A List Member Replies: About your "Unintended Consequences" clip today, you comment "(The original Gun Free School Zones Act, struck down in 1995, was replaced in 1996 and the later statute has never been challenged.)" Close, but not quite complete. Despite all of the conversation (good conversation) in the Supreme Court's Lopez decision about the reach of federal (interstate) Commerce Clause power, the SC actually struck down the federal Gun Free School Zones Act because Congress failed to include in the original enactment any findings that a gun in a school zone may have traveled in interstate commerce, thus triggering federal Commerce Clause power. So, Congress simply re-enacted the federal GFSZA with findings that a gun in a school zone likely had traveled in interstate commerce. This exact point will be an interesting one in our progressing litigation, MSSA v. Holder, to validate the principles of the Montana Firearms Freedom Act, which declares that any firearms made and retained in Montana are beyond the power given to Congress to "regulate" (make regular) commerce "among" (between) the states. That is, the MFFA is essentially a trump on the flaw the SC identified in the original GFSZA, a flaw that Congress subsequently exploited to reenact the GFSZA with purported authority. Best wishes, Gary Marbut, president Montana Shooting Sports Association http://www.mtssa.org --- Firearms Freedom Acts: Yesterday, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed HB 2307-Arizona's version of the Firearms Freedom Act, into law. This makes six states (Monatana, Tennessee, Utah, Wyoming, and South Dakota are the others) that have some version of the Firearms Freedom Act on the books as law. Idaho will become the seventh, if and when Governor Butch Otter signs Idaho House Bill 589 into law, as expected. For those unfamiliar with the FFA, it's a challenge to the federal government's grotesquely expansive use of the insterstate commerce clause to regulate - well . . . everything, whether it has anything to do with interstate commerce, or not. Thus, the FFA stipulates that firearms (and ammunition, and firearms accessories) manufactured wholly within the state, and then kept in the state, are not subject to federal law... http://www.examiner.com/x-2581-St-Louis-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2010m4d6-Firearms-Freedom-Act-still-picking-up-steam --- Lexington, Concord and the Second Amendment March: April 19 means different things to different people, and that is no doubt going to be significant in how the press covers the upcoming Second Amendment March planned on the anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord that ignited the American Revolution in 1775. For MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, it might mean taking every opportunity to link the march - the brainchild of Michigan gun rights activist and Grand Rapids Gun Rights Examiner Skip Coryell - with the insanity of the Oklahoma City bombing, which, itself, was done as some sort of payback for the Branch Davidian debacle. Incredibly, one member of The High Road forum - a typically well-mannered discussion board operated by Oleg Volk - actually drank Maddow's Kool Aid and took the rant one step farther, assigning responsibility for the march to the Second Amendment Foundation based in Bellevue. That may come as a surprise to SAF's Alan Gottlieb, who isn't even speaking at the event (although my colleague, David Codrea, is), according to the current roster of speakers. Coryell's march is not a march at all, but a gathering at the Washington Monument... http://www.examiner.com/x-4525-Seattle-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2010m4d5-Second-Amendment-March-two-weeks-from-today I have written to the organizers of the March to suggest that they offer much more prominent warnings about D.C.'s restrictive laws, and I think this would also be advisable for people promoting the event in various states. Right now, the Second Amendment March merely notes that D.C. laws "prohibit carrying firearms in public." That is certainly true, but there are a lot of other prohibitions as well, retained in the 2009 rewrite of the D.C. gun laws that was upheld by a federal judge last week. The currently effective D.C. laws are much more restrictive than those in effect in most states, including even Maryland... The D.C. event will be closely scrutinized, I suspect, by ranking officers in multiple agencies who are not in sympathy with its purposes, who will be looking for violations of any of the D.C. gun laws. And, unless the March promoters step up their warnings, I expect we'll be reading about arrests in the April 20 edition of the Washington Post. http://www.ammoland.com/2010/04/06/second-amendment-march-d-c-laws-on-ammunition-magazines/ --- The Beat Goes On: Those who have been tracking the sales of firearms recently will not be surprised at the accompanying chart, which shows the leading months for background checks based on the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System. All federally licensed