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Showing posts with label Hand guns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hand guns. Show all posts
Friday, March 23, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Travyvon Martin Rally Draws Thousands; Bill Lee Steps Aside; New Prosecutor Appointed (Hate Crime Trial)
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ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
President Obama thinks the American BLACK Community will eventually quiet down about Trayvon Martin's Death, like we did soon after Troy Davis' Wrongful Execution.
WRONG!
This time its different because Trayvon was a Child.
An Innocent BLACK Child!
Even Most White People Admit This Was Murder As A Result Of Racism.
WE ARE TIRED MR. PRESIDENT!
We Need Your Help, Your Support & Your Voice as a BLACK Man to Stand with Us!
This time its different!
We Want All Those RACIST “Stand Your Ground” Laws Repealed.
We Want The Unnecessary Racial Profiling To Stop!
We Won't Shut Up!
We Won't Forget!
We Won’t Stop Rising Up Until We Can Live Free In This Country Just Like All Other Ethnic Groups!
We Want Respect!
We Won’t Shut Up!
We Won’t Forget!
WE ARE TIRED! WE WANT OUR LIBERTY & WE ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!
What the Devil meant for Evil, God is using to bring Positive Change for the American BLACK Community!
In 2011 Troy Davis' WRONGFUL Death sparked International Outrage about Racism & the Death Penalty.
In 2012 Trayvon Martin's WRONGFUL Death sparked International Outrage about Racism, Police Misconduct & Racial Profiling!
We are Tired of Our Young Men Dying like Animals for NO REASON when we should already be FREE!
Here we are living in the 21st Century & still being treated as if we are living in the 18th Century.
We Can't Even Walk Down The Street Or In Wal-Mart Without Being Followed Or Chased Like Animals.
And Our Slack, Scared BLACK "Leaders" have allowed us to be Mistreated this way for Decades to preserve their own Comfortable lives.
Well Guess What???
Its Over!
WE ARE TIRED!
WE WANT OUR LIBERTY!
WE ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!
WE ARE FREE HUMAN BEINGS MADE IN GOD'S IMAGE!
NOT SLAVES!
NOT ANIMALS!
WE DON'T WANT CRUMBS!
WE DON'T WANT WELFARE CHECKS & FOOD STAMPS!
WE WANT EQUAL & FAIR OPPORTUNITIES!
WE WANT RESPECT!
WE WANT TO OWN BUSINESSES & PROVIDE ABUNDANTLY FOR OUR FAMILIES.
WE ARE TIRED!
WE ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!
NO MORE OF OUR CHILDREN & YOUTH WILL DIE OR BE WRONGFULLY IMPRISONED BASED ON RACE.
NO MORE!
Trayvon Martin's & Troy Davis' Deaths Will NOT Be In Vain!!!
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Scott Appoints New Prosecutor In Trayvon Martin Case
Florida Governor Rick Scott officially entered the Trayvon Martin murder investigation Thursday evening when he appointed Angela Corey as the newly assigned state attorney for the case and created a task force on citizen safety and protection.
Scott, and attorney general Pam Bondi, both talked with state attorney Norman Wolfinger Thursday and after the conversation Wolfinger decided to step down from the Martin investigation.
“This request is being made in light of the public good with the intent of toning down the rhetoric and preserving the integrity of the investigation,” Wolfinger wrote in his letter to the governor.
At the same time, Governor Scott also announced the formation of a task force while convene following the conclusion of the investigation by State Attorney Corey.
“As law enforcement investigates the death of Trayvon Martin, Floridians and others around the country have rightly recognized this as a terrible tragedy. Like all Floridians, I believe we must take steps to ensure tragedies like this are avoided.
After listening to many concerned citizens in recent days, I will call for a Task Force on Citizen Safety and Protection to investigate how to make sure a tragedy such as this does not occur in the future, while at the same time, protecting the fundamental rights of all of our citizens – especially the right to feel protected and safe in our state,” Scott said in a statement.
