"Last year, the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights declared that international human rights law requires all nations to adopt strict gun control laws. These "minimum" provisions are much more restrictive than any of those on the books anywhere in the U.S. and would almost certainly violate the Second Amendment of our Constitution.
Besides concluding that all nations are obligated under international human rights law to control the small arms and light weapons to which its civilian population has access, the UN report remarkably denied the existence of any human right to self-defense, evidently overlooking the work of Hugo Grotius, the 17th century scholar credited as the founder of international law, who wrote, "It is to be observed that [the] Right of Self-Defence, arises directly and immediately from the Care of our own Preservation, which Nature recommends to every one. . . ," and that this right is so primary, that it cannot be denied on the basis that it is not "expressly set forth."
There is another disturbing aspect to this call for international global gun control. Throughout modern history, the forced disarmament of people by its government has often been accompanied or followed by that government's commission of often massive human rights abuses. In fact, no genocide in the 20th century occurred when the victim population still possessed small arms, legally or illegally, with which to defend themselves.
So now the UN wants to disarm civilians? Where was the UN when the massacres in Rwanda occurred? What did the UN do to protect the victims of ethnic massacres in Bosnia? Disarming civilians under the guise of international human rights law will only lead to more such genocides by ensuring that civilians can never defend themselves! It would be funny if it weren't so perverse.
Thankfully, the Framers of our Constitution recognized this potential peril to our liberty, and enshrined in our Second Amendment the more basic right of self-defense. The U.N. can say what it likes about other countries' citizens' possession of small arms being a violation of human rights law, but so long as the United States is a sovereign nation governed by its Constitution, its words will have no effect here. And I am glad for it."
by Fanny Carrier Sat Oct 27, 3:53 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Burglars in the United States could once sue homeowners if they were shot, but now a growing number of states have made it legal to shoot to kill when somebody breaks into a house.
John Woodson, 46, found that out last week when he ambled into Dennis Baker's open garage in a Dallas suburb. A surveillance video showed the robber strolling inside, hands in his pockets.
From the shadows, Baker opened fire and killed Woodson.
"I just had to protect myself and that was it," Baker told reporters despite the fact Woodson had not tried to enter the bedroom near the garage where Baker had been sleeping.
The incident made national headlines since it was Baker's parrot that gave the alarm when it innocently squawked "good morning" at the intruder.
But Woodson's death seemed anecdotal compared to another Dallas resident who a few days earlier had killed his second robber in three weeks inside his home.
Police are investigating both cases, but it is unlikely charges will be filed. Texas recently passed a law branding anybody breaking into a home or car as a real threat of injury or death to its occupants.
In contrast with traditional self-defense laws, this measure does not require that a person who opens fire on a burglar be able to prove that he or she was physically threatened, that force was used only as a last resort and that the victim had first tried to hide.
Florida was the first state to adopt in 2005 a law that was dubbed "Stand your ground" or "Shoot first."
But now they have proliferated largely under pressure from the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), the main weapons lobby in the United States.
Today 19 out of 50 US states, mostly in the south and the central regions of the country, have this kind of laws, and similar legislation is pending in about a dozen others.
"This law will bring common-sense self-defense protections to law-abiding citizens," said Rachel Parsons, a spokesperson for the NRA.
"If someone is breaking into your home, it's obvious that they are not there to have dinner with you," she continued. "You do have a right to protect your belongings, your family and yourself.
"The law needs to be put on the side of the victim, and not on the side of the criminal, who is attacking the victim."
But for the Freedom States Alliance that fights against the proliferation of firearms in the United States, these new laws attach more value to threatened belongings than to the life of the thief and only serve to increase the number of people killed by firearms each year, which currently is estimated to stand at nearly 30,000.
"It's that whole Wild West mentality that is leading the country down a very dangerous path," said Sally Slovenski, executive director of the alliance.
"In any other country, something like the castle doctrine or stand-your-ground laws look like just absolute lunacy," she continued.
"And yet in this country, somehow it's been justified, and people just sort of have come to live with this, and they just don't see the outrage in this."
According to Federal Bureau of Investigation, there were 2.18 million burglaries to the United States in 2006, up 1.3 percent compared to the year before.
But the number is still well below the 3.24 million burglaries a year committed 20 years ago.
