Chicago Enacts Restrictive Gun Ordinance In Wake Of McDonald v. Chicago

McDonald v. Chicago ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the Second Amendment and as such defines that states, counties and local municipalities must guarantee individuals their right to self protection and be allowed to own a gun(s). The ruling also makes it clear that states, counties and local municipalities cannot create gun laws that supersede federal laws……or can they?

The city of Chicago threw together a gun ordinance after McDonald v. Chicago, which is nothing more than an in-your-face scoffing of the United States Supreme Court, much the same way that Washington, D.C. did after District of Columbia v. Heller. Why wouldn’t Chicago do similar things? D.C. has not really been tested as to the Constitutionality of their restrictive gun laws. After all, District of Columbia v. Heller only ruled that the District’s gun ban was unconstitutional. It did not define what can and cannot be used for gun restrictions. Read more

Why Isn’t NRA Officially Opposing Elena Kagan Nomination?

Perhaps what we are witness to is the trouble groups such as the NRA get into when they place politics above principle, carving out exemptions for themselves in restrictive Legislative laws in what appears to be an exchange for backing off on opposition to Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court. This of course is mere speculation on my part but the path the NRA has chosen to take leaves unanswered questions.

Michelle Malkin declares the McDonald ruling “good news, bad news”. The good news of course being the Supreme Court ruling against the Chicago gun ban. Malkin states that with the NRA withholding a position of opposition against anti-gun Kagan, the bad news and surely it is. Why the hesitation? Kagan clearly is not a supporter of gun rights. Isn’t the NRA’s mission to promote and protect Second Amendment rights? Read more

More Elena Kagan Anti Gun Evidence

Ken Klukowski, Townhall, reports that Elena Kagan has shown more signs in the past as being anti-gun and more closely mirrors the same gun philosophies as the President who nominated her.

We learned yesterday that Kagan was “not sympathetic” to one man fighting for his Constitutional right to keep and bear arms. According to Klukowski, as Solicitor General, Kagan did not seek oral argument time or even file a brief in the recent case of McDonald v. Chicago. Read more

Elena Kagan: “Not Sympathetic” About Second Amendment

Hard core? Elena Kagan, Obama’s pick to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, in a memo to former Justice Thurgood Marshall, wrote: “[The man’s] sole contention is that the District of Columbia’s firearms statutes violate his constitutional right to ‘keep and bear arms,’. I’m not sympathetic.” This in reference to an appeal from a D.C. man convicted of carrying an unregistered pistol. His appeal has to be based on whether there is legal standing not on whether a court clerk doesn’t care about another person’s rights.

However, according to Bloomberg, her comments on District of Columbia v. Heller, were: Read more

International Effort To Grab Your Guns

Tenth Amendment Push Backs Spreading Across America

Is this all a case of too little too late or are there any legal teeth in the growing actions of states all across the Union in passing legislation that in effect tells the federal government to take a hike?

On this very blog, I have been vigilant in posting information about states proposing, passing and signing legislation in attempts to nullify federal authority of gun control laws forced onto them. But this push back we are witness to is now reaching beyond the Second Amendment. States are passing bills declaring the federal government can’t force them to “buy into” federal run health care. Utah has effectively told the federal government it’s taking back some of it’s lands. Other states don’t want anything to do with federal ID cards, they’re ignoring federal marijuana laws, have put the feds on notice that their local police departments have more authority than they do and that National Guard troops can be recalled by states. Read more

Twenty-Five States Seek “Nullification” Of Federal Gun Control Laws

As of this writing, five states, Montana, Tennessee, Utah, Wyoming and South Dakota, have passed laws through their legislature effectively nullifying the Federal Government’s authority to regulated guns and gun accessories. Two states, Montana and Tennessee, their laws most commonly called Firearms Freedom Acts, have been signed by their governors. The other three are expected to follow suit. In addition to those five states, at least twenty more have introduced similar legislation and another half dozen intend to introduce it. By years end, there could feasibly be well over 30 states making an attempt to tell the Federal Government to butt out of their intrastate gun and gun accessory manufacturing. Read more

McDonald v. City of Chicago: How Limited Will The Right Be?

Photo from fOTOGLIF

Yesterday the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of McDonald v. City of Chicago. It appears from comments made during arguments that probably the court will incorporate the Second Amendment into the Fourteenth Amendment via the “Due Process Clause” and not entertain the idea of opening a can of worms by incorporating with the “Privileges or Immunities Clause”. On the surface it would appear that gun rights advocates will win another victory in that a ruling of incorporation would say that the rights guaranteed under the Second Amendment extend beyond the scope of the federal government and forces the states and local communities to honor that right. But how much? Read more

MT. To Celebrate “Right To Keep And Bear Arms” Week Beginning March 1st.

*Editor’s Note* Below is an email message I received from Gary Marbut, President of the Montana Shooting Sports Association. It is a reminder to members of MSSA that beginning on March 1, 2010 will be the start of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms Week. As a bonus, Marbut included a short recap of how the RKBA Week evolved.

Celebrate!!

In 1991 MSSA got a bill passed setting aside the first week of March as the official week in Montana to celebrate our cherished Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

Here’s what the Montana law actually says: Read more

The “New Fascism” At Work In North Carolina

Snow storms dumped ample amounts of the white stuff on parts of the mid-Atlantic states over the weekend. Unfortunately, some town’s leaders either have never heard of a U.S. Constitution or Bill of Rights or somehow they think, like what happened in New Orleans, that just because the town declared an emergency, all of a sudden people give up their God-given and constitutional rights.

Other restrictions include a ban on the sale or purchase of any type of firearm, ammunition, explosive or any possession of such items off a person’s own premises.

I guess they thought they were doing everyone a favor ALLOWING them to possess a gun on their own property. Uh, uh, uh! This cannot be allowed.

McDonald v. Chicago: Does 2nd Amendment Apply To States?

Photo from fOTOGLIF

McDonald v. City of Chicago is about the right of citizens to keep and bear arms in Chicago, right? Just as District of Columbia v. Heller was about the right of the citizens to keep and bear arms in Washington, D.C. Right? Well, the answer is a resounding YES……and NO!

Heller was a victory for gun rights as the ruling declared that the Second Amendment did guarantee an individual, not a state-run militia, the right to keep and bear arms. But it didn’t answer the question as to whether the states and the cities and towns within those states, have the right to limit or restrict gun ownership based on a degree of sovereignty from the federal government. Hopefully, this is what McDonald v. Chicago will answer for us. Read more

Feds Respond to Firearms Freedom Act Lawsuit

Motion to Dismiss “Expected”

MISSOULA – The United States has made its first response to a lawsuit filed in federal district court in Missoula to test the Montana Firearms Freedom Act (MFFA), passed by the 2009 Legislature and signed into law by Governor Schweitzer.

The MFFA declares that any firearms, ammunition or firearms accessories made and retained in Montana are not subject to federal regulation under the power given to Congress in the U.S. Constitution to regulate commerce “among the several states.” The MFFA is a states’ rights challenge on Tenth Amendment grounds, with firearms serving as the vehicle for the challenge. Read more

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