Democrats, Guns and Demagoguery
It’s an election year. The Democratic Party is so out of touch
with mainstream America’s feelings about gun rights that even some Democrats have noticed
- particularly in rural areas where GEORGE W. BUSH took so many votes away from them.
Georgia Democrat Senator ZELL MILLER recently called for fellow Democrats to be more sympathetic and supportive
of people who own guns. He wants to win
back control of the U.S. House of Representatives for the Democrats. And increase the Democrat majority in the
Senate.
Getting cozy with gun owners is the main strategy. Candidates are listening.
So now we see Democrat STEPHEN UDALL, running in Arizona, saying, “In my pickup truck I’ve got a shovel, I’ve got a set of wrenches and I’ve got my rifle.”
And pollsters such as GEOFF GARIN are telling the party’s campaign
committee their candidates have to be “very comfortable in talking about the values they share with other small town residents.”
That’s political-speak for “stop beating up on guns.” Talk nice
about gun owners. Get the votes. Put pro-gun Democrats in Congress.
But there’s a hitch: Let’s say all these “born-again pro-gun” Democrats win in Congress. Then control of both houses
goes to the Democrats. But pro-gun Democrats will just be ordinary Members of Congress with no real influence.
The anti-gun Democrats in the leadership will still be calling
the shots and chairing all the committees.
The pro-gun Democrats will be silenced by
the anti-gun Democrat leadership. People like TOM DASCHLE, CHARLES SCHUMER, DIANNE FEINSTEIN, TED KENNEDY, DICK
GEPHARDT, JOE BIDEN, JOHN CONYERS, HILLARY CLINTON and PATTY MURRAY.
Gun owners haven’t forgotten that gun control has been a central
plank in the Democratic Party platform for years.
A recent Denver Post column by Second Amendment Foundation founder
ALAN GOTTLIEB and long-time pro-gun journalist DAVE WORKMAN told it straight:
“Gun owners recall the last time Democrats controlled both houses
of Congress. Against the advice of moderates in their own party, the leading anti-gun hysterics in the Democratic
caucus pushed through the Brady Law, part of which was ruled unconstitutional, and a ban on many semi-automatic
firearms.”
Even now, amidst all the Democratic Party talk about “softening
our image” and “toning down the rhetoric,” the
substance remains the same. Not one Democrat
has suggested changing their platform or repudiating
their long-standing extreme gun control position.
They just changed “gun control” to “gun safety.”
It’s the same old agenda in a new package.
Gun owners around the country conclude Democrats are not their
friends.
If Democrats want to win, they should listen to members of their own party like ZELL MILLER, BILL
BREWSTER and JOHN DINGELL.
If Democrats want to win, they should help repeal laws that infringe on the rights of law-abiding citizens.
That might win.
CALIFORNIA: SENSE AND NONSENSE
As usual, California
gives us the most unusual news items. First is a rare victory for gun rights in an important
Assembly vote: The Public Safety Committee recently rejected
a measure that would have banned future sales of .50-caliber rifles.
Two liberal Democrats with anti-gun records broke ranks and voted with the only two Republicans on the committee to defeat the bill, AB2222, by 4-3.
Critics of the bill said the guns are used for competition and sport shooting, and challenged supporters to show a single incident involving a .50-caliber rifle in California.
After this sensible move, Democrat State Senator DON PERATA asked
the legislature to put his brain-child on the November ballot: a five-cent tax on every bullet sold in the state.
Even the anti-gun Contra Costa Times said of the measure, “With
all the significant and unsolved problems facing the California Legislature, one wonders why some members waste
their time on senseless measures that solve nothing while needlessly irritating a segment of the population.”
The “irritated segment” included the California
Rifle and Pistol Association (CRPA),
which responded by calling for a 25-cents-per-round
tax credit on every bullet
sold. The tax credit would reimburse gun owners for the social value of firearms in deterring crime.
UTAH
NO-GUNS PETITION IS BACK
An anti-gun group called Safe To Learn, Safe To Worship, is trying
once more to get enough petition signatures
to put an anti-gun measure on the Utah ballot
in November. If passed, the measure would ban properly permitted concealed guns in churches and schools. The petition
faltered two years ago from lack of cash.
