Actively Anti-Gun Judges

In today's TimesUnion there's the typical story about how Obama's election caused gun sales to skyrocket. The only interesting - and highly infuriating - part about it came when the author talked about how local judges were reacting to the influx of firearms license applications:

I'm extremely glad this guy isn't around anymore to be an obstructionist. What right does he have to tell someone what they can and can't do for a hobby, to say nothing of self-defense?

This view is so irrational. Think about it: let's say you've been shooting rifles for twenty years. You've got a stack of trophies, you're an NRA instructor, and you're a safety officer for your local range. Then you decide you want to try out handgunning. But this judge steps in and says, "I don't like guns, so despite the fact that you're probably the safest, most level-headed person who could ever apply for a license, I will deny it because I feel like it."

It's still tough to get a license in Albany County - I had to pay a bunch of money for a class and fingerprinting, and then miss work to appear in court to get mine - but at least it isn't actually impossible.

Does anyone else have stories from their areas about judges (or police chiefs, or sheriffs, or whomever is in charge of firearms licensing) who actively block people from obtaining firearms?

 

Fortunately it is not that way in New Mexico or any of the other states I have a CCW in. Our CCW's aren't decided by judges but rather the Department of Public Safety in other words the state police.

 

Judges tend to reflect the outlook of their community. If they had anything to do with issuing concealed carry permits in SD, they'd ask you what your favorite SD self defense load was.

I have a friend who is a supreme court justice who hunts deer from a wheelchair. The captain of my trap team is the presiding judge of this circuit, and another member of the team is a circuit judge who also enjoys shooting his kalashnikov and 454 casull revolver.

I am sorry for the frustration that the judge in your illustration caused, but please don't paint them all with the same brush.

 

A few years ago in Oregon, a female state representative proposed a bill that all residents in the state would have to own a gun and keep one in the home with ammo nearby. Her idea was that if everyone were armed and dangerous, we would live in safer world.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...dUPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=bY4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6580,6109772

They are out there, folks -- on all sides of the issue.

 

In Utah a few years ago, there was a trespass/hunting case before a judge in SLC. A disgruntled observer got up and walked out in the middle of this judge's anti-gun/anti/hunter tirade, and she got mad at him. She told him to stop and explain himself, and basically threatened to hold him in contempt for being pro-gun and not wanting to listen to her. She was GONE the next election. It's the only time I know of that a group has ever mobilized like that to remove a judge in Utah.

We had a spat a few years ago, when the administration of the University of Utah decided that state law did not apply to them, and they tried to administratively ban students and faculty from carrying on campus. One court ruled in their favor before atty gen Mark Shurtleff and our legislature got involved, and the state supreme court overturned it. The judge lower judge that upheld it was later nominated to the Supreme Court, and rep Chris Buttars went way out of his way to make sure the nomination was blocked, for the first time in Utah history. You can get away with a lot as a judge in Utah, but don't mess with our guns. (Mark Shurtleff is running to take Bob Bennett's senate seat in 2010, we need to get behind him on that.)

 

I am SO glad I live in Arizona...sorry to hear of the pain, sir. We have plenty of room down here, a bit warmer than you're used to, but it's a dry heat.