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Hearing Date Set in Benson et al v. Chicago et al

July 23, 2010 by

September 1st has been set as the hearing date for Benson et al v. Chicago et al. This is the case supported by the NRA that challenges the new Chicago gun laws enacted after the McDonald case struck down the City of Chicago’s handgun ban.

Judge Ronald Guzman is the US District Court judge assigned to the case. He was appointed to the bench by Bill Clinton in 1999. He doesn’t get high marks from those that have rated him on the website The Robing Room. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being awful and 10 being excellent, he rates a 3.4.

Civil litigators in particular don’t seem to like him. From the comments:

He’s got to look for a job he really likes. He’s almost always late, is lazy, unreasonable, procrastinates and doesn’t care. He makes short-shrift of cases and looks for the easy way out–not very analytical. Has a very unlikeable and unpleasant attitude in court. – 2010

Agree with other comments. Judge Guzman is unlikeable and doesn’t always seem to catch on quickly. If you hate lawyers, why be a judge? – 2008

Judge Guzman is perpetually late to court and always in a grumpy mood. That said, he doesn’t seem to have any noticeable bias towards either side, because he equally despises them both. – 2006

I hope this isn’t a bad sign for Benson.

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Bateman et al v. Perdue et al – Meet the Attorneys

July 23, 2010 by

The City of King filed a motion of an extension today which was granted. They were the last of the defendants to request and be granted an extension. They will have until August 17th to respond to the complaint. Governor Perdue and Secretary Young have until August 15th and Stokes County has until August 12th for their response.

With the filing by the City of King, we now know all the legal players in this contest.

Plaintiffs

Alan Gura needs no introduction after winning both the Heller case and the McDonald case. He will be appearing as a pro hac vice attorney. This means he is appearing with the permission of the court as he is not licensed in North Carolina.

Kearns Davis, a partner in the law firm of Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey and Leonard is the lead North Carolina attorney for the plaintiffs. Brooks, Pierce is a mid-size law firm with offices in both Greensboro and Raleigh, NC. He is a 1995 graduate of the University of North Carolina Law School where he was the managing editor of the law review. He has been listed in “The Best Lawyers in America” for 2010 and is listed as a “North Carolina Super Lawyer”.

Davis is being assisted by Andrew Tripp of Brooks, Pierce. Tripp is a 2004 graduate of Duke Law where he was managing editor of the Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law. After graduation, he served as a clerk for District Court Judge Terrence Boyle of the Eastern District of North Carolina. Interestingly enough, Alan Gura served as a clerk for Judge Boyle a few years earlier.


Defendants

Mark Davis, Special Deputy Attorney General for the State of North Carolina, will be representing Bev Perdue and Reuben Young as they have been sued in their roles as Governor and Secretary of the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety respectively. According to Martindale-Hubbell, Davis is a 1991 graduate of the University of North Carolina Law School. Davis serves in the Special Litigation Section of the NC Department of Justice. A quick Google search seems to indicate he handles many Federal and appellate level cases for the Attorney Generals office.

Representing Stokes County are Henry Jones, Jr. and Lori Jones of the law firm Jordan, Price, Wall, Gray, Jones, and Carlton in Raleigh. Mr. Jones is a 1978 graduate of the University of Richmond Law School. Among his past activities was serving as Chairman of the Wake County Democratic Party from 1987 through 1991. He is AV Peer Review rated by the Martindale-Hubbell.

Lori Jones is an associate in Jordan, Price and is a 2004 graduate of the University of North Carolina Law School. According to the Jordan Price web site, her practice focuses on general civil litigation matters. All the filings submitted by Stokes County have been signed by her to date.

Finally, Kevin Williams of Bell, Davis, and Pitt in Winston-Salem represents the City of King. Williams is a 1998 graduate of Wake Forest University Law School where he made law review. He is listed in “Best Lawyers in America” for 2010 under Commercial Litigation. He is also listed as a “Rising Star” in the North Carolina Super Lawyers.

So there you have it. By mid-August we should start seeing the responses from the defendants and will get some idea of how hard they plan to fight.

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I’m a Lumberjack and I’m OK

July 22, 2010 by

Naval Special Warfare Group 2 has a procurement solicitation out there for Filson Double Tin Bibbs, Filson Tin Cloth Field Jackets, and Filson forest green wool liners.

The Kitup blog of Military.com has the story here.

Checking the Filson website, the Double Tin Bibs retail for $206, the Tin Cloth Field Jacket for $295, and the liners for $120. While expensive, it is tough enough to stand up to the wear and tear of lumberjacks….or Navy SEALS.

