Heating Up the Gun Battles

The Second Amendment Foundation continues its assault on bad gun legislation with a federal lawsuit against Westchester County, New York and its handgun permit licensing officers. The suit seeks a permanent injunction against enforcement of a New York state law that allows carry licenses to be denied because applicants cannot show “good cause”.

Westchester County residents Alan Kachalsky and Christina Kikolov are also parties to the lawsuit. Both had permits denied. Kachalsky’s denial was because he could not “demonstrate a need for self protection distinguishable from that of the general public.” Kikolov’s was denied because she could not demonstrate “any type of threat to her own safety anywhere.”

If it’s true that Kikolov had no demonstrable threat to her safety anywhere, I’d like to live in her neighborhood. Having lived in New York, however, I’m betting that’s a little artistic license on the part of the handgun permit licensing officer. Another Westchester pair, Susan Cacace and Jefferey Cohen, both of whom served at times as handgun permit licensing officers, were also named as defendants.

According to the suit, New York Penal Code says handgun carry permit applicants must “demonstrate good cause for the issuance of a permit. The plaintiffs claim that “good cause” requirement violates the Second Amendment.

“American citizens like Alan Kachalsky and Christina Nikolov should not have to demonstrate good cause in order to exercise a constitutionally-protected civil right,” says SAF Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb.

“Our civil rights, including the right to keep and bear arms, should not be subject to the whims of a local government or its employees, just because they don’t think someone needs’ a carry permit. Nobody advocates arming criminals or mental defectives, but honest citizens with clean records should not be denied out of hand.

“Thanks to our recent victory before the Supreme Court,” Gottlieb stated, “the Second Amendment now applies to state and local governments. Our lawsuit is a reminder to state and local bureaucrats that we have a Bill of Rights in this country, not a Bill of Needs’.”

As usual, Gottlieb’s coming into U.S. District Court (the Southern Division of New York White Plains Division) with his big legal gun blazing. Attorney Alan Gura, 2-0 in Second Amendment cases before the U.S. Supreme Court is representing the plaintiffs, along with Vincent Gelardi of Rye Brook, New York.

This case seems to be another of the series of domino-effect cases that will be required to force recognition of the United States Supreme Court’s having found – twice- that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms applies to all citizens on an equal basis.

On a separate note, the idea that the National Rifle Association may be preparing to give a formal endorsement to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) in his hard-fought campaign for reelection is being tossed about in the mainstream media as an all but done deal.

For the past two weeks, NRA members have been in a furor at the idea. NRA leaders, have kept quite on the subject, even as the Reid campaign runs a video showing Reid with NRA head honcho Wayne LaPierre chumming it up at the dedication of a multi-million dollar shooting facility outside Las Vegas earlier this year.

The fact they’re not squealing about the video being politicized is, in itself, a pretty strong admission that the organization is, once again, hedging its bets when it comes to politics.

Reid’s in a dogfight with Republican Sharon Angle, and campaign records released yesterday show her campaign contributions leading Reid’s from April through June. She says the fact 46,000 people donated an average of $49 shows “how much people want to retire Harry Reid.”

Meanwhile, Gun Owners of America has made it abundantly clear they don’t support Reid. Yesterday, GOA released a statement endorsing Angle. They also compiled a list of forty-two reasons why Harry Reid “MUST be defeated” (their capitalization).

We’ll keep you posted.

– Jim Shepherd
www.shootingwire.com