A List Member Replies:
About your "Unintended Consequences" clip today, you comment "(The
original Gun Free School Zones Act, struck down in 1995, was
replaced in 1996 and the later statute has never been challenged.)"
Close, but not quite complete. Despite all of the conversation
(good conversation) in the Supreme Court's Lopez decision about the
reach of federal (interstate) Commerce Clause power, the SC actually
struck down the federal Gun Free School Zones Act because Congress
failed to include in the original enactment any findings that a gun
in a school zone may have traveled in interstate commerce, thus
triggering federal Commerce Clause power. So, Congress simply
re-enacted the federal GFSZA with findings that a gun in a school
zone likely had traveled in interstate commerce.
This exact point will be an interesting one in our progressing
litigation, MSSA v. Holder, to validate the principles of the
Montana Firearms Freedom Act, which declares that any firearms made
and retained in Montana are beyond the power given to Congress to
"regulate" (make regular) commerce "among" (between) the states.
That is, the MFFA is essentially a trump on the flaw the SC
identified in the original GFSZA, a flaw that Congress subsequently
exploited to reenact the GFSZA with purported authority.
Best wishes,
Gary Marbut, president
Montana Shooting Sports Association
http://www.mtssa.org
---
Firearms Freedom Acts: Yesterday, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed HB
2307-Arizona's version of the Firearms Freedom Act, into law. This
makes six states (Monatana, Tennessee, Utah, Wyoming, and South Dakota
are the others) that have some version of the Firearms Freedom Act on
the books as law. Idaho will become the seventh, if and when Governor
Butch Otter signs Idaho House Bill 589 into law, as expected. For those
unfamiliar with the FFA, it's a challenge to the federal government's
grotesquely expansive use of the insterstate commerce clause to regulate
- well . . . everything, whether it has anything to do with interstate
commerce, or not. Thus, the FFA stipulates that firearms (and
ammunition, and firearms accessories) manufactured wholly within the
state, and then kept in the state, are not subject to federal law...
http://www.examiner.com/x-2581-St-Louis-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2010m4d6-Firearms-Freedom-Act-still-picking-up-steam
---
Lexington, Concord and the Second Amendment March: April 19 means
different things to different people, and that is no doubt going to be
significant in how the press covers the upcoming Second Amendment March
planned on the anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord that
ignited the American Revolution in 1775. For MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, it
might mean taking every opportunity to link the march - the brainchild
of Michigan gun rights activist and Grand Rapids Gun Rights Examiner
Skip Coryell - with the insanity of the Oklahoma City bombing, which,
itself, was done as some sort of payback for the Branch Davidian
debacle. Incredibly, one member of The High Road forum - a typically
well-mannered discussion board operated by Oleg Volk - actually drank
Maddow's Kool Aid and took the rant one step farther, assigning
responsibility for the march to the Second Amendment Foundation based in
Bellevue. That may come as a surprise to SAF's Alan Gottlieb, who isn't
even speaking at the event (although my colleague, David Codrea, is),
according to the current roster of speakers. Coryell's march is not a
march at all, but a gathering at the Washington Monument...
http://www.examiner.com/x-4525-Seattle-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2010m4d5-Second-Amendment-March-two-weeks-from-today
I have written to the organizers of the March to suggest that they offer
much more prominent warnings about D.C.'s restrictive laws, and I think
this would also be advisable for people promoting the event in various
states. Right now, the Second Amendment March merely notes that D.C.
laws "prohibit carrying firearms in public." That is certainly true, but
there are a lot of other prohibitions as well, retained in the 2009
rewrite of the D.C. gun laws that was upheld by a federal judge last
week. The currently effective D.C. laws are much more restrictive than
those in effect in most states, including even Maryland... The D.C.
event will be closely scrutinized, I suspect, by ranking officers in
multiple agencies who are not in sympathy with its purposes, who will be
looking for violations of any of the D.C. gun laws. And, unless the
March promoters step up their warnings, I expect we'll be reading about
arrests in the April 20 edition of the Washington Post.
