Louisianans will be voting on a strengthened Right to Keep and Bear Arms ballot measure this November. Needless to say if we lost on this, it would be a minor disaster, so if you know people there, or live there, help spread the word. This is also meant to send a strong message to the courts about how the people expect their rights to be treated. Practically every court has called for intermediate scrutiny for the Second Amendment, rather than strict, because it allows them to do the kind of interest balancing that should not happen with a fundamental constitutional right.
Category: Gun Rights
Constructing Statutes
Sean Caranna brings up a very interesting issue in Florida, regarding concealed carry. Depending on how your state’s concealed carry statute is put together can depend on whether a police officer can lawfully stop, and sometimes arrest you, if he suspects you’re carrying a concealed firearm. Some states generally outlaw carrying of a concealed firearm, and make an exception for persons licensed to do so. Other states make it illegal to carry a concealed weapon without a license to do so. Pennsylvania’s Uniform Firearms Act is constructed the in the latter manner.
I remember speaking to a lawyer who told me the slight wording in language, even though it seems to be the same, could be used by the courts to determine whether or not suspicion that someone is carrying a firearm could be a pretext for a stop. In the former construction, where concealed carry is illegal except by exception, it could be read as allowing for a stop, because carrying a concealed is a crime, generally, so the officer is justified in the stop to ensure the person falls under the exception. In the latter construction it can’t be a pretext for a stop, because it’s only unlawful to carry without a license to do so, so an additional element is required to make a stop. An officer must not only have reasonable, articulable suspicion that the person is carrying a concealed firearm, but also reasonable, articulable suspicion that the person does not have a license to do so.
New Jersey guns laws are constructed entirely the same way Florida’s carry law is. Firearms in New Jersey are generally illegal. You can only own them under exceptions to the general law. While it’s difficult to see how that can be a proper means of regulating a fundamental constitutional right, it’s one reason New Jersey gets away with abuses that it’s difficult to get away with in other state. Hopefully Florida can change the wording of its statute to fix this.
Maybe Their First Stop Needs to be ATF Headquarters
Apparently some Mexican Gun Control Activists have been wandering the country to pin their inability to deal with their own problems on the US gun industry. We’ll do what we can to keep guns from heading South, but that gets to be more difficult when our own government has been facilitating that kind of gunrunning for reasons they still have not been willing to explain.
Polling New Jersey Voters on Gun Control
Looks like someone has been spending money to poll New Jersey residents about gun control. The Garden State has among the lowest rates of gun ownership in the country, and people who don’t exercise their rights aren’t going to generally be that concerned with the rights of others. I think most people only support rights they view as affecting themselves positively, and care not a whit for rights values by others if they themselves don’t value them. The solution is to recruit more gun owners. You can see the press release from Rutgers here, which does have some encouraging signs:
Nearly two-thirds of New Jersey voters say controlling gun ownership is more important than gun owner rights. This represents a decline since 1999, when 73 percent preferred gun control over gun owner rights. Today, 72 percent without guns at home say gun control is more important than owner rights, 31 points higher than voters in gun owning households. “The stereotype is that those with guns want nothing to do with restricting their rights,†said Redlawsk. “Here, that also appears mostly true. While many with guns at home say gun ownership should be controlled, a majority thinks owners’ rights should trump. Overall we’ve seen a small move toward the gun owner rights position over time.â€
It’s at least heading in the right direction.
Voters prefer to see the state’s gun laws tightened: 47 percent want stricter laws while 11 percent want them more lax. Twenty-eight percent prefer the status quo. While a plurality would tighten laws, the percentage is down from the 58 percent who wanted stricter laws in 1999. […]
[…]  “While New Jersey is less supportive of gun rights than many places, there has been a conservative trend over the past decade,†noted Redlawsk. “More people are concerned about violence. Most still want gun control, but the number favoring fewer restrictions has clearly grown.â€
Getting some of New Jersey’s laws overturned would probably go a long way to fixing this problem. The poll clearly shows once people are gun owners, their support for restrictions tend to drop. I’d also note that many New Jersey gun owners have little idea that the hell their state puts them through to exercise their right is highly unusual, and is not how things are handled in most other states.
