GOA Asks Government To Withdraw Heller Brief: A Second Amendment
advocacy organization is asking the Bush administration to withdraw a
legal brief that leaders fear could be used to support "any gun ban - no
matter how sweeping," as long as some court somewhere determines it is
"reasonable." The concern comes from Larry Pratt, executive director of
Gun Owners of America, whose group is pleading with the Bush
administration to withdraw an anti-gun brief filed by the U.S. Solicitor
General in a Supreme Court case regarding a District of Columbia ban on
handguns.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59770
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-18-2008/0004739045&EDATE=
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Is The Glass Actually Half Full?: Although some thoughtful lovers of
liberty have lamented the half-empty aspects of the U.S. Solicitor
General's recently-filed brief in the D.C. gun ban case (District of
Columbia v. Heller), the portion that is full is legally far more
significant in securing Second Amendment rights in the arena that counts
most: the Supreme Court. On careful analysis, the brief's departures
from sound principle are internally inconsistent and otherwise not
particularly effective. Americans should recognize the importance of the
government's concessions to individual liberty and ignore its
predictable, bureaucratic attempt to defend existing federal laws. That
is what the High Court is most likely to do.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/LegalIssues/wm1775.cfm
---
Mexico To Have Access To US Database: The US has said it will give
Mexico access to an electronic database to trace weapons smuggled from
the US to powerful drug gangs across the border...Speaking during his
official visit to Mexico, Mr Mukasey said the e-Trace database would be
installed at US consulates across Mexico to help local police track gun
dealers back in the US. He said US officials would then be able to
"target that dealer".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7193487.stm
---
Virginia Tech Relatives Fail In Gun-Show Lobbying: Families of those
killed and wounded last year during a deranged gunman's rampage at
Virginia Tech asked a legislative panel to close the loophole in state
law that allows criminals and the mentally ill to buy firearms at gun
shows. But the Republican-dominated committee voted 13-9 along party
lines yesterday to defeat legislation requiring unlicensed sellers at
gun shows to run criminal background checks on buyers. Such checks now
are required only of federally licensed gun dealers. (Cho, like most
criminals, did not his guns at gun shows.)
http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20080119/METRO/502634644/1004/metro
http://hamptonroads.com/2008/01/despite-pleas-tech-families-va-panel-rejects-gun-bill
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/18/AR2008011801881.html
---
Meanwhile, In Washington...: How do politicians capitalize on good news
about crime statistics to attack gun rights? Just ask Seattle Mayor Greg
Nickels and Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, the Citizens Committee for the
Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today. "Mayor Nickels announced that
there were fewer murders and assaults involving firearms, yet he and
Chief Kerlikowske want to close gun shows and further restrict the
firearm civil rights of law-abiding Washington residents," observed
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. "There is no indication that any of the
firearms involved in Seattle's homicides last year came from a gun show.
It was the same story in 2006..."
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-18-2008/0004739071&EDATE=
Related Article:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/347781_crime18.html
---
Rule Five Reminder: A large police department in New Jersey is in nail
biting mode. It has lost one of the deadliest weapons in its arsenal - a
fully automatic submachine gun, and has no idea where it could be...The
Wayne Police Department had three MP5 submachine guns. That is until
last week, when one of them went missing...The Wayne Police Department
and others hope the MP5 is still somewhere in the headquarters. (Rule
Five: Maintain control of your firearm.)
http://wcbstv.com/watercooler/submachine.gun.mp5.2.633364.html
---
How Many Rules Were Violated?: A Tallahassee Community College student
died Thursday night in what his roommate says was an accidental
shooting, according to the Tallahassee Police Department...Police were
called to the 600 block of Dixie Drive about 6 p.m., McCranie said. The
roommate accidentally shot Stein in the torso their Frog Pond apartment,
the roommate told police...Stein and his roommate liked shooting for
sport, Zabielinsky said. The two, who were best friends, liked going to
the shooting range or driving 45 minutes outside of Tallahassee to the
forest.
http://tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880118014
The Rules:
http://www.spw-duf.info/safety.html
---
Should Citizens Be Able To Shoot Through Police Body Armor?: ...Allow me
to put it more bluntly and succinctly - although it's an indication of
how far we've fallen from the Founders' ideal that many people reading
this will regard it as controversial, shocking, perhaps even illegal.
