Judge Blocks Bloomberg Testimony: ...City officials said on Wednesday
that Mr. Bloomberg was almost certain to take the stand next month in
Federal District Court in Brooklyn and testify against the dealer, Jay
Wallace, at a landmark civil trial that the mayor himself instigated by
suing Mr. Wallace and 26 other gun dealers in 2006. But in an unexpected
ruling from the bench, Judge Jack B. Weinstein said he did not want Mr.
Bloomberg to testify out of fear that his appearance would prove too
distracting... (Ignored in the NYT article's commentary is Weinstein's
notoriety for lending his courtroom to litigation intended to bankrupt
the firearm industry.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/23/nyregion/23guns.html?ref=nyregion
http://www.amny.com/news/local/am-gun0523,0,2991392.story
Related Articles:
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202421597024
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/05/22/2008-05-22_gun_dealer_shoots_from_lip.html
---
Chicago Alderman Should Suffer Like Other Gun Owners: Chicago Alderman
Richard Mell ought to be prosecuted like any other negligent gun owner
for failing to re-register his firearms under an ordinance he helped
pass, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said
today. "I don't care if anti-gun Mayor Richard Daley supports giving
Mell a break, and it doesn't matter that Mell is the father-in-law of
Gov. Rod
Blagojevich," said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. "For years, the
draconian ordinance supported by Mell and enforced by Daley has
terrorized Chicago gun owners. It's time for Mell to face his own music,
and it's time for Daley to just shut up."
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-22-2008/0004819680&EDATE=
FOP Chimes In: Fraternal Order of Police President Mark Donahue today
decried the "double standard" that prompted Mayor Daley to endorse the
idea of temporarily re-opening gun registration in Chicago after a
request from Ald. Richard Mell (33rd). "We have retired police officers
who have a right to carry concealed weapons across the country, and
they're being barred from registering their weapons in Chicago. We've
taken one of these cases to Circuit Court. Dick Mell has taken his case
to the City Council," the union president said. "Whether he knows it or
not, the mayor, by this agreement [to endorse a temporary gun amnesty]
is establishing a double standard. One for members of the City Council,
the other for everybody else." (Until the passage of the federal Law
Enforcement Officers Safety Act, Illinois did not allow its own retired
police officers to carry concealed firearms.)
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/964373,CST-NWS-mell21web.article
---
Korwin Comments on Coverage of Arizona Campus-Carry Bill: ...Out here in
the public, though, many people think this is what happened: "A bill
that would ensure the civil rights of all FBI-certified, trained,
permitted, specially taxed and DPS-monitored citizens to possess side
arms for self-defense when on college campuses was denied a vote by the
state Senate." With news coverage that perpetually casts self-defense,
personal-safety and civil-rights-protection bills as students-with-guns
laws, it should come as little surprise that people don't trust or rely
on the media the way they used to. That coverage also perpetuates
hoplophobia, a debilitating, irrational fear of weapons...
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/0522thurlets226.html
---
Ohio House Supports Service Members: With a strong bi-partisan 90-3
vote, the Ohio House of Representatives has passed HB450, sponsored by
Representative Bruce Goodwin (R-74)... Current Ohio law prohibits
persons under the age of 21 from buying a handgun. There is an exemption
for persons aged 18-20 who are properly appointed or employed as a law
enforcement officer. The bill would add an exemption for active or
reserve members of the armed services or the Ohio National Guard, aged
18-20 who have received firearms training...In response to recent
questions about the residency of Ohioans who deploy to other states, and
people from other states who are stationed in Ohio, the amendment
clarifies that persons aged 21 and over in our military, either from
Ohio or stationed in Ohio, meet the residency requirements for an Ohio
Concealed Carry License (CHL)...
http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/node/5697
---
Ohio Debates Vehicle-Carry Bill: Gun supporters and law-enforcement
representatives clashed yesterday over proposed changes to relax Ohio
gun laws, while the House committee chairman wondered why the State
Highway Patrol was sitting silently in the back of the room.
Associations representing police chiefs, police officers, county
sheriffs and county prosecutors urged lawmakers not to support a
National Rifle Association-backed proposal that, among other things,
would allow anyone to carry a gun inside a vehicle. The multipart
proposal, which could be added as an amendment to another bill and
approved next week, says the gun must be unloaded. But critics say ammo
could be kept within reach.
