Firearms Policy Coalition

Chris Eger for Guns.com reports:

The District of Columbia is fighting to keep its current strict may-issue concealed carry scheme while the Second Amendment Foundation is swinging back claiming the city is in contempt of a federal judge’s ruling.

This comes a week after U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Scullin Jr. ordered the city to suspend applying its vague “good cause” test as part of its controversial may-issue permitting scheme that has declined more permits than it has granted.

“Since ‘good reason’ and ‘proper reason’ no longer need be investigated, there is no need for the process to take even 90 days, let alone 180 or more days. Nor does the Court’s order allow for a 90-day ‘review’ period,” reads the SAF filing.

Read the full article at Guns.com.

Salvador Rizzo for NorthJersey.com reports:

A former New Jersey police officer is headed to the state Supreme Court, arguing that he should be able to keep his firearms and a hunting knife despite a stormy, 15-year marriage with episodes of domestic violence.

The state Supreme Court rarely ventures into the heated debate over gun rights. Its last major decision on gun control came in 1990, denying handgun permits to two private detectives. New Jersey is considered to have some of the toughest firearms restrictions in the country, and the state Supreme Court has upheld them at every turn on public-safety grounds….

…Experts said an adverse ruling for the former officer, identified as F.M. in court papers, could further limit who can carry firearms in New Jersey. Under state law, former police officers are among the select few eligible for gun permits. The high court could end up removing that privilege for former law enforcement officers with domestic violence in their pasts, or it could hand down a narrowly tailored ruling specific to F.M.’s case.

Read the full story at NorthJersey.com.

Fox News reports:

A Texas college student filed suit against her school this week, saying her constitutional rights were violated when she was shooed off the quad for displaying a pro-Second Amendment sign.

Nicole Sanders, 24, who attends Blinn College, a two-year public college in Brenham, Texas, said she and a classmate at the 18,000-student school were holding signs near the student center in February when they were told to move….

Sanders claims a college official accompanied by three armed campus police officers approached and said someone had complained that their display was offensive and that they wouldn’t be allowed to do it again unless they got “special permission.”

….“When you have to get a permit before you can speak, it shuts down ideas – everything gets censored through the administrators,” Sanders, who is studying political science, told FoxNews.com. “It’s unconstitutional for a public university to limit speech to one area of campus. I think that college should be a marketplace of ideas.”

Read the full story at Fox News.

Elizabeth Dennis for Jurist reports:

Anna Tinsley for the Star-Telegram reports:

Both the House and the Senate have approved two hotly debated measures to expand gun rights by letting licensed Texans openly carry holstered handguns statewide and bring concealed handguns on any college campus.

But with less than a week left in the session, the bills aren’t going to Gov. Greg Abbott, who has said he would sign both into law. Instead, open carry now heads to a conference committee, and campus carry goes back to the Senate.

Supporters say there’s plenty of time to make sure the measures become law. Opponents plan to do everything they can to prevent that.

Let’s hope Texans are able to pass these bills! Read the full story at the Star-Telegram.

AWR Hawkins for Breitbart reports:

Sponsored by state Representative Jeff Coody (R-Dist. 63), HB 2014 “[authorizes] the carrying of a handgun onto school property by school personnel specifically designated by the board of education,” provided that person has undergone the training requirement and received the certification requisite to it.

….According to News 9, Coody said, “I think the thinking has always been that if we eliminate guns, it makes it a safer place. The only problem is you cannot eliminate those who are not willing to comply with the law. A gun-free zone is a target, a soft target.”

It’s good to see a state finally taking some steps toward protecting children, rather than making them more vulnerable!

Here’s something to consider: about 19 out of every 20 gun owners don’t really care about gun rights. Think about that for a second.

AWR Hawkins from Breitbart reported today:

Andrew Romero, the suspect in the Memorial Day shooting death of Rio Rancho, New Mexico, Officer Gregg “Nigel” Benner, is a felon who is consequently barred from gun possession….

Felons, like Romero and Marvin and Curtis Banks — two of the suspects in the May 9 shooting deaths of Hattiesburg Officers Benjamin J. Deen and Liquori Tate — faced 100 percent gun control. But the deaths of Benner, Deen, and Tate, stand as testimony to the fact that gun control is powerless against people with alleged criminal intent.

Read the full story at Breitbart.com.

AWR Hawkins for Breitbart reports:

Following a Memorial Day Weekend during which 12 people shot and killed and 43 more were wounded, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said a large part of the solution to the problem is more gun control.

That’s right — gun control is failing miserably and the solution is more gun control.

….On Sunday two boys, a 14-year-old and a 15-year-old, were shot in the 4400 block of South Cottage Grove. The 15-year-old was killed. A 20-year-old was shot and killed in Humboldt Park and another man was shot and killed in East Garfield Park.

