Thanks to the Firearm Blog for the pointer to this article on how to transform a Stinger missile case into a safari style rifle case.
When I first read the article I thought $200 for a surplus case was pricey until I read that the Department of Defense originally paid $2600 for them. I wonder if they will show up on the government surplus auctions?
In what by my count is the fifth post-McDonald complaint to be filed in Federal court, the Mountain States Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for Nevada, Northern Division, last week over firearm restrictions in Nevada State Parks.
According to a story in the Las Vegas Sun,
Nevada code bans possession of a firearm in state parks unless the firearm is unloaded and inside a vehicle, or the gun owner is carrying the weapon in conformity with a state concealed weapons permit, or the gun owner is hunting in an authorized area.
The plaintiff in the lawsuit is Al Baker, a resident of Boise, ID and a law student at the University of Idaho. Mr. Baker is a NRA-certified Home Firearms Safety and Basic Pistol Instructor as well as a Utah-certified Concealed Firearms Instructor. He holds concealed carry permits for the states of Idaho, Oregon, and Utah and is an avid outdoorsman. Unfortunately for Mr. Baker, the State of Nevada does not have concealed carry reciprocity with any of those states.
In April, Mr. Baker applied for a special use permit for a group campsite at the Wild Horse State Recreation Area north of Elko, NV. His application stated that he planned to possess a loaded firearm in his tent for self-protection. At the beginning of June, he got a response from the State Recreation Area.
“Mr. Baker has been advised that, if he brings a firearm for personal protection, he will be in violation of state law,” the legal foundation said.
“Nevada’s ban on firearms prohibits Mr. Baker from possessing a functional firearm when he is camping in Nevada state parks. He must leave his firearm in his car, unloaded at all times, even in the case of a self-defense emergency. If he were to discharge a firearm in self-defense, that action would also violate the ban. The penalty for violating the Nevada firearms ban is six months imprisonment, or a $1,000 fine, or both,” the foundation said.
The lawsuit, Baker v. Biaggi et al, seeks to enjoin the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the State Park System from enforcing the ban on “functional firearms”, i.e. a loaded gun, and the prohibition on defensive discharge of a firearm within the parks.
This lawsuit is unique in that it argues that a tent is a temporary residence and that the same Second Amendment right that protects the right to a firearm in a residence should apply here. If the Court accepts this argument, then the Second Amendment protections should also apply to stays in hotels, motels, and other lodging as well as a RV in a campground.
The regulation on possession of a firearm in state parks across the county is varied. States such as North Carolina totally forbid it. Other states such as Tennessee allow it with a concealed carry permit but still outlaw the discharge of a firearm. Then there are states have no restrictions on either.
Judge Edward Reed, Jr. has been assigned to this case. He was appointed to the Court by Jimmy Carter and has been in Senior Status since 1992. Given his age, at least 85, I’m surprised that it was assigned to him.
You can read the complaint below.
Baker v. Biaggi Et Al – Complaint
In my day job, I drive a lot. Finding a way to carry concealed that is reasonably comfortable is hard. For me, I have found that a cross-draw carry allows both comfort and accessibility while seated in the car.
Months ago I approached custom leather maker Andy Langlois to see if I could get one of his Yaqui holsters in a cross-draw model. I wanted it for my Browning Hi-Power. He said he didn’t make a cross-draw model but would experiment to see if he could make it work. Obviously, as can be seen by the pictures, Andy did make it work.
The cross-draw Yaqui holster is made of heavy oil finished, vegetable-tanned leather. The cant is neutral to maybe 5%. Andy designed it to be easily removable by using a brass stud button. Since many of the locations I visit on work purposes forbid any firearm, it is a simple matter to remove the holstered pistol and store it in my car safe. One other great feature of this Yaqui holster is that it works with multiple pistols. I can use it with my Hi-Power or I can use it with any single-stack 1911 pistol like my Officer-sized Para CCO.
Andy Langlois is known for more than just his Yaqui holsters. His rifle slings are things of beauty. He is well-known for making a Ching Sling to use on Jeff Cooper-inspired scout rifles. I have one that I will be using on my Ruger Frontier. You can see pictures of his slings on his website here.
When I first started corresponding with Andy, I didn’t realize he was a cop. Given that he is in Vermont and doing leather work, I figured he might be an art history major who somehow saw the light on guns. Andy found that quite amusing as he is, in his words, “the typical alpha male cop, high and tight, 2 1911s and so un-art-history!”
If you want to contact Andy for a holster, belt, sling, or other custom leather work:
I’ve written about Elena Kagan and her confirmation hearings in the past here and here.
Now comes a story from the American Thinker by Rosslyn Smith that makes the suggestion that Harry Reid could conceivably scuttle the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court in order to save his Senate seat. Harry Reid is in for the fight of his political life with Sharon Angle in Nevada. He even has former supporters reaching out from the grave to urge voters to vote against him.
