Rifle group appeals handgun ban to high court

[dbackjon]

The National Rifle Association is asking the Supreme Court to strike down strict gun control laws in the Chicago area, setting the stage for another high court battle over Second Amendment protections for gun owners.

The NRA wants the court to rule that last year's gun rights decision invalidating a handgun ban in the District of Columbia applies as well to local and state laws.

The appeal to the Supreme Court comes almost immediately after a federal appeals court in Chicago said Tuesday that it is bound by earlier Supreme Court decisions which held the Second Amendment applies only to federal laws. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor was part of an appeals court panel in New York that reached a similar conclusion in January.

Judges on both courts — Republican nominees in Chicago and Democratic nominees in New York — said only the Supreme Court could decide whether to extend last year's ruling throughout the country. Many, but not all, of the constitutional protections in the Bill of Rights have been applied to cities and states.

The framers of the Constitution intended "to protect the right to keep and bear arms and other rights from state infringement," the NRA said in a filing made available at the court Thursday.

One federal appeals panel, from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, has ruled that the Second Amendment does apply broadly. That court, however, is considering whether to take another look at a dispute between Alameda County and gun show promoters.

In the case now pending at the Supreme Court, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld ordinances barring the ownership of handguns in most cases in Chicago and suburban Oak Park, Ill.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/ ... 57978.html

[Cap'n Cat]

The NRA terroristas can kiss my skinny, Speedo model ass, but I still support gun ownership.

[bobbythekidd]

The framers of the Constitution intended "to protect the right to keep and bear arms and other rights from state infringement," the NRA said in a filing made available at the court Thursday.

Does anyone agree with me that the NRA's stance on this is 100% backwards? I think the framers were guys from a collection of States and they were making sure that guns would be protected from Federal interference. Making sure that the states could protect themselves if the Feds got too over-reaching. Not the other way around as suggested above.

[hank scorpio]

High school student charged in fatal Helena shooting

A high school senior has been charged with murder and two counts of attempted murder for a shooting in southwestern Helena on Wednesday night.

Sebastian Walter Olivares-Coster, 17, made an initial appearance before District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock Thursday morning. Bail was set at $500,000 and Olivares-Coster was taken to the youth detention facility in Great Falls.

Olivares-Coster is charged with killing Cory Adam Andrewski, 17, and shooting two others.

"This is one of the most brutal homicide scenarios imaginable," Lewis and Clark County Attorney Leo Gallagher told Sherlock. "In cold-blooded fashion, he went out and killed one person and tried to kill two others."

Police Chief Troy McGee said two boys, ages 15 and 16, were taken to St. Peter's Hospital Wednesday night. One was later flown to another hospital due to the severity of his injuries, McGee said.

Court records indicate the shootings occurred after Olivares-Coster intervened in a texting argument between one of the hospitalized shooting victims and another boy over the affections of a 15-year-old girl. The other boy, identified by his initials in court records, reportedly told Olivares-Coster that one of the shooting victims had cheated on the girl and physically and verbally abused her in the past.

The hospitalized victims told detectives that on Wednesday evening, Olivares-Coster met with the three shooting victims and told them they were to follow him up a hill where they would meet the other boy for the fight.

However, when they arrived, the victims said Olivares-Coster stated, "I'm not going to fight fair," and then shot Andrewski in the head before shooting the other two.

According to an affidavit filed by Deputy County Attorney Melissa Broch, an area resident reported witnessing the shootings.

"The shot male fell to the ground face forward," the witness reported. "The fallen male lay perfectly still as if he was dead. Seconds later, two more men appeared, running down the hill past the first victim headed toward Rodney Street. The shooter fired one shot that brought one of the running men to his knees.

"The man faced the shooter and said, 'Please, just leave me alone,'" Broch wrote in the affidavit. "The shooter then shot the second man twice more at close range from a standing position."

One of the surviving shooting victims was shot in the head and twice in the chest, while the other was shot in the knee, both arms, both shoulders and the buttocks, court records said.

The shootings happened just after 9 p.m. Wednesday near the corner of Clancy and South Rodney streets. The suspect reportedly fled on a mountain bike and officers searched for him through the night.

Olivares-Coster, a senior at Helena High School, was apprehended in a vehicle on Rodney Street at 8:25 a.m. Thursday, McGee said.

A hearing is scheduled for June 18 to decide whether further proceedings should be held in District Court or Youth Court.

http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles ... ooting.txt

Should be interesting with our new gun laws. Now you have "no duty to summon help or flee" when threatened with bodily injury. Since there was supposed to be a fight, he could be justified in blasting away. It is a stretch, but you never know what sleezebag attorneys will use in a courtroom.