2A Today for the USA, Part One

A very well made video on the Second Amendment...from The Liberty Crew at JPFO.org

2A Today for the USA, Part Two

2A Today for the USA, Part Three

A Victory for Self-Defense

by Robert A. Levy

Robert A. Levy is senior fellow in constitutional studies and served as co-counsel to the plaintiffs in Parker v. District of Columbia.

Unless and until the Supreme Court says otherwise, it looks as though the District of Columbia's 31-year-old gun ban is history. Good riddance.

In a landmark opinion Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit reversed a lower federal court on all counts and concluded that "the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms."

The case, Parker v. District of Columbia, was brought by six D.C. residents who want to possess functional firearms within their homes for self-defense. Their lawsuit was not about machine guns and assault weapons. They didn't ask for the right to carry guns outside their houses. Parker was about ordinary handguns, in the owner's private residence.

Senior Judge Laurence H. Silberman wrote the majority opinion, joined by Judge Thomas B. Griffith, a recent Bush appointee. Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson dissented. The court majority stated unequivocally that activities protected by the Second Amendment "are not limited to militia service, nor is an individual's enjoyment of the right contingent upon his or her continued or intermittent enrollment in the militia."

Indeed, said the court, "the right to arms existed prior to the formation of the new government" in 1789.

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Gun control ruling and the Bill of Rights

Published Thursday, March 15th, 2007

Constitutional purists and social engineering activists may be headed for the ultimate venue in the battle over gun control and the Second Amendment.

That venue is the Supreme Court of the United States.

Count us among the purists. We believe the Bill of Rights means what it says.

The issue arises because the District of Columbia's anti-gun city officials just lost an important decision in the U.S. District Court of Appeals.


The city council outlawed handguns in 1976. Further, the district argued in federal court that it had the power to outlaw all guns if it wanted.

It got a federal district trial court judge to agree.

But now a three-judge appeals panel has ruled 2-1 that the city has no such right, and the trial judge was wrong.

The city plans to appeal.

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Hoplophobia – Symptoms and Treatment

The Extremist

“An armed society is a polite society.” — Robert Heinlein

Hoplophobia - n. - an irrational and morbid fear of guns, a term coined by Jeff Cooper, author of The Art of the Rifle, from the word “hoplite,” a heavily armed foot soldier of ancient Greece.

Symptoms of hoplophobia may include discomfort, confusion, palpitations, sweating, ranting, and the swooning vapors at the mere sight or thought of guns. Hoplophobes (HOP-li-fobes) are common, particularly among the more authoritarian members of the political class, who know that an unarmed populace is an obedient populace. Irrational fear drives them to promote the bizarre notion that helplessness is safety. Other hoplophobes accept the notion without question. Their participation in the gun policy debate is treacherous for both our rights and our safety.

Hoplophobes form the backbone of the Victim Disarmament Lobby, which this week is indulging in flashbacks of lame humor and fear mongering over the new Florida law that protects people who harm their attackers while defending themselves. The bill forbids injured thugs or their grieving relatives from suing the resisting victim. The choir of the gun shy is singing all the old jokes and shocking one-liners about “yahoos running around with guns,” “Dodge City” and “the OK Corral” and inserting them into fact free op-ed pieces. The jokes were fresher before the passage of the Concealed Carry laws in 1987, a little stale for the repeal of the “Assault Weapons” ban, and now as flat as last night’s beer.

Crime rates have fallen in every state that allows citizens to carry concealed weapons. Crime has fallen significantly more in concealed carry states than in states that forbid it. People who legally carry guns are scrupulously law-abiding. Crime rates among them would make a Boy Scout blush. They are many times less likely to commit any kind of crime than other people.

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