 Ninety-seven percent of over half a million participants in a currently ongoing USA TODAY internet survey believe that individuals under the Second Amendment enjoy an individual right to bear arms. By mid-January, 530,000 responses to the poll had been recorded. To the question, “Does the Second Amendment give individuals the right to bear arms?” 97 percent answered “yes,” two percent answered “no,” and one percent were “undecided.” Readers of Point Blank who may wish to participate online in the survey could bring up the following on their computer: http://www.usatoday.com/news/quickquestion/2007/november/popup5895.htm.
CCRKBA Chairman Alan M. Gottlieb last month applauded the recent unanimous ruling by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals that dismissed a lawsuit against 25 gun manufacturers filed by the district and families of nine victims of crime perpetrated in the city with the use of firearms. The lawsuit was filed in January 2000 but according to the opinion written by Associate Judge Michael William Farrell, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act of 2005 required the court to dismiss the case. Gottlieb said the ruling was proper, and recalled that it was municipal lawsuits such as this which led to enactment of the federal legislation in the first place. “We’re proud of the tenacity shown by American firearm makers, and their refusal to be bullied by this kind of legal harassment,” he stated.
Anti-gun New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg targeted firearms in full-page advertisements he placed in newspapers in certain states hosting 2008 presidential delegate selection contests. Bloomberg funded two full-page ads in The Des Moines Register in Iowa and the New Hampshire Union Leader to promote his anti-gun coalition, reported the New York Daily News. The ads cost the billionaire mayor $22,203, according to the newspaper. They feature him and a host of other anti-gun mayors in his non-profit group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns. “Where do the presidential candidates stand on gun control?” ask the ads.
In a unanimous decision early last month, the California Court of Appeals ruled that the handgun ban enacted by the City of San Francisco is illegal under state law, upholding a lawsuit filed by the Second Amendment Foundation and several other groups. “This is a great day for gun owners and civil rights in California,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan M. Gottlieb, Founder of the Foundation. “This is the second time we successfully fought a gun ban in San Francisco, and what this demonstrates is that the city’s leadership is as horribly out of touch with the law as it seems to be out of touch with reality.” The court held that Proposition H, approved by voters in November 2005, is invalid as preempted by state law. “We urged the city well in advance to drop Proposition H from the 2005 ballot,” said Gottlieb.
“Arming pilots is not a new idea,” notes Captain Tracy Price, an airline pilot for more than 20 years who now is Vice President of the Passenger Cargo Security Group and advocates a return to the pre-ban system. “Airline pilots flew armed in large numbers from the dawn of commercial aviation to 1987 with no record of incident. When the federal government disarmed pilots in 1987, many pilots predicted cockpit takeover attempts – including the late Captain Victor Saracini, who, in horrible irony, was the captain of United flight 175 on September 11, 2001 when his Boeing 767 was hijacked and crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. It was the disarming of pilots in 1987 that inevitably led to the September 11 cockpit takeovers…If we disarm pilots, the specter of September 11-style hijackings may well resurface. It is human nature to become complacent as the years pass since September 11, but complacency is a luxury airline pilots cannot afford. Arming airline pilots is safe, fundamentally important, and highly cost-effective. How many government programs can make that claim?”