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GRNC Seeks Injunction Against Posting Of NC State Fair

October 9, 2014 by

North Carolina’s Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler (R-NC) is the official in charge of the State Fair held in Raleigh. This year, for some reason, he held a press conference announcing that it would be policy to post the State Fair against concealed carry by properly permitted CHP holders. His argument is that this is just a continuation of how things have always been.

The Criminal Law blog of the UNC School of Government has looked at this issue and it appears that Commissioner Troxler is on very shaky ground. The State Fair isn’t a private business nor is it a unit of local government which might allow him to do it. As it is, the law is very specific that CHP holders are allowed to carry at assemblies where a fee is charged. Moreover, state law specifies which state government buildings that are posted including such places as the Executive Mansion and the State Capitol Building. The State Fair is not one of the buildings mention.

Given that state laws regarding firearms and where they may be carried legally has changed considerably in the last few years, this is an odd move on the part of Troxler. In response, Grass Roots North Carolina is going to court seeking an injunction to stop Troxler from posting the State Fair. The State Fair runs from October 16th through the 26th so time is of the essence.

Gun group to file injunction against state fair posting today
Due to an impasse in negotiations with North Carolina Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler, Grass Roots North Carolina will today file  for a temporary restraining order in Wake County Superior Court with the intention of preventing the Department of Agriculture from posting the state fair against lawful concealed carry.

BACKGROUND
At the request of North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler, GRNC representatives met with the commissioner and his legal counsel after his police chief for the state fairgrounds, Joel Keith, began telling people the North Carolina State Fair would be posted against all firearms, including lawful concealed carry. Although Troxler is not particularly anti-gun, he seems unwilling to take responsibility for doing the right thing, saying instead that as a member of the executive branch, he cannot interpret statutes and must follow the interpretations given to him (more on that shortly). 

Consequently, the commissioner and GRNC were unable to achieve a satisfactory resolution of the problem. GRNC is now preparing a filing for a temporary restraining order, through its sister non-profit, Rights Watch International, to prevent the fair, which starts next week, from being posted.

ORIGINS OF THE PROBLEM

Before passage of House Bill 937, which became effective on October 1, 2013, guns were prohibited at “assemblies of people for which admission is charged.” Since that section of NCGS 14-269.3 was changed to permit carry by those with concealed handgun permits, however, only private property owners hosting such assemblies may prohibit concealed carry. The state fairgrounds, of course, are not private property.

TROXLER’S DODGE

Although NCGS 14-269.3 specifically opens carry to permit-holders, Troxler claims “vague” language in the statutes enables the state to post under NCGS 14-269(a2), which says the state’s general prohibition on concealed weapons, “does not apply to a person who has a concealed handgun permit issued in accordance with Article 54B of this Chapter, has a concealed handgun permit considered valid under G.S. 14-415.24, or is exempt from obtaining a permit pursuant to G.S. 14-415.25, provided the weapon is a handgun, is in a closed compartment or container within the person’s locked vehicle, and the vehicle is in a parking area that is owned or leased by State government.”
THE TRUTH
  1. The section above merely enables permit-holders to keep guns in closed compartments of locked motor vehicles in state properties where guns are prohibited. It does not create a prohibition in itself.
  1. In fact, NCGS 14-269.4 lists the specific state properties – such as the State Capitol, Governor’s Executive Mansion” and courthouses – where guns are prohibited. That section does not include the state fairgrounds.
  1. Even in the exceedingly unlikely event a court agreed that Troxler is allowedto post the fair, nothing requires him to do so. In short, his rationalization that he is just following what he has to do is false. Troxler is choosing to prohibit lawful concealed handgun permit-holders from protecting their families not only at the fair, but also in the parking lots outside the fair.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
As we’ve seen time and again, gun-free zones are dangerous places for law-abiding citizens. No family should be rendered entirely helpless should an event occur such as what happened at the Wisconsin State Fair in 2011. Dozens of teenagers and young adults attacked peaceful fairgoers as they left the fair. Eleven people were injured and thirty-one arrests were made. Criminals are always empowered when they know that their intended victims are disarmed.

I will keep on top of this to report on what the court’s decide. It should be interesting.

