Carolina Politics Online

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Aaron Groen

June 26, 2008
202-225-2071

Foxx praises Supreme Court’s Second Amendment ruling

High Court strikes down D.C.’s longstanding ban on gun ownership

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Representative Virginia Foxx made the following statement today after the Supreme Court ruled that Washington, D.C.’s gun ownership ban was unconstitutional and in violation of the Second
Amendment:

“The Supreme Court’s decision today restores the constitutional rights of the thousands of law-abiding citizens in Washington, D.C. who for decades have seen their second amendment rights stripped away by an unconstitutional gun ban,” Foxx said.

“Law-abiding Americans have the constitutional right to own guns and it is high time that D.C. residents are given the right to purchase legal guns for legitimate purposes like sport shooting or self-defense. Today’s Supreme Court ruling is a victory for individual rights and for the fundamental personal liberties every American enjoys each day.”

Note: Last year Rep Foxx signed an amicus brief that was submitted to the Supreme Court urging the Court to overturn the District of Columbia’s unconstitutional gun ban.  Rep. Foxx is also a member of the Congressional Second Amendment Caucus, a group of Members of Congress dedicated to protecting the right of law-abiding individuals to own firearms as granted by the Constitution’s Second Amendment.  Foxx has co-sponsored H.R. 1399, a bipartisan bill to repeal the District of Columbia’s gun ban.

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A Senate judiciary committee approved legislation today that could prevent those involuntarily committed with serious mental illness from purchasing or possessing guns.

“People with severe mental illnesses should not be able to purchase a gun — it’s as simple as that— and this is a process to accomplish that,” said N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper.

The News & Observer

Thoughts on this? I’m huge on the Second Amendment and do not take kindly to most restrictions, but I don’t necessarily have a problem with this legislation. My only fear is can it be abused and can it lead to more restrictions down the road?

NEWS14.com

With the growing concern of rising crime comes an increasing number of gun sales across the state. One gun shop owner says the sales are driven by self defense.

“They want to feel secure in their homes, which is something they don’t feel right now,” he said.

I will say it again and again until November 4th election, In North Carolina the Democrats are in charge until the voters decide they have had enough. The voters who elect Democrats have no one else to blame except themselves and the people they elect to office. Vote Republican nationally and locally or expect more of the same failures by the NC state government and the Democratically controlled US Congress.

Charles Jeter is an environmental engineer from Greer who is running against Congressman Bob Inglis for the Republican nomination for this year’s election. I am not a real big admirer of Inglis so I wouldn’t mind seeing a change. Jeter has an impressive resume, including a five year stint in the Reagan Administration serving as the EPA’s Region IV Administrator. On the issues, I’m about 50/50 with him.

Taxes - He wants to keep the Bush tax cuts permanent and emphasizes lowering the Corporate Income Tax rate to 25%. I am glad he mentions that because this is very important. The U.S. has the second highest CIT in the world and it is making us uncompetitive in a now global economy. Even the Socialists in Europe have figured this out.

Iraq - On Iraq he acknowledges the mistake of the invasion, but also understands that simply picking up and pulling out when the country is not stable enough to keep out the terrorist elements is losing situation for both us and them. This is a reasonable position, but someone needs to define precisely what victory entails.

Immigration - He supports the border fence. I think the fence is a waste of money. If we crack down on employers knowingly hiring illegal labor and make certain that social services are cut off to these people then they’ll leave on their own.

Social Security - His position is as stated from his Web site:

Supports continuing current benefits for those already receiving benefits. Supports a bipartisan approach to ensure that the Social Security program remains healthy.

I fundamentally disagree with this. Social Security cannot remain healthy and be sustained without massive tax hikes. It needs to be eliminated entirely. We do not have the same demographics that once existed in 1935. It’s a different America today and the plan has now turned into a Ponzi Scheme. We need politicians that aren’t going to be afraid to tell people the ugly reality of this program.

Health Care - On health care he maintains that we have the best system in the world and that it should be available to all, but he doesn’t say how to do that. He just states he is opposed to a government run system.

Domestic Issues - Is prolife but supports abortion in extreme circumstances. He supports the Second Amendment and background checks and is a proponent of the death penalty.

Energy Independence - Supports moving to nuclear energy over the long haul.

Climate Change - He does not buy into the global warming hysteria. The planet has had warming and cooling periods throughout its history and we are currently in a modest warming period.

Youths 18 through 20 may now legally possess handguns under a state Supreme Court ruling issued this morning.

The five-member court unanimously said the state law banning those under 21 from possessing handguns violated the state constitution.

The State

The Supreme Court made the correct ruling.  An 18 year old is a legal adult and therefore awarded all rights under the Constitution of the United States.  That includes the Second Amendment stating quite clearly that the right to bear arms shall not be infringed.  I’m surprised this law wasn’t challenged when first passed.

