Maryland NRA Instructor and Rape Victim Makes a Case for Shall Issue

California Attorney General and Brady Group to Appeal Peruta Shall-issue Case

California State Attorney General Kamala Harris

Guns dot com

The California attorney general, along with a national gun control group, will push for a federal court to further review the state’s landmark concealed carry case.

Kamala Harris, coupled with the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, moved for a full en bancrehearing by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals of the recent decision by a 2 to 1 panel that neither had grounds to intervene in the Perutacase.

“The Second Amendment allows people to enact reasonable regulations to protect families from guns in restaurants, parks, streets, and other public places,” said Brady attorney Jonathan Lowy in a statement.

“The people of California have rejected the gun lobby’s ‘guns everywhere’ vision and sensibly decided to keep their communities safer by keeping dangerous people like the killers of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis from carrying guns virtually anywhere,” Lowy said. “California’s gun laws are strong, sensible, and effective at reducing crime, and Brady will continue to fight to defend their constitutionality.”

Disgraceful Laws in Washington Which Allow Convicted Felons to Get Their Gun Rights Back

Watervliet, NY Asks Pistol Permit Applicants for Facebook Passwords

TTAG via Kurt Hofmann

The photo above shows an application for a pistol permit as used by the Watervliet, New York police department. It comes to us from “Mazz,” a member of the nyfirearms.com forum [registration required]. As you can see the app asks applicants for their “Facebook & Password.” Considering the document’s homemade look and the absurdity of the request, I called the Watervliet PD for confirmation and clarification. I got Chief Ron Boisvert . . .

The Chief told TTAG that the sheet shouldn’t have been in the application packet – and won’t be in future. “It’s for internal use only,” he said.

Yes, well, the Chief said he uses the form to gather the applicant’s Facebook deets during a face-to-face interview. Why make note of the password? “We don’t,” he insisted. “We ask the applicant to log on to Facebook in front of us.” So the Chief scrolls through the applicant’s Facebook page searching for . . . ?

“Pages they’re looked at, friends – anything that reflects on the character of the applicant.” I pointed out that there’s a big difference [in terms of privacy] between viewing a Facebook page as a friend and viewing it as the owner. The Chief wasn’t bothered by the distinction.

Kurt said, "I'm hoping it's a hoax."

I don't see why it would be.  To me it appears to be a bumbling attempt to effectively process the may-issue system of granting permits.  I say bumbling, because I suspect the tech-unfriendly folks who put that form together didn't know that one can view another's Facebook page without the password. They probably didn't know about the Friend status for viewing, which would accomplish the desired goal.

Gun-Carrying Limits Survive as High Court Rejects Appeal

Bloomberg

The U.S. Supreme Court rebuffed gun-rights advocates by letting stand a Maryland law that requires people to show a special need for protection to get a permit for carrying a handgun in public.

Six months after leaving intact a similar New York law, the justices today turned away an appeal by a Maryland man who was denied renewal of his permit to carry a handgun. A federal appeals court upheld the law in March, saying it was a reasonable effort to protect public safety and prevent crime.

The rejection, at least for the time being, keeps the justices out of the fray over the constitutional right to bear arms. The nation’s highest court hasn’t considered a Second Amendment case since 2010, when it said people have a right to have a handgun in the home for self-defense purposes.

Under the appeals court ruling, “the Second Amendment has no practical impact beyond the threshold of one’s home,” argued Raymond Woollard, the Maryland man who challenged the law along with the Bellevue, Washington-based Second Amendment Foundation. The National Rifle Association also backed the appeal.

Maryland is one of six states that generally require people to make special showing to get a carry permit. The state’s requirement doesn’t apply to police officers, prosecutors, judges and security guards.

The law protects citizens by “decreasing the availability of handguns to criminals via theft, lessening the risk that basic confrontations will turn deadly and reducing escalations of routine police encounters with citizens into high-risk situations,” Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler argued in court papers.