McDonald and Original Intent: The upcoming McDonald v. City of Chicago case, to decide on the Constitutionality of (or, hopefully, lack thereof) Chicago's handgun ban, will also, of course, determine whether or not the Second Amendment is "incorporated" under the Fourteenth Amendment. In other words, since Heller already established that an outright handgun ban is not permissible under the Second Amendment, the question here is whether that amendment is to be enforced against state and local governments, as well as to the feds. As the Wall Street Journal pointed out a while back, some support for the gun rights side is coming from a somewhat surprising source... I'm all for the Thirteenth Amdendment, of course, and calling manumission "redistribution of property" seems something of a reach, since humans cannot legitimately be property in the first place - certainly not in a nation whose independence was declared in a document that stated that "all men are created equal." I can't help but have some serious concerns about what property Professor Amar hopes to "redistribute" now, though... (The issue of original intent, in this context, is that the Bill of Rights was originally intended only to limit the power of the newly created federal government. At the time of ratification of the Constitution, some states had bills of rights and some did not. The Federalists argued, somewhat ingenuously, against a federal bill of rights but the Antifederalists won out, getting a pledge for one as a condition for ratification.) http://www.examiner.com/x-2581-St-Louis-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m12d1-Defending-gun-rights-by-rejecting-original-intent --- National Black Police Association Signs Brady McDonald Brief: We've been discussing the Brady Center's friend of the court brief in the McDonald case, where Chicago's handgun ban and other gun registration requirements are being challenged in a case that will be heard by the Supreme Court. We've seen how the Bradys consider local bans "reasonable." We've met some globalist police chiefs and union bosses who agree. And today, we're going to examine the fourth signatory to the brief, the National Black Police Association... Here's the crux of what we need to know about them from their "Positions" page: "HANDGUN CONTROL. The NBPA supports national handgun legislation prohibiting further manufacturing of handguns, and limiting their sales, possession, and use." That seems pretty definitive and "Only One"-like, does it not? Presumably, if we say "No," they would support using police powers to enforce such edicts against their countrymen. And the Oath Keepers are the ones we're told are the dangerous extremists? ... ("Only one" is a phrase immortalized by a then-DEA agent, who happened to be black, giving a "firearm-safety" lecture to a group of youngsters, who happened to be black, who proclaimed that he was the only one in the room competent to handle a .40-caliber Glock pistol, seconds before shooting himself in the leg with it.) http://www.examiner.com/x-1417-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m12d1-Black-police-group-endorses-same-antigun-edicts-imposed-by-slave-owners --- "Loopholes" in Carry Legislation: ...Let's review Alaska-carry and the infringement on a citizen to inform a police officer that you have a firearm and how you must allow the officer to disarm you for their safety. Maybe that sounds good on the surface but does it pass the constitutional test? Absolutely not! Alaska police officers regularly disarm law abiding citizens, taking their firearms and running the serial numbers through the system. This in itself is a violation of the "fourth amendment". No surprise here, officers that have taken an oath to uphold the constitution are regularly breaking this same oath. Many law abiding citizens that have nothing to hide often see no harm in giving up their rights. They freely give in to a police officers intrusions. What's the big deal, you have nothing to hide, right? Before you read anymore please watch the video. You will be shocked at what you witness... (Terry v. Ohio [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_v._Ohio] has given police officers the power to pat down for weapons people they legitimately stop, for the safety of the officer. Most shall-issue states require permittees to advise officers that they are carrying concealed; Arizona and Montana are exceptions. Routinely running serial numbers is abuse. Officers do not routinely do that for a camera or a laptop computer in plain view, unless they have reasonable cause to suspect that it may have been stolen.) http://www.examiner.com/x-25069-Cheyenne-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m11d30-Alaskacarry-be-careful-what-you-wish-for --- Government to Blame for Recent Police Murders?: A police officer once described the two-part criminal justice system this way: "We arrest criminals, and then the lawyers figure out a way to get them back on the street." Every time there's another Maurice Clemmons story, this author hears those words again. Maurice Clemmons murdered four Lakewood [WA] police officers in a restaurant last Sunday, as they prepared for their shift. But that is only one part of the story... Huckabee granted Clemmons' clemency request despite objections from the prosecutor. After his parole, Clemmons "quickly reverted to his criminal past, violated his parole and was returned to prison," but was out again by 2004. Huckabee also pressured the parole board to free Wayne DuMond, who was serving time for raping a high school student. They paroled him on the