The Supreme Court refuses to challenge a New Jersey law which restricts the right to bear arms outside the home.

Supreme Court won't rule on carrying guns in public

Credit: KING

by Richard Wolf, USA TODAY

Posted on May 5, 2014 at 7:14 AM

Updated today at 7:14 AM

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court appears hesitant to wade back into the national debate on guns.
The court refused Monday to decide whether the right to bear arms extends outside the home. The justices won't consider a challenge to a New Jersey law that restricts most residents from carrying guns in public.
The case would have marked the most significant gun control case at the high court since its District of Columbia v. Heller decision in 2008 upheld the right to keep handguns at home for self-defense.
The New Jersey challenge was backed by the National Rifle Association and Gun Owners Foundation. "The Second Amendment guarantees the right to carry weapons for the purpose of self-defense — not just for self-defense within the home, but for self-defense, period," the NRA argued in its brief to the high court.
New Jersey law enforcement groups defended the state's requirement that citizens prove a "justifiable need" to carry handguns outside the home, whether openly or concealed from view. In their brief, they claimed the law "qualifies as a presumptively lawful, longstanding regulation that does not burden conduct within the scope of the Second Amendment's guarantee."

Read More Here

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California’s concealed weapons laws shot down

California Political News

by Stephen Frank on 02/13/2014
.....

Miracles do happen.  The most radical Leftist Federal Court in American, the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals, has decided a case based on the Constitution.  They ruled that the Constitution allows honest private citizens to carry guns without interference from government.  No one would predict a decision based on the U.S. Constitution from these Fidel loving lawyers.
Of course this will go to the Supreme Court.  Still it is a start.  Imagine, being allowed to protect yourself from criminals!
“The 2-1 decision says San Diego County’s system of issuing permits to carry concealed weapons infringes on the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
If not reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court, the decision means law-abiding citizens will be able to carry concealed firearms in public.
“San Diego County’s ‘good cause’ permitting requirement impermissibly infringes on the Second Amendment right to bear arms in lawful self-defense,” says the majority opinion, written by Judge Diarmuid O`Scannlain.”

California’s concealed weapons laws shot down
Central Valley Business Times,  2/13/14
•  Federal appellate court rules in San Diego case
•  “Impermissibly infringes on the Second Amendment right to bear arms in lawful self-defense”
California’s laws against carrying a concealed weapon may have been shot down by a divided opinion of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The 2-1 decision says San Diego County’s system of issuing permits to carry concealed weapons infringes on the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
If not reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court, the decision means law-abiding citizens will be able to carry concealed firearms in public.
Read More Here
.....

9th Circuit: The Second Amendment Protects the Right to Carry a Gun

By Charles C. W. Cooke

February 13, 2014 2:22 PM

A big decision from the 9th Circuit today. Per Eugene Volokh:

The court concludes that California’s broad limits on both open and concealed carry of loaded guns — with no “shall-issue” licensing regime that assures law-abiding adults of a right to get licenses, but only a “good cause” regime under which no license need be given — “impermissibly infringe[] on the Second Amendment right to bear arms in lawful self-defense.”

In other words, one has the right to carry a gun. The state can elect to recognize this by permitting either “shall-issue” concealed-carry or “shall-issue” open carry, but it cannot restrict or prohibit both.
Read More Here
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ABC News Home

Court Tosses California's Concealed-Weapons Rules

SAN FRANCISCO February 13, 2014 (AP)

By PAUL ELIAS Associated Press

A divided federal appeals court on Thursday struck down California concealed-weapons rules, saying they violate the Second Amendment right to bear arms.
The 2-1 ruling of a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said California counties were wrong to require law-abiding applicants to show "good cause" beyond self-defense to receive a concealed-weapons permit.
California prohibits people from carrying handguns in public without a concealed-weapons permit. State law requires applicants to show good moral character, have good cause and take a training course. It's generally up to the state's sheriffs and police chiefs to issue the permits, and the vast majority require an applicant to demonstrate a real danger or other reasons beyond simple self-defense to receive a permit. The 9th Circuit on Thursday said that requirement violates the 2nd Amendment.
The San Francisco-based appeals court said those requirements were too strict and ran afoul of a 5-4 landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2008 that struck down a Washington, D.C., handgun ban and said law-abiding citizens are allowed to have handguns in their home for self-defense.
"The right to bear arms includes the right to carry an operable firearm outside the home for the lawful purpose of self-defense," Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain wrote for the majority.
Chuck Michel, an attorney who represented several San Diego County residents who were denied a permit and who filed a lawsuit in 2009, praised the 9th Circuit Court's ruling.
"This decision is a very dramatic confirmation of the Supreme Court ruling," Michel said.
Read More Here
.....

