CONCEALED CARRY VICTORIES
CONCEALED
CARRY VICTORIES
Gun Rights activists fired the first shot in Florida
15 years ago. They never let up. Now the movement, to overturn laws against carrying concealed firearms, has spread and taken hold.
Where at
least 40 states in the 1980s prohibited
concealed weapons, today only 6 states, Kansas,
Illinois, Missouri,
Nebraska, Ohio
and Wisconsin, have
outright bans on concealed weapons and
12 others have harsh restrictions on concealed carry permits.
On the plus side, 28 states this year
are considering concealed carry laws. We can see possible victories in Missouri, Minnesota, Ohio
and perhaps Wisconsin.
On the minus side, anti-gun groups such as the Brady Campaign
to Prevent Gun Violence (formerly Handgun Control, Inc.) are chipping away at bills before legislatures. So far
they’ve helped defeat a concealed carry bill in the Colorado Senate and turned back a Utah bill to ease training requirements.
The Colorado
situation hinges on politics. Senate President STAN MATSUNAKA (D-Loveland) is running for Congress in Colorado’s
pro-gun 4th District, and is trying to push a “compromise” concealed carry bill through the Senate to gain votes
in November, angering anti-gun Democrats.
Colorado Senate Majority Leader BILL THIEBAUT said he didn’t
think MATSUNAKA would get enough support from either side. “Philosophically, it’s too restrictive for the Republicans
and too liberal for some Democrats,” THIEBAUT said.
The bill began as a plain “shall-issue” measure introduced by Republican Sen. KEN CHLOUBER that would require
concealed-carry permits to be issued to anyone over 21 who passed a background check, completed a gun safety course,
and paid a fee of about $100.
CHLOUBER has long championed such a bill to end the crazy-quilt of local ordinances that now passes for
policy. It passed in April 1999 only to be withdrawn because of the Columbine tragedy. The Senate Judiciary Committee killed CHLOUBER’s new bill this February, voting along party lines with Democrats in control of the Senate. A similar
bill is still alive in the House.
Then came MATSUNAKA with a compromise bill. He and House Speaker
DOUG DEAN seem close to agreement that law enforcement will be able to deny permits if there’s documentable proof of an applicant’s instability under
a so-called “naked-man” provision. That would apply to people who have done weird things but avoided being charged
with crimes. DEAN says he’ll support that if denials can be appealed.
A newspaper poll in Denver found that 63% say
they back the plain statewide permit plan.
MATSUNAKA knows that, and he wants to be Congressman MATSUNAKA after the next election. We’ll see if he can get
something useful on the Governor’s desk before then.
Michigan’s
new concealed carry law is generating applicants (40,000 since the law changed in July, 2001), money ($1.5 million
for state and county governments), and headlines (“Gun permits surge, but not violence”).
The biggest problem Michigan is having with the new law is backlog. In Wayne
County, with the biggest backlog in the state, has 3,000 waiting for
permits.
Wayne County Sheriff ROBERT FIANCO blames the problem on staffing
in his department. Michigan requires county sheriff’s departments to process the applications
by taking fingerprints and conducting criminal background checks.
In Missouri, the House Committee on Sportsmanship, Safety and Firearms has
voted 9-1 in favor of a bill that would allow permit-holders to carry concealed weapons with four hours of training.
A second bill that would allow concealed carry in a vehicle’s passenger compartment passed 10-0.
The proposals now move to the House floor, where they are expected to face stiff opposition.
Wisconsin
got a lesson in political chicanery when the two Democrats who control the State Senate broke their
own rules to block a Right to Carry bill.
Wisconsin Senate President FRED RISSER (D-26) and Senate Majority
Leader CHUCK CHVALA (D-16) declared motions by pro-gun senators for a full and fair vote to be out of order because they violated
“rule of Senate decorum.”
Parliamentarians noted that those rules only apply to wearing proper attire, not smoking or reading newspapers while in
the Senate chamber. None of those rules
were violated.
Senate President RISSER claimed that he “did not hear the objections” that were literally
shouted at him throughout the proceedings.
