Category: Self Defense

SAF: Large Increase in Young Adult Members, Donors

BELLEVUE, WA – Since the tragic mass shooting at a Florida high school last month resulted in efforts to restrict firearms ownership by young adults, the Second Amendment Foundation has experienced a 1,200 percent increase in the number of 18- to 20-year-olds joining or supporting the organization, SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb reported today.
“We normally don’t get that many members or donors in that age group,” Gottlieb noted, “since the gun rights movement typically trends toward older Americans. But the 18- to 20-year-olds have never been specifically targeted before, and they are obviously alarmed. This influx of young Americans into the gun rights movement is important, not just to respond to the current gun control threat, but as the movement has gotten older, it is encouraging to see so many young adults getting involved in support of Second Amendment rights.

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Gun Control, Self Defense

Ohio Armed Teachers Program

COLUMBUS, OH – Today President Trump said his administration is considering the idea of arming and training teachers to help secure our schools. However, Ohio has been doing this for 5 years.

FASTER Saves Lives is a nonprofit program funded by private donations. FASTER stands for Faculty / Administrator Safety Training & Emergency Response.

Created by concerned parents, law enforcement, and nationally-recognized safety and medical experts, FASTER is a groundbreaking, nonprofit program that gives educators practical violence response training.

The program offers a carefully-structured curriculum with over 26 hours of hands-on training over a 3-day class that exceeds the requirements of the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy.

The purpose is not to replace police and EMT, but to allow teachers, administrators, and other personnel on-site to stop school violence rapidly and render medical aid immediately.

“When an active killer enters a school, every second counts,” said Dean Rieck, Executive Director of Buckeye Firearms Association. “Being able to stop the violence rapidly and tend to the injured immediately will absolutely save lives.”

To date, more than 1,300 teachers and staff from 225 districts across 12 states have received training, including educators in 76 of Ohio’s 88 counties. Up to 400 additional educators are set to go through training in 2018.

“It’s taken a while for this idea to catch on,” continued Rieck. “At first, many people told us it wouldn’t work. But we pioneered this concept, refined it, and have proven that it works. Now school boards are coming to us asking how they can improve security in their schools.

“Some educators are skeptical. So we invite them to observe the training and see for themselves. Once they see what the FASTER Saves Lives classes are really all about, and when they see the high quality of instruction and how the program has adapted proven ideas from real world active killer events for the school environment, they’re much better equipped to make rational, clear headed decisions about the next steps for their school.”

Demand for the classes from Ohio schools, and overwhelming interest from other states, greatly exceeds the funding available. The program recently received a grant from the State of Ohio for $100,000 per year for 2018 and 2019.

For more information, visit www.FASTERSavesLives.org. Read more

Self Defense

Teachers Trained to Stop Active Killers

COLUMBUS, OH – Five years ago, a 20-year-old murdered his mother, stole her guns, and went to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut to slaughter 6 staff and 20 young children. It was a horrific event that forever changed the concept of what school security means in the modern world.

Gun control groups called for new gun laws. However, because none of the proposed laws would have stopped this event, and because new laws have never proven effective at stopping determined killers, one nonprofit organization chose to take a different approach.

“I remember an ABC News town hall in Columbus, Ohio,” said Jim Irvine, Chairman of Buckeye Firearms Foundation. “Gun control advocates kept talking about having a so-called ‘national conversation’ about school safety. It was so frustrating because we’d been having a conversation for years and nothing had changed.

“So in the middle of the town hall we said we were done talking. It was time for action. We announced a program to train teachers and other school staff to carry guns in schools so they would be ready to stop active killers quickly. There were literally gasps from the audience.”

The announcement was met with widespread disbelief and criticism, including editorials claiming that no school would ever participate and no teacher could possibly be interested. But when the organization contacted Ohio schools offering to train 24 teachers, more than 1,000 applied.

With support from private donations, that original class grew into what is today called the FASTER Saves Lives program. Created by concerned parents, law enforcement, and nationally-recognized safety and medical experts, FASTER Saves Lives is a groundbreaking, nonprofit program that gives educators practical violence response training, including emergency medical care.

To date, more than 1,300 teachers and staff from 225 districts across 12 states have received training, including educators in 76 of Ohio’s 88 counties. Up to 400 additional educators are set to go through training in 2018. Read more

Self Defense

House Passes Concealed Carry Reciprocity Bill

By a 231-198 vote the United States House of Representatives has passed legislation that would enable holders of concealed carry licenses to legally carry in other states. The measure also contained an amendment designed to address reporting and other issues with the NICS system. The bill was a top priority of Second Amendment groups, including the National Rifle Association.

