Concealed Carry

Iowa has been, for years, I don't know how long, a state where the sheriffs issued concealed carry permits based on the discretion of the sheriff, or what is commonly called a may-issue system.
The sheriff may issue a permit based on his own discretion, and is not required to issue a permit.

Those of us who are purists have real trouble finding the concept of may-issue permits in the text of this Constitutional statement,

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

In my humble opinion is takes a real serious case of mental absurdity to find in that text the ability of some two-bit County Mountie to deny a God given right. Of course I'm not a sleazy lawyer, nor do I desire to play one on TV.

In the last legislative session here in Iowa, a friend of mine introduced for the second year in a row, a bill was based on a Vermont style carry law. Here is an excerpt of a position paper from Gun Owners of America of which I am a member on the subject.

Several states are considering adopting "Vermont-style" concealed carry legislation. Most of the Carry Concealed Weapon (CCW) laws in the country require citizens to first get permits. But in a couple of states, like Vermont, citizens can carry a firearm without getting permission . . . without paying a fee . . . or without going through any kind of government- imposed waiting period. There are many reasons for a state to adopt a genuine right to carry law:

1. Carrying a firearm is a "right" not a "privilege"

The Second Amendment guarantees that "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." This means that law-abiding citizens should not need to beg the government for permission to carry a firearm. That would turn the "right" to bear arms into a mere "privilege." Likewise, one should not have to be photographed, fingerprinted, or registered before they can exercise their Second Amendment rights. Criminals certainly do not jump through these "hoops." The Second Amendment is no different than any of the other protections enumerated in the Bill of Rights. That is, honest citizens should not need a government issued permission slip; rather, they should be able to carry as a matter of right.

What we got instead was a compromise deal between the NRA and the sodomy loving Demoncrat president of the Iowa Senate, which allowed a bill that made shall-issue the law in Iowa. Now this is an improvement over what we had, but we were one vote short of getting the Vermont style law last year. And in an attempt to keep that from happening, the NRA sold out the Iowa gun owners to claim victory in getting a shall-issue bill.

As a side note, it should not surprise anyone that the NRA may endorse Harry Reid in his Senate Race in New Mexico. Anything it takes for NRA to keep itself in a position of power seems to be the current mode of operation at NRA.

Anyway, Iowa is now going to be a shall-issue state. The sheriff must issue a permit, unless he can provide a written reason explaining his reason for refusing to issue a permit. This legislation passed near the end of April, and goes into effect later this year.

I still intend to fight for a Vermont style law. I'm assuming I will be fighting against the NRA and it big money interests, but I will continue to fight.

I was motivated to write about this issue after a verdict was announced in a recent court case here involving an acquaintance of mine. Rather than try to explain the details I'm just going to link to several articles on the subject, ......

Concealed Carry Denial

Too Little (Almost) Too Late

First Amendment Violation

And I going to reprint this one, the highlights are added by me,

Wall Street Journal

They say you’re never too old to learn, but one sheriff who ran afoul of the First Amendment won’t have a choice.

A federal judge upbraided Osceola County, Iowa, Sheriff Douglas L. Weber this week for denying a concealed weapon permit to an Iowa man because he engaged in frequent political advocacy. So egregious were the sheriff’s actions, the judge found, that the judge ordered Weber back to school for a court approved course on the Constitution. See here for story in the Sioux City Journal. (h/t: The Volokh Conspiracy)

“In denying Paul a concealed weapons permit, Sheriff Weber single-handedly hijacked the First Amendment and nullified its freedoms and protections,” wrote Federal Judge Mark Bennett in the opinion. “Ironically, Sheriff Weber, sworn to uphold the Constitution, in fact retaliated against a citizen of his county who used this important freedom of speech and association precisely in the manner envisioned by the founding members of our nation.”

Paul Dorr, who filed the suit, was denied the permit because people considered him strange as a result of his political activities, which included gathering information on the size of the county budget. By way of explanation for the denial, Weber wrote on Dorr’s application, “Concern from Public. Don’t trust him.”

Bennett writes in his ruling that it is often difficult to determine what drives an individual’s decisions in a case like this, but Weber’s testimony was so forthcoming that it didn’t leave a shred of doubt.

“The court finds a tsunami, a maelstrom, an avalanche, of direct, uncontroverted evidence in Sheriff Weber’s own testimony to conclude beyond all doubt that he unquestionably violated the First Amendment rights of at least Paul Dorr,” he wrote.

Dorr, unsurprisingly, was quite happy with the ruling. “Justice is served,” he told the Sioux City paper Wednesday. “I get my permit back and the sheriff is being sent back to school. The harm done by Sheriff Weber against the 6th and 9th commandments has been made right.”

The paper couldn’t reach the sheriff for comment on the case or the required class. Judge Bennett, for his part, seems quite comfortable giving a lecture himself:

“This is a great reminder that the First Amendment protects the sole individual who may be a gadfly, kook, weirdo, nut job, whacko, and spook, with the same force of protection as folks with more majoritarian and popular views.”





And I want to say that this kind of behavior by sheriffs is exactly why I want a Vermont style law as opposed to the Shall-Issue which we will soon have as Law.

