Monthly Archives: February 2009

Special Report

SCOTUS Backs Lautenberg

Supreme Court Accepts Broad Definition

    The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) today ruled that prohibiting firearms from those convicted of misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence is OK even if the actual charge made no mention of a domestic relationship.

    In 1994 Randy Hayes was convicted of simple battery after an altercation with his wife.  The battery charge did not mention the domestic relationship.  In 2005 Hayes was prosecuted, and convicted, for being a "prohibited person" in possession of a firearm – police found a lever-action rifle under his bed.  Hayes fought that conviction based on the specific language of the notorious Lautenberg Amendment which added domestic violence misdemeanants to the list of "prohibited persons."  The argument was one of commas, syntax, and intent questioning whether the charge that a person was convicted of had to include something about a domestic relationship such as "Battery against a Spouse" or "Domestic Battery" as opposed to "Simple Battery" which does not address who the victim was.

    Hayes was initially found guilty of being a "prohibited person" in possession of a firearm, but that conviction was overturned by the Federal Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit which ruled that the actual language of the Lautenberg Amendment should be understood to require that the "domestic" component be included in the criminal charge.  In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court reversed the 4th Circuit and said that regardless of the actual charge, as long as the crime involved violence or threat of violence and the victim was domestically related to the perpetrator, the firearms prohibition applies.

    Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Antonin Scalia dissented saying that such an interpretation would require authorities to research the details of any conviction for assault, battery, or threatening to determine if there was a domestic relationship between the perpetrator and the victim. 

    Even though there was some buzz about this case within the Second Amendment community and some hope that the Heller decision would cause the Justices to take a more conservative position on any law which arbitrarily abrogated Second Amendment rights, there was no mention of the Second Amendment during oral arguments and none in either the majority or minority opinions.

    Today’s Supreme Court decision means that anyone who has ever been convicted of any misdemeanor crime of violence – to include threats of violence – even if there was no possible way for the threat to be carried out and even if the punishment for the crime was only a $25 fine – is barred from ever possessing firearms or ammunition for the rest of their life if the victim of their crime was a person within the perpetrators household.  This leaves a large number of people at risk of committing unintentional felonies like Hayes did and it means that anyone with any record of battery or assault is likely to face drawn out delays whenever purchasing a firearm as NICS will have to determine the details of the case before approving the sale.

    And of course – as with all gun control legislation – the objective and result of this law is not to keep guns away from dangerous criminals, but rather to make criminals of regular citizens and make gun ownership more cumbersome and problematic.  The passage of the Lautenburg Amendment cost thousands of police and military personnel their careers and often their pensions because they could no longer be in positions that required them to possess firearms, and it has ruined the lives of countless others who, like Randy Hayes, had no idea that they were not supposed to possess firearms and were caught up and prosecuted for being a "prohibited person" on possession of a gun.

Jeff's Blog

Knox on Roth Show

Listen to Jeff Knox on the Dr. Laurie Roth Show

I spent an hour this evening speaking on the air with Dr. Laurie Roth on her syndicated radio program.  The discussion covered a lot of ground and the hour was gone before I knew it.  The show was done on short notice and while I don't think it was my best work, I think you'll find it interesting.  You can listen to the program by clicking here or go to www.theRothShow.com.

Jeff's Blog

Ammo Tax?

Two rumors keep popping up and making the rounds through the viral e-mail circuit:

1. Obama is planning a 500% tax on ammo

2. All the ammo you currently have is going to become illegal in July and only ammo with serial numbers will be legal.

Both of these rumors are bogus.

The ammo tax idea has been a fantasy of the gun banners for decades, but I have seen no recent attempt to implement any such thing.  Such a tax would require an act of Congress and while there has been a bill introduced which addresses gun and ammo excise tax issues, it is a pro-gun bill trying to fix some problems in the system.  There has not been a serious proposal put forward to dramatically increase taxes on ammunition.