KANSAS GUN LAWSUIT BILL PASSES
The Kansas House of Representatives recently approved a bill
limiting government lawsuits against the
makers and sellers of guns and ammunition. It
is going to Gov. BILL GRAVES, who is expected to sign it.
The Senate approved an identical version in February. Under the
legislation, only the state, not local
or county governments, could sue firearms makers and dealers for damages. Local governments could still sue for breach of contract or defective products, however.
The bill is preventative - no Kansas counties or municipalities
have sued gun makers for damages.
VIRGINIA HAS NEW GUN RIGHTS LAWS
Virginia governor JOHN WARNER has signed into law several bills protecting gun rights. The key bill was a preemption law that only allows a locality to pass laws affecting things
which have been authorized by the State. Localities will not be allowed to pass gun laws more restrictive than
state law.
Two of the new laws involved concealed carry, one
allowing retired police officers to get concealed carry permits free, the other allowing active duty military personnel
to get a Virginia permit if stationed in the state.
ALASKA GOVERNOR VETOES CITIZEN GUN RIGHTS
TONY KNOWLES, governor of Alaska,
has vetoed a bill that would allow citizens
with concealed carry permits from other states to carry in Alaska. Senate President MIKE MILLER rebuked KNOWLES for vetoing the bill.
CANDIDATES URGED TO END GUN BAN
The National Rifle Association is pressing candidates for federal
office to once again allow Americans to
buy “assault style” semiautomatic firearms
with high-capacity magazines.
In 1994, the CLINTON administration
convinced Congress to ban the sale of 19 types of semiautomatic firearms and magazines with more than 10 rounds.
The NRA sent out a questionnaire asking candidates whether they
agree or disagree “that the gun and magazine ban should be allowed to sunset in 2004.”
Numerous congressional candidates have said they support ending the gun ban, including Tennessee’s three major Senate candidates.
FEDERAL LAWSUIT PREEMPTION BILL ADVANCES IN HOUSE
H.R. 2037, a bill that would block lawsuits seeking to hold gunmakers
liable for criminal misuse of their products, advanced through a recent House Subcommittee hearing.
Pro-gun witnesses gave testimony to the Subcommittee on Commerce,
Trade and Consumer Protection in support of the bill, which was introduced by Subcommittee Chairman CLIFF STEARNS
(R-FL) and CHRIS JOHN (D-LA).
JOHN M. SNYDER, public affairs director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), said his organization fully supports the bill, titled
the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms
Act. SNYDER has been named “Dean of gun
lobbyists” by national media.
“Enactment of this bill would do much to drive a stake through
the heart of third-party lawsuits brought around the country against law-abiding firearm manufacturers, distributors
and dealers,” SNYDER said.
PROFESSOR OPPOSES SCHUMER MENTAL ILLNESS BILL
After a man with a history of involuntary commitment to a mental
institution shot a priest and a parishioner at an early morning Mass at a Catholic church, Sen. CHARLES
SCHUMER (D-NY) said he would introduce a bill in Congress that would transmit the names of those who have been hospitalized in state mental health facilities to
the national background check system.
Not so fast, says CHRISTOPHER SLOBOGUN, a professor at the University
of Florida’s College of Law. We could be unjustly stereotyping innocent people who have been hospitalized for reasons
unrelated to their fitness to own a gun.
Prof. SLOBOGUN wrote in a Newsday article, “People with mental illness are no more likely to be violent than people who are free from psychotic and other serious psychiatric
symptoms, according to research funded by the MacArthur Foundation as well as other studies.”
More effective, Prof. SLOBOGUN wrote, would be to load the national
background check system with the names (but, to protect confidentiality, not the records) of only those
people who have been committed because they were found to be dangerous to others or suicidal.
SPORTSMEN STOP ANTI-HUNTING AMENDMENT TO FARM BILL
Safari Club International (SCI) has successfully convinced a congressional conference committee to strip an anti-hunting amendment from the high-profile Farm Bill. The U.S. House and Senate passed different versions of the
bill.
Sen. MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY) slipped in an amendment drafted by
two animal rights groups, the Humane Society of the United States and Fund for Animals, without a hearing or debate.
The amendment would have outlawed transporting legally harvested black bears across state lines, said SCI executive director PETER J. DART. Supposedly a measure
to prevent black bear poaching, it would have ended wildlife management instead.
Rep. DON YOUNG (R-AK), a member of
the House-Senate Conference Committee on the Farm Bill, said the amendment was “too flawed for consideration.”