condition that he leave Arkansas. He moved to neighboring Missouri, where he raped and murdered Carol Sue Shields. Washington state authorities recently had an opportunity to get Clemmons off the street. He was arrested last May for allegedly assaulting a police officer and raping a child, but was released after posting bail... http://www.examiner.com/x-2879-Austin-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m12d1-Four-Lakewood-police-officers-Death-by-government ...No doubt authorities will trace the gun he used, and find out perhaps how Clemmons got it. Chances are it came from a family member or acquaintance, and it would not be surprising if that pistol was stolen. If one of his associates or family members - several of whom are now in jail or soon will be - knowingly provided that gun to Clemmons, they need to go down for that. As a convicted felon, it is illegal under state and federal statute for Clemmons to own or possess a firearm, and it is against the law to knowingly supply a gun to a convicted felon. He was evidently getting plenty of help from some people, and they're going to be held accountable... Of course, when did that ever stop a thug from packing a gun? We know where he got the last gun he carried. It belonged to one of his police officer victims; so much for the political argument that "only cops should have guns." Anyone who wants a gun bad enough for illegal purposes will take one. Clemmons' first felony beef involved the burglary of an Arkansas State Trooper's home in which that man's gun was stolen, along with other items... (On Friday I will share John Farnam's comments on tactical lessons from this incident, along with some of my own.) http://www.examiner.com/x-4525-Seattle-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m12d1-A-copkiller-is-dead-and-now-comes-time-for-questions --- Guess Who's Getting Pistol Permits in NYC: "I just wrote my first reference for a gun permit," said a friend, who told me of swearing to the good character of a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who applied to the local police for a permit to buy a pistol. The banker had told this friend of mine that senior Goldman people have loaded up on firearms and are now equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist uprising against the bank. I called Goldman Sachs spokesman Lucas van Praag to ask whether it's true that Goldman partners feel they need handguns to protect themselves from the angry proletariat. He didn't call me back. The New York Police Department has told me that "as a preliminary matter" it believes some of the bankers I inquired about do have pistol permits. The NYPD also said it will be a while before it can name names... (Again, comments from John Farnam and me will arrive on Friday.) http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=ahD2WoDAL9h0# --- Anti-RKBA Mayor Convicted of Embezzlement: Baltimore's mayor was convicted Tuesday on a single charge of taking gift cards from a program intended for the city's poor children and using them to buy electronics, including an Xbox video game system. The misdemeanor conviction eventually could lead to Sheila Dixon's removal from office. But she said after the verdict that she would return to City Hall, and her attorneys said they would begin an appeal. Her conviction of fraudulent misappropriation by a fiduciary carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, but prosecutors have not yet said whether they will seek jail time. The jury acquitted her on three other counts, including felony theft, and failed to reach a verdict on a second count of misappropriation... (Dixon has been a prominent member of Bloomberg's Mayors Against Illegal Guns [http://www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org/html/members/members.shtml, http://www.sheiladixon.com/issues/crimeplan].) http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/02/mayor-dixon-found-guilty-of-misdemeanor/ --- "Progressive" Decries RKBA Posturing in Arkansas Politics: It's more than four years before Dustin McDaniel, Mike Ross, Bill Halter and more seek to succeed Gov. Mike Beebe. But McDaniel has taken an early lead for the gun nut vote with a steady diet of opportunism and demagoguery... He hasn't posed for our cover yet with a shotgun, as Ross did, but I'm sure he'd be willing. Admittedly, McDaniel has all those sins of his father to live down for suing a gun manufacturer. Still, it's hard to get out front of Mike Ross on gun demagoguery. It's going to be a long four years. Today, read McDaniel's "me-too" on the fight against home rule gun laws. It's nothing but judicial activism to override a couple of centuries of court precedent, in which McDaniel is in league with the nut wing of the U.S. Supreme Court [emphasis added]. He should be proud... http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/2009/12/mcdaniel_takes_lead.aspx --- Thermal Imaging Used in Gun Conviction: It may not yet compete with the detective work found in a television crime drama, but it is getting there. Prosecutors and police detectives delved into the high-tech world of thermal imaging in convicting a Dorchester man of carrying a gun, the first time a Massachusetts jury has found a person guilty based on the technology... The defendant, Jose R. Rodriguez, 25, was convicted of illegal possession of a loaded gun and unlawful possession of ammunition. He was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in jail. His lawyer declined to comment. The case involved a Bullard T1 Commander, a thermal imaging camera that records heat output the way a conventional