John Jorgensen

On June 26, 2008, one week plus a day before our nations 232nd birthday, the US Supreme Court affirmed the right that Americans have had since before the government was formed, the right to bear arms. The second amendment to the US constitution reads: “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.” The court’s opinion declares what we have always known, the right is an individual right to have guns that are “in common use” to provide for self defense. Although this was the first ever definitive statement on the second amendment from the court, the necessity for this ruling has been only brought about by implementation of nearly 2000 laws over the last 40 years that have placed severe restrictions on this right by federal, state and local governments. The rationale for these laws was to attempt to reduce criminal violence using guns that the nation has been facing. However most of the laws have had no affect on reducing crime, and the reality is that communities with the greater restrictions have the worst crime problem. The reason that the gun control laws have not worked is because they have mostly addressed the disarming of honest citizens thus reducing their ability to defend themselves against criminals who ignore the laws.

The court also established a “strict scrutiny” approach to evaluating other laws than the DC law. This is the same scrutiny required for other rights, i.e. the First Amendment. Thus, we are on the verge of many lawsuits being filed to roll back many laws that infringe on our constitutional rights. We hear a lot about the need of “incorporation” into the laws of the 50 states so that all Americans enjoy the rights not just those under direct federal jurisdiction. It is certainly debatable whether incorporation is required for a natural right that pre-existed the US constitution. However, it is important to understand that there should be no debate about incorporation in the State of California. Article 3, section 1 of the California constitution reads: “The State of California is an inseparable part of the United States of America, and the United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land.” This clearly makes rights guaranteed by the US constitution the rights of Californian’s. So incorporation is not necessary in our state.

We have many laws that infringe on our second amendment rights and when tested with “strict scrutiny” are unconstitutional. Some of them are:
1. San Francisco’s ban on guns in the homes of people who live in public housing.
- Just like the DC case.
2. The ban on Gun Shows in Alameda County.
- An infringement on the 1st and 2nd amendment rights.
3. The requirements of magazine release disable, loaded chamber indicator, full capacity
magazines and microstamping on pistols.
- These are guns commonly used by the public for self defense.
4. The ban on certain types of semiautomatic weapons with cosmetic features considered
undesirable by some of the public.
- This is irrational and arbitrary. It bans the most popular rifle being sold in America today,
the AR-15.
5. The waiting period after an instant background check when purchasing a gun.
- “A right delayed is a right denied” Quote from Martin Luther King
6. The arbitrary and unequally applied concealed carry rules in the state.
- The rules are different in every county. Some are shall issue, some are no issue and
some have varying degrees in between two.
7. The requirement that guns openly carried only be unloaded.
- This obviously makes the gun unusable for self defense. This is similar to the
requirement in DC that guns be unloaded and disassembled and was struck down.

There are also three laws currently in the senate and passed by the assembly that will perpetuate the infringement of our rights and are obviously unconstitutional. They are AB2062 (ammo Registration), AB2235 (Smart Guns), and AB2948 (No Gun or Ammunition Sales at Cow Palace). To pass these laws given the latest US Supreme Court ruling would be a major error.
It is unfortunate that citizens must sue their elected government to ensure that their rights are not infringed. A better solution would be for the State Legislature to change the infringing laws. Please consider my requests and feel free to contact me if you would like discuss this further.

The silly news today is that a student in Pennsylvania was suspended from school for wearing a tee shirt with the image of a gun. See http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,336793,00.html The article says that the school is trying to ensure a safe environment. I do not understand the logic behind this. How can the image of a gun on a shirt make the school unsafe? Is the picture going to leap out of the shirt and shoot someone?

What we are seeing over and over again are a multitude of incidents of the murder of students on campuses across the nation.These are occurring in "Gun Free Zones". It is these "Gun Free Zones " where only criminals are armed that make our schools unsafe. When responsible adults in the schools are denied the right to self defense then the safety of the students and teachers is clearly compromised. If this Pennsylvania's school administration wants to make their school safer, then the banning of pictures of guns is a misdirected and waisted effort. It would be better to arm a few teachers.

