Also in this issue: l California tax on bullets

THE BIG STORY

Two Supreme Court briefs have just made history. U.S. Solicitor General THEODORE B. OLSON asserted that the Second Amendment protects an individual right.

The Justice Department’s long-standing position has been that the Second Amendment only protects a collective right of states to organize militias.

“Solicitor General TED OLSON took the correct position by advising the Supreme Court that the Second Amendment protects the rights of individuals to possess their private firearms, regardless whether they are in a militia,” said DAVE LaCOURSE, public affairs director for the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF).

The key case that OLSON briefed to the Supreme Court was U.S. v. Emerson, which challenges the constitutionality of a federal law that prohibits gun ownership by citizens under civil divorce court restraining orders, even if they have not been convicted of a crime.

A Texas district court judge ruled the law violated the Second Amendment rights of Dr. TIMOTHY JOE EMERSON, who has since been acquitted of all charges in state court. SAF was the driving force behind resolving this case favorably.

The Clinton administration Justice Department appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court in New Orleans, which last year reversed and remanded Emerson’s case back to the Texas court, while at the same time affirming District Judge SAM CUMMINGS’ ruling that the Second Amendment is an individual right.

OLSON’s position as Solicitor General requires him to defend federal laws when they are challenged in the courts. He asked the Supreme Court to refuse to hear the firearms-related cases of U.S. v. Emerson and U.S. v. Haney.

However, OLSON argued that the laws under review are constitutional, based on the administration’s view that the Second Amendment allows “reasonable restrictions designed to prevent possession [of firearms] by unfit persons or to restrict the possession of types of firearms that are particularly suited to criminal misuse.”

OLSON’s brief also stated that Department of Justice (DOJ) will continue to defend “all existing federal firearms laws,” and that the DOJ “has a solemn obligation both to enforce federal laws and to respect the constitutional rights guaranteed to Americans.”

The Libertarian Party called the position “politically schizophrenic,” because it says that individuals have a right to own a gun while pledging to enforce laws that infringe on that right.

Predictably, anti-gun advocates weren’t so analytical. They went ballistic.

MICHAEL BARNES, president of the group formerly known as Handgun Control Inc., said that an “extreme ideology on guns has now become government policy.”

Anti-gun Senator CHARLES SCHUMER (D-NY) fumed at the reversal.

The Los Angeles times quoted unnamed “scholars and gun control advocates” as calling the change a “‘radical’ shift in position” that “alarmed” them.

The “radical” and “extreme” Justice Department, though, turns out to be in good company. Supreme Court Justice JOSEPH STORY, the most respected early 19th-century justice - except perhaps for the great JOHN MARSHALL - also took the view that the right belongs to “the citizens,” not the states.

Same for Michigan Supreme Court Justice THOMAS COOLEY, the leading constitutional-law commentator of the late 1800s. He said the right belongs to “the people,” like it says in the amendment.

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), a prominent gun rights group, applauded OLSON and Attorney General JOHN ASHCROFT for reversing “forty years of constitutional illiteracy.”

CCRKBA Executive Director JOE WALDRON said, “For over forty years, anti-gun Attorneys General, along with some federal courts that blindly accepted - apparently without reading - a popular, if erroneous, interpretation of the 1939 Miller decision, have practiced what amounts to constitutional illiteracy.”

“No one questioned the individual-right interpretation of the Second Amendment in the first 150 years of our national existence,” WALDRON continued. “In the DRED SCOTT decision, Chief Justice ROGER BROOKE TANEY noted that if SCOTT were considered a ‘citizen,’ he would also have a right to bear arms.”

WALDRON blasted anti-gun groups for clinging to the “collective rights” interpretation, and criticized media reports that portray the Second Amendment as “granting” a right to bear arms.

The Bill of Rights doesn’t “grant” anything, WALDRON emphasized. “The Bill of Rights affirms that certain individual rights exist and must be protected from government infringement,” said WALDRON. “The fact that the Framers specifically included the right to bear arms in our Bill of Rights is proof they held this individual right in high regard and wanted it protected.