COLUMBIA — The National Rifle Association has endorsed U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham in his re-election bid.

The group says it endorsed the Republican from South Carolina because of his stance on gun rights and his voting record.

Graham faces Buddy Witherspoon in the June 10 primary.

The Herald-Journal

He’s never getting my endorsement at the ballot box, that’s for sure.

School board members met Wednesday and asked staff members to draft changes to the weapons ban that would would allow marksmanship teams such as the one at East Wake High School to compete in off-campus shooting events.

School board member Lori Millberg, chairwoman of the board’s policy committee, said the original intent of the weapons policy was to keep students safe by barring firearms, knives and other deadly weapons from school grounds. There wasn’t any thought that the policy would keep school-based marksmanship teams from competing.

“That was not what the school board was seeking to bar when we wrote this policy,” Millberg said.

But in late March, an East Wake principal, Sebastian Shipp, decided to bar the East Wake team from competing in the marksmanship tournament sponsored by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission the day before the contest took place. Area superintendent Danny Barnes supported Shipp’s decision.

But Barnes and Shipp interpreted the weapons ban on campus to mean students could not participate in an off-campus event sponsored by a state agency and supervised by adults certified in firearms safety. The East Wake team members were part of a school-approved club, FFA, formerly known as Future Farmers of America.

The News & Observer

Barnes and Shipp, two more “educators” who apparently were never themselves educated in the arts of common sense.  Two more “educators” who I would also speculate have never held an actual job in the private sector where their labor has to produce actual results.  How is it that so many people in this country that lack very basic analytical skills continue to end up teaching our children?  What made these two men think that they had a right to regulate what these students do off of school grounds?  What made these men think that there was a clear and inherent danger in letting students, responsibly trained in the use of firearms, attend a competition in marksmanship supervised by adults, also responsibly trained in the use of firearms.  These kids aren’t Columbine outcasts.

In my parents’ days they use to have rifle clubs in high school.  You could drive up to school and park your truck with a loaded shot gun in the rack and it didn’t concern anybody.  We’ve got a bunch of politically correct, limp-wristed wimps running our schools these days who don’t know their behind from a hole in the wall.

CHAPEL HILL - A midday gun protest expected to draw 32 participants instead drew about 60 to the UNC-Chapel Hill campus today.

The protest, one of about 80 taking place in 33 states, came on the one-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings. Organizers wanted to draw attention to what they believe are lax gun laws.

Th plan was for 32 participants to lie on the ground for three minutes, acknowledging the 32 victims of the shooting. But nearly twice that many participated in Chapel Hill, including one young boy and a chocolate labrador retriever.

The News & Observer

We can’t all be blessed with intelligence and it’s amazing how many of those less fortunate in the intellectual realm manage to get accepted to higher educational institutions. One can only hope that as these children enter the real world after Duke and blossom into adulthood a few cells in their heads will split, multiply, and eventually become a thinking brain.

The tragedy of last year’s incident of Virginia Tech occurred for many reasons, but certainly not because of lax gun laws. These demonstrators for some reason continue to forget that most college campuses in this country, VT included, are “gun free zones.” Guns are already banned there, which makes them perfect targets for people like Fu Man Chu who decided to use the school as his personal target practice last year. He certainly wasn’t worried about anyone fighting back during his rampage because he knew he’d be the only one with a gun. Funny how that works, isn’t it?

The issue here is over regulation of the Second Amendment rights of every one of those students. Had they been allowed to have a gun as the Constitution guarantees there is a good possibility that none of these deaths may had even occurred as the shooter may have thought twice about it. Now granted, since he killed himself when he was done, that may not have mattered to him anyway, but the death toll may have been far less if one of the students in the building that he tore through like Rambo could have pulled out their own firearm and shot him dead in his tracks.

Perhaps some day these kid will learn some lessons in logic, but when their Dean is out their engaging in this silliness with them it’s not hard to understand how these young, impressionable minds are getting filled with this kind of gobbledygook.

A vote on outdoor gun restrictions in the Union County Village of Wesley Chapel won’t come for at least another month.

The council on Tuesday night again postponed voting on the ordinance to clarify its wording. The measure would limit gun firing inside the town limits to hunting with neighbors’ permission and for self-defense.

The village began drafting the ordinance after residents of the Stonegate subdivision complained about an adjacent private gun range on six acres owned by an area doctor, Michael Land.

Two council members, Sondra Bradford and Rick Croffut, will further research what activities, firearms types and areas it affects, Mayor Tracey Clinton said. The council on April 1 tabled the ordinance for similar reasons.

Charlotte Observer

Wesley Chapel to Consider Gun Ordinance

Wesley Chapel will hold a public hearing Tuesday on a proposed town ordinance restricting the use of firearms.

The hearing will be held at 7 p.m. at Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church at 120 South Potter Road.

