“F” Stands for Fail: Georgia College Instructor Boots Uniformed Cop, Gets Lectured in Return – Colleges usually take great pride in proclaiming their “diversity” and “inclusiveness,” but simply wearing a tool of his trade was cause enough for one uniformed police officer to be excluded from a class he was taking at Darton State College in Albany, Georgia. While details are lacking, several press accounts (exemplified by this Fox News report) from the past week recount the strange tale of the officer being escorted from class because the instructor was uncomfortable that a gun was in the classroom. To date, neither the officer nor the instructor has been identified.
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| The 2016 presidential campaign is now officially underway, with the completion of the Iowa caucuses last Monday evening. First the numbers. On the GOP side, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz finished first, with 28% of the vote, Donald Trump finished second with 24%, and Florida Senator Marco Rubio came in a close third with 23%. Cruz won 8 delegates, Trump and Rubio won 7 apiece (three other candidates split the remaining 5 delegates.) It has been reported that the turnout for the GOP caucuses was a historic high. |
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| It hasn’t been a good week for Martin O’Malley, former governor of Maryland, would-be contender for President of the United States, and staunch gun control advocate. As we report elsewhere, O’Malley was finally forced to drop out of the Democratic primary on Tuesday after failing to garner even a single delegate at the Iowa Caucus. Then, on Thursday, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued an opinion that may spell doom for O’Malley’s signature legislative “achievement” as governor, the so-called Firearm Safety Act of 2013 (FSA). This act ushered in a long list of onerous gun control measures, but its centerpiece is a broad ban on popular semiautomatic rifles, as well as magazines with a capacity of greater than 10 rounds. |
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| At the same time the European Union bureaucrats in Brussels are trying to foist further gun controls on the continent, Europeans are exhibiting a newfound interest in acquiring the tools of self-defense. Though restricted by EU mandate and often severe national gun controls, following a series of high-profile attacks on women, Europeans are buying up whatever means of protection they can still legally obtain. The surge in interest in firearms and other self-defense products dates back several months and relates in part to European unease surrounding mass immigration from the other parts of the world. |
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| On Thursday, a bi-partisan majority of the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 766, the ‘‘Financial Institution Customer Protection Act of 2015,” sponsored by Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO). As we reported last year, this bill targets the abuses of Operation Choke Point (OCP), an Obama administration “enforcement” program that lumped together legal and illegal businesses into a “high risk” category and threatened the banks with intense regulatory scrutiny. The goal of OCP was to deter the banks from forming or continuing relationships with the targeted industries, thereby driving them out of business. Included on this list were firearm and ammunition sellers, many of whom found themselves struggling to find or keep banking relationships as a result of the program. |
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| Last week, bipartisan progress was made between government leaders in Virginia to stay the revocation of reciprocity agreements until March 1. |
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| 22-year-old Matthew Willhite was at a shopping mall in Anchorage, Alaska with his girlfriend and her family when he witnessed a thief in a physical altercation with security guards. Willhite went to see if he could help, when he became aware that the thief was armed with a gun. Willhite responded by drawing a .45-caliber pistol and ordering the criminal to drop his gun. The thief complied with the order, and Willhite held the man at gunpoint until security placed the man in handcuffs. Following the incident, Willhite told a local media outlet that he has been carrying since he turned 18 when he lived in Nevada; open carrying before he could get a Nevada Right-to-Carry permit. Willhite also noted that at the time of the incident he was carrying without a permit, as it is lawful do in Alaska. |
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| It’s time to Stand and Fight against a media outlet that is fighting against our Second Amendment rights. In print and online, the Tampa Bay Times (TBT) is attacking legislators from the Tampa/St. Petersburg area for “caving in” to the NRA. In reality, those legislators STOOD UP for the constitutional rights of their constituents. Those legislators stood against those, like the Tampa Bay Times, who lobby against Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. A link to the online article is below. |
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| Yesterday the 4th Circuit decided Kolbe v. Hogan, a Second Amendment challenge to a 2013 Maryland arms prohibition statute. The statute bans the sale of firearm magazines that hold more than 10 rounds and also bans many firearms, by labeling them as “assault weapons.” In a 2-1 decision written by Chief Judge Traxler, the Fourth Circuit held that strict scrutiny is the proper standard of review for bans on common arms, such as those at issue in Kolbe. The case was remanded to the district court, which had applied the wrong standard, namely a weak version of intermediate scrutiny. The Maryland attorney general announced that he will seek en banc or Supreme Court reversal of the Kolbe decision. Below is a summary of the most important parts of the Kolbe decision. |
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| The 2-to-1 decision by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit sends the gun-control law back to a lower court for review, but allows the existing ban to remain in place. |
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| A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake for further proceedings, giving the gun-rights supporters who challenged the law another chance to argue it should be overturned. |
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| The case of a disabled Mainer who shot an intruder last year has led to legislation that would prohibit gun bans in subsidized housing. |
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| Virginia’s GOP-controlled House has approved a bill that would allow members of the National Guard to carry concealed handguns while on duty. |
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| Hillary Clinton has made gun control a major part of her presidential campaign, at least in New Hampshire.Over the last month, a quarter of all of her campaign ads in New Hampshire have focused on gun control. In rural areas of Iowa, by contrast, she did not run a single ad related to gun control. In all of Iowa, just six percent of her ads discussed guns. |