http://www.ammoland.com/2010/04/06/second-amendment-march-d-c-laws-on-ammunition-magazines/
---
The Beat Goes On: Those who have been tracking the sales of firearms
recently will not be surprised at the accompanying chart, which shows
the leading months for background checks based on the FBI's National
Instant Criminal Background Check System. All federally licensed
firearms retailers must conduct a mandatory NICS check before completing
the retail sale of any new or used firearm, making NICS statistics a
solid indicator of firearms sales... So while speculation of just when
the bubble will burst for the shooting and hunting industry, firearms
sales remain strong in an otherwise weak economy. (NICS checks are an
indicator, not a measure of sales. For one thing, in many states, such
as Arizona, dealers are not required to conduct a NICS check if the
purchaser presents a qualifying firearm permit from that state
[
http://www.atf.gov/firearms/brady-law/permit-chart.html].)
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/a-surge-of-a-different-sort-firearm-sales-remain-strong-in-weak-economy
---
Kaiser Permanente vs. the RKBA: I received the following from a
colleague, who, due to the personal nature of medical information,
wishes to remain anonymous: "My wife came home from her OBGYN tonight
and showed me a health form they provided her for her visit. I've
attached the form and blocked out her personal information. If you look
at the last line of the "personal care instructions" you'll see that
they recommend she keep all guns unloaded and locked in a cabinet. This
struck me as odd because I can't figure out what this has to do with
OBGYN health? ..." (I was employed by Kaiser for a little over 15 years.
I know it was a thorn in their side that the surgeon who founded Doctors
for Responsible Gun Ownership
[
http://www.claremont.org/projects/projectid.39/project_detail.asp] and
I, a DRGO advisory-board member, both worked for Kaiser. At one point,
a Kaiser physician affiliated with the Progressive organization
Physicians for Social Responsibility obtained permission to circulate to
fellow physicians a questionnaire which included questions about firearm
ownership. As permission had already been granted for the facility where
I worked, we were only able to block its distribution at the other
Kaiser facilities in the Southern California Region. Several gun-owning
Kaiser physicians at the facility where I worked told me that they would
not return the questionnaire with those questions yet, they are
apparently now required to distribute this erroneous advice to their
patients.)
http://www.examiner.com/x-1417-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2010m4d6-Is-gun-safety-prescibed-by-Kaiser-Permanente-based-on-science-or-politics
---
"No Loaded Firearms" - A Case Study: Recently a Casper store that sells
sporting goods including firearms placed a "no loaded firearms" sign at
the entrance. This would disarm all that will comply and deem such
individuals defenseless. But before you say anything, let's hear their
side of the story... The manager of Rocky Mountain Discount Sports in
Casper stated that "the sign went up after an incident where an
individual had their firearm un-holstered inside the store", apparently
this individual came into the store then decided to have a show and tell
session... The manager of Rocky Mountain Discount Sports in Casper said
he was sorry for any inconvenience this has caused and the store will
not ban individuals that have a holstered and loaded firearm, including
open-carry. He also said: "The sign will be taken down". I believe his
actions deserve our very best and in addition to patronizing the store,
exercising proper firearm etiquette while visiting would be most prudent.
http://www.examiner.com/x-25069-Cheyenne-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2010m4d3-Casper-store-no-guns-allowed-resolved
---
Open Carry in Las Vegas: Just about everybody on the Metro Police force
has heard of Tim Farrell, and he sometimes gets mistaken for a law
enforcement officer. Farrell is simply a 29-year-old wireless Internet
engineer - and a gun rights crusader. He is one of what appears to be a
growing number of people taking up the "open-carry" cause, advocating a
constitutional right to openly carry firearms... That's why a dozen or
so people who attended the March 27 Tea Party rally in Searchlight were
able to openly carry firearms. One was Dave Stilwell, a 44-year-old
truck driver from Las Vegas who always carries a gun for self-defense.
He says he was jogging back from a garage sale near his house one
morning last May with his .45-caliber pistol on his hip. Around Jones
Boulevard and Cheyenne Avenue, a Metro patrol car rolled up slowly
behind him. A shopkeeper had called police after seeing the gun, said
the officer, who took the pistol from Stilwell, removed the magazine and
the bullet in the chamber, checked the ID number on the gun and then
returned the weapon and ammunition to Stilwell before driving away...