“Anti-gunners want to perpetuate a myth that rights are granted by the Constitution, and thus may be subjected to political whim. The Justice Department’s announcement should moot that argument.”

EUGENE VOLOKH, professor of constitutional law at UCLA, went into detail about the Miller decision and what it really means about the right to bear arms. “The 1939 U.S. v. Miller decision did say that the right extends only to arms that are related to the militia. But it also specifically stressed that ‘militia’ meant ‘all males physically capable of acting in concert for the common defense,’ and that ordinarily ‘these men were expected to appear bearing arms supplied by themselves.’

“So the Ashcroft Justice Department may be going against the views of past Justice Departments, and of most federal courts of appeals, which have indeed endorsed the states’-rights view of the Second Amendment. But it’s returning to a much broader consensus: the view, adopted throughout most of the nation’s history, that the ‘right of the people to keep and bear arms’ is as individual a right as ‘the right of the people to be secure...against unreasonable searches and seizures’ or ‘the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.’”

Astonishingly, even some big-city newspapers editorialized in favor of the ASHCROFT position, including the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Ashcroft deserves credit for trying to reestablish a logical base for America’s gun laws,” wrote the newspaper.

“The anti-gun lobby loves the theory that the right to keep and bear arms is not an individual right, as are all the others mentioned in the bill of rights. In a tortuous revision of history, they claim the amendment applies to the collective rights of state governments.”

ASHCROFT’s position, said the Inquirer, “restores the government position to its original status before 1939.”

We’ll see how it works out in the Supreme Court.

GARY WANTS TO REINSTATE ITS ANTI-GUN LAWSUIT

The City of Gary has asked the Indiana Court of Appeals to revive its lawsuit against gun makers. Gary’s lawsuit was thrown out last year by a Lake County judge who dismissed it as unconstitutional.

Gary is one of 32 cities, counties and states nationwide to sue gun makers, accusing the industry of lax distribution methods that make it easy for criminals to obtain guns.

The accusations are transparent harassment techniques brought by ideological attorneys, according to critics of the lawsuits. “I find it a form of legalized extortion,” said MIKE HILTON, owner of Pop’s Guns in Indianapolis. “If I lived in that town, I’d be upset as a taxpayer that they’re wasting my money on this.”

NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL WANTS ANTI-GUN LAWSUIT REINSTATED, TOO

ELIOT L. SPITZER, arguing his first case since being elected New York attorney general in 1998, recently urged a panel of appellate judges to reinstate a novel lawsuit against the firearms industry.

The state’s suit alleging that gun manufacturers and wholesalers are liable for contributing to a public nuisance was thrown out of court by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice LOUIS B. YORK.

YORK ruled that the connection between the industry and crime was tenuous. Approving the nuisance theory, said YORK, would have the unwanted effect of preventing legal businesses “from engaging in activities...that they are permitted to engage in by law.”

SPITZER argued to the panel on grounds that the connection was not remote, and that a court should hear the case. His arguments were not given a warm welcome by a panel that repeatedly asked him sharp questions. The panel took the case under submission without issuing a ruling.

NEW HAVEN JUDGE GIVES SPLIT RULING ON GUN CASE

New Haven, Connecticut Superior Court Judge LUBBIE HARPER Jr. recently ruled that owner-operator taxi drivers are permitted to carry guns in the cab without obtaining a state pistol permit.

But he also refused to dismiss a permit charge against a local cabbie who shot and killed a fare who put a scissors blade to his throat and tried to rob him.

Defendant cab driver JOHN LUTTERS was not charged in the killing, which was ruled as justified, but was charged with carrying a pistol without a permit last year.

The judge ruled that the cab, although mobile, was a place of business and that LUTTERS had an ownership interest in the cab, thus giving him the right to carry the pistol without a permit to protect his property.