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Sheriffs Refuse to Enforce Laws on Gun Control

The New York Times

Michael Ciaglo/The Colorado Springs Gazette, via Associated Press

John Cooke is among the Colorado sheriffs who are resisting enforcement of new state gun laws.

By ERICA GOODE

Published: December 15, 2013 

GREELEY, Colo. — When Sheriff John Cooke of Weld County explains in speeches why he is not enforcing the state’s new gun laws, he holds up two 30-round magazines. One, he says, he had before July 1, when the law banning the possession, sale or transfer of the large-capacity magazines went into effect. The other, he “maybe” obtained afterward.

He shuffles the magazines, which look identical, and then challenges the audience to tell the difference.

“How is a deputy or an officer supposed to know which is which?” he asks.

Colorado’s package of gun laws, enacted this year after mass shootings in Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn., has been hailed as a victory by advocates of gun control. But if Sheriff Cooke and a majority of the other county sheriffs in Colorado offer any indication, the new laws — which mandate background checks for private gun transfers and outlaw magazines over 15 rounds — may prove nearly irrelevant across much of the state’s rural regions.

Some sheriffs, like Sheriff Cooke, are refusing to enforce the laws, saying that they are too vague and violate Second Amendment rights. Many more say that enforcement will be “a very low priority,” as several sheriffs put it. All but seven of the 62 elected sheriffs in Colorado signed on in May to a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the statutes.

The resistance of sheriffs in Colorado is playing out in other states, raising questions about whether tougher rules passed since Newtown will have a muted effect in parts of the American heartland, where gun ownership is common and grass-roots opposition to tighter restrictions is high.

Read More Here

Multimedia

Interactive Graphic

State Gun Laws Enacted in the Year Since Newtown

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US schools keep trying wrong fixes to deter school shootings, experts say

Bullet-proof boards: Cold Spring Police Chief Phil Jones, left, and Rocori School District Superintendent Scott Staska pose with bulletproof white boards in Cold Spring, Minnesota

Via Mail Online

Newtown anniversary: US schools keep trying wrong fixes to deter school shootings, experts say

By Bill Dedman
Investigative Reporter, NBC News
It happened after Columbine, after Virginia Tech, and after Newtown, too. After every massacre in a school, Americans grasp at quick cures. Let's install metal detectors and give guns to teachers. Let's crack down on troublemakers, weeding out kids who fit the profile of a gunman. Let's buy bulletproof whiteboards for the students to scurry behind, or train kids to throw erasers or cans of soup at an attacker.
Researchers who study school shootings say the nation has done the wrong things, again and again, to prevent these rare but frightening events. And when more promising measures that address the real causes of school shootings are tried, the money has ridden a rollercoaster, rising a year after a major attack, then falling as memories fade. Only one out of five schools currently gets money for one of the Obama administration's signature programs to reduce school shootings.
"Many of the school safety and security measures deployed in response to school shootings have little research support," concluded a 2010 research article in Educational Researcher, "What Can Be Done About School Shootings?: A Review of the Evidence." The researchers called the widely adopted policies of zero-tolerance discipline and student profiling "unsound practices."
The problem, the researchers say, is that the nation hasn't paid attention to actual research about how school shootings unfold.
School shooters don't "snap" or "go crazy." They have serious grievances, and they plan their attacks. Many felt bullied, persecuted, or injured by others. They engaged in behaviors that caused other students and adults to think they needed help. They showed difficulty coping with significant losses or personal failures. They told others about their plan. And they had access to weapons.

Seeking ways to offer better security after a school shooting in their district, a Minnesota school system purchases portable bullet-proof whiteboards for classrooms. KARE's Julie Nelson reports.

These patterns point to a different set of preventive measures. Instead of trying to put metal detectors at every door, which do little more than ensure that the operator of the metal detector gets shot first, schools need to do the more difficult work of creating schools where bullying is not allowed, where grievances are dealt with quickly, where students feel safe speaking up about a student they're concerned about, where students feeling suicidal have someone to talk with. And at home, guns need to be under lock and key.
Paying attention to the evidence
A landmark study in 2002 by the U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Department of Education, examining the facts of 37 school shootings, identified patterns contradicting the public perception of a loner who "just snapped":

• Incidents of targeted violence at school are rarely sudden, impulsive acts.
• Many attackers felt bullied, persecuted, or injured by others prior to the attack.
• Most attackers engaged in some behavior, prior to the incident, that caused concern or indicated a need for help.
• Most attackers were known to have difficulty coping with significant losses or personal failures. Many had considered or attempted suicide.
• Most attackers did not threaten their targets directly prior to advancing the attack.
• There is no accurate or useful "profile" of students who engage in targeted school violence. Some come from good homes, some from bad. Some have good grades, some bad.
• Most attackers had access to and had used weapons prior to the attack.
• Prior to most incidents, other people knew about the attacker’s idea or plan, and often other students were involved.