camera records light. The technology was designed for the military and has become commonly used in firefighting. In this case, it was used by officers who chased Rodriguez in January, after he allegedly fled when officers tried to question him. According to police, officers saw him walking down Whittemore Street clutching his waistband, and they grew suspicious. At one point, the officers saw Rodriguez stretch out his arm as if he had thrown something. He was taken into custody. While retracing his path, police recovered a 9mm semiautomatic Smith & Wesson handgun from the snow. That is when officers used the Bullard camera, allowing them to determine that the firearm had just been discarded; the gun had retained the heat of the person carrying it, making it appear lighter than its surroundings... http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/12/01/jury_cites_thermal_imaging_in_gun_conviction/ --- Oops, Wrong Gas Station: A store manager shot and wounded an armed man during an attempted robbery at a Chevron gas station near U.S. 1 and Peachtree Street on Tuesday night. At about 9:20 p.m., a man entered the store and pointed a large-caliber handgun at the store manager and demanded money. The store manager, Sowann Suy, 40, instead pulled out a gun from below the counter and started firing. The man was shot once in the abdomen. He did not fire his weapon and immediately left the store, collapsing in the parking lot, where Cocoa police found him when they arrived a few minutes later. Suy called 9-1-1 right after the shooting... This is the second time in a week a local store owner has shot someone trying to rob his business. The 70-year-old owner of Gloco Grocery and Soul Food Deli shot and wounded a man attempting to rob his Melbourne [FL] business Nov. 17. http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20091125/NEWS01/911250347/1086/Store+manager+shoots+robber http://www.examiner.com/x-18149-SelfDefense-Examiner~y2009m11d29-Cocoa-FL-gas-station-robber-shot-in-self-defense --- Oops, Wrong House?: Tucson police are looking into the circumstances behind the shooting of a 22-year-old man who turned up at St. Mary's Hospital this morning. The man, who may have been injured during a home invasion, was transported to another hospital, where he is in serious condition, said Sgt. Diana Lopez, a Tucson Police Department spokesman. Tucson police were contacted by officials at St. Mary's about 7:30 a.m., Lopez said. Police are trying to determine where the man was shot, she said. (When I lived in California, it was routine for criminals who had been shot by their intended victims to claim that they had been victims of drive-by shootings and decline further statements to police, stating that they would "deal with it" themselves.) http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/319820.php --- More Details on New Hampshire Home-Defense Shooting: ...Residents say it's a normally quiet neighborhood, but Wednesday night police say three men forced their way into an apartment and attacked a man and woman inside. At least two of the robbers had handguns and were allegedly threatening the couple. At some point the male resident got hold of his own handgun and got into a scuffle with the intruders. Shots were fired and one of the robbers, Nathan Stringfield, 23, of Berlin, was hit and died at the scene... The second intruder made it down the street and ran a few blocks on Western Avenue before going into a building. That's where police found him suffering from multiple life-threatening gunshot wounds. He's hospitalized in critical condition. The third intruder managed to get away- police are still searching for him. Authorities have not released a motive for the robbery, but one neighbor who claims to know Stringfield says he was a known drug dealer and he heard the three men were after drugs in the apartment. So far no charges have been filed. (Dealing with drugs and dirtbags certainly introduces added risks in your life.) http://www.thearmedcitizen.com/2009/12/01/berlin-n-h-home-invaders-shot-by-victim/ --- Opinions Are Like Body Parts...: ...My personal home defense gun is a .38 Special Colt Diamondback. This is a medium size DA revolver with a 4" barrel and a nickel finish. The silver finish makes it an easy gun to see and point at night, and its fully adjustable target-type sights make it quite accurate in decent light. The Diamondback fits my hand perfectly and is a very high quality revolver. Unfortunately it has been discontinued, and a Colt Diamondback in good condition is expensive even on the used market. It is well worth the cost, however. I consider a 4" barrel the best compromise for a home defense handgun. The shortest barrel I would recommend for a revolver is 2.5", and the longest 6". My home defense revolver is normally loaded with Glaser Safety Slugs for indoor use, but I also keep a speed loader full of 125 grain hollow-point cartridges available. I prefer the .38 Special to smaller rounds due to its superior stopping power, and to larger rounds, such as the various Magnums, because it produces less muzzle blast and flash, an important consideration in dim light. If I used an autoloading pistol for home defense I would choose one chambered for the 9mm Luger (9x19) cartridge for exactly the same reasons... (Bright nickel plating certainly makes the revolver more visible to the intruder, which may or may not be desirable, depending on the circumstances. Some might question selecting a collector-grade gun for a task that could leave it in an evidence locker, possibly with a case number scratched into it, for