Judge HARPER denied a motion to dismiss by LUTTERS’ attorney, saying prosecutors hadn’t had the opportunity to present evidence that LUTTERS carried the gun outside the cab at any point the day of the killing.

DISABLED MAN CHALLENGES CHICAGO’S GUN LAW

CHRISTOPHER MORLEY of Park Forest, Illinois, has filed a lawsuit against the City of Chicago arguing the city’s ban on handguns prevents him from defending himself against muggers.

MORLEY, 34, alleges that he is an easy target for attack while he travels to his job at a graphics arts firm on Chicago’s West Side. The suit says he walks with the assistance of a cane and has been the victim of four crimes, including assault, stalking and menacing, near his office.

MORLEY’s complaint alleges that Chicago’s ban on handguns violates the Illinois and U.S. Constitutions, which protects the right to keep and bear arms and legally conceal and carry them for self-protection.

CANADA’S REGISTRATION DEADLINE LOOMS

The Canadian Firearms Centre is sending out reminder letters to hundreds of thousands of gun owners who have yet to register their firearms - about one-third of all gun license holders.

Holdouts who fail to register by January 1, 2003 face five years in jail and seizure of guns. But many thousands of angry gun owners apparently intend to flout the law, which they consider pointless. Registering guns, they feel, will not curb gun use by criminals.

GERMAN GUN MAKERS FACE TOUGH TIMES

Tougher gun laws in the wake of the recent Erfurt school killings could mean the end for some of the 1,200 registered gun dealers in Germany.

Although overall economic stagnation is one reason firearms manufacturers sell an ever smaller portion of their production in Germany, there is uncertainty among the 1.5 million sport shooters and 400,000 hunters about the impact of the new laws.

About 100,000 jobs of firearms industry suppliers and tradesmen are at stake in the downturn of the German gun market.

Ironically, the 5,000 people employed by the gunmakers themselves are probably secure, since production for export is more than 80 percent of their output. Thus, a decline in domestic sales would have a minimal effect on their jobs.

CHINESE VILLAGERS MAKE GUNS FOR PROFIT AND PROTECTION

Communist China has virtually banned gun ownership, but the country is awash in firearms. Last year, police seized 1.34 million guns and solved more than 100,000 criminal cases involving guns and explosives.

Guns come to Chinese citizens many ways: from smugglers who bring them in from Hong Kong,Vietnam and Myanmar, rogue military factories, and small village farmers where neigboring communities are feuding.

For example, last year people in Lower Yuan Family Village in Jiangxi province found themselves faced with violence from the next village. Instead of calling the police, who are frequently corrupt, they pooled $5,000 and worked from their homes to manufacture about 40 shotguns and more than 100 hand grenades.

When the neighboring bullies got wind of the weapons, they backed off. But soon afterward, police confiscated the weapons cache and jailed the ringleaders of the little gun co-op.

Yuan Shenggen, a 75-year-old farmer said the government seized their guns because “they were afraid we would turn against them.”

GHANA TRAWLS FOR FIREARMS

The Ghanian Government has called a two-week amnesty for people in possession of unlicensed weapons to surrender them to the police.

MALIK ALHASSAN, the Interior Minister, said that rewards might even be offered to those who would lead the police to uncover arms caches.

The amnesty followed a spate of violent armed robberies in the capital city, Accra. The serial murders of 30 women in Accra also spurred the move.

STUDY FINDS BRAZIL 2nd IN VIOLENT DEATHS

The rate of violent deaths in Brazil is second only to Colombia and getting worse, according to a new UNESCO study that said nearly 30 percent of the young Brazilians who died in 2000 were shot to death.

The study compared recent figures from 60 countries. It said that in Colombia, violence accounted for 60 deaths among every 100,000 residents, while Brazil registered 26.3 violent deaths per 100,000 and Russia had 23.

