alan
February 19, 2003, 06:05 PM
Federal Court Upholds Gun Ban in California
"A federal appeals court upheld Alameda County's ban on possessing guns at the county fairgrounds Tuesday and plunged back into the debate on the constitutional right to bear arms," reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
"The debate virtually overshadowed the outcome of Tuesday's case, a challenge by gun show operators to the 1999 Alameda County ordinance prohibiting guns on county property. The ordinance effectively ended gun shows at the county fair in Pleasanton, where 16 people were injured in a Fourth of July shooting and melee in 1998. That incident was unrelated to gun shows but was so horrific it prompted the Board of Supervisors to outlaw gun possession at the fairgrounds."
In "The Facts about Gun Shows," Associate Policy Analyst David B. Kopel argues that existing gun laws apply to gun shows as much as they apply to stores that sell guns.
"Gun shows are huge gathering points for people who are interested in Second Amendment issues," Kopel writes. "Gun rights groups frequently set up booths at gun shows to distribute literature and recruit members. Gun shows are places where Americans properly exercise their First and Second Amendment rights, and neither gun show patrons nor vendors deserve the mean-spirited campaign of abuse to which they have been subjected."
Teen Shot by DEA Agent Dies
"A teenage girl, shot and killed by federal drug agents, was a victim of excessive force from law officers who were investigating her father, relatives and friends say," the Associated Press reports. "Ashley Villarreal, 14, died on Tuesday evening after family members requested that she be taken off life support."
In "Another Drug War Casualty" the Cato Institute's Director of the Project on Criminal Justice Timothy Lynch observes that "the endless escalations of the 'drug war' have led to the militarization of police tactics and the dilution of constitutional safeguards... It's time to reassess the awful toll it is taking on our society. Dangerous as drugs may be to those who use them, that danger pales in comparison with the dangers of a police state. Yet little by little, that is what the War on Drugs is giving us."
"A federal appeals court upheld Alameda County's ban on possessing guns at the county fairgrounds Tuesday and plunged back into the debate on the constitutional right to bear arms," reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
"The debate virtually overshadowed the outcome of Tuesday's case, a challenge by gun show operators to the 1999 Alameda County ordinance prohibiting guns on county property. The ordinance effectively ended gun shows at the county fair in Pleasanton, where 16 people were injured in a Fourth of July shooting and melee in 1998. That incident was unrelated to gun shows but was so horrific it prompted the Board of Supervisors to outlaw gun possession at the fairgrounds."
In "The Facts about Gun Shows," Associate Policy Analyst David B. Kopel argues that existing gun laws apply to gun shows as much as they apply to stores that sell guns.
"Gun shows are huge gathering points for people who are interested in Second Amendment issues," Kopel writes. "Gun rights groups frequently set up booths at gun shows to distribute literature and recruit members. Gun shows are places where Americans properly exercise their First and Second Amendment rights, and neither gun show patrons nor vendors deserve the mean-spirited campaign of abuse to which they have been subjected."
Teen Shot by DEA Agent Dies
"A teenage girl, shot and killed by federal drug agents, was a victim of excessive force from law officers who were investigating her father, relatives and friends say," the Associated Press reports. "Ashley Villarreal, 14, died on Tuesday evening after family members requested that she be taken off life support."
In "Another Drug War Casualty" the Cato Institute's Director of the Project on Criminal Justice Timothy Lynch observes that "the endless escalations of the 'drug war' have led to the militarization of police tactics and the dilution of constitutional safeguards... It's time to reassess the awful toll it is taking on our society. Dangerous as drugs may be to those who use them, that danger pales in comparison with the dangers of a police state. Yet little by little, that is what the War on Drugs is giving us."