The proposed ordinance came about after residents complained about a landowner’s private gun range. Details: Village Office, 704-243-7391.

Charlotte Observer

The ordinance is here.  It’s not a big deal.  All they are saying is that they don’t want people running around their back yard shooting guns for obvious reasons.  I don’t find this to be an unreasonable ordinance.

Lawmakers have agreed to lower South Carolina’s minimum age to own and sell handguns from 21 to 18.Governor Mark Sanford has not decided what he’ll do with the bill.

The National Rifle Association says South Carolina is one of 18 states that require handgun owners to be 21 or older. There is no minimum age in South Carolina for owning rifles or shotguns.

State Representative Mike Pitts filed the bill.He says 18-year-olds can join the military and defend others’ rights to own guns, so they should be able to own guns themselves.

The Herald-Journal

The Second Amendment is clear, “the right of the People to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” An 18 year old is an adult according to the law, therefore they have a right to gun ownership for the purpose of defense just as much as any 40 year old does. They are voting, they are fighting our wars, and they are independent.

Police have made moves since then to curb shootings, including holding a gun buyback and designating two officers to investigate gangs, which police have said are behind the increase.

Investigators suspect juveniles fired the shots in Hillcrest, though they had not said whether gangs were involved.

“Possessing and using a gun to settle disputes or develop a reputation has become the cultural norm for many young people,” Asheville police Capt. Tim Splain said.

Asheville Citizen-Times

There is a very simple way to resolve all of this.  Get rid of the welfare state.  None of these problems existed before Johnson’s “Great Society.”  Inner city neighborhoods were places where decent people could live and raise a family.  Now they are flooded with welfare recipients engaging in drugs and violence.

The welfare state has resulted in a breakdown of the family, most heavily among black Americans.  The government has replaced the role of the father and these kids grow up unruly, uneducated, and uncontrollable.  Study after study has shown that kids who grow up in single parent households are more susceptible to getting into trouble and being a burden on society.

This is the answer that legislative liberals don’t want to hear so the problem will never be solved.

Moore’s proposal would regulate firearms use near houses and occupied structures, but speaker-after-speaker told commissioners that laws are already on the books that would prosecute anyone who maliciously or careless fires a weapon.

Sheriff Tim Daugherty told commissioners he thought Moore’s proposal was unenforceable and said he didn’t want his deputies wasting their time chasing down and investigating calls that would result if the ordinance passed.

Commissioner Alex Patton, who made the motion to kill Moore’s proposal, said that he had received more than 100 emails and 30 phone calls, and not a single person he heard from is in favor of the idea.

“It’s not right for Lincoln County,” he said, rejecting Moore’s contention that a public hearing should be held before a final decision was made.

Commissioner Jim Klein said that it was “unfortunate that this ordinance got as far as it did” and said it is “an ordinance that we don’t need in this county.”

Moore retorted that a woman was killed in Maine in 1989 by a stray bullet.

Commissioner Bruce Carlton then weighed in and said that life has risks and it’s not government’s place to remove every hazard from daily life” unless we want what he called a “vanilla world.”

Patton then sealed the fate of the ordinance by saying that common sense can’t be put in an ordinance.

The audience applauded much to Moore’s chagrin.

News@Norman

It’s nice to see that no more than one of the Lincoln County Commissioners is thick headed.  The problem with people like Marie Moore is they don’t understand that no matter how many gun laws you pass, criminals still will not follow them.  Her ordinance is nothing more than an unenforcible waste of time and I am surprised that she would even introduce such a proposal in a rural area like Lincoln County.

Moore is up for reelection this year too so this probably wasn’t the brightest time for her to bring forth this bill.  This could definitely come back to bite her in November.

A bill, pending before a House subcommittee Thursday, would allow some members of the state’s General Assembly to carry firearms around the Capitol grounds and into other public buildings such as schools.The change in state law would only apply to lawmakers who have a valid concealed weapons permit, which signifies they have undergone eight hours of handgun training and passed criminal and mental background checks.

The bill’s sponsor Rep. Keith Kelly, R-Spartanburg, filed the bill late in the session last year after he learned 12 other categories of public servants — but not lawmakers — are allowed to carry firearms into public buildings while doing business. Those public servants are Supreme Court justices and other judges, along with solicitors and workers’ compensation commissioners.

“I looked at that statute and wondered why members of the General Assembly can’t carry by virtue of holding office,” Kelly said. “I’m just saying add the 170 members. If the good people have put you in this position, then you ought to be able to carry.”

The State

I agree with this bill. Lawmakers should be allowed to carry in government buildings. They are public officials and simply based on that alone they are controversial figures with the public. When you have incidents like the man in Missouri a few weeks back who went in to the City Council meeting and shot five people dead because he had a problems with the city government you shouldn’t be taking any chances.