As they say on the Filson website, “Might As Well Have the Best”. I think that can be said for both the equipment and the men in the Special Operations community.

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State Ammunition et al v. Lindley et al – Another California Gun Case

July 21, 2010 by

State Ammunition, a California-based on-line ammo retailer, is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit brought in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California seeking to overturn AB 962. This law, officially the Anti-Gang Neighborhood Protection Act of 2009 bans the sale of “handgun ammunition” in other than face-to-face transaction starting February 1, 2011. CRPA/NRA Legal Action Project is fighting this law in state court. This makes sure that the two cases cannot be consolidated.

A virtually identical lawsuit was filed by the plaintiffs in early June and then was voluntarily dismissed on July 16th. Of course, on June 28th, the U.S. Supreme Court found for Otis McDonald and the Second Amendment was applied to the states through incorporation. The new complaint has added the Second Amendment as one of the grounds for the complaint.

The other plaintiffs in this case are Jim Otten who owns a Minnesota-based on-line ammo retailer named a1ammo.com and Major Jim Russell, USMC (Ret)., a California resident, who is a disabled veteran. Major Russell is active in the Paralyzed Veterans of America as their Director of Shooting Sports.

What makes this case unique when compared to the rest of the post-McDonald litigation is that it makes the Commerce Clause the centerpiece of the complaint. While it does include the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the 14th Amendment and the Second Amendment as part of the basis for the lawsuit, the complaint devotes most of its arguments to the Commerce Clause and AB 962’s interference with interstate commerce.

The lawsuit first attacks the definition of “handgun ammunition” as being impermissably vague. The law defines it as:

“Handgun ammunition” means ammunition principally for use in pistols, revolvers, and other firearms capable of being concealed upon the person, as defined in subdivision (a) of Section 12001, notwithstanding that the ammunition may also be used in some rifles.

There are many calibers of ammunition that can be used in both handguns and rifles. For example, the ubiquitous .22LR rimfire can be used in both the Ruger 10/22 carbine and the Ruger MkIII pistol. Likewise, you have many common rifle cartridges that can be used in the Thompson/Center Contender pistol. As the complaint notes,

it forces individuals and businesses to guess what is meant by “handgun ammunition.” As a result, people engaging in constitutionally protected activity (interstate commerce), selling and buying constitutionally protected products (firearms and ammunition), are placed in the precarious position of not knowing whether or not the legal product they are buying is considered by someone somewhere buried deep in the bureaucracy of the State of California to be “handgun” ammunition or “rifle” ammunition.

Other provisions of AB 962 requires vendors to make sure that their employees are allowed under the law to sell ammunition and to make sure the recipient of the ammunition is allowed by law to buy. The former requires employers to know whether certain employees are ineligible to sell the ammo while not being authorized by law to conduct criminal background checks. As to the latter, there is no Brady Law forcing a NICS check of ammo purchasers. Furthermore, since the law forbids the sale to gang members, the vendor has no way know if the buyer is or is not a member of a criminal street gang. Unless one is immersed in the gang culture or is a law enforcement officer specializing in gangs, I would venture to say it is hard to tell a wannabe gang member from an up and coming rapper. Or vice-versa.

The meat of the argument against AB 962 is that it interferes with interstate commerce. By requiring a face-to-face transaction, California vendor and manufacturers cannot ship their product out of state. Conversely, out of state sellers and manufacturers cannot ship their handgun ammunition to buyers in California. It goes on to state that,

In addition to a ban on handgun ammunition sales in all but “face to face” transactions, AB962 includes an irrational, preempted definition of “ammunition” so expansive that out-of-state vendors will be unable to determine what is or isn’t legal and what actions are or are not criminal. As a result, out-of-state vendors will simply refuse to sell or ship to California residents. Likewise, the criminalization of the sale of ammunition to an ever-expanding impossible-to-ascertain list of prohibited purchasers will cumulatively interfere with and regulate channels of interstate commerce.

With regard to violations of the Second Amendment, the suit says,

AB962 further discriminates against individuals on the basis of whether or not they are employees of the government, exempting “Authorized law enforcement representatives of cities, counties, cities and counties, or state and federal governments for exclusive use by those government agencies” and “peace officers” from its provisions. The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution expresses fundamental and individual rights that cannot be reserved only to government employees. These rights are guaranteed to every citizen. To denying these rights to all but government employees, AB962 violates the Second Amendment. This disparate treatment is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The entire complaint can be seen here.

I am not a lawyer (nor do I play one on television!) but I do think this complaint does make a strong prima facie case that AB 962 interferes with interstate commerce.

