The tyranny of Washington DC

In 1989, John Shuler of rural Dupuyer, Montana, heard grizzly bears outside his house; fearing they would kill his sheep, he grabbed his rifle and ran into the night. The good news is he survived his encounter with four grizzly bears, as did his sheep. The bad news is his lawyers spent eight years and a quarter of a million dollars to get him acquitted of charges that he violated the Endangered Species Act by killing one of those bears. Early on in that legal battle, the federal government ruled that, although Shuler justifiably feared “death or serious bodily injury”—the test for a self-defense claim—he had no right to arm himself and enter into what the government called “the zone of imminent danger.”

That conclusion conflicted directly with an 1895 opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court, in which, quoting authority, the Court ruled, “Where an attack is made with murderous intent . . . the person attacked is under no duty to flee. He may stand his ground, and, if need be, kill his adversary.” Moreover, the government’s view of Shuler’s right to arm himself and confront danger conflicted with the ethos of the American West, a vast area from the midst of the Great Plains to the Cascades, from Canada to Mexico.

In the West, the virtues of individualism, independence, self-sufficiency, and self-governance yield, not only a strong distrust of government, but also a citizenry that forms the bedrock of America’s gun culture. Their State constitutions go further than does the U.S. Constitution as to their right to “keep and bear arms”; their laws include “make my day,” “castle doctrine,” and “stand your ground” provisions; and their supreme courts interpret broadly the right of self-defense outside the home. Little wonder then, that the story that captivated the Nation last December of a voluntary security guard who saved scores of churchgoers by shooting a heavily armed killer took place in the heart of the West—in Colorado Springs, Colorado. “[I]t was me, the gunman, and God,” she humbly proclaimed.

Washington, D.C. may only be 1,500 miles from Colorado, but it is light years away in the distance that separates the two cultures. In fact, Washington proves the truth of the ubiquitous western bumper sticker, “When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.” For while Washington has had, since 1975, perhaps the Nation’s most stringent gun control laws and boasts more law enforcement officers per capita than any other city, it annually competes for and often wins designation as the Nation’s “Murder Capital.” No wonder that, for decades, law-abiding Washingtonians complained that they may not keep weapons in their homes to provide effectively for their own self defense.

One of those was Dick Anthony Heller, a District of Columbia special police officer permitted to carry a handgun while on duty but barred from keeping a gun in his home for self-defense. When his application to do so was denied, he sued under the Second Amendment. After his lawsuit was dismissed by the district court, the U.S. Court of Appeals reversed in March 2007. Last November, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to decide whether the Constitution protects, as the Court of Appeals ruled, an individual right to keep and bear firearms unrelated to militia operations.

Scores of briefs will be filed and the March arguments watched closely. Nowhere will the Court’s likely June ruling be more anxiously anticipated or closely scrutinized than in the West. For westerners believe what the Founding Fathers believed, that they have the right to keep and bear arms to defend themselves and loved ones from danger and their society from tyranny. While westerners may abide the Court discovering new rights in the shadows of the Constitution (its famous “penumbras”), westerners will not accept the Court destroying a right that has been so clearly in the bright light of the Bill of Rights since 1791.

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Quite a sob story: "Sobbing as she spoke, a La Mesa fitness trainer told a jury yesterday that she shot her ex-boyfriend twice in the head and doused him with pepper spray while he played video games because she thought he was about to attack her. “I was trying to protect myself,” Geraldine Meyers, 46, testified in El Cajon Superior Court. “He was so fast.” Meyers said she fired a burst of pepper spray at Demetrious James Warren, 30, on Nov. 20, 2006, after shooting him “because I thought he was still coming after me.” Deputy Public Defender Thomas Carnessale contends that Meyers never meant to kill Warren but cracked after years of abuse that started when the couple lived in Chicago and escalated when they moved to La Mesa in December 2003. Testifying before Judge Laura W. Halgren, Meyers said stress from her abusive relationship “became really overwhelming” to the point that “I wasn't eating, I dropped a lot of weight. Deputy District Attorney Kurt Mechals contends that the shooting was murder because Meyers testified that she bought the gun months earlier and had it tucked in her waistband when she confronted Warren in the bedroom of the apartment the two shared on Saranac Street until October 2006. [She could have moved away from him but instead hung around him! Nasty women too often get away with murder this way. Where there is no good reason why she could not have simply moved away from the guy these sob stories should always be disregarded]


Illinois man says he shot in self-defense: "A man charged with murder for allegedly shooting an 18-year-old he caught stealing his car stereo says the killing was in self-defense. Steven Gamble, 24, was arrested on murder charges the day after he shot Michael Benain as the teen sat prying the stereo out of Gamble's SUV in the parking lot of Mansards apartment complex on Jan. 9. Gamble's attorney, David Vandercoy, said Gamble shouted at Benain to get out of the car, and that Benain told him he had a gun and appeared to be reaching for the weapon when Gamble fired. "It was not defense of property, it was self-defense," Vandercoy said. The lone witness, the driver of Benain's getaway car, said he saw Gamble running toward the truck soon after the vehicle's alarm system sounded, then heard shots, Benain screaming, and more shots. A probable cause affidavit states Gamble told officers at the scene that he saw someone breaking into his truck and "grabbed my gun, went outside and shot the guy." The witness said there was no time for Gamble to have warned Benain before firing. Benain's body was found in the front seat of Gamble's truck, the stereo face dangling from the dashboard, a screwdriver lying between his legs. Gamble's .40-caliber pistol, which he had placed on the ground next to the truck, was the only weapon police found. Gamble has been in jail since his arrest and has a bond hearing scheduled later this month." [Another tall story there I think. Though a jury might be sympathetic.]