Violence in Colombia is linked to the decades-long civil war, while in Brazil it is mostly related to urban crime. Brazil’s government has submitted a bill to sharply limit the sale and possession of firearms.

LAWSUIT PREEMPTION BILL GATHERS MOMENTUM

Bills in the House and Senate seek to block politically-motivated lawsuits that attempt to hold law-abiding gun makers liable for the criminal misuse of their products.

Thirteen Senators have signed their name to S. 2268, introduced by U.S. Senators LARRY CRAIG (R-ID) and ZELL MILLER (D-GA).

The House companion bill, H.R. 2037, already has more than the required 218 votes to pass (227) and has gone through subcommittee markup.

Rep. CHRIS JOHN (D-LA), who introduced the House bill with Rep. CLIFF STEARNS (R-FL), said these reckless lawsuits threaten billion of dollars in commerce. If these baseless lawsuits are allowed to continue, every industry in America could be attacked in a similarly baseless way, Rep. JOHN said.

NATIONAL GUN LOBBYIST ENDORSES REPEAL OF D.C. GUN BAN

JOHN MICHAEL SNYDER, public affairs director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, has put his full suport behind a bill to repeal the law that virtually bans handguns in the District of Columbia.

The bill, H.R. 4642, was introduced in Congress by Rep. BRIAN D. KERNS (R-IN), would repeal the Firearms Control Registration Act of 1975. The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Government Reform.

SNYDER said the D.C. gun law “makes it legally impossible for a law-abiding private citizen to bring into or purcahse a handgun in the District.”

Even though neighboring Virginia allows people to carry a concealed firearm, SNYDER asked, “what good does that do you in Washington, D.C., where you really need one?”

ODD COUPLE PUSHES FOR NICS REFORM

U.S. Representatives JOHN DINGELL (D-MI) and CAROLYN McCARTHY (D-NY), two Democrats who usually have opposing views on guns, recently agreed with each other enough to jointly introduce a gun bill, H.R. 4757.

A bill with CAROLYN McCARTHY’s name on it is usually bad news for gun owners, but not this time.

This bill, called “Our Lady of Peace Act” for a church in McCARTHY’s district where a mentally ill man killed a priest and parishioner during Mass last March, would take positive corrective steps to improve the ailing National Instant Check System (NICS). H.R. 4757 seeks to improve the operation of NICS by pressuring all 50 states to ensure NICS has instant access to the records of individuals who are prohibited from possessing a firearm.

The legislation does not address larger issues that have separated McCARTHY and DINGELL, such as requiring background checks of up to 3 days at gun shows.

McCAIN AND LIEBERMAN SEEK GUN DEBATE

Senators JOHN McCAIN and JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN are trying to force Congress into an election-year gun debate over their measure to require background checks on all firearms sold at gun shows, claiming that it would help improve domestic security.

McCAIN, Arizona Republican, and LIEBERMAN, Connecticut Democrat, introduced their bill a year ago with not much result. Now they’re looking for a suitable bill scheduled for action within the next month to which they can quickly and silently add an amendment containing their gun show provisions.

The bill is actually laden with a horrendous number of new regulations, including new types of licenses and reporting requirements as well as the background check.

Gun show promoters say they will be driven out of business by the burdens that McCAIN-LIBERMAN puts on show promoters and the authority it grants to the Treasury secertary to regulate promoters. Watch for this sneak attack.

PANEL CLEARS BILL TO ELIMINATE LIFETIME GUN BAN

The Massachusetts Legislature’s Public Safety Committee has approved a bill that would remove the state’s lifetime ban on gun possession for people convicted of some crimes.

The bill would allow people who have committed nonviolent felonies and violent misdemeanors, other than domestic assault, to own a gun seven years after they’ve completed their punishment.

Rep. TIMOTHY J. TOOMEY Jr., the Cambridge Democrat who is chairman of the committee and sponsored the bill, said the measure was “for law-abiding and responsible gun owners who were affected by the 1998 law so they can hunt and target shoot.

