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In Chicago – “We Want to Know Who Has Weapons”

July 13, 2010 by 3 Comments

The new Chicago gun ordinance went into effect yesterday and dozens flocked to Police Headquarters to pick up the registration forms according to the Sun-Times.

At a new conference, Jody Weis, Chicago Police Superintendent, said:

We want to know who has weapons so that first responders can be aware of that information before they enter a home.

I guess Supt. Weis is ignorant of the fact that under Illinois law all gun owners are required to have a Firearms Owner ID card – the FOID Card. One would think that since this info is held by the State Police that all other police agencies would have access to the info as well.

The new ordinance mandates processing in 120 days but other reports suggest it will take 5 1/2 months before the first handgun registration is finally processed. The Chicago PD has the forms and the law on their web site where they refer to it as the “Responsible Gun Ownership Ordinance”. They suggest you just download the forms instead of coming to the Police Headquarters. Under no circumstances, they say, should you show up with your firearm.

Supt. Weis also said about the new law at the news conference:

The ordinance bars people from buying more than one handgun a month. Weis said there’s no restriction on spouses or relatives of felons buying guns and keeping them in the house where a felon resides.

But the city’s ordinance doesn’t allow residents to carry handguns outside their homes. That includes garages and porches, Weis noted.

I won’t even comment on the garages and porches not being part of a home but you would think that the Police Superintendent, a former FBI Special Agent, should know a little bit about Federal law. If a felon’s spouse or relative has a gun in the same house where the felon resides, the felon would be considered in constructive possession of a firearm and liable to charged under Federal firearms law. Remember, ignorance of the law is no excuse for you but is OK for the cops.

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Nordyke Remanded Back to Original 3-Judge Panel

July 13, 2010 by

Eugene Volokh of the Volokh Conspiracy analyzes the remand decision here. He notes that the original panel accepted Alameda County’s contention that the fairgrounds were a sensitive place which is not good news for Nordyke.

I agree with Sebastian at Snowflakes In Hell when he says:

I think the reasoning is poor, since not all government property can rightly be considered a sensitive place. I hope the panel does a more thorough analysis this time around of sensitive places.

As Donald Kilmer, attorney for the Nordykes, noted in his 28j letter, Alameda County did not show that banning gun shows in the fairgrounds would reduce crime nor did they produce evidence that the fairgrounds were a sensitive place.

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NC Hunting Regs Released

July 12, 2010 by

Big changes are coming to North Carolina hunting regulations starting August 1st. While there are many changes regarding deer seasons, the biggest changes that I see are Sunday hunting with a bow is allowed on private property and crossbows will be allowed anytime bow and arrow hunting is legal. Falconry is also allowed on Sundays. Many of these changes which were proposed in March 2009 were opposed so they had to go to the General Assembly for review. Four bills were introduced to reverse some of the proposed changes but they were never approved.

Sunday hunting was strongly opposed by the Christian Action League but they don’t have the clout in the General Assembly that they did in years gone by.While a couple of their backers in the General Assembly did introduce a bill to ban Sunday hunting, it died for lack of a referral by the Democratic caucus to the Rules Committee.

The North Carolina Bowhunters Association fought the introduction of crossbows for anyone but the handicapped. They said they were “working with the NC Legislature and the Wildlife Resource Commission to stop the inclusion of crossbows in archery season and to disallow the loss of the last (and best) week of archery season to muzzle loader season.” They lost on both counts though they did have bills introduced to disallow the use of crossbows. Crossbows are allowed for hunting in all the states that surround North Carolina.

Crossbows will still require a permit to purchase them from the local sheriff’s department. It is the same permit as is required to purchase a pistol. I don’t know who originally dreamed up that stupid requirement nor when it went into place.

The full list of changes can be found in on the NC Wildlife Resources Commission website.

I see some Sunday hunting with a crossbow in my future!

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Clues Your Financial Advisor Might Be a Russian Spy

July 12, 2010 by

Cynthia Murphy (aka Lydia Guryev), one of the Russian spies arrested and deported, worked as financial planner for a small firm in NYC and, as much as it pains me to say it, she held the Certified Financial Planner(TM) designation. By all accounts, she was a skilled and conscientious advisor.

So how can you know your advisor isn’t a Russian spy? Investment News presents these ten clues to look for to determine if they are working for you or Putin.

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Guns, Shooting, and the Dog Days of Summer

July 12, 2010 by

For shooters who live in locations where it gets just too damn hot comes this excellent advice from Jim Shepherd, editor and publisher of The Shooting Wire.

With temperatures (and humidity) near triple-digits for the next few days, I’m thankful that the majority of the new gear doesn’t need to be taken to the range to be prepped. In the deep South, summertime is the equivalent of the dead of winter in other parts of the country. You can get outside, but not without paying quite a price.

It’s also a time when your firearms and other gear are highly susceptible to one of the most damaging of all threats – rust.

High humidities cause guns to attract condensation like a leaky double-paned window. Going from air conditioning to sweltering heat will fog more than your glasses. When cold firearms are quickly taken into heat and humidity, the oily residue from physical contact with metal parts shows up as what it really is- a powerful corrosive.

For that reason, I treat my firearms the same way I do my camera equipment. If I’m going outside with advance notice, I put my gear in the garage well in advance. When I leave, it’s far closer to ambient temperatures – and prevents condensation.

And before you accuse me of being reckless, there’s a safe in the garage for that transitioning. Being cautious about your gear doesn’t mean you have an excuse to be reckless. If you own a gun – rusty or not – you’re still responsible for keeping it under control at all times. For me, that means on my side or locked in the safe during the day. At night, well, where my gun is is none of your business.