What steps should schools take?
The researchers urged that schools take the following steps: 

Aug. 14: A Boston area company that makes bulletproof backpacks says it has received requests from all over the country. WHDH's

• Assess the school’s emotional climate.
• Emphasize the importance of listening in schools.
• Adopt a strong, but caring stance against the code of silence.
• Prevent, and intervene in, cases of bullying.
• Involve all members of the school community in planning, creating and sustaining a school culture of safety and respect.
• Develop trusting relationships between each student and at least one adult at school.
• Create of mechanisms for developing and sustaining safe school climates.

Read More Here

.....

Teachers given bullet-proof WHITEBOARDS to use in defense during school shootings

By Daily Mail Reporter
PUBLISHED: 21:28 EST, 22 April 2013 | UPDATED: 21:28 EST, 22 April 2013

A central Minnesota school district that was the site of a school shooting in 2003 is getting a new device designed to help keep kids safe: bulletproof whiteboards.

Impressed: Cold Spring Police Chief Phil Jones says it's the best development in school safety he's seen

The Rocori School District plans to put one of the whiteboards in every classroom to add another layer of defense if a gunman enters school grounds.
The boards are designed by Maryland-based Hardwire LLC and they can hang on a wall and be used in class, just like any traditional marker board.
But when the lives of students are threatened, a teacher can use also use one of the boards as a shield.
Cold Spring Police Chief Phil Jones says it’s the best development in school safety he’s seen.
Not a day goes by when Jones doesn't think of Seth Bartell and Aaron Rollins, who were murdered in the 2003 school shooting, he said.
‘Two bright and brilliant students were killed with this bullet,’ the police chief told Fox9 in Minnesota as he showed the type of bullet that was used.
Each bullet-proof board weighs a few pounds and is a quarter of an inch thick.  

Read More and Watch Video Here
.....

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NRA News Video Exposes Cal-DOJ’s Firearm Confiscation Program For What It Truly Is

NRAVideos

Published on Wednesday, July 03, 2013

San Diego, CA --(Ammoland.com)- After the success of its first video revealing some truths about the value of the California DOJ’s Armed Prohibited Persons System (APPS) program, Ginny Simone and NRA News have released a follow-up video containing an extended interview with former DOJ Special Agent, Greg Cameron, who has nothing good to say about DOJ’s gun seizure program in which he himself participated.
As part of their efforts to justify increased firearm purchase fees and universal gun registration nationwide, California politicians are enhancing a program which identifies people who are prohibited from possessing firearms, ammunition, ammunition components, clips, magazines, and speed loaders, and send out teams of police to confiscate them.
If you are unsure of your status to possess firearms, take action! Police may be knocking on your door!
Attorney General Harris claims that the program goes after “violent felons” and people “determined by a court to be mentally ill.” Sounds great doesn’t it? Too bad the “system” doesn’t work that way, and Harris’ claims are not accurate. The first Ginny Simone video, which NRA News recently released, featured accounts from innocent victims of the APPS program, the informed critical opinions a former DOJ agent who actually took part in APPS sweeps, and firearm civil rights attorney, C.D. Michel. That video revealed the APPS program as at best ineffective or incidental at getting guns from violent criminals, and at worst a campaign of civil rights violations against unknowing accidental and harmless “criminals” mislabeled as crime fighting.
While the idea behind APPS program is good in theory – seeking to disarm the truly dangerous elements of society – the APPS program does not actually do this. Using recent tragedies to make APPS sound like something it is not, politicians have mischaracterized what APPS does, and have diverted millions of dollars from firearm purchasers (via the fees they are required to pay for background checks) to step up the gun confiscations.


Read More  Here

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‘Hell to pay:’ Residents furious as RCMP seize guns from High River homes

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RCMP revealed Thursday that officers have seized a “substantial amount” of firearms from homes in the evacuated town of High River. “We just want to make sure that all of those things are in a spot that we control, simply because of what they are,” said Sgt. Brian Topham. That news didn’t sit well with a crowd of frustrated residents who had planned to breach a police checkpoint northwest of the town as an evacuation order stretched into its eighth day.