firearms retailers must conduct a mandatory NICS check before completing the retail sale of any new or used firearm, making NICS statistics a solid indicator of firearms sales... So while speculation of just when the bubble will burst for the shooting and hunting industry, firearms sales remain strong in an otherwise weak economy. (NICS checks are an indicator, not a measure of sales. For one thing, in many states, such as Arizona, dealers are not required to conduct a NICS check if the purchaser presents a qualifying firearm permit from that state [http://www.atf.gov/firearms/brady-law/permit-chart.html].) http://www.opposingviews.com/i/a-surge-of-a-different-sort-firearm-sales-remain-strong-in-weak-economy --- Kaiser Permanente vs. the RKBA: I received the following from a colleague, who, due to the personal nature of medical information, wishes to remain anonymous: "My wife came home from her OBGYN tonight and showed me a health form they provided her for her visit. I've attached the form and blocked out her personal information. If you look at the last line of the "personal care instructions" you'll see that they recommend she keep all guns unloaded and locked in a cabinet. This struck me as odd because I can't figure out what this has to do with OBGYN health? ..." (I was employed by Kaiser for a little over 15 years. I know it was a thorn in their side that the surgeon who founded Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership [http://www.claremont.org/projects/projectid.39/project_detail.asp] and I, a DRGO advisory-board member, both worked for Kaiser. At one point, a Kaiser physician affiliated with the Progressive organization Physicians for Social Responsibility obtained permission to circulate to fellow physicians a questionnaire which included questions about firearm ownership. As permission had already been granted for the facility where I worked, we were only able to block its distribution at the other Kaiser facilities in the Southern California Region. Several gun-owning Kaiser physicians at the facility where I worked told me that they would not return the questionnaire with those questions yet, they are apparently now required to distribute this erroneous advice to their patients.) http://www.examiner.com/x-1417-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2010m4d6-Is-gun-safety-prescibed-by-Kaiser-Permanente-based-on-science-or-politics --- "No Loaded Firearms" - A Case Study: Recently a Casper store that sells sporting goods including firearms placed a "no loaded firearms" sign at the entrance. This would disarm all that will comply and deem such individuals defenseless. But before you say anything, let's hear their side of the story... The manager of Rocky Mountain Discount Sports in Casper stated that "the sign went up after an incident where an individual had their firearm un-holstered inside the store", apparently this individual came into the store then decided to have a show and tell session... The manager of Rocky Mountain Discount Sports in Casper said he was sorry for any inconvenience this has caused and the store will not ban individuals that have a holstered and loaded firearm, including open-carry. He also said: "The sign will be taken down". I believe his actions deserve our very best and in addition to patronizing the store, exercising proper firearm etiquette while visiting would be most prudent. http://www.examiner.com/x-25069-Cheyenne-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2010m4d3-Casper-store-no-guns-allowed-resolved --- Open Carry in Las Vegas: Just about everybody on the Metro Police force has heard of Tim Farrell, and he sometimes gets mistaken for a law enforcement officer. Farrell is simply a 29-year-old wireless Internet engineer - and a gun rights crusader. He is one of what appears to be a growing number of people taking up the "open-carry" cause, advocating a constitutional right to openly carry firearms... That's why a dozen or so people who attended the March 27 Tea Party rally in Searchlight were able to openly carry firearms. One was Dave Stilwell, a 44-year-old truck driver from Las Vegas who always carries a gun for self-defense. He says he was jogging back from a garage sale near his house one morning last May with his .45-caliber pistol on his hip. Around Jones Boulevard and Cheyenne Avenue, a Metro patrol car rolled up slowly behind him. A shopkeeper had called police after seeing the gun, said the officer, who took the pistol from Stilwell, removed the magazine and the bullet in the chamber, checked the ID number on the gun and then returned the weapon and ammunition to Stilwell before driving away... (Open carry is a crucial issue in Las Vegas, thanks to the foolish policies of the Nevada Sheriffs' and Chiefs' Association in the interpretation of recognition of out-of-state carry permits. Las Vegas Metro PD has a reputation for arresting open-carriers for disorderly conduct if someone phones in a complaint. If these few brave souls can reverse that policy, travel to Nevada may become a more viable