(Open carry is a crucial issue in Las Vegas, thanks to the foolish
policies of the Nevada Sheriffs' and Chiefs' Association in the
interpretation of recognition of out-of-state carry permits. Las Vegas
Metro PD has a reputation for arresting open-carriers for disorderly
conduct if someone phones in a complaint. If these few brave souls can
reverse that policy, travel to Nevada may become a more viable option.)
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/apr/07/nevadans-are-free-don-their-arms-open/
---
While in Illinois...: Illinois is, of course, one of only two states
(Wisconsin is the other) with no provision for legal concealed carry by
private citizens. Actually, since Wisconsin prohibits only concealed
carry and not open carry, Illinois could be thought of as the most
draconian state, in terms of armed self-defense in public. Even states
that are (in)famously hostile to private gun ownership and use, like
California, New Jersey, and New York, don't utterly rule out defensive
handgun carry, although issuance (or not) of a permit in those states
tends to come down to the political connections of the applicant (or
lack thereof). So ingrained in the culture of much of Illinois is the
acceptance of state mandated defenselessness, that bringing the state
out of its current violent criminal-friendly Dark Age will first require
altering that culture. Efforts to bring about that change are now
underway in earnest, thanks to the folks at IllinoisCarry.com, who have
organized a series of "Right to Carry Town Hall Meetings"... (Let us not
forget that while nine states have may-issue provisions to license their
residents for concealed carry, some of those states do not issue the
permits and most of them do so arbitrarily.)
http://www.examiner.com/x-2581-St-Louis-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2010m4d5-Educating-the-Illinois-public-about-defensive-handgun-carry
---
Shall-Issue Bill Founders in California: A bill that would change the
way California sheriffs and police chiefs grant concealed weapons
permits was voted down in Sacramento Tuesday, but analysts say it may
not be dead. Kern County has more concealed weapons permits issued than
any other county in the state. Los Angeles County issued only a few last
year, but in Kern, 5,000 to 6,000 people carry the permits. The
Republican assemblyman who introduced the bill says he wants a uniform
standard set by the state for determining who gets CCW permits. Right
now requirements include an eight hour safety course, a background check
and the determination of whether the applicant really needs the permit.
It's that last part, the discretion of the sheriff or police chief
considering the application, that rankles some people... The bill was
voted down Tuesday, but it was granted reconsideration, and will likely
be brought back for another vote before the end of the legislative session.
http://www.kget.com/news/local/story/Legislators-consider-new-CCW-regulations/mqIKEBK_MUm5c00wFSOkXA.cspx
---
Empty-Holster Week: American colleges generally ban weapons on campus, a
violation of the Second Amendment right to bear arms, according to
Central Connecticut State University's Riflery and Marksmanship Club.
Members are taking part in the national Empty Holster Protest, wearing
empty holsters on their belts all week to call attention to their
gun-free status. Monday afternoon, the Riflery Club members met in the
Student Center's Blue and White Room to discuss the week's events. The
table was covered with posters the students planned to post at various
spots throughout the campus. One showed a gun in a slashed circle and
the words "Gun Free Zone. Because it worked so well at:" followed by a
list of nearly two dozen universities that saw mass shootings despite
laws designating those schools "gun-free zones." ...The students will
wear their empty holsters all week, and Saturday plan to participate in
a planned Second Amendment March on Hartford...
http://www.newbritainherald.com/articles/2010/04/05/news/doc4bba976d01a19346207607.txt
---
Washington Councilman Would Curtail Preemption: Who does Snohomish
County Council Chairman Dave Gossett think he's kidding? The other day -
April Fool's Day, in fact - Gossett was quoted by the Everett Herald,
offering the following argument in his contention that the state's model
preemption statute, which places sole authority for firearms regulation
in the hands of the State Legislature, needs to be amended: "For
myself," he told the newspaper,"I'm really uncomfortable about giving a
blank check to folks to bring whatever firearms they want to county
parks. Under the state, the way the law is written, you could get a
group of gang-bangers with AK-47s and shotguns just intimidate everybody
by being there." That is not only wrong, it is utter nonsense. If
Gossett didn't know it at the time, he probably knows it now, and if
not, he will likely get an education on April 21, when the council has a
public hearing on a proposal to lift an existing - and illegal - ban on
firearms in Snohomish County parks. That proposal will include, the
newspaper said, a provision that calls on the Legislature to amend the
state preemption statute so people like hoplophobic Gossett can set
local gun laws...
