Posted by K Blanciak on 05/05/09

Fairfax, Va. – Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit marked a milestone in Second Amendment history by ruling that the Second Amendment limits state and local government infringements on our right to keep and bear arms through the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. NRA has been involved in, and supportive of, this case for the past ten years and has filed several amicus briefs in the case.

“The historic Heller decision was a major victory for law-abiding gun owners and recognized that the federal government could not infringe on our right to keep and bear arms,” said Chris W. Cox, NRA chief lobbyist. “Today’s decision, which applies to the states in the Ninth Circuit, ensures that the fundamental freedoms affirmed in Heller are not just limited to the residents of Washington, D.C.”

In 1999, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance that made it a misdemeanor to possess a firearm on county property, effectively banning gun shows. This ordinance affected a local business, owned by Russell and Sallie Nordyke, which promotes gun shows throughout California. In an attempt to continue holding their gun shows on the Alameda county fairgrounds property, the Nordykes filed suit to strike down the ordinance.

The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the ordinance banning guns on county property, but found, consistent with the views of most Second Amendment scholars, that the Second Amendment protects the right to keep and bear arms for all law-abiding Americans. NRA is also pursuing litigation on that issue in Chicago and Oak Park, Illinois. That case is currently pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

“The NRA shares the Nordykes' disappointment with the ruling on the county ordinance, as gun shows should not be discriminated against by local government entities. The incorporation portion of the decision, however, is a major step forward in enshrining our Second Amendment freedoms,” said Cox.

“This decision brings us closer to seeing Heller applied throughout the land,” concluded Cox. “After nearly 10 years of litigation, the hard work of the Nordykes, their attorneys, Donald Kilmer and Don Kates, and NRA’s legal team has resulted in today’s historic decision.”

Posted 05/05/09 Mike in Virginia Fredericksburg, VA

The principle that the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the Bill of Rights as a limitation on the states is long-standing Constitutional law (though a dubious interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, but that's another story). The real surprise in this case is that the Ninth Circuit applied this principle in the context of the Second Amendment, because that circuit is notorious for coming to its own conclusions, regardless of the law.

Posted by K Blanciak on 04/11/09

U.S. Representative Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) recently sponsored H.R. 45, also known as "Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act." The bill is, at its core and as its name implies, a licensing and registration scheme.

big brotherThe measure calls for all handgun owners to submit to the federal government an application that shall include, among many other things: a photo; an address; a thumbprint; a completed, written firearm safety test; private mental health records; and a fee. And those are only some of the requirements to be licensed!

The bill would further require the attorney general to establish a database of every handgun sale, transfer, and owner's address in America. Moreover, the bill would make it illegal to own or possess a "qualifying firearm" -- defined as "any handgun; or any semiautomatic firearm that can accept any detachable ammunition feeding device..." [emphasis added] without one of the proposed licenses.

Additionally, the bill would make it illegal to transfer ownership of a "qualifying firearm" to anyone who is not a licensed gun dealer or collector (with very few exceptions), and would require "qualifying firearm" owners to report all transfers to the attorney general's database. It would also be illegal for a licensed gun owner to fail to record a gun loss or theft within 72 hours, or fail to report a change of address within 60 days. Further, if a minor obtains a firearm and injures someone with it, the owner of the firearm may face a multiple-year jail sentence.

H.R. 45 is essentially a reintroduction of H.R. 2666, which Rush introduced in 2007. H.R. 2666 contained much of the same language as H.R. 45, and was co-sponsored by several well-known anti-gun legislators--including Barack Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. H.R. 45 currently has no co-sponsors.

Rest assured that NRA-ILA will continue to monitor this bill closely.

To view the complete text of the bill                                                     

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&doc
id=f:h45ih.txt.pdf

Posted 04/12/09 illuminati hater Las Vegas, NV

"big brotherThe measure calls for all handgun owners to submit to the federal government an application that shall include, among many other things: a photo; an address; a thumbprint; a completed, written firearm safety test; private mental health records; and a fee. And those are only some of the requirements to be licensed!" Are these people not aware that the 2nd amendment to the constitution states that no one, not even the government, will infringe on the rights of the people when it comes to firearms. No where in the constitution did the founding fathers lay out the claim that the government had a right to control weapons. After all, the founding fathers gave us guns as a measure to protect us from government corruption.