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Alabama House Finally Passes Stand-Your-Ground Bill: After several
tries, Alabama's House of Representatives finally agreed on a bill that
removed the duty to retreat before resorting to deadly force in the face
of many criminal attacks and also immunizes the defender against lawsuits.
http://www.wtvynews4.com/news/headlines/2545836.html
---
Confidentiality Not Covered By Kansas CCW Legislation: It appears that
the bill that created licensed CCW for Kansas failed to address the
issue of privacy of records. Its sponsor hopes that confidentiality will
be part of subsequent regulations.
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/mar/31/concealed_carry_sponsor_concerned_about_privacy_re/?kansas_legislature
---
Kansas Cops Split Over CCW: Police officials in Sedgwick County do not
agree on the benefits of allowing the public they are sworn to serve to
obtain licenses to carry concealed handguns. (It's amazing how police
executives can ignore the experience of their brethren in other states,
who have generally found licensees to be the most law-abiding and
cooperative citizens.)
http://www.arkvalleynews.com/web/isite.dll?1143810469671
---
DeLay Should Rely On Lawyers For Protection: The Houston Chronicle
editorializes against the efforts of Tom DeLay to regains his CHL, which
was suspended following his politically motivated indictment on felony
charges. The paper counsels him to leave his handgun at home and rely
on his lawyers for protection.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/3760616.html
---
Disparity Of Force?: What do you call it when one Navy SEAL threatens to
kill another with his bare hands and is shot fatally when he persists in
his attack? Prosecutors in Virginia Beach VA are calling the shooting
second-degree murder. (If an ordinary person is threatened by an
individual highly trained in unarmed fighting skills it is a disparity
of force, which may justify resorting to deadly force by the defender.)
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1137835057812&path=!news&s=1045855934842
---
Do Criminals Wear Body Armor? One of several arguments for placing shots
in the pelvic area is that most body armor does not extend below the
belt. Here is an incident from Ohio in which a convicted drug dealer,
who lost a gunfight with state troopers, was found to be wearing a
ballistic vest.
http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-33/1143513245177530.xml&storylist=newsmichigan
---
Winchester Plant Has Closed: Article from England announces the layoff
of the remaining employees and reviews the firm's history.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C11069-2113500%2C00.html
Related Article:
http://www.rep-am.com/story.php?id=4857
---
Oops, Wrong Building: A Japanese burglar found himself in a bear hug by
289-pound sumo wrestler after he tried to take advantage of an unlocked
door in a building where 20 of the wrestlers were staying.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/31032006/323/shocked-burglar-arrested-sumo-wrestlers.html
---
Interesting Approach In Venezuela: The mayor of Caracas, the capital
city, is proposing to take up to 2,000 handguns being replaced by the
Metropolitan Police and distribute them to "neighborhood security
groups." (No information is provided as to the political make-up of
those groups.)
http://www.thedailyjournalonline.com/article.asp?CategoryId=10717&ArticleId=233446
---
From Gun Week:
New Orleans Attorney Says NRA, SAF Have 'No Standing'
by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
In a game of words and legal briefs, the latest play run by the attorney
representing the city of New Orleans in a lawsuit filed against the
municipality by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and National Rifle
Association (NRA) has been to claim that neither organization has legal
standing to file such a lawsuit on behalf of members in the city.
In a separate motion, responding to a move by NRA and SAF to have New
Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin and Police Superintendent Warren Riley held
in contempt for failing to comply with a court order issued in
September, New Orleans attorney Joseph V. DiRosa Jr. said the city has
not been able to find any allegedly seized firearms owned by citizens in
the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Also, DiRosa contends in his response to
the court that, "Assuming . . . that the allegations" about gun seizures
are true, "record keeping during those times were spotty at best."
DiRosa said the New Orleans Police Department complex "has been
abandoned due to the flood waters, including the Central Property and
Evidence Room, located below ground in the basement of the building." He
also argues that NRA, SAF and citizens who submitted affidavits telling
how their guns were seized "have yet to provide any proof of ownership
or even identifying information on the weapons allegedly seized."
SAF and NRA took the city and neighboring St. Tammany Parish to federal
court last September following several reports that police were seizing
firearms from law-abiding citizens following the monster storm. On some
occasions, citizens were disarmed at gunpoint, by roving groups of
police, often from out of state. Those police came to the city to help
restore order after looters and other criminals had taken control of New
Orleans streets.
