Posts Tagged civil rights

Defense Distributed Sues State Department

From The New York Times:

Now, with a high-powered legal team behind it, Mr. Wilson’s company,Defense Distributed, a self-described “anti-monopolist digital publisher,” has filed suit against the State Department claiming that its efforts to stop him from publishing his instructions, which are no more than computer code, amount to a prior restraint on free speech. The 25-page suit, filed on Wednesday in Federal District Court in Austin, Tex., is an innovative and apparently unprecedented effort to use the First Amendment in support of the Second.

From Wired:

Wilson’s gun manufacturing advocacy group Defense Distributed, along with the gun rights group the Second Amendment Foundation, on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the State Department and several of its officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry. In their complaint, they claim that a State Department agency called the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) violated their first amendment right to free speech by telling Defense Distributed that it couldn’t publish a 3-D printable file for its one-shot plastic pistol known as the Liberator, along with a collection of other printable gun parts, on its website.

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“Assault Weapons” Can Be Banned If It Makes People Feel Better

From 7th Circuit Court of Appeals:

…the majority found that “[i]f a ban on semi‐automatic guns and large‐capacity magazines reduces the perceived risk from a mass shooting, and makes the public feel safer as a result, that’s a substantial benefit.”

The judges didn’t judge the case from a legal perspective but from how the public feels about it. They are no longer judges if they simply bow to the whim of the public.

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Gun Issue Creating “Two Americas”

From Reason.com:

Is America once again splitting into free and unfree states? At least on the issue of self-defense rights, that seems to be the case—so says Jennifer Carlson, a University of Toronto sociologist who includes gun issues among her areas of study. At the Wall Street Journal she writes that it no longer makes sense in the United States to talk about national gun policy, but instead to recognize widely divergent trends at the state level that are taking Americans in different political, cultural, and technological directions.

 

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Second Amendment Op-Ed By Sen. Cruz

From National Review:

Friday, the New York Times stated, in a blaring headline, that my support for Second Amendment rights is “strange.”

In particular, the writer took issue with my statement that “”the Second Amendment to the Constitution isn’t for just protecting hunting rights, and it’s not only to safeguard your right to target practice. It is a constitutional right to protect your children, your family, your home, our lives, and to serve as the ultimate check against governmental tyranny — for the protection of liberty.”

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Majority Of Blacks Favor Gun Ownership

From NPR:

According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, 54 percent of blacks now see gun ownership as a good thing, something more likely to protect than harm. That’s up from 29 percent just two years ago. In places like Detroit, more African-Americans are getting permits to carry concealed weapons.

 

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Tampa Bay Times Anti-gun Editorial

Tampa Bay Times:

It’s been a banner session in Tallahassee for gun zealots and the National Rifle Association and a terrible one for common sense and public safety. In the past weeks, the Senate passed a bill allowing gun owners to carry their weapons in public during a declared state of emergency. It also moved closer to allowing guns on college campuses. The House, meanwhile, killed a bill that would have barred backyard shooting ranges. With the state and the Tampa Bay area awash in gun violence, it was a stunning display of this Legislature’s blatant disregard for public safety.

Ammoland’s response:

In an attempt to prove this premise, they touch on the “contrived” arguments for campus carry, arguments that rest on the idea of armed women stopping “murderers and rapists.”

The problem with this line of thinking is that conservatives believe women are as capable of stopping murderers and rapists as men are, given one important tool…a gun. Conservatives do not agree with the Times, Salon, Shannon Watts, Moms Demand Action, Everytown for Gun Safety, and others who [are paid to] or pretend the idea of arming women is foolish.

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NJ Governor Pardons Pennsylvania Single Mother

From The Blaze:

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Thursday pardoned Shaneen Allen, a single mother arrested last year for bringing her legal handgun into New Jersey from her home state of Pennsylvania. She initially faced a felony charge and years in prison, but was later permitted to enter a pretrial intervention program.

 

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Dhimmitude And Disarmament

Forthcoming article from David Kopel:

Under shari’a law, non-Muslims, known as dhimmi, have been forbidden to possess arms, and to defend themselves from attacks by Muslims. The disarmament is one aspect of the pervasive civil inferiority of non-Muslims, a status known as dhimmitude. This Essay examines the historical effects of the shari’a disarmament, based on three books by Bat Ye’or, the world’s leading scholar of dhimmitude. As Ye’or details, the disarmament had catastrophic consequences, extending far beyond the direct loss of the dhimmi’s ability to defend themselves. The essay concludes by observing how pretend gun-free zones on college campuses turn the adults there into 21st century dhimmi, unable to defend themselves against murderous predators.

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When Is a NICS Check Required?

From Prince Law Offices, P.C.:

It’s no secret that ATF told at least one FFL they need to run a NICS check on trustees picking up NFA firearms on behalf of a trust. In a letter addressed toDakota Silencer, ATF explained:

The term “person” is defined by the GCA at 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(1), to include “any individual, corporation, company, association, firm, partnership, society, or joint stock company.”

