Category: Gun Control

9th Circuit Panel Rules Open Carry Falls Within Core of Second Amendment

A three judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court has ruled Hawaii’s limitation on the open carry of firearms to those ‘engaged in the protection of life and property’ violates the core of the Second Amendment and is void; the County may not constitutionally enforce such a limitation on applicants for open carry licenses.” Further, the opinion states, limitation on the open carry of firearms to those ‘engaged in the protection of life and property’ violates the core of the Second Amendment and is void; the County may not constitutionally enforce such a limitation on applicants for open carry licenses.”Second Amendment advocates say this decision will likely lead to an eventual hearing before the United States Supreme Court.

Gun Control, Self Defense

Gun Control Tanks as Midterm Election Issue

Gallup’s July survey found that the number of Americans who cited guns or gun control as the most important problem facing America had returned to levels similar to before the shooting in Parkland, Fla. This month, just two percent of Americans say guns and gun control are the most important problem. It was only a few short months ago that a record number of Americans cited guns as the most important problem (April, 13%).
Guns aren’t mentioned at all in the Gallup article on the July survey – not even in the section about “Americans’ Views of the Top Problem Facing the U.S.” Perhaps even more tellingly, it was not one of the top five most important problems cited by Democrats. You’ll only find the data on guns/gun control if you download the full trend file and turn to the last page.

After Parkland, we were told that “the gun control movement has reached a tipping point ” and that “this time it’s different.”

But the real difference might simply have been the intensity with which the agenda-driven media pursued the issue when they believed there was an opportunity to generate momentum behind it.

The fortunate truth is that Parkland-type incidents remain extremely rare. And as time passes, details emerge that refute the false idea that gun control could stop the few that actually do occur.  In the case of Parkland, these included details on the missteps of local law enforcement and the FBI and missed opportunities for early intervention and even for response at the scene.

However many Americans see guns and a perceived lack of gun control as a problem facing the country, few consider it the most important. Economic issues, immigration, government, healthcare, and the political environment all rate higher, as well they should.

The rarity of such events makes the ones that do occur seem that much more awful. It is understandable the nation becomes riveted for a time. But knee jerk reactions promote neither safety nor good policy. And to their credit, Americans increasingly understand this as cooler heads prevail.

Source: NRA-ILA
Gun Control

SAF, NRA Sue Seattle Over Storage Ordinance That Violates State Law

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation and National Rifle Association today filed a lawsuit against the City of Seattle and Mayor Jenny Durkan over adoption of a so-called “safe storage” requirement, alleging that it violates Washington State’s 35-year-old preemption statute, and is therefore unenforceable.

Also named as defendants are the Seattle Police Department and Chief Carmen Best.
State law prohibits cities, towns and counties or other municipalities from adopting gun regulations that exceed state authority. The state legislature has sole authority to adopt gun laws including, but not limited to, registration, licensing, possession, purchase, sale, acquisition, transfer, discharge and transportation of firearms.
“The City of Seattle has been trying to erode state preemption almost from the moment it was passed back in 1985,” recalled SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “When the city tried to ban guns from city parks facilities under former mayors Greg Nickels and Mike McGinn, SAF and NRA joined forces with other organizations to stop it, under the state preemption statute. We should not have to repeatedly remind Seattle that they are still part of Washington State and must obey the law.”
Joining SAF and NRA in the lawsuit are two Seattle residents, Omar Abdul Alim and Michael Thyng. They are both firearm owners.
Gun Control

Gun Owner Groups Win Lawsuit Against City of Columbus, Ohio

COLUMBUS, OH – A Columbus Common Pleas Court today granted a permanent injunction against the City of Columbus forbidding it from enforcing its ban against bump stocks.

Buckeye Firearms Foundation and Ohioans for Concealed Carry lodged the suits soon after the ordinance was passed by City Council.

In a strongly worded final judgement, Cain dismantled the argument put forth by Columbus that it had the right to pass the ordinance against so-called bump stocks or trigger enhancers despite the fact that Ohio state law expressly forbids cities from passing their own firearms laws.

Judge Cain wrote in the ruling, “Columbus’ logic doesn’t work. It is clear that a bumpstock is a component of a firearm. Since this is so, the Bump-Stock Ban forbids something that state law allows, i.e. ownership of firearm components. The BumpStock Ban is in conflict with R.C. 9.68.”

