DC's Former AG Criticizes Heller Ruling: Few were surprised by the
Supreme Court's decision to overturn the District's 30-year-old ban on
handguns and its holding that the Second Amendment guarantees an
individual's right to bear arms. But we should be shocked by the
majority's willingness to distort the text and history of the Second
Amendment to ignore the considered judgment of the District's local
legislature... (Let me get this straight - it was no surprise that the
Supremes ruled that the DC gun ban was unconstitutional but you fought
for it all those years?)
http://www.law.com/jsp/dc/PubArticleDC.jsp?id=1202422572520
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DC (Nominally) Ends Gun Ban: ...With the unanimous support of his 12
colleagues, Phil Mendelson introduced a bill that would end the city's
handgun ban and make it legal for residents to keep firearms in their
homes without requirements that trigger locks be used or that they be
disassembled. Mendelson's bill would still require that guns be kept
unloaded and disabled, but it would offer an exception for gun owners
who say the firearm is present in the home for immediate self-defense.
Mendelson (D-At Large) said he will depend on the testimony of witnesses
at a round-table discussion today to decide whether emergency
legislation should be introduced before the body recesses July 15.
Otherwise, he said, the council will vote on the issue in the fall. Gray
(D) has said he will call a special summer meeting if necessary...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/01/AR2008070101950.html?hpid=sec-metro
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Confusing the Issues?: An editorialist for The Washington Times defends
the Heller ruling from left-wing critics but ignores the fact that the
justices seemed to balk at including carry outside the home, much less
concealed carry, as a protected right.
http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/jul/01/right-to-carry/
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A Post-Game Look at Alan Gura: ...Gura, a Los Angeles native, has been a
student of the Second Amendment since Heller was filed in 2002. He wrote
all of the pleadings in consultation with Levy and Clark Neily III, a
senior staff attorney at the Institute for Justice. Gura's familiarity
with the contours of the case and the depth of his knowledge of gun
laws, generally, convinced Levy that he was the strongest candidate to
argue the case before the Supreme Court. Gura says that he's not opposed
to being typecast as "the gun guy," but calls it a misnomer. (Yes, he
keeps firearms in his home in Alexandria, Va., but Gura refuses to
describe his stock, except to say, with no small amount of
self-satisfaction, that "they are legal under the Constitution.") Most
of the angry mail he's received while working on Heller has come from
gun rights advocates who say he "sold out the Second Amendment" by
conceding that some regulation was necessary...
http://www.law.com/jsp/scm/PubArticleSCM.jsp?id=1202422704077
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Obama's Toothless Second Amendment: ...Obama's view is similar to that
of Justice Stephen Breyer, who dissented from the Supreme Court's
decision. Even if the Second Amendment protects an individual right to
armed self-defense, Breyer said, that right has to be weighed against
"other important governmental interests." And since a gun law like
D.C.'s might reduce violent crime (never mind the lack of evidence that
it actually has), the courts should yield to legislators' judgments
about how best to strike the balance...
http://reason.com/news/show/127292.html
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Guns and Democrats: ...Partisans on both sides will argue about whether
Mr. Obama's equivocation represents a clarification or a reversal of his
previous statements on the subject. But the truth is that it doesn't
matter. Far more important is that the gradual disintegration of the gun
control movement that once drove Democratic politics is now pretty much
complete. For decades, the true meaning of the Second Amendment has been
the subject of wrenching public debate. But last Thursday, when the
Court expressly and historically extended the right of gun ownership to
private citizens, the Democratic Party's nominee for president merely
shrugged... (Don't confuse campaign statements for what these people
will do if they get into office - there is no right to sue over a broken
campaign promise.)
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/guns-and-democrats/index.html?th&emc=th
A Democrat Ponders: With so many other pressing problems vying for top
billing, gun issues will not decide this presidential election.
Nonetheless, gun control has helped Democrats win in places like
California and New Jersey, as well as in less obvious spots like
Michigan. At the same time, advocating gun regulations has cost
Democrats dearly in the South, the West and in rural areas. Perhaps
paradoxically, most voters in the places Democrats lost on guns agreed
with us on policy, making guns an interesting prism through which to
examine the cultural concerns that have bedeviled Democrats in some areas...
http://thehill.com/mark-mellman/the-cultural-politics-of-guns-2008-07-01.html
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What's the ACLU to Do?: One interesting question is what the ACLU is
going to do with Heller...It seems theoretically plausible to suggest
that, now that an individual right of some sort (subject to all sorts of
further clarification, as Mike notes) has been recognized by the Court,
that this right is now one which the ACLU should actively defend under
its general mission of defending the Bill of Rights. This reasoning may
become more compelling in the future, too, as future cases elaborate on
the now-murky incorporation questions that Heller didn't really answer.
