Supreme Court Rules Second Amendment Applies to States

Finally something positive to post. Today the US Supreme Court ruled 5/4 that the Second Amendment grants and INDIVIDUAL right to keep and bear arms and that it was a protection against State and local laws. Before we get all giddy though this does not overturn any existing laws, but it does lend support to any lower court cases challenging such laws. Also this may not necessarily negate any and all gun control laws, possibly leaving it open to allowing state and local governments to have "common sense" laws that "protect the public" without being over restrictive. Unfortunately many of these "common sense" gun control laws come with prohibitively high fees that effectively limit the ability of those with low income from obtaining or possessing a firearm. Unfortunately citizens of lower income are often more likely to live in areas of high crime and insufficient police protection. One more thing, before you decide to strap on that iron before you leave the house, this ruling does not necessarily mean that you can roam the streets armed, though in my thinking the right to bear arms should apply away from home as much as on your own property. What good is a handgun locked up in the safe at home do for you when you're getting mugged outside the local Quickee Mart? I haven't read the McDonald v. Chicago decision yet but I heard some bits of it on the radio and it sounds worth the effort to read. Check out the links below for more info. The fight is just beginning but it's nice to see freedom making some headway for a change.

McDonald v. Chicago decision text (PDF)
John Stossel - Some good graphs and statistics relating to gun control
BBC News - US Supreme Court extends gun rights
Los Angeles Times - Supreme Court strikes down ban on handguns
Washington Post - Gun rights case: Supreme Court rules on second amendment

FBI Abuse of Power

More proof that power corrupts.

Australian Police Knocking on Doors to Inspect Guns

If you ever want to see where America is heading just look at the rest of the world. I think the U.K. and Australia are very analogous of where the US will be in a few years if we don't protect our constitutional rights while we still have them. Many of the anti gun lobby would love to see legislation that would completely do away with all legal gun ownership, but since an all out assault always fails they have to chip away at your rights by going after the 'evil guns' like so called assault rifles or making it harder and more expensive to purchase ammunition legally like California just did with Assembly Bill 962. Many anti-gunners have voiced support for legislation controlling the storage of firearms. So far such legislation been defeated since this would require inspection of your storage solution in your home which would be a complete violation of the Fourth Amendment. Thank GOD we have a Constitution!

Australia almost completely banned guns insuring that only criminals and the wealthy can own a firearm. Criminals immediately seized the opportunity presented by their newly disarmed victims and violent crime went through the roof, especially in rural areas where the police were too far away to help anyone. Now to add insult to injury Australian police will be conducting searches of the private residences of the few legal gun owners left in their country.

California Assembly Bill 962 Signed Into Law by Governor Schwarzenegger

Grab your ankles Kalifornians! The Governator just put it to all law abiding gun owners and we're not going to get so much as a kiss. California Governor Schwarzenegger just signed Assembly Bill 962 into law, dealing another crippling blow to retailers, sportsmen, and anyone who wishes to legally protect themselves and their families from criminals who could care less if they obtain their ammunition legally. Thanks to Assembly Bill 962 you can now depend on spending quite a bit more for your ammunition. Like it wasn't already hard enough to get ammo, right? Assembly Bill 962 will require, among other things, that anyone selling ammunition take the fingerprints of their customers and keep them on record for the DOJ to review at any time.
As with most stupid gun control laws, this will do little if anything to lessen crime and will in fact deprive many Californians of the ability to protect themselves because they will not be able to afford ammunition as prices skyrocket in an economy where people can barely afford food. These citizens are often times the ones that have the greatest need to protect themselves, many living in high crime neighborhoods.
Here's a little newsflash from the land of unintended consequences: This law could actually lead to more deaths and injuries from accidental shootings/collateral damage as gun owners spend less time on the range familiarizing themselves with their firearm due to the outrageous price of ammunition. Even the best sharpshooter needs to spend time on the range to keep his or her skills honed and insure that their bullets reach only the intended target. Will someone please tell me why our government seems to have lost all common sense! I am beginning to think it is time to take my family and my taxes to a state where our rights matter!
So if you think there was a run on ammo when people started to realize that Obama might become president, get ready for California's ammunition to dry up completely. As Californians attempt to stock up before the law goes into effect the rest of the US can expect to be affected by another ammunition shortage. I guess if the gun control lobby can't make our guns illegal they will make it too expensive to use them. An unloaded gun is a very expensive paperweight.
There are two bright spots. The law does not go into effect until February 2011. There may be a legal grounds to strike down this law thanks to the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994, Section §41713. Preemption of authority over prices, routes, and service, which basically prohibits a state from enacting or enforcing a law that could effect prices, routes, and service of Common Carriers.

