Heller Respondent's Brief Analyzed: On Monday, the brief for Respondent
was filed in DC v. Heller, the Supreme Court's case involving the DC
handgun ban...The first portions of each brief raise textual and
historical arguments. DC argues that the preamble of the Second
Amendment ("a well-regulated militia") controls and limits the main
clause ("the right of the people"). DC emphasizes that militias are
subject to limitless state control. The Heller brief offers well-known
rules of construction from the Founding Era to argue that a preamble
doesn't limit the main clause. Both sides quote Marbury v. Madison. The
Heller brief contains a great deal of American history, partly based on
David Young's new book The Founders' View of the Right to Bear Arms
(2007), which presents General Gage's disarmament of the citizens of
Boston as one of the key causes of the decision of Americans to finally
resort to armed revolution, and as the kind of abuse which the Founders
wanted to prevent in the new nation...
http://volokh.com/posts/1202366725.shtml
---
Draft Copy - Media Briefing Book On Heller: Gun Facts
(
http://www.gunfacts.info/) is finalizing a media briefing book on DC v.
Heller. "We need more hands to collect the names and mailing addresses
of reporters (crime, law, politics) in major metro areas. You can do
this by searching through a newspaper's web site and looking at the
bylines of reporters that are covering any of the relevant topics. We
need people to work on Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, and other
locations (we have D.C., Seattle, San Francisco, and some other towns
covered)." Financial contributions can be made via PayPal to
[email protected] or checks can be mailed to Guy Smith, 630 Taylor Ave,
Alameda, CA 94501. "I hope to send the booklets out before the end of
the month in order to have them in reporter's hands before the case is
argued in court. Any excess funds will be donated to an appropriate gun
rights or shooting sport group."
http://www.gunfacts.info/pdfs/misc/heller-brief-draft.pdf
---
Congressmen, Senators Of Both Parties Express Support For RKBA:
Bipartisan majorities in both the House and the Senate say they are
behind gun owners in a landmark Supreme Court case. The court next month
will hear arguments in a challenge to the District's ban on handguns,
the most important gun rights case at the Supreme Court in 70 years.
Fifty-five senators and 250 representatives have signed onto a brief
that urges the justices to strike down the ban and assert that the
Second Amendment gives individuals the right to own guns for their
protection.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20080208/METRO/687727763/1004
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5523693.html
http://www.montanasnewsstation.com/Global/story.asp?S=7840090&nav=menu227_2
---
License For Tyranny: There is no element in the poisonous alchemy of the
globalist gun ban crowd more dangerous to American freedom than the twin
evils of gun-owner licensing and firearm registration. Never forget that
they exist only as precursors to gun confiscation. Registration is the
key ingredient in the anti-gun rights brew marking presidential
candidate Hillary Clinton's core beliefs. And photographing and
fingerprinting honest American citizens as a condition of potential gun
ownership is the key gun control scheme of Hillary's rival, U.S. Senator
Barack Obama, D-Ill. (Interesting verbiage from the leader of an
organization that refers to licenses to carry firearms as "right to carry.")
http://www.nrapublications.org/standing%20guard/Index.asp
---
Gun Ownership Has Long History In America: Forty kilometers west of
Washington - in the southeastern U.S. state of Virginia - sits the
headquarters of the National Rifle Association, or NRA. It is a
non-profit research and advocacy group dedicated to promoting the
interests of America's gun owners. Collecting and preserving firearms -
and keeping track of significant events in the history of their
development - are considered essential components of the NRA's mission.
So the organization has established the National Firearms Museum. As
VOA's George Dwyer reports, the objects on display there tell the story
of America from a powerful and distinctive perspective. (Note that this
comes from Voice of America.)
