U.S. SUPREME COURT - The First Monday in October

"Supreme Court resumes in-person arguments with abortion, guns, religious freedom on agenda" PBS NewsHour 10/4/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The Supreme Court returned to the courtroom Monday morning to hear its first oral arguments of the new term in-person.  The cases set for argument this term could make it one of the most contentious in many years.  Marcia Coyle, chief Washington [DC] correspondent for The National Law Journal, was one of the two dozen reporters in the courtroom and joins John Yang with more.

GUNS - The AR-15

"It's the weapon of choice for U.S. mass murderers: the AR-15" PBS NewsHour 6/14/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The AR-15 is the most popular rifle in America, and the most reviled.  A civilian variant of the U.S. military's standard-issue M16, the AR-15 has gained recent notoriety for its use in mass shootings in Newtown, Aurora, San Bernardino and Orlando's Pulse nightclub; the gun is also the centerpiece of an ongoing high-profile lawsuit against gun manufacturers.  John Yang reports.

Editor's note:  This story focused on the AR-15 rifle, which was the weapon used in several recent mass shootings.  Orlando law enforcement officials initially said this was the same gun type used in the Pulse nightclub shooting, but later clarified that the Orlando shooter was using a Sig Sauer MCX.  The Sig Sauer MCX is a rifle with several similarities to the AR 15-style and was originally designed for use by U.S. special operation forces.  The NewsHour regrets the confusion.

JOHN YANG (NewsHour):  The NRA says it's America's most popular rifle, used legally and safely by millions of people.  A lawyer for victims' families says it's the gold standard for mass murder of innocent civilians.

The AR-15 has been used in some of the nation's worst mass shootings; at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut; a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado; an Oregon community college; and now an Orlando gay club.

To learn more about the rifle, its popularity among gun enthusiasts and its place in American culture, we went to a Northern Virginia gun range to speak with former Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Phillip Carter, himself a gun owner, who knows the AR-15 well from his service as an Army officer.

Why is this weapon so popular?

PHILLIP CARTER, Former Defense Department Official:  So, the AR-15 is America's rifle because it's what America's military carries.

It's modeled on the M-16 that's been carried by America's Army and America's Marine Corps and the rest of our services since Vietnam.  Today, roughly 20,000 troops carry a similar rifle in Iraq and Afghanistan, and even those who don't serve feel that they're part of that effort when they carry the AR-15.

JOHN YANG:  I have read that the recoil is a bit gentler than some other rifles.

PHILIP CARTER:  So, the recoil on the M-16 or the AR-15 is designed to be light, so that you can keep it on target and continue to shoot bullet after bullet after bullet.  It's by design.

There's a massive spring here in the stock that absorbs quite a bit of the recoil.  There's also, by design, a gas system that takes a lot of the gas from the firing of each bullet, and it evaporates it, so that when each bullet is fired, that gas and that recoil isn't coming back on the shoulder each time, but it's actually in the rifle in a more constructive manner.

JOHN YANG:  And that feature would also allow a shooter to keep steady.

PHILIP CARTER:  It's a military rifle.  It's designed to deliver masses of bullets to a very specific target over time.  This is a weapon designed to kill in mass quantities.  It's a military weapon.

AMERICA - New Fashions for Travel

Need I say, the WEB site is fictitious.

AMERICA - Update, Aurora Colorado and Kaufman County Texas Shootings

"Texas Rocked by District Attorney Shooting" PBS Newshour 4/1/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  In an update on two shootings, prosecutors pushed for the death penalty for James Holmes, the shooter in the massacre at an Aurora, Colo., theater.  In Kaufman County, Texas, District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife were shot dead in their home.  Margaret Warner talks to Carol McKinley in Denver and Bill Zeeble in Dallas.

CALIFORNIA - Gun Open Carry Issue

"New handgun regulation faces federal lawsuit" by Ryan Gabrielson, California Watch 1/4/2012

A new California law that prohibits the carrying of an unloaded handgun in public already is under legal attack.

Charles Nichols, a Redondo Beach resident, filed a lawsuit late last year in federal court against the state seeking to overturn restrictions on where he can display a handgun.

AB 144, which took effect this week, expands California’s firearm regulations to prohibit people from openly carrying an unloaded handgun outside of a person’s home or vehicle. It already was illegal to publicly carry a loaded handgun.

Nichols’ complaint contends that such state laws violate the Second Amendment, protecting the right to keep and bear arms for personal safety.

California law allows handgun owners to openly carry their weapons only when they are in imminent danger.