Scott and other members of the GOP and the NRA have come under fire for Florida’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” law which George Zimmerman, the shooter of Trayvon Martin, is using as his defense.
Zimmerman claimed under the law, passed in 2005, that he was acting in self-defense when he shot Martin, 17. Zimmerman made the claim despite getting out of his truck and pursuing Martin after 911 dispatchers told him not to do so.
Scott’s task force will review the law and any other laws, rules, regulations or programs that relate to public safety and citizen protection, the governor’s office said Thursday.
The task force will be led by Lt. Governor Jennifer Carroll and the Reverend R.B. Holmes, Jr. Legislative leaders and Bondi will recommend other members to join the task force.
CBC wants Trayvon Martin's death investigated as potential hate crime
The Congressional Black Caucus wants the Justice Department to investigate the shooting death of a 17-year-old, unarmed black Florida high school student as a potential hate crime.
“This case compromises the integrity of our legal system and sets a horrific precedent of vigilante justice,” Congressional Black Caucus Chair Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) said in a statement. “Members of the Congressional Black Caucus stand together in the name of justice for Trayvon. As a nation we cannot, should not, and will not ignore, Trayvon’s brutal murder and the inconceivable fact that his killer remains free. Contrary to the flippant way this case has been handled, his life had meaning and purpose. Trayvon had a family, friends and a future all taken away because of the color of his skin.”
George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain and criminal justice student in Sanford, Fla,. shot Trayvon Martin on February 26 as he was walking home from a neighborhood 7-11 to his father’s house. Before the shooting Zimmerman told a police dispatcher there was “a real suspicious guy” who looked “like he was up to no good or on drugs or something” in his neighborhood. He told the dispatcher Martin had “something in his waistband.” At the time, Martin was carrying Skittles and an iced tea he had just purchased. Against the dispatcher’s advice, Zimmerman pursued Martin on foot, and eventually shot him.
Zimmerman, who has not been charged with a crime, told police he was acting in self-defense after Martin started to fight him. The case has drawn national outrage, driven by an apparent history of racial bias by local police. A change.org petition asking for Zimmerman’s prosecution has drawn more than 420,000 signatures and an attorney for the Martin family has asked for an FBI investigation.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to Trayvon Martin' s family. But obviously we're not going to wade into a local law-enforcement matter,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said when he was asked about Martin’s death at today’s briefing.
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Sources: AP, CBS News, MSNBC, Politico, Google Maps
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Trayvon Martin's Attorney Benjamin Crump: "Skittles Candy vs A Gun & Florida's Stand Your Ground Law = MURDER" (Video)
A Bag of Skittles Candy vs a Hand Gun + Florida's "Stand Your Ground" Law = Cold-Blooded MURDER! Arrest George Zimmerman NOW!
There is Nothing "Curious" about Trayvon Martin's Death, nor the Death of Troy Davis. America's BLACK Leaders just lack the Political Will to Protect BLACK U.S. Citizens, especially Young BLACK Males & Fully Enforce Civil Rights Laws.
The Curious Case of Trayvon Martin
“He said that Tray was gone.”
That’s how Sybrina Fulton, her voice full of ache, told me she found out that her 17-year-old son, Trayvon Martin, had died. In a wrenching telephone call, the boy’s father, who had taken him to visit a friend, told her that Trayvon had been gunned down in a gated townhouse community in Sanford, Fla., outside Orlando.
“He said, ‘Somebody shot Trayvon and killed him.’ And I was like, ‘Are you sure?’ ” Fulton continued in disbelief. “I said ‘How do you know that’s Trayvon?’ And he said because they showed him a picture.”
That was Feb. 27, one day after Trayvon was shot. The father thought that he was missing, according to the family’s lawyer, Benjamin Crump, but the boy’s body had actually been taken to the medical examiner’s office and listed as a John Doe.
The father called the Missing Persons Unit. No luck. Then he called 911. The police asked the father to describe the boy, after which they sent officers to the house where the father was staying. There they showed him a picture of the boy with blood coming out of his mouth.
