Gun rights activist attorney dies...

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Jim March

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Folks,

California gun rights and criminal defense attorney John Brophy has passed away suddenly at the age of 78. Despite his age, he was in extremely good health, still drove, walked as fast as anybody, didn't need a cane, etc.

Sigh. "Sudden natural causes", probably heart attack or stroke, at home.

John was a “veteran of the CCW warsâ€. During the period when Police Chief Eugene Byrd of Isleton (Sacramento County) was taking a pro-CCW stance, John was his legal advisor and when then-attorney general Dan Lungren halted processing of the Isleton permits, John filed a Writ of Mandamus suit on behalf of Byrd and some of his applicants, successfully forcing Lungren to obey California law and process the Isleton permits.

He was also one of the two attorneys on the lawsuit against AB1044 now in progress, in which the plaintiffs are myself, SAF and CCRKBA. Despite his loss, remaining attorney Dan Karalash is prepared to go forward and we're not delaying the preliminary injunction hearing scheduled for the 5th of Feb.

See also:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=57167

John Brophy's funeral services will be Thursday, January 29th, 11:00 a.m., at the St. Elisabeth Church, 1817 12th Street, Sacramento, CA.

I'll be there.

RIP, John. You were one of the good guys.
 
Huh. Yes, he was co-counsel in Silveira. I'd actually forgotten about that when we hired him. I remembered him mainly from the Byrd days.
 
That is a terrible loss. I am just glad that there are people coming along to take his place. Matt1911 has completed law school and has been working with the NRA in Virginia. His bar exam is coming up. We will have another one on our side.
 
I did not know the man, although I think I would have liked him. A sad day indeed for all involved in the RKBA wars. Rest in peace John Brophy, you will be missed.

Giant
 
Here's the SacBee obituary...

----------------

johnbrophy.jpg


http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/8179340p-9110645c.html

Obituary: Attorney John D. Brophy championed gun rights

By Edgar Sanchez -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PST Thursday, January 29, 2004

John D. Brophy, a private attorney who championed citizens' rights to own guns, died in his Sacramento home Jan. 19. He was 78.

The cause was related to heart disease, the Sacramento County Coroner's Office said.

Mr. Brophy practiced law in Sacramento for a quarter-century after working for the state Franchise Tax Board.

He became an advocate for the Second Amendment and a defender of the Bill of Rights in the 1990s when he specialized in criminal defense, said his wife, Patrice Brophy.

"He had a long history of fascination with firearms," so it wasn't surprising that he would fight for the right of people to keep and bear arms, she said.
What was surprising, others said, was the zeal Mr. Brophy brought to the gun-rights battle.

"When he believed in something for one of his clients, he went all out" Isleton City Clerk Linda Gonzales said.

In 1995, Mr. Brophy sided with then-Isleton Police Chief Eugene Byrd, who had issued hundreds of concealed-weapon permits to people from throughout Sacramento County.

But the state Department of Justice had stopped processing background checks for Isleton's gun permit applicants, saying the tiny city was illegally generating revenue by overcharging for the permits.

Working pro bono, Mr. Brophy challenged the DOJ's posture in a lawsuit he filed in Sacramento Superior Court in late 1995.

In early 1996, then-Attorney General Dan Lungren resumed processing background checks on Isleton's applications and Mr. Brophy dropped his suit.

Byrd agreed to a DOJ request that he substantially lower his fees. He was later fired by the Isleton City Council.

In 1998, the state enacted a law prohibiting police chiefs from granting gun permits to anyone living beyond their city limits.

"John could fight tirelessly for any cause he believed in," said his friend Robert Venkus.

Another friend, Terry Toller, called Mr. Brophy "a crusader for constitutional rights."

"John said that when he joined the Marine Corps he took an oath to protect and defend the constitution of the United States," Toller said. "And he told me that he had never been relieved of that duty."

John Dell Brophy was born in Panhandle, Texas, in 1925.

Too young to join the Marine Corps as a teen, he became a sailor in the Merchant Marine at 17.