years. Glaser Safety Slugs have had both spectacular success and spectacular failures. I prefer a properly selected hollowpoint, in normal weight range for caliber. In order of preference, I lean toward CorBon's +P 110 gr. DPX, Speer's +P 135 gr. Gold Dot, the old +P 158 gr. LSWCHP "FBI load," from whomever you can still find it and, if +P is not appropriate for the gun or produces excessive recoil for the user, the newly reintroduced 125 gr. Nyclad HP from Federal. These, of course, are all .38 special loads.) http://www.chuckhawks.com/handgun_home_defense.htm --- More American Women Take up Hunting: Between 2003 and 2008, women who hunted with firearms increased 3.5 percent to 2.9 million, according to new data from the National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA). Women who participated in bowhunting rose 1.5 percent to 600,000 during that time. And according to the Shreveport Times, Louisiana can attest to the recent rise in female participation. This year alone, the number of women with hunting licenses jumped 12 percent there when compared to 2007-08... According to the story, an estimated $3.4 billion is spent annually on the sales of firearms, ammunition and hunting accessories with women accounting for about $500 million of that total. (Days ago, a female friend of mine took a bull elk with a very precisely placed shot from her .243 rifle, not a caliber one normally associates with elk hunting.) http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/node/7006 --- MidwayUSA Boosts Bianchi Cup Match: Inspired by the NRA Bianchi Cup's successful impact on both the shooting industry and his hometown of Columbia, MO, Larry Potterfield, Founder and CEO of MidwayUSA, Inc., has pledged his second consecutive $50,000 cash donation toward the championship. The gift will be used to increase the already impressive $300,000 in cash and prizes awarded this past year and continue founder John Bianchi's vision of having the most prestigious Pistol Championship in the world... This announcement is the first of many enhancements to the NRA Bianchi Cup for 2010. The NRA Bianchi Cup is a money-winning event that draws the top pistol shooters from all over the world... http://www.ammoland.com/2009/12/01/potterfields-donate-cash-for-2010-nra-bianchi-cup/ --- New Book by David Kopel: ...David Kopel's book covers topics ranging from the origins of the Washington, D.C. gun ban to the Heller decision. He discusses the genesis of modern American gun control, the KKK, the true anti-gun agenda and the deceptions and errors used to promote anti-gun laws. He covers the right to self defense from Judeo Christian perspectives. Other chapters explore United Nations and International gun control attempts and failures, law enforcement abuses and solutions, the culture of the right to keep and bear arms and the gun control movement. He concludes his book with a chapter on several prominent American gun owners from Thomas Jefferson to Eleanor Roosevelt... (Kopel is a legal scholar who, among other things, has researched the views of all the world's major religions on self-defense. Pretty much anything he writes is worth reading although his style may tend to be a bit academic.) http://www.amazon.com/Aiming-LIberty-Present-Freedom-Self-Defense/dp/0936783583/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259624163&sr=8-1 --- From AzCDL: The Arizona Citizens Defense League has joined with other pro-rights individuals, groups and several district attorneys in the filing of an "amicus (friend of the court) brief" with the United State Supreme Court in the case of McDonald v. Chicago, the most critical Second Amendment case since the Heller decision upheld our individual right to keep and bear arms. In April 2009, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in Nordyke v. King that the Second Amendment is "incorporated" through the Fourteenth Amendment and applicable to all state and local governments. However in McDonald v. Chicago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that the Second Amendment is NOT incorporated through the Fourteenth Amendment and that state and local government laws regarding firearms are not affected by the Second Amendment. In September, the Supreme Court agreed to consider the McDonald case. We are asking the Supreme Court to hold that the Second Amendment applies to state and local governments through the Fourteenth Amendment. You can find a copy of the amicus brief at: http://tinyurl.com/McdonaldAmicus . Alan Korwin, AzCDL Member and prolific author, whose books include The Arizona Gun Owner's Guide, is following the McDonald case closely and has posted a plain English summary of the issues at stake at his website: http://www.gunlaws.com/McDonald_v_Chicago_BP_Amicus.htm . Alan's extensive research and material were used in crafting our amicus brief, which was submitted by California attorney Chuck Michel (http://www.michelandassociates.com/). You can also read more about the McDonald case at the Second Amendment Foundation's website: http://www.chicagoguncase.com/ . These alerts are a project of the Arizona Citizens Defense League (AzCDL), an all volunteer, non-profit, non-partisan grassroots organization. Join today! http://www.azcdl.org/html/join_us_.html AzCDL - Protecting Your Freedom http://www.azcdl.org/html/accomplishments.html Copyright © 2009 Arizona Citizens Defense League, Inc., all rights reserved. -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. The tactics and skills to use a firearm in self-defense don't come naturally with the right to keep and bear arms. http://www.spw-duf.info .