Gun Rights Town Hall Meeting In Alaska Features Ron Paul

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul is holding a gun rights town hall meeting in Alaska today.

Here We Go

The date has been set. Oral arguments for District of Columbia v. Heller will take place March 18.

In the meantime, here are several new stories on the Heller/Parker appeal, which will decide the meaning of the Second Amendment, whether government can willy-nilly pass regulation after regulation (most often for political purposes) limiting access to firearms or ammunition, and whether the District of Columbia can continue to flout the 2A by extending its 30-year ban on handgun possession (which has not reduced crime there).

Human Events magazine -- "Bush Administration Wrong on Guns"
Wall Street Journal online -- "Misfire At Justice"
Baltimore Sun -- "Civil Unrest: Gun Rights Supporters Livid At Bush"
The Tennesseean -- "Right to bear arms hinges upon upcoming Supreme Court ruling"

Thompson Out Of The Running

Updated: Jan. 23, 2008 -- If you want to know the kind of leader Fred Thompson could be, and is, listen to the speech he gave his supporters in South Carolina after the polls closed and returns showed he would not win there. It is instructive of who the man is.

"I want to thank you for your friendship. I want to thank you for everything you have done. My friends, we live in the country that has sacrificed more blood for the freedom of other people than all the other countries in the world combined. We are proud of that tradition. It is a tradition of honor. It is a tradition of sacrifice for the greater good. Now most Americans are not called upon to shed their blood, but we are called upon from time to time to make our own sacrifices. We're called upon from time to time to make our own contributions. And my friends, that's what you've done. That's what you're doing. And I am so proud to stand with you in that regard, and we'll always stand strong together. And I can't thank you enough for that. Thank you and God bless you."

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Updated: Jan. 22, 2008, 7:35 pm -- Patrick Cox, Fred Dalton Thompson's first hire as he began exploring a presidential bid, is fond of the Capitol Hill counsel turned actor turned senator turned actor turned presidential candidate. While Thompson's decision to drop out is logical, Cox writes that it is depressing.

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Crap.

Fred Thompson, a huge favorite of many Second Amendment advocates, has dropped out of the republican primary race. Yes, I'm a closet Fredhead, though I've tried not to let it creep into any posts (with one possible exception) when discussing the upcoming presidential election.

It is a brief statement: "Today I have withdrawn my candidacy for President of the United States. I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort. Jeri and I will always be grateful for the encouragement and friendship of so many wonderful people."

Stories from CNN and the Associated Press.

He did not say whether he would support any of his GOP rivals. There is some speculation that his strong conservative credentials may put him in position as a VP candidate. What to do next . . . The rest of the gang on the GOP side who stand a chance of being elected are typical RINOs (with the exception of Ron Paul), who pretty much just pay lip service to the issues of personal reponsibility and the means to keep oneself safe from harm. And I'm stinking tired of not being able to trust those politicos who insist they are my friend.

It's enough to continually do battle with the other side, but constantly watching our flank takes its toll.

Though Federal Government Put Itself In Conflict, DOJ Brief Admission Is Largely Is Reason To Rejoice

"For constitutionalists and gun-rights advocates, the Solicitor General's brief is a big victory. It got the big question, the one that matters, right: Americans do have a right to keep and bear arms. Though the details of how the Solicitor General would like to apply that right are disappointing, the Supreme Court will likely accord that part of the brief the weight it is due: none."

The words of Todd Gaziano and Andrew M. Grossman, director of, and senior legal policy analyst in, respectively, the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation. Read their full essay here.

Is The 2A A Second Class Right?

"The Solicitor General's brief also takes a bizarre turn. While the Solicitor General calls for "strict scrutiny" for gun laws in general, he calls on the Supreme Court to apply only "intermediate scrutiny" as it determines Heller vs. DC. The Solicitor General also argues that the Second Amendment is not a "fundamental" right. So what the Solicitor General seems to be saying is that, well, sure, the Second Amendment calls for individual rights, and those rights should be afforded "strict scrutiny" most of the time, but the administration does not believe that gun rights are "fundamental" rights, and so, therefore, Your Honor, you don't need to be too strict in your decision-making process in this case.

