Vedder Holsters Daily Digest: Baltimore’s Latest Law, Guns and $$$ and Flouting Preemption in PA

Because more laws are always the answer . . . Reeling from a Murder Spike, Baltimore Grasps at a Gun Bill

Across the country—from Louisiana to Iowa to Massachusetts—so-called “mandatory minimum” sentencing is increasingly out of favor. These are laws that require certain penalties for people convicted of specific drug or firearm offenses. A powerful bipartisan consensus has emerged around the idea that mandatory minimums are ineffective (and expensive) deterrents, as well as racially discriminatory and unlikely to reduce recidivism.

Yet this month in Baltimore, the city council voted 8-7 in favor of establishing a new mandatory minimum penalty for individuals caught carrying an illegal gun. The proposed legislation originally would have imposed a one-year jail sentence on first-time offenders caught carrying a gun within 100 yards of places like churches, schools, and parks. After public protest, the bill was weakened to add just a $1,000 fine to existing state law, which already imposes a one-year minimum sentence on second-time offenders.

Funny, that’s exactly what I say when my wife opens the monthly statement before I get to it . . . Who Stole My Credit Card And Bought $8,000 Worth Of Guns? If The Bank Knows, It’s Not Telling

A couple of months ago I opened my credit card account statement and learned that I’d bought $8,000 worth of guns.

There was no mistaking it. The charges, ranging from a few hundred dollars to nearly a grand, were for purchases at places named Glock Store, Hardened Arms and Palmetto State Armory. The stores were in several different states.

I called the number on my credit card.

Two distinctly American icons . . . ‘Guns and $$$’ by Andy Warhol at Van De Weghe, New York

Van de Weghe presents “Guns and Dollar Sign,” an exhibition of Andy Warhol’s paintings created in 1981 in New York. The works displayed are perceived to be representative of the era and emblematic of a distinctly American decade reviewed through the ups and downs of the projected icons: guns and dollars. The era witnessed some historic incidents – Reagan, a movie-star president promising economic revitalization survived an assassination attempt. A pop culture projected through the “Yuppies” embraced conspicuous consumer culture thriving amid a rise in gun violence and murder rate.

Unless the safe was brand new, it’s hard to see how this happened . . . Gun safe rescue: 3 metro Detroit kids accidentally lock themselves inside

It’s not every day that Sterling Heights firefighters get this kind of call.

“It sounds like it was a group of kids having fun and one got the other ones to go into it and the one outside shut it and locked it,” said Miller.

Three young children accidentally trapped themselves in a gun safe.

“The owner of it had all the paperwork within the safe itself,” said Miller.

With temperatures starting to soar inside the safe, firefighters had to act fast.

This never ceases to amaze mainstream media types . . . Female Firepower: Women Take a New Role in Gun Sales

But pro-gun groups are winning battles in other parts of the country, including North Dakota, which as of Aug. 1 became the 12th state to allow permitless carry. In Missouri, a new permitless carry law that took effect Jan. 1 has spurred female gun demand, according to one store owner. “We are getting a big influx of ladies,” says Dave Hart, owner of Kirkwood Outfitters, a store that sells guns and gear on the outskirts of St. Louis.

He suggests female demand is coming from people concerned about crime in St. Louis. In response, the store has stocked up on what he referred to as “pretty-looking” guns in colors such as pink and purple that are easy to find in a purse. “Those are the ones that the females are buying mostly,” he says.

Two years ago the store might lure one female shopper a day accompanied by a husband or boyfriend, he says. But now an average of five women come into the store daily, he estimates, including many single women who visit by themselves or with girlfriends, moms or sisters.

BREAKING: Moms Demand Action endorses anti-gun candidate in New Jersey . . . Murphy vows to vigorously defend gun (control) laws

Murphy’s campaign is pledging to sign each of the gun measures that Gov. Christie vetoed during his tenure.

How they’ve been euthanizing dogs in New |Zealand . . . Invercargill council to ditch bolt guns

Invercargill City Council will stop using the controversial captive bolt gun to euthanise dogs while it consults the community about its practices around rehoming and euthanising ill-tempered canines.

The council has come under fire for using a captive bolt gun to euthanise dogs after footage emerged two weeks ago of a dog being shot in the head with the gun by a council animal control officer.

The council voted today to only use the lethal injection to put dogs down while it sets up a community engagement panel. A lethal injection requires the animals being taken to the vet rather than it being carried out on site.

State preemption law be damned . . . Pittsburgh councilman moves to ban guns in city parks despite opposition

Pittsburgh Councilman Dan Gilman said he was astonished last month to see people carrying assault rifles in Mellon Park.

Gilman, whose council district includes the East End park, said the group showed up during a series of protests that broke out in Pittsburgh following a violent Aug. 12 clash between white supremacists and counter-demonstrators in Charlottesville, N.C.

The Squirrel Hill Democrat said he was unaware that the city had no ordinance prohibiting firearms in city parks. Gilman hopes to change that Tuesday by introducing legislation that would ban firearms in the parks.

Fighting them on the land, on the sea and in the air . . . Gun rights group wins partial victory in fight over guns in rec centers 

A West Virginia gun rights advocacy group has won a partial victory in a four-year-old court battle over whether guns can be carried into city-owned recreation centers.

In 2013, the West Virginia Citizens Defense League sued the city of Charleston over a 1993 city ordinance banning guns on city property, including city parks and recreation centers.

However, the state Legislature passed a law in 2014 saying that a law-abiding citizen with a valid concealed weapons permit would be allowed to carry his or her concealed firearms into a city recreation center, so long as the weapon was “securely (stored) out of view.”

Charleston city officials then went back to court, arguing that the city had no way to provide a “secure” place to store a concealed weapon, and saying concealed weapons should remain banned from city recreation centers because they were used for school functions.

Good gun food is important, especially as the gun gets bigger . . . Faulty ammunition reason behind M777 gun explosion: Probe

NEW DELHI: A preliminary investigation has found that faulty ammunition was the reason behind the explosion on the Army’s new long-range ultra-light (ULH) howitzer M-777 during a field trial in Pokhran earlier this month, official sources said.

The barrel of the US-manufactured gun had exploded when it was firing Indian ammunition on September 2.

A preliminary inquiry has found that the explosion took place due to faulty ammunition supplied by the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and further probe into the matter was on, the sources said.