Majority Leader Chvala refused to answer
questions asked by other Senators.
The two Senate leaders stopped the vote. Wisconsin has no concealed carry law this year, but the session isn’t over yet.
The Ohio House passed a concealed carry bill that Gov. BOB TAFT has pledged to veto. The vote was 66-27
across party lines to allow qualified citizens to carry handguns.
”We are protecting the people of Ohio because each one of us is going to be more fully able to protect ourselves,” said state Rep. ANN WOMER BENJAMIN (R., Aurora).
The measure now goes to the Senate, which voted in favor of such
a bill seven years ago only to see it die in the House.
Republicans will have to decide whether they want to confront
Gov. TAFT on the issue during an election year. He has vowed to veto such a bill without the official support of
law-enforcement groups such as the Fraternal Order of Police and Ohio Highway Patrol. If the vote holds firm, though,
it would be enough to override a Taft veto.
Under the bill, Ohioans who are at least 21 and have lived in the state at least 45 days may apply for permits
to carry concealed handguns. They would
undergo criminal, mental health, and domestic violence background checks and must complete four hours of sidearms
training.
State Rep. JOYCE BEATTY (D., Columbus) suggested many of those
supporting the bill are too isolated from the gun violence of urban areas. Most of the no votes were from urban
Democrats. It could also be that urban Democrats oppose gun rights in general.
California
police officers could carry their guns into “the happiest place on Earth” or anywhere else, whether on duty or
not, if Assembly Bill 1917 by Assemblywoman Barbara Matthews becomes law. It has passed out of the Assembly Public
Safety Committee for a vote by the full Assembly, then goes to the Senate.
Under the new law, Disneyland
and any other privately owned public place could
not forbid off-duty or retired peace officers from bringing firearms onto their properties. Good idea, but why just cops? Why not every qualified person?
Matthews, D-Tracy, citing terrorist threats in the aftermath
of Sept. 11, said it’s time to change that.
“Peace officers are never really off-duty,” Matthews said. “There
are numerous times when you hear about off-duty officers who intervene in really heroic ways.”
She said having a few thousand trained people in public places
“would help us be prepared for any kind of terrorist or criminal activity. These are trained personnel.”
The measure, Assembly Bill 1917, has been approved by the Assembly
Public Safety Committee and is awaiting a vote of the entire lower house. It would then go to the Senate.
Gun Rights activists fired the first shot in Florida 15 years ago. They never let up. Now the movement,
to overturn laws against carrying concealed firearms, has
spread and taken hold.
Where at
least 40 states in the 1980s prohibited
concealed weapons, today only 6 states, Kansas, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio and Wisconsin, have outright bans on concealed weapons and 12 others have harsh restrictions on concealed carry permits.
On the plus side, 28 states this year
are considering concealed carry laws. We can see possible victories in Missouri, Minnesota, Ohio and perhaps Wisconsin.
On the minus side, anti-gun groups such as the Brady Campaign
to Prevent Gun Violence (formerly Handgun Control, Inc.) are chipping away at bills before legislatures. So far
they’ve helped defeat a concealed carry bill in the Colorado Senate and turned back a Utah bill to ease training
requirements.
The Colorado situation hinges on politics. Senate
President STAN MATSUNAKA (D-Loveland) is running for Congress in Colorado’s pro-gun 4th District, and is trying to push a “compromise” concealed carry bill
through the Senate to gain votes in November, angering anti-gun Democrats.
Colorado Senate Majority Leader BILL THIEBAUT said he didn’t
think MATSUNAKA would get enough support from either side. “Philosophically, it’s too restrictive for the Republicans
and too liberal for some Democrats,” THIEBAUT said.
The bill began as a plain “shall-issue” measure introduced by Republican Sen. KEN CHLOUBER that would require
concealed-carry permits to be issued to anyone over 21 who passed a background check, completed a gun safety course,
and paid a fee of about $100.