On Monday there were homicides at 2:30 pm, 5:25 pm, and 7:50 pm, and the list goes on.

Were the shooters in these instance law-abiding citizens? Negative. Yet Emanuel’s response is more gun control which only affects law-abiding citizens. For those who ignore the law, more gun control simply means more victims.

Read the full article on Breitbart.com.

The Associated Press reports:

Texas took a giant step closer to allowing concealed handguns in college classrooms late Tuesday, with House lawmakers giving their preliminary approval to a so-called “campus carry” measure, barely beating a midnight deadline.

The legislation, one of the two major gun rights bills of the session, had appeared destined to fail, with more than 100 amendments lined up in a Democratic effort to kill it.

But then Democrats abruptly dropped the amendments about 25 minutes before the deadline, and the chamber’s large Republican majority forced a vote, approving the measure 101-47….

Midnight was the deadline for the House to pass bills that originated in the Senate. A final House vote on the measure Wednesday would set up negotiations with the Senate. A compromise would have to be sent to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott by June 1 to be signed into law.

Read the full article at CBS News.

Andrea Noble for The Washington Times reports:

D.C. officials have asked a judge to let the city enforce a central element of its restrictive concealed-carry law — the requirement that handgun owners demonstrate a “good reason” for a permit to carry — while a lawsuit over the matter works its way through the federal court system.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Scullin Jr. granted a preliminary injunction that blocks the District from enforcing that part of the law, requiring people to prove a specific “good reason” in order to receive a concealed-carry permit.

“Granting an administrative stay would minimize unnecessary disruption and confusion,” wrote D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine, noting that if a later ruling were to overturn the injunction, any concealed-carry permits issued during that time might have to be withdrawn.

Read the full story at The Washington Times.

Chris Eger for Guns.com reports:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday announced a round of anti-gun funding grants to agencies and departments across the state, some already controversial for their gun control tactics.

The grants, issued to 17 counties served by 20 law enforcement agencies through the Gun Involved Violence Elimination initiative, totaled some $13.3 million.

The funds allocated in the GIVE initiative, are to go towards law enforcement overtime, training and community outreach, as well as funding prosecutors, intelligence specialists and crime analysis who target illegal guns.

Read the full story at Guns.com.

Katie Pavlich for TownHall.com reports:

Over the long holiday weekend in Baltimore, 29 were shot and nine were killed. The violence came just weeks after violent riots and protests over the death of Freddie Grey, who died in police custody….When asked about the violence yesterday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest suggested more gun control was one of the solutions.

“Obviously there’s some common sense things we could do – certainly passage of some gun safety laws in Congress that could keep guns out of the hands of criminals would be one thing that we could do to try to limit the violence,” Earnest said.

….Maryland already has strict gun control laws….it was just two short years ago that new gun control measures were passed through despite overwhelming opposition.

Read the full story at TownHall.com.

Senate Bill 347: Adds new firearm prohibitions, expands APPS

Senate Bill 707: Eliminates CCW exemption to “Gun-Free School Zone Act”

Senate Bill 678: Would mandate DOJ to explore “smart” guns

Assembly Bill 84: Mandatory DNA collection for non-violent firearm crimes

These anti-gun bills are facing a critical deadline this Thursday. NOW is the chance to stop them before they reach a floor vote!

Use FPC’s TAKE ACTION TOOLS and tell the members of the Legislature to vote “no” on these bills!

John Boyle for WCNC reports:

Chris Eger from Guns.com reports:

A Senate proposal to allow those without a concealed carry permit to keep a loaded firearm in their vehicle is advancing to the Alabama House.

The measure, which passed in an easy 24-4 vote Thursday, will repeal the current prohibition on keeping a ready firearm for self-defense in personal vehicles in the Dixie State and, according to its author, is a long-time coming.

“All the states that touch the borders of Alabama do not require a pistol permit to carry in their vehicles,”said Sen. Gerald Allen, R, the bill’s sponsor in a statement. “A vehicle is extension of your home and you should have the right to defend yourself in your vehicle without having to buy a pistol permit.”

Allen’s legislation, SB 14, would allow any lawful adult 18 or over in the state to have a loaded firearm in their personal vehicle, home or business without a handgun permit. Under current state law, doing so without a license granted by a local sheriff in the state can constitute disorderly conduct, even if the possessor has committed no other crime.

Read the full story at Guns.com.

Morgan Smith for The Texas Tribune reports:

On May 18, we reported that the U.S. Supreme Court had “re-listed” the Jackson v. San Francisco petition for certiorari for the fourth time. Earlier today, the Court made it five:

Jackson is a federal Second Amendment civil rights case out of the Ninth Circuit. Your Firearms Policy Coalition will continue to monitor the docket and report on any further actions taken.

by John Richardson (Reprinted with permission: No Lawyers – Only Guns and Money)

A great observation about the Waco shootout. Greg Camp for Guns.com reports: