The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
Via Dave Hardy, check out Concurring Opinions. I’m happy to see that Pennsylvania signed on in favor of Heller. What’s with Tennessee and Nevada? Or North Carolina and Oregon for that matter? You’d think those states would have signed on for Heller too.
It’s interesting that only Attorneys General from New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland, and Hawaii were willing to sign on in favor of DC.
Four more Senators, including Pennsylvania’s Senator Arlen Specter, have signed on to the letter to Department of Interior Secretary Kempthorne calling for new rules to force the National Park Service to follow state law regarding firearms on property managed by the agency. Excellent.
Academics for the Second Amendment has submitted their brief, and it is now online here. Dave Hardy, who is the Attorney of Record on the brief, says he’s pretty tired after all that, and I think we all owe him a debt of gratitude for helping put this brief together, and for all the academic work he and his colleagues have done over the years that has helped lay the groundwork for this. One way you can say thanks is by donating to ASA. I think it’s the least we can do.
UPDATE: Let’s not forget that Clayton Cramer also lent assistance to this brief as well.
UPDATE: I read the whole thing. I think it’s devastating to many of DCs arguments. It’ll take quite a tangle of intellectual knots the court will have to contort for itself to rule in favor of any kind of collective rights viewpoint.
The Violence Policy Center holds a Federal Firearms License, which Dave points out make them exempt from DC’s handgun ban. Can you spell hypocrite?
Chicago Handgun Rights gives us a review of the goings on in New York State in regards to gun control advocates there attempting to close the “Musket Loophole” But in addition, he also tells us what the “Musket Loophole” means for Chicago residents.
Dave Hardy details some difficulties faced by leading gun control advocates.
According to Gun Law News, American Hunters and Shooters Association, a “False Flag” outfit designed to trick hunters into thinking it’s a pro-gun group, submitted a brief essentially calling for the DC gun ban to be overturned because it violates DC’s home rule charter.
Apparently AHSA, which has claimed to support the second amendment, and says it’s against the DC gun law, would prefer it if The Court not discover that the second amendment is an individual right.
This group is a fraud, and anyone who buys their crap is either not paying attention, or actively conspiring with these pirates.
UPDATE: Thirdpower has much much more.
Now that the present has been presented, I can tell you what I got her. It’s a CZ 452 Lux in .22LR. If you follow the link, you’ll notice that I wrapped it up with two NRA 200 yard targets, and used a sliced up 12 gauge shotgun shell as an appropriate bow. Here’s what it looks like:
Thanks to Traction Control for tracking one down and getting it to the local FFL. I also got her a Bushnell 40mm objective scope, the Banner series, but the rings I got her are too short for it, plus it looks like the CZ has 11mm dovetails. No worries though, I’ll find the proper scope rings at some point that’ll make it all work. After looking at the rifle in person, I think a smaller scope might be better for it anyway, in which case I might swap her the Bushnell for a smaller scope and use it when I finally get around to building my accurized 10/22 project.
Hopefully we’ll get to try it out sometime soon. I think it’ll shoot very nice. Bitter is more of a pistol shooter than a rifle(wo)man, so it was time to get her started. Everyone needs at least one rifle in .22LR, so I figured the 452 was as good as any to start her out with.
Paul Helmke on the town hall shooting in Missouri:
This last point deserves some more attention. One of the first times I got involved in a controversy with the gun lobby was when, as Mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana, I suggested that individuals not be allowed to bring guns into our City-County building. (The County, which owned the building, had just banned guns from the County Courthouse and I argued there were just as many contentious issues being discussed and decided by the legislative and administrative parts of local government as by the judicial part.)
The gun lobby saw this suggestion as an attack on their “Second Amendment rights†and responded strongly. As someone who had received death threats and been called a “dictator†because of other government issues, I knew that there were a lot of people who I did not want to see carrying guns into city meetings and the offices of city employees.
These incidents all highlight the tensions involved when individuals argue that their “personal liberty†outweighs the rule of law and trumps community policy as decided by our governmental systems.
Is Paul serious here? First off, government meetings are already off limits places to concealed carry in Missouri. Clearly this individual paid no attention to the fact that gun were prohibited there. The individual overcame two armed police officers stationed outside. Was a sign saying “no guns” really going to be effective against someone intent on mowing down town council? You almost have to believe that in Paul’s world, this isn’t satire:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7pGt_O1uM8[/youtube]
UPDATE: Eric at Classical Values has a good bit on this up here.