The complicating factor for Reid is that the National Rifle Association has made Kagan’s confirmation a “scored” vote. Smith notes that:
The NRA’s making this a scored vote for their endorsement greatly complicates matters for Democrat Senators defending seats in Arkansas, Colorado, Washington and Wisconsin. Like House Democrats and the deficit ballooning budget that was deemed to be passed, they probably wish the matter would just go away.
Smith argues that Reid is the master of killing a nomination while appearing to move it forward. He did this to Amb. John Bolton and made Majority Leader Bill Frist look the fool in the process. She concludes her article:
It could happen. The wimpiest of the Republicans are also from rural states where gun control is anathema. NRA members could influence them even if there inclination is to give the President his nominee. This time as Majority Leader Reid would be the one looking like a fool for not counting heads ahead of time, but if he thought it would help save his seat? Looking like a fool has seldom been an issue for Harry Reid.
I’ve written my Senators – one a Democrat and the other a Republican. Have you?
From C. D. Michel of Calgunlaws.com:
The NRA-CRPA Foundation Legal Action Project (“LAP”) has filed a lawsuit challenging AB 962 and the newly adopted statutes that regulate “handgun ammunition.” The suit challenges the requirement that handgun ammunition be stored out of the reach of customers, the ammunition sales registration and fingerprinting requirements, and the bill’s prohibition on mail order and internet sales. The lawsuit alleges that the mandates of AB 962 are incomprehensible, and that the law’s definition of “handgun ammunition” is unconstitutionally vague.
The NRA/CRPA Foundation lawsuit has been in the works ever since AB 962 passed. A request for an injunction will be filed shortly, in an effort to stop the bill’s ammunition sales registration requirement and the ban on mail order ammunition purchases before those provisions take effect on February 1, 2011.
For months, LAP lawyers have worked to secure appropriate plaintiffs for this strategically-timed litigation. In a highly unusual move that reflects growing law enforcement opposition to ineffective gun control laws, Tehama County Sheriff Clay Parker is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. Other plaintiffs include the CRPA Foundation, Herb Bauer Sporting Goods, ammunition shipper Able’s Ammo, collectible ammunition shipper RTG Sporting Collectibles, and individual Steven Stonecipher.
The lawsuit is being funded by the NRA / CRPA Foundation Legal Action Project (LAP). LAP is a joint venture between the Nation Rifle Association (NRA) and the California Rifle and Pistol Association (CRPA) to advance the rights of firearms owners in California. Through LAP, NRA/CRPA attorneys fight against ill-conceived gun control laws and ordinances, and educate state and local officials about available programs that are effective in reducing accidents and violence without infringing on the rights of law-abiding gun owners.
Sometimes the chances of success are greater when LAP’s litigation efforts are kept low profile, so for now the details of this lawsuit are not being released. To see a partial list of the Legal Action Project’s recent accomplishments, click here. To contribute to the NRA / CRPAF Legal Action Project (LAP) and support this and similar Second Amendment cases, visit www.crpafoundation.org. Please register at www.calgunlaws.com to receive updates on this and other litigation as it is made available.
From the discussion on Calguns.net, it seems that this lawsuit has not been filed yet but will be within the next two weeks. You can read the thread here.
UPDATE: Thanks to Glen I found that this case was filed on June 17th in Superior Court in Fresno, CA. The link to the case is here. However, it only gives the parties and not the complaint.
Going through Sitemeter, I found this very interesting visitor to my post on Spoofing the Anti’s – the Calgunners psy ops operation against the Legal Community Against Violence.
I always thought the National Educational Association was anti-gun rights. So was it a rogue employee checking out a gun blog before everyone came into work to see stuff on gun rights and even gun porn or was it an opposition research operative? Hmmm.
Governor Beverly Perdue and Sec. of Crime Control Reuben Young were granted an extension until August 15th in which to file their response to the suit challenging North Carolina’s emergency powers gun ban, Bateman v. Perdue.
No word yet on whether the City of King or Stokes County has also been granted an extension.
I guess we will have to wait a bit longer to see what North Carolina plans to do regarding this law. Darn!
UPDATE: Stokes County was granted an extension until August 12th. So far the City of King has not been heard from.
Less than two weeks after Alan Gura and the Second Amendment Foundation sued the State of North Carolina, they are back. This time they are suing Westchester County, New York over its enforcement of the State of New York’s handgun carry permit process which requires the showing of “good cause.”
Alan Kachalsky and Christina Nikolov, both residents of Westchester County, were denied handgun carry permits when they applied.
Kachalsky’s denial was because he could not “demonstrate a need for self protection distinguishable from that of the general public.” Nikolov’s was denied because she could not demonstrate that there was “any type of threat to her own safety anywhere.” In addition to Westchester County, Susan Cacace and Jeffrey Cohen, both serving at times as handgun permit licensing officers, are named as defendants. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, White Plains Division.
The case is Kachalsky v. Cacase, U.S. Dist. Ct. S.D. NY 10-05413.
I will post the complete complaint as soon as it is available in Pacer.
Way to go Alan and Alan! Taking it solidly into unfriendly territory takes guts.
