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Quite the Contrast

October 28, 2010 by

Last year the Joyce Foundation gave a grant for $250,000 to the International Association of Chiefs of Police. The purpose of the grant was:

To continue implementation efforts around the recommendations contained in the report of the Great Lakes States Summit on Gun Violence.

The specific recommendations of the Great Lakes States Summit on Gun Violence (sic) include:

• Requiring judges and law enforcement to remove guns from situations of domestic violence, as well as from people whose adjudicated mental illness, drug use, or previous criminal record suggests the possibility of violence
• Requiring that all gun sales take place through Federal Firearms License (FFL) holders with mandatory background checks
• Enacting an effective ban on military-style assault weapons, armor-piercing handgun ammunition, .50 caliber sniper rifles and other weapons that enable criminals to outgun law enforcement
• Restoring COPS funding to provide vital resources to state, local and tribal law enforcement
• Repealing the Tiahrt Amendment, which hinders investigation of illegal gun trafficking
• Destroying guns that come into police possession once their law enforcement use has ended
• Improving officer training in debriefing suspects and handling crime guns, including tracing all guns
• Training police officers in tactics that can lessen the possibility that a hostile situation will erupt in violence
• Mandating safe storage of firearms by private citizens and providing safe facilities where gun owners can store their weapons
• Mandating reporting of lost and stolen firearms

While improving officer training is a laudable objective, most of the rest of these recommendations trample upon the civil rights of lawful Americans. That they would improve public safety and reduce crime is quite debatable. That it would help the officer on the street, again debatable.

Today’s Shooting Wire contained an item about a major donation given to two organizations that assist families of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. The organizations are the Concerns of Police Survivors (C.O.P.S.) Charity and the Drug Enforcement Administration Survivors Benefit Fund (DEA SBF). COPS was given $50,000 and DEA SBF was given $20,000. The donations were presented at the recent IACP Conference held in Orlando. These donations brought the amount given by the donor to non-profit organizations to $550,000 for 2010.

The donor? Glock, Inc. You know, the international arms merchant and purveyor of undetectable plastic pistols which threaten airline passenger safety.

So in the greater scheme of things who is really doing more for the officer on the street and their families? My vote goes to Glock.

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Illinois FOID Challenge – Plaintiffs Respond to Motion to Dismiss

October 27, 2010 by 2 Comments

As I posted a little more than a week ago, the State of Illinois sought to have the case brought by the Mountain States Legal Foundation on behalf of Ellen Mishaga challenging the state’s FOID requirements dismissed. They maintained that the FOID Card Act provided exceptions for out-of-state residents and thus they had not abridged her constitutional right to keep and bear arms nor her right to travel freely.

Attorney Jim Manley filed a reply in opposition to the defendant’s motion to dismiss yesterday. He gives a two-fold argument as to why the court should not dismiss this case: standard of review and that no FOID Act exceptions apply to Ms. Mishaga’s claims.

Courts, when reviewing motions to dismiss for failure to state a claim, must view the initial complaint in such a way as to be most favorable to the plaintiff. This includes accepting as true all factual allegations and all possible inferences stemming from those allegations. Thus, as the plaintiff argues:

Accepting the truth of the allegations in the Complaint, and drawing all inferences in the light most favorable to Ms. Mishaga, this Court should deny Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss.

The defendant suggested that 430 ICLS 65/2(b)(9) and (10) would be exceptions that would apply to Ms. Mishaga and allow her to possess a firearm in the state of Illinois without a FOID Card. The plaintiff’s reply argues that neither of these apply to Ms. Mishaga’s case. First, 430 ICLS 65/2(b)(9) states that “nonresidents whose firearms are unloaded and enclosed in a case” are not required to hold a FOID Card. However, an unloaded and cased firearm is inoperable and not available for self-defense. The plaintiff argues that “this subsection of the FOID Act suffers from the same constitutional infirmity as the law struck down by the Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller.” The Supreme Court said in Heller that inoperable firearms make it impossible for citizens to use them in self-defense and thus it was unconstitutional.

Subsection (9) specifically prohibits the constitutionally-protected activity Ms. Mishaga intends to engage in by requiring nonresidents’ firearms to be “unloaded and enclosed in a case” at all times. 430 ILCS 65/2(b)(9). Thus, even if 430 ILCS 65/2(b)(9) were not unconstitutional, this exception to the FOID Act would offer no support for Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss. Accordingly, Ms. Mishaga respectfully requests that the Court deny Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss.