ARGENTINA’S CIVIL DISORDER
FEEDS GUN SALES
Self defense firearms have become the top
priority of thousands of Argentines,
even the elite who once limited themselves to hunting or target shooting.
FERNANDO JANIERO, proprietor of La Veneziana, an upscale hunting
store in Buenos Aires, says his customers are rejecting hunting rifles in favor of short-range weapons
designed to inflict maximum damage at minimum range.
Since December, when Argentina’s economic chaos boiled over into bloody riots that left 27 dead, gun stores are reporting a 50 percent increase in sales,
mostly handguns.
Argentines blame the rising fear on the country’s visible poverty,
rampant drug use, corruption in the police force, and sentencing restrictions on juvenile criminals.
AUSTRALIA SINKS INTO DWINDLING
SPIRAL OF GUN CONTROL
Six years after a shocking mass murder prompted Australian Prime
Minister JOHN HOWARD to push through tough laws banning many firearms, anyone who wants to can buy an illegal handgun in suburban Sydney in less than an hour.
So now, of course, HOWARD wants stricter gun controls.
Australia has already imposed national gun registration and set up a gun buyback program which netted 640,000 guns
at a cost to the federal government of 360,000,000 Australian dollars.
A convicted killer told a reporter with Sydney’s Daily Telegraph that guns had never
been more readily available.
CANADIAN SPORTS STORE CLERK
CONVICTED FOR SELLING STARTER PISTOLS
PRADEEP GOSWAMI, a sports store clerk in Toronto, was sentenced
to one year in prison for possessing and
transferring firearms after he sold six
sporting starter pistols to an undercover police officer in 1999. Ontario’s highest court
recently upheld the trial court’s conviction.
It was a landmark ruling that classified a starter’s pistol as a firearm. The consequences for sports that use starter pistols, such as track events, are unclear.
Defense attorney JOSEPH NEUBERGER argued that his client should
be acquitted because the Canadian Criminal Code provides that a weapon won’t be considered a firearm if it is designed exclusively for firing blank cartridges and is intended to be used
exclusively for that purpose.
Police said that starter pistols had begun showing up in street
crimes after being modified to fire .22-caliber or .32-caliber bullets.
The undercover officer who purchased the pistols from GOSWAMI
said he asked the clerk how to modify the pistols to fire live ammunition. Although GOSWAMI refused to provide detailed information, he knew the purchaser
intended to modify the pistol. Trial
Judge Mr. Justice EUGENE EWASCHUK ruled that therefore the Criminal Code criteria were not met and convicted GOSWAMI.
EUROPE CONSIDERING GUN BANS
Recent multiple shootings in France, Germany and Switzerland
have prompted a re-examination of gun
laws in Europe, even though the restrictions
are already tight. Great Britain, for example, totally
bans handguns.
In Germany, two hours after a 19-year-old expelled student began
killing teachers and students in Erfurt, the nation’s parliament approved tightened gun laws.
In Austria, where gun laws are extremely restrictive, a Vienna lawyer’s association called for a total ban to keep all weapons out of the hands of ordinary citizens.
Sweden has very strict gun control laws. But now firearms are
being smuggled in. Swedish Justice Ministry spokesman ANDERS PERKLEV said, “The problem is that illegal firearms
are more often found among criminals.”
Greece bans private ownership of all rifles, and highly regulates
handguns.
With all these laws, criminals have no trouble getting any guns they want.
OHIO APPEALS COURT RULES CONCEALED WEAPONS BAN UNCONSTITUTIONAL
MARK PAINTER, presiding judge of the 1st Ohio District Court
of Appeals, said the framers of the Ohio constitution “put
the citizens’ rights up front. We believe they meant what they said.”
The appeals court thus declared Ohio’s decades-old ban on carrying
concealed weapons unconstitutional because it violates the right to self defense.
Ohio’s attorney general asked the Supreme Court for an immediate
delay of the ruling to hear an appeal. The stay was granted.
Lawyers for Cincinnati, Hamilton County and the state had argued
that government has the right to regulate
the manner in which weapons are carried.
The Second Amendment Foundation was a plaintiff in the case filed
by five people who challenged the law, joined by Ohioans for Concealed Carry and the People’s Right Organization.
Forty-three states allow concealed weapons in some form.