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-02-07-voa45.cfm
---
South Carolina Committee Votes To Keep CWP Data Confidential: A Senate
panel has agreed the public shouldn't be able to see who has a concealed
weapons permit. The legislation the panel approved Wednesday would keep
the State Law Enforcement Division from providing the information to
public under Freedom of Information Act requests...The House bill now
moves to the full Senate Judiciary Committee.
http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7831875
---
Florida Bill Would Enhance Penalties For Misuse Of Semiautos: Hoping to
reverse an "alarming trend," two Florida state lawmakers, both
Democrats, have introduced a bill that would require stiffer mandatory
sentences for criminals who use semiautomatic or automatic weapons. The
legislation also targets criminals who fraudulently acquire assault
weapons and sellers who "know or should have known the buyer was using
false identification."
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200802/CUL20080207b.html
---
North Carolina County Revises Signage: Under assault from critics that
included the National Rifle Association, Pasquotank County officials
have decided to change a building sign that requires gun permit seekers
and sex offenders to register at the same window. Pasquotank County
Manager Randy Cartwright said his office has received 17 complaints from
citizens from as far away as Ohio since The Daily Advance published a
story Jan. 28 about the sign in the lobby of the county's Public Safety
Building. The sign, which reads "Gun permits/Sex offender registration,"
will be changed, he said. (Las Vegas Metro PD seats CFP applicants and
registrants as convicted felons together, segregated on one side of the
room.)
http://www.dailyadvance.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/02/04/0205GunsSexSignFolloRM.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=7
---
North Carolina Reporter Describes CWP Process: Bob Owens joined fellow
students in a cramped classroom to learn the rules for carrying a
concealed handgun in his state. Between the limited definition legal
self defense and number of places he is forbidden to carry a weapon, he
says, "it would be far more practical to apply for a 'concealed lawyer'
permit, if I could only find one small enough to shove in a holster."
http://pajamasmedia.com/2008/02/gun_class.php
---
Oops, Wrong Store: The owner of an office supply business shot and
killed a would-be thief. It happened on Reveille and Bradford in
southeast Houston. The owner heard someone trying to get into his
business at midnight. He went outside with a gun and caught a man trying
to steal a trailer parked behind his business. The would-be thief then
tried to run over the business owner with his truck and the business
owner fired back through the truck's rear window. Despite being shot,
the suspect kept driving his truck for three blocks until he fell out of
his truck and died on the road. (In most states the shot through the
rear window could be a source of trouble.)
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=5941521
---
Physician Draws On Patient Who Beat Him With Cane: Police arrested a
51-year-old man after he beat a doctor with a cane during an office
dispute before the doctor pulled a 9mm pistol, according to a report
released Thursday. David A. Hungerford, of Vero Beach, faces aggravated
battery and breach of peace charges following the Tuesday struggle that
left Dr. David M. Glener with an injured right shoulder.
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/feb/07/doctor-pulls-pistol-fend-patient/
---
Another Gun-Free-School Incident: A man charged into a school where his
estranged wife was a teacher Thursday morning, firing a gun before
stabbing her as her fifth-grade class watched, police said. He later was
found dead in his home after apparently shooting himself during a
standoff with police...Christi Layne had filed for divorce Jan. 25. "She
was terrified something like this would happen," said Rebecca Bennett,
Christi Layne's attorney.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080207/ap_on_re_us/school_shooting
---
Rule Five Reminder: A special agent returning to Mitchell International
Airport (Milwaukee WI) left her firearm in a bathroom there Tuesday
night, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said. The
special agent immediately alerted authorities when she realized she left
her weapon, assistant special agent in charge Guy Thomas said Wednesday.
He said it was either recovered by local authorities or a civilian...He
wouldn't provide details about the Milwaukee-based agent, such as how
long she had been with the bureau. "It's a sensitive situation as you
can imagine," he said. "The agent is embarrassed." She has not been
suspended or placed on leave, Thomas said. He could not say what the
outcome of the investigation would be. (Rule Five: Maintain control of
your firearm.)
http://www.journaltimes.com/articles/2008/02/06/local_news/doc47aa5177483e4160124818.txt
--
Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
