December, 2002
Report 96
ANTI-GUN DEMOCRATS LOSE BIG
Democrats across the country have only their party’s
long-term opposition to gun rights to blame for their crash-and-burn defeat
at the polls. Their anti-gun zeal lost them control of the
“In the weeks before the election,” observed WALDRON,
“Democrats dropped all pretenses
in the wake of the Beltway sniper case. While party strategists had urged their
candidates to soft-pedal the gun issue,
lea
Once it became obvious that restrictive gun control
still captivates Democratic party leaders, gun
owners became the critical element. They were the key voting bloc in
a year when Democrats tried to sound pro-gun, but were insincere.
WALDRON says, “They lost some significant races
because of that, including Senate seats in
Key races influenced by the action of gun owners
rallying for gun rights:
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence released its “Dirty Dozen” list
of pro-gun rights candidates just before the election, claiming the candidates
“endanger public safety.”
Of the five Senate candidates opposed by Brady, only
one lost, DOUG FORRESTER (R-NJ). Only one of the three candidates on
the Brady Campaign’s House target list, California Republican DICK MONTEITH, was defeated.
In a move that will draw court
action,
The Michigan Coalition for
Responsible Gun Owners will challenge the ordinance, says the Coalition’s
attorney, DAN BAMBERY, as it exceeds the authority
the Legislature gives cities to regulate firearms.
los
angeles new
An outbreak of gang
violence has turned
A new ordinance would require
owners of shotguns, handguns and rifles to register existing weapons as well as
new ones. Police would issue a certificate that would have to accompany a
firearm at all times. Violators would face a fine up to $1,000 and a year in
prison or both. Wilmington Mayor JAMES M. BAKER has said he might veto
the bill because it may violate state law.
A Virginia House committee
has rejected a bill by Delegate JAMES M. SCOTT and others to ban guns from
the state Capitol and the chambers of the
A constitutional amendment
campaign now under way would guarantee the right to hunt, trap and fish in
NEW
The Assembly Law and Public
Safety Committee has approved legislation which would require
all handguns sold in
The bill, already approved
by the Senate, now goes to the full Assembly. If approved, it must return to
the Senate for concurrence with Assembly amendments. Gov. JAMES E. McGREEVEY has said he would sign the measure, which was
supported by CeasefireNJ and opposed by the
Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs.
California Attorney General
BILL LOCKYER is in the middle of a national debate
over a staff report he commissioned to study creating a “fingerprint”
database of images of shell casing marks left during test-firing of each new
handgun sold, if legislation was passed mandating such a database.
The
report has generated criticism for and against the “fingerprint database,” most
of it opposing the idea because it is technically flawed, since
“fingerprint” marks change with wear or can be deliberately altered.
gun
control CROWD ALREADY LOBBYING “ASSAULT WEAPONS” BAN EXTENSION
Congress is already getting
visits from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence (aka
Handgun Control, Inc.) trying to extend the so-called “assault weapons ban”
set to expire in September 2004.
MICHAEL BARNES, president
of the Brady Campaign, made it clear this issue will play a part in the 2004
elections.
LARRY PRATT, executive
director of Gun Owners of America, said there is a slight chance the ban
could be renewed just prior to the 2004 elections - a Republican majority
does not necessarily mean a pro-gun authority - and that gun owners everywhere
are preparing for such an eventuality.
Major Second Amendment
rights groups will be reminding lawmakers of the electoral fate of their former
colleagues who voted for the original ban.
PRATT said, “We’re going to
send them lots of ‘love letters’ saying things like ‘We sure hope you don’t
want to go through what happened in 1994.’”
Sen.
BARBARA BOXER (D-CA) has said she will introduce legislation next year to penalize
gun dealers for poor record-keeping. Her bill would make record- keeping failures a
felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.
BOXER
exploited the case of a
COPS
CONCEALED CARRY BILL DERAILED
The
Community Protection Act would allow off-duty and retired police officers,
but no one else, to carry concealed weapons anywhere in the country.
