The Second Amendment and Concealed Carry

The Brady Campaign

Dennis Henigan wrote a wonderful article about some of the legal disappointments suffered by the NRA, in particular the one in Texas about 18-year-old concealed carry.

The NRA’s biggest problem, though, was that Judge Cummings was careful to read the Supreme Court’s Heller opinion and understand that it does nothing to support the gun lobby’s constitutional extremism. Much to the NRA’s chagrin, Judge Cummings emphasized that the right recognized in Heller was, in his words “quite narrow,” finding that “the Second Amendment does not confer a right that extends beyond the home.” Judge Cummings cited the legion of other post-Heller rulings also confining Heller’s scope to the possession and carrying of guns within the home. Not only did the NRA’s handpicked federal judge find no constitutional right for an 18-year-old to carry handguns in public, he found no such right for anyone to do so. It is also worth noting that, four months ago, Judge Cummings rejected another NRA lawsuit and upheld the federal ban on gun dealer sales of handguns to persons under 21 years of ago, a restriction that obviously impacts the freedom of young people to have a gun inside the home for self-defense.

Sometimes it seems like the gun-rights extremists have to be hit in the head with a 2 by 4 before they listen up. What could be more ridiculous than saying it's a constitutional right for 18-year-olds, or anyone else for that matter, to carry a concealed weapon?

When a gun-friendly judge says it's not, I guess it really isn't.  What's your opinion?

Please leave a comment.

Kansas Man Arrested for Threatening With his Home Defense Gun

The Wichita Kansas Eagle reports on another one of those extremely rare cases: homeowner with a gun uses it wrongly.

A man in his 30s was arrested on suspicion aggravated assault after pointing a gun at a 20-year-old man and threatening to kill him “if he said another word,” police said.

The incident occurred at 1:05 a.m. Saturday.

The suspect first broke out a window of his home in the 700 block of South Oliver, put a black revolver through the window and yelled at two men next door to stop talking.One of the victims ran to the front of the house, where he was met by the suspect who threatened to kill him if he said anything more, police said.

A homeowner in Kansas who gets upset at the noisy neighbors and threatens them with a gun, could very well be a CCW permit holder. But no one is checking on that. Whether he has a carry permit or not has nothing to do with this story. It does, however, have plenty to do with the outlandish low percentages they keep telling us of concealed carry guys who act badly.

In many cases crimes like this one, which are clearly indicative of unfitness, get plea bargained down to nothing. And our hero continues to own and abuse his guns.

What's your opinion? Is that reading too much into the story?

Please leave a comment.

Las Vegas Schools and Guns

Local Las Vegas News reports

CCSD sees spike in guns on campus

It's like a joke. In one of the most gun-friendly states, in the city where guns are glorified like nowhere else, the cops are baffled at the increase in teen gun possession.

What's your opinion? Wouldn't it be fair to blame this on the individual families of these kids, and the society they grew up in and by extension the gun-rights advocates who work so hard to normalize gun ownership, in addition to the criminal kids themselves, of course.

Please leave a comment.

Wisconsin Republican Lawmaker and Speaker Pro Tem Bill Kramer is Packin'

The Chicago Tribune reports

The Republican lawmaker who presides over the state Assembly said Friday he's been carrying a concealed weapon during floor sessions.

Speaker Pro Tem Bill Kramer, of Waukesha, essentially controls the chamber during debate, presiding over procedures and controlling the debate. He also can order spectators out of the chamber if he so chooses.

He told The Associated Press that he obtained permit No. 16,657 under Wisconsin's new concealed carry law in November. He said he has carried a hidden Glock 26, a subcompact semi-automatic, onto the floor at times.

The reason, I mean besides the fact that it's his god-given, basic-human, inalienable, constitutionally protected right to do so, is this:

Bands of protesters still angry over Republican Gov. Scott Walker's contentious collective bargaining law have spent the past year harassing GOP legislators.

One threw a beer on state Rep. Robin Vos, R-Burlington, co-chairman of the Legislature's powerful finance committee, in a Madison bar in September. Last week, protesters heckled Walker from the Assembly's overhead galleries as the governor delivered his state-of-the-state address in the chamber. The next night during debate on a divisive mining permit bill, Kramer ordered the galleries cleared after agitators hung a banner over a railing and hurled profanities at lawmakers.

Don't you love that "hurled profanities at lawmakers," justification?

This is why they hang onto the 2A-right nonsense so tenaciously, if we examine the other reasons they look pretty foolish.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

RIP Ben Gazzara

Austin Texas Homeowner Exercising His God-given Right

Washington Post Op-ed on Guns to Mexico

The Washington Post published a wonderful op-ed

Do America's failed gun policies contribute to the terrible violence in Mexico? Alejandro A. Poire Romero makes a compelling case that the answer is yes.

He mentions the extremely high percentage of traced guns at Mexican crime scenes which came from The States, not omitting the key work "traced."

He talks about the need for another Assault Weapons Ban as well as closing the gun-show loophole.

He doesn't shy away from the Fast and Furious scandal at all, but puts it in perfect perspective.

Fast and Furious was a well-intentioned, misguided response to — and not the cause of — the proliferation of illegal guns in Mexico. To stanch that flow, the Obama administration and Congress should heed the pleas of Mr. Poire Romero and his countrymen by reviving the assault weapons ban and closing the gun show loophole that makes it far too easy to sell weapons without a background check. The White House and lawmakers should work to enact a federal firearms trafficking statute and call for stiffer penalties for illegal straw purchases. Lawmakers also should confirm a chief for the ATF and give the beleaguered agency enough money and personnel to fulfill its mission of keeping illegal guns out of the hands of criminals on both sides of the border.

What's your opinion? Does that sound better than the hysterical exaggerations we read on other sites like TTAG and The Sipsey Street Irregulars?

Please leave a comment.