When World War II ended, Mr. Brophy was on a merchant ship that sailed with lights off to avoid detection by submarines.

But when the vessel's captain heard the news, he turned on all the lights, making Mr. Brophy nervous because the ship was in an area where subs had operated, Venkus said, repeating what Mr. Brophy had told him.

According to Venkus, Mr. Brophy's feeling was, "Let's not be too hasty about celebrating! Maybe the guys downstairs haven't got the message yet."

Soon after, Mr. Brophy joined the Marine Corps and continued his travels.

He moved to Sacramento in the early 1960s as a certified public accountant.

For a few years he worked at the Franchise Tax Board by day and took law courses by night at Humphrey's College in Stockton.

He had a two-part law career, starting as a practitioner of general law from 1971-81.

Mr. Brophy then became a senior contract administrator for an American firm that had construction contracts in Saudi Arabia.

The second phase of his law career began in 1989 and ended when he died. During this time, most of his clients had been arrested on gun violations, drug charges or credit card theft.

As a personal project, Mr. Brophy wrote a dissertation, "Public Safety: Fact or Fiction?"

In it, he argued that police have no duty to protect the private citizen.

"Based on his research, he concluded that it's up to the private citizen to protect himself from harm," Venkus said.

Mr. Brophy was a longtime member of the National Rifle Association.

On the day he died, he was to be interviewed for a pro-gun rights film being produced by Toller, a freelance journalist.

The film's title: "Dial 9-1-1 and Wait."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About the Writer
---------------------------

The Bee's Edgar Sanchez can be reached at (916) 321-1132 or [email protected].

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John D. Brophy
Born: Sept. 24, 1925.
Died: Jan. 19, 2004.

Remembered for: Legal career and his advocacy for the right to keep and bear arms.

Survived by: Wife, Patrice Brophy of Sacramento.

Funeral services: A memorial service to celebrate his life will be held at 11 a.m. today at St. Elizabeth's Church, 1817 12th St., Sacramento.
 
Now, John had a wicked sense of humor. So it's only right to repeat one of the stories mentioned by folks outside the funeral :).

First, sometime shortly after WW2, John got in an argument with some dude in a bar in Lubbock, Texas. This idiot wanted to fight and while John may have been shortly out of the Marines, he wasn't very big and he wasn't very stupid either.

So this moron puts up his dukes and tells John he "wants a duel".

John: "A duel, eh? OK, cool, I get to pick the weapons and the time and place, right?"

Puzzled drunk: "Uh...well ya, I guess..."

John: "OK, ya know that old quarry just outside town?"

PD: "Ya, sure!"

John: "Well be there at midnight...and bring a KABAR!" <spoken with an evil grin>

PD: "Uhhh...you mean the knife, right? Ya...OK...sure!"

At this point, the guy who John was telling this story to years later asks whether or not the guy ever showed up.

John: "How should I know? I was home in bed!"

:D

---------------------------------------

I'll tell one more story.

Early in the funeral service, the guy doing "MC duty" gives a short recap of John's life...merchant marine early in WW2 before he was old enough to join the "real military", US Marines shortly thereafter (and in time for combat), police officer, accountant, lawyer. And caps it off by saying "John surely accomplished all these quite well".

As one of his closer friends spoke later about his police career (in Lubbock), we learn it was actually quite short. (Note: the story below would be not long after WW2, almost certainly pre-1950.)

One day while still a rookie, he walks through the squad room and finds several other cops pistol-whipping a black guy tied to a chair.

John recognizes the black guy as a local cook and not somebody known for trouble. Said black gent mutters "I did four years in the Army corps of engineers for this?".

Pretty much tore John's heart out. He got a supervisor to put a stop to the proceedings.

He was forced out of the department very shortly thereafter...and every time he parked, he'd come out to find his car blanketed in parking tickets.

That's when he decided Lubbock was a good place to leave.

Over 50 years later, he was still hunting crooked cops in the California CCW issue, God bless him.
 
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