The second exception to the FOID Card noted by the defendant involved citizens licensed or registered to possess a firearm in their resident state. However, Ms. Mishaga is a resident of Ohio which requires no licensing or registration to possess a firearm in that state. Indeed, as the plaintiff’s points out:

Ohio law forbids such licensing or registration. See Ohio Rev. Code § 9.68(A) (“[A] person, without further license, permission, restriction, delay, or process, may own, possess, purchase, sell, transfer, transport, store, or keep any firearm, part of a firearm, its components, and its ammunition.”)

Lawful possession in one’s state of residence is not the same as either registration or licensing though this seems to be the argument of the defendant. If that were the case, then Ms. Mishaga could possibly lawfully possess a functional firearm in Illinois without a FOID Card. As the brief in opposition notes:

Defendant conflates “licensed or registered” possession of a firearm with “lawful” possession of a firearm; however, the statutory exception applies only to the former….Unfortunately, neither Defendant nor this Court has the power to rewrite Illinois law. Virginia v. American Booksellers Ass’n, 484 U.S. 383, 397 (1988) (“we will not rewrite a state law to conform it to constitutional requirements.”); United States v. Wilburn, 473 F.3d 742, 746 (7th Cir. 2007) (“[I]t is not our role to rewrite the law.”). Accordingly, Ms. Mishaga respectfully requests that the Court deny Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss.

Frankly, having read both the motion to dismiss and the plaintiff’s reply in opposition, I was amazed that Illinois made the arguments that they did in the first place. One argument provided for an inoperable firearm when it was clear from the original complaint that Ms. Mishaga was seeking to possess a functional firearm for self-defense. The other argument made the erroneous assumption that Ohio required licensing or registration. It may be too much to expect that Illinois will continue to make these types of errors in the future but one can always hope.

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Is NYC Trying to Avoid Being the Next Target?

October 27, 2010 by

Sebastian at the Snow Flakes In Hell blog had two posts yesterday about New York City and Mayor Bloomberg. One post detailed the proposed reduction in fees to obtain a gun permit in the city and the other looked at New York’s “reasons” for denying a permit. Both of these are worth a read.

I’m sure that NYC will be sued eventually on Second and Fourteenth Amendment grounds. I just don’t think it will be until some of the other cases currently in litigation advance beyond the competing motions stage. Of course, the New York City Council could pass some new egregious gun restriction like Chicago and then I think the suits would fly.

However, I don’t think a full frontal assault on NYC and their laws, in my opinion, is the course that Alan Gura and the Second Amendment Foundation will take. It isn’t that “the Alans” won’t sue big targets – they will – but I think they want to have all the pieces in place when they do sue. One of those pieces has got to be Kachalsky v. Cacace which is working its way eventually to trial in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. A precedent set in this case would then be valid in NYC because they are in the same judicial district.

Strategy and not just mere tactics is what will win our battles with the anti-gun, anti-civil rights forces. Just filing a case because you can – see for example the third Chicago gun case, Second Amendment Arms et al v. Chicago et al – is not the way to go about it.

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My Kind of Female Politician

October 26, 2010 by

Susana Martinez is the Republican nominee for Governor in the state of New Mexico. Polls currently show her in the lead over Lt. Gov. Diane Denish. When CNN was wiring her up for an interview they got a bit of a surprise.

When CNN interviewed Susana Martinez, New Mexico’s Republican candidate for Governor, we got a surprise. Our cameraman John Torigoe was trying to clip the microphone pack to the candidate’s belt when she pulled away and said “Be careful, that’s a gun back there.” Martinez tells CNN she has a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

Now I understand why Cope Reynolds of The Shooting Bench podcast and owner of Southwest Shooting Authority in Luna, NM is such a big fan of hers!

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Art of the Dynamic Shotgun Trailer

October 26, 2010 by

According to Magpul Dynamics:

Available now at Magpul.com and authorized dealers for Preorder. Shipping 1st week of November.

While it’s the most versatile and violent weapon system in the small arms arsenal, the shotgun brings a level of complexity that requires extensive training to master.

Join Magpul Dynamics instructors, Travis Haley and Chris Costa as they guide a diverse group of shot gunners up an intense ladder of excellence. On this journey, the viewer takes a student perspective, benefiting as the students identify and solve problems with a variety of shotgun platforms. This 3 disc instructional set progresses quickly as it covers the fundamentals of shotgun manipulation, pattering, weapon’s configurations, actions types, ammo management, and real life complex scenarios for the Home Defender, Law Enforcement Officer, Military Operator and Competitor.

That reminds me, I need to install the TacStar Side-Saddle I bought on my Remington 870. It does no good sitting in the box!

