Category Archives: Second Amendment

A federal appeals court in San Francisco has allowed a California towns controversial gun-control law to stay in place, frustrating, at least for the moment, arguments by gun-rights activists that the law violates the Second Amendment.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday ruled that a lower court did not err in allowing a law passed in Sunnyvale in to stay in effect while the legal challenge moved forward. The lawbans anyone from owning gun magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds.

In a ruling written by Michael Daly Hawkins, the three-judge panel ruled that the law, passed in 2013 by Sunnyvale voters, does burden the Second Amendment. But the panel agreed with the lower courts ruling that the laws compelling government interest of public safety justifies its burden on the Second Amendment and therefore doesnt violate the constitution.

Wrote the panel:

Sunnyvale presented evidencethat the use of large-capacity magazines results in moregunshots fired, results in more gunshot wounds per victim,and increases the lethality of gunshot injuries. Sunnyvalealso presented evidence that large-capacity magazines aredisproportionately used in mass shootings as well as crimesagainst law enforcement, and it presented studies showingthat a reduction in the number of large-capacity magazines incirculation may decrease the use of such magazines in guncrimes. Ultimately, the district court found that Sunnyvalesubmitted pages of credible evidence, from study data toexpert testimony to the opinions of Sunnyvale publicofficials, indicating that the Sunnyvale ordinance issubstantially related to the compelling government interest inpublic safety.

The case will now move back to the district court, where challengers will move forward, though the law will stay in place during the lawsuit.

The Sunnyvale ordinance garnered wide attention when it was passed over a year ago, partly because the towns mayor, Tony Spitaleri, had pushed so hard for the bill. At the time,Mr. Spitaleri said the measure wasnt as much about reducing crime as it was about keeping people who own guns safer in their own homes.

Gun-rights activists pilloried the law, partly because it requires anyone wholegally own magazines with more than 10 rounds to get rid of them.

In a statement, Sunnyvale city manager Deanna J. Santana said: A large majority of Sunnyvale voters passed Measure Cin the interest of public safetyso we are very pleased that the Ninth Circuit upheld the district courts ruling.

Chuck Michel, a lawyer for the challengers said that an appeal of the decision was in the works, and that the ruling is based on a fundamental misapplication of the Supreme Courts ruling in the Heller case, the seminal 2008 ruling that struck down Washington, D.C.s handgun ban.

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Appeals Court Says Sunnyvale Gun Law Can Stay in Place

Kyle Roerink

Daniel Lawson, a lobbyist for the American Knife and Tool Institute, holds a knife with a two-inch blade that he says is much more of a tool than it is a deadlyweapon.

By Kyle Roerink (contact)

Wednesday, March 4, 2015 | 2 a.m.

Carson City

Its the other Second Amendment debate dividing the Legislature.

And it has nothing to do with guns.

Two bills aiming to relax current knife laws are raising new questions about the right to bear arms in a legislative session embroiled by gun legislation, setting up a battle between law enforcement and pro-knife advocates.

Lobbyists representing knife makers and owners are pushing the legislation as a civil rights matter and say murky descriptions in state law are unjustly limiting knife constitutional rights in the state. Law enforcement says loosening knife laws could prove lethal for police and the public.

The proposed laws would allow the manufacture and sale of switchblades, currently an illegal knife, in Nevada. They would also legalize the concealed carry of machetes, switchblades, dirks and daggers while eliminating a permit requirement for openly carrying them.

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Bearing other arms: Lawmakers take stab at loosening knife laws

Adding fresh ammo to the gun rights debate, a federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld Sunnyvale's law restricting high-capacity gun magazines, concluding local officials did not run afoul of the Second Amendment by trying to reduce gun violence.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the arguments of groups such as the National Rifle Association, which contended the restrictions are unconstitutional and undermine gun owners' right to protect their homes with ample firepower.

"Sunnyvale's interests in promoting public safety and reducing violent crime were substantial and important government interests," 9th Circuit Judge Michael Daly Hawkins wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel.

Gun rights advocates have to date failed in their legal challenge to the ordinance, which threatens criminal prosecution of anyone with a magazine that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. A San Jose federal judge upheld the law last year, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to put it on hold while the appeal unfolds.

Groups challenging the law can now ask the 9th Circuit to rehear the case with an 11-judge panel, or follow through with their plan to take the issue to the Supreme Court. Foes of the Sunnyvale law have already enlisted former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, who has frequently argued in the high court, for their legal team.

Chuck Michel, a lawyer for the gun rights groups, pledged to appeal quickly, calling the ruling a "fundamental misapplication" of Supreme Court precedent. He also revealed that organizations plan to file a second legal challenge to the Sunnyvale law within the next week raising new legal arguments.

The gun lobby's second case will rely on the argument that cities such as Sunnyvale are pre-empted from local firearms magazine regulation by California law.

California law since 2000 has banned making, selling, giving or lending magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds, but laws such as Sunnyvale's go further by making it illegal to possess them in the home. It requires city residents to turn in illegal magazines or risk misdemeanor prosecution.

The stakes could be high, as other California cities, including Mountain View, San Francisco and Los Angeles, have moved to adopt similar regulations. And given that the 9th Circuit shapes law for nine western states, its Sunnyvale ruling is likely to have a much broader reach if it remains intact.

To gun owners, the law is an unconstitutional slap at their right to protect their homes from intruders. To advocates of the law, it is a sensible response to gun violence, such as the tragedies ranging from the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, two years ago to Gian Luigi Ferri's mass shootings at a San Francisco law firm two decades ago.