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/05/22/guncarry22.ART_ART_05-22-08_A1_NLA9661.html?sid=101
---
Pobre M�xico! Tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de Estados Unidos:
High-powered rifles and handguns used by drug cartel hit men waging a
bloody war in Mexico have been traced to suspected gun smugglers in El
Paso, an ATF agent testified Wednesday at a federal detention hearing in
El Paso. Money and weapons flowing from the United States fuel drug
trafficking and organized crime in Mexico, to the tune of about $10
billion a year, Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, Mexico's deputy federal
attorney general for international affairs, said Wednesday as
representatives from the U.S. and Mexico gathered in Austin to discuss
border security. It was the profits from illegal gun sales that
allegedly motivated Juan Carlos Meza, 23, to sell at least 19 firearms
bought at El Paso gun stores to suspected hit men, an ATF agent
testified at the detention hearing for Meza in the federal courthouse in
El Paso.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_9341078
Poor California, So Far from God and So Close to Nevada and Arizona:
..It used to be illegal for civilians to purchase or own assault
weapons. That was before the nation's main assault gun control
legislation lapsed in 2004 - and was not renewed. The Federal Assault
Weapons Ban outlawed the sale or possession of 19 types of assault
weapons - defined as semiautomatic firearms with specific
characteristics allowing rapid-fire shooting, which includes most
handguns. The 10-year ban was put in place by the Violent Crime Control
and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. But when it expired, the Bush
administration, which had once said it would bring it to Congress for
renewal, did nothing. Legislation to continue the ban introduced in
Congress did not muster enough votes to get passed. While California
enacted its own handgun prohibitions, which continue to be in effect
today, the number of guns brought into California from bordering states
overwhelm the state's efforts to restrict them, experts say...
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/ci_9344423
---
Brady Bunch Lauds Lautenberg: The President of the Brady Campaign to
Prevent Gun Violence announced today that the organization was endorsing
New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg in the Democratic primary to serve
New Jersey in the United States Senate. The organization rarely endorses
primary candidates. "Senator Frank Lautenberg is a hero to those who
fight to reduce gun violence in America. He has always been a courageous
champion for sensible gun laws and has worked tirelessly to make our
communities safer," said Paul Helmke, Brady's President. "We will do
everything we can to ensure that Senator Lautenberg is re-elected."
(Hidden in the Brady Bunch rhetoric is that the Lautenberg Amendment,
which has "has denied guns to domestic abusers over 150,000 times," has
violated the Constitutional protection against ex post facto by denying
firearm ownership on the basis of old misdemeanor convictions which were
not disqualifiers prior to the passage of the amendment.)
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=ind_focus.story&STORY=/www/story/05-22-2008/0004819521&EDATE=THU+May+22+2008,+01:00+PM
---
Widow Will Not Be Charged in Self-Defense Shooting: North Miami police
declined to press charges against a woman who shot an intruder in her
home a month after her husband was gunned down in the front yard.
Janepsy Cindy Mesa was in the process of moving out of the ill-fated
house when she walked into a bedroom and was confronted by a man. The
man, who turned out to have been an acquaintance of her late husband,
was shot several times by Mesa, who then ran screaming outside and
called 911. North Miami police deemed the incident a case of self-defense.
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/05/21/murder_widow_shoots_intruder_in_bedroom/2204/
---
Rule Five Reminder: West Haven police have arrested a woman after
linking her gun to a photo on the MySpace social networking Web site.
Police say the picture of a Bailey Middle School student pointing a gun
at another student led to the arrest 38-year-old Elizabeth Paris, the
mother of one of the teenagers. Paris has been charged with risk of
injury to a minor, reckless endangerment and failure to properly store a
firearm. Police say the charges are the result of her failure to
properly lock up the weapon. Police say a 14-year-old boy visiting his
friend took a gun belonging to Paris, his friend's mother. (Rule Five:
Maintain control of your firearm.)
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/connecticut/ny-bc-ct--myspace-gunarrest0522may22,0,1539648.story
---
Officer Convicted for Raid That Killed Elderly Woman: An Atlanta police
officer was sentenced Thursday to 4 1/2 years in prison for lying to
investigators about a botched drug raid that ended in the shooting death
of a 92-year-old woman. Arthur Tesler, 42, was the only officer to face
trial in the raid, which led to an outcry from civil rights activists
and to a shake-up of the police department...Kathryn Johnston died in a
hail of police bullets after narcotics officers burst into her northwest
Atlanta home the night of Nov. 21, 2006, using a special no-knock
warrant to search for drugs. Testimony showed that Tesler was in
Johnston's back yard when other officers went in through the front door.