The Brady scorecard rates states on a zero-to-100 scale across five major categories of laws: curbing firearm trafficking; strengthening Brady background checks; child safety; banning military-style weapons; and making it harder to carry guns in public settings.South Carolina is tied for 23rd on the list. The state could move up on the scale in a number of ways, according to the Brady Campaign. Suggested changes include: requiring background checks for all sales at gun shows with the idea of closing opportunities to felons and the mentally ill; limiting bulk purchase of handguns; limiting magazine capacities; and mandating gun-lock sales with each purchase.

The Post and Courier

The Brady Campaign is an anti-gun anti-Second Amendment organization whose ultimate goal is to completely ban the private ownership of firearms. In doing so, they advocate oppression of the American people by our government and the complete elimination of freedom in this country. It is the vast amount of gun ownership across this nation that keeps us from becoming the U.S.S.R.

This session, a few gun-related fights are under way in the Legislature. The South Carolina Press Association is fighting a bill that would make secret the list of holders of concealed weapons permits. Some proponents say burglars are filing Freedom of Information Act requests seeking permit holders’ names, then using the information to break into their houses and steal guns. Others contend that abusive spouses are using the FOIA law to get the list to track down women at their new addresses.

S.C. Press Association Executive Director Bill Rogers called the arguments ridiculous and are part of a national gun advocacy campaign aimed at hiding gun ownership.

And why should it be public? It’s nobody’s damn business who owns a gun. Everyone who owns a gun has a God given right to protect themselves, their families, and their property.

Sallie Duell picked up the morning newspaper in November and read that North Charleston had been named the 7th-most- dangerous city in the nation. That’s when she knew she had to do something.Duell, of Charleston, is organizing a brief protest for tougher gun laws Tuesday morning outside City Hall at Meeting and Broad streets downtown. It’s part of a movement called Protest Easy Guns — concerned citizens who, like Duell, are searching for a solution to a growing trend of violence.At 11 a.m., Duell and 31 of her friends and acquaintances will lie down on the sidewalk for three minutes in front of the city building. The number of people represents the 32 victims shot to death last year at Virginia Tech. The three minutes represents the estimated amount of time it took the gunman in the college shooting to purchase his guns.

The Post and Courier

I don’t think that most people are opposed to very minimal and reasonable restrictions on firearms. I have no issue with convicted felons and mentally ill people not being permitted to purchase them. I’m not entirely certain as to what Ms Duell’s plan is, though. While it is already illegal for the aforementioned people to purchase firearms from dealers, person from an individual is permitted. How would a law be written to enforce what Ms Duell is asking? It would seem to me that this could be a path to registration and the world has a long history of governments disarming their citizenry to invoke power over them. A registration would allow the government to know who possesses one. That’s not an idea I am comfortable with.

Furthermore, a fair argument can also be made regarding Virginia Tech that if the university had not banned firearms on campus, Foo Man Chu might have been stopped before he killed all of those 32 people. A university gun ban certainly didn’t stop him from bringing one, nor did any anti-criminal gun laws.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg soon could find himself in a Berkeley County courtroom defending his decision to brand a Summerville pawnshop “a rogue gun dealer” that contributed to Big Apple violence.

Circuit Judge Roger Young ruled Monday that Larry Mickalis of Mickalis Pawn Shop can sue the mayor and New York City in S.C. courts for slander, fraud, conspiracy and emotional distress.

Mickalis alleges that the mayor and his representatives damaged his business and reputation by trying to falsely paint him as a nuisance gun dealer involved in illegal weapon sales.

The Post and Courier

I hope Bloomberg gets his ass handed to him over this. Earlier this year he sent under cover agents to the State of Virginia to conduct stings of illegal gun sales. I am pretty certain that being the Mayor of New York does not give him the power to tell other cities and/or states how to run things. This man thinks he is God and he needs to be smacked down a couple of pegs.

Two local schools and one local police department will meet with join with the U.S. Attorney’s Office this week as part of a national campaign to obtain pledges against gun violence.Middle and high school students will sign a voluntary pledge promising that they will never take a gun to school, will never resolve a dispute with a gun, and will use their influence to prevent friends from using guns to resolve disputes.

Chester News and Reporter

What the hell good is this going do? This reminds of those stupid “prom promises” they would always ask us to sign back in high school pledging that we wouldn’t drink on prom night, even though half the kids that signed it did it anyway. This is just a feel good measure that won’t accomplish anything in the long run.

To prevent school shootings, some South Carolina legislators want more guns on campuses.A House subcommittee approved a measure Wednesday that would allow concealed weapon permit holders to carry guns onto public school campuses, from elementary schools to universities. Supporters say having trained and armed gun owners in schools could prevent massacres like the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech, where one armed student killed 32 people.

Charlotte Observer

I think this is long overdue, all across the nation. Gun free zones are simply a farce and VT proved that one.