If a sheriff will knowingly violate the rights of a citizen thy way Sheriff Weber violated Paul Dorr's rights, by what logical standard can we expect that same kind of sheriff to justly and fairly exercise his position when the shall-issue system is in place. I believe that some sheriffs will find every way possible to continue to deny gun owners the right to carry by using every illegal, immoral and underhanded tactic they can think of to refuse to issue carry permits. Just like Sheriff Weber did to Paul Dorr. They will have to work harder at it, they will have to issue more permits than they previously did, but my guess is that we will continue to hear accounts of lawful citizens denied they Constitutional rights by sheriffs who have no regard for the rights of the citizen,

Maybe I could ride the Tour De France?

I used to ride a bike a lot when I was a kid. Had one for getting around when I was in college. Went on several rides around Saylorville Lake in those days. Now that I'm old, I haven't been on a bike for several years. But, I wonder could I take up competitive cycling if I had one of these bikes?






I have a fair collection of Dewalt cordless power tools. And I've always wondered how they could be used to power a bike. I think we have an answer.


And no I couldn't ride competitively, unless they have a class for fat guys.

The Lastest News from the farmers place.

First, this picture is for Res Ispa.

A while ago you asked if there were common around here. And the answer is, sorta.

Since so much of the land is tilled for agricultural purposes, the areas where you can find them are limited. But, in those areas, we seem to have the proper rainfall and temperature for a healthy crop. A good friend of mine found several hundred of them earlier this year. I went to a county park and looked for a while one evening, found nothing.

This evening one of the twins was mowing along the grove and found these.







Now an update on the chickens. They are at the ugly stage. Lost all the downy yellow fuzz, and have very small feathers on the wings. Otherwise they are butt naked and butt ugly. On the second week we had them we had a cold snap in the weather, it got too cold in the barn, even though they were under heat lamps. So I put some old Ron Paul campaign signs around the room for the chickens and hung a LB White, LP gas heater in there for about a week and a half. We lost 12 from them piling up when it got too cold.









On Friday I took the day off. At 7:00am we left the kids at a friends place, then the lovely Mrs. farmer and I drove to western Iowa pulling a 24 ft trailer with a couple of sign/billboards to put in the back of a pickup for a parade. I'm helping a group of concerned citizens here in the area fight back against the lawless decision of the Iowa Supreme Court, which advocated granting sodomy permission certificates.

After we dropped off the sign in western Iowa, we went to my folks place, picked up a busted lawn tractor, which I need to work on as well as an old chicken nesting box which needs some major work. After we get these broilers raised, we may get a few laying chickens.

From my folks place we went to Des Moines for a meeting at 3:00, then parked the trailer in Ankeny, then visited some relatives for a few minutes.

We left Ankeny, went down East 14th to Euclid, went west two blocks and ate our supper at the Iowa Beef Steakhouse. Good food, decent price, good service. No complaints.

With our stomachs full we then ventured into downtown Des Moines to the Embassy Suites. Campaign for Liberty held a regional conference there. I joined Gun Owners of America for a year. Shook hands with several political types. Then heard speeches from Jan Mickelson of WHO Radio,( a Christian Libertarian), Thomas Woods author of Meltdown, and the honorable Ron Paul. A very enjoyable evening.

Picked up the trailer in Ankeny on the way back north. Got home about 11:30.

Chickens

One again the farmer's clan is in the chicken business.

We ordered 150 chicks from the local hatchery on Tuesday the 13th, they were hatched on Monday the 19th, and my wife picked them up from the USPS on Tuesday morning the 20th at 7:20 am. So, on or around the 25th of May we will once again be butchering chickens.

Since last years chickens got rather large, 10 lb average, we will be butchering before eight weeks of age. And because we got a new video camera, we will try to post pictures over the next few weeks showing the growth of the chickens.

He is a short video taken in the afternoon, on Tuesday.



Sorry Res, no ducks this time. Maybe later in the year.







We still have a few which remain unspoken for, so if you are interested say something in the comments, or email me.

In other news.

We are somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 done planting for the year. All of the hog pits have been pumped and hauled. We are far ahead of the seasonal schedule, and even farther ahead of last year.

I'm supposed to go to the Repugnant Party district convention this weekend. We'll see if the weather allows that? The governors race is heating up here in Iowa. We have a three way contest, with the former governor Bumstead, who held office for 16 years, raised taxes thirty times, introduced legalized gambling, and had as his Lt. Governor a Planned Parenthood activist, and current sodomy marriage supporter, seeking a 5th term. Then we have a very nice, polite, standard issue, conservative Republican, who has served 5 terms in the State Senate, without ever making a name for himself by doing anything of note, a typical party man who shows no real abilities as a leader, just a party man. And a relatively young former educator, businessman, consultant from northwest Iowa. He has pledged to fight the Iowa Supreme Courts ruling on sodomy marriage, by issuing an executive order staying the ruling until the legislature changes the law or amends the Iowa Constitution. He is promising to take the funding of the education away from the state and give it back to the parents of school children (60 percent of the state budget), he wants to challenge the Obama healthcare fiasco on 10th Amendment grounds and yesterday, he endorsed an Oklahoma/Arizona type immigration reform.

Shouldn't be a difficult choice. But, I'm quite certain that the Repugnant establishment has got the second guy in the race to take votes away from the third. We have not had a true "conservative" candidate for governor in Iowa in twelve years who did not face a three way race. The establishment is very anti christian conservative. They are more concerned about retaining power for a handful of elites in Des Moines, than in seeing actual change in the current system.

My guess is that Bumstead will win the party nomination, and the Demoncrats will retain the governorship because those of us on the far right side of the aisle will either not vote, or vote third party in the general election.

A little humor at the vegans expense!!

Saw this at LRC. Laughed out loud.

Hope you enjoy it.