A Tale of Two Gunmen

On Friday, July 13, two armed robbers walked into an internet cafe in Florida. As one of the robbers pointed his gun at customers, another started smashing computers with a baseball bat.

Seventy-one-year old Samuel Williams, a patron of the cafe drew his pistol and shot both of the robbers. Nobody else was harmed.

One week later, on Friday, July 20, a lone gunman walked into the where he shot and killed 12 people, wounding 50 others.

Aurora has a municipal ordinance which makes it a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail for carrying a firearm at a place of business that prohibits the carrying of firearms, even if that person has a license to carry a firearm.

Cinemark has prohibited firearms at its theaters since at least 2009.

Obviously, the Aurora, Colo., municipal ordinance did not stop James Holmes from murdering 12 unarmed people anymore than the Colorado state laws which make murder a crime deterred him in the slightest from committing mass murder.

Nor did the Florida state laws which make armed robbery a crime deter Duwayne Henderson and Davis Dawkins from trying to rob the Internet cafe in Florida.

The Aurora, Colo., municipal ordinance did prevent a theater full of law abiding people from carrying a firearm to defend themselves.

When the Founding Fathers met in Philadelphia in 1787 and wrote our Federal Constitution it was only passed because of a compromise agreement amongst the delegates to pass the Bill of Rights, which included the Second Amendment.

Four years ago, the United States Supreme Court issued a landmark decision which held that the guarantees the right of the individual to carry a weapon, particularly a handgun, for the purpose of self-defense and for other lawful purposes. Two years later the United States Supreme Court issued another decision saying that the Second Amendment applies to ALL states and local governments – Including Aurora, Colo.

Unfortunately, there are still some states (like California, New York and New Jersey) and some local governments (like Aurora, Colo.,) which refuse to recognize these two Supreme Court decisions.

Don't expect any of the so called gun-rights groups to be of any help, they are run by a bunch of old women and besides, without gun control where would they be? They will continue to ask you for donations to defend your Second Amendment Right while at the same time argue in Federal Courts across the nation that states and local governments can ban the carrying of weapons if they want to.

Unfortunately, I've never met a reporter who even knows how to find a court docket let alone one who has read the attempts of the NRA & SAF to preserve California's 1967 gun ban which makes it a crime to carry a loaded firearm in public places for the purpose of self-defense.

A law which the NRA endorsed back in 1967 and is still fighting to keep in place today. By the “NRA” I mean the folks who run the organization and not their membership. If the members of the NRA knew how the NRA lawyers and lobbyists were working against the Second Amendment in courtrooms, legislatures and even city halls, I suspect things would quickly change.

Until things change however, we will still have defenseless law-abiding people at the mercy of criminals.

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed one."

Cesare Beccaria, Essay on Crimes and Punishments, 1764

Charles Nichols is the president of California Right To Carry, a California non-profit association. He has personally brought a Federal Civil Rights lawsuit seeking to overturn California's 1967 ban on carrying a loaded firearm for the purpose of self-defense and for other lawful purposes. The same ban which the NRA and SAF are arguing to uphold before the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Here is a link to his website → http://CaliforniaRightToCarry.org