Guns And The Laws That Govern Them

More women are gun buyers,
sellers, and activists

Lauren Loftus and Natalie Krebs

NEWS21 PROJECT

POSTED: Sunday, August 24, 2014, 1:09 AM

More women than ever own guns.

Nearly 79 percent of firearms retailers reported an increase in female
customers between 2011 and 2012, according to the National Shooting
Sports Foundation. From this surge in popularity come classes,
specialized apparel, custom firearms, shooting-group memberships,
and conferences for women.

Women have also become the sellers, lobbyists, and business owners.

Carrie Lightfoot founded the Well Armed Woman in Scottsdale, Ariz.,
in 2012 to be a resource for women shooters, by selling female-friendly
merchandise, establishing educational chapters, and hosting certified
firearms-instructor training sessions. In just two years, Lightfoot said,
it has become one of the largest female gun groups in the country,
boasting 350 chapter leaders in 43 states.

"We focus on educating, equipping, and empowering women shooters,"
she said of her company's goal to introduce women to guns in a safe,
supportive environment.

When Lightfoot started the Well Armed Women, she wanted to
represent the "everyday woman" she felt was missing from the industry.

"There were these two common extremes," she said. "One was a, like,
military-type, real rugged woman with a gun . . . and the other was the
more sexual, sexy woman with a gun. A woman in a bikini holding an AR-15."

Lightfoot said women have always carried guns, but it wasn't until
recently that they began forming their own community within
the firearms industry.

More women are living alone and marrying later. Firearms are arguably
another part of the equation. As Lightfoot put it, owning a gun as a
self-protection tool mirrors this shift of women from "being the protected
to being the protector."

"Women are taking on that role - they have to," she said "and they're
taking it on pretty fiercely."

One of the strongest allies of the gun industry, the National Rifle Association,
capitalized on the women-and-guns trend. In the last few years,
it has included women in its target demographics.

Karen Callaghan, an associate professor of political science at Texas
Southern University who is writing a book on the organization,
described it as a "softening of the NRA."

"They're tapping into groups that are really primed and ready to
receive the message that gun ownership is a good thing," she said.

The NRA's original women's programs were formed by board members'
wives as a way to get involved. Today, as NRA board member Todd Rathner
said, "it's a whole world unto itself."

"The Women's Network folks are young gals with ARs and Glocks just
beginning their hunting careers," said Rathner, as opposed to the
traditionally older Women in Leadership Forum. "It's a demographic
we have never touched before."

Several of the NRA's 84 official social-media accounts are dedicated
solely to women, according to NRAnews.com. The NRA Women's Network
has more than 40,000 followers across all major social-networking sites.

Self-defense is the common theme among women's shooting groups.
In Austin, Texas, the Sure Shots women's pistol league and monthly
magazine focus almost exclusively on self-defense.

Standing out amid the dimly lit walls of rifles and camouflage of
Red's Indoor Range, where she runs Sure Shots, Niki Jones said she
started the league in 2010. She encourages members - there are about
300 among three Texas chapters - to always take note of their surroundings.

"That doesn't mean in a paranoid sort of way, just a very aware type
of way," she said.

Members "feel a lot more safe and confident and kind of have a whole
new defensive mind-set that they never even considered before," Jones said.

Jennifer Carlson, assistant professor of sociology at the University of
Toronto, said the self-defense argument mischaracterizes most crime
against women as random violence.

"Men are more likely to be victims of assault" perpetrated by strangers,
said Carlson, who is writing a book on gun culture in this country.
"Women should actually be most afraid of crimes in their own homes."

Women are more likely to be attacked by someone they know, usually
an intimate partner, than someone they don't, according to a 2014 Center
for American Progress report and an analysis by News21 of domestic-
violence gun homicides that occurred between 2002 and 2012.



More women also are getting involved in the political gun debate.

Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America started in 2012 in
response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown,
Conn., to advocate for gun-control legislation.

Jennifer Hoppe, a program director for Moms Demand Action, says
women have always brought social change.

"I don't want to stereotype, but moms and women show up," she said.
"They show up at the polls, they show up at the offices of elected
officials, they pay attention."