CHLOUBER has long championed such a bill to end the crazy-quilt of local ordinances that now passes for
policy. It passed in April 1999 only to be withdrawn because of the Columbine tragedy. The Senate Judiciary Committee killed CHLOUBER’s new bill this February, voting along party lines with Democrats in control of the Senate. A similar
bill is still alive in the House.
Then came MATSUNAKA with a compromise bill. He and House Speaker
DOUG DEAN seem close to agreement that law enforcement will be able to deny permits if there’s documentable proof of an applicant’s instability under
a so-called “naked-man” provision. That would apply to people who have done weird things but avoided being charged
with crimes. DEAN says he’ll support that if denials can be appealed.
A newspaper poll in Denver found that 63% say they back the plain statewide permit plan. MATSUNAKA knows that, and he wants to be Congressman MATSUNAKA
after the next election. We’ll see if he can get something useful on the Governor’s desk before then.
Michigan’s new concealed carry law is generating applicants (40,000 since the law changed in July, 2001),
money ($1.5 million for state and county governments), and headlines (“Gun permits surge, but not violence”).
The biggest problem Michigan is having with the new law is backlog.
In Wayne County, with the biggest backlog in the state, has 3,000 waiting for permits.
Wayne County Sheriff ROBERT FIANCO blames the problem on staffing
in his department. Michigan requires county sheriff’s departments to process the applications by taking fingerprints
and conducting criminal background checks.
In Missouri, the House Committee on Sportsmanship, Safety and Firearms has
voted 9-1 in favor of a bill that would allow permit-holders to carry concealed weapons with four hours of training.
A second bill that would allow concealed carry in a vehicle’s passenger compartment passed 10-0.
The proposals now move to the House floor, where they are expected to face stiff opposition.
Wisconsin got a lesson in political
chicanery when the two Democrats who
control the State Senate broke their own rules to block a Right to Carry bill.
Wisconsin Senate President FRED RISSER (D-26) and Senate Majority
Leader CHUCK CHVALA (D-16) declared motions by pro-gun senators for a full and fair vote to be out of order because they violated
“rule of Senate decorum.”
Parliamentarians noted that those rules only apply to wearing proper attire, not smoking or reading newspapers while in
the Senate chamber. None of those rules
were violated.
Senate President RISSER claimed that he “did not hear the objections” that were literally
shouted at him throughout the proceedings.
Majority Leader Chvala refused to answer
questions asked by other Senators.
The two Senate leaders stopped the vote. Wisconsin has no concealed
carry law this year, but the session isn’t over yet.
The Ohio House passed a concealed carry bill that Gov. BOB TAFT has pledged to veto. The vote was 66-27
across party lines to allow qualified citizens to carry handguns.
”We are protecting the people of Ohio because each one of us
is going to be more fully able to protect ourselves,” said
state Rep. ANN WOMER BENJAMIN (R., Aurora).
The measure now goes to the Senate, which voted in favor of such
a bill seven years ago only to see it die in the House.
Republicans will have to decide whether they want to confront
Gov. TAFT on the issue during an election year. He has vowed to veto such a bill without the official support of
law-enforcement groups such as the Fraternal Order of Police and Ohio Highway Patrol. If the vote holds firm, though,
it would be enough to override a Taft veto.
Under the bill, Ohioans who are at least 21 and have lived in the state at least 45 days may apply for permits
to carry concealed handguns. They would
undergo criminal, mental health, and domestic violence background checks and must complete four hours of sidearms
training.
State Rep. JOYCE BEATTY (D., Columbus) suggested many of those
supporting the bill are too isolated from the gun violence of urban areas. Most of the no votes were from urban
Democrats. It could also be that urban Democrats oppose gun rights in general.
California police officers could carry their guns into “the happiest place on Earth” or anywhere else,
whether on duty or not, if Assembly Bill 1917 by Assemblywoman Barbara Matthews becomes law. It has passed out
of the Assembly Public Safety Committee for a vote by the full Assembly, then goes to the Senate.
Under the new law, Disneyland and any other privately owned public
place could not forbid off-duty or retired
peace officers from bringing firearms onto their properties. Good idea, but why just cops? Why not every qualified person?