When the government's minions arrived on your doorstep to take you away,
to kidnap your children, to steal your house, to rustle your livestock,
or to do anything else to you that struck their fancy, the Founders
wanted you and your neighbors to be able to kill them... (As a practical
matter, body armor designed to stop rifle bullets generally uses ceramic
plates, not additional layers of Kevlar. Kevlar vests are usually used
because they are relatively comfortable and concealable and are
typically selected to protect against the most common handgun rounds.)
http://www.jpfo.org/smith/smith-kevlar.htm
---
Open-Carry Initiative In Wisconsin: ...In response to a question on
concealed carry legislation, (Governor) Doyle said such laws don't make
sense. "If you want to carry a gun in Wisconsin, wear it on your hip,"
Doyle said, patting his hip...I am proposing that citizens make a
request to every Wisconsin county, to formally affirm the rights of law
abiding citizens as protected by the Wisconsin constitution, by adopting
a Resolution. This Resolution would also stipulate that open carry is
lawful and prohibit anyone from restricting a citizens' lawful exercise
of their constitutionally protected rights... (Click on the Wisconsin
tab at the top of the page.)
http://www.permittocarry.us/
---
Illinois County Weighs RKBA Resolution: Some La Salle County Board
members are weighing whether local views on gun ownership need to be
made clear to the state Legislature. But first they want to make sure
they are on the right course, so citizen viewpoints are being sought. At
Thursday's meeting of the County Board's Legislation and Rules
Committee, members considered a resolution presented by Jack Leininger,
R-Marseilles. The resolution says gun ownership is guaranteed by the
Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and opposes proposed state
legislation that "would ban the possession and use of firearms now
employed by individual citizens of La Salle County."
http://mywebtimes.com/ottnews/archives/ottawa/display.php?id=351871
---
Arizona Passes On Lead-Bullet Ban, For Now: The Arizona Game and Fish
Commission met today to discuss a number of issues related to the
firearms and hunting community, but most importantly the impact that
spent lead ammunition has on wildlife. According to NRA representatives
who attended and testified before the Commission, the room was filled
with NRA members and hunters who were there to make sure that that a
California-style lead ammunition ban wasn't brought forward. The
members of the commission made it clear that they had no plan for a ban
and that they supported the voluntary compliance program currently
followed in Arizona (a description of the program can be found on the AZ
Game and Fish website at www.azgfd.gov website).
http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Read.aspx?id=3383
---
NRA 2008 Membership Drive: A few months ago, the National Shooting
Sports Foundation and many of America's firearms manufacturers announced
plans to grow NRA membership before the 2008 presidential elections.
These sporting goods manufacturers have united in a variety of projects
to build the NRA family. For example, Ron Coburn of Savage Arms decided
to offer free NRA memberships to all his employees. As you can imagine,
there are now a lot of new NRA members in Massachusetts... (Well, let's
see...the NRA has already signed up Mitt Romney as Life Member...)
http://www.nranews.com/blogarticle.aspx?blogPostId=352
---
NRA-ILA Alerts: This week's Grassroots alert is posted on the NRA-ILA
website.
http://www.nraila.org/GrassrootsAlerts/read.aspx
---
From AzCDL:
The 2008 Legislative session is underway and the bills are rolling in.
January 17th was the deadline for House members to "pre-file" bills.
After that, each member is limited to 7 bills. As a result, a flood of
new bills were filled late into the evening. As this Alert was being
drafted, 856 bills have been filed. Expect more as the Senate deadline
approaches.