Part of the source of the resurgence of the ammo tax rumor could be the ammo serialization rumor.  While ammo serialization is a real issue, it is not an imminent threat.  There is a company that built a machine that can engrave tiny serial numbers on bullets and cases and they have established a fake organization promoting the technology as a crime solving tool.  They have also convinced legislators in about 18 states to introduce model legislation they have written.  So far not even California or Massachusetts has come close to actually adopting the legislation.

So while the threat of mandating serialization and registration of all ammo – and the destruction of all non-serialized and registered ammo – is real, it is not gaining any traction and is unlikely to do so in the near future.  This idea should be carefully watched, but not panicked over.

There is another rumor that I'm a bit more concerned about.  Sources say that some in the State Department are moving to block the importation of "military caliber" ammunition.  While this is still just a rumor at this point, it is something I warned about during the effort to block the Holder nomination.  Hillary Clinton at State, Eric Holder at Justice, Rahm Emanuel as White House Chief of Staff, not to mention Obama himself… We definitely have enemies in high places and there are things which can be done to harass the firearms community without involving Congress.  Restricting, delaying, and generally interfering with imports of ammunition, guns, and gun parts are all very real possibilities.  It is also very possible that Eric Holder might change regulations on firearms manufacturers, dealers, and importers to make it much more difficult for them to do business and make them more vulnerable to criminal charges for technical errors.

None of these things is anything more than rumor and speculation at this point, but they are likely possibilities and require careful watching and an immediate response if any of them begins to come to life.  In the mean time, we all need to be careful about raising false alarms that could dull the response when a real alarm is sounded.

On that note, if you have not signed up for the Knox FC Alerts e-mail alert list, now would be a great time to rectify that.  We won't bury you in spam or fill up your in-box.  We only send alerts when there is something to report – or occasionally when things have been slow for a month or two I'll send out a little update just to remind you we're here and to make sure the system still works.

To sign up for the Knox FC Alert e-mail alerts list, just click here.

Chris's Blog

Memphis Paper “Outs” CCW Holders

An important oversight in the drafting of the Tennessee concealed carry permit system left the record of who has a permit to carry concealed weapons resulted in a grandstanding newspaper putting up a web site with permit hoders' names and zip codes .  A huffy editorial from columnist Chris Peck resed on the sanctity of the public's right to know, pointed out that the paper only published a matter of public record, and feined shock and dismay that anyone should object.  Some bloggers responded by publishing home addresses of the paper's staff including Mr. Peck's.  

The issue heated up recently as an argument over parking escalated into an incident such as the Brady Bunch would have scripted and a man was shot.  Locals tell me that it looks like the permit holder was in the wrong and probably needs to go to jail. The Brady Bunch told us this would be happening all over the place.  That such incidents are exceedingly rare is the news that doesn't make the news, much as an armed citizen who stops a rampage barely makes a ripple in the media.

Chris's Blog

NYTimes warns of “Coming Swarm”

NYTimes warns of “Coming Swarm”

A New York Times Op-Ed piece by John Arquilla, a Naval Postgraduate School professer, titled “The Coming Swarm” warns of a possible terrorist threat in the form of a “swarm” attack, a series of simultaneous smal-unit actions much like the Thanksgiving Mumbi attacks.  The piece correctly points out that anti-terrorism respondents are geared toward a single mass-casualty event, where Mumbai was paralyzed by a half-dozen two-man teams. 

 I made a similar prediction shortly after the Mumbai event in a Knox Report column, “The Siege of Mumbai ” and friend Derek Bernard followed up with a piece by Richard Munday that was printed in The TImes of London.  Mr. Munday focused on an obvious point that seemingly went right over the head of Professor Arquilla, that being that some of the would-be victims might happen to be armed.  That there could be an armed citizen to fight back would indeed be a tall-odds proposition in disarmed Mumbai, London, or in Monterey, California, home of the the Naval Postgraduate School.  But in Phoenix, Dallas, or Orlando, where roughly two percent of the population have obtained concealed carry permits, the odds tilt. 

In those cities, I suppose we can expect the attacks to occur in airports or other disarmed victim zones.

The Knox Update

The NRA Board: Where Is Your Voice?

The Knox Update

From the Firearms Coalition

 The NRA Board:  Where is Your Voice?