“This vote marks a watershed moment for Second Amendment rights,” said NRA executive director for legislative action Chris Cox. “The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act is the culmination of a 30-year movement recognizing the right of all law-abiding Americans to defend themselves, and their loved ones, including when they cross state lines.”

Self Defense

Michigan House Action Imminent on Senate Bills 584-586Michigan

Senate Bills 584 & 585, which would allow any CPL holder to obtain a general exemption to concealed pistol free zones, and Senate Bill 586, which would clarify that public schools, intermediate school districts, community colleges, public libraries, and other public authorities are local units of government, are expected to be taken up by the Michigan House of Representatives sooner rather than later -as early as next week!
While MCRGO, the NRA, and other firearms law reform activists nearly uniformly support these bills, there are several changes we would like to see in the House to Senate Bill 584. The last minute Senate addition of airport property to the list of pistol free zones should be removed. It appears to have been added to prevent future situations where Open Carry activists have carried on airport property, but it misses the mark by applying only to concealed pistols. We would also like to see the Senate’s ban on intentional display and open carry removed from the bill as the language could be used to prosecute CPL holders who are printing or inadvertently showing a firearm.
Please contact your state representative now to let them know you support Senate Bills 584-586 with the changes noted above. You can find him/her HERE. Some key points:
* 98% of mass shootings occur in pistol free zones because they are target rich locations.
* Pistol free zones don’t prevent people with criminal intent from carrying a gun there.
* The are numerous examples of situations where CPL holders have stopped shootings or prevented them altogether. It happens far more often than many people realize because they aren’t reported like unchallenged mass shootings with high body counts.
* No Michigan CPL holder has ever been mistakenly shot by another Michigan CPL holder or law enforcement in the 17 years Michigan has had shall-issue concealed carry. Michigan has over 600,000 CPL holders who carry daily in busy public settings.
* Michigan CPL holders with a general exemption would be the best trained in the USA!
* The legislation does not negatively impact private property rights.
Self Defense

Status of Constitutional Carry in Michigan

After Constitutional Carry legislation rapidly passed the Michigan House of Representatives this spring, putting Michigan well into the lead among neighboring states on this issue, many gun owners assumed it would become law by early fall. Applications for new & renewal concealed pistol licenses dropped significantly this summer resulting in the first downturn in total statewide CPL numbers since 2001. Now many people are asking, “What’s the hold up?”

 
The short answer is Governor Snyder who is reluctant to sign any major gun reform measures into law. While the votes exist in the Michigan Senate to pass a constitutional carry package, Senate leadership would be foolish to pass the bill without first reaching an agreement on language with Snyder as the governor is likely to veto the bill. This would kill the issue for the rest of the 2017-2018 session as the votes don’t exist in the House to override a veto. While it has always been an uphill battle to get constitutional carry signed into law this session, its chances of success are much better if a deal can be reached that doesn’t compromise the fundamentals of the legislation. That may not be until the lame duck session in late 2018. It may require waiting for a new governor.
 
The Wisconsin Senate, which is considering its own constitutional carry bill, is also experiencing opposition from Republican Governor Scott Walker. None of our other neighboring states have yet to consider constitutional carry legislation although Indiana may do so in the coming year.
Self Defense

D.C. Declines to Take Wrenn CCW Case to SCOTUS

Apparently fearing a devastating loss that could crush arbitrary concealed carry laws in a handful of states, the District of Columbia has declined to appeal its loss of a concealed carry case that struck down its “needs based” permit requirement, the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) learned.

The SAF case is Wrenn v. District of Columbia. A three-judge panel on the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia struck down the city’s “good cause” requirement as unconstitutional in July. The court declined a request for an en banc panel review last month.

“We believe the city was under intense pressure to take the hit and not appeal the ruling by the U.S. District Court of Appeals,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “If the District had lost the case before the high court, it would have dealt a fatal blow to similar requirements in California, New Jersey, Maryland and New York, for example, and that prospect had anti-gun politicians in those states quaking in their shoes.”

