Sheriff Jim Wilson made the following observation on his Facebook page:
Okay, here’s what we do…we keep the good looking spy chick and give them Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton! Fair deal?
Dave Hardy has an interesting observation on the dissenters on the McDonald and Heller cases. He notes that taken as a whole, their position is closer to that of Jefferson Davis.
Combined with McDonald…. the “liberal” wing embraces Jefferson Davis, the “conservative” wing embraces John Bingham.
Perhaps we could suggest that in the future, the dissenters refer to 1861-65 as The War of Northern Aggression and the majority refer to it as The War of the Rebellion.
John Bingham, a 19th Century Republican Congressman from Ohio, is known for his role as the principal framer of the Fourteenth Amendment. It is thought that he intended the first eight amendments of the Bill of Rights to apply to the states under the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Greensboro Daily News ran an editorial yesterday regarding the emergency powers gun ban that is being challenged by Alan Gura, the Second Amendment Foundation, and Grass Roots NC. They strongly suggested that the state change the law so that it didn’t get to the Supreme Court like the McDonald case.
The unsigned editorial noted that:
Surely, legislators had something else in mind other than banning guns in cold weather when they wrote this measure decades ago. And it certainly would not be worth enforcing this law, except when someone is using the gun to commit a crime — stealing firewood, maybe.
From my research of the time period when this bill was first passed, I think the General Assembly intended to keep firearms out of the hands of demonstrators and civil rights protesters in the late 1960s.
The Daily News concluded:
There should be a compelling reason why someone who is the legal owner of a firearm should be barred from carrying it from his home to a shooting range, even if the governor has declared a state of emergency because of cold weather. That might make sense in some kinds of emergencies — a breakdown of civic order, for example — but the law should make distinctions. The blanket prohibition doesn’t seem justified, and the state should stipulate that it is not enforceable as it’s written.
This case isn’t one that should go all the way to the Supreme Court for resolution.
They are most certainly correct that this is a case in which the State of North Carolina should fold and fold quickly.
U. S. District Court Judge Mark Bennett ordered Osceola County, Iowa Sheriff Douglas Weber to issue a concealed carry permit to Paul Dorr because the court found that Sheriff Weber had infringed Mr. Dorr’s First Amendment rights. Judge Bennett did not stop there. He ordered Sheriff Weber to take a college-level course involving the First Amendment.
Judge Bennett was quite colorful in concluding the Sheriff Weber had violated Mr. Dorr’s rights:
The court finds a tsunami, a maelstrom, an avalanche, of direct, uncontroverted evidence in Sheriff Weber’s own testimony to conclude beyond all doubt that he unquestionably violated the First Amendment rights of at least Paul Dorr.
Paul Dorr is a political activist who has been active in both the pro-life movement and the movement to lower government expenses. He had previously had an Iowa “nonprofessional permit to carry a weapon” (the equivalent of a concealed carry permit in Iowa) from the late 1990s until 2006. Thought he thought Mr. Dorr “weird”, Sheriff Weber had approved his permit in 2005 and 2006.
In 2007, however, Sheriff Weber denied Mr. Dorr’s permit writing on the application “Concern from Public. Don’t trust him.” The sheriff thought Mr. Dorr was “weird” and had heard many comments from the general public saying essentially the same thing. He also told Mr. Dorr that he wouldn’t approve any further permits for him.
What had changed in 2007 was that Mr. Dorr was engaged by the Osceola County Taxpayers Association (OCTA) to provide consulting services which included investigating government expenditures, writing and distributing leaflets, and writing letters to the editor. In particular, the OCTA was concerned with the expenditures of the public safety commission and the county attorney’s office. They felt the size of the expenditures were out of line for a county of the size of Osceola and one of the agencies they were concerned about was the Sheriff’s Office.
Judge Bennett said, in his opinion, that:
Giving Sheriff Weber more deference than is due his elected status, the court finds that Sheriff Weber denied Paul’s application for a concealed weapons permit not because of the content of his First Amendment activity but because it was effective and agitated many members of the local community. Had Paul passed out flyers at 2:00 a.m. in a public park where no one was there to receive them, used a bullhorn deep in the woods where no one could hear him advocate his sometimes unorthodox views, or written letters to the editor in the Washington Post where few, if any, residents of Osceola County would read them, then Sheriff Weber would have granted Paul the permit. Paul was denied a permit precisely because Sheriff Weber believed that his free speech rights offended the majority of voters in Osceola County.
Because of this, the court “having found Paul (Dorr) proved a claim of First Amendment retaliation, will order Sheriff Weber to reconsider, and approve, Paul’s application for a concealed weapons permit.” Mr. Dorr’s son Alexander was also a party to the suit but is only 20 years old. Given Alexander’s age, the court found Sheriff Weber was within his discretion to deny him a permit.
In my opinion, here is where it gets really interesting. Districts Courts have substantial leeway to order remedial training to ensure that such violations don’t take place again.
Sheriff Weber’s dramatic and stunning failure to appreciate, and to protect and defend, Paul’s basic First Amendment rights, compels remedial relief.