By Chris Knox

(February 11, 2009) If some mythical “conservative” President were to appoint James Dobson of Focus on the Family to head the Federal Communications Commission, can you imagine the stink that would arise from the American Civil Liberties Union?   Likewise, if some hypothetical “liberal” President were to appoint Planned Parenthood Vice President Dr. Vanessa Cullins to be Surgeon General, the protests from pro-life activist organizations would rattle the walls.

So why is it that when this President appoints a virulently anti-gun, anti-Second Amendment activist to be the chief enforcer of the nation’s gun laws (and defender of the Constitution), the largest and most powerful organization tasked with preserving, protecting and defending the Second Amendment confines its opposition to a nicely written letter to the Judiciary Committee that closes with a meek request to “consider our concerns carefully?” 

Continue reading The NRA Board: Where Is Your Voice? →

Jeff's Blog

Latest “Page 9”

Alan Korwin, author of a number of books on gun laws and rights related matters, writes a review of the news which he calls "Page 9."  If you don't subscribe to this clever and thought provoking e-newsletter (it's free) I would encourage you to do so, or you can read it here as we plan to post each new eddition.  Here is the table of contents for the current eddition.  Just click the "Read More" link to read the entire newsletter.

 

PAGE NINE — No. 59

The Uninvited Ombudsman Report, No. 59, Feb. 10, 2009

by Alan Korwin, Author
Gun Laws of America

 

Contents:
(searchable by item number)

1- Million Gun March
2- State Sovereignty Bills
3- No-Fly Gun Ban
4- Gun Rights Commerce
5- Pork Free Stimulus
6- Kelo's Empty Lot
7- NewsBull Continues Unabated

(Click "Read More" for the full report)

Continue reading Latest “Page 9” →

Member Blogs

The Khyber Pass Gun Markets

I was employed as the Pakistan AF F16 jet fighter program manager from 1982 to 1993 and I had the pleasure to visit the Khyber Pass on invitation of the Khyber Rifles on many occasions. The video is very good but does not show the wild west side of the gun markets. There were no laws, no police or miltary in the area  other than the Khyber Rifles whos function was to guard the pass.  At the time an AK47 style weapon sold on the market for about $30 in US dollars. Needless to say the craftmanship of the weapons left a lot to be desired and most weapons were not very relieable.

The Knox Update

Surrender or Die!

The Knox Update

From the Firearms Coalition

 

Interpreting the Second Amendment

 

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state,

the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

 

By Jeff Knox

 

    (February 5, 2009) It has been famously said and often repeated that the Constitution means what the Supreme Court says it means. While this statement is generally true, it is incomplete. Regardless of what the Supreme Court says, the Constitution ultimately means what the People believe it to mean.

 

    So far in our history the Supreme Court has refrained from any interpretation of the Constitution that was so flagrantly at odds with the beliefs of the People that a serious, violent uprising ensued.  But they may have come perilously close in last year’s decision in DC v. Heller. In that case the Court unanimously agreed that the Second Amendment refers to an individual right to arms, but disagreed in a 5 – 4 split as to whether the District of Columbia’s virtual ban on handguns violated that individual right. Even in the prevailing opinion, the justices expressed positions which are completely at odds with the understanding of those of us in the Second Amendment community.

 

 

(Click "Read More" for the rest of the story) Continue reading Surrender or Die! →

Chris's Blog

A Sig Sticker

Jeff's been after me to create a "bumper sticker" image that guys can put in their sig files or on their web sites.  Clicking on this link will bring people directly to our home page.  We'll be more effective if we get more traffic.  That's good for us, good for your readers, and ultimately good for our gun rights.  We hope you'll agree and add us to your signature line and web site.

 

The Firearms Coalition

Here's the code.

HTML:

<a href="http://firearmscoalition.org/s.php " title="The Firearms Coalition" target="_blank"><img src="http://firearmscoalition.org/fclogo.gif" alt="The Firearms Coalition" /></a>

BBCode (for forums and such)

[url=http://firearmscoalition.org/s.php][img]http://firearmscoalition.org/fclogo.gif[/img][/url]