This is a nightmare scenario for any parent, and the events leading to Trayvon’s death offer little comfort — and pose many questions.
Trayvon had left the house he and his father were visiting to walk to the local 7-Eleven. On his way back, he caught the attention of George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old neighborhood watch captain, who was in a sport-utility vehicle. Zimmerman called the police because the boy looked “real suspicious,” according to a 911 call released late Friday. The operator told Zimmerman that officers were being dispatched and not to pursue the boy.
Zimmerman apparently pursued him anyway, at some point getting out of his car and confronting the boy. Trayvon had a bag of Skittles and a can of iced tea. Zimmerman had a 9 millimeter handgun.
The two allegedly engaged in a physical altercation. There was yelling, and then a gunshot.
When police arrived, Trayvon was face down in the grass with a fatal bullet wound to the chest. Zimmerman was standing with blood on his face and the back of his head and grass stains on his back, according to The Orlando Sentinel.
Trayvon’s lifeless body was taken away, tagged and held. Zimmerman was taken into custody, questioned and released. Zimmerman said he was the one yelling for help. He said that he acted in self-defense. The police say that they have found no evidence to dispute Zimmerman’s claim.
One other point: Trayvon is black. Zimmerman is not.
Trayvon was buried on March 3. Zimmerman is still free and has not been arrested or charged with a crime.
Yet the questions remain: Why did Zimmerman find Trayvon suspicious? Why did he pursue the boy when the 911 operator instructed him not to? Why did he get out of the car, and why did he take his gun when he did? How is it self-defense when you are the one in pursuit? Who initiated the altercation? Who cried for help? Did Trayvon’s body show evidence of a struggle? What moved Zimmerman to use lethal force?
This case has reignited a furor about vigilante justice, racial-profiling and equitable treatment under the law, and it has stirred the pot of racial strife.
As the father of two black teenage boys, this case hits close to home. This is the fear that seizes me whenever my boys are out in the world: that a man with a gun and an itchy finger will find them “suspicious.” That passions may run hot and blood run cold. That it might all end with a hole in their chest and hole in my heart. That the law might prove insufficient to salve my loss.
That is the burden of black boys in America and the people that love them: running the risk of being descended upon in the dark and caught in the cross-hairs of someone who crosses the line.
The racial sensitivity of this case is heavy. Trayvon’s parents have said their son was murdered. Crump, the family’s lawyer, told me, “You know, if Trayvon would have been the triggerman, it’s nothing Trayvon Martin could have said to keep police from arresting him Day 1, Hour 1.” Even the police chief recognizes this reality, even while disputing claims of racial bias in the investigation: “Our investigation is color blind and based on the facts and circumstances, not color. I know I can say that until I am blue in the face, but, as a white man in a uniform, I know it doesn’t mean anything to anybody.”
Zimmerman has not released a statement, but his father delivered a one-page letter to The Orlando Sentinel on Thursday. According to the newspaper, the statement said that Zimmerman is “Hispanic and grew up in a multiracial family.” The paper quotes the letter as reading, “He would be the last to discriminate for any reason whatsoever” and continues, “The media portrayal of George as a racist could not be further from the truth.” And disclosures made since the shooting complicate people’s perception of fairness in the case.
According to Crump, the father was told that one of the reasons Zimmerman wasn’t arrested was because he had a “squeaky clean” record. It wasn’t. According to the local news station WFTV, Zimmerman was arrested in 2005 for “battery on a law enforcement officer.”
Furthermore, ABC News reported on Tuesday that one of the responding officers “corrected a witness after she told him that she heard the teen cry for help.” And The Miami Herald published an article on Thursday that said three witnesses had heard the “desperate wail of a child, a gunshot, and then silence.”
WFTV also reported this week that the officer in charge of the scene when Trayvon was shot was also in charge of another controversial case. In 2010, a lieutenant’s son was videotaped attacking a black homeless man. The officer’s son also was not initially arrested in that case. He was later arrested when the television station broke the news.