The feds are seriously thinking of returning some of the tax money that they extracted from us last year to get folks to spend money so as to delay an economic downturn. I think the main goal is to prevent the economic correction until after the election. After all, we don't want the incumbents to face the wrath of the electorate should a natural down business cycle occur before their big day. Should that occur they might actually have to educate the electorate on how economics actually works. No wait! What was I thinking about; they would only blame the other side. Anyway, my feeling is that they shouldn't have taken the money from us in the first place, if it so easy to give it back. But then if they did that, it wouldn't buy any votes.

Since it seems that most of the congress is anti-gun, it is my suggestion that we follow their desire for us to spend the cash and SPEND IT ON GUNS!!! Lets boost the economy of the gun industry and gun rights groups.

Here are some suggestions:
- Buy a new pistol. In California this is especially important to do, before the dreaded micro-stamping bans them all. Get them now, while you still can.
- Pool your money with your wife and buy an AR, before they are completely outlawed in this state.
- Buy ammo and lots of it. If certain state legislators get their way, it will become extremely expensive and hard to buy in the future.
- Buy a new scope or some fine optics that you have been longing for.
- Buy other stuff such as magazines, speed loaders, holsters, lasers, targets, reloading equipment, tactical clothing, hunting gear, etc.
- If you are in a shall issue state get a CCW in that state. If not go get a Utah permit. Or do both.
Finally and most importantly
- Donate to your favorite gunright's group(s). i.e. GOC, SAF, NRA, Madison Society, JPFO, GOA, etc. We need to stay vigilant, fighting the good fight!

The latest news in the gun rights movement that has everyone excited is the amicus brief to the Supreme Court submitted from congress in support of the DC District Court decision in striking down DC’s gun ban. We hope this will counter the brief submitted by the administration that asks the Supreme Court to send the decision back to the district court for review with the goal of supporting restrictions on our gun possession rights. I am still amazed over the betrayal to those individuals who ensured that G. W. Bush was elected twice to presidency. I guess he forgot about the tens of millions of gun owners who supported him. With no new election for him to pander to the voters, I guess we see where he really stands on gun rights.

We should be pleased that congressional representatives (including Dick Cheney) are trying to neutralize the effect of the Solicitor General’s brief. However from the standpoint of legislative law the brief is mostly symbolic. Congress can play a much bigger role in getting our lost rights back. After all, it is congress along with the state legislatures that for the last 40 years (some of us remember that it started in 1968) have been passing laws that take the people’s rights away. We currently have over 20,000 gun control laws that do nothing to reduce crime but that restrict the rights of people to defend themselves and in many cases make it easier for criminals to kill people indiscriminately. The DC law is one of the most egregious of them but there are plenty of others that are causing people to die and should be the first to go. The first thing congress can do is get rid of the “Gun Free Zones” that have become “Killing Zones” for the criminally insane. With (I guess) the best intentions they have made our schools shooting galleries where our most precious people (our children) can now be lined up and killed until the shooter gets bored with the activity and kills himself. Here is clearly a case where taking the right of self defense away from the adults in the class rooms is killing our next generation. Just think what a professional terrorist could do whose main goal is not just suicide. Just look to the events in Russia (hundreds of children were tortured and murdered ) to understand what can and will probably happen here.

There are also other “Gun Free Killing Zones". We have National Parks, State Parks, Local Parks, Government Buildings (i.e. Kirkwood, MO city hall), Parking Lots, Airports, Homes (i.e. in DC and Chicago), Motor Homes, Cars, Theaters, Churches, Office Buildings, Shopping Malls, and I am sure you can think of many other very unsafe places to be. The solution to quickly getting rid of all of these “Gun Free Killing Zones” is to MAKE CONCEALED CARRY A NATIONAL STANDARD. This costs nothing more than passing a law making all current concealed carry permits that are already being issued by most states valid in all places in the US including “Gun Free Killing Zones”. The state permits all require finger printing, FBI checks and training, and have shown with time that they work very well. If congress really wants to prove to us that it supports the 2nd amendment before the next election then give us a real law that will effectively reduce crime and secure our right to self defense everywhere. In fact I challenge them to do this before the Supreme Court rules on the DC ban (expected in early summer). To do so, will put them more in the spotlight than the Supreme Court Justices and after all that’s what they should want in an election year. Congressmen and Congresswomen please show us that you really are 2nd amendment advocates and vote for a real solution; MAKE CONCEALED CARRY A NATIONAL STANDARD.