The court provides Sheriff Weber with the following guidelines concerning the class
that he must complete. First, the class must provide college level instruction on the United States Constitution, including—at least in part—a discussion of the First Amendment. The class may be taken online. Second, Sheriff Weber must obtain approval from the court before participating in the class. Approval must be obtained by filing, with the Clerk of Court, a motion for approval of the proposed class, which must contain a description of the class and contact information for the court to further inquire, if necessary, into the substance of the class. Third, upon completion of the class, Sheriff Weber must file an affidavit with the Clerk of Court stating that he has successfully completed the class. Sheriff Weber shall attach his transcript or other proof of completion to the affidavit—Sheriff Weber must obtain a passing grade or obtain an otherwise satisfactory assessment of his participation in the class.
According to the Sioux City Journal,
Dorr said Wednesday that he was pleased “justice is served. I get my permit back and the sheriff is being sent back to school. The harm done by Sheriff Weber against the 6th and 9th commandments has been made right.”
I have posted the entire opinion in Scribd and it makes for interesting reading.
Clarence Page, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune, offers a surprisingly sympathetic review of the McDonald case in yesterday’s Tribune. Usually, Mr. Page is a reliable proponent of more gun control and “sensible” gun regulations.
Lobbyists for gun rights owe black Americans a historical debt of gratitude.
The U.S. Supreme Court reminds us of this debt in its recent decision to overturn Chicago’s sweeping prohibition against handgun possession. That decision rests on more than the Second Amendment. It also rests on the 14th Amendment, which brought equal protection to freed slaves after the Civil War.
How times change. An amendment that helped blacks protect themselves from Ku Klux Klan terrorists now is being used to help protect a black Chicago man from gangbangers.
Page then goes on to review how the African-American community often had to resort to firearms for protection from racist groups such as the KKK and others of their ilk.
Yet, armed self-defense is a long-running theme in African-American history. As recently as the 1960s, for example, the Deacons for Defense and Justice was a popular and powerful self-defense group in the last days of Jim Crow. Yet, news media paid much more attention to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his non-violent side of the civil rights movement.
Those days came to mind as I read Justice Clarence Thomas’ separate opinion in McDonald’s case. With the emotional force of a man raised in rural Georgia during the last days of legal segregation, he recounted, page after page, of terror spread by “militias such as the Ku Klux Klan, the Knights of the White Camellia, the White Brotherhood, the Pale Faces and the ’76 Association” and how “firearms for self-defense was often the only way black citizens could protect themselves from mob violence.”
He concludes with this.
Chicago and the District of Columbia already have fought back with new laws that restrict the purchase, possession or use of guns without an outright ban.
But this country has too long and too deep of a tradition of gun ownership — and way too many guns already in circulation — for the tide to be turned in the foreseeable future by city gun ordinances, no matter how well-intentioned.
I think Mr. Page gets it. He may not like it but he gets it. It is all about winning civil rights.
From Omaha, we have this:
A 24-year-old Omaha man who police say shot himself in the genitals was arrested on suspicion of several charges after he was treated at an Omaha hospital.
Brandon Boyce arrived at Creighton University Medical Center about 4:30 p.m. Monday for treatment of the wound. He told doctors and police that he had been shot by someone else.
Investigators later determined that Boyce accidentally had shot himself when he pulled a handgun out of his waistband, Officer Jacob Bettin, a police spokesman, said Tuesday.
Boyce was arrested on suspicion of being a felon in possession of a firearm, carrying a concealed weapon and possessing a controlled substance.
Boyce had been wounded in January of 2009 by Andre McKesson, owner of Midwest Grillz & Jewelry at 6209 Ames Ave.
Police said McKesson was defending himself after being shot at by two of Boyce’s friends during an attempted robbery. Willie Wakefield, 29, and Marcel Davis, 16, were killed in the gunfight.
I’m guessing Mr. Boyce has never attended a class in gun safety. Natural selection does have a way of catching up with stupid crooks.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation is reporting that Rep.Dan Boren (D-OK) has introduced HR 5667 which directs the Attorney General to work with the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a comprehensive study of microstamping. Rep. Boren is a NRA Board member.
It appears that the NSSF is supporting this as a way of preventing more state legislatures from adopting microstamping requirements given that all independent studies to date show it doesn’t work
The co-sponsors are a bipartisan mix and so far include Reps. Broun (R-Ga.), Bishop (R-Utah), Herseth Sandlin (D-SD), Altmire (D-Pa.), Miller (R-Fl.) and Boozman (R- Ark.).
Sometimes you just have to shake your head wondering what the heck they were thinking. The Tunnel Buster from Gibbs Rifle is one of those things.
It mates the cut-down barreled action of a Springfield 1903A3 with the front sight/flash hider/bayonet lug of an Enfield No. 5 Jungle Carbine and puts it all in a plastic stock. And then they publicize it with this drivel:
Had “Carbine” Williams not invented the M1 Carbine, who would doubt that the U.S. military would have shortened the 1903A3 in a similar fashion to issue to paratroopers jumping at Ste. Mere-Eglise in World War II, Marines at Inchon and Tunnel Rats in Vietnam.
As a licensed collector of Curios and Relics, all I can say is have they no shame?
From the American Rifleman we get these bad shooting tips according to the experts surveyed.
Some of the “tips” these guys have heard will just have you shaking your head in wonder.
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