Gottlieb recalled that the District’s loss in 2008 when the Supreme Court struck down its handgun ban as unconstitutional under the Second Amendment opened a floodgate for legal challenges to state laws. That led to SAF’s 2010 victory in McDonald v. City of Chicago, which not only nullified the Windy City’s handgun ban but more importantly incorporated the Second Amendment to the states via the 14th Amendment. Read more

Gun Control, Self Defense

D.C. Court of Appeals Denies En Banc Hearing on DC Concealed Carry Suit

HEARING ON WRENN, A MAJOR WIN FOR SAF

BELLEVUE, WA — The U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has turned down a request from the city for an en banc hearing on the concealed carry case of Wrenn v. District of Columbia, amounting to a strategic win for the Second Amendment Foundation.

According to the court, not a single judge on the court requested a hearing. Earlier, a three-judge panel had ruled in favor of plaintiffs Brian Wrenn and SAF. The case challenges the District’s carry permit policy that requires citizens to provide a “good reason” to be issued a permit. The Appeals Court struck down that requirement.

“Ten years ago, Washington D.C.’s political leadership tried to extinguish Second Amendment rights before the Supreme Court,” noted attorney Alan Gura, who represents the plaintiffs. “The result was D.C. v. Heller, a tremendous victory for the rights of all Americans. With the court of appeals again confirming the people’s right to bear arms, Washington, D.C.’s politicians must once again ask themselves whether it makes sense to keep resisting our fundamental rights.”

Gura successfully argued both the 2008 District of Columbia v. Heller case and 2010 McDonald v. City of Chicago case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Both cases dealt directly with Second Amendment issues. Heller affirmed that the amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms, and McDonald incorporated the Second Amendment to the states via the 14thAmendment. Read more

Gun Control, Self Defense

Seattle Gun Violence Tax

JUDGE FINDS AGAINST SEATTLE IN PRA CASE FILED BY SAF, MAGAZINE EDITOR

A King County Superior Court judge has ruled in favor of a firearms magazine editor and the Second Amendment Foundation in a case challenging the City of Seattle’s refusal to disclose “gun violence tax” revenues under the Public Records Act (PRA).

SAF filed the lawsuit in September with Dave Workman, senior editor of TheGunMag.com. SAF owns the publication. At issue was the city’s refusal to comply with Workman’s PRA request for revenue collected by the city under its “gun violence tax,” passed by the city council in the summer of 2015.

“We are delighted with the outcome of this case,” said SAF Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, who is also publisher of TheGunMag.com. “It was silly for Seattle to withhold this information, but we’re pretty certain why the city did it. The council was told that this tax could generate between $300,000 and a half-million dollars, but now it appears the city has collected just over $100,000, which is an embarrassing shortfall.

“As a result,” he added, “the city has essentially lost money on this scheme because now they have to pay our attorney fees, plus a small penalty. On top of that, the city has lost tax revenue because one major gun dealer has moved out of the city and another has reported considerable sales losses. That is tax money the city will never realize.” Read more

Self Defense

Appeals Court Strikes Down DC’s “Good Reason” CCW Law

The Second Amendment Foundation today won a significant court victory against “good reason” requirements for concealed carry when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a permanent injunction against enforcement of such a requirement in Washington, D.C.

The 2-1 ruling, written by Judge Thomas Beall Griffith, a 2005 George W. Bush appointee, declared that, “At the Second Amendment’s core lies the right of responsible citizens to carry firearms for personal self-defense beyond the home, subject to longstanding restrictions…The District’s good-reason law is necessarily a total ban on exercises of that constitutional right for most D.C. residents. That’s enough to sink this law under (the 2008 U.S. Supreme Court’sHeller ruling).”

“Today’s ruling contains some powerful language that affirms what we have argued for many years, that requiring a so-called ‘good cause’ to exercise a constitutionally-protect right does not pass the legal smell test,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “We’re particularly pleased that the opinion makes it clear that the Second Amendment’s core generally covers carrying in public for self-defense.”

The 31-page majority opinion also said that the District’s “good cause” requirement was essentially designed to prevent the exercise of the right to bear arms by most District residents. Thus, it amounts to a complete prohibition, and that does not pass muster under the 2008 Heller ruling that struck down the District’s 30-year handgun ban.

“The good-reason law,” Judge Griffith wrote, “is necessarily a total ban on most D.C. residents’ right to carry a gun in the face of ordinary self-defense needs…”

“To read the majority opinion and not come away convinced that such ‘good reason’ or ‘good cause’ requirements are just clever ways to prevent honest citizens from exercising their rights is not possible,” Gottlieb stated. “To say we are delighted with the ruling would be an understatement. We are simply more encouraged to keep fighting, winning firearms freedom one lawsuit at a time.”

The case is Wrenn v. District of Columbia.

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.

Self Defense
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