On the other hand, the culture-wars aspect of the debate might suggest
otherwise. And I wonder whether those pragmatic considerations will win
out - whether the organization will take a different tack and hold,
essentially, that Heller is wrong. That would be a nightmare of an
argument to try to make, conceptually. But do ACLU volunteers really
want to take up second amendment cases? Perhaps we'll see...
http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2008/06/so_what_the_hel.html
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NRA to Target Obama: The National Rifle Association has declared Barack
Obama a "serious threat" to Second Amendment gun liberties and now plans
to spend $15 million of its $40 million campaign this fall to make sure
he isn't elected. Referring to Obama's statement in April that when
working-class voters experience economic hardship "they get bitter, they
cling to guns or religion," NRA chief lobbyist Chris W. Cox told the
Politico, "We look forward to showing him 'bitter.' Apparently, he
thinks gun owners are either fools or have short memories," Cox said. "I
can assure him he's wrong on both."
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=68492
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Regulating Guns Out of Existence: ... Sunday's Los Angeles Times brought
us as glorious an example of ivory-tower impracticality as ever put
forth, this one by a pair of university professors who, if one may judge
from their curricula vitae, are well steeped in academic theory but
lacking sufficient practical experience to realize what they propose is
manifestly absurd...Thus the authors ascribe "social consequences" to
inanimate objects rather than those who employ them for illegal
purposes. And with this the authors reveal their true agenda: to
bankrupt the gun manufacturers by concealing the iron fist of government
in the velvet glove of "performance-based regulation." And if they can
enrich a few trial lawyers in the process, so much the better. In this
regard, in the eyes of Fagan and Sugarman, perhaps the idea isn't so
impractical after all. The Supreme Court may have affirmed the Second
Amendment, but if this regulatory scheme can drive gun manufacturers out
of business, it will render the Second Amendment as moot as the Third.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZmY0NTJhZmYxYWVhZjU3MWE4YjYzYThjYjNiMjYwN2Q=
---
More "Public Health" Propaganda: ...Suicides accounted for 55 percent of
the nation's nearly 31,000 firearm deaths in 2005, the most recent year
for which statistics are available from the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention...Public-health researchers have concluded that in homes
where guns are present, the likelihood that someone in the home will die
from suicide or homicide is much greater...Researchers in other fields
have raised questions about the public-health findings on guns...Both
sides agree there has been a significant decline in the last decade in
public-health research into gun violence... (Nowhere does this diatribe
against the Heller ruling address the suicide rate in Japan, which is
rising above its traditionally high level, despite the lack of access to
firearms for most Japanese.)
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GUN_DEATHS_SUICIDE?SITE=MITRA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
---
Lawsuit Filed over Atlanta Airport Gun Ban: The nation's busiest airport
dueled with gun rights advocates Tuesday over whether a new Georgia
state law allows visitors to carry firearms at Hartsfield-Jackson
Atlanta International Airport. City officials in charge of the airport
declared it a "gun-free zone" when a law allowing people to carry guns
on public transit and other places took effect Tuesday. Gun rights
supporters, including a state legislator who helped pass the law,
quickly filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the designation...
The new state law allows people with a concealed weapons permit to carry
guns into restaurants, state parks and on public transportation. John
Monroe, an attorney for the gun rights backers who filed the lawsuit,
argued the Atlanta airport qualifies as public transportation. There are
also restaurants in the terminal, which Monroe said should be accessible
to gun-toting visitors under the new law...
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D91L6KCO0&show_article=1
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/us/02airport.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin
---
Oops, Wrong House, Florida Version: Anthony Mendolia says it's probably
been over 10 years since he last fired a gun. But Tuesday morning he
didn't think twice about firing a 9mm at Christopher Collins. Police say
the 34-year old Collins broke into Mendolia's home on Dawnmeadow Court
around 8 a.m. Officials were already searching for Collins, who they
believe is responsible for a string of area burglaries, when Mendolia
shot him in his left foot. Mendolia had gone home to check on his
11-year-old daughter Nicole, who was home alone. Nicole Mendolia says
Collins was in their house for about 20 minutes before her dad came back
home. She says she tried pretending she was asleep and hid under her
covers while Collins ransacked their home...
http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/crime/story.aspx?storyid=83885&catid=82
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Oops, Wrong House, Texas Version: The tables turned on a burglar when a
homeowner took matters into his own hands...They say the intruder broke
in through the garage and had been drinking prior to the break-in. The
pregnant woman inside the home was getting ready to give her
18-month-old child a bath when she heard noises. She saw the man walking
around outside and called her husband. He came home, but didn't see
anything right away. Then, he heard something from the side of the house
and grabbed his gun. He confronted the intruder in the kitchen. Police
say the homeowner shot the intruder in the chest. He is now listed in
critical condition at University Hospital. He could face burglary
charges this morning. The homeowner will not face any charges.
http://www.woai.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=feb02765-2dbd-4de0-8e76-f14faff62b08
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Rule Five Reminder?: Nearly one out of three handguns and rifles that
had been turned in to the police could not be immediately accounted for
in a Manhattan property clerk's office, according to a city audit
released on Tuesday that criticized the Police Department's storage
procedures...After the initial search, it was determined that 70 of the
94 weapons had been returned to their owners or destroyed, Mr. Thompson
said, while 24 "miraculously" turned up on shelves from where they had
previously been missing after several attempts to find them... (Rule
Five: Maintain control of your firearm.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/nyregion/02guns.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin
---
A Cartoon:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=68521
--
Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
