The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
I appreciate this kind of honesty and integrity coming from academics in the media. I also loved this:
This term, the Supreme Court may finally take up the Voldemort Amendment, the part of the Bill of Rights that shall not be named by liberals.
Also see Dave Hardy and Call me Ahab
You might want to go read what Thirdpower has to say. It seems they want to put age limits on FOID cards.
Dave Kopel has a pretty good article on gun control in Burma over at Volokh. Go have a read.
Speaking of Burma. David Codrea has an interesting variation on the “Burma-Shave” viral marketing campaign.
It looks like preemption is doing what it’s supposed to in Ohio:
Clyde, Ohio, is a small town, but its legal quest to keep guns out of city parks could have a big effect on firearms laws across the state.The Ohio Supreme Court has agreed to hear the Sandusky County town’s appeal of a court ruling that struck down its anti-gun ordinance as being in conflict with state law.
The outcome of the case, while months away, apparently will determine whether Ohio cities can enact restrictions on firearms beyond the statewide standard.
Around here we have lots of parks with no weapons signage, but under Pennsylvania law they are as good as dirt. I always assume they don’t apply to LTC holders. While generally they are summary offenses, I’m pretty confident I could beat any charge in state court because of our own preemption law.
Bryan Miller has returned from his hiatus, and fires some shots back at Scott Bach’s post on blaming Pennsylvania’s gun laws for crime in New Jersey.
You can see my poorly formatted response in the comments. Have something to add? Comments are open. Let the Reasoned DiscourseTM flow.
… I’m tired of talking about this issue, but you should head over to Ahab’s and read his latest.
UPDATE: Thirdpower and Uncle too.
Folks in New Jersey that are plugged into the pro-gun scene there undoubtedly know who Evan Nappen is. He wrote the book on New Jersey Gun Laws, quite literally.
It looks like Evan is also getting tired of the crap being spewed by other pro-gun groups in regards to HR2640, and he’s writing about it over at Pro-Gun New Hampshire.
I agree with Jeff that all this crap is disappointing, but I’m not sure how you get around activist judges who want to pretend that the law Congress passed is without any substantive meaning. I think the PLCAA is adequate. Our federal judiciary is not.
Looks like anti-gun activists and the media are looking to guilt companies into helping them pass more gun laws in the Commonwealth.  I’m sorry to see they appear to have the support of former Governor Mark Schweiker, who is currently running the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. Schweiker had this to say:
Let me mention that the business community has been a steadfast participant in efforts to reduce violence. Our political efforts range from the Chamber’s 1999 testimony in Harrisburg in favor of one-gun-per-month sales legislation to our recent testimony in July in support of Philadelphia’s efforts to pass gun laws more restrictive than the state’s. Financial efforts and backing include the record-setting workplace donations to United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania in 2006 as well as the millions of dollars which individual corporations donate directly to social service agencies.
Schweiker’s name comes up when people talk about who’s going to run on the GOP ticket when Rendell’s term is up in 2010. I thought Pennsylvania gun owners should be aware of what he’s been up to in the mean time, in the event he does still have political ambitions.
We’re definitely seeing a serious increase in the number of articles saying the same old things we’ve heard about assault weapons:
In a January series on murder in Jacksonville, the Times-Union discovered that, of 136 people accused in gun homicides over the past three years, one out of every eight was a juvenile.
What that means is that a lot of them won’t be around at class reunion time – if they were in school at all.
McGuinness, for example, told me about a 13-year-old who fatally shot a woman during a robbery attempt.
He’s now locked up for life.
Good! If you murder someone you should go away for life. I don’t care if you’re 13. If you’re old enough to run around with a gun robbing people, you’re old enough to go to prison. But here’s more PSH:
Guns are too easy to get in this city. McGuinness said that a number of his clients say that they stole their guns from trains in the CSX railyard, a contention that a CSX spokesman told the Times-Union in January is more legend than fact. Yet, it’s a story that McGuinness’ clients continue to tell.
So CSX says it isn’t true, there’s really no reason for people to ship guns on rail cars, but we’ll print it anyway. Great journalism!
Then there are the community gun stashes. The gun shows. The lapsed federal ban on sales of assault rifles – weapons that are designed more to maim than to protect.
If they are designed to maim and not protect, why do the police use them?
Right now, McGuinness said, a drug dealer can send an 18-year-old with a clean record into a gun shop to buy several of them.
“If you’ve had a good week selling drugs, you can outfit yourself and your buddies with AK 47s,” he said.
Already a felony.