2009 – Page 219 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Discharge of Firearm Ordinance Being Challenged

Many Pennsylvania municipalities regulate the discharge of firearms.Â The language of our state’s preemption law would seem to allow this, but it’s never been abundantly clear.Â Now someone is challenging the City of Lancaster’s ordinance regarding discharge of firearms:

Swinton said his cousin was being attacked and beaten by a group of assailants and that he fired a warning shot to disperse them. He had a concealed-carry permit for the gun.

Police charged Swinton with reckless endangerment and illegal discharge of a firearm. The latter is a crime under an ordinance that City Council strengthened in 2007 at the urging of Mayor Rick Gray. Each shot â€” even a blank â€” is a separate offense and can result in a $500 fine and 90 days in jail. Swinton is the first person to be charged under the amended ordinance.

State law gives a person the right to fire a gun if he or she believes another person is in imminent threat of serious harm, Crystle said. The city ordinance, in contrast, says shooting is justified only in defense of one’s home, business or “human life.” The city can’t deny a right to Swinton that he has under state law, Crystle said.

My feeling is there has to be a self-defense exception to these ordinances, otherwise it would appear to fly in the face of state law and the state constitution.Â If the ordinances aren’t written in that manner, than I have no problems with the court creating an exception.

This does, however, speak to relative legal hazard created when warning shots are used.Â I’m not a fan of them.

Tough Battle on Restaurant Carry in Virginia

It’s hard to win on gun rights when the media just flat out refuses to characterize your issue properly.Â Virginia is considering a bill, which is eminently reasonable, that will allow concealed carry license holder to carry in restaurants licensed to serve alcohol provided they do not consume any.Â Here’s how the Roanoke Times characterizes it:

The Senate last week passed a bill, with the help of Roanoke’s Sens. John Edwards and Ralph Smith, that would allow those with permits to carry concealed guns into bars and restaurants that serve alcohol.

They must tell a designated employee they’re packing, and they must abstain from drinking or risk a misdemeanor. But who would be the wiser?

We don’t think guns and booze belong in the same building and support those establishments that ban any and all weapons from their premises. But at least with open carry, there is transparency about who is and who is not toting a weapon to happy hour.

How much more transparent can you get than having to go up and tell someone at the restaurant you’re packing heat?Â This is about as transparent as you can get.Â It’s ridiculously transparent, in fact, given that I would never have to do such a thing in most other states.Â The Roanoke Times doesn’t even consider the alternative is people leaving loaded firearms in cars where they could be stolen.Â But their coverage is at least better than the New York Times, which says:

The Senateâ€™s retreat from gun controls was compounded by its repeal of another worthy Kaine priority â€” a ban on people swaggering into bars with concealed weapons and make-my-day fantasies.

Yeah, because that’s exactly the bill that’s being proposed.Â And they wonder why they are going down the crapper.

NRA Board Endorsements Coming Soon

Bitter and I are going to continue our tradition of issuing endorsements for candidates for NRA Board of Directors.Â For those of you who are voting NRA members (Life member or higher, or people who have 5 unbroken years of annual NRA membership), you will soon begin receiving your ballots in your next copy of your magazine.

Why have endorsements?Â Because I’ve long been an advocate of bloggers having a voice at NRA, and one opportunity the NRA offers for having that voice is to vote for board members.Â We need people who share the views of the blogging community, share our outlooks, and who are willing to listen to us, and take us seriously.Â Often times that’s hard to know from the biographies in the magazine, which are always going to be favorable, because those are the people the nominating committee want to see elected.

We have endorsed six people for the board this year.Â That’s not to say there aren’t other people who have been nominated who are not worthy.Â These are candidates we have a good feeling about, or that we know personally.Â What we look for in board members are people who are going to be engaged members.Â I don’t want people who will just be a rubber stamp, will merely follow the herd, or will enjoy the title of the office without contributing much to it.Â But by the same token, I’m not looking for gratuitous pot stirrers, people who will be a pain in the ass, make the organization look bad, or make life unreasonably difficult for NRA staff.