Matthews, D-Tracy, citing terrorist threats in the aftermath
of Sept. 11, said it’s time to change that.
“Peace officers are never really off-duty,” Matthews said. “There
are numerous times when you hear about off-duty officers who intervene in really heroic ways.”
She said having a few thousand trained people in public places
“would help us be prepared for any kind of terrorist or criminal activity. These are trained personnel.”
The measure, Assembly Bill 1917, has been approved by the Assembly
Public Safety Committee and is awaiting a vote of the entire lower house. It would then go to the Senate.
ISRAEL ARMS CITIZENS
In a move to fight the growing wave of terrorism, Israel’s Interior
Ministry has decided that 60,000 additional
gun permits will be distributed to Israeli civilians.
Police Inspector-General SHLOMO AHARONISHKY recommended to the
Interior Ministry committee responsible for firearms registration that the criterion for people allowed to carry weapons be widened due to the security situation.
While acknowledging there is a risk that extra guns on the street
could result in Israelis becoming light on the trigger, AHARONISHKY said it has been proven civilians carrying
guns saved lives during terror attacks.
Indeed, armed civilians have played a very significant role in bringing down terrorists during the Palestinian uprising. In a recent action, a 46-year-old
civilian packing a pistol fatally shot a Palestinian gunman at a Tel Aviv restaurant where a wedding party was
under way.
The handgun permits will be issued by the army to
40,000 reserve officers of the rank of captain and above. Permits will also go to former combatants from commando
units, and retired police and Prison Authority officers.
Police are conditioning the granting of permits to businesses
on their stationing armed guards at their
entrances.
New regulations will make it mandatory for any store larger than 500 square meters -- including hotels, swimming pools, amusement parks, movie
houses, gas stations, and outdoor fairs -- to
employ an armed guard.
All this has led to heavy demand for handguns and weapons shortages.
An arms embargo by most European countries has worsened the shortages. Bureaucratic foot-dragging in granting permits
has only compounded the problem.
It took hours of pressure and scuffling between gun traders for
ELI RAVIV, who is responsible for arms at the S. Nir security guard company, to purchase only 16 of the 40 guns
he had originally requested.
RONI COHEN, manager of the Neshek Ha’tsafon arms store in Upper
Nazareth, said that many companies want to purchase weapons but the stores cannot supply them. “There are companies
that are asking to 30 or 40 guns. I am having a hard time meeting the demand.”
BRITS BUY GUNS DESPITE U.K. GUN BANS
Thousands of normally anti-gun Britons are worried and sharing their beds with a gun. Nearly half of them are prepared to kill with it, said a recent survey.
A huge crime wave in the United Kingdom is behind the change. Street crime was up 40 percent in January alone.
The Home Office said there were only 125,000 licensed firearms altogether in England and Wales.
The telephone survey of 1,000 respondents, taken by security
firm Micromark, indicates the government
doesn’t know where all the guns really are.
CHINA DOESN’T LIKE OUR RIGHTS RECORD
Communist China’s government report, “Human Rights Record of
the United States,” has just come out. “The
United States is the country with the biggest number of private guns,” moans China.
The U.S., columnist DAVE KOPEL retorted, is also “the country
with the biggest number of private books, private churches, private newspapers, private computers, private single-family
homes, and other tools and incidents of freedom.”
PAKISTANI TRIBES AND THE GUN TRADE ARE INSEPARABLE
Some 10,000 residents of Pakistan’s northwestern tribal area
out of a population of 80,000 earn their livelihood from the weapons trade, which provides a salary three to four
times the national average of $140 a month.
The main street of tribal town Darra Adam Khel is lined with
dozens of weapons stores stacked floor to ceiling with replicas of Russian, Chinese and American arms. Many of
these guns go to Afghanistan and terrorist networks. Short of breaking down the entire tribal system, this traffic is not likely to stop.
BOSTON DROPS LAWSUIT AGAINST GUN
INDUSTRY, MAKES LAME EXCUSE
The city of Boston cited financial concerns in dropping its lawsuit against the gun industry. The case was set to go to trial in September.