 

 

The Vancouver Sun

‘It’s just like Nazi Germany,’ says resident

 

By Trevor Howell, Calgary Herald June 28, 2013

 

 

 

Staff Sgt. Kevin Morton tries to help Jeff Langford, green shirt middle, with Ian Scheelar, left and Greg Kvisle come up with a plan to help him get some answers. Evacuees confronted the RCMP on the northwest corner of town in a bid to enter the Town of High River on Thursday, June 27th 2013, one week after the Highwood River flooded leaving the whole town empty. The protest stopped after and hour and a half but plans are to make it bigger on Friday.

Photograph by: Lorraine Hjalte, Calgary Herald

 

Evacuees, including Bob Michouluk Sr., confronted the RCMP on the northwest corner of town in a bid to enter the Town of High River on Thursday, June 27th 2013, one week after the Highwood River Flooded leaving the whole town empty. RCMP laid a spike belt down across the road to prevent them from travelling down it.

Photograph by: Lorraine Hjalte, Calgary Herald

Additional Photos Available Here

 

HIGH RIVER — RCMP revealed Thursday that officers have seized a “substantial amount” of firearms from homes in the evacuated town of High River.
“We just want to make sure that all of those things are in a spot that we control, simply because of what they are,” said Sgt. Brian Topham.
“People have a significant amount of money invested in firearms ... so we put them in a place that we control and that they’re safe.”
That news didn’t sit well with a crowd of frustrated residents who had planned to breach a police checkpoint northwest of the town as an evacuation order stretched into its eighth day.
“I find that absolutely incredible that they have the right to go into a person’s belongings out of their home,” said resident Brenda Lackey, after learning Mounties have been taking residents’ guns. “When people find out about this there’s going to be untold hell to pay.”
About 30 RCMP officers set up a blockade at the checkpoint, preventing 50 residents from walking into the town. Dozens more police cars, lights on, could be seen lining streets in the town on standby.
Officers laid down a spike belt to stop anyone from attempting to drive past the blockade. That action sent the crowd of residents into a rage.
“What’s next? Tear gas?” shouted one resident.
“It’s just like Nazi Germany, just taking orders,” shouted another.
“This is the reason the U.S. has the right to bear arms,” said Charles Timpano, pointing to the group of Mounties.


Read  More Here

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Up in arms: seizure by Mounties of flood evacuees' guns generates debate

By: Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press

Posted: 10:11 AM |  Last Modified: 4:51 PM

HIGH RIVER, Alta. - The RCMP's seizure of guns from the homes of some Alberta flood evacuees had people in many camps up in arms Friday with the Prime Minister's Office demanding the weapons be returned as soon as possible and sports shooters calling the move an "act of aggression."
The Mounties confirmed they had taken guns from homes as officers searched homes in High River's flood zone to look for flood victims, pets and anything that might pose a threat to returning residents.
An RCMP official said any guns removed from homes were not properly stored.
In a statement released Friday, the force said officers found that some gun owners had laid out their weapons in plain view as they presumably moved valuable possessions to higher ground.
The weapons were tagged for return to their owners.
"The last thing any gun owner wants is to have their guns fall into the wrong hands. Residents of High River can be assured that firearms now in possession of the RCMP are in safe hands, and will be returned to them as soon as is practically possible," said assistant commissioner Marianne Ryan.
That angered High River residents, who have been anxious to return to their homes to assess flood damage. An evacuation order for the town of about 13,000 residents was in its ninth day Friday, although it was announced some homeowners were being allowed to return Saturday.
The seizure generated opinions on all sides, including from the highest political office in the land.
"We expect that any firearms taken will be returned to their owners as soon as possible," said Stephen Harper's press secretary Carl Vallee.
"We believe the RCMP should focus on more important tasks such as protecting lives and private property."
In a statement, Tony Bernardo, executive director of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association, called it an "act of aggression."
"This ... is further proof that the RCMP have a not-so-hidden agenda to take guns away from responsible gun owners," said Bernardo, who also sits on the federal public safety minister's firearms advisory committee.
Alberta Premier Alison Redford said she was disappointed to face questions about the gun situation. She suggested there were more important issues to deal with coming out of the flood disaster.
"Let's just make it very clear, the provincial government did not take away anyone's guns," Redford said. "The RCMP went in and secured a community that had been evacuated. And as part of that work, as I understand it, they went into houses where there were firearms that weren't properly secured and, as opposed to leaving them sitting on fireplace mantles in a town that was evacuated, they secured those guns.


Read More Here

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• - 'Hell to pay:' Residents angry as RCMP seize guns from High River homes