Daily Archives: March 6, 2012

05-03-2012 11:00 Rep. Doug Collins is a strong supporter of upholding the 2nd Amendment. He believes in applying the Founding Fathers interpretation of the Second Amendment. Being that the Right to Bear Arms is only after the 1st Amendment, Rep. Collins recognizes this Amendment as being essential to our freedom and liberty.

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Rep. Doug Colllins on the 2nd Amendment - Video

SPOKANE, Wash. -

Hundreds of supporters packed the Spokane Convention Center Friday to hear presidential candidate Ron Paul as he made a visiting return in advance of the Republican precinct caucuses. Paul, the Congressman from Texas, is a staunch Second Amendment supporter. On Friday night, while he took aim at President Barack Obama's policies, security at the Convention Center took aim at another issue: those openly carrying firearms.

In Washington, it's perfectly legal to openly carry firearmsas long as it's not being usedto intimidate, harass, and so on. There are strict rules about where people can't openly carry weaponsincluding jails and court houses.Ron Paul supporter Jeff Hayes carried his pistol on his hipat the Ron Paul rally in Spokane because he thought he was well within his legal rights.

Turns out, he wasn't.

Hayes has a concealed pistol's license but said officials asked him to leave the Convention Center because his weapon was not concealed.

"It was embarrassing to be standing there like that when they should have just let it be," Hayes said. "I've been openly carrying a firearm almost everywhere I go for the last three years and this if the first time I've been stopped or questioned or bothered by anybody."

Hayes quickly pointed out firearms-related state codes to officials at the rally, including RCW 94.1.290 (State preemptions) and RCW 9.41.300 (Weapons prohibited in certain places). The later of the two RCW's states that cities, towns, counties, and other municipalities may enact laws and ordinances "Restricting the possession of firearms in any stadium or convention center, operated by a city, town, county, or other municipality, except that such restrictions shall not apply to: any pistol in the possession of a person licensed under RCW 9.41.070 or exempt from the licensing requirement by RCW 9.41.060."

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Men Asked to Leave Ron Paul Rally After Openly Carrying Firearms

A federal judge has struck down a Maryland law barring residents from receiving handgun permits unless they have a good and substantial reason, in an opinion that gun rights advocates celebrated Monday as a monumentally important decision.

U.S. District Judge Benson Everett Legg ruled that the law violates the Second Amendment right to bear arms by requiring residents seeking concealed-carry permits to submit evidence showing that they face specific threats of violence outside their homes.

Judge Legg ruled that states are indeed allowed to place certain restrictions on gun permits to improve public safety, but Maryland law acts as an illegal rationing system that tries to simply reduce the number of guns in public without regard to an applicants fitness to carry a firearm.

A citizen may not be required to offer a good and substantial reason why he should be permitted to exercise his rights, he wrote in his opinion, which was issued Monday in Baltimore. The rights existence is all the reason he needs.

The lawsuit was filed by plaintiff Raymond Woollard, a Baltimore County man who received a gun permit in 2003, months after a home break-in that led to an armed altercation.

Mr. Woollard successfully renewed the permit in 2006, but his 2009 renewal application was denied by Maryland State Police and the states Handgun Permit Review Board on the grounds that he could not provide documents to verify threats occurring beyond his residence.

His lawsuit, filed in 2010 against state police and the review board, was backed by the Second Amendment Foundation, a Bellevue, Wash.-based gun rights advocacy group.

The state attorney general's office, which represented the defendants in the case, said it will appeal the ruling to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In his ruling, Judge Legg notably cited two Supreme Court precedents 2008s District of Columbia v. Heller, in which the court ruled that the Second Amendment may extend to public places, and 2010s McDonald v. City of Chicago, in which the justices ruled that such a decision also should apply in states as it did in the District, which is a federal enclave.

Both cases were won by lawyer Alan Gura, who also represented Mr. Woollard and the Second Amendment Foundation.

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Maryland's 'good reason' gun law voided

BALTIMORE (AP)-A federal judge has ruled that the Second Amendment right to bear arms is not limited to the home and Maryland's handgun permit law is unconstitutional. In an opinion filed Monday, U.S. District Judge Benson Everett Legg says a requirement that residents show a "good and substantial reason" to carry a handgun infringes on people's rights. Plaintiff Raymond Woollard obtained a handgun permit after fighting with an intruder in his home in 2002, but his renewal was denied in 2009 because he could not show he was subject to "threats occurring beyond his residence." The Second Amendment FoundatioA federal judge has ruled that the Second Amendment right to bear arms is not limited to the home and Maryland's handgun permit law is unconstitutional. In an opinion filed Monday, U.S. District Judge Benson Everett Legg says a requirement that residents show a "good and substantial reason" to carry a handgun infringes on people's rights. Plaintiff Raymond Woollard obtained a handgun permit after fighting with an intruder in his home in 2002, but his renewal was denied in 2009 because he could not show he was subject to "threats occurring beyond his residence." The Second Amendment Foundation, which brought the suit on Woollard's behalf, calls the ruling a major victory. The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence says it goes out of the norm and likely be reversed.n, which brought the suit on Woollard's behalf, calls the ruling a major victory. The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence says it goes out of the norm and likely be reversed.