option.) http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/apr/07/nevadans-are-free-don-their-arms-open/ --- While in Illinois...: Illinois is, of course, one of only two states (Wisconsin is the other) with no provision for legal concealed carry by private citizens. Actually, since Wisconsin prohibits only concealed carry and not open carry, Illinois could be thought of as the most draconian state, in terms of armed self-defense in public. Even states that are (in)famously hostile to private gun ownership and use, like California, New Jersey, and New York, don't utterly rule out defensive handgun carry, although issuance (or not) of a permit in those states tends to come down to the political connections of the applicant (or lack thereof). So ingrained in the culture of much of Illinois is the acceptance of state mandated defenselessness, that bringing the state out of its current violent criminal-friendly Dark Age will first require altering that culture. Efforts to bring about that change are now underway in earnest, thanks to the folks at IllinoisCarry.com, who have organized a series of "Right to Carry Town Hall Meetings"... (Let us not forget that while nine states have may-issue provisions to license their residents for concealed carry, some of those states do not issue the permits and most of them do so arbitrarily.) http://www.examiner.com/x-2581-St-Louis-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2010m4d5-Educating-the-Illinois-public-about-defensive-handgun-carry --- Shall-Issue Bill Founders in California: A bill that would change the way California sheriffs and police chiefs grant concealed weapons permits was voted down in Sacramento Tuesday, but analysts say it may not be dead. Kern County has more concealed weapons permits issued than any other county in the state. Los Angeles County issued only a few last year, but in Kern, 5,000 to 6,000 people carry the permits. The Republican assemblyman who introduced the bill says he wants a uniform standard set by the state for determining who gets CCW permits. Right now requirements include an eight hour safety course, a background check and the determination of whether the applicant really needs the permit. It's that last part, the discretion of the sheriff or police chief considering the application, that rankles some people... The bill was voted down Tuesday, but it was granted reconsideration, and will likely be brought back for another vote before the end of the legislative session. http://www.kget.com/news/local/story/Legislators-consider-new-CCW-regulations/mqIKEBK_MUm5c00wFSOkXA.cspx --- Empty-Holster Week: American colleges generally ban weapons on campus, a violation of the Second Amendment right to bear arms, according to Central Connecticut State University's Riflery and Marksmanship Club. Members are taking part in the national Empty Holster Protest, wearing empty holsters on their belts all week to call attention to their gun-free status. Monday afternoon, the Riflery Club members met in the Student Center's Blue and White Room to discuss the week's events. The table was covered with posters the students planned to post at various spots throughout the campus. One showed a gun in a slashed circle and the words "Gun Free Zone. Because it worked so well at:" followed by a list of nearly two dozen universities that saw mass shootings despite laws designating those schools "gun-free zones." ...The students will wear their empty holsters all week, and Saturday plan to participate in a planned Second Amendment March on Hartford... http://www.newbritainherald.com/articles/2010/04/05/news/doc4bba976d01a19346207607.txt --- Washington Councilman Would Curtail Preemption: Who does Snohomish County Council Chairman Dave Gossett think he's kidding? The other day - April Fool's Day, in fact - Gossett was quoted by the Everett Herald, offering the following argument in his contention that the state's model preemption statute, which places sole authority for firearms regulation in the hands of the State Legislature, needs to be amended: "For myself," he told the newspaper,"I'm really uncomfortable about giving a blank check to folks to bring whatever firearms they want to county parks. Under the state, the way the law is written, you could get a group of gang-bangers with AK-47s and shotguns just intimidate everybody by being there." That is not only wrong, it is utter nonsense. If Gossett didn't know it at the time, he probably knows it now, and if not, he will likely get an education on April 21, when the council has a public hearing on a proposal to lift an existing - and illegal - ban on firearms in Snohomish County parks. That proposal will include, the newspaper said, a provision that calls on the Legislature to amend the state preemption statute so people like hoplophobic Gossett can set local gun laws... http://www.examiner.com/x-4525-Seattle-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2010m4d6-Snohomish-County-councilman-misrepresents-law-to-push-antigun-agenda --- What a Difference a Gun Makes: San Antonio [TX] police Tuesday morning arrested