On Q Professional Investigations

On May 18, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued an order prohibiting enforcement of provisions of D.C. law that effectively grant to the police chief the discretion to decide who may lawfully exercise the right to bear arms in public for self-defense.

This follows on the heels of an earlier ruling in which the District lost the argument that the right to “bear arms” does not apply outside the home, leading to the hasty enactment of an “emergency” may-issue concealed carry licensing scheme. Such a license is the only means by which most people can lawfully carry firearms in D.C. for self-defense. Monday’s case, Wren v. District of Columbia, made a preliminary ruling that D.C.’s policy of discretionary issuance would likely run afoul of the Second Amendment.

Under D.C.’s law, an applicant must show a “good reason to fear injury to his or her person” or “other proper reason” for the carrying of a concealed handgun. Apart from employment involving the handling or transportation of cash or other valuables, the only way to meet these requirements is to show “a special need for self-protection,” or for protection of a vulnerable family member, “distinguishable from the general community” (emphasis added).

In other words, the District has established a strong legal presumption against exercise of the right that an applicant has to rebut with “evidence of specific threats or previous attacks which demonstrate a special danger” to the life of the applicant or vulnerable family member.

The upshot of these requirements is that most applications will be summarily denied, which D.C. acknowledged to the court was the point of enacting them. The court wrote, “Defendants argue that the … requirement[s] reasonably further[] its important governmental interest in reducing the number of concealed weapons in public in order to reduce the risks to other members of the public and to reduce the disproportionate use of such weapons in the commission of violent crimes.”

Read More

The governor signed the controversial guns-in-parks bill Friday morning.

Gov. Bill Haslam acknowledged he had initial concerns about the bill, but he approves of the latest version that passed the House and Senate.

“Overall I believe the legislation in its final form is a vast improvement from the bill as initially introduced,” Haslam wrote in a letter to Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey and House Speaker Beth Harwell explaining his decision.

“However, I am concerned that an unintended consequence may be operational challenges for local leaders in managing their parks in a safe, effective and consistent manner, due to events and situations that could not have been anticipated in drafting this law.”

Haslam told reporters Thursday he’d reviewed the legislation and would take action soon.

The bill nixes any local bans on people with handgun permits taking their guns into parks.

Nashville Mayor Karl Dean has outspokenly criticized the bill. Friday morning he said he didn’t know what the governor planned to do with the legislation.

“I was opposed to the bill, opposed to having guns in parks. And if that becomes the law in the state of Tennessee and our local option is taken away from us, we’ll have to follow the law,” Dean told reporters Friday.

Dean said he planned to work with the Metro legal department to better understand how the law could be enforced.

Read More

CLEVELAND, Ohio — After nine months of debate, Cleveland City Council on Monday passed legislation that Mayor Frank Jackson says will encourage responsible gun ownership and help prevent firearms from ending up in the hands of criminals.

One of the provisions requires gun offenders to register with the city’s safety department within five days of either being released from prison or moving to Cleveland.

Others replace the city’s current gun ordinances with language that mirrors state law, including prohibitions against using a gun while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, defacing a gun’s serial number or allowing a minor to use a gun without supervision.

The duplication allows police to charge offenders under the city code instead of the state statute, which means the city keeps any fines collected, Chief Counsel Rick Horvath told members of City Council’s Finance Committee Monday.

The ordinance sets the following restrictions:

Prohibits carrying a concealed deadly weapon or handgun, unless the person is a police officer or a person who holds a license to carry a concealed weapon.

Requires a person who sells or transfers a gun, and who is not a licensed gun dealer, to report such transactions to police.

Requires an owner to report a lost or stolen gun to police.

Creates a gun offender registry, requiring people convicted of gun crimes to register their names with Cleveland’s Safety Director.

Prohibits the display, marking or sale of a facsimile firearm and prohibits brandishing a facsimile firearm in the presence of law enforcement or with the intent to frighten people.

Prohibits the negligent transfer of a firearm to a felon or intoxicated person.

Sets restrictions for firearms in the hands of minors and restricts discharging firearms in public areas, including schools, churches, cemeteries, playgrounds and parks.

Requires owners to safely store firearms to keep them from being stolen or out of the hands of children.

Read More

AUSTIN – A Texas lawmaker says it’s time to protect teachers who stand up to unruly students, but he’s filed a bill that would authorize deadly force.

“One of the concerns they have is the lack of discipline in their classroom,” said state Rep. Dan Flynn (R-Canton), who believes teachers already have enough to worry about.

He says unruly students don’t just endanger the learning environment, but teachers and other students as well, citing recent instances of teachers being physically assaulted in their own classroom.