UPDATE: Mr. Kachalsky first sued in New York state court on this issue. It reached the NY State Court of Appeals (the highest level in the state of New York). His appeal was denied in February 2010. The case, In the Matter of Alan Kachalsky v. Susan Cacace, SSD 4 (2010), was dismissed by the Court sua sponte (without a request for a motion) saying there was no substantial constitutional issue involved . However, one of the judges dissented.
In his dissent, Judge Robert Smith said:
Petitioner’s argument, rejected by the courts below, is that Penal Law
§ 400.00 (2) (f), which requires “proper cause” for the issuance of a license to carry a concealed pistol or revolver, violates the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. Two constitutional questions are directly involved: (1) whether the Second Amendment limits the powers of the states, as well as of the federal government; and (2) whether a prohibition on carrying concealed weapons without a showing of proper cause is consistent with the Second Amendment. I make no comment on the merits of either issue, except to say that neither is insubstantial.
He went on to say that the first question was substantial enough that the US Supreme Court had accepted the McDonald case and the second question was undoubtedly substantial due to the Heller decision.
Judge Smith’s dissent in the matter was considered a relatively rare occurance. Joel Stashenko analyzed his dissent for law.com here and includes comments from other legal scholars.
UPDATE II: The full complaint in Kachalksy v. Cacace, U.S. Dist. Ct. S.D. NY, is here. The case has been assigned to Judge Cathy Seibel, an appointee of George W. Bush.
I have embedded the case filing below. It includes the case number and judge assignment on it.
Kachalsky Et Al v. Cacace Et Al – Complaint With Judge Assignment
Oh, those crazy kids at CalGuns.net. They planned a pro-gun demonstration at the annual fund-raising dinner for the Legal Community Against Violence in San Francisco. Only they didn’t show. It was a spoof from the beginning as they knew LCAV monitored their message board. They wanted to get LCAV all hot and bothered and worried. It worked.
From the last post explaining their actions:
Maskirovka: “The means of securing combat operations and the daily activities of forces; a complexity of measures, directed to mislead the enemy regarding the presence and disposition of forces, various military objectives, their condition, combat readiness and operations, and also the plans of the commander… maskirovka contributes to the achievement of surprise for the actions of forces, the preservation of combat readiness and the increased survivability of objectives.” – source: Jon Latimer, Deception in War, The Overlook Press, Woodstock & New York 2001
I’m sure that many of you are curious about the results of the LCAV protest. Well, they hired extra security, alerted the hotel to the potential for protests and apparently called in the SFPD to intimidate us.
But we never planned to show in the first place.
As much fun as it would have been to organize a great big ruckus, it was much more fun watching them scramble about in fear that the gun nuts were going to heap insult upon the injury of McDonald at their pyrrhic victory dinner.
And we didn’t have to expend an ounce of energy.
What was the point?
Well, we learned a bunch.
1) That past actions have convinced them to take us seriously. Calgunner attendance at City Council meetings, legislative hearings and court cases has demonstrated that we’re able to mobilize a motivated group of activists on short notice. We’ve proven to them that we show up. We’ve shown that we’re effective, too. Emeryville’s revision of their proposed ammunition ordinance proved that.
2) That they’re paying attention to us. We long suspected that LCAV was monitoring our communications. It’s one of the reasons that CGF boardmembers are circumspect when discussing legal strategies. So, please be patient when folks are using cryptic language to discuss options for regaining our rights.
3) That now they don’t know when we’re bluffing. We’ve spoofed them twice so far. Who knows what other kinds of wild goose chases we can send them on? It will be fun to learn.
4) That they’re afraid of us. Despite my assertions (and requirements) that this “action” not allow any physical contact, trespassing, etc., LCAV felt it necessary to mobilize the police and additional security.
5) That they’re irrational. In every interaction that we’ve had with the antis, we’ve been polite. We’ve been well dressed, well spoken, chivalrous and respectful. We’ve been met with profanities, threats and incivility. I wouldn’t be surprised if local officials are starting to take notice the difference in style.
Make no mistake, folks. We’re winning this fight.
Sometimes it’s not what you do, but what the other side thinks that you’re willing to do that causes the most disruption.
I’d like to offer up a special thanks to all the folks who came together to make this happen. This was a fun little exercise.
Calgunners rock!
Read the whole thread to see the anticipated demonstration. It really starts to move along at page 3.
Were the Calgunners taken seriously? Yes they were. Ezra Denney was the LCAV staffer in charge of the event. On his Facebook page he put that they “might be meeting some wacky folks tonight. Protesters are fun!”
The San Francisco PD showed up in full force with extra motorcycle and bicycle cops assigned to the dinner and anticipated protest. And as they said on the CalGuns.net board, “on this date in San Francisco: nothing happened.” You can see the pictures of the additional cops here.
I started to read their preparations last night and they had me totally fooled. From the discussions, I was expecting some sort of Code Pink demo with pictures of protesters being led away in handcuffs.Checking back this morning I found out that nothing had happened.
It was brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
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