I am going to endeavor to bring you more than just “Vote for this person, because I say they are worthy.”Â We are going to line up interviews with some of our endorsed candidates, so readers can judge for themselves.Â We will announce the endorsed candidates later in the week.Â In the mean time, I will be posting a bit on the role of the board, how NRA elections work, and more on why blogs should have a role to play in this process, particularly in bringing better information to voting NRA members about the people they are being asked to vote for.

A Good Weekend for NRA

Bitter and I were manning the NRA-ILA table in the NRA booth at the Eastern Sports & Outdoor Show this weekend.Â It wasn’t a bad weekend for NRA.Â Bitter and I signed up or renewed about 16 NRA members ourselves, but we were only taking overflow from the membership tables when the two full time staffers and two volunteers were too busy signing up other people to take any more.Â We were there for ILA, and were trying to hand out political alerts, answer questions, and sign up potential volunteers.

NRA’s whole operation over the weekend did more than 600 new, upgraded or renewed NRA members.Â This is at a show that most definitely favors hunters and anglers, so never let it be said that hunters are completely apathetic about their right to bear arms.Â The show runs through next weekend, and we’ll be there working the booths next Saturday and Sunday as well.

Hopefully next weekend I’ll get more of a chance to look around.

Eastern Sports & Outdoor Show

Bitter and I will be helping with the NRA table at the Eastern Sports & Outdoor Show tomorrow in Harrisburg, at the State Farm Show Complex.Â If you’ve never been to the show, I’m told it’s quite good.Â It’ll be the first time I’ve gone, so I’ll have to take Bitter’s word for it.Â Â If you’re there, we’ll be at the NRA table in the afternoon.Â Feel free to stop by and say hi.

Amicus Briefs Filed in Chicago Case

From the NRA:

Today, the Congress of Racial Equality, the Independence Institute on behalf of a coalition of law enforcement organizations, Institute for Justice, the Constitutional Accountability Center on behalf of constitutional law professors, and 70 state legislators from Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin submitted amicus curiae briefs in support of National Rifle Associationâ€™s (NRA) appeal of the City of Chicago and the Village of Oak Parkâ€™s unconstitutional bans on handguns.

I anxiously await the Brady amicus brief.Â As Dave Hardy pointed out, if Heller is such a great thing because it takes the fear of a total ban off the table, and open the possibility gun owners will accept more reasonable gun control laws, then incorporating Heller should be 50x better!

City of San Francisco Donates $380,000 to Gun Rights

I would like to wholeheartedly thank the City of San Francisco for making such a large and generous donation to the National Rifle Association, and other gun rights groups.Â This is most certainly a welcome development in the history of the gun rights movement, and we look forward to donations from other stellar, first class cities such as Chicago, Alameda, and New York City sometime in the not to distant future.

These funds are certainly important to continued advancement of this important civil right, and we are grateful to the City of San Francisco for helping us out.

No Knock, Dead Dog

I don’t honestly know why more people aren’t outraged by this stuff.Â I think a good part of it is that the media doesn’t really act like they care.Â You don’t have anyone out there building elite opinion against no-knock raids, because they happen to other people.

I’m glad to see Obama taking some steps in regards to civil liberties, if he wants to help out his fellow Americans, particularly African-Americans, who I’m going to bet are disproportionately the victims of these police state tactics, he can raise some awareness for us.

Heller Needs to Read Heller

Gun Pundit has the tale of another Heller with a different take on gun rights.

Blackwater Training Pro-Athletes

Plaxico Burris could have definitely used this.Â Â I don’t think most professional athletes have been shining examples of responsible gun ownership, but I don’t think Blackwater is doing us a disservice either.Â The athletes who are sensible enough to seek out training aren’t going to be the ones we have to worry about making gun ownership look foolish.Â Pro-athletes are high profile people who have serious personal protection concerns.Â Kudos to Blackwater for offering professional athletes the opportunity to learn how to protect themselves safely.