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 A federal judge has ruled Seattle’s ban on carrying firearms in city parks and community centers is constitutional.
However, city officials said guns are not banned in Seattle parks.
Last month, a King County Superior Court judge ruled the gun ban is in direct violation of Washington state’s firearm pre-emption law.
“You still can bring your gun to the parks,” Parks Department spokeswoman Joelle Hammerstad said. “The U.S. District Court judge was only dealing with the constitutional issue, not the state issue and the state ruling still stands.”
Attorneys for the city are appealing the Superior Court case.
In the federal case, Robert Warden, of Kent, sued the city and former Mayor Greg Nickels, challenging the constitutionality of the rule created by the Seattle Parks Department that makes it illegal to carry concealed firearms or display firearms at certain parks facilities where “children and youth are likely to be present and . . . appropriate signage has been posted to communicate to the public that firearms are not permitted at the facility.” – [source]
 The Obama administration will accept no more public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing the nation’s oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters.
“When the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) completed their successful campaign to convince the Ontario government to end one of the best scientifically managed big game hunts in North America (spring bear), the results of their agenda had severe economic impacts on small family businesses and the tourism economy of communities across northern and central Ontario,” said Phil Morlock, director of environmental affairs for Shimano.
“Now we see NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the administration planning the future of recreational fishing access in America based on a similar agenda of these same groups and other Big Green anti-use organizations, through an Executive Order by the President. The current U.S. direction with fishing is a direct parallel to what happened in Canada with hunting: The negative economic impacts on hard working American families and small businesses are being ignored.
Consequently, unless anglers speak up and convince their Congressional representatives to stop this bureaucratic freight train, it appears that the task force will issue a final report for “marine spatial planning” by late March, with President Barack Obama then issuing an Executive Order to implement its recommendations — whatever they may be. – [source]
The Supreme Court suggested Tuesday it will strike down U.S. cities’ outright bans on handguns, a ruling that could establish a nationwide ownership right fervently sought by gun advocates. But the justices indicated less severe limits could survive, continuing disputes over the “right to keep and bear arms.”
Chicago area residents who want handguns for protection in their homes are asking the court to extend its 2008 decision in support of gun rights in Washington, D.C., to state and local laws.
Such a ruling would firmly establish a right that has been the subject of politically charged and often fierce debate for decades. But it also would ensure years of legal challenges to sort out exactly which restrictions may stand and which must fall.
Indeed, the outcome of the Washington lawsuit in 2008 already has spawned hundreds of court challenges, including one in Massachusetts over a state law requiring gun owners to lock weapons in their homes.
Two years ago, the court announced that the Constitution’s Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to possess guns, at least for self-defense in the home. – [source]
The coffee giant Starbucks says it won’t take issue with gun owners who take advantage of “open carry” laws and bring firearms into their restaurants.
Virginia is one of the states that allow gun owners to openly carry firearms in public places. In some places, activists have gathered at restaurants — weapons strapped to their waists – just to prove a point.
This has become a political battle in California, where some restaurants have banned gun-toting customers from their premises. Under some laws, establishments can bar customers with firearms, just as they can stop patrons who don’t wear shoes.
However, Starbucks isn’t joining the fray. The coffee chain says it follows state and local laws and has its own safety measures in its stores. – [source]
What is this ‘safety measure’ they have in place? Perhaps they have taken it a step further and are offering loaner firearms to those who forgot theirs?
The U.S. Supreme Court is about to take dead aim at the fierce debate over gun regulations in cities and states across the country, with California’s strict gun-control laws squarely in the cross hairs of the legal showdown.
The justices on Tuesday will hear arguments in a challenge to a Chicago area ban on handguns and semiautomatic weapons, weighing for the first time whether the Second Amendment right to bear arms applies to local and state gun regulations. For a state such as California, which has long been a target of gun rights advocates for a slew of firearms regulations, a Supreme Court ruling extending Second Amendment protections to cities and states could open the floodgates to a new generation of lawsuits.
Legal experts say the fallout from the Chicago case will depend on how far the justices go in their decision. In the 2008 ruling, the 5-4 majority, led by Justice Antonin Scalia, did make clear that certain areas of gun regulation were “presumptively valid” for government, such as firearm sales.
“I think there will be questions about specific regulations and whether they fall out of those categories,” said Sayre Weaver, one of the lawyers defending Alameda County’s ordinance. – [source]
Beginning today, ed people may carry firearms into national parks and refuges in states where right to carry laws exist.