On the other side, the 1 Million Moms Against Gun Control network
formed as a direct response to Moms Demand Action, pushing for
no new gun restrictions.

Beth Banister, the 1 Million Moms state coordinator in Arizona,
said her job was to "keep up-to-date on what is going on in the gun debate"
and stay active on social media to engage the group's almost 57,000
Facebook followers in discussion on issues.

Today, 40 percent of Americans live in a household with a gun, according
to a 2013 Pew Research Center survey. Thirty-six percent of women
reported living in one of these households, and 14 percent of women
said the gun was theirs.

Entrepreneurs are capitalizing on the movement of more women buying guns.

Among the firearms makers benefiting from the rise in female customers
is Gordon Bond, president of Bond Arms in Granbury, Texas, which
manufactures double-barrel derringers (small conceal-carry pistols).
Bond Arms handguns are sold through individual dealers around the country.

Bond guessed that women made up 20 percent or so of his customers,
up from about 10 percent five years ago.

To keep up with demand, Bond Arms markets differently to men and women.
Bond said women are looking for something "very functional, very clean."

"Ours is very simple to clean and load . . . and it's pretty," he said.

When giving demonstrations at gun shows, Bond likes to bring out a
pink pistol first and shoot a .357 magazine out of it. The loudness is jarring.

"My favorite comment [while demonstrating] is there's nothing like
bringing down a bad guy with a pink gun," he said.

Not everyone is thrilled with the use of pink guns as a marketing
device for women.

Former Secret Service agent Tina Wilson-Cohen, who in 2010 founded
She Can Shoot, a national firearms training network for women with
more than a dozen chapters, says the industry does not fully understand
how to bring women into the fold.

"Most of the marketing is usually, the men think they can slap the pink
and the purple and some bling on something and it captivates us as women,"
she said, "and it's not the case."

Lightfoot, founder of the Well Armed Woman, one of the largest
female shooting organizations in the nation, said that women were
working hard to gain respect in the industry and that taking the "sexy"
or "girlie" avenues could undermine all that hard work. "Carrying a gun
isn't sexy," she said. "It's a huge responsibility."


Lauren Loftus is an Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation
News21 Fellow. Brittany Elena Morris, a News21 Hearst Fellow,
and Allison Griner contributed to this story.

I guess the GOP had better get out of women's vaginas then if they know what's good for them.

OK.

By JACQUELINE BOSTICK | The News Herald
Published: Friday, August 22, 2014 at 08:08 PM.
PANAMA CITY — She shoots guns for vacation.

“If you ask me where I’m going on vacation, I’m going to tell you I’m
packing my bags to go shooting somewhere,” said Katerina Prozer, 42.

Prozer, the National Rifle Association chief range safety officer,
recently started a local chapter of Armed Lady LLC, a nationwide
shooting organization for women. The chapter meets at 3:30 p.m.
the first Sunday of the month at Jay’s Guns and Accessories IV
Shooting Range, 3219 State 390.

Membership is open to women ages 18 and older. No weapons licensure
is required to join. Members will complete NRA courses from beginner
level to “distinguished expert” — a rating comparable to competitive sharpshooter.

“Because they don’t have a safe place to go to enjoy it and compete,”
Prozer said, “they’re [practicing shooting] behind houses and in the
woods — and that’s where accidents happen.”

A lack of information often leads to accidents, she noted.
Since her early teenage years, under a once Communist regime in her
Czechoslovakian homeland, Prozer had been taught about the use of guns
and gun safety. However, outside of military, police and sports shooters,
no one else was allowed to own a firearm.


“I joined the NRA because it’s a big organization and it’s standing
behind our rights,” Prozer said, noting she doesn’t go “much deeper than that.”

“It’s giving me the option to share the proper way to educate people,”
she said. “Where you’re handling a firearm, you need to know what
to do because if something happens, you can’t take it back.”

Gripping a Kel Tec .380 that holds up to six cartridges — the correct
term for the popular “bullet” — Prozer demonstrated the proper shooting stance.