"After securing military contracts for anti-materiel sniping (Generators, vehicles, radars, etc), and facing the wrath of Sarah Brady and her Gun-Grabbing Sideshow (which wrath he snickered at, it having all the intimidation of an angry kitten and Ronnie, as we noted, being a Viking), he gave the ultimate middle finger gesture and redesigned the weapon into 25 mm, or TWICE as big. This is a man so cool even his sperm smoke unfiltered Camels."
Two students at Prairie Junior High School were arrested Friday after ammunition was found in a school bathroom, prompting a lengthy lockdown at the Alsip school.
The two 13-year-old boys brought rifle cartridges into the school from a storage shed they broke into a few blocks away, Police Chief Robert Troy said. Additional rounds were found outside the school. No firearms were brought into the school,
The boys were each charged late Friday with one count of burglary and one count of possession of ammunition, police said. They were released to their parents.
Police received a call about the ammunition about 9:45 a.m.
Friday was supposed to be a half day of school today at Prairie Junior High but the last students didn’t leave until after 2 p.m.
The school was locked down and students were told to stay in their classrooms, then all were taken to the gymnasium. Students’ lockers were searched, and they were not allowed to take home their bookbags, seventh-grader Dan Lesko said.
Sandy Lesko, Dan’s mom, said parents received two alerts from the school.
Later, parents who showed up were allowed, one by one, to take their children home.
Students who ride the bus were released next, then students who normally walk home were dismissed about 2:15 p.m.
Police from at least six surrounding towns were at the school.
"Just when everybody thought college campuses were a peace loving bunch a new idea has surfaced that could bring back the "ugly" american past known as "gunslinger era".This is "Guns On Campus" week and of course Texas Tech students(fringe group,hopefully)will be wearing empty holsters protesting rules and maybe even state law that prohibits concealed weapons on any school campus.This "empty holster" protest will last from Oct 22-Oct 26 and is thought to have 110 college campuses effected. (Shouldn't that be 'affected'? -Yuri)"
"I,being a former Tech student and staff,have never been comfortable with the "Andy Taylor/Barney Fife" types calling themselves campus cops with that "heater" on their hip.I remember a plump elderly fella at Tech med school named "Todd" who proudly carried his "heater" on hip and when I ask him about safety being on he replied,"They don't give me NO BULLETS".I guess he was gonna use his "heater" to pistol whip criminals since he had no ammo.Some years ago Tech med school had a Levelland boxer(Robin Blake) on campus cop roster and we all know about boxers and guns(deadly mix).My best advice to those characters carrying empty holsters is put a LARGE water pistol in that holster(NO ALCOHOL-PROHIBITED ON CAMPUS) and "Wash away those criminals".For the more adventuresome protesters I could recommend the local US military induction center since personel are in demand for this thing called "IRAQ WAR"."
"Some Texas colleges such as UT and Texas A&M will probably be involved since guns were allowed on campus in the 60's when Charles Whitman shot up UT campus and fellow students were seen "firing back" at Whitman with their "hunting" rifles.More than likely some "gung-ho" military cadets and instructors at A&M will wear service revolver holsters empty as a show of support for "Guns On Campus" movement.TEXAS IS "GUN COUNTRY"!!
The learning impaired community(college students,faculty&staff) want to carry concealed handguns on campus??
SAVE US FROM THE GUN-NUTS ON COLLEGE CAMPUS!!!"
A second-grader's drawing of a stick figure shooting a gun earned him a one-day school suspension.
Kyle Walker, 7, was suspended last week for violating Dennis Township Primary School's zero-tolerance policy on guns, the boy's mother, Shirley McDevitt, told The Press of Atlantic City.
Kyle gave the picture to another child on the school bus, and that child's parents complained about it to school officials, McDevitt said. Her son told her the drawing was of a water gun, she said.
A photocopy of the picture provided by McDevitt showed two stick figures with one pointing a crude-looking gun at the other, the newspaper said. What appeared to be the word "me" was written above the shooter, with another name scribbled above the other figure.
School officials declined to comment Friday. A message left at the superintendent's office Saturday was not returned.
Kyle drew other pictures, including a skateboarder, King Tut, a ghost, a tree and a Cyclops, the newspaper reported.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- A burglar in Montgomery chose the wrong family to mess with, literally. Adrian and Tiffany McKinnon returned home on Tuesday after a week away to find that thieves had emptied almost everything the family of five owned, Tiffany McKinnon said through tears.
"Tears just rolled down my face as I walked in and saw everything gone and piles of trash all over my home," she said.
