Support gun show loophole bill

"Despite the NRA's whipping gun owners into a buying frenzy over the notion that President Obama and the Democrats are coming after their guns — a hysteria that has led to a surge of sales at gun shows nationwide — Senator Lautenberg's gun show loophole bill does no such thing. It simply insists — in the interest of public safety — that you clear a criminal background check before buying a gun." – The Nation, June 3, 2009
Dear Todd,
The NRA's leaders are masters of "spin." Their rhetoric about confiscating guns is feeding an extremist agenda that leads to senseless deaths.
They've cowed our lawmakers and the public into thinking that any effort to strengthen gun laws — like closing the gun show loophole — is a threat to individual rights and to our nation's freedom.
In April, a Pittsburgh man, fed by the gun lobby's fear-mongering, shot 3 police officers with an assault rifle because he was afraid that an "Obama gun ban" would lead to his "rights being infringed upon."
The recent shooting of Dr. George Tiller in Wichita, Kansas, is another horrific example of where gun lobby rhetoric can lead, and how easy it is for dangerous people to get dangerous weapons. We need to act now to strengthen gun laws.
The man who shot Dr. Tiller had been arrested for the criminal use of explosives. According to his siblings, he also had a history of mental illness. And a colleague with the anti-government Freemen group called him a "fanatic" on the issue of abortion.
Please support the Brady Campaign's fight for sane gun laws —
including closing the gun show loophole.
The Brady Campaign is pushing back — pushing for sensible gun laws — on Capitol Hill, in the media, and on the ground with our activists. That's why we need your help right now.
Please make a contribution to the Brady Campaign to counter the gun lobby's crusade of fear. We need your voice for common sense gun laws.
In the interest of public safety — of saving 80 lives a day — we have to make our country's gun laws stronger. Please donate to the Brady Campaign today.

Sincerely,

Paul Helmke, President
Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence

Despite Recent Violence, Gun Laws Are Softening | Parade.com

Despite Recent Violence, Gun Laws Are Softening | Parade.com

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NRA gun case appeal heads to high court

By Joan Biskupic, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — One year after the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep handguns, the justices have before them a new test of that right.
The National Rifle Association has appealed a ruling from a U.S. appeals court in Chicago that said the right to bear arms cannot be invoked by gun owners challenging state and local firearm regulations. It said the high court's groundbreaking decision last term in a case from Washington, D.C., allows the Second Amendment to cover only regulations by the federal government — at least until the high court weighs in again.

If the justices decide to take up the appeal, it would probably be heard next fall by a bench that could include Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, who is now on a federal appeals court in New York. She was part of a court panel in January that similarly held that the 2008 gun decision did not apply to state regulations.

A U.S. appeals court in San Francisco, however, ruled this year that the Second Amendment indeed covers state gun restrictions.

"Because of the split in opinions (on the breadth of the 2008 ruling), it seems likely that the court would take it," says Daniel Vice, a lawyer with the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. He says a ruling could affect gun laws nationwide.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Ronald Reagan | National Rifle Association | Antonin Scalia | Sonia Sotomayor | Gun Owners of America | Frank H. Easterbrook
The June 2008 decision, decided by a 5-4 vote, said for the first time that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep handguns at home for self-protection. A 1939 high court decision had led lower courts and many legal analysts to believe the Second Amendment covered firearm rights only for state militias such as National Guard units.

The new decision in National Rifle Association v. Chicago by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Chicago, written by conservative Ronald Reagan appointee Frank Easterbrook, echoes the closely scrutinized decision from a three-judge panel of the U.S. appeals court for the 2nd Circuit that included Sotomayor.

She joined an opinion that rejected a challenge to a New York ban on certain weapons used in martial arts and emphasized that the high court has never specifically ruled that the Second Amendment can be applied to state regulations. That 2nd Circuit decision, Maloney v. Cuomo, provoked some gun rights groups to protest Sotomayor's nomination. The Virginia-based Gun Owners of America called her "an anti-gun radical."

Last Tuesday's decision by the 7th Circuit undercuts criticism that the Sotomayor panel decision was extreme. As Easterbrook wrote, specifically agreeing with the 2nd Circuit, the Supreme Court said in the 2008 case involving a District of Columbia handgun ban that it was not deciding whether the Second Amendment covered state or local regulations.

Justice Antonin Scalia, who authored the high court decision, noted that the case arose from the federal enclave of Washington, D.C., and that past cases said the Second Amendment covers only the federal government. With a new case from a state or municipality, the court could extend the reach of the Second Amendment.

Until then, Easterbrook wrote in the case involving handgun bans in Chicago and Oak Park, an appeals court may not "strike off on its own." He said that would undermine the uniformity of the nation's laws.