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Guns in Video Games

July 21, 2010 by

The Firearm Blog has a guest post by Pascal Eggert on designing guns for video games.

Since the Complementary Spouse’s nephews play Halo 3 professionally on Teams Instinct and Status Quo, I found this quite interesting. Having watched their tournaments both in person and on-line, I always thought the guns were almost right. However, for a gunny, almost right just grates.

Pascal addresses that here:

I think about stuff like this a lot and have come to the conclusion that the one thing that is even worse than wrong visual representations of real guns in games are horribly designed fictional guns. In this area a lack of understanding of firearms gets easily multiplied and if you thought an AK47 is a magic device in the first place your sci-fi AK7000 will be a magic device so random it will not convince even the stupidest player. Yes, in the realm of fantasy you can invent whatever you want and find an explanation for any technical problem, but there are still the laws of physics that should be considered. Unfortunately most sci-fi guns are so bad that people just stopped caring about them with no questions asked

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The AHSA and Bloggers

July 21, 2010 by

AHSA, the American Hunters and Shooters Association, the anti-gun front group was called to task by the bloggers on the Days of our Trailers blog. AHSA was asked if they were such a “pro-gun” group why didn’t they submit an amicus brief in the McDonald case.

Their response was that they filed one but it was not “publically published” and would be released “post decision”. Obviously, they were using the Dean Wormer (of Animal House fame) “double secret” type of brief.

When called on this, they got testy.

Good sir, please refrain from writing me or I will report you to the local authorities for harassment.

It reminds one of those e-mail letters you get on behalf of deposed Nigerian rulers. That really isn’t fair to the Nigerian scammers as all they are after is your money whereas the AHSA seeks to give cover to politicians who would violate your Constitutional rights.

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Bushmaster President to Retire

July 21, 2010 by

From Bushmaster:

Bushmaster Firearms® Announces the Retirement of the Company President

Windham, ME –After over a 40 year career in business and manufacturing, John A. DeSantis, President of Bushmaster Firearms has decided to retire and to pursue other challenges and another exciting phase of his life. John has been a tireless driving force behind the success of Bushmaster. He surrounded himself with a great team of professionals and together they have grown Bushmaster into the largest commercial AR platform rifle manufacturer in the world. John commented that “Bushmaster will always have a warm place in my heart and I have enjoyed my experience with the Freedom Group of Companies. I look forward to spending more time with my family.”

“On a personal note, John is truly a world-class gentlemen and I am proud to call him a personal friend. John has been an invaluable asset to our company and me personally. His wisdom and his high regard for our product, combined with his deep respect for the rich traditions of our industry, have been a great source of counsel and advice to me.” said Ted Torbeck, CEO, Freedom Group, Inc.

John’s retirement will be official on July 31, 2010, but he has graciously agreed to stay on and oversee the day to day business of Bushmaster until his replacement can be found. He also will continue on a consulting arrangement to help grow our modern sporting rifle business.

About Bushmaster Firearms International, LLC

Bushmaster Firearms International, LLC (BFI) is the leading supplier of AR15/M16 type rifles in the United States for Law Enforcement, security and private consumer use. Headquartered in Windham, Maine, with additional facilities in Dallas, Georgia and Lake Havasu, Arizona, BFI supplies aluminum and advanced carbon fiber-based rifle platforms in calibers ranging from 5.56mm/223 to 50BMG. These and associated accessories manufactured by BFI meet the tactical rifle needs of US customers as well as Military, Law Enforcement and Security clients from over 50 countries worldwide. Visit our web site at www.bushmaster.com.

I wonder if this has anything to do with the plans for the Freedom Group to go public.

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Heritage Foundation on the UN’s “Programme of Action” on Small Arms

July 21, 2010 by

Theodore Bromund and David Kopel have just released a research report for the Heritage Foundation entitled “As the U.N.’s Arms Trade Treaty Process Begins, U.N.’s “Programme of Action” on Small Arms Shows Its Dangers”.

It is a short report and well worth a read to get an idea of what the UN and the Obama Administration is up to.

As the Bromund and Kopel note:

The PoA is becoming a dangerous failure. Like many international initiatives for conventional arms control, it is being hijacked by true believers who refuse to distinguish between arms used for aggression and arms used for legitimate self-defense. As a result, the PoA’s modest potential for good is disappearing. This is a warning sign that the U.S. should heed as the Arms Trade Treaty process begins.

As long as the PoA ignores the fact that many U.N. member states approve of the transfers they pretend to condemn, the PoA—and especially a treaty based on it—will be counterproductive: It will limit the defensive arms of the law-abiding, while law-breaking states continue to supply arms to their proxies.