Adrian McKinnon sent his wife to see her sister while he inspected the piles left behind. As he walked back into the sunroom, a man walked through the back door straight into him, Tiffany McKinnon told the Montgomery Advertiser in a story Thursday.
"My husband Adrian caught the thief red-handed in our home," she said. "And what is even crazier, the man even had my husband's hat sitting right on his head."
Adrian McKinnon held the suspect, 33-year-old Tajuan Bullock, at gunpoint and told him to sit on the floor until he decided what to do.
"We made this man clean up all the mess he made, piles of stuff, he had thrown out of my drawers and cabinets onto the floor," Tiffany McKinnon said.
When police arrived, Bullock complained about being forced to clean the home at gunpoint.
"This man had the nerve to raise sand about us making him clean up the mess he made in my house," she said. "The police officer laughed at him when he complained and said anybody else would have shot him dead."
Capt. Huey Thornton, a police spokesman, said police arrested Bullock at 2 p.m. Tuesday on burglary and theft charges. He was being held in the Montgomery County Detention Facility on a $30,000 bond.
"The victims were lucky in this case to be able to catch the suspect in the act and hold him until police arrived," Thornton said.
"Well, I'm a person that believes in a weapon should never…I personally believe a weapon should never have over a – far as civilian – 5 round capacity. If a hunter, if you're a hunter if you're gonna go hunting with a weapon, you shouldn't need over but one round…"and
"Well we've talked, we've discussed it you know, but uh this thing about assault weapons has been a kind of a touchy deal, but personally, I think these assault weapons basically need to be in the hands of the military and they need to be in the hands of the police, but uh, as far as assault weapons to a civilian, if you… if you… it's alright if you got that magazine capacity down to five…"To be fair, he did post a "spin control" retraction later on, but it is basically unsatisfying in a, "cover your ass" sort of way.
"Allowing people to run around with machine guns in order to maintain the integrity of the Bill of Rights is a sickening display of blind faith."...and...
"The Second Amendment was drafted in the infancy of our nation and is not just inapplicable to our contemporary nation but detrimental to our contemporary nation."45superman does an excellent fisking of another bottom feeding anti, masquerading as a journalist. Go read!
More Guns at Schools While Senate Stalls on Improving Background ChecksSo, what do you propose we do Sarah? How about making murder more illegal, or making the "Gun Free Zone" signs just a little larger to make sure the bad guys see them. And how exactly is this, so called, NICS Improvement Bill supposed to have stopped a criminal who wasn't even old enough to legally own those guns in the first place?
Your support can help us break the logjam on a bill to strengthen the Brady law's NICS
Dear Mr. Orlov,
I'm once again heartbroken that a deranged teenager was so easily able to get his hands on two guns and ammunition, shooting four people before killing himself at a Cleveland school on Wednesday.
Together, we must stop senseless tragedies like this. And we can.
The first thing we must do is convince the U.S. Senate to strengthen the Brady background check system by passing the National Instant Check System (NICS) Improvement Act.In other words, you want to deprive even more people of their rights, rightly or wrongly, just so you can feel good about yourself? Here's some news for you lady, my rights are not there to improve your sense of self satisfaction. More feel good legislation that only affects the law abiding and which will be ignored by the criminals is not going to help matters any. How about you go after the real source of the problems, repeat criminal offenders?
Will you help me by making a special contribution to the Brady Campaign right now? Your contribution will be used to bring pressure to bear on the Senate, garner media attention, and rally public support for this critical bill.Um, let me think about this...HELL NO!
Next week will be the six-month anniversary of the Virginia Tech tragedy where 32 were shot and killed. Since then, almost 6,000 sisters, brothers, fathers, and mothers have been murdered by guns.While it may or may not have helped in the VT case, allowing CCW permit holders to lawfully keep their arms for defense of themselves and others around them is a huge step forward. Guns don't kill people Sarah, criminals misusing guns do.
Immediately following the Virginia Tech shootings, the Brady Campaign pressed elected officials by asking "What are YOU going to do about gun violence?"What have you done about criminals who misuse guns to commit violence? You say you don't want to ban guns, and then you turn around and support gun bans. Liar. All you will accomplish is rendering the law abiding defenseless and empowering the criminal element.
In July, the U.S. House of Representatives took a courageous first step to keep guns out of the wrong hands by passing HR 2640, the NICS Improvement Act.We all know whose hands are the wrong hands Sarah, the hands of every law abiding, freedom loving, gun owner in the nation! Don't lie to me, I know better.