"In fact, we don't think you should really decide this case, but you should send it back down to the Circuit Court for more study, and while they are at it, tell them they only need to use "intermediate scrutiny."

Read the entire analysis from Enter Stage Right, here.

SAF: DOJ Brief On Heller/Parker Gun Rights Case Ignores Dr. King's Lesson

Alan Gottlieb and Dave Workman of the Second Amendment Foundation have written the following essay regarding the Washington DC gun ban case now before the U.S. Sureme Court. It is instructive that as we celebrate the legacy of Dr. King, that many minds are on the pros and cons of this case, and its meaning for the future of this nation.

"Dr. Martin Luther King put it best: “A right delayed is a right denied.” The lesson appears to have been lost on the Department of Justic e and Solicitor General Paul D. Clement in the amicus curiae brief submitted recently for the government in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller, which challenges the city’s 31-year-old handgun ban, a horrible gun law that has had its day in court, and lost. In a transparent exercise of political pandering, Clement and his colleagues named on the brief have strenuously, and correctly, argued that the Second Amendment protects an individual civil right, yet they insist that every restrictive gun law currently on the books should stand. They want this case sent back to the lower courts for further consideration. Translation: Legal sleight of hand is being used to make the Second Amendment a right “in name only.”

"And Mr. Clement appears to suggest that the longer the Supreme Court can put off deciding whether a restrictive gun law violates that important civil right, the better. While it is gratifying that the government properly holds the Second Amendment to be protective of an individual right, that gratification is greatly diminished by the argument that this case requires further review. That would be a great injustice, and as Dr. King once noted, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

"The good citizens of Washington, D.C. have waited long enough for this Draconian law to be challenged, and to further delay a ruling is to spit in the faces of all of those people who have waited for years to simply exercise their right of self-defense. The ban has been an utter failure, with violent crime actually rising after its inception. By Mr. Clement’s logic, the high court should have ruled that women have abortion rights, but they would be forever waiting to exercise those rights while their cases would be remanded back down the legal chain for further consideration.

"By Mr. Clement’s logic, segregation laws would still be under lower court review, and Rosa Parks would still be sitting in the b ack of the bus. Many District residents are African American. Aren’t they as deserving of the same rights as black citizens in Cleveland, Ohio? In our new book, America Fights Back: Armed Self-Defense in a Violent Age, we recount the story of Damon Wells, a Cleveland resident who was targeted by teenage street thugs illegally armed with a handgun, as legions of violent criminals now running the streets of Washington, D.C. are armed. The difference in Wells’ case was that he was also armed, and when the punk with the gun threatened to kill him, Wells shot first. Cleveland’s black community rallied around Wells, with whom they identified as an “everyman” faced with the genuine threat of being victimized in his own neighborhood by predators that live there. Perhaps the Clement brief should have come as no surprise.

"After all, the current Department of Justice has not been friendly toward individual rights – portions of the Patriot Act, for example, have horrified civil libertarians and conservatives alike – and it appears DoJ is simply trying to delay a ruling it fears will challenge what they describe in their brief as “the government’s interest.” Here’s a new flash: We’re talking about a constitutionally-protected civil right, and the only interest government should have is enforcing that right, not eroding it.

"The Clement brief reflects cowardice on the part of the Justice Department, and a desire for expediency over what is right when an insidious, but politically correct gun law just might be struck down. Dr. King put this philosophy in its proper perspective when he wrote, “Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ Vanity asks the question, ‘Is it popular?’ But, conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’ And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one’s conscience tells o ne that it is right.”

Cook County Ban Plan Could Cost Illinois Millions

Jeff Soyer at Alphecca discusses the move being pushed by Cook County, Illinois to severely regulate firearms (yes, even more draconian measures than that which exist now).

The bottom line? Cabelas would have to go out of business there, putting 300 people out of work and drying up some $3 million it contributes in sales tax revenue annually to state coffers.

Va. Tech Shooter Did Not Get His Guns At Show (But Then That Is Already Known)

. . . Yet as Ahab notes, that doesn't keep hoplophobes and anti self defense politicians from continuing to get it wrong.

Read his comments on today's protest at Virginia's Capitol Square, where people are being bused in from around the state to stage a demonstration against something that didn't happen.

Did you follow all that? Read it again if you didn't, then click on the link.