Do we believe the reason they gave? Not a bit.
Boston sued gun manufacturers, distributors and trade groups
in June 1999, alleging they were responsible
for criminal use of guns. The suit sought
to recover the costs of gun-related crimes. It was expected to be the first of 16 similar suits involving 25 other cities to go to trial.
Boston’s top health official, JOHN AUERBACH, said the city was
spending $30,000 a month on the first phase of the lawsuit. He couldn’t cite a total amount spent.
Mayor THOMAS M. MENINO said that going to trial was too expensive.
He added something about the gun industry improving its attention to safety.
The truth is more likely that Boston could not prove its case and was about to have it thrown out of court by the judge. Courts have dismissed similar suits brought by New Orleans, Miami, Bridgeport, Connecticut,
and Camden, New Jersey.
Five other suits have been dismissed but are being appealed.
Gun rights defenders applauded Boston’s decision to drop the
case.
JERSEY CITY SUES GUN COMPANIES
Smith & Wesson Corp., Beretta USA Corp., Glock Corp. and
Colt Manufacturing were named along with other gun makers in a lawsuit filed by Jersey City in Hudson County Superior
Court.
The suit seeks money damages for costs associated with police
and emergency services, as well as health-care for shooting victims.
Predictably, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, the renamed
Handgun Control Inc., will provide legal representation to the city.
Jersey city became the 34th municipality to file such an anti-gun
lawsuit.
FLORIDA TRIGGER LOCK LAW RULED
“NULL AND VOID”
The Florida Court of Appeal for the 3rd District has found the
City of South Miami’s trigger-lock ordinance “null and void” under state preemption law.
The ordinance, proposed by Miami-Dade’s anti-gun Mayor ALEX PINELAS
and backed by an opinion issued by Florida’s Attorney General BOB BUTTERWORTH, required that every firearm, without
exception, be stored with a trigger lock. No exception existed for firearms stored in a safe, antiques, or firearms
kept accessible for self defense.
The suit was brought by Unified Sportsmen of Florida and others.
The trial court had dismissed the suit as “unripe” because no
person had been prosecuted yet, but the Court of Appeal reversed that decision, not only deciding that the case
was ripe for decision, but also ruling on the merits that the ordinance is invalid.
The case was remanded to the trial court where a decision against
the City must be entered by the trial judge.
The appeal court decision also means the likely end of the trigger-lock
ordinance in Palm Beach County. Palm Beach County Attorney DENISE DYTRYCH said she was studying the Miami appeal
court ruling.
MARYLAND ANTI-GUN LAWSUIT THROWN
OUT
The Maryland Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, has
ruled that gun manufacturer Sturm, Ruger
& Company could not be held accountable for the 1999 death of three-year-old JORDAN GARRIS. GARRIS died when he accidentally shot himself after he discovered
his father’s firearm stored under a mattress.
The court held, in a 6-1 ruling, that what led to the tragic
death of the boy was “the carelessness of JORDAN’s father.”
Judge ALAN WILNER, who wrote the majority opinion, found the
father acted “in contravention not only of common sense but of multiple warnings given to him at the time of purchase
[of the firearm].”
LAWRENCE G. KEANE, vice president and general counsel for the
National Shooting Sports Foundation, Inc. (NSSF), stated, “As Maryland’s high court found, this tragic accident
was caused by the failure of a firearm’s owner to act in a safe and responsible manner by following the most basic
firearms safety messages and warnings provided to him by the manufacturer and the retailer than sold him the firearm.”
FEDERAL COURT CLEARS GUN MAKERS OF SHOOTING RAMPAGE
A Los Angeles federal judge recently ruled that gun manufacturers were not responsible for the actions of a white supremacist who killed a Filipino
American postal worker after wounding five people at a Jewish community center in 1999.
U.S. District Judge AUDREY B. COLLINS dismissed a damage suit
brought by the mother of slain letter
carrier JOSEPH S. ILETO and the parents of three children wounded when BUFORD O. FURROW Jr. sprayed the center
with bullets on August 10, 1999.