Links
California: Governor Takes Action on Two Anti-Gun Bills in Sacramento
California Assembly Bill 962 Hurts Small Businesses and Puts Law-Abiding Citizens at Risk
The Calguns Foundation

URGENT! California to Vote on Draconian Gun Law Further Restricting Ammunition

The California State Senate could vote as early as Wednesday 9/9/09 on Assembly Bill 962 that make ammunition even more expensive and harder to find. The bill would require retailers to fingerprint anyone purchasing ammunition, and keep the prints in their records for inspection by the Department of Justice! Not only does this extra record keeping add to the burden already placed on licensed gun dealers it also places your identity in the hands of private individuals or businesses. Assembly Bill 962 would also make mail order of ammunition to residents of California illegal. Time is short, contact your State Senator immediately. We may not get another opportunity to let them know that we oppose further restrictions to our right to bear arms. Click here for contact information of elected officials.

California to Limit Amount of Ammo You Can Privately Transfer

California Assembly Bill 962 will limit the amount of handgun ammunition that can be privately transferred to 50 rounds per month, even between family members. So if you want to give your wife a couple of boxes of ammo to go with her new 9mm your outa luck. The bill would require retailers to fingerprint anyone purchasing ammunition, and keep the prints in their records for inspection by the Department of Justice! Assembly Bill 962 would also make mail order of ammunition to residents of California illegal, so if you live in a small town like me you better gas up the truck and head to the city if your local dealer runs out, which seems to be an all to common occurance these days. Please contact you Assembly Memebr and tell them that you do not support this bill. Check out the NRA website for more.

Chips Embeded in Official IDs Are a Huge Privacy Risk

For anyone who doesn't know, which is most of us, an RFID Chip is a tiny chip that can be embedded in virtually anything, from products in the grocery store to your bus pass and even people. You've probably seen the credit card commercial with the marathon runner that zips into a convenience store and pays for his purchase by merely holding his credit card close to the machine instead of sliding it through the machine the old fashioned way. Really convenient right? Well it's convenient for identity thieves too.

When this technology first came and out it wasn't wide spread an identity thief needed to get pretty close to the target to scan the chip and retrieve the information on it. This is no longer the case. As the technology has grown more prolific so have the profits in creating the gadgets that scan for it. As an example consider the experiment published in an article on the Fox News Website "Chips in Official IDs Raise Privacy Fears" in which a gentleman named Chris Paget cruised around Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, California scanning for the private information held on RFID tags of the crowds using a Matrics antenna and a Motorola reader that he bought on eBay for less than $250. In an hour he had 'skimmed' the private data from the new electronic U.S. passport cards of several individuals from as far away as 20 feet. Mr. Paget filmed his experiment and posted it to the Internet.



While the implementation of embedded RFID tags in government documents is not widespread yet there is a push from government officials to see it done quickly. Officials are touting safety and convenience of having you information easily accessible. Either they haven't bothered to think of the consequences or they just don't care because being able to track everything that you do fits there agenda. Thanks to the Real ID Act: h.r.00418 which was passed in 2005 without ANY debate, states must start issuing State IDs with and embedded RFID tag by 2017. The Real ID Act was pushed through by adding an amendment to a completely UNRELATED must pass bill to authorize funds for the Iraq war. This seems to be a common tactic in getting a controversial bill to pass that otherwise would not. In my humble opinion this practice is completely immoral and should be illegal, but I suppose that is the subject of another rant.

The Pass ID Act: S.1261 has recently been introduced before lawmakers which supposedly would repeal part of the Real ID Act as well as amend title II of the Homeland Security Act of 2002. However this bill does not protect citizens from identity theft or government abuses, in fact it may be a sneak attack to reinforce the Real ID Act. The Real ID Act needs to be repealed completely or by 2017 we will all be walking around with a tracking beacon in our pockets broadcasting our entire lives to anyone with the inclination to snoop, which includes alot of people and organizations. Just think of how much of your online activity is tracked by the government, retail websites, search engines, and marketing firms. Imagine how valuable a record of your real world travels, purchases, interests, and even health problems would be. To top off all this paranoia, it appears that two of the major backers of The Pass ID Act and previously the Real ID Act, the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators and the International Civil Aviation Organization, are INTERNATIONAL as in not USA organizations!

...and now for another paranoia inducing video

There may be other 'related' videos in the player above that may seem extremely paranoid. These videos are included by YouTube and do not necessarily reflect the views of this writer.

Eventually we will have one card (or pendant, wristband, or implant) that will contain all of our information and may even be used as currency. There are already pilot programs that allow users of already existing Real ID Cards to use them in lieu of their credit card. Now at the risk of sounding like a paranoid, end of the world, religious nut...

• Revelation 13:16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
• Revelation 13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

We all need to act RIGHT NOW to repeal the Real ID Act and put the brakes on The Pass Act before it is too late. Contact the Committee on Homeland Security members and tell them respectfully how you feel about your rights being crushed. Warn your friends and family about the risks to their freedom. Share this blog and others on this topic on the all the social networking and bookmarking sites. We must get the word out or everyone will just go happily about their day never knowing what they are lost while they were watching Lost or Dancing With the Stars. There will be a time when it is too late to turn back.

