SCOTUS Decision Can Impact Gun Ownership

From Jim Shepard…

The Supreme Court of the United States has affirmed the 20-year old law barring anyone convicted of domestic violence from possessing a firearm.

Regardless of your position, the 6-2 ruling, written by Justice Elena Kagan, rejected the challenge of the existing law by two men who were found guilty of felony gun possession because of previous misdemeanor domestic violence charges. The court said that the conviction, whether the misdemeanor be the result of recklessness or intent, was sufficient for the prohibition.

In her majority opinion, Justice Kagan wrote that the federal statute was designed to close what she called a “dangerous loophole” in gun laws as many domestic violence cases were handled as misdemeanors. She said the actual intent of the law was to prevent all domestic abusers, even those under “run of the mill misdemeanor assault-and-battery laws,” from possessing guns.

No one’s arguing the need to more comprehensively address the problem of domestic violence, but under the Kagan interpretation- which some SCOTUS observers say is “unusually broad” – any qualifying misdemeanor charge, no matter how minor, is seen as grounds for denial of the Second Amendment right to possess a firearm. Read more

GOP lawmaker proposes holding gun-free zone businesses liable for gun violence

A Republican lawmaker plans to introduce legislation that would discourage private businesses from banning firearms on their property.

The proposal from Rep. Bob Gannon, R-Slinger, is the first measure put forth by state Republicans in the wake of a shooting at an Orlando, Florida, gay nightclub that killed 49 and wounded more than 50, the worst gun massacre in modern American history.

Wisconsin’s 2011 concealed carry law creates immunity from civil liability for gun-related deaths for businesses that allow guns on their property.  More here…

CCRKBA: Dems No Longer Represent Ideals of A Free Society

BELLEVUE, WA – While Capitol Hill Democrats staged a symbolic “sit-in” today in the House chambers to demand action on new gun restrictions, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said these lawmakers clearly define by their actions how far the party has strayed from the ideals of liberty their predecessors stood for.

“Democrats in the 1960s used sit-ins to expand Constitutional rights,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb recalled. “But today, they are using a sit-in to restrict those same civil rights.”

While Democrats professed to be interested in curbing gun-related violence, he said, their true motives are aimed more at eroding not only firearms rights, but the right of due process. Clearly, Gottlieb asserted, the sit-in is a carefully-choreographed attempt to fool the public into believing that it is right to pass legislation to strip someone of their rights without any criminal charge, much less a conviction, by placing them on a secret “watch list” without benefit of due process. Read more

Flying guns? Michigan lawmakers seek to ban weaponized drones

Legislation would make it a crime in Michigan to weaponize an unmanned aerial vehicle.

Democratic state Rep. Jon Hoadley of Kalamazoo says: “We don’t need flying guns in Michigan.” He says the legislation introduced earlier this month would make it illegal for weapons, even those legally attainable in Michigan, to be attached to a drone.

“This is one of those where no matter where you fall on the Second Amendment conversation, most people agree this far exceeds that and there is too much danger associated with it,” Hoadley told FOX 17.

“The responsible gun owner can’t even imagine pulling the trigger without seeing the sightline, but that’s exactly what could be happening with these drones.”

More here…

SCOTUS Passes On Sandy Hook Suit, Congress Passes on Gun Measures

Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court declined to take up a constitution challenge to the Connecticut law banning certain semi-automatic weapons and magazines passed in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Plaintiffs in Shew v. Malloy had hoped the court would rule in the case, clarifying Second Amendment questions remaining following the high court’s 2008 Heller decision.

Meanwhile, on capitol hill, the Senate took up dueling measures introduced following the worst mass-shooting in U.S. history. Four measures – two from both parties – were introduced, none of which reached the 60-vote threshold required for passage.

A fifth measure is still being crafted by moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins. Her bill would bar people on the government’s no-fly list from gun purchases, a significantly smaller number of people than the government’s terror watch list. Collins’ measure also sets protections in place for anyone wrongly placed on the no-fly list. Regardless of actions in the Senate, House Speaker Paul Ryan has made it know that there’s little chance any of the Senate measures will get a vote there.

SAF To Jeh Johnson: “Gun Ownership Is Part Of Homeland Security”

GW: You’ll never hear this from anyone in the Obama administration and it’s at the core of the Second Amendment.

