached and began beating Podany. Podany fell to the ground. Landes jumped on top of him. That's when Podany retrieved his .40-caliber Glock and shot Landes in the head, killing him, according to records. A toxicology report showed Landes had a blood alcohol level of 0.28 at the time of his death. Florida law presumes a driver is impaired with a level higher than 0.08... http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/civil/exonerated-stand-your-ground-defendant-faces-lawsuit-in-hillsborough-county/1071783 --- Survival Gun?: Beretta U.S.A. recently introduced its new U22 Neos Carbine Kit, adding another level of performance and modularity to its U22 Neos pistol product line. The new carbine kit, which is now shipping to dealers and distributors, is ideal for target shooting and for hunting small game. According to Gabriele de Plano, Vice President of Tactical Marketing at Beretta USA, the addition of this carbine kit further enhances the versatility of the U22 Neos by allowing the user to transform the pistol into a handy plinker carbine or lightweight camp gun. The kit may be disassembled for easy and compact transportation. The U22 Neos Carbine Kit includes a barrel/fore-end/top rail assembly and a stock unit that easily replaces the pistol's barrel and grip using the supplied multi-purpose tool. A TRUGLO^(TM) orange fiber optic front sight is standard, as well as a fully adjustable aperture rear sight, to provide fast target acquisition. Both sights are removable and replaceable. The barrel features a built-in machined aluminum Weaver^(TM)-style rail that allows mounting of optics using standard mounts. The stock features a rubber butt plate, as well as attachment slots for future accessories. Every U22 Neos pistol and carbine may be accessorized with a complete line of products. The Kit is also approved for sale in California. (I have no experience with the parent pistol so I am unable to comment about accuracy or reliability.) http://www.policeone.com/police-products/firearms/accessories/press-releases/2000681-Beretta-Adds-Carbine-Kit-for-U22-Neos-and-Expands-Versatility-of-Product/ --- More Guatemalan Women Arm Themselves: The climate of insecurity in Guatemala is forcing women to arm themselves to protect themselves and their families, the official Diario de Centroamerica newspaper said Monday. A report by the daily says that, regardless of their profession, more and more women are acquiring weapons and are registering them with the Digecam regulatory agency. Some 9,200 weapons have been registered at that agency in the name of women, a figure that represents 4 percent of the total weapons registered. Digecam assistant director Guillermo Mejia said that while it is not very common for women to approach the institution, each day they are showing more interest in carrying a firearm for self-defense. What is motivating women to arm themselves, the official told the daily, is the need to feel more secure and protected, because many of the women own businesses and have been the victims of crime. Many of the women have received professional training on how to fire their weapons and others have been shown how to do so by their husbands or sons, Mejia said... http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=351938&CategoryId=23558 -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. The tactics and skills to use a firearm in self-defense don't come naturally with the right to keep and bear arms. http://www.spw-duf.info .