“I let my girls modify because of our bodies,” she said, focusing her eyes
on a spot seemingly behind the wall and pointing the gun straight ahead.
“We do one leg forward because its easier; then you lean forward
so that you can catch the recall.”

She had pulled the small gun out of her pants waistband, a place where
the gun went unnoticed until she revealed it for the demonstration.

“For everyday carry, you don’t want to walk around with a big gun,”
she said. A small gun for personal protection is “easy to carry, easy to conceal.”

Children’s shooting group
Firearm safety and training is good for children, too, according to Prozer.

That’s why she is training to become a shooting coach, which would
allow her to train children to shoot.

The training will work in conjunction with the NRA’s Eddie Eagle
GunSafe Program, which is designed for children as young as 4 years old.

“When you start with the little kids, you teach them responsibility
from the beginning,” Prozer said. “It’s a part of the education.”

She has taught firearm safety at the Boys & Girls Club of Bay County
and Girls Inc. As a coach, she will be able to train children ages 10
and older to shoot air rifles.

“They are going to understand the responsibility” of gun safety, she said
of the program for children. “They will be more responsible in their lives
growing up because they’ll know all about it.”


Children who participate in shooting will become trained well enough
to enter competitions, she said.

“It’s good for the kids and they have fun,” she added.


WANT TO JOIN?
What: Armed Lady LLC, a shooting organization for women
When: First Sunday of the month, 3:30 p.m.
Where: Jay’s Guns and Accessories IV Shooting Range, 3219 State 390
Why: To learn gun safety, how to shoot and earn certification of marksmanship by the National Rifle Association

By Jorge Milian
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Arthur M. Lewis may be elderly, but criminals are learning
the North Palm Beach man is no easy mark.

The 89-year-old decorated World War II veteran foiled an armed robbery
attempt Saturday afternoon at his Lake Park jewelry business that
left a 44-year-old suspect with six gunshot wounds, but no loot.
Lewis was working behind the counter at The Jewelry Exchange
at 900 N. Federal Highway when he was approached by a gun-wielding
man around 3 p.m., according to an arrest report from the Palm Beach
County Sheriff’s Office. Lewis said he immediately grabbed the suspect’s
revolver and pulled out a .38-caliber handgun from his own pocket.

The two men wrestled for several minutes and fired shots at each other.
Despite battling someone half his age, Lewis got the best of it.
A man identified by the sheriff’s office as Lennard Patrick Jarvis,
of Miramar, was shot six times by Lewis, including four times in the chest.
Lewis’ left arm was grazed by a bullet, but he was otherwise unscathed.
No one else was in the store at the time.

“I thought he was going to kill me as soon as I saw the gun,” Lewis told
The Palm Beach Post on Monday afternoon. “I thought, ‘This time, I’m dead.’”

Saturday was not the first time Lewis has traded gunfire with would-be robbers.
On Jan. 5, 2010, Brandon Jerard Johnson, 20, of Riviera Beach,
was arrested on charges of robbery with a firearm and attempted
felony murder after he walked into The Jewelry Exchange and fired
a shot point-blank at Lewis.

Lewis responded with five shots from his own gun, but no one was hurt.

“It’s a hazardous business,” said Lewis, who said he served in the Army
and fought in the Pacific Theatre during WWII.

Although the 2010 incident was scary, Lewis said it didn’t compare
to Saturday’s encounter.
Lewis said that Jarvis continued to fight with vigor even with four
gunshot wounds to the chest and one each to the wrist and leg.
Large bullet holes remained in the store’s walls on Monday and the
area behind the counter where Lewis and Jarvis fought hand to hand was trashed.

“People think because he’s 89, he’s frail,” said Vivien Bresnahan,
Lewis’ girlfriend. “That irritates me because he’s anything but [frail].”
Jarvis eventually stumbled over the counter toward the front door
and asked Lewis to buzz him out. Lewis complied.
“I was so glad to get rid of him,” said Lewis, who has been in business
for 20 years. “I’d had enough of him.”