It won broad bipartisan backing in Congress and strong support from the
Fraternal Order of Police.
The
International Association of Chiefs of Police opposed the bill, saying off duty
or retired police officers have no more authority outside their jurisdictions than any other civilian.
But
the bill is essentially dead, thanks to the unlikely pair, Sen. EDWARD KENNEDY
(D-MA) and Rep. JAMES SENSENBRENNER (R-WI). Sen. KENNEDY loaded the bill down
with amendments. Rep. SENSENBRENNER stated his opposition in these terms: “Individual
states have the right to determine their own ‘right to carry’ laws.”
BATF FIGHTING PROPOSAL TO IMPORT
OLD
The
State Department is weighing a proposal ma
The
group asserts that the imports, including Garand
rifles, M-1 carbines, and M-1911 pistols, would be used by collectors, in
shooting competitions or for other legitimate purposes.
The
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is opposing the idea, saying it would
lift a 50-year-old ban and flood the market with outdated but deadly weapons
that could fall into the hands of criminals and would be hard to regulate.
FEDERAL
OFFICIAL INVESTIGATED FOR KEEPING GUN IN HER OFFICE
JANET
REHNQUIST, inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, is
being investigated for reports she kept a gun in her office without
authorization, according to the New York Times.
Many criminal investigators who work for inspectors
general are allowed to carry firearms, under tight controls, but they
must take training courses and be recertified every three months. REHNQUIST’s job description “does not require or authorize
her to carry a weapon,” said a law enforcement official.
VALOR CORPORATION
Attorneys
for the firearms industry predict an appeals court overturn of a
Lawyers
from the
A
newspaper poll showed the public overwhelmingly against the jury verdict,
rejecting the idea that a manufacturer or seller of a legal, highly regulated,
non-defective product can be held legally responsible for the criminal misuse
of their product.
Two
of the jurors in the Valor case changed their minds and asked to meet
with the judge in the case. The judge refused.
An
attorney for Valor said he would ask the trial judge to set aside the
verdict because of its inconsistency. Valor was found not guilty of
providing a defective and unreasonably dangerous product, yet guilty of negligence for
doing so.
SAF WILL FILE AMICUS
BRIEF TO KEEP RECORDS CONFIDENTIAL
Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide
whether the City of
Attorney General John Ashcroft’s lawyers petitioned
the Supreme Court to overturn the
The SAF amicus brief will argue that federal law
requires records on gun transactions and gun traces to remain confidential, not
only to protect the privacy of gun owners, but also to safeguard police
investigations.
The Arizona Supreme Court
has reaffirmed that
The court declined without
comment to review a Court of Appeals ruling that a city policy requiring gun
show operators to provide for background on private-party sales at their events
does not violate a preemption law giving the state regulatory power over
firearms sales.
Gun owners will take their
case to the
JUDGE
SAYS
A judge has ruled that the
city of
The
ruling clarifies how the city’s 1999 suit against Baretta
U.S.A. Corp. and other gun manufacturers may proceed. The case was lost in the
lower courts, but revived by a decision of the Ohio Supreme Court earlier this
year. It is set for trial December 22 before Common Pleas Court Judge Robert Ruehlman.
ANOTHER BRADY CENTER
CASE: SHOT COPS SUE GUN MAKER, DEALER
Two
Orange, N.J. policemen, David Lemongello and Kenneth
McGuire, who were shot by gas station holdup man and convicted felon Shuntez Everett, are being represented by Brady Center
(Handgun Control, Inc.) lawyers in a suit seeking damages from Will’s Jewelry
and Loan in West Virginia, and gunmaker Sturm, Ruger.
The
suit charges gun dealer Will’s with negligence for allegedly consummating “a
large-volume sale of guns that it must have known were headed for the illegal
market.” We’ve heard that argument before in these invented Brady theories.