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Gun rights showdown: Sunnyvale restrictions upheld by appeals court

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BOSTON The states highest court has ruled that Massachusetts ban on the possession of stun guns does not violate the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The Supreme Judicial Court, in a unanimous decision on Monday, upheld the 2011 conviction of Jamie Caetano in Ashland. Police investigating a shoplifting report found the stun gun in the womans purse.

Caetano told police she carried the weapon as self-defense against an abusive former boyfriend and argued in her appeal that she had a constitutional right to carry it.

The justices disagreed, saying a stun gun which can administer incapacitating electrical shocks is not the type of weapon that is subject to Second Amendment protection.

The court said it was up to the state Legislature to determine if they should be legal in Massachusetts.

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Mass. High Court Upholds State Ban On Stun Guns

BOSTON The state's highest court has ruled that Massachusetts' ban on the possession of stun guns does not violate the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The Supreme Judicial Court, in a unanimous decision on Monday, upheld the 2011 conviction of Jamie Caetano in Ashland. Police investigating a shoplifting report found the stun gun in the woman's purse.

Caetano told police she carried the weapon as self-defense against an abusive former boyfriend and argued in her appeal that she had a constitutional right to carry it.

The justices disagreed, saying a stun gun which can administer incapacitating electrical shocks is not the type of weapon that is subject to Second Amendment protection.

The court said it was up to the state Legislature to determine if they should be legal in Massachusetts.

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High court upholds Massachusetts ban on stun guns

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By JOE CARLSON

jcarlson@njherald.com

ANDOVER TWP. The Second Amendment Foundation recently announced it was financially backing a township man in his fight against the state's justifiable need law to carry a handgun.

That's actually very important because financially it will allow the case to go all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court if it is allowed to get that far, said Israel Albert Almeida, the suit's namesake.

Almeida said the foundation is fully financing his efforts.

This is part of our ongoing effort to have New Jersey carry laws declared unconstitutional, said Alan Gottlieb, Second Amendment Foundation founder and executive vice president, in a press release. We were drawn to Almeida's case because it provides one more example of how the Garden State's concealed carry law is simply Draconian in the way it is administered.

In New Jersey, when residents apply to either their municipality's police chief or New Jersey State Police, they must specify the urgent necessity for self-protection, as evidenced by specific threats or previous attacks which demonstrate a special danger to the applicant's life that cannot be avoided by means other than an issuance of a permit to carry a handgun.

Almeida was denied by Andover Police Chief Achille Taglialatela, who cited a lack of justifiable need in 2013.

Almeida said his need is that he manages buildings in Essex County, specifically Newark and Irvington, and has been the subject of death threats and an attempted carjacking.

I carry large amounts of cash, and people around there know that, Almeida said. The areas I enter are very high crime. I face that every single day.

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Second Amendment group backs Andover Twp. mans bid to carry gun

The Republican Party needs to prove it values rights like freedom of speech and the right to a speedy trial as much as it values gun rights, Rand Paul said Friday.

"We do a great job defending the Second Amendment, and everybody knows that," the Kentucky senator and potential presidential candidate said at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). "But we have to defend the whole Bill of Rights."

"To defend the Second amendment, you have to defend the Fourth Amendment," he continued. "You need the First Amendment to protect the Second Amendment... The Fifth, the Sixth -- we should have speedy trials in our country."

Paul cited the case of Kalief Browder, an African-American teenager accused of a crime who spent three years in jail without even getting a trial. While behind bars, he tried to commit suicide several times.

Browder "lives in that 'other America' that Martin Luther King talked about," Paul said.

If the GOP wants to appeal to minorities and other voters beyond its core conservative base, he said, it must defend the entire Bill of Rights. The party should make the case that "big government's not only a problem as far as regulation and taxes... [but also] with sometimes not giving justice to those who deserve it."

Paul, the most libertarian-leaning of the potential GOP 2016 candidates, has long stressed the need for the party to expand its appeal. At CPAC, Paul also defended his non-interventionist foreign policy positions. He argued that the U.S. should be less involved in foreign affairs in order to build up a stronger defense.

"When I look at government, I think the most important thing we do at the federal level is defend our country, without question," he stressed. "I envision an America with a national defense unparalleled... and unencumbered by nation building."

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Rand Paul: GOP needs to care about more than gun rights

It took Linn County Commissioners Roger Nyquist, John Lindsey and Will Tucker less than a minute Tuesday morning to approve a resolution to support the Second Amendment of the Constitution, the peoples right to keep and bear arms.

Similar resolutions are being considered by other counties, a proactive effort to ward off anti-gun bills being proposed by the House and Senate which are controlled by Democrats.

Clackamas County passed a similar measure, but not before the issue was debated for about four hours.

Former Linn County Sheriff Tim Mueller drew national attention a couple years ago when he wrote a letter to Vice-president Joe Biden, informing him local deputies would not enforce anti-gun laws being proposed by Congress and President Obama.

Current Sheriff Bruce Riley has also said he supports the Second Amendment and will continue that policy.

There are a number of bills in the Legislature that would force counties to enforce gun control regulations, Lindsey said. The state is trying to make counties enforce legislation that will undoubtedly be declared unconstitutional when challenged.

Lindsey said the commissioners signed the resolution, because we want to make it clear that we wont be a party to this.

Nyquist said several constituents asked the board to take a stand.

A dozen gun control bills were introduced during the first week of the new session.

The resolution notes that Article 1, Section 27 of the Oregon Constitution is clear.

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Commissioners approve Second Amendment resolution