Aside from the above legislation we will never be completely free of RFID tags. RFID tags have many legitimate uses from inventory control to identifying lost pets. As mentioned above 'smart' passports and Real IDs are already in use. You will still need to take action to protect yourself from the common thief regardless of how you feel about the Real ID Act. There are several relatively inexpensive products on the market now that will shield your card/passport from being scanned such as the RFID Blocking Leather Passport Case and the Travelon RFID Blocking Billfold. Shoplifters have been blocking RFID for some time by using shopping bags lined with aluminum foil (don't get any ideas!). Here is an interesting artilcle on How to kill your RFID chip, of course when it comes to your passport you may not want to permanently destroy the chip rendering your passport void. Remember; tampering with a US passport is a federal offense. Of course any of the tags you find in items that you purchase are yours to do with as you wish.

For a partial list of companies that place RFID tags in their products check out Liz Michaels' website.

Group Banned From Oldest 4th of July Parade for Distributing the Constitution of the United States

It is a sad sign of the times when you can be discriminated against for being a patriot. Apparently the Bristol Parade Committee decided that they needed to permanently ban the Rhode Island Tea Party from the USA's oldest 4th of July parade in Bristol R.I. for distributing pocket sized copies of the United States Constitution. This dispute the fact that many of the other floats were allowed to distribute fliers to the crowd. The Bristol Parade Committee states that distributing of any materials is against the parade rules for safety reasons. Yet this flies in the face of reason since the rules were not applied to anyone but the Rhode Island Tea Party. To top it off the Pocket Constitutions were being handed out by Tea Party sympathizers not by the group that was part of the parade.



Update! The chairman of the Bristol Parade Committee, David Burns, has issued a formal apology to the Rhode Island Tea Party stating that the committee “would like to clear up any misunderstanding" and that "they are not banned from future parades.” Hooray!

What Rights Have Americans Already Lost?

Every time the government passes a new law to 'protect the public' we lose more rights. Have you ever wondered what we have already lost? While the video below is by no means exhaustive it is interesting. Go ahead and take a few minutes to watch. And you don't have to be a right wing conspiracy nut to know that our freedom is at risk.

Welcome to the Freedom At Risk Blog

I started this blog because of all the disturbing laws and policies I have been seeing coming down the line recently, which in turn has caused many of my posts in my other blog, Privacy Tips, to veer far off topic. This is my effort to correct that problem and provide me with a venue in which to address the concerns I have over something I am VERY passionate about. I hope that this may become a place of intelligent conversation between people of all political parties, race, religion or differing viewpoints. Please feel free to comment on any post, you will not be blocked or censored for simply disagreeing with me, freedom of speech is obviously very dear to me. However I do reserve the right to block or edit any comments that are strictly abusive with no bearing or value to the discussion, but only after very careful consideration.

Take an active roll in protecting your God given rights as they were laid out in the Constitution of The United States of America by our founding fathers. Don't let well meaning but misguided and politicians and judges erode the foundation of liberty and freedom that is OUR Constitution! Remember, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Stay up to date on current news and events that will effect your freedoms today and those of your children and grandchildren. Take action when you see your rights in danger, contact those who have been elected and remind them that they work for YOU. We can take back our country peacefully but it will be a long hard fight, you must be willing to stand up for what you believe. Shout your demands from the mountain tops and don't stop shouting until the aristocrats who have entrenched themselves in our nation's capitol hear you. Then after they hear you KEEP SHOUTING until they remember that the government is in place to serve the PEOPLE, not the other way around.

For some time our liberties have been slowly stripped from us in the name of protecting us from some foreign boogie man or from ourselves. Unfortunately in the last decade the government has stepped up it's efforts to 'protect the people' resulting in even greater loss of liberty. I feel that we are at a point where we must ACT NOW or there will be no turning back. We must take back our country now while we are still allowed to make a peaceful stand, while we can still say anything we want to about our government and our politicians. If we continue down the road we are on, free speech WILL be gone, for our own good of course. The government wouldn't want anyone stirring up the populace, someone might get hurt. If you want to see what the USA could look like in the future just take a look at Great Britain, they have already lost so many freedoms, and I can see us traveling the same treacherous road. If you want to see where we finally end up just take a look at China or the former Soviet Union. How would you like to see tanks called in to crush your peaceful protest. It has been twenty years since the Tiananmen Square protest and the Chinese population is still not allowed to talk about it or read about it, even on the Internet.

If you don't think this could happen in the good ol' USA feel free to go stand in line, get your loaf of bread, and report back to the factory/field/coal mine in the morning. And remember, for your safety, Big Brother is watching.