Raising Money for a Pro-Gun Documentary
Dead Patriot Films is trying to raise 65,000 dollars to finance a new gun rights documentary. Looks to be aimed at the gun control laws in California.
Gun News from Down Under
From an Australian reader, in the comments:
Actually, there have been changes to the gun laws in Oz that could be called “weakening” if you squint the right way.
One example: Some states had a waiting period for both first gun purchase, AND subsequent purchases. Repeatedly pointing out the pointlessness of this resulted in the abolition of the waiting period for those that already held a firearms license.
“Further weakening” may include:
Any handgun with a bore larger than .38 was banned, except for Cowboy Action and Metallic Silhouette competitors – there are moves to repeal that, and allow up to .45 again for IPSC and IDPA.If the “good reason” for possessing a particular firearm is competition in, say, Metallic Silhouette, you cannot use that firearm in any other competition (eg IPSC) and vice versa – there are moves to remove that restriction.
One other change – license applications are now lodged at the Post Office. This supposedly streamlines things. It didn’t, but it will. In general, the discretionary element available to police has been de facto reduced if not de jure.
Progress is progress, and that’s certainly good news, considering it likely greatly displeases a certain person who we should all enjoy displeasing. We tend to see most of the rest of the world heading away from gun rights, but at least for Canada and  Australia, it seems they are coming back a bit.
Recoil Magazine Summons the Drama Llama
I can’t quite agree with Miguel or Lawdog that this is Super Zumbo. The big problem with Zumbo, and why we were so enthusiastic in his Zumboing, was that he was a very widely known and respected outdoor writer, and suggested that those of us who liked to own and use black rifles were terrorists. His statement was an absolute gift to the other side, and coming only a few years after the assault weapons ban had expired, was directly relevant to an ongoing political struggle.
In this instance, Recoil Magazine certainly stepped in it, but until now I’ve never heard of them, and looking around the web not many other people had either. So I am less concerned with the fact a small potatoes gun rag suggests none of us should own an MP7, which none of us can own. It certainly doesn’t help, to have them say something like this, and I certainly would never subscribe to their magazine after reading about this, but Zumbo was a big fish, and these guys are bait fish. In looking for what Recoil’s circulation numbers were, the best I could find was 15,000, which isn’t too bad. Except then I realized that Recoil Magazine was a satire publication, and is not a gun rag. The gun based Recoil Magazine have 26,000 fans on Facebook. Best I could find, which means none of the outfits that track circulation numbers give a crap enough to report on them. Outdoor Life, the magazine Zumbo was hunting editor for before The Incident, has over 700,000 subscribers.
So I’ll help spread the word, but I just don’t think these guys are a big deal. I’m also not sure this article is going to have much of an effect on their counterstrike kiddie subscriber base. Maybe if they said you shouldn’t own an Airsoft MP7 either, it would be enough to get their subscriber based really worked up.
Taking the Fight to the Enemy’s Capital
Spreading the Second Amendment around in Upper Manhattan. Predictably, others freak out and make a stink, but gun rights are coming to New York City. It’s only a matter of time.
What Works in Cheyenne
The Daily Caller is noting that we’re not seeing anymore of “What works in Cheyenne may not necessarily work in Chicago,” in the Democratic gun platform. Why? I’m wondering if the Administration doesn’t want people pointing out that Cheyenne has a much much lower crime rate than Chicago, despite the fact that you can carry a gun there without a license.
First Mention of Guns at DNC
DiFi promises to bring about a new assault weapons ban. One thing is for sure, the Democrats in 2012 have abandoned any pretense of moderation. Well, at least until 10:00 rolls around and the network start airing speeches.