According to PBSO, Jarvis left the scene in an SUV driven by Raven
Simone Hill, of Miami. Hill told police that she picked up Jarvis, who
she referred to as “Dave,” after he was shot and was driving toward
Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. “But ‘Dave’ was dying,” so she
stopped and asked for assistance from the Boca Raton Police Department,
according to an arrest report.
Jarvis was taken to Delray Medical Center and is expected to survive,
PBSO spokeswoman Teri Barbera said.
Jarvis will be arrested and taken to the Palm Beach County Jail once
he recovers and is expected to face charges of armed robbery to a business,
felon in possession of a firearm, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon,
and armed burglary.
Court records show that Jarvis has been arrested 20 times in Miami-Dade
and Broward counties since 1989.
Hill, 23, is facing a charge of armed robbery for driving the getaway car.
She is being held in the Palm Beach County Jail without bond.
[All emfasis has been added by David.]

Whatayathink of this, Rex ?

By Emily Lane, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

on August 25, 2014 at 2:13 PM,
updated August 25, 2014 at 9:04 PM



A Baton Rouge ordinance banning the possession of guns at bars or
any other place that sells alcohol was ruled unconstitutional by a
federal judge on Monday. The ordinance also applied to parking lots
of places that sell alcohol, including those at restaurants and grocery stores.

Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson,
in an order issued Monday (Aug. 25),
struck down the city ordinance that was successfully challenged by
a plaintiff who was arrested in 2012 after Baton Rouge Police Department officers
pulled him over, searched his car and arrested him for violating the ordinance.

The plaintiff, Ernest Taylor, says that around 1:30 a.m. Oct. 13, 2012,
he was pulled over for a traffic stop after exiting Romeo's Lounge parking lot.
After telling the officers he had two rifles in his car along with the
proper licenses, the officers forcibly restrained him on the hood of
a car before arresting him.

"When (Taylor) explained to (the officers) his understanding that he
was allowed to carry the guns inside of his vehicle, the officers responded
that there was a 'new law' that made it illegal for anyone to possess
a firearm in the parking lot of an establishment that sold alcohol,"
the judge's order says, citing the lawsuit.

The judge ordered the city to return Taylor's firearms
to him and to pay him monetary damages,
which will later be decided in a court hearing.
Jackson also permanently barred the city, police chief, city attorneys
and arresting officers from enforcing the ordinance in the future.

Here 's a good one, Rex

A federal judge severely limited California’s gun-purchase waiting
period in a ruling released Monday that says the law is unconstitutional
when applied to those who have gone through the process to get
a concealed-weapons license, or who the state already knows
to be firearms owners.

First-time gun buyers are still subject to the 10-day waiting period,
but Judge Anthony W. Ishii ruled that those who have already been
judged competent to own a gun should not be forced to wait an
additional period for every new gun they seek to purchase.

The ruling signals that the Second Amendment goes beyond the right
to own a single gun, and protects Americans’ rights to multiple guns.

“The Second Amendment applies to ‘arms’ and its language does not limit
its full protections to a single firearm,” Judge Ishii wrote. “Some firearms
are better suited for particular lawful purposes than others. Defendant has
cited no authority that suggests that the Second Amendment
only has application to a single firearm.”

Armed citizen halts pair of armed robbers

The Times Leader, Wilkes Barre, Pa. 08/24/14

Posted on August 26, 2014

A man was walking down a street late at night in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
when a pair of armed criminals attempted to rob him.

The man responded to the threat by drawing a gun and grabbing the firearm
one of the robbers was holding, prompting the robbers to flee.
(The Times Leader, Wilkes Barre, Pa. 08/24/14)

Gun instructor teaching 9 year old girl to shoot Uzi shot dead. Serves him right.

The hateful mentality
of the gun control supporters raises its ugly head.

Karma happens...

So a man dies and you are ok with it because he was a firearms instructor?

Child firearms instructor... slight distinction there.

I dunno. Things r pretty quiet around here, Rex,
but I agree that there is no reason for ISIS to attack us.





David

Children need a lot MORE of them.
I always LOVED submachineguns, Rex. Thay r tons of fun.