“From time to time, they do attack our teachers, and if a teacher even raises up her hand to defend herself, or he raises his hand up and defends himself, he finds he could be either sued or lose their job,” Flynn said. “I want to be able to protect those teachers.”

Flynn is the author of House Bill 868, which states “an educator is justified in using force or deadly force on school property, on a school bus, or at a school-sponsored event in defense of the educator’s person or in defense of students of the school that employs the educator,” as well as “in defense of property of the school that employs the educator.”

“When a teacher told me to sit down and behave, we did it,” said Flynn. “We are living in a different age right now, and the teachers are reluctant to be able to do that because there is such an effort on the part of many to blame them.”

Some 80 Texas school districts have policies allowing either teachers or staff to carry firearms, but Flynn is emphatic guns have nothing to do with his bill. While it doesn’t mention them, it doesn’t exclude them either.

Read More

Texas, Florida, Arkansas, Wyoming, Indiana, Colorado, Montana and Nevada are considering passage of laws allowing college students or K-12 staff and teachers to carry concealed firearms on campus.

In Texas, Senate Bill 11 from Republican state Sen. Brian Birdwell and House Bill 937 from Republican state Rep. Allen Fletcher would allow students, faculty, visitors and staff to carry their guns anywhere on campus, including classrooms, libraries and student unions, reports the Dallas Morning News.

Florida politicians are once again is also considering allowing concealed guns at state colleges and universities despite a similar bill being defeated recently, reports Wink News. The new bill, HB 4005, was prompted by a shooting on the campus of Florida State University last fall.

In Arkansas, if House Bill 1077 passes, universities will no longer have the right to opt out of a law allowing faculty to carry concealed weapons, reports the Arkansas Traveler.

Wyoming Republican Rep. Allen Jaggi has sponsored House Bill 114 that would repeal the state’s gun-free zones act, reports the Washington Free Beacon. Last week, the bill was approved by the House Judiciary Committee, so it will now go to the House floor.

Indiana is considering passage of HB 1143, which would allow concealed weapons on college campuses, and Montana has introduced Senate Bill 143, which would prohibit colleges from regulating or restricting the possession of firearms on university property.

In Colorado, Republican Rep. Patrick Neveille, who is a former student of Columbine High School who survived the 1999 attack, has introduced a bill allowing anyone with a concealed carry permit to carry firearms in public schools, reports BearingArms.com. Neville’s bill is one of several introduced in the Colorado legislature. Most of the proposed legislation in Colorado is not expected to pass.

The Montana state Senate this week narrowly endorsed a bill that would allow people to carry concealed guns on college campuses, reports the Great Falls Tribune. Bill 143 would, with some exceptions, prohibit restrictions on firearms on state university property. School regents would still be able to regulate gun possession at campus events where alcohol is served or in dorms if a roommate objects to a gun being in his or her room.

The Nevada legislature is considering a bill that would allow firearms to be stored in a car on the grounds of any day care center or public, private or college campus as long as the vehicle is occupied, locked or if the gun is kept in a storage container, reports the Elko Daily Free Press. Similar legislation didn’t pass in 2013 but could face less opposition this time.

A study conducted by Campus Safety magazine last fall concluded that nearly three out of four campus protection professionals oppose college students being allowing to carry concealed guns on campus.

View Source

Recent revelations about a proposed federal law enforcement program might have some friends and families drawing lots to decide who drives to the next gun show.

Criminals rarely obtain guns from gun shows. A Department of Justice survey of state and federal inmates, found that only 0.7 percent of those polled had acquired a firearm that they possessed at the time of their offense from a gun show. Unfortunately, this didn’t stop at least one federal official from suggesting that the sophisticated tools of the modern surveillance state be turned on unsuspecting gun show attendees.

Documents obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the American Civil Liberties Union reveal that, in 2009, the Drug Enforcement Administration contemplated using License Plate Readers (LPRs) to track vehicle traffic from gun shows. A highly redacted email from an unknown DEA official suggests the program was past infancy, and stated, “DEA Phoenix Division Office is working closely with ATF on attacking the guns going to [redacted] and the guns shows to include programs/operation with LPRs at the gun shows.”

ACLU correctly points out the danger of such technology in an article on their website, explaining, “An automatic license plate reader cannot distinguish between people transporting illegal guns and those transporting legal guns, or no guns at all; it only documents the presence of any car driving to the event. Mere attendance at a gun show, it appeared, would have been enough to have one’s presence noted in a DEA database.”