Many states fail to supply thousands of records of prohibited gun buyers to the national Brady background check system. The result is that felons, domestic violence abusers, and those who are dangerously mentally ill can walk into gun stores or gun shows and buy weapons without being stopped.You mean the gun control expansion bill that expands the already illegal law? The one that has every gun control loving representative drooling in their eagerness to support it? The same bill the NRA is shortsightedly supporting? The same bill that will come around to bite them in the ass later on? Thanks, but no thanks Sarah. You can keep your phony act.
The NICS Improvement Act would address this critical problem.
But the U.S. Senate has failed to take action and get this bill passed. The consequences of their inaction are a steady drumbeat of gun deaths, more student shooting rampages, more carnage, and untold suffering by the victims and their families.
The Senate should act to pass this important bill!
The Brady Campaign is working full force to convince the U.S. Senate to pass this bill immediately. Tragically, 32 Americans are murdered by guns every day and we cannot afford to wait another day for them to take action.Again, guns don't murder anyone, criminals do. How many of these 32 a day you claim, are criminals, already disallowed from having guns, killing other criminals? How many are criminals shot by law abiding citizens who were defending themselves? How many are victims disarmed by gun bans and other unconstitutional restrictions which you support?
We need your support today to put pressure on the U.S. Senate to pass this legislation and help stop the senseless violence.If you really wanted to stop the senseless violence you'd go after the real source of the problem, criminals, and not law abiding citizens. Once again, I'd sooner crawl across broken glass, gouge out my eyes with broken sporks and eviscerate myself with a rusty pair of scissors, while rolling around in rock salt, than donate money to you and your organization. Is that clear enough for you?"
Please make a contribution of $25 or more right now to help fund our efforts to pass this important bill in the Senate.
Sincerely,
Sarah Brady, Chair
Ruger 10/22
Yugo SKS
With more than 300 murders so far this year, Philadelphia has been struggling to contain gun violence.Sunday, October 07, 2007
Oct. 7: Law enforcement officer stand outside site of deadly shooting in Crandon, Wis.
A Wisconsin town was to have its state of lockdown lifted after a police chief said law enforcement is no longer looking for a suspect — believed to be with the local sheriff's office — who went on a killing spree early Sunday morning, gunning down at least five youths in a Crandon home.
Crandon Police Chief John Dennee, speaking outside the police department about two blocks from the shooting site, would not say whether the suspect was dead. But he said: "We're not looking for anybody anymore."
A dispatcher for the State Patrol who declined to give his full name as a matter of department practice said several of the patrol's officers went to Forest County to help investigators because the suspect is an employee of the Forest County Sheriff's Department and a part-time officer for the Crandon Police Department.
"It's a pretty tragic situation here," said Forest County Supervisor Tom Vollmar, who lives just outside Crandon, a city of about 2,000 people. "There are five or six people dead."
The State Patrol and the Crandon Fire Department detoured a steady stream of traffic from two blocks of U.S. Highway 8 in the downtown area. Some residents stood in nearby front yards.
Earlier in the day, Crandon Mayor Gary Bradley told FOX News that the town was under a "gag order" regarding the overnight event but no one in the town can leave church, home or anywhere else they happened to be Sunday morning.
A witness told WMTJ Radio that gunfire erupted in the home at about 3 a.m. Sunday morning. Ten area youths from the ages of 16 to 21 were reportedly in the home when the shots were fired. Fatalities are being reported, but the number of casualties is still unconfirmed.
A family member of one of the victims told WITI-TV, a FOX affiliate, that one of the victims involved in the shooting is a student at the Milwaukee Area Technical College.
The town of Crandon is located about 100 miles north of Green Bay. The area is known for logging, and fishing, hunting and snowmobiling.
"In public speaking it is tedious from documents; but I must beg to indulge the practice to a limited extent. I shall read from a letter written by Mr. Jefferson in 1820, and now to be found in the seventh volume of his correspondence, at page 177. It seems he had been presented by a gentleman of the name of Jarvis with a book, or essay, or periodical, called The Republican, and he was writing in acknowledgement of the present, and noting some of its contents. After expressing the hope that the work will produce a favorable effect upon the minds of the young, he proceeds to say:—
'That it will have this tendency may be expected, and for that reason I feel an urgency to note what I deem an error in it, the more requiring notice as your opinion is strengthened by that of many others. You seem, in page 84 and 148, to consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions,—a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. Our judges are as honest as other men, and not more so. They have, with others, the same passions for party, for power, and the privilege of their corps. Their maxim is, ‘boni judicis est ampliare jurisdictionem;’ (It is the duty of a judge, when requisite, to amplify the limits of his jurisdiction.) and their power is the more dangerous as they are in office for life, and not responsible, as the other functionaries are, to the elective control. The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal, knowing that, to whatever hands confided, with the corruptions of time and party, its members would become despots. It has more wisely made all the departments co-equal and cosovereign with themselves.'