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The Polite Society Podcast Needs A Little Help

October 6, 2014 by 2 Comments

I noted a few days ago that the Polite Society Podcast in conjunction with Ammoland.com and the New Jersey Second Amendment Society will be live streaming the 2015 Gun Rights Policy Conference. In order to do so, Paul Lathrop will need to purchase some new audio and video equipment.

Paul has started a GoFundMe campaign to raise the necessary funds. The goal is a conservative $731 for the video camera, tripod, and additional audio equipment.

The live streaming project is being done with the explicit permission of the Second Amendment Society and will be using the official audio feed managed by Charles Heller.

Unlike the Demanding Mommies, we in the gun rights movement don’t have a Sugar Daddy like Mike Bloomberg so we need your help. If you can help out with a donation of any size, please go to the GoFundMe page Paul has set up.

The live stream project will allow everyone to be able to follow the conference as it happens even if they can’t afford to fly to Phoenix or there is another case of a suicidal pyromaniac taking down a FAA control center. I’ve made a donation and hope you will do so too.

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Restaurant Carry In North Carolina Has Its First Anniversary And Carry Is Banned At The State Fair

October 6, 2014 by 2 Comments

The ability to carry concealed in a restaurant or eating establishment in North Carolina had its first anniversary this past week. The anniversary brings with it a measure of disappointment for the naysayers and gun prohibitionists. Blood didn’t run in the streets and there weren’t boozy shoot-outs on a regular basis. In fact, according to research by Grass Roots North Carolina, there wasn’t even one shooting involving a concealed carry holder in a restaurant serving alcohol.

House Bill 937, which became effective on October 1, 2013, dramatically expanded North Carolina’s concealed handgun law into restaurants where alcohol is sold and consumed, assemblies of people for which admission is charged, parades and funerals, further into state and municipal parks, and even to a limited extent into educational properties.


‘Guns and alcohol don’t mix’?


As always when we expand concealed handgun laws, opponents and media naysayers predicted shootings in bars, guns stolen from vehicles at schools, and various other sorts of mayhem using platitudes like “guns and alcohol don’t mix.”


GRNC explained endlessly that concealed handgun permit-holders, by virtue of background checks and training, had proven themselves sane, sober and law-abiding since 1995, with a rate of permit revocation on the order of three tens of a single percent. We explained that permit-holders in restaurants would still be prohibited from imbibing alcohol.


But the dire predictions persisted. Editorials ridiculed legislators. UNC president Tom Ross sent UNC police chiefs to testify against the bill, claiming it would hamper their ability to protect students. Gun control activists pushed restaurants to post against concealed carry.


So what has happened?


It has now been one year since HB 937 became effective. So what has happened? Nothing. GRNC monitors clipping services for gun-related incidents. Just like Virginia, Ohio, Tennessee and other states which adopted restaurant carry, however, we have been unable to find a single instance of a concealed handgun permit-holder misusing a gun in a restaurant or educational property.


So when will the media naysayers apologize? Will the media acknowledge the anniversary and the absolute lack of negative impact?


NC State Fair: The latest battleground


In the latest battle, Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler says he will post the North Carolina State Fair against concealed carry even though statutes adopted in HB 937 now prohibit him from doing so. He apparently believes that even despite passing concealed carry in 1995; Castle Doctrine/Stand Your Ground and expanded concealed carry into parks and elsewhere in 2011; and HB 937 in 2013 – all without the mayhem predicted by opponents – somehow, the state fair must be a different and more dangerous place than all the others.


So GRNC asks both Troxler and the media, “Where’s the mayhem?”

It is against this background that GRNC is taking NC Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler (R-NC) to task for trying to continue the ban on carry at the North Carolina State Fair. HB 937 which permits restaurant carry also permitted carry at assemblies where an admission is charged such as the State Fair. GRNC is threatening legal action to make Ag Commissioner Troxler and the State Fair to abide by the law.

Sean Sorrentino of An NC Gun Blog attended Troxler’s press conference and questioned him about the decision to post the State Fair. Troxler replied that it was long-standing policy to post against carry and he’d leave it to the lawyers about the interpretation of the new law.