a man suspected of stabbing another man in what they said was an attempted theft at a far North Side home... Sgt. Tobe Whitley said the victim saw a man attempting to break into his truck parked in the driveway of his home in the 15800 block of Lomita Springs, near Loop 1604 and O'Connor Road, around 7:30 a.m. The two struggled after the homeowner confronted the man. During the scuffle, the victim thought Alzapiedi had punched him only to find moments later that he'd been stabbed, the report states. The suspect then ran away, Whitley said, leaving behind his gray truck, which had several pieces of lawn equipment in the bed. Moments later, a witness saw Alzapiedi running down the street with a bloody knife and confronted him, Whitley said. "The witness could tell, definitely, that something wasn't right," he said. "The suspect threatened the witness with the knife," he said, and then dropped it when the witness - a concealed handgun carrier - showed the suspect his weapon... (Leaving the home to confront a thief is a risky proposition in the first place, more so if one is not armed.) http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/Homeowner_stabbed_on_far_North_Side.html --- Oops, Wrong House: A Parksville [NY] man shot and killed a large adult black bear that was menacing his daughter at her Parksville home Sunday. The woman was inside with her four children. The bear attempted to break into a bedroom window of the home and swatted at the dog on the porch, said State Department of Environmental Conservation spokeswoman Wendy Rosenbach. EnCon and State Police were called to the scene, but before they arrived, the woman called her father, who came over. He fired a warning shot, but the bear did not budge, so he shot and killed the animal. Rosenbach said the bear had been tagged and had been a nuisance to others before. No charges were filed against the man who shot the animal. Rosenbach had advice for people to help deter bears from wandering near their homes. Wash out trash cans with ammonia and put them out as close to garbage pickup as possible, and pay attention to where they hang birdfeeders as bears love them too. http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2010/April/05/Bear_shot-05Apr10.htm --- US Army Upgrades Rifle Training: The U.S. Army has made more changes to its marksmanship program. Now, troops must go through a firing range that involves taking cover, rapid reloading, and hitting difficult to see targets. Troops wear full battle gear, and are graded on speed, as well as accuracy. Since September 11, 2001, soldiers have been firing their rifles a lot more each year, and in more imaginative training situations. In the last decade, army trainees have gone from firing 300 rounds in basic, to 500 (for non-infantry) and 730 (infantry). There's also been a big increase in the number of rounds fired by everyone each year for training... The U.S. Marine Corps has also added more of the very realistic firing situations. But the marines still put lots of emphasis on basic shooting skills. This is the old "known distance" firing. But this is in support of the "combat firing", and performance there counts a lot more towards your qualification score. If you cannot demonstrate a certain degree of accuracy firing a rifle, at annual "qualifications," you can no longer be a marine... http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htinf/articles/20100407.aspx --- Canada Poised to Scrap Long-Gun Registration: After nearly 20 years, Canada appears poised to end one of its boldest experiments in gun control - the required registration of long guns, or shotguns and hunting rifles. Last November, a bill to abolish the Long-Gun Registry, enacted in 1995 and gradually phased in through 2003, passed a second reading in the Canadian House of Commons by a tally of 164 to 137. It faces a third and final reading in that chamber later this year; prospects are good for passage in the Canadian Senate. The bill would delete from federal law the obligation to register so-called nonrestricted firearms, though licensing requirements for long-gun owners to buy or possess firearms and to buy ammunition would remain in place. The legislation would also require all registration information collected to date to be destroyed. About 7 million long guns have been registered, but as many as 8 million guns, according to various estimates, have not been in what many say is outright defiance. The Conservative government has also extended to May 16, 2011, an existing amnesty for rifle and shotgun owners facing charges for failing to register their firearms... http://www.lakelandtimes.com/main.asp?SectionID=9&SubSectionID=9&ArticleID=11192 Public hearings on legislation to abolish the long gun registry will be held in May and by early June, it could be sent to the House of Commons to await a final vote. Now, anti-registry activists are worried that opposition MPs who favour keeping the registry will dominate the committee studying it and will try to gut it. They are organizing a national lobby to try to convince