The proposed program is even more disturbing when placed into the larger context of the Justice Department’s ongoing general license plate tracking program. A January 26 article from the Wall Street Journal explains the broad contours of DOJ LPR surveillance. The piece states, “The Justice Department has been building a national database to track in real time the movement of vehicles around the U.S., a secret domestic intelligence-gathering program that scans and stores hundreds of millions of records about motorists.” The authors go on to explain the wide availability of the collected data, writing, “Many state and local law-enforcement agencies are accessing the database for a variety of investigations… putting a wealth of information in the hands of local officials who can track vehicles in real time on major roadways.” They further note that this national database “allows any police agency that participates to quickly search records of many states for information about a vehicle.”

According to a January 27 Wall Street Journal article focusing specifically on the gun show surveillance proposal, DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart told the paper, “The proposal in the email was only a suggestion. It was never authorized by DEA, and the idea under discussion in the email was never launched.” Further, the article stated that DOJ officials were quick to deny any BATFE involvement in the LPR scheme. However, as has been made clear by the events of the last two years, public statements by federal officials regarding the scope of federal surveillance activities should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism.

DEA’s proposed indiscriminate gun show surveillance places an unacceptable burden on the privacy of law-abiding citizens exercising their Second Amendment rights and even smacks of firearm registration. Further, such tactics infringe upon rights protected by the First Amendment. Gun shows are far more than just shopping opportunities for gun buyers. They are also community gatherings that often serve as venues for political expression and organizing. As such, they are subject to the First Amendment’s rights of freedom of association and to peaceably assemble and should be free from government activity that could chill free and open participation.

Read More

Philadelphia PA Oct 6 2014 The saying that the best defense is a good offense is not necessarily a strategy most wish would be applied to schools.

But as the issue of school safety stemming from school shootings continues, some lawmakers and schools are looking at offensive measures to help protect students.

One such measure is a bill in the state Senate Education Committee that would allow school employees to carry guns on school property. The bill was introduced as another option for protecting students, especially those in rural areas that rely on often-distant state troopers for police protection, The Associated Press reported.

That measure, however, does not sit well with everyone — even those who back offensive defense training for school staff.

After the Columbine shooting, former law enforcement officer Greg Crane co-founded the ALICE Training Institute with his wife, an elementary school principal. The two designed a training regimen for schools across the country that would allow staff to take action if confronted with an intruder.

Though a number of states allow teachers to carry guns on school property, Crane said he has not included weapons in the training program and does not believe they are a good idea.

“It’s actually not at all the same for people using weapons for self-defense as it is to use it (offensively),” Crane said. “(Arming teachers) is asking too much of teachers to be … the security force. If there’s a shooting in the cafeteria, what are the teachers supposed to do? Are they supposed to leave their students alone to respond?”

Mike Hurley, co-founder and president of Cumberland County Safe Schools Association, said there has been discussion locally on arming school staff after the Newtown, Connecticut, shooting, but the association has no position on the matter.

“There was a lot of discussion, there was a lot of different opinions, a lot of pros and cons that have to be looked at, and I think that’s something each school district has to look at with their own community,” he said.

Crane said there is a danger in adding more guns to an intruder scenario. He used the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan as an example, saying the Secret Service members present were all armed but they did not fire their weapons — they used their numbers to tackle the shooter.

“They did not shoot back, but subdued him in three seconds,” Crane said. “They did it with overwhelming numbers. In that environment, there was a lot of friendlies standing around, and it’s unacceptable to put other people at risk.”

Intruder Training

Although using guns is not an option as a defensive measure in Pennsylvania, what is being taught is a way for teachers and staff to verbally or physically intervene when confronted with a violent and armed intruder.

Since its founding after Columbine, the ALICE Training Institute has trained teachers in 49 states and reached students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Crane said they are branching out to training staff in the private sector of education.

Crane said the training itself is not so much physical as it is retraining the policies with which the schools follow in intruder incidents.

“It’s not something out of a manual,” Crane said. “We don’t want you fighting a gunman, but you may have to mitigate his chances of hurting someone.”

The point of the training is to follow what Crane believes is the better instinct to flee instead of instituting the sole method of a lockdown.

“I don’t understand why in a fire everyone gets out of the building, but you stay in the building when an intruder is on the loose,” Crane said. “At Sandy Hook, the children who ran out of the classroom survived. Why didn’t we evacuate if it is possible?

“We don’t dismiss lockdowns as strategy, but we dismiss lockdowns as policy,” he added.
The training isn’t too involved because Crane said it can’t be.

“It really is very simple — it had to be very, very simple,” he explained. “In (a confrontation), people are not going to come up with fine motor skills and complicated (orders). But it is also very, very effective.”