CALIFORNIA COUNTIES AND CITIES CAN BAN GUN SHOWS
The California Supreme Court recently ruled that counties and cities in the state may ban gun shows on their fairgrounds
and other government properties.
The 6-1 decision upheld the hotly contested banning of firearms
at flea markets in Los Angeles and Alameda counties.
The decision is expected to set off a flood of similar ordinances across the state. At least 20 cities and counties filed briefs in the case asking for such
powers.
The firearms industry argued to the seven justices that local governments are powerless to regulate the industry because
the Legislature has authorized gun shows on public property. The industry said the local laws were pre-empted by state rules.
Justice JANET ROGERS BROWN wrote a sharp dissent saying such
an initiative by a local government “exceeds its regulatory authority.”
The cases reached the high court after a federal appeals court,
unsure of how to interpret California law, asked California’s justices to intervene.
JOE WALDRON of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and
Bear Arms, said, “Federal courts in California and elsewhere have already ruled that gun shows are a protected form of commercial free speech. The California Supreme Court, with this decision, has cavalierly decided that the First Amendment
does not apply in the Golden State at all.” The federal appeals
court has the final 1st Amendment say.
COURT RULES CITIZENS CAN’T USE DEADLY FORCE ON FLEEING FELON
The Nevada Supreme Court has ruled that citizens cannot use deadly force to apprehend a fleeing felon, thereby reinstating assault charges against a Carson City man
who fired shots in a 1997 dispute but did not hit the fleeing man.
Businessman ROLLAND WEDELL fired the shots at JAMES BUSTAMONTE in an argument over an alleged injury by BUSTAMONTE of an employee
of WEDELL’s, the injury presumably being a felony. WEDELL argued that private citizens have a common law right to use deadly force to arrest or prevent the escape
of a fleeing felon.
The court majority rejected the argument, saying the Legislature
repudiated the common law standard when it enacted a 1993 law limiting the use of force
by police officers when making a felony arrest.
The court majority said in an opinion written by Justice DEBORAH
AGOSTI that a private citizen can use no more force than necessary and reasonable to make an arrest. Deadly force,
as a matter of law, was ruled unreasonable unless the deadly force is used in defense of self or others against
a threat of serious bodily injury.
However, the statute regarding use
of force by police does not specifically
address the use of force by citizens,
so the opinion of the court is a new interpretation of that law, said Justice BOB ROSE. Thus the ruling should
not apply to WEDELL, but the charges against him were reinstated by a 4-3 vote of the panel.
OHIO CONCEALED CARRY BILL STALLED BY COURT RULING
A bill passed by the Ohio House of Representatives that would
allow Ohioans to carry concealed handguns on a limited basis is stalled in the Senate.
The Senate will not consider House Bill 274, which was sent to
the Judiciary Committee on Civil Justice, because the Ohio Supreme Court agreed to delay an appeals court ruling
that struck down a ban on concealed carry (see story on page 5).
The court situation throws the concealed carry bill into limbo.
An Ohio law banning concealed carry was recently ruled unconstitutional
by the Ohio 1st District Court of Appeals.
State Attorney General BETTY D. MONTGOMERY immediately asked
for an emergency stay from the Ohio Supreme Court, which granted it.
The state will take the case to the Ohio Supreme Court, a process
that could take months.
The high court could restore the ban in Hamilton County or overturn
it throughout the state.
Senate President RICHARD H. FINAN said it would be futile to write a new handgun law before the state
supreme court decides what is constitutional.
DEMAND FOR GUN PERMITS AFTER SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS REMAINS HIGH
Seven months after the September 11 terrorist attacks, the demand for handgun permits is still on the rise in Connecticut.
State Police Lt. ROBERT KEENE, head of the Special Licensing
and Firearms Unit, said, “More and more people want to have the option to carry a firearm on them.”
Detective Sgt. ROBERT HETTRICK, who oversees permit processing
for the City of Meriden police department, estimates that applications have doubled or tripled since Sept. 11.
Similar reports have come from most states that allow concealed
carry.
KENTUCKY LEGISLATURE PASSES CONCEALED CARRY BILL
Lawmakers approved a final version of a bill that modifies Kentucky’s
concealed carry law, making it illegal to falsify firearms-safety-training records for those seeking permits to
carry concealed weapons.
The bill also all