The firearms included an Austrian-made Glock 9-millimeter handgun;
a 9-millimeter rifle with an illegally shortened barrel made by Norinco, an arm of the Chinese military; a .223-caliber
rifle from Bushmaster of Maine; two .308-caliber rifles made by Imbel of Brazil; an Egyptian Maadi rifle and a
.22-caliber handgun manufactured by Davis Industries, a California corporation.
COLLINS said in her opinion that plaintiffs had failed to show a link between the manufacturers’ marketing policies and FURROW’s
crime. She also wrote that state product
liability law has “an intent to hold shooters, not manufacturers, responsible for gun violence.” She dismissed
the public nuisance claim, ruling that nuisance
law does not apply to the lawful manufacture and sale of non-defective products.
NEW YORK GUN OWNERS SUE TO LOWER FEES
Seven Nassau County residents are suing to overturn the county’s
eightfold increase in the permit fee for licensed handguns to $200 a year from $25. The suit said fees ought to
reflect actual cost, which police have estimated at $75. The suit claims the fees were raised to help close the county’s budget deficit.
NEW JERSEY TOWN SUED OVER ARREST OF SCHOOLBOYS PLAYING WITH PAPER
GUN
Irvington and its school board violated the constitutional rights
of a schoolboy by arresting him for playing with a paper gun at the Augusta Street School, according to a lawsuit
filed by his father.
HAMADI ALSTON pointed a folded piece of paper shaped to look
like a gun at his classmates and said, “I’m going to kill you all,” police claimed after the incident on March
15, 2001. Also suing is the father of JAQUILL SHELTON, who did the same thing earlier that day.
Police charged the two boys with making terroristic threats,
but the case was dismissed by state Superior Court Judge PETER V. RYAN.
OHIO CONCEALED WEAPON CASE ARGUED
The 1st Ohio District Court of Appeals will soon rule whether
people are allowed to carry concealed firearms in Hamilton County, where a lawsuit challenging Ohio’s ban on concealed
weapons was filed. The ruling will affect all of Ohio.
The five people challenging the state ban were assisted and funded
by the Second Amendment Foundation, and
said their jobs take them into areas where they need concealed guns for self-defense.
An attorney for the plaintiffs asked the appeals court to uphold Common Pleas Judge ROBERT RUEHLMAN’s January 10 ruling
that the ban on carrying concealed weapons violates the Ohio Constitution’s guarantee that people may bear arms
for self-defense. Government lawyers
argued there is no such right.
NEW ALBUQUERQUE MAYOR BACKS STATE’S CONCEALED CARRY LAW
Reversing his anti-gun predecessor, JIM BACA, Albuquerque’s current
Mayor MARTIN CHAVEZ is asking the New Mexico Supreme Court to throw out a petition filed by BACA challenging the state’s new concealed carry law.
BACA is using his own money to continue the petition as a private
citizen.
GUN NEWS TICKER: SHORT TAKES ON GUNS
l New York:
Rosie O’Donnell, rabid anti-gun Democrat
and talk show celebrity, has tempered her tart tongue. She told the Associated Press that September 11 had changed
her. It made her realize she had gone too far in making anti-gun statements after the 1999 Columbine High School
shooting. How long will this last?
l Delaware:
Sarah Brady, chair of the gun-ban lobby
that bears her name, may have broken gun laws herself. In her new book “A Good Fight,” she reveals that in 2000,
she bought a hunting rifle at a Delaware gun shop for her son, who was 18 at the time. The store ran a background
check on her, but the clerk did not run a background check on her son, a requirement under Delaware state law.