Although we must wait to get the results from all the investigations into Trayvon’s killing, it is clear that it is a tragedy. If no wrongdoing of any sort is ascribed to the incident, it will be an even greater tragedy.
One of the witnesses was a 13-year-old black boy who recorded a video for The Orlando Sentinel recounting what he saw. The boy is wearing a striped polo shirt, holding a microphone, speaking low and deliberately and has the heavy look of worry and sadness in his eyes. He describes hearing screaming, seeing someone on the ground and hearing gunshots. The video ends with the boy saying, “I just think that sometimes people get stereotyped, and I fit into the stereotype as the person who got shot.”
And that is the burden of black boys, and this case can either ease or exacerbate it.
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Sources: CNN, Guardian.co.uk, NY Times, Wrigley Jr Co., Google Maps
Florida's "Stand Your Law" Enacted Under Jeb Bush; A Legal Excuse To Commit Cold-Blooded MURDER
Florida's Controversial "Stand Your Ground" Law was enacted under former Florida GOP Governor Jeb Bush.
The Law is a Legal excuse to Commit Cold-Blooded MURDER!
Florida Shooting Focuses Attention on ‘Stand Your Ground’ Law
Trevor Dooley stood his ground, brandished his gun and killed a man after an argument over local skateboarding rules in a Florida town.
He argued in court last month that he had a right to do so under the state’s Stand Your Ground law.
Outrage over the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, killed by a crime watch volunteer, has focused new attention on the law, which permits those in Florida “to meet force with force, including deadly force” when attacked. As my colleague Lizette Alvarez reports, the Justice Department is pursuing an investigation into Trayvon’s case.
As that investigation goes forward, the law is currently being invoked as a key defense by Mr. Dooley.
The man he killed, David James, had been playing basketball with his 8-year-old daughter in September 2010 when he and Mr. Dooley began arguing over whether a boy on a skateboard had a right to ride on the court, according to an account in The St. Petersburg Times. There was a “physical confrontation,” the police said, during which Mr. Dooley fired the weapon he was carrying, killing Mr. James in front of his daughter.
“You agree you do not want to go to prison for killing David James?” he was asked at the trial, according to televised footage from the courtroom.
“I don’t think I should,” responded Mr. Dooley, who has been charged with manslaughter but says he feared for his life during the altercation with Mr. James.
His lawyers are seeking to have the case dismissed by a judge on the grounds that the Stand Your Ground law permitted him to defend himself with deadly force.
The law extends what has been called the Castle Doctrine — that a person has the right to defend his or her home with force — to apply to people outside of the home, removing the so-called “duty to retreat.” The Florida law explicitly states that no such duty exists in the state. The provision appears as part of the Florida law on the justifiable use of force by citizens.
A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.
The National Rifle Association lobbied strongly for the change to state law, which was adopted in 2005 and signed by Gov. Jeb Bush. Mr. Bush said at the time that he supported the measure because, faced with a serious threat one’s life, “to have to retreat and put yourself in a very precarious position defies common sense.”
In the years since the law was amended in 2005, there has been a surge in the number of cases like Mr. Dooley’s and that of Trayvon Martin, killed by the neighborhood volunteer, George Zimmerman, last month. A 2010 review by The St. Petersburg Times found that rates of justifiable homicide tripled since the law was passed and that “twice a week, on average, someone’s killing was considered warranted.”
The paper reviewed press accounts of 93 cases involving 65 deaths in confrontations in which the new law could be applied and found that 57 of them resulted in no criminal charge or trial. In seven others that went to trial, the defendants were then acquitted.
In these cases, the Florida Supreme Court recognizes something called “true immunity.” That means, according to Emily Bazelon in Slate, that the assertion of the Stand Your Ground law can be enough for a judge to dismiss a case before trial even starts.
A columnist writing in The Orlando Sentinel said the law made Florida feel “more and more like the Wild West.” But it is far from unique; more than a dozen states have similar Stand Your Ground provisions.