“What we have found since 1998 is that there are a lot of individuals who 30 or 40 years ago had a simple fight on the playground, had been outstanding citizens since, World War II veterans, heroes in defending their country, people in law enforcement, who have been ruled ineligible because of that.”

The bill now goes to the House.

MARYLAND GOVERNOR VETOES DEER-CONTROL BILL

Lame duck Governor PARRIS GLENDENING (D) vetoed a game control bill titled the Sunday Hunting bill. The bill allowed hunting on only one Sunday of deer hunting season, and that only in seven counties, but it would also have extended the deer hunting season from 13 days to at least 21 days.

Governor GLENDENING’s anti-gun/anti-hunting bias kept him from seeing the value of the legislation, given that Maryland has a serious deer overpopulation problem.

ARIZONA PASSES LAW PROTECTING SHOOTING RANGES

S.B. 1008, Arizona’s Range Protection bill, is not about cattle grazing, it’s about shooting ranges. Governor JANE DEE HULL (R) signed the measure into law, providing shooting ranges with a defense against civil liability relating to noise disturbances if they operate in compliance with the bill’s established standards.

UTAH BOARD IGNORES NEW STATE LAW ON GUNS IN COURT

The state Board of District Court Judges recently said it won’t comply with a new state law that requires gun storage lockers be installed at state courthouses, contending that it is the judicial branch’s responsibility, not the legislative branch’s, to control court environs.

Trying to head off a constitutional separation of power impasse, Attorney General MARK SHURTLEFF asked Governor MIKE LEAVITT to allow legislators to “fix” the language in the law. The Governor can call special sessions and set the agenda.

Gov. LEAVITT did call a special session the day after SHURTLEFF’s request, but on a different subject: Utah’s budget deficit. The gun issue was not brought up, and still presents a serious conflict between the legislative and judiciary branches of the state’s government.

COLORADO LAWMAKERS KILL CONCEALED CARRY BILL

The Senate Appropriations Committee of the Colorado state legislature recently killed House Bill 1410 on a 5-5 vote. The bill would have set a uniform statewide policy for issuing permits to carry concealed weapons.

Sen. KEN CHLOUBER (R-Leadville) said the bill is dead for this year. He repeated that the bill was mischaracterized by opponents who said it would preempt local control of concealed weapons.

CHLOUBER said federal law already prevents carrying a gun on school grounds and other places, and state law allows local authorities to decide who can carry a concealed weapon.

Democrats originally supported the bill, but went back to their old tactics of blocking attempts to expand the current law.

GUN NEWS TICKER - QUICK TAKES ON THE NEWS

l Palm Beach County, Florida: County commissioners have voted 4-to-3 to repeal a law that fines gun owners who have not protected their firearms from children. The four majority commissioners said they didn’t want to vote for the repeal, but were compelled because of a March appellate court ruling that made it illegal for the city of South Miami to require trigger locks.

l Balmoral, Scotland: Prince Charles has given his son, Prince William, a £20,000 .243 Mauser action hunting rifle. Prince William is reportedly a keen shot, having shot his first stag at the age of 14. He has the use of a cottage at Balmoral, two hours from his university town, St. Andrews. The engraver, Alan Brown, was asked to put a simple “W” rather than a coat of arms on the gun.

l Sequim, Washington: A group of gun owners in this small Olympic Peninsula town (the locals pronounce it “Skwim,” not “See-kwim”) is asking the city council to fire Police Chief Byron C. Nelson, claiming his ban on gun sales by individuals at a show in city-owned Carrie Blake Park violated their constitutional rights. But City Manager Bill Elliot defended Nelson’s decision. “The chief did what he had to do,,” Elliot said. “What they want is probably not going to happen.”

l Golden, Colorado: The gun control mob concedes it has little sway with the Bush administration, so they have made a strategic shift to the state and local levels to take your guns away, says David Kopel, research director for the Independence Institute in Colorado. Concealed carry is the most hotly contested issue at the state level, said Kopel.