Liberal and New Democratic parties to appoint MPs to the public safety committee who voted in favour of the bill in November. As it stands, the majority of MPs on the committee that will study the bill voted against it at second reading in November. At that time, the anti-registry bill was approved in principle by a vote of 164 to 137, with 20 mostly rural Liberal and NDP MPs voting for it... http://www.producer.com/News/Article.aspx?aid=20728 --- Meanwhile, in California...: A California Democrat is proposing a new law requiring residents to register their shotguns and rifles or go to jail, CBSNews.com has learned. Assemblyman Mike Feuer, whose district includes Beverly Hill and West Hollywood, this week introduced legislation ordering law enforcement to "permanently keep" records of anyone who buys a gun from a dealer or an individual. California already stores information about handgun purchases. Feuer is no friend of firearms owners: his previous legislative effort, which Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law, required all new handguns to include "microstamping" technology that can imprint serial numbers on spent ammunition casings. As a Los Angeles city councilman, Feuer proposed limiting city residents to one gun a month. Feuer spokeswoman Arianna Smith declined to answer questions about the bill on Tuesday afternoon, saying the staff member involved was in a meeting and not immediately available... (The description of the bill is vague. Currently California residents must go through a Dealer Record Of Sale [DROS] process that involves a waiting period. The DROS process for handguns creates a registry. As far as I know, the current DROS process for long guns does not list the specific firearm being transferred.) http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504383_162-20001885-504383.html --- Tangentially Related: Appellate court nominee Goodwin Liu writes in a new letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he mistakenly omitted scores of materials from a background questionnaire, and he apologized to senators for not being complete in his initial response... Republicans reacted to the omissions today with outrage, requesting that the committee's chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), delay a planned April 16 hearing on Liu's nomination. Last month, they criticized Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. for omitting materials during his confirmation process. Monday's letter (PDF, Page 84) is the fourth time Liu has supplemented his nomination materials since he initially submitted them in late February. In the latest correspondence, he writes that he missed some public appearances that he should have known about initially and that he did not think to include appearances at such occasions as brown bag lunches and alumni gatherings... http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2010/04/goodwin-liu-offers-sincere-and-humblest-apology-to-senators.html Senate Republicans on Tuesday slammed one of the Obama administration's most controversial judicial nominees for failing to initially disclose more than 100 of his speeches, publications and other background materials - an omission the Republicans called unprecedented and a possible attempt to "hide his most controversial work." ...The complaint came after Liu, a Berkeley law professor, gave the Senate Judiciary Committee a bundle of supplemental material that contained 117 things he left out after his February nomination. Among the items disclosed were several speeches on affirmative action and his participation at an event co-sponsored by the Center for Social Justice at Berkeley and the the National Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy group. In response to the new information, all seven Republicans on the Judiciary Committee fired off a letter to its chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., demanding that Liu's hearing be postponed again... http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04/06/republicans-slam-obama-nominee-omissions-record/?test=latestnews ...Every year, thousands of people find themselves caught up in the government's terrorist screening process. Some are legitimate targets of concern, others are victims of errors in judgment or simple mistaken identity. Either way, their numbers are likely to rise as the Obama administration recalibrates the standards for identifying potential terrorists, in response to intelligence failures that let a would-be bomber fly to Detroit from Amsterdam last Christmas. On Friday, the administration altered rules for identifying which passengers flying to the United States should face extra scrutiny at the gate. And it is reviewing ways to make it easier to place suspects on the watch list... (Not surprisingly, The New York Times avoids all mention of legislation to deny lawful firearm purchases to those who appear on these secret lists.) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/us/07watch.html?ref=us&pagewanted=all -- 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 .