In his latest motion regarding dismissal of the lawsuit DiRosa noted
that "An association has standing to file suit on behalf of its members
only when its members would have standing to sue in their own right;
when the interests at stake are germane to the organization's purpose;
and when neither the claim asserted nor the relief requested requires
individual participation in the lawsuit."
This is exactly why SAF participated in the lawsuit, said SAF founder
Alan Gottlieb. The city was in chaos, and the organization has hundreds
of members and supporters in the New Orleans area who simply, on their
own, could not just head for the nearest federal courthouse to demand a
restraining order against the authorities, he explained.
"Those three criteria fit perfectly here," added plaintiffs' attorney
Steve Halbrook, who noted that DiRosa "has filed no motion to dismiss
for lack of standing, he only throws that in, in a reply brief on a
different subject."
DiRosa further argues that "the Second Amendment does not create a
constitutional right or protection vis-�-vis a municipal defendant, and
merely pleading that it does, does not create subject matter jurisdiction."
In his brief to the court opposing a motion for contempt filed last
month by SAF and NRA attorneys, DiRosa argued that the city has "been
unable to locate any such weapons in possession of the New Orleans
Police Department."
However, in their original motion, NRA and SAF attorneys referred to
witnesses, including New Orleans police officers, who are willing to
testify that New Orleans cops did take guns from hurricane survivors.
Prominent attorney Ashton O'Dwyer was disarmed by New Orleans police,
and an unidentified officer, quoted in the NRA/SAF motion, stated, "I am
not real proud of it, but if they were nice, most of the guys kept them,
if they were crap, they tossed them in the river or in the canal."
In nearly all of the gun seizures, gunowners were not given any receipt
by police for the firearms that were taken. In some cases, though,
people have been able to get their firearms returned.
This article is provided free by GunWeek.com.
For more great gun news, subscribe to our print edition.
VPC Focuses on Drop in FFLs As Gun Sales Remain Constant
by Joseph P. Tartaro, Executive Editor
April 1, 2006
In 1992, the Violence Policy Center (VPC) issued an anti-gun study
entitled "More Gun Dealers Than Gas Stations." That study claimed that
the number of Americans who then held Type 1 federal firearms licenses
(FFLs) outnumbered gas stations 245,000 to 210,000.
The main target of the VPC report was the so-called kitchen-table or
part-time gun dealer that the anti-gunners illogically linked to an
illegal trade in firearms. They ignored sociological studies of a
comparable era which proved that few criminals obtain their firearms
from licensed dealers--or even at gun shows, another bugaboo of the
anti-gun community.
However, coming as it did during the Clinton Administration, which was
more than receptive to new restrictions on firearms owners and the
firearms industry, the VPC study led to changes in federal regulations
and law. At the direction of the White House, the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) began denying new licenses or license
renewals to people who could not demonstrate enough firearms sales to
qualify as being "engaged in the business."
Then, as part of the 1993 Brady Act, the license fees for new FFLs were
increased from $10 a year to $200 for the first three years and $90 for
each three-year renewal period, and applicants for new FFLs or renewals
were required to notify the chief law enforcement officer of their
community of their intent to apply for a license.
The next year, with passage of the Clinton gun ban, applicants were
required to submit photographs and fingerprints with their FFL
applications, as well as proof that their businesses complied with all
state and local laws, including zoning laws.
While the FFL fee increase may have contributed some to a decline in the
number of licensees, the zoning laws probably accounted for the greatest
reduction in their number.
Relevance
Back in 1992, no one seemed to question the relevance of an equation
linking the number of FFLs to gas stations, and apparently no one is
giving that much thought today, as the VPC issues an update on its FFL
vs. gas station study. The new study, issued in March, is entitled "An
Analysis of the Decline in Gun Dealers: 1994 to 2005." As with most VPC
activities which lack grassroots support among the American people, the
new study was largely funded by grants from several foundations,
including The Herb Block Foundation, the David Bohnett Foundation, the
Joyce Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Needless to say, the latest VPC report was greeted with much joy in the
anti-gun community.
GunGuys.com noted:
"A word of good news from the VPC today: the number of gun dealers in
the United States since 1994 has gone into freefall-from 245,628 then to
54,902 in 2005.