The U.S. should resist all efforts to turn the PoA into a treaty. If preparations for the 2012 meeting show that these efforts are continuing or that the PoA will persist in wasting time on broad, controversial, or unrelated items, the U.S. should withdraw from the PoA process. If it participates, it should keep the focus on using voluntary cooperation between law-abiding democracies to facilitate control of illicit arms trafficking.

There is also a discussion of this paper on the Volokh Conspiracy.

UPDATE: I just received this from the Second Amendment Foundation who as a NGO (Non-Government Organization) is represented at the Arms Trade Treaty talks.

SAF REPORT LIVE FROM THE UN

The Following is an up to the minute report from Julianne Versnel, Director of Operations for the Second Amendment Foundation who is representing SAF as an NGO delegate at the United Nations ATT meeting.

The Arms Trade Treaty Prep Committee began on July 12, 2010 and will conclude on July 23, 2010. Ambassador Roberto Garcia Moritan of Argentina is the Chair. On Friday, July 19, Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) representatives were told that the majority of the meetings would be closed to them. The critical discussions on the scope of the treaty will have no input from any non-governmental entity. Scope is critical in the Arms Trade Treaty process. In North America, some Pan Asian Countries and in some other parts of the world, the arms that we expect to have covered in this treaty are nuclear weapons. In much of Europe and most all of Africa, the delegates anticipate that the ATT will cover rifles, shotguns, handguns and ammunition as well.

There appears little doubt that some sort of treaty will be adopted by 2014, if not by 2012. It is anticipated that the final treaty will attempt to register all firearms, require micro-stamping, destruction of surplus ammunition on a very set schedule, registration of all firearms and restriction on any transfer of arms including between private individuals and many other restrictions. If the United States is a signatory and this is ratified by the U.S. Senate, this UN treaty would be the law. On October 30, 2009, UN members voted in favor of an ATT. The United States voted in favor of an ATT.

The UN has an aggressive schedule of meetings planned to push for these restrictions and we will be there representing you in every way we can. We will be at the CTOP/COP meeting in Vienna the week of October 18 and a General Assembly meeting at the end of October. In January, the five permanent members of the Security Council will meet and this is on the agenda. There will be another ATT Preparatory meeting at the end of February in New York. The regional UNIDIR meeting sponsored by the EU will start in March. We will come full circle with the Programme of Action Experts Meeting in May 2011 and the July 17-21 ATT Preparatory meeting that is expected to offer the final draft to the treaty.

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Disarming the Elderly

July 20, 2010 by

David Codrea has written an excellent article on the elderly and firearms in his Examiner Gun Rights column. The article was in reaction to a New York Times “health” article entitled “Guns in Frail Hands”.

Codrea speculates that with an aging population in the United States this may be next front for gun control advocates.

Which leads us to a ripe-for-exploiting “loophole” (that’s what the anti’s call anything impeding total control, don’t they?) of sorts:

“Families find little help in the law when trying to pry guns away from impaired family members.”

Except there really is no gap in law. It’s just that:

“The federal Brady Act bars gun sales to anyone adjudicated mentally “defective,” a legal process few children want to put parents through.”

It really does get down to taking responsibility for our elderly relatives and making the hard decisions. I know of what I speak. I buried my Mom two years ago after a four year stay in a nursing home with advanced dementia. There were hard decisions that needed to be made including the very first one about getting her into a nursing home – a place she didn’t want to be but she needed to be.

Codrea sums it up by saying:

We have an aging population. Many of us still have parents, others of us are starting to realize we ourselves aren’t getting any younger. The decisions we are or will be faced with aren’t easy ones. That means there is no one-size-fits all solution where we can just pass another “gun control” law and consider the problem solved.

We need to have this discussion in the gun community, to develop tools and resources to help us help ourselves and our loved ones.

Or we could just let government take over and make the best decisions for us.

He is absolutely correct. We need to have this conversation and we don’t need a one-size fits all sort of law imposed by our “betters” from on high.

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Outdoor Life’s Fifty Best Made Guns of All Time

July 20, 2010 by

Outdoor Life magazine has released what they consider the fifty best made guns of all time.

It is an interesting list but I do wonder how one gun made the list but not another. For example, they have the AK-47, the AR-15, and the M-14 but not the M-1 Garand. Given that the M-14 is derived from the Garand it is hard for me to understand how that is a better rifle than the Garand.

As to shotguns, they chose the Browning Citori and the Ruger Red Label but not the Browning Superposed. I think among shotgun lovers there is more love for the Superposed than either of the other two.

The list is what it is but I think many will disagree with it.