l Washington, D.C.: The Brady Campaign Voter Education Fund has endorsed anti-gun Governor Gray Davis for re-election. Sarah Brady, gun control maven, issued a news release that was read on the California state capitol building steps in Sacramento by Michael D. Barnes, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, formerly known as Handgun Control, Inc. Gun owners are supporting a “Gray OUT Davis” campaign to speed the governor’s return to private life.

l Alexandria, Virginia: Democratic strategist James Carville recently commented on gun control as a presidential debate issue: “I don’t think there’s a Second Amendment right to own a gun. But I think it’s a loser political issue. I think the issue has not been good for us. On top of that, I like guns.”

l Enfield, Connecticut: Burton E. Gould Jr, a selectman and free-lance photographer, was arrested recently at the Bradley International Airport parking garage after telling a National Guardsman he had a gun stored in his truck. Gould has a concealed carry permit in his home state of Massachusetts and in New Hampshire, but not in Connecticut. He said he did not realize the permit for his .38-caliber snub nose Smith & Wesson revolver was not valid in Connecticut. He was charged with carrying a weapon in a motor vehicle and carrying a pistol without a permit, then released on $500 cash bail and ordered to appear in court.

l California: On gun control, California voters in a recent Field Poll were evenly split about whether stronger gun control laws reduce violence. But 55 percent said they believe imposing greater controls on gun ownership was more important than protecting the right of Americans to own guns, which was considered more important by 39 percent.

l Chicago: Michael Bellesiles, the Emory University professor and author of the outrageously flawed anti-gun book, “Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture,” has cost the Newberry Library in Chicago its endorsement from the National Endowment for the Humanities. In a rare move, the National Endowment asked the Library to withdraw the federal agency’s name from a fellowship for $30,000 because it went to Bellesiles, but did not finance his book. The NEH said the Library made the award without due consideration of the serious charges of errors against Bellesiles’ book within the scholarly community.

KILLERS DON’T RUN IF YOU DIAL 911

Being able to call 911 is a good thing most of the time. The emergency hotline saves all kinds of people from fires, heart attacks and auto accidents.

But it’s not so good when it comes to saving people from killers.

Especially not in Chicago. It’s against the law to own a handgun in Chicago unless you had it registered before the ban on ownership. Chicago’s handgun ban means that women who are being stalked cannot legally arm themselves against those who would harm them.

But they can call 911, which is what Ronyale White did recently when she reported that her husband Louis Drexel, 30, was outside her home violating an order of protection.

The Chicago cops didn’t show up.

So Ronyale White called 911 again. She told them her husband was inside her house. She told them her husband then went outside and started punching holes in the tires of her car. She told them he said she was going to die.

The Chicago cops didn’t show up. Again.

So Ronyale White called 911 for a third time. The 911 dispatcher heard a man’s voice threatening death, then a loud noise like a door being kicked in, then two shots being fired, then the phone went dead.

Seventeen minutes after her first call to 911, the Chicago cops showed up.

They found Ronyale White on her bedroom floor, dead from a gunshot wound in her head.

They found a gun in her hand, put there by Drexel to make it look like a suicide.

Drexel went to his mother’s house after the shooting. The mother called police, who arrived as Drexel was attempting suicide. The bullet grazed his temple but did not seriously injure him.

Drexel was charged with first degree murder and held without bail.

The killing angered victims’ advocates, including Leslie Landis, Mayor Richard Daley’s domestic violence liaison.

But Mayor Richard Daley is part of the reason Ronyale White is dead. He’s an anti-gun nut who supports the handgun ban in Chicago.

It didn’t stop Louis Drexel from having a handgun, because he’s an outlaw.

It stopped Ronyale White from having a handgun to defend her life, because she was a law-abiding citizen.

So she called 911 instead.