Handgun restrictions have been at higher risk of reversal since 2008, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down strict regulations on the weapons in Washington, D.C.

California’s restrictions should face a similar fate as those of the nation’s capital, Nichols argues in the lawsuit. “By banning fully functional, loaded handguns from being openly carried for the purpose of self-defense, (California’s statute) is a more restrictive ban than the law struck down in (Washington) as unconstitutional,” he wrote.

Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-Pasadena, wrote AB 144 and said the law in no way infringes on gun owners’ rights.

“We’re not taking anybody’s right to hunt away, or anybody’s right to be a security guard, or to protect your home,” Portantino said. “But you don’t need a gun to buy a cheeseburger or to buy a cup of coffee.”

The legislator described the measure as closing a loophole in state law, which previously regulated handguns only when they contained bullets. A person could openly display a handgun if the ammunition was in a jacket pocket.

This scenario alarmed police across the state, who received calls to check unconcealed weapons in public, Portantino said. The California Police Chiefs Association supported the legislation.

“The problem was caused by the proliferation of unnecessary display of weapons,” Portantino said.

Advocates for openly carrying firearms contend that state and local governments are reaching beyond their discretion with AB 144 and similar laws.

Eugene Volokh, a UCLA law professor and expert in firearm regulations, said the gun-rights crowd has a point. According to the Supreme Court’s ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller, “the right to keep and bear arms includes a right not just to possess guns, but also to bear them in the sense of carry them,” Volokh said.

However, the federal courts have upheld regulation of concealed weapons, which require a special permit in much of the country.

California’s concealed weapons permitting process varies by location and is operated by county sheriffs or city police departments. In his complaint, Nichols cites his difficultly in obtaining a concealed weapon permit as further justification for openly carrying a handgun.

In the 19th century, Volokh said, the public viewed concealed weapons with suspicion. Now, people prefer not seeing firearms.

“By today’s standards, carrying openly is seen as an in-your-face sort of act in a way that carrying concealed is not,” he said.

This is a case where I can see both side of the issue as pertinent.

AROUND THE U.S. - Los Angeles, Gun Kooks

"Targeting Obama gun nuts, all 13 of them" Opinion, Los Angeles Times 11/1/2011

A Texas firearms instructor is an Internet celebrity because of a radio ad in which he declares: "If you are a socialist liberal and/or voted for the current campaigner in chief, please do not take this class. You've already proven that you cannot make a knowledgeable and prudent decision as required under the law. Also, if you are a non-Christian Arab or Muslim, I will not teach you this class. Once again, with no shame, I am Crockett Keller."

The ad is simultaneously outrageous and amusing. The biggest joke on Keller is that the number of Obamaites who would want to take shooting lessons from him or anybody else is probably pretty small, making this a "you can't fire me; I quit" situation.

AMERICA - Missing Guns

"Lost and Loaded? 62,000 Guns 'Missing' from Gun Shops Since 2008" by DEVIN DWYER, ABC News 1/27/2011

Excerpt

ATF Data Reveals Alarming Gap in Gun Control, Brady Center Says

More than 62,000 guns disappeared from U.S. firearm dealers' inventories in the past three years without any record of being sold, according to a report by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF.

The estimate means, on average, that dealers "lost" 56 firearms a day between 2008 and 2010.

In many cases, the weapons were likely stolen or sold under the table or on the black market, circumventing established registration procedures and background checks, experts said. Without a record of a purchase, the weapons are considered hard to trace.

"No wonder it's so easy for gang members and dangerous people to get guns," said Paul Helmke, president and CEO of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a group favoring stricter gun control. "It's obvious these folks aren't losing inventory -- they're selling it under the table or out the back door, feeding the criminal market."

Helmke said the numbers, first publicized by the Brady Center Wednesday after appearing in a public ATF slideshow presentation at a Las Vegas trade show last week, likely understate the extent of the problem.

The ATF data are based on spot compliance inspections of 20 percent of the more than 60,000 retail gun dealers in the U.S.

"The ATF doesn't have the staffing, the manpower, the money, or the authority to do what it needs to do," Helmke said. "And they haven't had a full time director since 2006."

The ATF, which has approximately 600 inspectors, conducted 10,500 inspections in 2010. Following those inventories, dealers could not account for more than 21,000 guns.

Dealers who improperly complete licensing forms or fail to report multiple handgun sales, among other violations, could face fines or have their retail licenses revoked. Sixty-seven dealers were shut down last year, according to the data.

"We always hear from the other side that Switzerland has lots of guns and they're safe," Helmke said. "But in Switzerland you have to account for them -- individuals even have to account for the number of bullets they have at the end of each month."