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Md. Gun Law Found Unconstitutional

BALTIMORE Maryland residents do not have to provide a "good and substantial reason" to legally own a handgun, a federal judge ruled Monday, striking down as unconstitutional the state's requirements for getting a permit.

U.S. District Judge Benson Everett Legg wrote that states are allowed some leeway in deciding the way residents exercise their Second Amendment right to bear arms, but Maryland's objective was to limit the number of firearms that individuals could carry, effectively creating a rationing system that rewarded those who provided the right answer for wanting to own a gun.

"A citizen may not be required to offer a 'good and substantial reason' why he should be permitted to exercise his rights," Legg wrote. "The right's existence is all the reason he needs."

But state Assistant Attorney General Matthew Fader vowed to appeal the ruling.

We disagree with this ruling," Fader said in a written statement that noted the "very important implications of the ruling for public safety."

Plaintiff Raymond Woollard obtained a handgun permit after fighting with an intruder in his Hampstead home in 2002, but was denied a renewal in 2009 because he could not show he had been subject to "threats occurring beyond his residence."

Woollard appealed, but his appeal was rejected by the review board, which found he hadn't demonstrated a "good and substantial reason" to carry a handgun as a reasonable precaution. The suit filed in 2010 claimed that Maryland didn't have a reason to deny the renewal and wrongly put the burden on Woollard to show why he still needed to carry a gun.

"People have the right to carry a gun for self-defense and don't have to prove that there's a special reason for them to seek the permit," said his attorney Alan Gura, who has challenged handgun bans in the District of Columbia and Chicago as an attorney with the Second Amendment Foundation. "We're not against the idea of a permit process, but the licensing system has to acknowledge that there's a right to bear arms."

In his ruling, Legg wrote that Second Amendment protections aren't limited to the household.

"In addition to self-defense, the (Second Amendment) right was also understood to allow for militia membership and hunting. To secure these rights, the Second Amendment's protections must extend beyond the home: neither hunting nor militia training is a household activity, and 'self-defense has to take place wherever (a) person happens to be,'" Legg wrote.

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Judge Rules Gun Owners Need Not Provide Reason

To: LEGAL AFFAIRS AND NATIONAL EDITORS

BELLEVUE, Wash., March 5, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A federal court ruling in Maryland, that the Second Amendment right to bear arms extends beyond the home and that citizens may not be required to offer a "good and substantial reason" for obtaining a concealed carry permit, is a huge victory, the Second Amendment Foundation said today.

Ruling in the case of Woollard v. Sheridan - a case brought by SAF in July 2010 on behalf of Maryland resident Raymond Woollard, who was denied his carry permit renewal - the U.S. District Court for Maryland ruled that "The Court finds that the right to bear arms is not limited to the home."

U.S. District Court Judge Benson Everett Legg noted, "In addition to self-defense, the (Second Amendment) right was also understood to allow for militia membership and hunting. To secure these rights, the Second Amendment's protections must extend beyond the home: neither hunting nor militia training is a household activity, and 'self-defense has to take place wherever [a] person happens to be.'"

"This is a monumentally important decision," said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. "The federal district court has carefully spelled out the obvious, that the Second Amendment does not stop at one's doorstep, but protects us wherever we have a right to be. Once again, SAF's attorney in this case, Alan Gura, has won an important legal victory. He was the attorney who argued the landmark Heller case, and he represented SAF in our Supreme Court victory in McDonald v. City of Chicago."

"Equally important in Judge Legg's ruling," he added, "is that concealed carry statutes that are so discretionary in nature as to be arbitrary do not pass constitutional muster."

"A citizen may not be required to offer a 'good and substantial reason' why he should be permitted to exercise his rights," Judge Legg wrote. "The right's existence is all the reason he needs."

"Judge Legg's ruling takes a substantial step toward restoring the Second Amendment to its rightful place in the Bill of Rights, and provides gun owners with another significant victory," Gottlieb concluded. "SAF will continue winning back firearms freedoms one lawsuit at a time."

The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation's oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control. SAF won the landmark Supreme Court case in McDonald v. City of Chicago that incorporated the Second Amendment to the states.

SOURCE Second Amendment Foundation

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Maryland Ruling a 'Huge Victory' for Second Amendment, Says SAF