The federal legislation to allow this was authored by Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, who said “If a law-abiding citizen has the right to carry a firearm in their state, it makes no sense to treat them like a criminal if they pass through a national park while in possession of a firearm.”
The Point: The only people who obey gun laws are law-abiding citizens. The outlaws are carrying their guns already. – [source]
 A fatal shooting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville has opened a 24-year-old can of worms in Massachusetts, forcing law enforcement there to reopen the investigation of an earlier incident involving the same perpetrator.
Amy Bishop, a 44-year-old Harvard-educated neurobiology professor at the university, pulled out a 9mm for which she had no carry permit at last Friday’s faculty meeting and opened fire, killing three of her colleagues and seriously wounding three others. When the gun jammed, the “courageous” remaining five professors managed to shove Bishop out of the room and barricade the door, possibly putting other staff or students at risk.
Bishop’s murderous rampage would most likely have been avoided had the 1986 shooting of her younger brother been investigated thoroughly. In December of that year, 18-year-old Seth Bishop died when he was shot in the chest by his sister. She then held up an automotive repair shop, claiming that she had had a fight with her husband and needed a getaway car before he came after her. A shop employee who spent a few moments on the other end of Bishop’s shotgun is now saying that the police spoke to him briefly at the time of Bishop’s arrest but never returned to question him further.
Then-district attorney William Delahunt, now a Democrat congressman, ruled the shooting an accident. Delahunt is presently traveling in the Middle East and has refused to provide a statement. Coincidentally, at the time of the shooting, Bishop’s mother was a member of the police personnel board.-[source]
 The nation’s Homeland Security officers lost nearly 200 guns in bowling alleys, public restrooms, unlocked cars and other unsecure areas, with some ending up in the hands of felons. The problem, outlined in a new federal report, has prompted disciplinary actions and extra training.
Most of the misplaced weapons — including handguns, shotguns and military rifles — were never found. “Most losses occurred because officers did not properly secure firearms,” says the Homeland Security inspector general report.
At least 15 of the guns ended up in the hands of gang members, criminals, drug users and teenagers, inspector general Richard Skinner found. His report documented 289 missing firearms from fiscal year 2006 through 2008, although not all were lost because of negligence. Some were lost in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and others were stolen from safes.
The report is the first accounting of guns lost by Homeland Security’s 185,000 workers.
Homeland Security “took immediate action” to correct problems, department spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said Wednesday. Workers are getting extra training and officials are improving tracking and inspection of guns, Kudwa said.
“The department is strongly committed to ensuring that weapons … are kept secure,” Kudwa said.
Although the number of guns lost is only a small fraction of Homeland Security’s 190,000 firearms, any lost weapon “is a very serious matter,” said Hubert Williams, president of the Police Foundation, a think tank on law-enforcement issues. “It reflects the competence of the officer.”
The report does not say if any of the guns were used in crimes.
Homeland Security said employees have been fired and suspended for losing guns. Guns are carried by many Customs, Border Patrol and Immigration agents.
A 2008 report found 76 guns lost by the 4,800 agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in a five-year period ending in 2007.-[source]
Wyoming citizens could carry concealed handguns without needing a state permit under a bill that passed its first committee on Tuesday.
The House Judiciary Committee voted 6-2 to recommend approval of House Bill 113 after a testimony from pro-gun groups and other supporters.
“I bring the bill here today because I do believe it is our right not only under the United States Constitution, visit this site but under the Wyoming Constitution, viagra dosage ” sponsor Rep. Elaine Quarberg, R-Thermopolis, told the committee.
The state would keep its existing concealed carry permit system even if her bill passes, Quarberg said. Wyoming residents who have state permits may carry concealed guns in other states that have reciprocity with Wyoming. The permits also serve as a substitute for federal background checks on gun purchases.-[source]
New rules will allow visitors to Zion National Park to carry semiautomatic rifles as they hike Angel’s Landing.
Shotguns can accompany campers’ Coleman stoves on Dinosaur National Monument’s Split Mountain beach. Want your pistol on your hip while pitching a tent at Bryce Canyon National Park’s Sunset Campground? No problem, as long as you don’t actually pull the trigger.
On Feb. 22, the long-standing ban on guns in national parks and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service-administered wildlife refuges will lift, thanks to an amendment Congress attached last year to a credit-card reform bill. The add-on requires parks and refuges to conform to state gun-carry laws.-[source]
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