“This is exactly what we expected,” said Dean Rieck, Executive Director of Buckeye Firearms Association. “We told the city that it could not pass any gun laws. But they ignored us and did it anyway. This victory is not a surprise, but it should be a warning to other cities in Ohio. Buckeye Firearms Association will not tolerate infringements against the Second Amendment and will take action against any city that passes unconstitutional laws.” Read more

Gun Control

SAF Sues California DOJ Over Failure of Online Registration System

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation today filed suit against the California Department of Justice and Attorney General Xavier Becerra, seeking an injunction against the agency for failing and refusing to establish a properly functioning Internet-based firearms registration system.

Joining SAF in this legal action are the Calguns Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition, Firearms Policy Foundation and three private citizens. The lawsuit was filed in Shasta County Superior Court.

“We’re suing because California DOJ’s Firearms Application Reporting System (CFARS) broke down during the deadline week for people to register their firearms in accordance with new state laws,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “For a whole week the system was largely inaccessible. People who wanted to comply with the law simply couldn’t and now they face becoming criminals because they couldn’t do what the law requires.”

The lawsuit notes that during the week of June 25-30, which was the statutory registration deadline, the CFARS system was inaccessible and inoperable on a variety of web browsers across the state. Many users who were able to initially log in and begin the process could not finish because the system crashed, obliterating all of their work. The CFARS system was substantially underfunded and understaffed from its inception, Gottlieb noted.

“It’s like a bad version of ‘Catch-22’,” Gottlieb observed. “The government required registration by the deadline, but the online registration failed and people couldn’t register. They’re required to obey the law, but the system broke down, making it impossible to obey the law. Now these people face the possibility of being prosecuted. We simply cannot abide that kind of incompetence.” Read more

Gun Control

Lawsuits Filed Against Columbus and Cincinnati Over Bump Stocks

COLUMBUS, OH – Simultaneous lawsuits were filed on Thursday, June 21, 2018, against the cities of Columbus and Cincinnati over recently introduced ordinances banning the possession, use, or acquisition of so-called “rate-of-fire firearms enhancers,” commonly referred to as bump stocks or trigger cranks.

Buckeye Firearms Foundation and Ohioans for Concealed Carry are named as plaintiffs in the cases, citing that these unconstitutional ordinances clearly violate Ohio law.

“Ohio Revised Code 9.68 preempts the home rule powers of municipalities to regulate firearms, their components, and ammo,” said Dean Rieck, Executive Director of Buckeye Firearms Association.

“This is important because Ohio used to have a confusing patchwork of gun laws. Merely crossing a city border could turn an otherwise law-abiding citizen into a criminal. More than a decade ago, legislators wisely decided to correct this problem by creating a uniform system of state law and forbidding cities from passing any laws which conflict with those laws.”

Leaders with Ohioans for Concealed Carry (OFCC) agree and point out that there is a bigger issue at stake than “bump stocks.”

“This isn’t just about bump stock devices,” said Doug Deeken, a Director with OFCC, “This is about rule of law in Ohio.

“For more than a decade, Ohio cities have been prohibited from any attempt to pass conflicting gun laws. There have been previous lawsuits going all the way up to the Ohio Supreme Court to establish this fact. It’s settled law.”

Both Ohioans for Concealed Carry and Buckeye Firearms Foundation have won lawsuits against cities who have attempted to regulate firearms.

In 2010, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in a 5-2 opinion that Ohio’s “preemption” law is valid. In a case brought by the City of Cleveland against the State of Ohio, the court held that R.C. 9.68 is valid in all respects, including, but not limited to, the mandatory attorney fee provision against any city that attempts to violate a citizen’s right to self-defense. Read more

Firearms, Gun Control

CCRKBA: ‘N.J. GOV. MURPHY RIGHT, LET’S TALK ABOUT GUN POLICY…FAILURES’

BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms agrees with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy that the aftermath of Sunday’s shooting incident in Trenton is a great time to “talk about gun policy,” especially how it has disastrously failed to protect his state’s law abiding citizens.

“Yes, let’s talk about New Jersey’s abysmal gun policy,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “Let’s hear Murphy explain how keeping honest citizens disarmed while criminals like Tahaji Wells, who just got out of prison in February and should not have had a firearm at all under existing law, are released early where they can prey upon innocent, and defenseless, Garden State residents.