The
suit also charges gun manufacturer Sturm, Ruger with negligence, accusing the
gun maker of “failing to enforce a code of conduct that would require its
dealers to spot and prevent straw sales and that would prevent its dealers from
engaging in large-volume sales.” We’ve heard that phony set-up, too.
Also
named as defendants are James Gray and Tammi Lea Songer, and the estate of Shuntez
Everett, who was killed in the shootout that left the two officers critically
wounded. Gray and Songer are broke and
Ironically,
employees at Will’s reported suspicious multiple purchases to the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which led to solving the case. No good deed will
go unpunished by the gun control crowd.
A
woman with no criminal record, Tammi Lea Songer, bought a total of 22 guns in three visits to the
store. Songer allegedly bought them for convicted
felon James Gray, who sold them to felons who could not legally own them,
including Shuntez Everett. The two police officers
were on a stakeout at a frequently robbed gas station when they were shot by
D.C. GUN BAN TO BE
CHALLENGED
Cato
Institute is planning a legal challenge to
Robert
A. Levy of Cato said, “No government should be permitted to take away
Americans’ right to
The
court challenge will be brought by a handful of D.C. residents who wish to own
guns and do not have felony convictions or misdemeanor gun convictions. No date
has been set for filing the complaint.
APPEALS COURT SAYS
Anti-gun
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley won a victory when the Illinois Appellate Court
ruled that handgun manufacturers and distributors can be held liable for
creating a nuisance that unreasonably threatens public safety.
City
lawyers can now return to a trial courtroom to attempt proving that 22 gunmakers, four distributors and nearly a dozen retailers
named in Daley’s $433 million, in fact, have acted irresponsibly.
The
case will likely lose at trial, but it keeps socking legal fees to the gun
industry, which is partly what
One
man was convicted for carrying a concealed handgun in his store, another for
carrying concealed handguns in a car in which he was a passenger. Justices are faced with a knotty problem in
deciding the cases, pitting a statute against a constitutional
amendment.
Axworthy maintains that provincial
conservation officers will not be checking for gun registration in the new year.
Greg Ahenakew, vice-chief of
the Federation of Saskatchewan Indians, says he will not register his
guns. The federation is challenging the federal government’s gun control law,
arguing that it infringes on treaty rights.
The sixth annual Interpolitech
Fair of security equipment opened in
More than 400 exhibitors laid out guns, body armor and
high-tech security gizmos to the delight of visitors. Most attendees will just
look and touch and go “Wow!” Those who can afford it and have the licenses
needed to make purchases will also go “Wow!” but they can take the guns home.
However, those without special services passes are not
allowed in one area of the hall guarded by the Federal Security Services,
where all the James Bond-type goodies are on display.
Things have certainly changed from the bad old days of
the
Firearms are freely available in this gun-ban country,
coming in with the drug lords who have sent serious shootings to record levels.
Gangland feuds over drug dealing have more than
doubled the serious shootings in
In 2001 serious shootings went up from 50 to 149 and
almost all were a result of battles for control over drug supplies.
Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Halpin,
head of Strathclyde Police area, said, “Organized
criminals who are involved in the drugs trade do so because of the enormous
profits that are there to be gained, so we shouldn’t be surprised that they are
absolutely determined to protect their own patch.
“Now if you think of
Scottish Executive ministers say the Scottish Drug
Enforcement Agency and new laws to confiscate drug dealers
assets will combat growing drug crime.
Prime Minister John Howard heaped praise on the
It was politics, of course, for the Prime Minister was
addressing the New South Wales State
Council of the Liberal Party in
However, in
The Federal Government also recently revealed a list of
259 handguns it wants to add to the ban, including Smith & Wesson 357
revolvers, the Beretta Tomcat, Colt pistols and the Glock
pistol.
As usual, the National Coalition for Gun Control said
the list didn’t go far enough.
GUN NEWS TICKER - QUICK TAKES ON THE NEWS
THE MEDIA ARE BEGINNING TO REPORT SELF-DEFENSE