good idea?or bad idea?

[Tigerstripe]

this as a copy paste of the 2nd amendment alert newsletter.

if you click the link there is a little more info but if you scroll down you can watch a congressional questioning about congress being in on declaring war and a bill to impeach obammy if they arent.

Long Rifle March on DC July 4th.
http://www.wnd.com/2013/05/radio-host-l ... at_orig=us

On their July 4th March on DC, these are people offering to be peacefully arrested so they can challenge the gun laws in Washington DC.


This is really interesting to me. Maybe we should do it at the SC Capital Complex on July 4th also.


I've contacted state and local law officers, and as far as I can find out there are no laws prohibiting the carry of a long rifle anywhere, or anytime, in the State of SC. If you cross a state line, that's a different story.


So if we were arrested on the SC Capital Complex, for strapping a loaded long rifle on our backs, it would be a known, premeditated illegal arrest.


Senator Greg Hembree (the swing vote), a 25 year prosecuting attorney told me Civil Disobedience (peacefully breaking the law and peacefully turning yourself in) would be the way to correct the gun laws in SC. He told me, "Lee Bright should strap a gun on his belt and turn himself in. Then it could be challenged in court."



Congressman Trey Gowdy spoke at a constitutional committee in Spartanburg, and as an 18 year prosecuting attorney, recommended three different times that it was time for Civil Disobedience.


If anyone thinks this is a good idea, then make it happen. If there is anything this group is good at, it's making gun law protests happen.


Bill Bledsoe
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i dont want to be arrested for nothing and maybe not be able to buy NFA guns. or any guns. what am i missing?

 

[rotarymike]

The basic legal principle is sound - you need something called 'standing' to challenge any law. IE, it has to directly effect you. When challenging a criminal law, this means typically you must be charged with breaking said law. So, break law, get arrested, challenge law in court as your defense.

HOWEVER. This doesn't always go as planned, as I'm sure you can imagine. If the arrestee so much as scratched his butt in public 50 years ago he's pretty much guaranteed to go down. You need a defendant that has angel wings and walks on water to save drowning baby swans and has a birthmark of Jesus and the NRA logo. (no offense meant to those who are touchy about either.)

This is why it took forever to get Heller v. DC to happen - they needed a plaintiff that was spotlessly clean.

In 2A law, your defendant is rarely that kind of guy. When you consider that snarky internet posts/pics can/will be used against you, the fact that certain liberals think that even wanting to own a gun is a mental disease, etc. etc. it is just plain hard to find someone that will pass muster instead of learning about jail and losing their 2A rights forever over what would be seen as a 'stunt'.

I'm not saying it doesn't happen - it does. Laws are challenged all the time, and successfully part of the time. But not every day, and not with every defendant. Last, even when it does happen - the media chooses what they report. What do you think is more newsworthy - someone winning a civil disobedience case that is not a protected minority, or the latest gang shooting spree on crack alley by thugs with stolen HiPoints?

Take all this with a grain of salt. I'm sick as hell today and the cough syrup and other meds might be making me misremember something.

 

[Tigerstripe]

yeah, im thinking i dont want to be the one to test this theory.

being skeptical i didnt wear my handgun to the 2nd amend rally when they said it was ok.

the saying in my CWP class was "if you are going somewhere you think you might NEED your gun, dont go there".

 

[rotarymike]

"if you are going somewhere you think you might NEED your gun, dont go there".

DING DING DING. That right there is a winner. I wish more instructors, CWP and otherwise, emphasized situational awareness and risk management.

 

[armaborealis]

Regarding the OP...

On one hand, I find it absurd that there is essentially no 2A right in our nation's capital. I can't carry a reproduction muzzleloader brown bess in Washington DC, much less a sidearm or an AR-15! Heck, in DC they consider standard capacity magazines to be "machine guns." The state of the 2A in DC is absolutely awful.

I think that if any gun control gets through the Senate, when it hits the House one of the many "poison pills" they attach should absolutely be a measure that pre-empts all local DC gun control laws with strong personal fines for any official that attempts to unlawfully enforce such restrictions, along with nationwide reciprocity & shall-issue carry if not Constitutional Carry. A less extreme "firearms rights" amendment that would simply streamline the District's onerous permitting process and provide for "shall issue" killed a DC Statehood bill in 2010. 2A rights are like poison to people that live and work in DC I guess.

This march is a way to force the issue, similar to the Civil Rights marchers in the South in the Jim Crow and Civil Rights era.

On the other hand, the organizer (Kokesh) is a known attention whore. I question the timing; we just won a decent battle for the 2A (or at least staved off an attack). If we had lost the last round, especially if some real onerous stuff like Schumer's transfer bill or the AWB had gotten through, I think this would be more appropriate. I also question the types of individuals Kokesh will get to show up. To be effective, you need pastors, cops, military, white collar folks, blue collar union folks, kids, women, non-whites, and other minorities all linking arms and walking across the bridge together. It needs to be a march of a broad cross section of society to shame the DC police if and when they start cracking down on the peaceable assembly. I also think you could get the point across with an empty magazine protest -- especially with all the press the David Gregory incident got.

As it stands I think there will mostly be fringe kook types with little mainstream participation that has a likelihood of creating a buffoonerous media circus that hurts The Cause. I tend to agree with the desired end state (firearms rights in the District of Columbia) but not with the methods.