BELLEVUE, WA – Contrary to what Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Tuesday that gun control is a “critical element” of protecting the nation against terrorists, the Second Amendment Foundation today said the right to keep and bear arms is this country’s original homeland security, and he needs to remember that.

“The threat we face today from terrorism is exactly why the Founding Fathers wrote the Second Amendment,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “Every American has the right to self-defense, and for Johnson to contend that infringing on that right is the way to keep the country safe is simply preposterous.”

Johnson was on CBS television, at which time he stated, “We have to face the fact that meaningful gun control has to be a part of homeland security.” Read more

Daniel Defense Terminates Relationship with Academy Sports


Black Creek, GA – Daniel Defense—engineer and manufacture of the world’s finest firearms, precision rail systems, and accessories— Has announced it will no longer sell firearms to Academy Sports due to their decision to remove MSR’s from their website and in-store displays.

Letter to all Daniel Defense Distributors:

“As you know we take our partnership with our stocking retailers very seriously. We are committed to serving and supplying them at the highest level and expect our retailers to have that same level of commitment to our brand and our industry. Unfortunately, Academy Sports has made a corporate decision, in the wake of the recent terrorist attack, to remove all MSRs from their website and in-store displays. Academy Sports has communicated that they intend to continue to sell the MSR category of firearms without displaying or advertising them publicly. As a prominent MSR brand, Daniel Defense cannot support decisions that are completely contrary to the values of our company and industry. Therefore, as of today, June 16th, I request that you place Academy Sports on a Do Not Sell list for all Daniel Defense products and terminate any shipments to their stores or distribution centers. It is unfortunate that we have to make this decision, but it is clearly the right thing to do for our brand, our industry and our constitutional right. Thank you for your support.”

Bill Robinson, VP of Sales Read more

CCRKBA Opposed To Current Proposal About Guns And The No-Fly List


BELLEVUE, WA – Pending legislation that would prohibit people whose names are placed on a “no-fly” list from purchasing firearms would result in a “civil rights nightmare,” the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.CBS News reported this morning that Capitol Hill Democrats are calling for a vote on the legislation.

“Without proper protections for people to find out if they are put on the no fly list and a quick way to get off of it if wrongly put on it, we cannot support it,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb.

Read more

SAF: Americans Should Be Appalled at Effort to Exploit Orlando

BELLEVUE, WA – Attempts by both President Barack Obama and Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton to exploit the terror attack in Orlando and further their gun control agenda are outrageous, the Second Amendment Foundation said today.

“Americans should be appalled that both President Obama and Clinton chose to attack the Second Amendment rights of legitimate gun owners instead of radical Islamist terrorists,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “Their priorities are upside down.”

During his Sunday response to the Orlando atrocity, the president found time to insert a remark about gun control, insisting, “This massacre is therefore a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school, or a house of worship, or a movie theater, or a nightclub. And we have to decide if that’s the kind of country that we want to be.”

“We want a country where the Second Amendment is treated as the fundamental, individual civil right it protects,” Gottlieb said in response. “Americans want a country where they’re not demonized and treated like criminals just because they want to exercise that right.” Read more

SAF Wants DOJ Probe Of Alleged Gun Purchases By Couric Crew

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation is today calling for a Justice Department investigation of possible illegal firearms transactions apparently involving an unidentified producer of Katie Couric’s “Under the Gun” film that were revealed four months ago by director Stephanie Soechtig during an interview on the BYOD program on TheLipTV.

In this interview, Soechtig tells BYOD host Ondi Timoner, “We sent a producer out and he was from Colorado. He went to Arizona, and he was able to buy a Bushmaster and then three other pistols without a background check in a matter of four hours. And that’s perfectly legal. He wasn’t doing some sort of underground market.”

But founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb pointed out that transactions described by Soechtig really aren’t legal at all. He added that no amount of “walking back” the allegation Soechtig made on camera is going to square her or Couric, or the unidentified producer, with existing federal law.

“There can only be two explanations for this,” Gottlieb explained. “Either federal gun laws were violated, or Soechtig made the whole thing up. If the latter is true, then her credibility just went out the window, taking Couric’s along with it. If the former is true, and the unidentified producer actually did buy the guns, and if he was sent to do that – as Soechtig’s remarks imply – then that’s possible evidence of a criminal conspiracy, or at the very least being an accessory. Read more

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