Paul Valone, President of GRNC, has met with Troxler last Monday. As Valone says, Troxler is not known as a liberal or anti-gun but that still doesn’t make him right. GRNC will be going to court seeking a temporary restraining order before the fair opens in about a week.

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Farmer’s Okra Plot Gets Raided By Georgia Cops

October 6, 2014 by 2 Comments

I know some people don’t like that Southern staple, okra. Still, it isn’t any reason to launch a full force raid with cop cars and a helicopter on someone growing it. However, mistaking the five-leafed vegetable for marijuana might be.

A Bartow County, GA Sheriffs Department drug task force raided Dwayne Perry’s garden in Cartersville last week after a spotter in a Governor’s Task Force for Drug Suppression helicopter misidentified the okra for pot.

Mr. Perry is understandably upset by the whole incident.

“Here I am, at home and retired and you know I do the right thing,” Perry said. “Then they come to my house strapped with weapons for no reason. It ain’t right.”…

“The more I thought about it, what could have happened? Anything could have happened,” Perry said.

Perry said he’s still getting calls about all of the deputy vehicles that responded at his home. He fears his reputation has been damaged.

Given the record of some Georgia police departments conducting SWAT-type raids, Mr. Perry was right to be worried. It was in Habersham County, Georgia that a toddler was critically injured by a stun grenade in a raid in which no drugs were found. And it was in Atlanta where 92-year old Kathryn Johnson was killed in a botched drug raid. That raid left the elderly woman dead and a number of cops going to Federal prison.

If I were Mr. Perry, I might be consulting a good attorney.

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Now Where Have I Heard That Name Before

October 3, 2014 by 3 Comments

North Carolina judicial elections at all levels are officially non-partisan. The trend towards non-partisan judicial elections started in 1996 with superior court judges, continued in 2001 with district court judges, and culminated with appellate level (both Court of Appeals and Supreme Court) judges and justices in 2002. The North Carolina Board of Elections sends out the General Election Judicial Voter Guide to every resident.

I got the 2014 edition in the mail today. I’m reading through the candidates for the various seat on the Court of Appeals and I came across a name that struck a bell – Mark A. Davis. It noted that he was appointed to the Court of Appeals by former Gov. Beverly Perdue (D-NC) and had served as a Special Deputy Attorney General and General Counsel to the Governor. It hit me and a quick check showed I was correct.

Mark Davis was the lead attorney for the State of North Carolina in Bateman v. Perdue. He was the man charged with defending North Carolina’s law that stated, during times of officially declared emergency, off-premises possession of a firearm was banned. Put another way, it was his job to keep North Carolinians defenseless when they were at their most vulnerable. Fortunately, he failed.

Davis makes note of all his endorsements by former judges and by groups such as the Advocates for Justice and the NC Association of Educators. Advocates for Justice used to be named the NC Academy of Trial Lawyers which is an organization of primarily plaintiffs attorneys. Davis notes that the judges that endorsed him are both Republicans and Democrats. Frankly, I don’t care.

What I care about is not having a judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals that wrote something so dismissive of my Second Amendment rights as did Davis in his Reply in Response to Motion. The State of North Carolina had filed a Motion to Dismiss which drew a Memorandum in Opposition from Alan Gura. Davis started off his response to Gura with this.

Plaintiffs’ Response Brief is most notable for its refusal to even acknowledge the substantial
governmental interest in placing restrictions on the carrying of guns in public. Guns are designed
to injure or kill, and possession of a gun poses a real risk of death or serious bodily harm to others
– that is, in fact, the very purpose of a gun. Consequently, the State’s interest in imposing
appropriate restrictions on the carrying of guns outside of one’s premises is even stronger than the
State’s well-recognized interests in establishing reasonable limits on First Amendment and other
constitutional rights, the exercise of which carry far less potential for death and destruction.


While Heller notes some similarities between the First Amendment and the Second
Amendment, there is one major and obvious difference between the two. Unlike even the most
hateful and offensive speech, guns are capable of inflicting violent bodily injury and death. In order
to protect citizens from the risks of gun-related violence, States must be given reasonable latitude
to set limits on the carrying of firearms in public, and this governmental interest is at its greatest
during a state of emergency.