Delaware Justice Department spokeswoman Lori Sitler said that if Brady did not disclose the rifle was a gift for
someone else, providing information for a background check on the recipient, then the purchase may have violated
Delaware state law. Sitler said, “You can’t purchase a gun for someone else. That would be a straw purchase. You’ve
got a problem right there.” Federal law doesn’t require such a background check on gift recipients. Did Sarah know
that Delaware law does? And what is the nation’s biggest anti-gun crusader doing with gun gifts in the first place?
l California:
For the first time in a decade, crime
is up in California’s most populated cities and counties. Attorney General Bill Lockyear’s office recently announced
the rise in its annual report on crime. Statewide, violent crime is up 1.7% and property crimes were up 8.2%. Homicides
rose 9.2%. Gun control works...to increase the crime rate. Maybe California should get rid of its new anti-gun
laws.
l New York
City: The American Society of Criminology
has reported that the government Federal Firearms License (FFL) reforms enacted in 1994 to reduce crime actually
had almost nothing to do with the drop in the national crime rate through the 1990s. Researcher Christopher Koper
of the University of Pennsylvania’s Jerry Lee Center for Criminology found that the reforms did not necessarily
oust dealers who supplied guns to criminals. The gun dealers forced out of the business were mostly small volume
sellers, but dealers who remained in the business were high volume sellers who sold two-thirds of guns recovered
by police as a part of criminal investigations. Koper’s report appeared in Criminology & Public Policy, a new
journal dedicated to policy discussions of criminology research findings.
l Hartford,
Connecticut: While Democrats try to put
gun makers out of business with harsh regulations, Connecticut Democrats Sen. Christopher Dodd and Rep. John B.
Larson want to designate Samuel Colt’s old Hartford armory a national park. The National Park Service told them
it’s not likely to happen, with their $5 billion maintenance backlog rendering them unable to keep what they have,
much less adding more to the vast federal domain. Congress would have to approve the designation and provide the
money. What’s the message here, the only good gun maker is a dead gun maker?
l Atlanta: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention got scolded by
a House Appropriations Committee panel for violating congressional language that bars the agency from taking sides
in the gun-control debate. The CDC issued a report on gun licensing while California’s legislature considered a
bill on the subject. Rep. Roger Wicker (R-MS) asked how the CDC intended to follow the law. The answer was the
usual weasel-word response, “We only publish the scientific data and let people draw their own conclusions.” Sure.
At just the right time.
l Colorado: State Senator Jim Dyer (R-Littleton) couldn’t buy a gun at the
Tanner Gun Show because he failed the background check. He had an outstanding warrant for driving without insurance
since he couldn’t find his insurance card. He later showed it to police and the case was closed. Only it wasn’t.
The police computer still showed it open -- in front of laughing gun show patrons. Who else hasn’t been able to
buy guns because of a bureaucratic mess-up?
l Westchester,
New York: Residents taking a required
gun-safety course before obtaining a pistol permit want to be allowed to train with real guns under proposed changes
to state law. Now hands-on practice isn’t possible even under strict supervision. County Clerk Leonard Spano said
requiring a permit seeker to handle real guns as part of their training is common sense. Common sense seems to
be a scarce commodity in New York law.
l Chicago:
The Joyce Foundation has awarded the
second installment of a two-year, $600,000 grant to support an anti-gun program. The award, given to the Johns
Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, will give continuing support to the Bloomberg School of Heath’s Center
for Gun Policy and Research. The Joyce Foundation is one of the most anti-gun foundations in America.
l Barstow,
California: Lewis Elementary School officials
have banned students from playing “cops and robbers” on school grounds using their fingers as guns and going “bang
bang.” School officials said the temporary ban was to study the game to see if it was dangerous. Silver Valley
School District Superintendent Gary Thomas said officials just want to establish guidelines for the game. Dan Pacheco
has removed his 9-year-old son, Justin, from the school after Principal Brian Soukup said he might expel the third-grader
if the boy did not stop playing the game. Obviously, these officials didn’t play cops and robbers enough when they
were kids to be able to tell right from wrong.
l Michigan:
After a two-year fight, Governor John
Engler (R) signed HB 5026, which eases restrictions on the transportation of handguns. This bill changes the law
from a “point-to-point” requirement to allowing transportation when the handgun owner is engaged in a lawful purpose.
