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Second Amendment Case Heads to Supreme Court!

Well, it's finally happened. A true Second Amendment case has been sent to the Supreme Court. Parker v. District of Columbia was decided by the D.C. Circuit Court, which ruled that the D.C. gun ban in effect for more than three decades violates the Second Amendment. The city appealed to the Supreme Court, which has not yet decided whether to hear the case.

It's likely that SCOTUS will hear the case, since it trips the trigger for such action -- different circuit courts have ruled differently. Several circuit courts have ruled that there is no such thing as an individual right to keep and bear arms. Their ruling are that the Second Amendment guarantees the government the right to have guns. Now, from a historical perspective, this is just plain dumb. Coming out of a war of independence against a strong central government, it's impossible that the writers of the Bill of Rights wanted to make sure that the government, and not the people, was the only entity which could have guns. Putting that aside, the Fifth Circuit issued an opinion in the Emerson Case that the Second Amendment is an individual right, and now the D.C. Circuit has done the same, putting citizens in the position of not knowing what the law is. This is a textbook scenario for the Supreme Court to take the case.

If you really want to keep up with this (and it is interesting to follow), check out the web site of the lawyers representing the side of good over evil. Okay, I had to say that. http://www.dcguncase.com/blog

The television series I created and host -- Personal Defense TV -- returns in its second season October 3, and I think you will enjoy it. The first episode is where I got to shoot up a car, from the inside and the outside! We were at Gunsite, in Arizona, and they provided a car for us to use. What fun!

The show is on The Outdoor Channel, with airings at 5:00pm and 10:30 Eastern time on Wednesdays, and 2:30pm Eastern on Fridays. If you have Dish or DirecTV, you can add the Outdoor Channel for $1.99 a month, but when you call, be sure to ask for it "a la carte." The second season has more of Gunsite, Thunder Ranch, and other shooting
schools, and we have weekly sessions with Clint Smith and Massad Ayoob (who darn near tears my arm of in his demos). See you there!

You've heard me talk about New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's assaults on gun owners and gun retailers, particularly the creation of the strongly anti-gun group Mayors Against Illegal Guns. (Click Here to find out if YOUR mayor has joined this group). Bloomberg has engaged in what many have called a felony -- hiring people to commit crimes by making illegal straw purchases in several Southern states. If you or I did that, we would be in the federal penitentiary.

Adventure Outdoors is a retailer in Georgia, and it is one of the stores that Bloomberg's goons picked to do their larceny. They lied on the applications to buy guns, bought guns through the store illegally (even through the store did what was required of it), and then Bloomberg turned his taxpayer-financed attorneys loose to sue the store. Having had enough of that, Adventure Outdoor returned the favor, and countersued Bloomberg and New York City, using as one of its attorneys former U.S. Congressman Bob Barr (who has appeared on Tom Gresham's Gun Talk). In what appears to be good sense, New York City requested that the case be moved out of Georgia, and to the federal court in New York City. Gee, do you think they might have expected a less gun-friendly court in NYC?

Well, what do you know, but the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia denied the motion to move the case, and it will be heard in Georgia, as it should be. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) declined to prosecute Bloomberg for his acts, but it did send a strong letter of reprimand, saying that Bloombergs action interfered with ongoing criminal investigations.

By now you have seen the news reports of the NRA-sponsored event last week in Washington, DC, where several Republican candidates for President appeared. The most interesting was the speech by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, explaining that he is a strong Second Amendment supporter. At the same time he was parroting gun rights to the NRA, firearm manufacturers were in court in New York, trying to get thrown out the lawsuit that the city, under Mayor Giuliani's guidance, which claims that gun makers are responsible for the crime in that city. Hiz Honor, the mayor, now says that the lawsuit has gone in a direction he doesn't agree with. He also says his views on gun ownership have "evolved." When asked, he says that the gun rights in a big city should be different from those in the country or in smaller towns. He also says that people should be able to use guns to defend themselves in their homes -- that they have the right to be safe in their homes.

WRONG, Rudy! We have the right to be safe everywhere, no law should prohibit us from the means of making sure we and our families are safe. If a person misuses that right, hold that person responsible, but don't prohibit rights of the citizens.

Giuliani, who also supported the Clinton Gun Ban in 1994 received a polite, but skeptical, reception by NRA members at the event.

In Decatur, Alabama, a 12-year old boy took a BB gun to school. When I was in grade school, we had gun safety classes with the entire school in a public assembly. My father used to take his shotgun to grade school, leave it in the coat closet, and hunt on the way home.

This young boy was charged with making a terrorist threat and faces a year of expulsion. A 12-year old is a terrorist??? Have we gone mad? The only way to stop this madness is to call the officials on it. We must appear at school board meetings. We must work on state legislatures to remove prohibitions on carrying guns in schools for those who are licensed to carry. We must stop the "zero tolerance" nonsense. Government agencies will not do this on their own. When a child is suspended for pointing a chicken finger from his lunch at another student and saying "pow pow," (as we did as kids all the time, with fingers, sticks, pencils, etc.), it's time for us to take control of the agencies which enact and enforce such inanities.

Go shooting, and take a friend with you. Introducing others to shooting is the single most effective thing you can do for gun rights.

Shoot safely!

Tom Gresham