Gun Rights – Page 196 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Maryland Court of Appeals Ruling on Carry

This is bad news for Maryland gun owners, but not unexpected:

Williams said Marylandâ€™s laws that prohibit wearing and carrying a handgun without a permit and outside the home infringed on his Second Amendment right as articulated by the Supreme Court inÂ 2008 andÂ 2010. Maryland argued the Supreme Court rulings meant states could not prevent citizens from having a gun in their homes for self-defense but could otherwise regulate and oversee firearm possession.

The ruling was unanimous in the state’s favor. The Court of Appeals is Maryland’s Supreme Court. The case is Williams v. State of Maryland. Guess what the next step would be from here? The Supreme Court of the United States. Did this case just jump way ahead of everyone else? I hope we have strong Second Amendment lawyers appealing this. We have to get this right. It’s not good that this is a criminal case, to begin with.

Congratulations Texas!

You now have a “Florida Loophole” too, though they haven’t called it that yet. Maybe Pennsylvanians are more apt to think Florida is a sketchy place than Texans are, or something. Either way, expect anti-gun forces in Texas to try to tack this on to the repeal of the ban on college campuses. Hopefully they’ll have about as much luck with that there as they did here.

How About That?

Homicides have fallen to an all time low in Washington D.C. While it seems highly unlikely this is a result of the very small number of DC residents that have chosen to exercise their newly enforced Second Amendment rights, and likely has more to do with continued gentrification, it at least shows the blood isn’t running in the streets. D.C.’s gun control laws were and continue to be an abject failure.

National Review Comes Down Hard …

… on Andy Traver. Looks like we’re not the crazy uncle in the attic to the National Review crowd anymore.

UPDATE: One slight error:

Most of the so-called assault weapons are the ballistic equivalent of sheep in wolvesâ€™ clothing; theyâ€™re basically scary-looking squirrel guns. The greatest part of them are .223-caliber semiautomatic rifles, which is to say that they are largely indistinguishable from the little .22-caliber plinkers boys have been knocking cans off of fence posts with for generations.

Little distinguishable in caliber, but the .223 fires at a much higher velocity, and with a heavier bullet than a .22LR. I would not consider the .22LR and the .223 to be comparable. Though he’s correct it’s not legal for deer hunting in many states for being too underpowered. The rest is spot on.

Ohio Preemption Victory

Dave Hardy notes that Ohio’s preemption law, which was challenged by a number of cities, was held to be valid by the Ohio Supreme Court, Preemption is now without a doubt the law of the land in Ohio.

Chris Christie Not All That Pro Gun

Bob Owens notes that the guy’s record on guns isn’t that great. This much is true, but you have to consider what state he’s coming from. Commuting Aitken’s sentence was a remarkable thing for a New Jersey governor to do. Should he earn an NRA endorsement any time soon? No. But so far, even with this one act, he’s been willing to do more for New Jersey gun owners than all the governors for the past half century combined. That’s how bad things are there.

WaPo Admits ATF Power Grab is Illegal

They love the idea. Love it! But yeah, it’s probably illegal. But the administration should do something, damn it. For the ~~children~~ Mexicans.

A New Challenge for Pro-Gun Efforts

RIP Sen. Michael O’Pake

In 2008, Sen. O’Pake was A rated and endorsed by NRA. It’s not uncommon for a Democrat outside of the Philly area, but it is still notable because he represented an area with a very high number of hardcore MAIG mayors.

Gun owners need to get involved in the Democratic Party efforts to fill the seat at primary time. In addition to being a likely solid blue district, the local GOP doesn’t seem to give much thought to gun rights based on the attitudes of the last two challengers. In 2004, the Republican refused to even respond to NRA’s questionnaire. In 2008, the GOP candidate received a whooping C-. Hopefully, local gun owners can make sure the candidate looking to fill the seat are both pro-gun by putting pressure on the local leadership and candidate hopefuls in both parties.

Losing a pro-gun Democratic Whip in the Senate when it is the GOP senators causing the hold up with Castle Doctrine could make it harder to pass as a clean bill next session. We’ll really need to boost our efforts and outreach with other friendly members of the minority and majority parties who will stand up for our rights against the leadership.

In the meantime, our thoughts certainly go out to Sen. O’Pake’s family and friends.

A Border Crackdown?

New York Times says “At Last,” as if they have been in favor of securing the border all along. First, this measure will do nothing at all to disarm drug cartels. It will do nothing to interfere with guns being trafficked along the border any more than the laws against drugs interfere with drugs being trafficked. What it will do is create a lot of new paperwork the ATF will have to hire more people and get larger budgets from Congress to keep track of. Some bureaucrats will get better offices, and get to generally enhance their kingdoms.

Anyone who thinks you can disarm drug cartels is either crazy, a fool, or some combination of the two.

Recess Appointment?

The Senate didn’t act on Andrew Traver, so the question becomes, will Obama recess appoint him? My money will be on yes, which will indicate the time of detente with the White House may be over.