Thus we see the power claimed for the Supreme Court by Judge Douglas, Mr. Jefferson holds, would reduce us to the despotism of an oligarchy."
A security guard used an assault rifle to kill two robbery suspects at a Red Bird strip mall late Wednesday, police said.
Police say the guard grabbed his weapon when one of the men pointed a handgun at him.
Sergio Vann, the 19-year-old gun-wielding assailant, died at the scene late Wednesday. Detavias Davis, 17, who was driving the getaway car, died at a hospital.
A third suspect, Brandon Stewart, 18, was being held in the Dallas County Jail on a charge of aggravated robbery.
Police are looking into whether the trio may have been involved in other robberies.
Dedrick Howard, the 20-year-old security guard, declined to comment. His employer did not return a call seeking comment.
The incident happened about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday in the parking lot of a shopping center in the 2200 block of West Red Bird Lane.
Mr. Howard, a licensed security guard, told police that he was on duty, sitting in his vehicle and working on a laptop when he noticed a white Mitsubishi circling the parking lot.
The car parked two spaces away from him, police said. Two men, identified as Mr. Vann and Mr. Stewart, got out and ran toward Mr. Howard's car, police said.
"One kid asked him, 'Do you have change for a $20?' " said police Sgt. Ray Beaudreault, a homicide supervisor. "Of course, he didn't. The other kid pulled a gun and told him to get out of the car."
As Mr. Howard got out of the car, he grabbed an assault rifle from the passenger seat and fired several rounds. Mr. Vann was hit, and Mr. Stewart ran.
The getaway car's driver, identified as Mr. Davis, restarted the car, police said. Thinking the driver might have a weapon, Mr. Howard then shot at the car, striking Mr. Davis, police said.
As Mr. Davis fled, fatally wounded, he lost control of his car and it struck another vehicle, authorities said.
Police think Mr. Vann, who had the gun, tried to fire it at Mr. Howard because police found a round in the gun's chamber and two live rounds on the ground, Sgt. Beaudreault said.
"I think that's probably what saved the security guard's life, because he had time to fire his weapon before Sergio did," Sgt. Beaudreault said. "He didn't know how to operate the weapon."
Sgt. Beaudreault said he believes that, typically, armed security guards carry handguns and not assault rifles. "It's not your standard weapon," he said.
Mr. Howard fired 11 rounds from the assault rifle, police said.
Police say Mr. Stewart was arrested when he returned about 15 minutes later to retrieve his cellphone and jacket from the car. Mr. Stewart told detectives that he and his accomplices planned to rob Mr. Howard of his laptop, a police report said.
"Kids at that age need to be in school, getting a good education," said Sgt. Beaudreault. "Why they're out there robbing a security guard is beyond me. I don't really know what to make of it."
After the shooting, Mr. Vann's mother called and spoke with a detective. She told police that her son worked at Wal-Mart and that Wednesday was his day off.
"She said he was a good kid," Sgt. Beaudreault said.
Sgt. Beaudreault said the deaths of the two suspected robbers will be referred to a grand jury. But it is unlikely that a grand jury will indict Mr. Howard because state law allows a person to use deadly force to prevent being robbed.
State law also does not require that someone retreat before using deadly force to defend themselves in their homes, cars or places of business.
By Jonathan Turley
This term, the Supreme Court may finally take up the Voldemort Amendment, the part of the Bill of Rights that shall not be named by liberals. For more than 200 years, progressives and polite people have avoided acknowledging that following the rights of free speech, free exercise of religion and free assembly, there is "the right of the people to keep and bear arms." Of course, the very idea of finding a new individual right after more than two centuries is like discovering an eighth continent in constitutional law, but it is hardly the cause of celebration among civil liberties groups.