The Orlando Sentinel published a primer on the law last weekend, answering some frequently asked questions including:
Q: How did law enforcement respond to the law?
A: Prosecutors across the state opposed the law before it was enacted Oct. 1, 2005. In the following five months, there were at least 13 shootings in Central Florida where self-defense was claimed. Out of six men killed and four more wounded in the cases, only one was armed. Some Orlando-area police agencies simply stopped investigating shootings involving self-defense claims and referred them directly to state prosecutors to decide.
Q: Can an unarmed person legally pose a deadly threat?
In case after case during the past six years, Floridians who shot and killed unarmed opponents have not been prosecuted. Former National Rifle Association President Marion Hammer, a major force behind the law’s passage, cited her own size and age in 2006 interview with the Sentinel about what she would do if confronted by a younger and larger aggressor.
“I’m 4-foot-11. I’m 67 years old,” she said. “If you came at me, and I felt that my life was in danger or that I was going to be injured, I wouldn’t hesitate to shoot you.”
The law may explain why local police did not charge Mr. Zimmerman for killing Trayvon. But further details may cast doubt on the circumstances of their encounter and whether it would fall under the law’s provisions.
A female friend of Trayvon talked to him by cellphone moments before he died. “He said this man was watching him, so he put his hoodie on. He said he lost the man,” the girl told ABC News. “I asked Trayvon to run, and he said he was going to walk fast. I told him to run but he said he was not going to run.” A call to 911 by Mr. Zimmerman also appeared to indicate that he followed Trayvon.
Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote on his blog for The Atlantic magazine that “the more I see of this, the less I think ‘Stand Your Ground’ will save Zimmerman.”
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Sources: ABC News, CNN, NY Times, PBS, Youtube, Google Maps
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Mexican Cartel Drug Wars Fueled By Guns From U.S.
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Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Firearms From U.S. Being Used In Mexico Drug Violence
Mexican cartels are taking advantage of U.S. gun laws to buy thousands of weapons that are being used in an escalating drug war that has claimed more than 31,000 lives since late 2006, experts and law enforcement officials tell NBC News.
U.S. firearms agents estimate that around 80 percent of the weapons used by Mexican drug traffickers come from the United States, where cartel leaders are hiring Americans with clean records to make the purchases for them. In the past four years, Mexican authorities say they have seized 90,000 weapons from their nation's drug war.
"The cartels need their tools of the trade, which are the weapons, and they are coming to the U.S. to get those weapons," William McMahon of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told NBC News.
Authorities say the straw buyers are paid up to $200 per weapon and cite a recent case in Oklahoma City, where a former state narcotics agent pleaded guilty in such a gunrunning scheme.
Francisco Reyes, 29, was accused of paying two friends to buy dozens of firearms destined for Mexico, according to court documents. One of those buyers, Jorge Alexis Blanco, bought at least 15 guns and attempted to buy three more, according to Michael Randall of the ATF in the criminal complaint.
"They are being taken advantage of by these cartels and really are providing something that's going be used to kill someone in Mexico," said McMahon, adding that the cartels are specifically looking for high-caliber weapons.
'Acapulco Police Massacre'
Authorities say they have no doubts that weapon purchases are being used to fuel the violence in Mexico, including a recent case known as the "Acapulco Police Massacre," in which four officers and three secretaries were murdered.
Guns used in that and other cases were traced to Houston. Overall, the Southwest border states, especially Texas, California and Arizona, are the primary sources of weapons used by the cartels in Mexico, where buying guns is much more difficult than in the U.S., according to the Department of Justice.
In 2009, ATF reported to Congress that about 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico that ATF has traced were initially sold in the United States. However, the National Rifle Association has said the percentage is much lower.
In smuggling weapons across the border, experts say, the guns are usually hidden in cars and trucks.
"They'll hide them in secret compartments, whether it's a spare tire, a gas tank, camper shells or they even build secret compartments to put them in there," said Rick Serrano, an ATF supervisor in Tucson, Ariz.
