CCRKBA: Senate Votes NO On Obama Court Nominee
CCRKBA:
Grassroots power has helped derail President Obama’s nomination of anti-gun extremist Caitlin Halligan to the District of Columbia Circuit Court, with keystone opposition from members and supporters of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
“We sent out more than one million e-mail alerts to gun owners across the country, warning them of Halligan’s anti-gun philosophy,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “and it is clear from today’s 54-45 Senate vote against cloture, thus rejecting Halligan’s nomination, that their voices were heard loud and clear.” Read more
NRA News: Supreme Court Rejects Case on Gun Rights
Cam Edwards talks to Steve Halbrook, Second Amendment attorney and scholar
26th Annual Gun Rights Conference Slated This Weekend in Chicago
Gun rights activists from across the country will gather this weekend, Sept 23-25, at the Chicago O’Hare airport Hyatt Regency hotel for the 26th annual Gun Rights Policy Conference, sponsored by the Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
SAF Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb said pre-registration of over 700 for this weekend’s events suggests there will be a great turnout, not only by Illinois activists, but also firearm owners from as far away as Hawaii and Puerto Rico, as well as neighboring Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and Missouri. This event is free, and includes a Saturday awards luncheon that will recognize the accomplishments of gun rights leaders from the national level down to the grassroots.
“Since last year’s SAF victory in McDonald v. City of Chicago before the U.S. Supreme Court, we’ve been looking forward to this weekend’s gathering,” Gottlieb stated. “We are joined by members of the Illinois State Rifle Association, which joined us in the McDonald case, and by our expert legal team that made it happen.
“It is only fitting that we gather in the Windy City,” he continued, “not only for this important conference, but also to celebrate the Supreme Court victory. This was a win for all gun owners, because the high court incorporated the Second Amendment to the states, thus paving the way for challenges to onerous state and local gun laws and regulations that have placed onerous restrictions on a fundamental civil right.
SAF is currently engaged in federal court challenges to restrictive gun regulations and statutes in New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Maryland, Massachusetts and California, and elsewhere.
This year’s jam-packed agenda features panel discussions covering current and possible future legal actions, the importance of election outcomes to the federal courts and Supreme Court, gun politics, legislative challenges and more. Experts from virtually all corners of the gun rights movement will be on hand, and the annual awards luncheon on Saturday promises to be a crowd pleaser.
“We look forward to a very active and productive weekend for firearms freedom,” Gottlieb stated.
The Second Amendment Foundation is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.
NRA – ILA: Legal Update August 2011
From the NRA – ILA:
To give NRA members, gun owners and AmmoLand readers the latest information on Second Amendment cases filed or supported by the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (www.nraila.org), NRA-ILA is pleased to announce a new online column, the NRA-ILA Legal Update.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, holding that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms, hundreds of Second Amendment cases have been litigated in federal and state courts. The pace of litigation has only increased since the Court’s 2010 decision in McDonald v. City of Chicago, holding that the right to keep and bear arms is fundamental and protects all Americans. Read more
CalGunLaws.com: SCOTUS Grants Review in Firearm Search Warrant Case
From CalGunLaws.com:
The Fourth Amendment guarantees our right to not be subjected to search and seizure under a “general” search warrant (i.e., a warrant not based on probable cause and not particularly describing the place to be searched and the person or thing to be seized).
Firearms are generally lawful to possess, and usually may not be seized without probable cause that a specific firearm was used in a crime. On August 24, 2010, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Millender v. County of Los Angeles, et al. (07-55518), confirmed that a general search warrant requesting the seizure of “all handguns, rifles or shotguns of any caliber, or any firearms capable of firing ammunition…” was unconstitutional when the police who sought the warrant were aware they were actually searching for just one specific firearm.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) and the California Rifle and Pistol Association Foundation (CRPAF) argued this point in an amicus (friend of the court) brief filed in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of the Mrs. Millender. A copy of the brief, along with the opinion, other case related briefs, and memorandum analyzing the opinion is posted at http://michellawyers.com/millendervlosangeles.
Following the Ninth Circuit’s Millender decision, defendant County of Los Angeles sought review by the United States Supreme Court. On June 27, 2011, the Supreme Court agreed to review the case, and to address the question of whether law enforcement is entitled to qualified immunity against a civil rights law suit when a judge has signed off on the warrant – even when the officers seized property (i.e. firearms) unrelated to the case (and the specific firearm) they are investigating. The case will be heard by the Supreme Court next year. NRA and CRPAF will weigh-in again through an amicus brief at that time. Read more
Mother Jones: “Gun Control Survives the Supreme Court”
Left leaning news outlet Mother Jones offered a biased take on the Second Amendment in a piece titled, “Gun Control Survives the Supreme Court.” Frankly, we at FirearmsTruth think the real story is “Gun Rights Survive the Supreme Court.”
But the story notes:
“In 2008, the US Supreme Court overturned a DC law banning city residents from owning handguns. The decision in District of Columbia v Heller was unprecedented because the sharply divided court found—for the first time—that Americans have an individual right to own guns outside of the ‘well regulated militia’ described in the Second Amendment.”