Also we need to take into account how Switzerland's militia is organized:

However, the Swiss Militia continues to consist of most of the adult male population (with voluntary participation by women) required to keep an automatic rifle at home and to periodically engage in combat and marksmanship training.

POLITICS - Republican Pushes for Assault Weapons Ban

"Lugar pushes to renew assault weapons ban" by Shira Toeplitz, Politico 1/17/2011

Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) this weekend called on Congress to reinstate the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004.

Lugar is the first GOP senator to call for increased gun control following the Tucson tragedy that killed six people and wounded 13 others, including Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. But Lugar, who supported the initial 10-year-long assault weapons ban when it passed in 1994, said he's not optimistic about the chances for passing gun control legislation this Congress.

“I believe it should be, but I recognize the fact that the politics domestically in our country with regard to this are on a different track altogether,” Lugar told Bloomberg Television’s Al Hunt Jan. 14.

Lugar also noted the increase in ammunition sales since the shootings, which he suspected was out of fear that Congress might pass far-reaching gun control legislation in wake of the tragedy.

A couple of lawmakers floated gun control legislation last week in wake of the tragedy, including one of Congress's fiercest gun control advocates, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.). Her bill takes the assault weapon ban slightly further by banning the sales and transfer of high-capacity magazines that the Arizona gunman used.

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) suggested legislation making it illegal for anyone to knowingly carrying a loaded gun within 1,000 feet of certain high-ranking public officials, including members of Congress.

Neither measure is expected to go anywhere. An aide to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told POLITICO last week that he was not expected to support either effort.

Nonetheless, Lugar is going out on a limb by expressing his support for bringing back the now-defunct assault weapons ban – especially because local Tea Party activists have promised to field a primary challenger for the six-term senator. Lugar has a reputation for working across party lines in the Senate, and his support for gun control legislation would likely put him at odds with a more conservative GOP challenger.

Lugar also said in the Bloomberg interview that a Tea Party challenge is “not one that I welcome, but nevertheless, this is a democracy.”

Well, Lugar is dead-meat in today's ultra-conservative, compromise is treason, Teabagger controlled, GOP. Hope he has very good bodyguards.

ARIZONA - The Gifford Shooting

"In Attack’s Wake, Political Repercussions" by MARC LACEY and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN, New York Times 1/8/2011

Excerpt

Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, and at least 17 others were shot Saturday morning when a gunman opened fire outside a supermarket where Ms. Giffords was meeting with constituents.

Six of the victims died, among them John M. Roll, the chief judge for the United States District Court for Arizona, and a 9-year-old girl, the Pima County sheriff, Clarence W. Dupnik, said.

Ms. Giffords, 40, whom the authorities called the target of the attack, was in critical condition Sunday morning at the University Medical Center in Tucson, where she was operated on by a team of neurosurgeons on Saturday. Dr. Peter Rhee, medical director of the hospital’s trauma and critical care unit, said Saturday that she had been shot once in the head, “through and through,” with the bullet going through her brain.

President Obama, speaking at the White House, confirmed that a suspect was in custody and said that the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Robert S. Mueller III, was on his way to Arizona to oversee the investigation.

Investigators identified the gunman as Jared Lee Loughner, 22, and said that he was refusing to cooperate with the authorities and had invoked his Fifth Amendment rights. Mr. Loughner was in custody with the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Saturday night, the Pima Country sheriff’s office said.

Mr. Loughner had exhibited increasingly strange behavior in recent months, including ominous Internet postings — at least one showing a gun — and a series of videos in which he made disjointed statements on topics like the gold standard and mind control.

Pima Community College said he had been suspended for conduct violations and withdrew in October after five instances of classroom or library disruptions that involved the campus police.

The authorities were seen entering the Loughner family house about five miles from the shooting scene. Investigators said they were looking for a possible accomplice, believed to be in his 50s.

The shootings raised questions about potential political motives, and Sheriff Dupnik blamed the toxic political environment in Arizona.

"Evidence Points to Methodical Planning" by MARC LACEY, New York Times 1/9/2011

Excerpts

Prosecutors charged Jared L. Loughner, a troubled 22-year-old college dropout, with five federal counts on Sunday, including the attempted assassination of a member of Congress, in connection with a shooting rampage on Saturday morning that left six people dead and 14 wounded.

Evidence seized from Mr. Loughner’s home, about five miles from the shooting, indicated that he had planned to kill Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat of Arizona, according to documents filed in Federal District Court in Phoenix.