As most people know, Judge Malcolm Howard rejected the state’s argument and declared the Emergency Powers statutes unconstitutional as they burdened the Second Amendment.

I can’t say that Mark Davis was appointed by former Gov. Perdue to the Court of Appeals based upon this case. However, given that he served as her General Counsel during her last two years of office, I think it is safe to say his appointment was a reward for good service to her. His appointment came as she was about to leave office.

Davis says he will bring “good old-fashioned North Carolina values to the Court of Appeals.” Working to suppress my Constitutional rights is not a North Carolina value insofar as I’m concerned. It is for that reason I urge a vote for his opponent Judge Paul Holcombe.

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Why I Love People In The Gun Culture

October 3, 2014 by 4 Comments

Despite the stereotypes propagated by the gun prohibitionists, people in the gun culture are some of the nicest, most inviting people around.

My case in point. I had mentioned in a post early (very early!) Monday morning that I was headed to Phoenix for a business training conference. On Monday afternoon I got this Facebook message from Jaci J of Team Gunblogger.

Hey, I just read your post about the Gun Rights Conference. Will you still be in Phoenix tomorrow? If so, would you like to shoot IDPA with us? We can scrounge up a gun and equipment for you. It’s at 5:30 at Phoenix Rod and Gun Club.

 While I couldn’t take her and Robert up on that invitation as my conference extended into the evening, I was really touched by her invitation. It goes to show that the gun culture is full of really nice people.

And next time, I’ll skip the steak dinner for a chance to go shooting!

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GRPC – Next Year, Phoenix

September 29, 2014 by 6 Comments

The location for the 2015 Gun Rights Policy Conference has been announced and it is Phoenix, Arizona. The conference will be held the last weekend of September as usual.

Let’s assume you just can’t make it to the conference due to cost or work or, God forbid, another suicidal maniac screwing up the FAA’s air traffic control system. Thanks to the joint efforts of Ammoland.com, the New Jersey Second Amendment Society, and The Polite Society Podcast (of which I’m a co-host)  you can watch the entire conference live via streaming video.

Paul Lathrop, host of The Polite Society Podcast, announced the joint effort late last night on Facebook.

I am proud to announce that at the Gun Rights Policy Conference 2015 The Polite Society Podcast will partner with AmmoLand.com – Shooting Sports News & Business and NJ2AS News and Events to provide LIVE video streaming of the conference!

I want to thank Fredy Riehl of Ammoland, Frank Jack Fiamingo, president of NJ2AS, and Rob Morse each of whom helped hatch the plan. It is going to take quite a bit of planning to get it done the way that it should be done, but I am certain that it will be a fun time.

I think this is great news.

And in one of those weird coincidences, I’m leaving for a business conference in a few minutes in….Phoenix.

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Shades Of Gregg Marmalard

September 29, 2014 by

Reading a story about the veto of a student campus carry resolution at Baylor University, I couldn’t help but think of the character Gregg Marmalard in the movie Animal House. Marmalard was the student body president at Faber College who did the bidding of Dean Wormer in trying to get rid of Delta House.

The Student Senate at Baylor had passed a resolution on September 18th urging that those legally licensed to carry concealed be allowed to do so on campus. The sponsor of the resolution, senior Gannon McCahill said it would make the campus a safer place and noted that people can legally carry most everywhere else.

However, this resolution was vetoed by Baylor Student Body President Dominic Edwards on Thursday and thus won’t be presented to the university administration. Edwards contended the Student Senate did not properly seek in put from students, faculty, and staff. The move to override the veto failed to achieve the requisite two-thirds needed.

It seems that this is not the first veto by Edwards of a student senate resolution.

McCahill also aired frustration about the ability of the senate to push measures forward, noting that controversial issues tend to be “vetoed and pushed aside so the administration doesn’t have to deal with it.”

The student senate last fall approved a measure to drop “homosexual acts” out of the university’s sexual misconduct policy, but the body could not override a presidential veto.

I don’t think the Baylor University President and Chancellor really needs to be protected from a little controversy. This is quite minor compared to what Ken Starr has dealt with in the past.