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Suing for civil rights and looking for a new Seattle top cop
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Remember the old “Hill Street Blues” where Sgt. Phil Esterhaus (played gruffly by the late Michael Conrad) began each episode with a roll call list of notes.
Item #1:
The Second Amendment Foundation, based in Bellevue, has filed a federal lawsuit against Attorney General Eric Holder in an effort to protect the civil rights of two American citizens who live abroad, so they are not legally allowed by existing federal statute to purchase firearms when they come back home to visit.
How is this prohibited? It’s because federal law requires that gun buyers fill out a federal form for a background check, and one of the questions on that form regards the buyer’s state of residence. Because these people – and there are a lot of them – do not have a “state of residence,” they cannot legally finish filling out the form, and the sale cannot go through.
Honest Americans who live in other countries for a variety of reasons should not be denied their Second or Fifth Amendment rights when they return to American soil.
Now, these law-abiding citizens still are allowed to vote. They can come home and buy a car, purchase all kinds of goods, but they cannot exercise a constitutionally-protected civil right.
So, SAF’s Alan Gottlieb hired attorney Alan Gura – the man who successfully argued the landmark Second Amendment Heller case before the U.S. Supreme Court in March 2008 – to file a lawsuit. Co-plaintiffs in the case are Maxwell Hodgkins, who currently lives in the United Kingdom, and Stephen Dearth, now residing in Canada.
In addition to the Second Amendment violation, the complaint also asserts that enforcement of the federal gun laws that prevent citizens living overseas from purchasing firearms when they visit the U.S. violates their right of equal protection under the Fifth Amendment.
Item #2
The on-line Seattle Post-Intelligencer ran a story Tuesday morning that wonders what kind of person should be the next Seattle police chief, now that Gil Kerlikowske has taken a job with the Obama administration as the next “drug czar.”
Urban League President James Kelly suggests that the city hire someone with a “willingness to meet with the community on controversial issues” and perhaps the city should “consider a woman or a candidate with an ethnic background.”
How about considering a candidate who is a little more responsible with his (or her) sidearm so that it’s not floating around the community, waiting to show up at a crime scene?
Of course, when it comes to firearm responsibility, Kelly may be the last guy to consult on that subject. Remember in May 2002 when he “flashed” a concealed handgun at a political rival during a rather heated argument at Rainier Beach High School? Packing a gun into a school is a violation of law, but Kelly – like other liberals – moved to quickly “put the issue behind.”
How about finding a police chief who doesn’t become a lobbyist for Washington CeaseFire?
How about considering a candidate who is a good cop first, a politician second or third, and someone who is more interested in public safety than political correctness?
A nurse, an attorney -- not the usual portrait of Second Amendment diehards.
Item #3
The other night on Campbell Brown’s news program on CNN, correspondent Sean Callebs interviewed a couple of people in relation to a story he was doing on brisk gun sales in Texas. During his report, he noted that the people he interviewed were a nurse and an attorney, and observed, “not the usual portrait of Second Amendment diehards.”
Oh? And what does this journalist believe represents the “usual portrait of a Second Amendment diehard,” eh? Maybe some ignorant redneck, perhaps a drunken wife-beater?
Perhaps Mr.Callebs’ social bigotry kind of snuck through there, huh?
Hey, HEY! Let's be careful out there....
Check what other Gun Rights Examiners are saying today:
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For more info: Second Amendment Foundation
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