Oral Arguments Presented in Illinois Right-to-Carry Case

In perhaps the clearest case in the country addressing the right to bear arms outside the home for self-defense, oral arguments took place June 8 in Chicago, before the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Shepard v. Madigan involves lead plaintiff Mary Shepard, an Illinois resident and trained gun owner with no criminal record, who is licensed to carry a concealed handgun in both Utah and Florida.  Unfortunately, she has no legal way to do so in Illinois as soon as she steps away from her home or place of business.  The National Rifle Association is funding this case, and our state affiliate, the Illinois State Rifle Association, is a co-plaintiff on behalf of its members who share Mrs. Shepard’s plight. Read more

CCRKBA Calls Pennsylvania State Police Decision “Inexcusable”

BELLEVUE, WA – A complete shutdown of the Pennsylvania Instant Check System by the state police for a period of 60 hours later this month for a system upgrade is “inexcusable,” the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today. Read more

D.C. Changes Stance on Handguns

After years of end-runs around the historic decision of Washington D.C. v Heller, some needed changes are coming to its handgun laws.  A five-hour training mandate, ballistics testing, vision testing and the requirement that application documents be notarized are no longer required. The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) will take photographs of applicants. Registered gun owners will no longer be subject to arrest, if they possess the wrong type of ordinary ammunition.  All this from a unanimous decison of the D.C. Council and more here…

When Guns Are Needed Most

By Glen Wunderlich

Doomsday Preppers, which airs on the National Geographic channel, explores the lives of otherwise ordinary Americans who are preparing for the end of the world as we know it. Unique in their beliefs, motivations, and strategies, preppers will go to whatever lengths they can to make sure they are prepared for any of life’s uncertainties.

Preppers may have an underground hideout, stockpiles of food, water, fuel – and, yes, guns and ammo.  Lots of both.  Whack jobs?  Could be.  But, in a crisis of civil unrest, they aim to survive on their own for months at a time.  However, when it comes to firearms and calamities, some governmental entities invoke “emergency powers”, as a means to restrict gun rights just when they are needed most.

A federal district court judge in North Carolina has just struck down that state’s emergency power to impose a ban on firearms and ammunition Read more

Court Strikes Down North Carolina Emergency Powers Gun Ban

BELLEVUE, WA – A federal district court judge in North Carolina has just struck down that state’s emergency power to impose a ban on firearms and ammunition outside the home during a declared emergency, ruling that the provision violates the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Read more

New Gun Laws not Needed

BELLEVUE, WA – Criminal charges filed today in the death of a Tacoma, WA toddler prove that the state does not need a new gun law to hold adults responsible for firearms negligence, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.
Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist today charged Eric Vita, 23, and the boy’s mother, Jahnisha McIntosh, 22, with second-degree manslaughter in the March 14 death of Julio Segura-McIntosh. Vita had placed his 9mm pistol under the seat of his car when he stepped out to pump gas shortly after midnight. The youngster got hold of the pistol and shot himself in the head.

Read more

Courts Split on Right to Carry Firearms Outside the Home

This from the NRA:

Unquestionably the hottest issue in Second Amendment litigation today is whether the Second Amendment protects a right to carry firearms outside the home for personal protection—and if so, what might be the limits on that right. Until recently, far too many courts have wrongly claimed that because the Supreme Court’s decisions in District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. City of Chicago only struck down bans on handgun possession in the home, that’s all there is to the Second Amendment.

Now, there are signs that this resistance is weakening. Read more

CCRKBA Says San Francisco Sheriff’s Plea Smacks of Hypocrisy

BELLEVUE, WA – The plea deal announced this morning that allows anti-gun San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi to keep his guns in what began as a domestic violence case “smacks of hypocrisy at the highest order,” the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today. Read more

Breyer’s Robbery Illustrates Why RKBA Important Everywhere

BELLEVUE, WA – The recent robbery of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer at a vacation home in the West Indies should hopefully cause the learned jurist to re-examine his core beliefs about the individual right to keep and bear arms at places other than their primary residence, the Second Amendment Foundation said today. Read more

CCRKBA Blasts “Blame Shifters” in Senate

 

BELLEVUE, WA – Today’s hearing on Operation Fast and Furious before the Senate Judiciary Committee once again provided an opportunity for two leading Senate gun prohibitionists to try spreading the blame for botched gun trafficking, and change the debate to arguments for more gun control, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said.

The committee questioned Attorney General Eric Holder for two hours on Fast and Furious, and other Justice Department issues. But it was about the seriously mishandled gun trafficking investigation where committee partisans tried their bait-and-switch routine, CCRKBA said.

“Senators Charles Schumer and Dianne Feinstein tried to link Read more