Read More

CLARKSVILLE, Ark. — The slim, black 9-millimeter handguns that the school superintendent David Hopkins selected for his teachers here weigh about a pound and slip easily into a pocket. Sixteen people, including the janitor and a kindergarten teacher, wear them to school every day.

Although state law prohibits guns on campus, Mr. Hopkins found a way around it.

Like rural educators who are quietly doing the same thing in a handful of other states, Mr. Hopkins has formulated a security plan that relies on a patchwork of concealed-weapons laws, special law enforcement regulations and local school board policies to arm teachers.

Without money to hire security guards for the five schools he oversees, giving teachers nearly 60 hours of training and their own guns seemed like the only reasonable, economical way to protect the 2,500 public school students in this small town in the Ozark foothills.

“Realistically, when you look at a person coming to your door right there with a firearm, you’ve got to have a plan,” Mr. Hopkins said. “If you have a better one, tell me.”

After the Newtown, Conn., rampage last December, 33 states considered new legislation aimed at arming teachers and administrators, according to an analysis by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Only 5 enacted laws that expanded the ability for public educators to arm themselves at school.

Still, some teachers and administrators around the country have carried guns for years under state or local laws that impose few restrictions on where concealed weapons can be carried.

“It’s a fairly common practice among the schools that do not have sworn officers,” said Asa Hutchinson, a former congressman and a candidate for governor in Arkansas. He recently led the National Rifle Association’s school safety initiative, which produced a 225-page report that advocated armed security officers or, in some cases, armed teachers in every public school.

Mr. Hutchinson said he recently spoke with a superintendent in Arkansas who had been carrying a firearm for 10 years. The district was among 13 in the state, including Clarksville, that have special permission to use rules designed for private security firms to arm their staff members.

Just before the school year began, the state suspended the practice temporarily after Attorney General Dustin McDaniel issued an opinion that school districts could not act as private security companies. This month, however, a state board voted to allow the districts to continue using the law until the legislature reconsiders the issue in two years.

Read More

TOKYO (Reuters) - A 27-year-old Japanese man was arrested on Thursday for illegally possessing handguns made by a three-dimensional printer, media said, marking the first such case in Japan, a country that takes pride in its low crime rate.

Police in April found five plastic guns and a 3D printer at the suspect’s home in Kawasaki, south of Tokyo.

Two of the handguns were later proved capable of killing or wounding people, although no bullets were found at his home, public broadcaster NHK said.

Police also found blueprints for manufacturing guns stored in the suspect’s personal computer. The blueprints were believed to have been downloaded from the Internet, NHK said.

“I made the guns by the 3D printer at home. I did not think it was illegal,” the suspect, a college employee, was quoted by NHK as telling police.

A spokesman at Kanagawa Prefectural Police, which covers Kawasaki, declined to comment.

The suspect has frequently made Twitter entries aimed at justifying possession and manufacturing of guns and once said on the Internet “Gun restrictions are violation of human rights,” NHK said.

Jiji news agency reported the suspect also possessed 10 toy guns.

View Source

AUSTIN - Texas school districts that allow employees to carry handguns for the protection of students do not violate state laws banning concealed firearms at school sporting events or during school board meetings, Attorney General Greg Abbott said in an opinion released Friday.

Although firearms generally are banned in those places by other state laws, Abbott said the state’s so-called “guardian plan,” approved a year ago for mostly rural school districts that cannot afford to hire security, provides an exception.

Abbott said employees or school trustees specifically authorized by school district administrators to carry concealed weapons will not run afoul of the other laws specifying the prohibited places.

State Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, last fall had asked Abbott for an opinion on the matter after several Texas school districts began authorizing employees to carry concealed weapons on campus, and several questioned whether the state’s gun laws limited their work areas.

In his ruling, Abbott said it also covers school marshals, school employees who are designated to carry concealed weapons on duty for security purposes under another state law.

The laws were approved a year ago amid controversy over allowing Texas school districts to beef up security in the aftermath of the December 2012 attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut that killed 26, including 20 students. Supporters insisted that having trained, armed employees could thwart an attack, while opponents claimed putting more weapons in schools was not the answer unless they were carried by trained police officers.

Read More

Below is a look at the 5 biggest benefits to carrying a concealed carry permit or license regardless if your state is Unrestricted, Shall Issue or May Issue for concealed carry. Unrestricted states still offer licenses for those who wish to apply, and those licenses provide advantages to firearm owners.

Five benefits of concealed carry permit

1. Licenses put police officers at ease

2. Licenses help when openly carrying around uninformed people

3. Licenses allow firearm owners to carry in more public areas

4. Licenses educate firearm owners on laws that could save their lives

5. Licenses make it easier to buy firearms