The NRA's Stephen Halbrook, representing Chicago and Oak Park residents who want to keep handguns at home, urged the justices to take up the 7th Circuit case to resolve the reach of last term's ruling.

Halbrook said the right to guns "allows one to protect life itself."

Tell Rep. Carnahan to cosponsor HR 2324 to the Gun Show Loophole

am asking you to urge Rep. Carnahan to cosponsor legislation to close the gun show loophole.

In most states, anyone can walk into a gun show and buy guns — like AK-47s — from unlicensed sellers without a Brady criminal background check. That makes no sense.

Representatives Mike Castle (R-DE) and Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) recently introduced a bill, H.R. 2324, to close the gun show loophole. Now they need your help to add cosponsors to the bill.

Click here to e-mail Rep. Carnahan and ask them to cosponsor H.R.2324.

Gun shows provide the venue, advertising, and audience for many unregulated gun sellers. Therefore, closing the loophole that allows them to sell guns without Brady background checks makes sense for the safety of our families and communities.

Click here to e-mail Rep. Russ Carnahan today to urge them to cosponsor H.R. 2324 to close the gun show loophole.

Know that the gun lobby will be fighting us every step of the way with its mantra "any gun, anywhere, for anybody." So we can't do this without you.

Your Representative needs to hear from you today. And you can help even more — please click here to forward this e-mail to your friends. Everyone's help is needed to make our communities safer.

Thank you for all your ongoing support!

Sincerely,

Sarah Brady, Chair

P.S. U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) has introduced legislation in the Senate to close the gun show loophole. If you haven't already, please click here to urge your U.S. Senators to cosponsor S. 843.

If this e-mail was forwarded to you, click here to sign up for your own Brady Campaign alerts.

Donate to Support the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

You can also mail a check to:
Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence
1225 Eye Street NW, Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20005

Reporter reacts to the shooting

Here is a video of me speaking about the shooting on Feb. 9, 2008.

Click here for the video.

My Story

 

My Story

“I still see the faces of the people…that died that day…” Here at Bullet Counter Points we like to highlight the exceptional work that everyday Ameri Today we focus on the victim of a horrible shooting tragedy that has turned his grief and trauma into a determination to help others.

On the evening of February 7, 2008, Todd Smith, a reporter for the Kirkwood-Webster Journal, was covering a city council meeting at Kirkwood City Hall in Missouri. Just after the meeting began, Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton—a local resident who had been embroiled in a long running property dispute with the City of Kirkwood—entered the chambers and opened fire with two handguns, a .44 Magnum revolver and a .40 caliber handgun (the latter of which had been taken from a police officer Thornton killed in the parking lot outside the meeting). Before he was stopped by police, Thornton killed a total of five people (two police officers, two city council members, and Kirkwood’s public works director) and wounded two others. One of the wounded was Kirkwood Mayor Mike Swoboda, who would finally succumb to his head injuries and pass away seven months later. Also wounded was Todd, who was seated in the front row at the meeting and shot in the hand. He told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “[Thornton] was completely possessed … He looked at me directly and I felt complete rage.”

Like most of those present at the meeting that night, Todd was familiar with Thornton and his grievances. “I had seen him before at other city council meetings, and on one occasion he decided to speak at a council meeting and I decided to ask him what his issues were,” he recalls. “I had trouble understanding him and what he was wanting—he seemed angry and I had just started on Kirkwood beat and did not know his whole history. Even at this particular meeting he was somewhat incoherent and erratic and wearing a sign on his body in protest of the Kirkwood City Council.”

Sadly, this was not the first time Todd had been a victim of gun violence. He describes another traumatic incident that occurred more than a decade earlier:

“I had moved to New Castle, Delaware. A few days after July 4, 1997, I went to a nearby 7-Eleven around 9:00 p.m. I purchased a soda and was walking through a shopping center when two teenagers came up behind me with guns in their hands. They asked for money. I ran, and one of them shot at me. They ran away. I kept walking, but noticed there was blood coming from the back of my leg. I made it to a gas station that was across the street. I told the clerk to call 911. A guy getting gas noticed me sitting down in front of the gas station and took off his shirt and it was used as a tourniquet to stop my bleeding. I never saw this man again, and wish I had the chance to thank him. About 30 minutes after the shooting, an ambulance arrived on the scene and took me to a nearby hospital. A doctor came to see me and studied the wound and decided to pull the bullet out. He did numb the area, but I remember it being a painful process. I was in the hospital for three days before being released. The African-American teenagers that committed the act were never found. A police officer did come by once, I looked at pictures, but it was hard to tell who it was. I only saw them briefly, it was dark out, and their faces were partially covered.”

