Michigan AG Supports RKBA: ...The rights guaranteed in the Bill of Right
are individual. The Third and Fifth Amendments protect individual
property owners; the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Amendments protect
potential individual criminal defendants from unreasonable searches,
involuntary incrimination, appearing in court without an attorney,
excessive bail, and cruel and unusual punishments. Consider the grammar.
The Second Amendment is about the right to "keep and bear arms." Before
the conjunction "and" there is a right to "keep," meaning to possess.
This word would be superfluous if the Second Amendment were only about
bearing arms as part of the state militia. Reading these words to
restrict the right to possess arms strains common rules of composition...
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007711280338
---
Related Article:
http://redstradingpost.blogspot.com/2007/11/where-does-your-attorney-general-stand.html
---
A Chance To Help Heller: Academics for the Second Amendment ("A2A") will
be filing an amicus brief in the US Supreme Court in support of Mr.
Heller (and urging the Supreme Court to affirm the Court of Appeals
decision that the DC gun laws are unconstitutional). Our brief will be
written by attorneys David Hardy and Joseph Olson with historical
assistance from Clayton Cramer. As one of the several pro-gun amici,
we'll be taking an approach that focuses on the ratification process in
1791 and the meaning and usage of terms found in the Second Amendment.
We will show that no one in America, at that time, could have understood
the amendment to preserve a state or government organization's "right"
and that everyone who did speak out did so in the context of a
meaningful individual right to keep and bear arms...We need your help.
If you believe in full and fair discourse on the Bill of Rights, A2A
should receive your support. A2A is open to all. You don't have to be
"academic" in order to join. Your contributions are tax deductible.
http://academicssecondamendment.blogspot.com/2007/11/how-to-help-win-supreme-court-right-to.html
---
Virginia Governor Wants Gun-Show Checks: Gov. Timothy M. Kaine called
Tuesday for new restrictions on firearm sales at gun shows but stopped
short of declaring passage of the legislation as a high priority for the
2008 General Assembly session. Under current law, background checks on
buyers are not required by unlicensed dealers who privately sell and
trade firearms at the shows. Kaine endorsed closing the loophole, saying
it provides an opening for felons and mentally ill people to buy weapons
they are otherwise forbidden to purchase. (The student who perpetrated
the massacre at Virginia Tech did not buy his firearms at gun shows.)
http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=137667&ran=1034
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It's All Bush's Fault: The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department is
building up an arsenal of bigger weapons. Handguns and shotguns are no
longer enough, and officers are being equipped with semiautomatic
assault rifles instead...This surge of deaths stemming from
semiautomatic assault weapons seems unnecessary. In 1994, President
Clinton signed a law banning the sale of these weapons. But in 2004,
President Bush and Congress allowed that ban to expire. Since then,
Congress has made it illegal to keep nationwide statistics data on
crimes committed with assault weapons.
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=3919547
Related Commentary:
http://redstradingpost.blogspot.com/2007/11/abc-news-displaying-its-bias-against.html
---
Republican Candidates On Guns: (I think these are quotes from the
YouTube debate.)
..Eric in Phoenix asks the candidates about their gun collection.
Thompson: I own a couple of guns, but I'm not gonna tell you what they
are, or where they are.
McCain: I carried a .45 as a pilot... I don't own one right now.
Guiliani says he does not own a gun.
http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OWM1MzllNzZkOGRjNGNjYWRlNDFlYjIwNDE5NDY4MjA=
Speaking Of Giuliani...: ...In late September, Rudy Giuliani appeared at
a National Rifle Association conference to assure the audience that he
opposes any new restrictions on gun ownership and views the right to
bear arms as "just as important a part of the Constitution as the right
to free speech and the other rights." On the same day, the nation's
biggest gun manufacturers filed an appeal to overturn a ruling that had
allowed a suit brought against them by Mayor Giuliani to proceed.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Y2I1ODNlOThiZGQyNGJiYzBkN2Y2ZThkNmMyZTI3NGM=
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Rule Five Reminder: Police arrested a Gilbert man Wednesday on suspicion
of child endangerment after a 4-year-old boy shot himself in the arm.
Gilbert police said that Leonardo Mendivil, 24, the boyfriend of the
boy's mother, was handling the semi-automatic handgun and left it on the
coffee table before the child picked it up and shot himself in the left
forearm Saturday. (Rule Five: Maintain control of your firearm.)
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/1129childshot1129.html
---
Judge Will Not Be Charged In Airpot-Gun Case: Charges will not be filed
against a district court judge who was accused of taking a loaded gun to
a Detroit Metropolitan Airport checkpoint this summer..."I have a
(concealed weapons) permit and carry a weapon because of threats that
have been made on my life," James said in the statement obtained by The
Detroit News. "In my haste to catch a flight I forgot to remove the
weapon from my purse." (If you can forget to remove your handgun from
your purse, it's probably not accessible in an emergency anyway.)
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071127/METRO/711270342/1408/LOCAL
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Hmm...: Local businessman and Vietnam War veteran Bill Martin said he
plans to fight local law enforcement if they cite him for weapon
possession by a previous offender. The Mesa County Sheriff's Department
SWAT team raided Martin's home and business, A-1 Repossessions, 518 Road
30, on Nov. 15 and seized more than 150 guns from a vault in his
basement...Martin pleaded guilty to vehicular assault in 1991. According
to Colorado Bureau of Investigation records, the Colorado State Patrol
arrested Martin on June 30, 1990, on suspicion of vehicular assault,
driving under the influence and a traffic violation.
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/11/24/112507_1a_Martin_folo.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=7
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Big Phoenix Gun Show This Weekend: Just a reminder that this weekend
(Fri Nov 30th through Sun Dec 2nd) is the Crossroads Gun Show at the
Arizona State Fair Grounds on the corner of 19th Ave & McDowell in
Phoenix Arizona...While you're there be sure to stop by the table of the
Arizona Citizens Defense League (AzCDL) to learn about the club &
possibly even sign up if you are not already a member. It's a great
organization that does a lot every year to influence the Arizona State
Legislature to protect our freedom to bear arms at the State level...
http://dustinsgunblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/arizonans-dont-forget-about-crossroads.html
---
Shooting Further Imperils Swiss RKBA: A soldier has confessed to the
killing of a 16-year-old girl last Friday in Zurich in what appeared to
be a random shooting. The incident comes amid a heated debate over
Switzerland's gun laws. Army issue weapons are involved in the death of
more than 300 people a year in the country...The shooting gives
additional ammunition to groups who want to see tighter gun laws. In
September, parliament banned the long-standing tradition of allowing all
enlisted men to keep their ammunition at home. Also hotly debated is a
people's initiative launched the same month by the centre-left Social
Democratic Party and pacifist organisations to go a step further and ban
the estimated one-and-a-half million guns and rifles kept at home.
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/front/detail/Gun_laws_under_fire_after_latest_shooting.html?siteSect=105&sid=8470114
---
British Legislator Seeks More EU Gun Restrictions: Labour Euro MP and
Chairwoman of the European Parliament's Internal Market Committee,
Arlene McCarthy, has won the support of the European Commission and
Member States for a new law to tighten controls on convertible guns in
Europe...Convertible weapons such as blank-firing guns, which are
imported from the continent and converted into deadly weapons, will be
tackled by amendments tabled by Arlene McCarthy. Despite being banned in
the UK these weapons are a growing problem due to smuggling. 46% of the
weapons seized by Greater Manchester Police last year were converted
weapons. The new law will clamp down on these weapons.
http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/News/news.asp?ID=5022
--
Stephen P. Wenger
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