Special Agent Tony M. Taylor Jr. of the F.B.I. said in an affidavit that an envelope found in a safe in the home bore these handwritten words: “I planned ahead,” “My assassination” and “Giffords.”

Mr. Loughner, who is believed to have acted alone, is in federal custody and is scheduled to make his first court appearance before a magistrate judge in Phoenix on Monday.
----
Robert S. Mueller III, the director of the F.B.I., traveled to Tucson to oversee the shooting investigation at Mr. Obama’s request. He said an intensive investigation was seeking to determine “why someone would commit such a heinous act and whether anyone else was involved.” Mr. Mueller added that discussions were under way to increase security for all members of Congress.

Capitol security agencies are planning to join the F.B.I. on Wednesday in a security briefing for members of Congress. Already, the United States Marshals Service has increased protection for federal judges in Arizona.

Investigators here focused their attention on Mr. Loughner, whom they accused of methodically planning the shootings, which occurred outside a supermarket. The court documents said Mr. Loughner bought the semiautomatic Glock pistol used in the shooting at Sportsman’s Warehouse, which sells hunting and fishing gear, on Nov. 30 in Tucson.

The gun was legally purchased, officials said, prompting criticism of the state’s gun laws, which allow the carrying of concealed weapons. Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik of Pima County, a critic of what he calls loose gun restrictions, bluntly labeled Arizona “Tombstone.”

The documents also indicated that the suspect had previous contact with the congresswoman. Also found in the safe at Mr. Loughner’s home was a letter from Ms. Giffords thanking him for attending a 2007 “Congress on Your Corner” event, like the one she was holding Saturday morning when she was shot.

CALIFORNIA - Shootout San Francisco

"Inside the mind of a man involved in 580 shootout"
KGO-TV San Francisco, CA 9/15/2010

POLITICS - Guns In America

"Gun violence: An American way of death" by BERND DEBUSMANN, Capital Hill Blue

It's an American way of death. More than 30,000 people die from gunshot wounds every year, through murder, suicide and accidents.

That is an average of 82 a day, and prospects for reducing the toll are dim.

The debate between gun control advocates and the pro-gun lobby was reignited briefly this month by four school shootings between September 26 and October 9.

In one, a man carrying a pistol, a shotgun and 600 rounds of ammunition shot 10 girls execution-style at an Amish school in Pennsylvania, killing five of them, and then killed himself. In another, a 13-year-old took an AK-47 assault rifle to his school in Missouri, pointed it at administrators and other students and fired it into a ceiling.

At a hastily arranged White House Conference on School Safety on October 10, panelists covered topics ranging from metal detectors and school bullies to the value of religious beliefs and good communication between parents and schools.

But the word "gun" was not mentioned until a plucky teenager pointed out to a panel moderated by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales that the common factor was easy access to high-powered firearms. President George W. Bush and his wife Laura Bush attended separate parts of the conference but avoided mention of guns.

...bold emphasis mine.... and....

"The U.S. level of lethal violence is far out of line with those of other industrialized nations," said David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. "The fact that most of our lethal violence involves firearms lends credence to the hypothesis that the prevalence of guns is a prime reason."

That hypothesis, widely accepted in much of the rest of the world, is hotly contested by American advocates of unfettered access to guns, led by the National Rifle Association (NRA), who say that the second amendment to the Constitution gives all law-abiding citizens the right to bear arms.

Proponents of tighter gun controls see things differently. "Congress has been in denial about gun violence ... and is moving in the wrong direction," said Joshua Horwitz, the executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. He noted that the annual death toll from gun violence in the United States is ten times the total of U.S. combat deaths, to date, in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Statisticians say such comparisons are misleading but the parallel has been drawn before, most notably by then president George H.W. Bush, the present president's father, after the end of the first Gulf War.

• "During the first three days of the ground offensive, more Americans were killed in some American cities than at the entire Kuwaiti front," Bush said at the time.
  
  "Think of it, one of our brave National Guardsmen may have actually been safer in the midst of the largest armored offensive in history than he would have been on the streets of his home-town."

That was in 1991, when the U.S. murder rate, driven by turf wars between crack dealers, reached an all-time peak of 24,700, according to FBI statistics. It declined steadily in the 1990s and stood at just under 17,000 last year. Guns accounted for two thirds of the killings.

I am also coming to agree that access to high-powered guns is a big problem. We are not talking hunting rifles here. We, the American people and especially the NRA really need to reexamine our stance on high-powered guns. Is the risk to our children and communities really worth NOT putting some limits on the type of guns are allowed on our streets?

Is the right to bear arms really unlimited, or is it like "free speech" where there are recognized limits?