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Legislative updates
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
New York Legislative Update
Senate Bills 2279, 2302 and 3746, all of which seek to make improvements to the state's pistol licensing system, are on the calendar for third reading in the Senate. Please contact your Senators today and urge them to give their full support to these critical reforms! For contact information, call the Grassroots Division at (800) 392-8683, or use the "Write Your Legislators" box below.
http://www.nraila.org/LegislativeUpdate.asp?FormMode=Detail&ID=388
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Senate Bills 2279, 2302 and 3746, all of which seek to make improvements to the state's pistol licensing system, are on the calendar for third reading in the Senate. Please contact your Senators today and urge them to give their full support to these critical reforms! For contact information, call the Grassroots Division at (800) 392-8683, or use the "Write Your Legislators" box below.
http://www.nraila.org/LegislativeUpdate.asp?FormMode=Detail&ID=388
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Comments
Attention all gun owners and Second Amendment supporters in the Pittsburgh area! The Pittsburgh City Council recently approved preliminary zoning changes that would prohibit gun sales in certain parts of the city. The Council will conduct a final vote on this dangerous proposal Tuesday, June 18. If you live in the Pittsburgh area, contact your city council member immediately and ask him to vote "NO" on these zoning changes! You may reach your council member by calling the Pittsburgh City Clerk's Office at 412-255-2138. Read more about the ordinance here.
http://www.nraila.org/LegislativeUpdate.asp?FormMode=Detail&ID=415
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Massachusetts Legislative Update
Last month, NRA members made a difference, as their phone calls to the State House helped ensure reform bill H.B. 1087 passed out of the Public Safety Committee. While the bill fails to make all of the changes needed to make Massachusetts state gun laws just, it is an important first step. But there is still work to be done! H.B. 1087 is now known as H.B. 5102 , and has been in the House Ways and Means Committee for several weeks, and shows no signs of moving. Now is the time for concerned gun owners to once again push for action! Since the legislative session ends next month, supporters of the Second Amendment must act quickly! Please call your representative and ask him to urge Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Representative John Rogers (D- Norfolk 12) , to release H.B. 5102 and send this important legislation to the House floor. If you are unsure of how to reach your Representative, please call the House Clerk's office at (617) 722-2356 for assistance. Please also call Representative Rogers, who can be contacted at (617) 722-2380.
http://www.nraila.org/LegislativeUpdate.asp?FormMode=Detail&ID=422
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Associated Press
Published Jun 30, 2002
MANKATO, MINN. -- The country music that plays in the background reveals the essence of Guns of the Pioneers Old West Gun Shop owner Rex Macbeth.
"Old West is all I do anymore," the white-haired, thickly mustached owner said somewhat resignedly.
Macbeth, who grew up seeing guns as one of the safest things on his family's farm, has retired to play cowboy in his gun shop.
Sign-up posters prompt customers to join the National Rifle Association, which has targeted Minnesota as a state that should adopt a law allowing greater access to concealed-weapon permits. Legislators declined again this year to change Minnesota's law, but they'll try again next year.
Macbeth, a hunter, gun show trader, gun shop owner, Old West poet and owner of R&R Tire Shop, is a North Mankato resident who has a concealed-weapon permit, he said, to protect him while he travels to trade at gun shows.
"I think people should have the right to have one," he said. "For some reason, [politicians] have their hearts set on disarming honest people. We'd just be at the mercy of the government."
The NRA and other gun-rights groups are lobbying across the United States to loosen concealed-permit laws.
Macbeth, an avid NRA supporter, supports a change that would allow greater access to concealed-weapon permits. It would allow almost anyone to obtain a concealed-weapon permit and carry a gun in public. It would bar only convicted felons and mentally ill applicants who have been committed to a mental institution from obtaining permits.
Under Minnesota's current law, local law enforcement officials determine who receives permits. Applicants must demonstrate an occupational need or a specific threat to their safety.
The proposed change was defeated by just one vote in the state Senate.
Rebecca Thoman, executive director of Citizens for a Safer Minnesota, which supports the status quo, said the current law is already a compromise."It's in the middle, but it also has a good safeguard in place. We need to have some discretion."
If the legislation passes next year, the start-up cost to implement the changes is an estimated $1.6 million, some of which would be recovered by permit fees. Each sheriff's department would spend about $40,000 on the new program, which would be covered by local property taxes.
Assistant Senate Majority Leader John Hottinger, DFL-St. Peter, voted against the proposal.
"I spoke out in opposition [because] there hasn't been a very strong need for it," Hottinger said. "The law would not have barred guns in schools and bars."
Hottinger said the Senate suggested expanding the appeal process, but it was an all-or-nothing proposal for gun lobbyists.
"It's a local control issue," he said.
Blue Earth County Sheriff Brad Peterson and Mankato Department of Public Safety Director Jim Franklin agree. Franklin said there should be a demonstrated need for a permit, as the law now requires.
"We don't just give it to anyone," he said. "We wrangle over the need. It ranges from the obvious occupational need to the person who says, 'I just want one because I want one.' "
Peterson said he has denied permits to people who claim they need them because they carry hundreds of dollars in public and to a father who wanted to protect his daughter from an ex-husband.