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CCW Win in Sacramento County, California

October 25, 2010 by 1 Comment

Just sent out by the Second Amendment Foundation:

SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS REAFFIRMED AFTER SACRAMENTO COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE CHANGES CARRY LICENSE POLICIES SAY GUN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS

CASE CONTINUES AGAINST YOLO COUNTY TO SECURE RIGHT TO SELF-DEFENSE

BELLEVUE, WA & SAN CARLOS, CA – The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and the Calguns Foundation have dismissed their case against Sacramento County, California and its Sheriff, John McGinness, after the Sheriff modified his handgun carry permitting policy. Law-abiding Sacramento County residents may now successfully apply for permits to carry handguns by asserting self-defense as a basis for carry permit issuance. A one-year residency requirement has been eliminated, as has policy language that tied self-defense to arbitrary geographic factors.

While Sacramento County has changed its policies, other counties still fail to recognize that self-defense is a legally sufficient reason for issuance of a handgun carry permit. The litigation will continue against Yolo County and its Sheriff, Ed Prieto, on behalf of SAF, Calguns, and Davis resident Adam Richards. Additionally, this past March, Calguns supporter Brett Stewart unsuccessfully asserted self-defense as a basis for seeking a carrying license from Sheriff Prieto. The Sheriff’s written policy states that “self protection and protection of family (without credible threats of violence)” are insufficient reasons to exercise Second Amendment rights. Mr. Stewart will seek to join the litigation as a plaintiff in this case, now styled Richards v. Prieto.

“We are very happy to have been able to work with Sheriff McGinness to assist Sacramento County in revising their policies and practices,” said Gene Hoffman, Chairman of the Calguns Foundation. “Over the past year, more than 30 of our law abiding members and supporters have received licenses to carry firearms with good cause’ statements that are simple variations of self-defense. Even though the Sheriff is retiring at the end of the year, both candidates to replace Sheriff McGinness have publicly stated their support for Second Amendment rights and that they consider self-defense a compelling reason for issuance of gun carry permit.”

“The Second Amendment Foundation will continue working with the Calguns Foundation and keep funding attorney Alan Gura’s lawsuits in California until everyone’s firearms civil rights are fully protected,” added SAF founder Alan Gottlieb. “Together, we will see many more legal victories.”

For those who wish to apply for a CCW permit, the Calguns Foundation maintains an informational portal to assist applicants in all 58 California counties as part of its recently announced Carry Licensing Compliance and Sunshine Initiative. The Sacramento County page has details on the actual procedure and successful good cause statements and is available at http://bit.ly/CGFSacCarry .

Congratulations to the CalGuns Foundation, the Second Amendment Foundation, and Deana Sykes for taking a stand for gun rights in California – and winning.

Given Nikki Stallard’s comments at the Gun Rights Policy Conference on this case, I wonder how the California media will play it.

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Steinbeck on the Right to Keep and Bear Arms

October 25, 2010 by

John Steinbeck, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, was commissioned by the US Army Air Force to write a book called Bombs Away: The Story of a Bomber Team. It was a wartime report and a nonfiction account of his experiences with Air Force bomber crews during WWII. I picked up a copy of the book while out in California for the Gun Rights Policy Conference.

I came across this interesting paragraph which indicates the fight for the Second Amendment is nothing new:

And we may be thankful that frightened civil authorities and specific Ladies Clubs have not managed to eradicate from the country the tradition of the possession and use of firearms, that profound and almost instinctive tradition of Americans. For one does not really learn to shoot a rifle of a machine gun in a few weeks. Army gunnery instructors have thus described a perfect machine gunner: When he was six years old, his father gave him a .22 rifle and taught him to respect it as a dangerous weapon, and taught him to shoot it at a target. At nine, the boy ranged the hills and the woods, hunting squirrels, until the pointing of a rifle was as natural to him as the pointing of his finger. At twelve, the boy was given his first shotgun and taken duck hunting, quail hunting, and grouse hunting; and where, with the rifle, he had learned accuracy in pointing, he now learned the principle of leading a moving target, learned instinctively that you do not fire at the moving target, but ahead of it, and learned particularly that his gun is a deadly weapon, always to be respected and cared for. When such a boy enters the Air Force, he has the whole background of aerial gunnery in him before he starts, and he has only to learn the mechanism of a new weapon, for the principles of shooting down enemy airplanes are exactly those of shooting duck. Such a boy, with such a background, makes the ideal aerial gunner, and there are hundreds of thousands of them in America. Luckily for us, our tradition of bearing arms has not gone from the country, and the tradition is so deep and so dear to us that it is one of the most treasured parts of the Bill of Rights – the right of all Americans to bear arms, with the implication that they will know how to use them.

I just love that first line about “frightened civil authorities and specific Ladies Clubs”. I wonder if Steinbeck had a premonition about the Brady Campaign and their so-called Million Mom March.