AzCDL has been busy culling the good, bad and ugly bills that we are
monitoring. You can find the list at:
http://www.azcdl.org/html/legislation.html
Now for some really great news! Most of the bills on AzCDL's wish list
have been filed. This wasn't by accident. We have been working with
legislators on proposed legislation ever since the last session ended.
Here are some of the key firearm related bills we are aggressively
supporting (you can find the full list of bills we support on our
website's Legislation page):
HB 2222 - Clarifies the right to carry a concealed weapon, without
needing a concealed weapons (CCW) permit, on property, or in vehicles,
owned, leased or rented, along with common areas.
HB 2389 - Removes the prohibitions on carrying a concealed weapon,
without a permit, anywhere in a vehicle.
HB 2536 - A public or private employer cannot prohibit a person from
transporting or storing a firearm in a locked vehicle in a parking area
(subject to certain exceptions).
HB 2629 - Clarifies when a defensive display of a firearm is justified.
Under current law, a defensive display can be categorized as
"endangerment" (ARS 13-1201), "threatening and intimidation" (ARS
13-1202), "assault" (ARS 13-1203), or "aggravated assault" (ARS 13-1204).
HB 2630 - Reduces the penalty for carrying a concealed weapon without a
permit to a petty offense, except in the commission of a crime. The
Governor vetoed this bill last year, but we're not going to roll over.
This bill was filed with 21 co-sponsors.
HB 2634 - Clarifies that a person with an expunged felony, or who has
had their rights restored, may obtain a concealed weapons permit.
Because the law has been silent in this area, DPS has refused to issue
permits.
HCR 2037 - Adds a right to hunt and fish to the Arizona Constitution.
SB 1070 - CCW reform that clarifies that there are no date restrictions
between when a person completes training and applies for a permit;
removes the requirement that an instructor be part of a training
organization; and allows that training can be conducted by NRA instructors.
SB 1106 - Provides for an optional lifetime CCW permit and caps permit fees.
Another bill that has been filed this year is "Restaurant Carry," SB
1132. It's very limited in scope but provides a first step towards
addressing the Jim Crow "we don't serve your kind here" attitude
prevalent in Arizona.
But wait! There's more! Next week we're expecting a "Campus Carry"
bill to be filed. We are also expecting a bill that would require
establishments that prohibit weapons to assume liability for your safety.
As you can see, a number of controversial bills have been filed. Many
were filed at our request. How far they get through the process of
committee hearings and floor votes depends largely on YOU and the
pressure YOU put on the legislature through your emails, calls and letters.
There are also a number of thoroughly evil bills, such as HB 2358, HB
2429, HB 2430, and HB 2431, which demonize gun owners and gun
ownership. Bills identical to HB 2430 and 2431 have been introduced in
every recent session, but don't get traction in this Republican
controlled legislature. We need to make sure those abominations don't
move during this session either. Think about what would happen if the
current majority wasn't there. This is an election year. Things could
be drastically different next year, unless YOU become involved in the
political process.
Stay tuned! As relevant legislation is introduced and progresses, we
will keep you up to date via these Alerts:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AZCDL_Alerts/
(Feel free to share them with other pro-rights activists)
These alerts are a project of the Arizona Citizens Defense League
(AzCDL), an all volunteer, non-profit, non-partisan grassroots
organization. Join today!
AzCDL - Protecting Your Freedom
http://www.azcdl.org/html/join_us_.html
Copyright � 2008 Arizona Citizens Defense League, Inc., all rights reserved.
(I regard SB 1132, as currently written, as a Trojan horse. It requires
the restaurant owner to post signs in order to authorize the carry of
firearms, as opposed to giving him the option of denying the right.
Worse, it takes what is now a seldom enforced violation of the Liquor
Code and additionally makes it a violation of ARS 13-3102, the
Misconduct involving weapons statute in the Criminal Code. As to
lifetime CWP's, remember that in order for a CWP to qualify the holder
for exemption from the NICS background check on firearm purchases from
licensed dealers, the permit must be valid for no longer than five
years. Note that the lifetime permit would be optional.)
--
Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
