DC's Former AG Criticizes Heller Ruling: Few were surprised by the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the District's 30-year-old ban on handguns and its holding that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual's right to bear arms. But we should be shocked by the majority's willingness to distort the text and history of the Second Amendment to ignore the considered judgment of the District's local legislature... (Let me get this straight - it was no surprise that the Supremes ruled that the DC gun ban was unconstitutional but you fought for it all those years?) http://www.law.com/jsp/dc/PubArticleDC.jsp?id=1202422572520 --- DC (Nominally) Ends Gun Ban: ...With the unanimous support of his 12 colleagues, Phil Mendelson introduced a bill that would end the city's handgun ban and make it legal for residents to keep firearms in their homes without requirements that trigger locks be used or that they be disassembled. Mendelson's bill would still require that guns be kept unloaded and disabled, but it would offer an exception for gun owners who say the firearm is present in the home for immediate self-defense. Mendelson (D-At Large) said he will depend on the testimony of witnesses at a round-table discussion today to decide whether emergency legislation should be introduced before the body recesses July 15. Otherwise, he said, the council will vote on the issue in the fall. Gray (D) has said he will call a special summer meeting if necessary... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/01/AR2008070101950.html?hpid=sec-metro --- Confusing the Issues?: An editorialist for The Washington Times defends the Heller ruling from left-wing critics but ignores the fact that the justices seemed to balk at including carry outside the home, much less concealed carry, as a protected right. http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/jul/01/right-to-carry/ --- A Post-Game Look at Alan Gura: ...Gura, a Los Angeles native, has been a student of the Second Amendment since Heller was filed in 2002. He wrote all of the pleadings in consultation with Levy and Clark Neily III, a senior staff attorney at the Institute for Justice. Gura's familiarity with the contours of the case and the depth of his knowledge of gun laws, generally, convinced Levy that he was the strongest candidate to argue the case before the Supreme Court. Gura says that he's not opposed to being typecast as "the gun guy," but calls it a misnomer. (Yes, he keeps firearms in his home in Alexandria, Va., but Gura refuses to describe his stock, except to say, with no small amount of self-satisfaction, that "they are legal under the Constitution.") Most of the angry mail he's received while working on Heller has come from gun rights advocates who say he "sold out the Second Amendment" by conceding that some regulation was necessary... http://www.law.com/jsp/scm/PubArticleSCM.jsp?id=1202422704077 --- Obama's Toothless Second Amendment: ...Obama's view is similar to that of Justice Stephen Breyer, who dissented from the Supreme Court's decision. Even if the Second Amendment protects an individual right to armed self-defense, Breyer said, that right has to be weighed against "other important governmental interests." And since a gun law like D.C.'s might reduce violent crime (never mind the lack of evidence that it actually has), the courts should yield to legislators' judgments about how best to strike the balance... http://reason.com/news/show/127292.html --- Guns and Democrats: ...Partisans on both sides will argue about whether Mr. Obama's equivocation represents a clarification or a reversal of his previous statements on the subject. But the truth is that it doesn't matter. Far more important is that the gradual disintegration of the gun control movement that once drove Democratic politics is now pretty much complete. For decades, the true meaning of the Second Amendment has been the subject of wrenching public debate. But last Thursday, when the Court expressly and historically extended the right of gun ownership to private citizens, the Democratic Party's nominee for president merely shrugged... (Don't confuse campaign statements for what these people will do if they get into office - there is no right to sue over a broken campaign promise.) http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/guns-and-democrats/index.html?th&emc=th A Democrat Ponders: With so many other pressing problems vying for top billing, gun issues will not decide this presidential election. Nonetheless, gun control has helped Democrats win in places like California and New Jersey, as well as in less obvious spots like Michigan. At the same time, advocating gun regulations has cost Democrats dearly in the South, the West and in rural areas. Perhaps paradoxically, most voters in the places Democrats lost on guns agreed with us on policy, making guns an interesting prism through which to examine the cultural concerns that have bedeviled Democrats in some areas... http://thehill.com/mark-mellman/the-cultural-politics-of-guns-2008-07-01.html --- What's the ACLU to Do?: One interesting question is what the ACLU is going to do with Heller...It seems theoretically plausible to suggest that, now that an individual right of some sort (subject to all sorts of further clarification, as Mike notes) has been recognized by the Court, that this right is now one which the ACLU should actively defend under its general mission of defending the Bill of Rights. This reasoning may become more compelling in the future, too, as future cases elaborate on the now-murky incorporation questions that Heller didn't really answer. On the other hand, the culture-wars aspect of the debate might suggest otherwise. And I wonder whether those pragmatic considerations will win out - whether the organization will take a different tack and hold, essentially, that Heller is wrong. That would be a nightmare of an argument to try to make, conceptually. But do ACLU volunteers really want to take up second amendment cases? Perhaps we'll see... http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2008/06/so_what_the_hel.html --- NRA to Target Obama: The National Rifle Association has declared Barack Obama a "serious threat" to Second Amendment gun liberties and now plans to spend $15 million of its $40 million campaign