"I hate making the decision," Peterson said. "Basically, it's my gut decision. I'm sitting on the outside looking in. I don't agree with the new language. They shouldn't leave [police] chiefs out of it -- they know the people in the community."
According to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, most of the applicants for permits live outside the seven-county metropolitan area.
A tally reported in February showed that out of 12,773 applicants, 9,903 were approved for permits across the 80 rural counties in Minnesota. In the metro area, 1,390 applications were approved out of 1,647. The results showed that about 78 percent of total applicants were approved.
Politicians and advocates for both sides have used the statistics to back their reasoning.
Gun lobbyists say the imbalance between local counties shows that applicants are approved based on local law enforcement agencies' beliefs.
Opponents of wider access said the numbers show that the current law works.
Thoman said local law enforcement has shown a willingness to look at the inconsistency and work with the numbers to maintain the current law.
Macbeth, however, argues that the law puts the burden and responsibility on law enforcement to decide -- based on gut instinct -- who should carry a gun.
"Some of us would rather die fighting than begging," he said. "Maybe you'd have a chance."
He said he has been handling guns since he was a child and is responsible and knowledgeable enough to carry a concealed weapon in public. Macbeth grew up on a farm south of Eagle Lake, where a gun was just another piece of equipment necessary to defend the farm from thieves and hunt for food.
"The gun to us was one of the safest things around," Macbeth said. "We grew up in an atmosphere that was conscious of danger. Children are taught that they have the right to be safe."
But Macbeth also said that not everyone should carry a gun. People should think thoroughly about whether they want a concealed handgun permit, he said.
"See if you want to carry that responsibility," he said. "If you have to use it, your life will never be the same again."
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c Copyright 2002 Star Tribune. All rights reserved. Related content
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/3025286.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
LAW Issue is whether new firm assumes old liability.
By Cathy Brown
The Associated Press
(Published: July 1, 2002)
Juneau -- Gov. Tony Knowles vetoed a bill Thursday that would have helped a gun manufacturer in a product liability case. Knowles said the bill was designed to inappropriately affect the outcome of the case.
The bill dealt with a lawsuit pending in Superior Court in Kenai.
In that case an 11-year-old boy was rendered paraplegic when a bullet from a malfunctioning .22-caliber rifle hit him in the head while he was target shooting in 1989 near Nikiski.
The family sued the manufacturer, Savage Industries of Springfield, Mass., and the retailer, Western Auto Supply.
Western Auto settled with the family for millions of dollars, said Jim Powell, an Anchorage attorney representing the company. Western Auto's insurer then tried to recover its damages from the manufacturer.
Savage Industries, however, had filed for bankruptcy in 1988. It sold its assets between the time the child was injured and the time the lawsuit was filed, Powell said.
At issue is whether the company that bought its assets, Savage Arms Inc., must reimburse Western Auto's insurer for the settlement it paid the family.
The Alaska Supreme Court ruled on some issues in the case in March 2001, delving into relatively new legal ground in Alaska, the area of successor companies' liability.
Rep. Norm Rokeberg, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which sponsored the bill, said the Supreme Court adopted a different doctrine of "successor liability" than is accepted in 46 other states.
In most states, a company that buys another is not liable for products manufactured by the previous company, with four exceptions: the purchaser agrees to assume liability; the transaction is a merger of companies; the sale amounts to a "fraudulent conveyance" done to avoid liability; or the new company is a "mere continuation" of the selling company, with the same officers, shareholders, products and so forth.
The Supreme Court ruled that the trial court should also consider a continuity of enterprise doctrine.
That would allow a new company to be held liable even if it did not have the same officers and shareholders, as long as certain other factors existed, including continuity of key personnel, assets and business operations.
Powell, the Western Auto attorney, did not want to discuss whether Savage Arms had the same officers and shareholders, saying the issue is complicated and could be debated at the upcoming trial.
He did say without the continuity of enterprise doctrine adopted by the court, his case would be much more difficult.
The Supreme Court sent the case back to Kenai Superior Court to settle other factual questions at a trial set for November.
After the Supreme Court decision, Savage Arms hired a powerful Juneau lobbyist, Joe Hayes, and worked this year to get the Legislature to overturn the court's continuity of enterprise decision.
The Legislature did so in House Bill 499, which adopted the four-part standard accepted by most other states. The bill was retroactive, so it would have covered the Western Auto-Savage Arms case.
Rokeberg, R-Anchorage, said the Supreme Court decision was itself retroactive since most companies would have believed the more common standard applied in the absence of other Alaska law in that area.
Rokeberg said the standard applied by the Supreme Court could hurt the economy by making companies reluctant to purchase other firms for fear of later finding themselves liable for the prior company's mistakes.
"Few, if any, jurisdictions follow that line of legal theory," Rokeberg said. "It sets a cloud up here, and it sets Alaska apart from almost any other jurisdiction in the country."
Knowles, however, said the Legislature's decision to reject the Supreme Court decision was based on no evidence that the stricter standard hurts business.
Knowles said the bill might deny Alaskans the opportunity to pursue claims against manufacturers that sell defective products that cause serious injury.
http://www.adn.com/alaska/story/1346172p-1465037c.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878