A Lot of Work to Do

Thursday, 18 February 2010 23:35 Jeff Knox The Knox Update - The Knox Update

The Knox Update

From the Firearms Coalition

A Lot of Work to Do

By Jeff Knox

(Manassas, VA, January 14, 2010) I recently wrote about the need for preaching to the choir – too many of our own friends, family members, and fellow shooters are woefully uninformed about the fight for liberty. A chance conversation in a hardware store this week really brought home just how much work there is to do beyond the choir room doors. At the hardware store I got into a conversation with a fellow shopper. As conversations with me tend to do, it wasn’t long before we were talking about guns and gun laws. The fellow’s wife had joined the conversation by this time and while his reaction was troubling, her reaction was down right scary.

This was a nice couple in their 50’s, fairly conservative, into classic cars, and in the market for a .38 for home protection. They were not loony-tune lefties by any means. They also mentioned a good friend who owns many guns and reloads. The conversation rolled along smoothly until the topic of “Uzi’s and machineguns” came up. As you can imagine, it wasn’t me talking about “Uzi’s and machineguns.”

Iowa - Continued

Sunday, 17 January 2010 18:35 Jeff Knox News - Reports

The Iowa Controversy

By Jeff Knox

(Manassas, VA, January 15) The Iowa Legislature started their brief 2010 election year session last Monday and fortunately, as of Friday, January 15th, NRA had still not filed their concealed carry reform bill. The NRA proposal first surfaced last November as a revolting collection of sloppily worded amendments to Iowa’s atrocious weapons laws. Thanks to the efforts of rights groups, including The Firearms Coalition and GunVoter.org, NRA made several revisions, improving their first proposal, yet still falling far short of a good bill. NRA’s current offering could be a barely tolerable fallback, assuming a good bill wasn’t possible, but the current political situation argues for stronger demands. While the latest version has a number of very good provisions, it also contains things that simply shouldn’t be there. It boils down to something simple: how much poo should Iowa GunVoters eat?

Losing Lautenberg

Tuesday, 12 January 2010 20:15 Jeff Knox The Knox Update - The Knox Update

The Knox Update

From the Firearms Coalition

An End to the Lautenberg Amendment?

By Jeff Knox

(Manassas, VA, January 7, 2009) The Federal Court of Appeals for the 7^th Circuit recently declared that the infamous Lautenberg Amendment, barring possession of firearms from anyone ever convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, is a violation of Second Amendment rights.

That’s good news, but don’t fire up the band just yet. The actual conclusion of the 7^th Circuit panel was not that Lautenberg violates the Second Amendment, but that prosecutors had failed to effectively argue that it does not. Rather than declaring the law unconstitutional and throwing the case out, the court reversed the guilty verdict and sent the case back to the lower court to give federal prosecutors another chance to build a case. Included in the decision are rather detailed instructions explaining what arguments the prosecution needs to make if they wish to prevail. Like a child’s game, the court said, “You forgot to say ‘Mother may I’ so try it again.” If prosecutors carefully apply the lessons laid out in the 7^th Circuit’s order, the case should result in another conviction that would then be upheld on appeal, but even that isn’t assured because the court didn’t only provide instructions to the prosecution, they also dropped a hint or two for the defense.