http://www.examiner.com/x-4525-Seattle-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2010m4d6-Snohomish-County-councilman-misrepresents-law-to-push-antigun-agenda
---
What a Difference a Gun Makes: San Antonio [TX] police Tuesday morning
arrested a man suspected of stabbing another man in what they said was
an attempted theft at a far North Side home... Sgt. Tobe Whitley said
the victim saw a man attempting to break into his truck parked in the
driveway of his home in the 15800 block of Lomita Springs, near Loop
1604 and O'Connor Road, around 7:30 a.m. The two struggled after the
homeowner confronted the man. During the scuffle, the victim thought
Alzapiedi had punched him only to find moments later that he'd been
stabbed, the report states. The suspect then ran away, Whitley said,
leaving behind his gray truck, which had several pieces of lawn
equipment in the bed. Moments later, a witness saw Alzapiedi running
down the street with a bloody knife and confronted him, Whitley said.
"The witness could tell, definitely, that something wasn't right," he
said. "The suspect threatened the witness with the knife," he said, and
then dropped it when the witness - a concealed handgun carrier - showed
the suspect his weapon... (Leaving the home to confront a thief is a
risky proposition in the first place, more so if one is not armed.)
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/Homeowner_stabbed_on_far_North_Side.html
---
Oops, Wrong House: A Parksville [NY] man shot and killed a large adult
black bear that was menacing his daughter at her Parksville home Sunday.
The woman was inside with her four children. The bear attempted to break
into a bedroom window of the home and swatted at the dog on the porch,
said State Department of Environmental Conservation spokeswoman Wendy
Rosenbach. EnCon and State Police were called to the scene, but before
they arrived, the woman called her father, who came over. He fired a
warning shot, but the bear did not budge, so he shot and killed the
animal. Rosenbach said the bear had been tagged and had been a nuisance
to others before. No charges were filed against the man who shot the
animal. Rosenbach had advice for people to help deter bears from
wandering near their homes. Wash out trash cans with ammonia and put
them out as close to garbage pickup as possible, and pay attention to
where they hang birdfeeders as bears love them too.
http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2010/April/05/Bear_shot-05Apr10.htm
---
US Army Upgrades Rifle Training: The U.S. Army has made more changes to
its marksmanship program. Now, troops must go through a firing range
that involves taking cover, rapid reloading, and hitting difficult to
see targets. Troops wear full battle gear, and are graded on speed, as
well as accuracy. Since September 11, 2001, soldiers have been firing
their rifles a lot more each year, and in more imaginative training
situations. In the last decade, army trainees have gone from firing 300
rounds in basic, to 500 (for non-infantry) and 730 (infantry). There's
also been a big increase in the number of rounds fired by everyone each
year for training... The U.S. Marine Corps has also added more of the
very realistic firing situations. But the marines still put lots of
emphasis on basic shooting skills. This is the old "known distance"
firing. But this is in support of the "combat firing", and performance
there counts a lot more towards your qualification score. If you cannot
demonstrate a certain degree of accuracy firing a rifle, at annual
"qualifications," you can no longer be a marine...
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htinf/articles/20100407.aspx
---
Canada Poised to Scrap Long-Gun Registration: After nearly 20 years,
Canada appears poised to end one of its boldest experiments in gun
control - the required registration of long guns, or shotguns and
hunting rifles. Last November, a bill to abolish the Long-Gun Registry,
enacted in 1995 and gradually phased in through 2003, passed a second
reading in the Canadian House of Commons by a tally of 164 to 137. It
faces a third and final reading in that chamber later this year;
prospects are good for passage in the Canadian Senate. The bill would
delete from federal law the obligation to register so-called
nonrestricted firearms, though licensing requirements for long-gun
owners to buy or possess firearms and to buy ammunition would remain in
place. The legislation would also require all registration information
collected to date to be destroyed. About 7 million long guns have been
registered, but as many as 8 million guns, according to various
estimates, have not been in what many say is outright defiance. The
Conservative government has also extended to May 16, 2011, an existing
amnesty for rifle and shotgun owners facing charges for failing to
register their firearms...
http://www.lakelandtimes.com/main.asp?SectionID=9&SubSectionID=9&ArticleID=11192
Public hearings on legislation to abolish the long gun registry will be
held in May and by early June, it could be sent to the House of Commons
to await a final vote. Now, anti-registry activists are worried that
opposition MPs who favour keeping the registry will dominate the
committee studying it and will try to gut it. They are organizing a
national lobby to try to convince Liberal and New Democratic parties to
appoint MPs to the public safety committee who voted in favour of the
bill in November. As it stands, the majority of MPs on the committee
that will study the bill voted against it at second reading in November.