Todd’s recovery from these violent episodes has been difficult. The injuries he sustained in the Kirkwood shooting required two surgeries, the second of which involved a joint replacement. “I will never fully recover from this incident,” he says. “Emotionally, I have come a long way, but have a ways to go. I still have a fear of being alone at night and have fears of being in a setting with a large group of people.”

Despite the trauma he has been through, however, Todd wants to create something positive from his experience. “I feel the need to be a spokesperson on gun control,” he says. “The victims in Kirkwood were expecting to leave the meeting to go home and be with their families, like any other night. Instead, they never had a chance to say goodbye to their loved ones. I think there is something to be said about stronger gun control measures so people can go on living with the people they care about.”

Todd notes, “I am not against guns. I grew up around guns. I lived in a rural area, where people hunted and worked at a gun club. I would not like to see people’s right to have a gun taken away. I just believe in properly screening those who want to purchase guns, and developing ways to identify guns so that we know where they came from and where they were originally purchased.”

He has contacted the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and become involved in their Program for Victims and Survivors. Todd will take part in legislative advocacy efforts at the federal and state level, and reach out to other journalists to educate them about gun violence prevention. Still, some memories do not go away easily. “I still see the faces of the people that were friends of mine that died that day in Kirkwood,” Todd says. “One did her best to help people like Thornton. She worked to make sure that the council considered the views of constituents so their concerns were always heard and represented. I also will never forget Kirkwood Police Officer Tom Ballman. He stood up when Thornton pulled out his guns and in that instant he was killed. This image will haunt me for the rest of my life. “The instantaneous ending of a human life—which guns allow for—should not be allowed.”

For more information go to the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence at

http://www.csgv.org/site/pp.aspx?c=pmL5JnO7KzE&b=3509205.

Concealed-carry bill stalls in Missouri Senate committee

First published in The Columbia Missourian
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 | 12:01 a.m. CDT

BY Chris Dunn

JEFFERSON CITY — With four days remaining in the state legislative session, further progress was stalled Monday on the House bill that would expand the Castle Doctrine and allow concealed carry on college campuses.

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Kenny Jones, R-Clarksburg, would allow lessees to shoot to kill aggressive intruders of rented property and would lower the minimum age for acquiring a concealed-carry license from 23 to 21 years of age. An amendment to the bill would void provisions that prohibit concealed-carry policies on college campuses.

The Senate Judiciary Committee held public testimony on the bill Monday evening but did not vote on it because the committee chairman was not present, said state Sen. Jack Goodman, R-Mt. Vernon, who served as chairman for the committee hearing.

Four days are left for lawmakers to pass bills in the House and Senate and send them to Gov. Jay Nixon's desk. Despite no committee vote on Monday and legislative procedural rules that require specific waiting periods, the bill still has time to pass the two legislative chambers before time runs out. Timing in this final week of session is critical; if committee chairman Sen. Matt Bartle, R-Jackson County, does not hold an executive session by Tuesday afternoon for the committee to vote on the bill, the bill could die.

When asked if he thinks the bill will make it through both chambers given the tight timing, Jones said, "I think there's a slight chance that it might get through the process but very slight."

Jones also said he does not think Nixon would sign the bill into law if the legislation does make it to his desk.

"It probably goes farther than he would want to support as far as carrying concealed and self-protection," said Jones, a former Moniteau County sheriff. "I carried the bill forward because it is a castle-doctrine extension. We don't have enough policemen in this state or in this country to defend us all at all times. Sometimes, you just have to take things upon yourself to defend yourself. This is not an aggression bill — this is a defense bill."

The committee's public hearing on Monday featured five witnesses speaking in favor of the legislation, including a doctoral student at the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla. No one spoke in opposition of the bill.

Isaiah Kellogg, who has spent 10 years at Missouri S&T and intends to teach at a university after earning his degree, said he supports the bill because it would increase campus safety.

"I am going to be in academia for the foreseeable future — that will be my career — so I will be on university campuses for most of my life until I retire," Kellogg said in his public testimony. "So this is very important to me, to have the ability to protect myself."

Kellogg has held a concealed-carry license since March 2005 and usually carries a snub-nosed revolver, which he must keep in the trunk of his car when he is on campus. Kellogg said Missouri S&T's code of conduct does not allow concealed weapons on campus, and if the legislation passes, the university is not obligated to change its code of conduct. But if the bill passes, Kellogg said students can argue for concealed carry with the university board.

"We've taken down the legal barrier," Kellogg said, speaking hypothetically. "Now, we have to take down the code-of-conduct barrier."