Anyway…If I find myself going out unexpectedly, I’ve been known to put my spare magazines inside a sandwich bag until they’ve had the opportunity to warm up. It’s not such a problem if you carry a polymer sidearm, but you might want to think a little about your favorite 1911 if you run in and out of air conditioning. Keep it well lubricated – inside and out – to protect it from the elements- and contact with your skin.

You don’t have to live in Alabama like Jim to get near triple digit summer days – or high humidity.

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New York Times is Still Fighting the Last War

July 11, 2010 by

Today’s New York Times ran an editorial entitled “The Hard Work of Gun Control”. While it was originally published on July 9th, they saw fit to re-run it in their Sunday paper just in case the elites didn’t read it the first time.

Like the dissenters in the McDonald decision, they are still fighting the Heller decision. It must have killed them to acknowledge that, “the law of the land is now that people have a constitutional right to a gun in their home for self-defense.”

They did concede that they thought Chicago’s new gun law was flawed and would likely be overturned.

Cities and states have a need to be extremely tough in limiting access to guns, but they need to do it with more forethought than went into the Chicago ordinance. Lawmakers there sensibly limited residents to one operable handgun per home, with a strict registration and permitting process. But residents are not allowed to buy a gun in the city. They must receive firearms training, but ranges are illegal in the city. Chicago lawmakers sloughed off on the suburbs the responsibility to regulate sales and training. As a result, more people will travel more miles to transport guns.

The law is likely to draw heightened equal-protection scrutiny from skeptical judges at all levels. Chicago would have been better off allowing gun sales under the strict oversight of the police department, which could then better check the backgrounds and movements of every buyer and seller. The District of Columbia passed a largely similar ordinance last year after its law was struck down by the court. But it permits sales at the few gun shops in the district, and a federal judge upheld that ordinance after it was challenged. It could stand as a model for other cities.

They thought the lawsuit against the new Chicago gun law was over-the-top.

It disputes virtually every aspect of the law as a violation of the Second Amendment and poses ludicrous hypothetical situations to show that everyone needs a gun. “If an elderly widow lives in an unsafe neighborhood and asks her son to spend the night because she has recently received harassing phone calls,” the lawsuit complains, “the son may not bring his registered firearm with him to his mother’s home as an aid to the defense of himself and his mother.” Putting granny in the middle of a neighborhood firefight is preferable to having her simply call the police?

I guess they never heard of the wait times for police response to 911 calls and that the police have no legal obligation to protect you.

They conclude with a call for “tough but sensible” laws and with a shot at Alan Gura and “the gun lobby”.

The gun lobby is going to attack virtually every gun ordinance it can find, if only to see what it can get away with now. (Last week, the same lawyers who brought the Chicago and Washington cases sued North Carolina, challenging a law that prohibits carrying weapons during a state of emergency.)

All I can say as a North Carolinian is “Go Alan!”

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Update on Nordyke Case

July 11, 2010 by

From calguns.net, it is reported that Nordyke’s counsel of record, Donald Kilmer, has filed a 28j letter with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

A “28j letter” informs a court that has a pending decision before it of new relevant decisions that could impact their decision. In this case, the relevant decision is McDonald v. Chicago.

Kilmer notes in his letter that the controlling opinions in McDonald placed great emphasis on Congressional interpretations of fundamental rights as shown by statutory language. He then notes that the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act recognizes that the Second Amendment protects more than just the mere possession of a handgun in the home. He concludes that since Alameda County has produced no evidence that banning gun shows on their fairgrounds will reduce crime or that it is a sensitive place, then the court should force the county to meet it constitutionally required burden and allow gun shows on the fairgrounds.

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Another Chicago Lawsuit

July 10, 2010 by

When it rains, it pours. At least that is the way it must seem if you are Hizzoner Mayor Richard Daley. On the heels of Benson et al v. Chicago – the lawsuit the NRA and the Illinois Association of Firearms Retailers is bringing – comes another case, Second Amendment Arms et al v. Chicago.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times and court filings, Joseph Franzese, owner of Second Amendment Arms, and Robert Zieman have filed suit in the US District Court against the City of Chicago, Mayor Daley, and other Chicago officials. Second Amendment Arms is seeking to open guns stores in Lincoln Park and on Michigan Avenue while Mr. Zieman is seeking restitution for handguns confiscated under the 1982 handgun ban ordinance. Second Amendment Arms has filed applications for both of these stores with the City Clerk’s Office.

Franzese wants to open “boutique” type gun stores in Lincoln Park and on Michigan Avenue downtown, according to his lawyer Walter Maksym, one of Drew Peterson’s lawyers in his pending murder case.

“It’s not going to have firearms [on display] or bullets [for sale], and you’ll have to have an FOID card to get in,” Maksym said. “There would be a secure area and after you look at some videos, you can pick out a gun you are interested in and a security guard will bring it in to view.”

Maksym noted you would need an FOID card to see and handle and guns. You would then order the gun and come back to get it later after a background check is conducted.

Here is where it gets interesting. Not only is Mr. Zieman seeking restitution for his confiscated handguns but he indicates that he will seek class action status for the lawsuit as well as restitution on behalf of all other Chicago gun owners who had handguns confiscated under the old law.

The lawsuit is being brought under the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 14th Amendments of the US Constitution as well as relevant sections of the Illinois Constitution.

You can read the full complaint here.

UPDATE: The Chicago Tribune ran a story today on the Second Amendment Arms lawsuit. Various law professors and other lawyers are quoted concluding that the new law may not be “bullet proof”.