Once again the media likes to play word games. The wording doesn’t suggest that just the militias could own guns, and once again we ask, do these people not realize that the members of the militias were armed with their own guns!
But the bias doesn’t stop:
“The NRA as well as dozens of criminals have attempted to invoke Heller in court to challenge everything from bans on carrying concealed weapons in public to restrictions on gun ownership by people involved in domestic violence. Almost all of those challenges have failed, according to the Brady Center, including a second lawsuit filed by Dick Heller, the plaintiff in the original Supreme Court case, who sued again to try to invalidate restrictions on semi-automatic weapons in the nation’s capital.”
“Dozens of criminals” says the author. What is she talking about? This also implies that the NRA is somehow culpable with criminals. Shameful, simply shameful.
Second Amendment Foundation Challenges Interstate Handgun Sales Ban
The Second Amendment Foundation this week filed suit in U.S. District Court in Virginia challenging the constitutionality of federal and Virginia provisions barring handgun sales to non-residents.
SAF is joined in the lawsuit by Michelle Lane, a District of Columbia resident who cannot legally purchase handguns because there are no retail firearms dealers inside the District.
The Supreme Court’s 2008 Heller ruling struck down the District’s handgun ban, confirming that individuals have a constitutional right to possess handguns.
SAF and Lane are represented by attorney Alan Gura of Gura & Possessky, PLLC, who won both the Heller ruling and last year’s Supreme Court victory in McDonald v. City of Chicago. Named as defendants are Attorney General Eric Holder and W. Steven Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police.
“This is an important issue in the era of the national instant background check,” said SAF Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “The NICS check should allow law-abiding citizens like Miss Lane to exercise their Second Amendment rights regardless their place of residence.”
“Americans don’t check their constitutional rights at the state line,” said Gura. “And since Michelle Lane is legally entitled to possess firearms, forcing her to seek a non-existing D.C. dealer to buy a handgun is pointless when perfectly legitimate options exist minutes across the Potomac River.”
“The Supreme Court has ruled that District residents have an individual right, protected by the Constitution, to have a handgun in their home,” Gottlieb noted. “The high court has also ruled that the Second Amendment applies to the states. Existing state and federal statutes violate both the spirit and letter of recent court rulings and the Constitution, and our lawsuit seeks to remedy that situation.”
The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control. SAF has previously funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of Los Angeles; New Haven, CT; and San Francisco on behalf of American gun owners, a lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers and an amicus brief and fund for the Emerson case holding the Second Amendment as an individual right.
Happy New Year from FirearmsTruth
It is hard to believe that another year has passed, but here we are and it is 2011. We take this time to thank our readers, and to let everyone know that we’re digging in for a long fight.
While there has been a political shift in Washington, the anti-gun zealots remain loud as ever, and the media continues its agenda of misinformation. Looking back at the top “gun related” stories of 2010, we are reminded that it wasn’t the political change that is most noteworthy, or even the SCOTUS ruling in McDonald vs. City of Chicago.
It was the continued beating of the drum from the mainstream media on how American firearms are the cause of so much grief and violence in Mexico. Of course numbers that were debunked in 2009 were repeated again and again in 2010.
The stories that were missing in the MSM were those where guns helped saved lives by protecting those from criminal invasion of their homes or assaults on the street. And of course other than a handful of stories, little was noted about the efforts to bring home the M1 rifles from South Korea.
Finally, we must watch – and we will work to expose, track and report on – the back door efforts to ban guns. We will watch for efforts to block the importation of firearms, efforts by the UN to stop the “gun trade” and efforts by the EPA and other groups to “ban” certain materials (lead bullets come to mind). In other words, we’re not going anywhere.
We’ll be here through 2011 and beyond.
Illinois State Rifle Association: Cook County Fabricates SCOTUS Quotes to Bolster Gun Case in Court
Although the trend against draconian firearm rights infringements is in our favor, we must keep the pressure on while the anti’s are on their heels.
While the ISRA wages uphill battles against long entrenched institutional bias against firearm owners in Illinois, the anti-rights push back, harder and more arrogantly than ever.
Political corruption is nothing new to the Chicago area, it began in the levee district in the 1890s and has had over 120 years to flourish. The courts though, are supposed to be the place where every person gets their chance at unbiased justice. The Constitution should prevail, not money or political affiliations, or myths like gun control that distract the people from the real problems that are more difficult to solve. Read more
Court of Appeals to hear Heller 2 Next Monday
In 2008 the Supreme Court ruled that the District of Columbia’s gun laws violated individuals’ Second Amendment Rights. The law struck down by The Court made it virtually impossible for a citizen of the district to own a handgun, even if it never left the person’s house. At first some D.C. public officials vowed to defy the ruling, but instead of risking court sanctions the D.C. council passed new gun laws that make it burdensome to own a handgun. Heller and others sued and the United States Court of Appeals of Appeals for the District Columbia Circuit will hear arguments starting Monday, November 15. Read more