In Texas, authorities arrested Ernesto Gonzalez-Reyes, 48, in March alleging they found five 7.62mm semiautomatic rifles, 10 high-capacity 7.62mm magazines and 50 rounds of .40-caliber ammunition hidden within the cargo area panels and the front and rear bumpers of the Chevrolet Suburban he was driving.
'Not going to honest American hands'
During his visit to the United States in May, Mexican President Felipe Calderon urged a joint session of Congress to ban assault weapons that are showing up in his country.
Calderon said the U.S. need to "regulate the sale of these weapons in the right way."
"Many of these guns are not going to honest American hands," he said. "Instead, thousands are ending up in the hands of criminals."
Although U.S. officials say they have recently seized more than 10,000 weapons headed for Mexico, Mexican authorities say more work needs to be done to stem the flow, including better use of a gun-tracing program known as eTrace.
That program was announced in Mexico in January 2008 as the cornerstone of efforts to "terminate the illegal shipment of arms to Mexico and reduce the violence they cause on both sides of the border."
But a recent inspector general's preliminary report, first publicized in October, called eTrace underused and unsuccessful. One top official said not enough Mexican investigators had been trained or had access to the electronic database.
"It doesn't mean the system is not working. It's not working as well as it can," ATF Deputy Director Kenneth Melson told The Associated Press in October. "The information was being submitted by people who didn't know how to trace guns."
Melson said the system, when used properly, can provide strategic and intelligence information to fight gun-smuggling, establishing trafficking patterns as well as identifying weapons sources.
"We're now at a point where we can process much more information quickly, information that will be more accurate and more complete," Melson said.
'Iron River'
But finding a way to stop the weapons flow, now known as the "Iron River," is being hindered to some extent by U.S. gun laws, officials say. In November, the inspector general of the Department of Justice detailed the problem, citing the lack of a federal statute specifically prohibiting firearms trafficking.
Meanwhile, Mexican authorities are taking steps to ensure the weapons that are seized don't find their way back to the cartels.
At a military base, in Mexico City, soldiers use torches and hammers to destroy thousands of guns, saving others for evidence in criminal investigations.
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Sources: Hand Guns Mag., MSNBC, Google Maps
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Chicago's Gun-Gang Crisis On The Rise In 2010
Six Wounded In Shootings On South, West Sides
At least six men were shot -- four on the West Side -- Friday night and early Saturday.
At 8:24 p.m. Saturday, a 23-year-old man standing in the 4800 block of West Jackson Boulevard was shot in the upper arm and taken in good condition to Loretto Hospital, police said.
At 9:54 p.m. Saturday, a man was shot in the leg during a robbery in the 4000 block of West Lexington Street, police said.
On the South Side, two gunmen exited a dark colored van and shot a 25-year-old man standing in the street in the 8300 block of South Justine Street about 10:15 p.m., police said. He was taken in stable condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
At 11:08 p.m., a man was shot in the 11100 block of South Racine Avenue, police said. He was taken in good condition to Christ Medical Center.
The shooting continued on the West Side early Saturday. At 2:21 a.m., a man in his 30s was shot multiple times in the 4800 block of West Gladys Avenue and was taken in serious condition to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, police said.
Ten minutes later, a 25-year-old man was shot in the 2200 block of West Race Avenue and was taken in an unidentified condition to Stroger Hospital with a gunshot wound to the abdomen area, police said.
Nobody is in custody for any of the shootings.
One dead, Two Wounded In West Side Shootings
One man was killed and two other people critically wounded in shootings on the West Side on Wednesday morning.
At 8:22 a.m. Fire Department personnel took two people to hospitals in serious to critical condition from a shooting at Polk and Pulaski, according to Fire Media Affairs spokesman Richard Rosado. One was taken to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County and the other to Mount Sinai Hospital.
At 8:30 a.m. paramedics took one person, also listed in serious to critical condition, to Mount Sinai from a shooting on the 4000 block of West Lexington, Rosado said.
Police News Affairs Officer Michael Sullivan said three people were shot near Polk and Pulaski.