No longer will lawful transport hinge on going “to and from” a hunting area or a shooting club of which the handgun
owner is an active member.
l South
Hadley, Massachusetts: Women at Mount
Holyoke College have formed the first collegiate chapter of Second Amendment Sisters, a national women’s pro-gun
group. About 50 women at Mount Holyoke have signed up to join the group. A New York Times columnist whined, “It
is bizarre to sit on the campus of a liberal all-women’s college in Massachusetts talking with students about their
yearning for, say, a Smith & Wesson 9-millimeter semiautomatic -- but maybe that’s just because I’m not used
to feminists with guns.” Get used to it, buster. Chicks With Guns.
l California: Former San Diego undersheriff Jay La Suer, now an Assemblyman
in the state legislature, has introduced legislation that would classify homemade potato guns as destructive devices,
the same category reserved for bombs and grenades. Possession would be a felony punishable by up to 15 years in
prison. La Suer says law enforcement officials approached him to introduce the bill, AB 2513, because it was impossible
to get prosecutors to lodge charges they couldn’t make stick.
l Boston: The recent annual meeting of the Society for Adolescent Medicine heard a presentation showing that shootings among teens and young adults declined during the
1990s. In 1990, there were 25.8 firearms-related deaths per 100,000 people aged 15 to 24 in the United States.
This number declined to 19.9 per 100,000 by 1998. While the decline was seen in all ethnic groups, it was most
dramatic among African-American and African-Caribbean males, falling from 138 per 100,000 population to 101.8 per
100,000 over the same time period.
l Utah: House members recently voted to expand the ability of property
owners to use deadly force against intruders threatening violence in a business, automobile or other nonresidential
location. The measure passed by a vote of 69-1. A Senate bill is pending with the same provisions.
l Virginia: The House of Delegates has overwhelmingly passed a bill that
would invalidate Alexandria’s ban on firearms in city buildings and prevent other localities from adopting similar
policies. The bill is a broad preemption measure to bar local governments from adopting laws or rules regulating
gun use that have not been expressly authorized by state law.
SELF-DEFENSE KEEPS YOU ALIVE
That simple headline should be self-evident, but we have to keep
reminding the anti-gun mob that fighting crime often means shooting back.
Take the 71-year-old Washington State woman who shot a 32-year-old
man to death after he entered her home uninvited and assaulted her. Bethan Scutchfield, an invalid with an around-the-clock
caregiver, found herself confronted by Brian F. Swiger, who knew Scutchfield’s granddaughter.
The granddaughter had a domestic violence protection order against
the man, but he was intoxicated and entered anyway. He struck the old lady in the face, pushed her to the floor
and threatened to break her neck.
The lady got a handgun and when Swiger approached her again,
she fired a single shot into his chest. He won’t hurt anybody again.
Then there was Gabe Shockey, a 20-year-old man working at an
Orlando, Florida-area Blockbuster Video store. A robber had attacked in January. Gabe was not hurt, but didn’t
quit his job.
His father Robert was worried and began showing up at quitting
time every night -- with his .45-caliber pistol.
Then in early March when the father was talking to a new employee
at the counter, two armed men burst into the store shouting violent, obscenity-laced threats. One, James Franklin
Wince, brandished a rifle and the other, Darius Bennett, made it clear they would kill the two men. Gabe Shockey
was in the rear of the store, but saw it on a security monitor and called 911.
Wince first pointed the rifle at Robert Shockey and then the
new employee. While the rifle was pointed at the young man, Shockey reached for the pistol tucked in his belt against
the small of his back. He drew the firearm and shot Wince once in the throat and once in the chest. Bennett reached
for the rifle and Shockey shot him in the chest.
Wince, who was an employee of the store he tried to rob, died
at the scene. Bennett will recover, and has been charged with felony murder under a Florida law that allows someone
involved in a felony to be charged even if he didn’t do the killing.
Then there was the Houston businessman who shot and killed a
burglar who broke into his business with a handgun. And the Ohio woman who shot a man she said molested her son,
and hit him in the groin, “where it counts,” said the woman. A grand jury declined to indict her on an assault
charge.
Self-defense keeps you alive.