"The number of gun dealers in America has dropped by 190,726 since 1994
according to a new study released today by the Violence Policy Center.
They found that the number of Type 1 FFLs plummeted 78%: from 245,628 in
1994 to 54,902 in 2005."
According to the anti-gunners, the 1992 VPC publication focused national
attention on "abuses by FFL holders" and surmised that the bulk of the
FFLs were held by what they termed "illegitimate" kitchen-table dealers
who operated out of their homes, garages or offices. They go on to
claim, without any evidence, that an unknown percentage of these
"kitchen-table" dealers were actively involved in criminal gun trafficking.
The new VPC study claims that as the result of policy recommendations
contained in the first study: "today only five states have more gun
dealers than gas stations."
The chart in the study claims that those five states are Alaska, Idaho,
Montana, Oregon, and Wyoming. Why this is significant or relevant, I
don't know.
Truth is, there are a lot of reasons why the number of gun dealers has
been declining, some of which have to do with new trends in retailing.
Since the 1992 study was issued, large sporting goods chain stores have
been building box stores all over the country and some chains have been
buying up other chains. Faced with competing against the big guys, more
and more small retailers have been closing their doors.
Meanwhile, the number of gas stations has also been declining for
reasons that have to do with aftermarket automobile service and changes
from gas stations to neighborhood delicatessens.
Crime Down
GunGuys.com may think this is good news, but why is not clear. For
reasons that sociologists and criminologists believe have little to do
with gun laws, violent crime has also been in a freefall. At the same
time, while there may be fewer Type 1 FFLs in America, the number of
guns being sold and in private possession has been increasing.
If the VPC focus on the number of federally licensed gun dealers ever
had any relevance, it would seem to be somewhere out in left field today.
While the Brady Act which first required a waiting period for a
background check for prospective handgun buyers only went into affect in
1994, the transition to the National Instant Check System (NICS) for all
firearms purchases didn't replace the waiting period until Nov. 30,
1998. From that date through Dec. 31, 2004, the FBI reports that a total
of 53,107,772 background checks have been conducted through NICS. Of
these, 26,993,482 were processed by the federal NICS Section and
26,114,290 were processed by the NICS Point-of-Contact (POC) states.
(The FBI also reports that from Nov. 30, 1998, to Dec. 31, 2004, the
NICS Section has denied a total of 406,728 firearm transfers and
witnessed a steady decrease in the national denial rate. The NICS denial
rate [based on NICS Section statistics only] decreased from 1.43%
reported in 2002 to 1.36% in 2004.)
Roughly 8.5 million transactions have cleared through the NICS system
every year for the last five years, with about half going though the
FBI's federal NICS center and the other half going though the POC
states. No matter how many FFLs are issued, the figures on new and used
firearm sales have been pretty constant.
VPC Wish List
But ignoring that fact, the VPC report concludes with a series of seven
recommendations for policy actions:
1. All federally licensed firearms dealers should be required to
operate from a storefront business, not a residence. Licenses should be
limited to businesses devoted primarily to the sale of firearms. Gun
shops should be conspicuously identified to the public as such. This
will reduce the number of dealers ATF must monitor.
2. ATF should have the authority to suspend a dealer's license or
assess civil penalties--in addition to revocation authority--when a
dealer violates the law.
3. ATF's ability to inspect a licensee's premises to ensure
compliance with recordkeeping and other requirements should be expanded
from once a year to at least four times per year.
4. The "loophole" which allows dealers to divert firearms from their
business inventory to their "personal collections" and then sell those
guns without performing the Brady background check should be eliminated.
5. Dealers should be required to safely and securely store their
inventories of firearms.
6. Local law enforcement agencies and regulators should closely
monitor dealers in their areas to ensure that they are in compliance
with all applicable local laws including business licensing, zoning, and
any pertinent local firearm restrictions such as bans on "assault
weapons" and "armor-piercing" ammunition.
7. Congress should rescind the provision included in ATF's fiscal
year 2005 and 2006 spending authorizations prohibiting the agency from
denying licenses to persons who do not meet the "engaged in the
business" test for business activity.
Stay tuned.
This article is provided free by GunWeek.com.
For more great gun news, subscribe to our print edition.
--
Stephen P. Wenger
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