Johnston fired a single shot at the intruders, and officers returned a
volley of 39, striking her five or six times. (The key factor in
Johnston's death appears to have been that she sought to defend herself
from intruders in a no-knock raid, meaning that she would not have known
that she was facing police officers.)
http://iphone.foxnews.com/story/0/357241-Cop-Gets-45-Years-for-Lying-After-Raid-That-Killed-Woman.html
--
Red's Trading Post Close to Settlement with BATFE: An Idaho gun shop
that went to federal court to keep the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives from stripping it of its gun license has reached
a tentative settlement with the government. Attorneys on both sides told
U.S. District Court Judge Mikel H. Williams on Wednesday that they had
likely agreed on how to end the case. Mark Geston, an attorney
representing Terry and Ryan Horsley of Red's Trading Post, said he could
not yet release details, but said the proposal would allow the Twin
Falls gun shop to continue operating.
http://www.theolympian.com/northwest/story/456812.html
---
Ammo Prices Hurt Competitive Shooters: Ammo prices are on the rise and
it's forcing some competitive shooters to scale back. "Ammunition
materials, lead, copper and brass have doubled, tripled, quadrupled in
price," said Fred Calcagno, owner of American Sportsman in East
Rochester. Competitive shooting is taking a big hit. "A box like this is
$14.99, we used to sell for $7.95," said Calcagno who says ammo prices
have shot up over the past few years...Calcagno says some are using
smaller caliber ammo that costs less or they're scaling back on shooting
altogether, passing on a favorite past time...Prices for ammunition have
been rising about every 3 months or so.
http://rochesterhomepage.net/content/fulltext/?cid=15954
---
Worcester (MA) PD Chooses S&W M&P45's: ...Officials at the Worcester PD
indicated that they selected the M&P45 because of its unique design
features, modularity and reliability during testing. After a standard
testing and evaluation period, Worcester PD
officials noted the accuracy of the M&P45 pistol and the ability of each
officer to select the grip size of his or her preference...
(Interchangeable backs straps of "palm swells" are definitely proving to
be a major plus with polymer-frame pistols. Only revolvers that use a
coil main spring in a manner that eliminates the front and back straps,
such as Ruger's SP101 and GP100, offer such a wide range of potential
adjustment of grip size.)
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/smith--wesson-wins-law-enforcement-contract-for-mp45-pistols,404308.shtml
---
Big Brother Is Alive and Well: ...Yet earlier this week, a measure
creating a federal fingerprint registry totally unrelated to national
security passed a U.S. Senate committee almost without notice. The
legislation would require thousands of individuals working even
tangentially in the mortgage and real estate industries - and not
suspected of anything - to send their prints to the feds. The database
and fingerprint mandates were tucked into housing and foreclosure
assistance bills that on Tuesday passed the Senate Banking Committee by
a vote of 19-2...
http://www.openmarket.org/2008/05/23/fingerprint-registry-in-housing-bill/
---
From AzCDL:
Dave Kopp, AzCDL's President, co-founder, and chief lobbyist, will be
interviewed by Mark Zemel of "The Arizona Right Report" this coming
Sunday, May 25, 2008, between 8:10 PM and 8:45 PM.
The interview can be heard on KFNX 1100 AM in Phoenix. You can also
listen live at
http://www.1100KFNX.com.
We encourage everyone to CALL IN with questions and comments about AzCDL
supported legislation, other gun bills, and the legislative process in
general. Ask Dave what it's like lobbying for our rights at the
Legislature, and how reality compares with the myths you heard in High
School Civics.
You can reach the show in the Phoenix area at 602-277-5369, or toll free
at 1-866-536-1100. If enough people call in, the interview time will be
extended past 8:45 PM. This is YOUR chance to get the lowdown directly
from AzCDL's President, and to publicize the efforts and successes of AzCDL!
Information on legislation that AzCDL is tracking can be found at:
http://www.azcdl.org/html/legislation.html.
AzCDL requested and supported bills that are still making their way
through the process are:
HB 2629, an AzCDL requested bill that clarifies when a defensive display
of a firearm is justified.
HB 2389, an AzCDL requested bill that clarifies that it is permissible
to carry a weapon, without a CCW permit, visibly or concealed, anywhere
within a means of transportation, excluding public transit.
HB 2634, an AzCDL requested bill that clarifies that a person with an
expunged or set-aside felony conviction, or one who has had their rights
restored, may obtain a concealed weapons permit.
SB 1070, an AzCDL requested bill that makes it easier for lawful gun
owners who have satisfactorily completed training to obtain a permit, or
renew an expired one.
SB 1106, Senator Chuck Gray's bill that provides for an optional
lifetime CCW permit.
Let's not forget about SB 1214, the AzCDL requested bill that originally
would have complied with Federal law by allowing adults with Concealed
Weapons (CCW) permits to carry concealed firearms on school campuses.
After being amended to allow carrying only on Universities and Colleges,
the Republican controlled Senate quietly killed SB 1214, after
attempting to neutralize it with more burdensome amendments.
And finally, there is HB 2630, the AzCDL requested bill that would have
reduced the penalty for a law-abiding person carrying a concealed weapon
without a permit to a petty offense, while increasing penalties for
criminals. HB 2630 was vetoed by the Governor on April 29, 2008.
We encourage you to listen to Dave's radio interview this Sunday, and
call in with your questions and comments!
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.
--
Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