ATF has interpreted the GCA exception in sections 922(t)(3)(B) and 478.102(d)(2) to mean that firearms transfers are exempt from a NICS check when they have been approved under the NFA to the person receiving the firearm. Unlike individuals, corporations, partnerships, and associations; unincorporated trusts do not fall within the definition of “person” in the GCA.

Because unincorporated trusts are not “persons” under the GCA, a Federal firearms licensee (FFL) cannot transfer firearms to them without complying with the GCA. Thus, when an FFL transfers an NFA firearm to a trustee or other person acting on behalf of a trust, the transfer is made to this person as an individual (i.e., not as a trust). As the trustee or other person acting on behalf of the trust is not the approved transferee under the NFA, 18 U.S.C. 5812, the trustee or other person acting on behalf of a trust must undergo a NICS check. The individual must also be a resident of the same State as the FFL when receiving the firearm.

There is a lot of technical legal speak in this post but it is fascinating how the government has spun such a tangled web of laws that may actually cancel out or contradict one another.

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Second Amendment Enforcement Act

From NRA-ILA:

This week, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and U.S. Representative Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) introduced “The Second Amendment Enforcement Act of 2015” in the U.S. Senate and House respectively.  These bills would restore the fundamental individual right for law-abiding D.C. residents to Keep and Bear Arms to defend themselves in accordance with the law.  This bill would also conform D.C. law to federal laws in regards to governing firearms commerce, while also allowing D.C. residents to purchase firearms from licensed dealers in VA and MD, without the current hassle of D.C.’s onerous firearm registration system.  The D.C. permitting system would also become streamlined, allowing for more law-abiding D.C. residents to legally obtain a permit and carry concealed firearms for self-defense.

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Ignorant Congressman Doesn’t Understand Guns, Bullets or the Purpose of the Second Amendment

From The Journal News:

The only people who should have access to these bullets are law enforcement and the military. There is no conceivable reason for anybody else to need access to a handgun round that can pierce body armor. It is our responsibility to do whatever we can to keep law enforcement safe – to protect them while they protect us. And when the gun industry fights to keep ammunition like this on the street, we must stand up.

Hunters and law-abiding gun owners have no need for a compact, semi-automatic firearm with ammunition that punches through body armor. Deer don’t wear Kevlar. Yet over and over again, we hear the gun industry lobby arguing to ensure that civilians have access to cop-killing bullets.

Why do police need armor piercing bullets? How many crimes have been committed by people wearing body armor? Every .30 caliber rifle round can pierce soft body armor. If you are truly against “armor piercing ammo” then you should want all rifle ammunition banned. Hunting is a false argument, the second amendment never mentions hunting. At the time of the War of Independence the citizens of the colonies were just as well armed as the Redcoats. There were even towns that had their own armories stocked with cannons.

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Rape Survivor’s Impassioned Plea With Maryland Legislators

Maryland gun laws

https://youtu.be/aD4J1kscK1Q

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EBay Bans the Sale of Gun Parts

From Shooting Sports Retailer:

One of the most popular outlets for selling many of the parts to build an AR-style rifles says it has rules banning the listing of so-called “assault rifle” components, adding its regulations are in line with laws in its home state of California.

But a news investigation into the sales of AR parts on the world’s most popular auction site eBay shows many sellers either don’t know the rules or tweak their listings to circumvent algorithms alerting the company of the banned items. And despite officials at the company learning of the parts sales, the items remain on the site for weeks despite the rules.

 

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Minnesota House To Weigh Legalizing Suppressors

From Star-Tribune:

Also called “suppression devices,” the metal tubes that enable guns to fire more quietly are one step closer to becoming legal after the House Public Safety and Crime Prevention Committee voted Thursday evening to pass a measure legalizing them.

It heads next to the House floor for a vote, but it’s uncertain whether gun-related legislation will gain traction in the Senate, while Gov.Mark Dayton said he has no interest in changing the state’s existing gun laws.

The committee also cleared measures allowing permit holders to carry guns on State Capitol grounds without first notifying the state Department of Public Safety and easing the purchase of guns in other states.

 

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ATF Director: “Any 5.56 Round a Challenge To Officer Safety”

From The Washington Examiner:

In a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, ATF Director B. Todd Jones said all types of the 5.56 military-style ammo used by shooters pose a threat to police as more people buy the AR-15-style pistols.

“Any 5.56 round” is “a challenge for officer safety,” he said. Jones asked lawmakers to help in a review of a 1986 bill written to protect police from so-called “cop killer” rounds that largely exempted rifle ammo like the 5.56 because it has been used by target shooters, not criminals.

So the problem isn’t M855 but all 5.56 ammo? Sounds like they want to ban all ammunition.

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