“Let’s hear from Murphy,” he continued, “about how citizen disarmament laws, that are anti-self-defense, aren’t strong enough. Maybe the governor can explain why local police agencies are allowed to sit on gun purchase applications while innocent people like Carol Bowne are murdered in the driveway of her Berlin Township home. Read more

Gun Control

New Jersey Elected Officials Blast Newest State Gun Control Measures

Statement from Senator Steve Oroho and Assemblymen Parker Space and Hal Wirths (R-Sussex, Warren, Morris) on the Democrats’ new gun control laws:

Unfortunately, there was a rush once again in Trenton to “do something” that will not stop violent criminals nor mentally unstable individuals from perpetrating harm, but will infringe upon the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners. Gun ownership is an individual right enshrined in the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution and reiterated in the Heller and McDonald United States Supreme Court decisions.  New Jersey already has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation and law-abiding gun owners have abided by them even when they have not necessarily agreed with the strict limitations.  The efforts of Governor Murphy and the Democrat majority in Trenton represent another attack on our freedoms.

We believe that several pieces of legislation which have been rushed through the Legislature overstep our constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms.  We are certain that most of them will be taken to federal court to determine their constitutionality.

Read more

Gun Control

Court Grants 2A Foundation Injunction In Challenge of Deerfield, IL Gun Ban

A circuit court judge in Lake County, Illinois has granted an injunction against the Chicago suburb of Deerfield, blocking the village from enforcing a ban on so-called “assault weapons,” and handing a victory to the Second Amendment Foundation.

SAF was joined in the lawsuit by the Illinois State Rifle Association and Deerfield resident Daniel Easterday, who is a lawful firearms owner. SAF and ISRA had challenged the ban on the grounds that it violates the state’s preemption law that was adopted in 2013. That change amended state statute that declared “the regulation of the possession or ownership of assault weapons are exclusive powers and functions of this State. Any ordinance or regulation, or portion of that ordinance or regulation, that purports to regulate the possession or ownership of assault weapons in a manner that is inconsistent with this Act, shall be invalid…” Read more

Gun Control

Gun Free Doesn’t Work

By Steven W. Dulan
In addition to my law practice, I am an adjunct law professor at Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School. One of the courses I teach there is called “Gun Control Seminar.” My students write and present research papers on the topic each term. I’m also a member of the Board of Directors of the Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners and serve as its press contact too.
The good news is that schools are generally safe. The bad news is that this is only because school shootings are rare. In research cited by The Washington Post just last month, it was revealed that, on any given day since 1999, the odds of an individual public school student being shot to death at school was approximately one in 614,000,000.
The bad news is that the security situation at most schools is abysmal. It has become clear that simply declaring schools, or any other area, to be “gun free” doesn’t work, even when there are emphatic signs posted and strict policies adopted. Individuals focused on committing multiple-victim public killings don’t obey the law. However, there is some evidence, reported during Michigan Senate committee testimony by researcher Dr. John R. Lott, that several mass shooters selected their “gun-free” locations because there would be no one there to shoot back.
The Michigan-specific data (publicly available on the Michigan State Police website), shows that individuals with Concealed Pistol Licenses are extremely law abiding. In fact, for 2016, the most recent year for which full data is available, the general public has a crime rate 25 times higher than the rate for CPL holders.
According to the Crime Prevention Research Center, there are 18 states where teachers and staff may carry concealed pistols. While it is difficult to ascertain exact numbers, there are many individuals who have carried guns in those schools over a period of several years. The media is quick to report any negative incidents. There have only been a few.
Recently, it was revealed that the Centers for Disease Control failed to report their findings that armed citizens use guns in self-defense approximately 2.5 million times each year, confirming the findings of researcher Dr. Gary Kleck. This figure is approximately eight times the number of criminal gun uses each year.
The choice is clear -either continue to do nothing and rely on blind luck to protect our school children, spend large amounts of money on airport-like security measures, or allow teachers, staff and parents who are members of a group (CPL holders) that has demonstrated responsibility and public utility, to carry their pistols on school premises.
Steven W. Dulan, J.D., is the Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners’ Second Vice Chair, MCRGO Legal Foundation Chair, Media Contact and Director South-Central Lower Peninsula, as well as serving as an attorney and real estate broker in the Lansing area. He can be reached at dulans@cooley.edu or 517.333.7132.
Gun Control
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