David

The day may come when YOU
urgently need a defensive gun for the survival
of your favorite person and u DON T have one.
Then the predator, animal or human, can toy with your loved one,
(or with u), at his discretion and (having conceded a monopoly of power to the predator)
your favorite person will live or die at his arbitrary caprice,
maybe while calling for help from someone who is not defenseless.

THEN, the predatory can laff
at your favorite (un-armed) person.





David

Clerk Rick Patel was working at a Shell Food Mart in Claxton, Ga.
when a hooded man approached the counter and attempted to rob
the store at gunpoint. Patel responded by retrieving a pistol, which
then he used to chase the criminal out of the store. Police suspect
the hooded man has committed several other armed robberies.

Following the incident, Patel told Savannah’s WJCL, “I don’t like to
shoot nobody but when it comes to my life I would and thank God
I didn’t get hurt, I didn’t kill him, otherwise I would have regretted
but hey, you made the choice, regrets happen.” In recent years,
some convenience store clerks have faced discipline following an act
of armed self-defense. In a welcome departure from these instances,
the owner of Patel’s store told the TV station, “I’m really proud.
Whatever he did I’d like if everybody started doing it that way,
robbery will be stopped, especially for convenience stores.”
(WJCL, Savannah, Ga. 08/25/14)

Federal District Court:
California’s Waiting Period to Acquire a Firearm
Violates the Second Amendment

Posted on August 29, 2014

On Monday, the United States District Court for the Eastern District
of California issued an opinion holding that California’s 10-day waiting period
for nearly all firearm sales violates the Second Amendment, at least
as applied to certain individuals. The opinion, written by Judge Anthony W. Ishii,
generally found California’s justifications for the waiting period insufficient
to overcome the burden the waiting period placed on Californians’
right to keep and bear arms.

The court first concluded that the waiting period created a burden
on the Second Amendment. Specifically, it found the state failed to
put forth any historical evidence showing that the waiting period
should fall outside the scope of the Second Amendment or was one
of the types of longstanding and presumptively lawful regulations
identified by the Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller.

Because the court determined that the waiting period burdened the
Second Amendment, the state was required to show a “reasonable fit”
between the supposed state interest furthered by the law, public
safety, and the state’s rationale for how the waiting period furthered
that interest.

The state attempted to justify the burden created by the waiting
period with three separate arguments. First, that the waiting period
provided time for the California Department of Justice to conduct
a background check on the prospective purchaser. Second, that the
waiting period created a “cooling off period” that prevented
impulsive acts of violence. Third, that the waiting period helped to
deter “straw purchases” by giving law enforcement sufficient time
to investigate the purchaser.

The plaintiffs argued that these justifications were insufficient to
meet the “reasonable fit” requirement as to three classes of individuals:
those who already own a firearm as indicated by California’s
Automated Firearms System, holders of concealed carry licenses,
and holders of a Certificate of Eligibility. Notably, individuals in
each of these classes have already undone extensive background
checks and, in most cases, already own one or more firearms.

The court analyzed the justifications for each class separately,
but the court’s rationale in rejecting each justification was generally
the same for each separate class. In rejecting the background check
justification, the court found that in many cases background checks
are completed anywhere from a few hours to one day and in the vast
majority of cases the check was completed in fewer than 10 days,
so the background check provided no justification for the waiting
period beyond the actual time needed to complete the check on
a case-by-case basis. The court was not persuaded by the “cooling
off period” justification because individuals in each of the three
classes already owned a firearm or had undergone a thorough
background investigation that made it extremely unlikely that these
individuals would carry out an impulsive violent crime. As to the
“straw purchase” justification, the court found that there was no
evidence that the legislature had intended the waiting period to
serve as a deterrent to straw purchases or that the waiting period
actually did deter straw purchases.

Even if the decision is not appealed, it will not take effect for at
least 180 days because of a stay that was granted to give California
sufficient time to alter its firearm acquisition procedures to comply
with the court’s holding. While the holding is technically limited
to the three classes of individuals raised by the plaintiffs, the court’s
discussion of the state’s justifications, or lack thereof, for the
waiting period exposes waiting period laws for what they truly are:
an attempt to limit firearm ownership through burdensome regulation.