At that time, the anti-registry bill was approved in principle by a vote
of 164 to 137, with 20 mostly rural Liberal and NDP MPs voting for it...
http://www.producer.com/News/Article.aspx?aid=20728
---
Meanwhile, in California...: A California Democrat is proposing a new
law requiring residents to register their shotguns and rifles or go to
jail, CBSNews.com has learned. Assemblyman Mike Feuer, whose district
includes Beverly Hill and West Hollywood, this week introduced
legislation ordering law enforcement to "permanently keep" records of
anyone who buys a gun from a dealer or an individual. California already
stores information about handgun purchases. Feuer is no friend of
firearms owners: his previous legislative effort, which Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger signed into law, required all new handguns to include
"microstamping" technology that can imprint serial numbers on spent
ammunition casings. As a Los Angeles city councilman, Feuer proposed
limiting city residents to one gun a month. Feuer spokeswoman Arianna
Smith declined to answer questions about the bill on Tuesday afternoon,
saying the staff member involved was in a meeting and not immediately
available... (The description of the bill is vague. Currently California
residents must go through a Dealer Record Of Sale [DROS] process that
involves a waiting period. The DROS process for handguns creates a
registry. As far as I know, the current DROS process for long guns does
not list the specific firearm being transferred.)
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504383_162-20001885-504383.html
---
Tangentially Related: Appellate court nominee Goodwin Liu writes in a
new letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he mistakenly omitted
scores of materials from a background questionnaire, and he apologized
to senators for not being complete in his initial response...
Republicans reacted to the omissions today with outrage, requesting that
the committee's chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), delay a planned
April 16 hearing on Liu's nomination. Last month, they criticized
Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. for omitting materials during his
confirmation process. Monday's letter (PDF, Page 84) is the fourth time
Liu has supplemented his nomination materials since he initially
submitted them in late February. In the latest correspondence, he writes
that he missed some public appearances that he should have known about
initially and that he did not think to include appearances at such
occasions as brown bag lunches and alumni gatherings...
http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2010/04/goodwin-liu-offers-sincere-and-humblest-apology-to-senators.html
Senate Republicans on Tuesday slammed one of the Obama administration's
most controversial judicial nominees for failing to initially disclose
more than 100 of his speeches, publications and other background
materials - an omission the Republicans called unprecedented and a
possible attempt to "hide his most controversial work." ...The complaint
came after Liu, a Berkeley law professor, gave the Senate Judiciary
Committee a bundle of supplemental material that contained 117 things he
left out after his February nomination. Among the items disclosed were
several speeches on affirmative action and his participation at an event
co-sponsored by the Center for Social Justice at Berkeley and the the
National Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy group. In response to
the new information, all seven Republicans on the Judiciary Committee
fired off a letter to its chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., demanding
that Liu's hearing be postponed again...
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04/06/republicans-slam-obama-nominee-omissions-record/?test=latestnews
..Every year, thousands of people find themselves caught up in the
government's terrorist screening process. Some are legitimate targets of
concern, others are victims of errors in judgment or simple mistaken
identity. Either way, their numbers are likely to rise as the Obama
administration recalibrates the standards for identifying potential
terrorists, in response to intelligence failures that let a would-be
bomber fly to Detroit from Amsterdam last Christmas. On Friday, the
administration altered rules for identifying which passengers flying to
the United States should face extra scrutiny at the gate. And it is
reviewing ways to make it easier to place suspects on the watch list...
(Not surprisingly, The New York Times avoids all mention of legislation
to deny lawful firearm purchases to those who appear on these secret lists.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/us/07watch.html?ref=us&pagewanted=all
--
Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
The tactics and skills to use a firearm
in self-defense don't come naturally
with the right to keep and bear arms.
http://www.spw-duf.info