One of the victims taken to Mount Sinai, a 50-year-old man, died at the hospital at 8:44 a.m., according to a spokesman for the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.
The two shooting scenes are less than a block apart, the first about a half-block from Daniel Webster Elementary School at 4055 W. Arthington.
Harrison Area detectives are investigating.
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Sources: Chicago Sun Times, Youtube, Google Maps
Friday, July 2, 2010
Chicago's New Hand Gun Ordinance Violates 2nd Amendment Or No??
Chicago Approves New Handgun Restrictions
The Chicago City Council on Friday approved what city officials say is the strictest handgun ordinance in the United States.
The 45-0 vote came four days after a Supreme Court ruling made it almost certain that Chicago's handgun ban would be overturned. The high court ruled Americans have a right to own a gun for self-defense anywhere they live.
The new city ordinance bans gun shops in Chicago and prohibits gun owners from stepping outside their homes, even onto their porches or garages, with a handgun. It will take effect in 10 days.
The ordinance also:
— Limits the number of handguns residents can register to one per month and prohibit residents from having more than one handgun in operating order at any given time.
— Requires residents in homes with children to keep them in lock boxes or equipped with trigger locks.
— Requires prospective gun owners to take a four-hour class and one-hour training at a gun range. They would have to leave the city for training because Chicago prohibits new gun ranges and limits the use of existing ranges to police officers. Those restrictions were similar to those in an ordinance passed in Washington, D.C., after the high court struck down its ban two years ago.
— Prohibits people from owning a gun if they were convicted of a violent crime, domestic violence or two or more convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Residents convicted of a gun offense would have to register with the police department.
— Calls for the police department to maintain a registry of every handgun owner in the city, with the names and addresses to be made available to police officers, firefighters and other emergency responders.
Those who already have handguns in the city — which has been illegal since the city's ban was approved 28 years ago — would have 90 days to register those weapons, according to the proposed ordinance.
Residents convicted of violating the city's ordinance can face a fine up to $5,000 and be locked up for as long as 90 days for a first offense and a fine of up to $10,000 and as long as six months behind bars for subsequent convictions.
Though Monday's Supreme Court ruling did not specifically strike down Chicago's handgun ban, it ordered a federal appeals court to reconsider its ruling.
Mayor Richard Daley moved quickly to get a new ordinance in place and has indicated that he expects legal challenges to the new restrictions.
Meanwhile, a northwestern Wisconsin prosecutor said he won't prosecute a range of state weapon violations in light of the Supreme Court ruling.
Jackson County District Attorney Gerald R. Fox said in a statement he will no longer prosecute people for carrying uncased or loaded guns in vehicles, carrying concealed weapons, carrying firearms in public buildings or taverns or carrying switchblades and butterfly knives.
Fox said the Supreme Court ruling invalidated Wisconsin's laws against those practices.
Peter Hamm, a spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said Fox is inviting crime into Jackson County and if he won't enforce the state's laws he should be removed from office.
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Sources: AP, MSNBC, Youtube, Google Maps
Monday, June 28, 2010
Chicago Handgun Ban Ruled Unconstitutional, NRA Celebrates
High Court Strikes Down Chicago Handgun Ban
In another dramatic victory for firearm owners, the Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional Chicago, Illinois', 28-year-old strict ban on handgun ownership, a potentially far-reaching case over the ability of state and local governments to enforce limits on weapons.
A 5-4 conservative majority of justices on Monday reiterated its 2-year-old conclusion that the Constitution gives individuals equal or greater power than states on the issue of possession of certain firearms for self-protection.
"It cannot be doubted that the right to bear arms was regarded as a substantive guarantee, not a prohibition that could be ignored so long as states legislated in an evenhanded manner," wrote Justice Samuel Alito.
The court grounded that right in the due process section of the 14th Amendment. The justices, however, said local jurisdictions still retain the flexibility to preserve some "reasonable" gun-control measures currently in place nationwide.
In dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer predicated far-reaching implications. "Incorporating the right," he wrote, "may change the law in many of the 50 states. Read in the majority's favor, the historical evidence" for the decision "is at most ambiguous."
He was supported by Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor.
At issue was whether the constitutional "right of the people to keep and bear arms" applies to local gun control ordinances, or only to federal restrictions. The basic question had remained unanswered for decades, and gave the conservative majority on the high court another chance to allow Americans expanded weapon ownership rights.
A key question was how far the court would apply competing parts of the 14th Amendment to preserve some "reasonable" gun control measures currently in place nationwide.
The appeal was filed by a community activist in Chicago who sought a handgun for protection from gangs. Otis McDonald told CNN outside his South Side home that he wants a handgun to protect himself and his family from the violence in his neighborhood. "That's all I want, is just a fighting chance," he said. "Give me the opportunity to at least make somebody think about something before they come in my house on me."
His application for a handgun permit was denied in a city with perhaps the toughest private weapons restrictions in the nation.
The justices two years ago affirmed an individual's right to possess such weapons, tossing out restrictive laws in the federal enclave of the District of Columbia.
The larger issue is one that has polarized judges, politicians and the public for decades: Do the Second Amendment's 27 words bestow gun ownership as an individual right or as a collective one -- aimed at the civic responsibilities of state militias and therefore subject, perhaps, to strict government regulation? And is that regulation limited to federal laws, or can it be applied to local communities?
The amendment states: "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."
Gun rights groups applauded the decision.
"Today marks a great moment in American history," said Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association. "It is a vindication for the great majority of American citizens who have always believed the Second Amendment was an individual right and freedom worth defending."
Some gun control advocates tried to put a positive spin on the opinion.
"There is nothing in today's decision that should prevent any state or local government from successfully defending, maintaining, or passing, sensible, strong gun laws," said Paul Helmke, of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
The court majority refused to limit its 2008 District of Columbia ruling. That decision offered at least partial constitutional validation to citizens seeking the right to possess one of the most common types of firearms in their homes. The Chicago ruling now extends that right significantly.
The Justice Department estimates that as many as 275 million guns are in the United States. In 2005, three-quarters of the 10,100 homicides by firearms nationwide were committed with handguns.
Underpinning the legal basis for the court's jurisdiction in this appeal is a complex reading of the 14th Amendment, passed after the Civil War to ensure that all citizens -- including newly freed slaves -- were protected from state laws that might restrict their fundamental rights.
One part ensures that states cannot deprive people of "life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." That has been commonly applied by federal courts when it comes to disputes over basic rights, so-called "ordered liberty" cases. Such cases include affirming the right to abortion, and to homosexual sex.
But another rarely used provision also prevents states from depriving the "privileges or immunities" of all citizens. The specific question for the high court in the Chicago case was whether the "immunities and privileges" clause should be used to overturn the handgun ban. An 1873 ruling limited use of that provision when considering a variety of state laws.
McDonald's lawyer, Alan Gura, promoted a new reading of the clause, in his lead role representing gun owners.
The constitutional theories are dense, but some legal scholars had said that if the high court embraced this "privileges and immunities" clause, it could open up to fresh review a huge range of issues, like property rights and gay marriage.
Courts have generally upheld other cities' restrictions on semiautomatic weapons and sawed-off shotguns. The conservative high court majority has in recent years upheld a California ban on assault rifles, similar to a federal ban that expired in 2004.
Forty-four state constitutions protect their residents' right to keep weapons, according to a brief filed by 32 state attorneys general in support of the individual weapons owners in the current appeals.
Some constitutional experts have noted the Bill of Rights had traditionally been applied by courts only to the federal government, not to local entities. It was not until the past half-century that the justices have viewed free speech, assembly, and the press -- among other rights -- as individual in nature, and fundamental to liberty, superseding in many cases the power of states.
There have been limits. The high court has repeatedly refused to extend to states the 5th Amendment requirement that persons can be charged with serious crimes only by "indictment of a grand jury."
The current case was McDonald v. Chicago (08-1521).
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