Like many academics, I was happy to blissfully ignore the Second Amendment. It did not fit neatly into my socially liberal agenda. Yet, two related cases could now force liberals into a crisis of conscience. The Supreme Court is expected to accept review of District of Columbia v. Heller and Parker v. District of Columbia, involving constitutional challenges to the gun-control laws in Washington.
The D.C. law effectively bars the ownership of handguns for most citizens and places restrictions on other firearms. The District's decision to file these appeals after losing in the D.C. appellate court was driven more by political than legal priorities. By taking the appeal, D.C. politicians have put gun-control laws across the country at risk with a court more likely to uphold the rulings than to reverse them. It has also put the rest of us in the uncomfortable position of giving the right to gun ownership the same fair reading as more favored rights of free press or free speech.
The Framers' intent
Principle is a terrible thing, because it demands not what is convenient but what is right. It is hard to read the Second Amendment and not honestly conclude that the Framers intended gun ownership to be an individual right. It is true that the amendment begins with a reference to militias: "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." Accordingly, it is argued, this amendment protects the right of the militia to bear arms, not the individual.
Yet, if true, the Second Amendment would be effectively declared a defunct provision. The National Guard is not a true militia in the sense of the Second Amendment and, since the District and others believe governments can ban guns entirely, the Second Amendment would be read out of existence.
Another individual right
More important, the mere reference to a purpose of the Second Amendment does not alter the fact that an individual right is created. The right of the people to keep and bear arms is stated in the same way as the right to free speech or free press. The statement of a purpose was intended to reaffirm the power of the states and the people against the central government. At the time, many feared the federal government and its national army. Gun ownership was viewed as a deterrent against abuse by the government, which would be less likely to mess with a well-armed populace.
Considering the Framers and their own traditions of hunting and self-defense, it is clear that they would have viewed such ownership as an individual right — consistent with the plain meaning of the amendment.
None of this is easy for someone raised to believe that the Second Amendment was the dividing line between the enlightenment and the dark ages of American culture. Yet, it is time to honestly reconsider this amendment and admit that ... here's the really hard part ... the NRA may have been right. This does not mean that Charlton Heston is the new Rosa Parks or that no restrictions can be placed on gun ownership. But it does appear that gun ownership was made a protected right by the Framers and, while we might not celebrate it, it is time that we recognize it.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors.
(1) Firearms traces are designed to assist law enforcement authorities in conducting investigations by trafficking the sale and possession of specific firearms. Law enforcement agencies may requires firearms traces for any reason, and those reasons are not necessarily reported to the Federal Government. Not all firearms used in crime are traced and not all firearms traced are used in crime.
(2) Firearms selected for tracing are not chosen for determining which types, makes or models of firearms are used for illicit purposes. The firearms selected do not constitute a random sample and should not be considered representative of the larger universe of all firearms used by criminals, or any subset of that universe. Firearms are normally trace to the first retail seller, and sources reported for firearms traced do not necessarily represent the sources or methods by which firearms in general are acquired for use in crime.
She is Shirley Katz, 43, a teacher for 21 years, the last seven in Medford. She teaches English at South Medford High School.
She went public in interviews beginning Tuesday with Lars Larson on his talk radio show.
Katz says she fears her former husband. They were divorced last year, and she has had two restraining orders against him, the last of which expired in September. She said she missed a deadline to renew it.
Gerry Katz, 54, a photographer, told the Medford Mail Tribune that he's no threat and said his former wife has made unfounded accusations as part of her effort to limit his visitation with their 5-year-old daughter.
Shirley Katz has custody, and Gerry Katz has weekly visitation rights under the divorce decree, which required him to complete an anger management class, the Mail Tribune reported.
On Sept. 26, a judge denied her bid to limit visitation rights and his request for full custody, the paper said.
Gerry Katz also has a concealed weapon permit, but his gun was seized after he waved the weapon at another driver and was charged with disorderly conduct, the paper said.
Shirley Katz filed her suit under the pseudonym Jane Doe. She said she went public after the school district filed a motion to dismiss the case based in part on her anonymity.
"I am definitely under the microscope," she said. "I had sought to avoid that (by remaining anonymous). My son goes to school here. My daughter is in the school system."
Katz filed the lawsuit Sept. 18. Oral arguments are scheduled for Oct. 11.
The Oregon Firearms Foundation is financing her lawsuit.
Oregonians who have concealed weapon permits may carry a gun onto most public properties, including schools, without violating state law.
School districts, however, commonly bar teachers from carrying guns to classrooms.