this fall to make sure he isn't elected. Referring to Obama's statement in April that when working-class voters experience economic hardship "they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion," NRA chief lobbyist Chris W. Cox told the Politico, "We look forward to showing him 'bitter.' Apparently, he thinks gun owners are either fools or have short memories," Cox said. "I can assure him he's wrong on both." http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=68492 --- Regulating Guns Out of Existence: ... Sunday's Los Angeles Times brought us as glorious an example of ivory-tower impracticality as ever put forth, this one by a pair of university professors who, if one may judge from their curricula vitae, are well steeped in academic theory but lacking sufficient practical experience to realize what they propose is manifestly absurd...Thus the authors ascribe "social consequences" to inanimate objects rather than those who employ them for illegal purposes. And with this the authors reveal their true agenda: to bankrupt the gun manufacturers by concealing the iron fist of government in the velvet glove of "performance-based regulation." And if they can enrich a few trial lawyers in the process, so much the better. In this regard, in the eyes of Fagan and Sugarman, perhaps the idea isn't so impractical after all. The Supreme Court may have affirmed the Second Amendment, but if this regulatory scheme can drive gun manufacturers out of business, it will render the Second Amendment as moot as the Third. http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZmY0NTJhZmYxYWVhZjU3MWE4YjYzYThjYjNiMjYwN2Q= --- More "Public Health" Propaganda: ...Suicides accounted for 55 percent of the nation's nearly 31,000 firearm deaths in 2005, the most recent year for which statistics are available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...Public-health researchers have concluded that in homes where guns are present, the likelihood that someone in the home will die from suicide or homicide is much greater...Researchers in other fields have raised questions about the public-health findings on guns...Both sides agree there has been a significant decline in the last decade in public-health research into gun violence... (Nowhere does this diatribe against the Heller ruling address the suicide rate in Japan, which is rising above its traditionally high level, despite the lack of access to firearms for most Japanese.) http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GUN_DEATHS_SUICIDE?SITE=MITRA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT --- Lawsuit Filed over Atlanta Airport Gun Ban: The nation's busiest airport dueled with gun rights advocates Tuesday over whether a new Georgia state law allows visitors to carry firearms at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. City officials in charge of the airport declared it a "gun-free zone" when a law allowing people to carry guns on public transit and other places took effect Tuesday. Gun rights supporters, including a state legislator who helped pass the law, quickly filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the designation... The new state law allows people with a concealed weapons permit to carry guns into restaurants, state parks and on public transportation. John Monroe, an attorney for the gun rights backers who filed the lawsuit, argued the Atlanta airport qualifies as public transportation. There are also restaurants in the terminal, which Monroe said should be accessible to gun-toting visitors under the new law... http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D91L6KCO0&show_article=1 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/us/02airport.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin --- Oops, Wrong House, Florida Version: Anthony Mendolia says it's probably been over 10 years since he last fired a gun. But Tuesday morning he didn't think twice about firing a 9mm at Christopher Collins. Police say the 34-year old Collins broke into Mendolia's home on Dawnmeadow Court around 8 a.m. Officials were already searching for Collins, who they believe is responsible for a string of area burglaries, when Mendolia shot him in his left foot. Mendolia had gone home to check on his 11-year-old daughter Nicole, who was home alone. Nicole Mendolia says Collins was in their house for about 20 minutes before her dad came back home. She says she tried pretending she was asleep and hid under her covers while Collins ransacked their home... http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/crime/story.aspx?storyid=83885&catid=82 --- Oops, Wrong House, Texas Version: The tables turned on a burglar when a homeowner took matters into his own hands...They say the intruder broke in through the garage and had been drinking prior to the break-in. The pregnant woman inside the home was getting ready to give her 18-month-old child a bath when she heard noises. She saw the man walking around outside and called her husband. He came home, but didn't see anything right away. Then, he heard something from the side of the house and grabbed his gun. He confronted the intruder in the kitchen. Police say the homeowner shot the intruder in the chest. He is now listed in critical condition at University Hospital. He could face burglary charges this morning. The homeowner will not face any charges. http://www.woai.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=feb02765-2dbd-4de0-8e76-f14faff62b08 --- Rule Five Reminder?: Nearly one out of three handguns and rifles that had been turned in to the police could not be immediately accounted for in a Manhattan property clerk's office, according to a city audit released on Tuesday that criticized the Police Department's storage procedures...After the initial search, it was determined that 70 of the 94 weapons had been returned to their owners or destroyed, Mr. Thompson said, while 24 "miraculously" turned up on shelves from where they had previously been missing after several attempts to find them... (Rule Five: Maintain control of your firearm.) http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/nyregion/02guns.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin --- A Cartoon: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=68521 -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .