Hi all, Jim March here...the guy beating his head against a wall over the California CCW fiasco 
.
I've got a major set of updates here, some of it of interest in states like MA, NY, NJ and the other "discretionary CCW states".
My site at: http://www.ninehundred.com/~equalccw has been totally revamped. It's easier to read, and there's a ton of new information (clearly labeled as such). I'll go over highlights of the new stuff below, some of it is truly, seriously important, possibly enough so to change the whole debate.
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First thing, both my PD Chief and my Sheriff have now formally denied me on paper. That's actually progress of a sort, as opposed to just being ignored. In both cases the stated reason has been "lack of good cause". This is GOOD news - because my particular Sheriff (Warren Rupf of Contra Costa) has been treating "good cause" as an utter joke and I can prove it. See also the "Contra Costa Cronies Roster" at: http://www.ninehundred.com/~equalccw/cccr.pdf (Adobe Acrobat reader required) (NOTE: version 1.2 of the CCCR file has some typos cleaned up and has been streamlined for "greater impact, faster".)
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Next, attorney Bob Beauchamp's formal opinion on the legality of certain common practices in CCW abuse is DONE. Anyone can download it and show it to their PD Chief, City Attorney, Sheriff or County Counsel. The key issues discussed are:
* "Blanket zero issuance" as performed by San Francisco (PD and Sheriff), Richmond, Oakland, Los Angeles city, tons of others.
* "Sheriffs that discriminate against towns" as seen in Sheriffs in LA, Sacramento, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo, Alameda, Santa Clara, too many others to count. At least 74% of all Sheriff pull this game.
* "Individual crony handoff between PD Chiefs and Sheriffs" - we can prove this happens in Marin and Contra Costa, and is suspected elsewhere.
Most of these issues are "California CCW law specific". The opinion is at: http://www.ninehundred.com/~equalccw/opinion1.html (this page has info on the opinion, some notes on it's possible uses and a well-labeled link to the actual document which is an Acrobat .PDF file.)
---------------
Next: in researching the opinion, Bob Beauchamp found an absolutely awesome piece of case law. It's from a Federal civil rights discrimination suit on CCW, from Orange County in 1983. The case went all the way to the 9th Fed Circuit, which decided that:
* There IS an equal protection principle in CCW, and that people who are denied have the right to compare their treatment, in court, to that of the PD Chief's or Sheriff's personal cronies/campaign contributors or other "elite types" who received permits - and that a Judge CANNOT prevent such a comparison!
* Individual staff members within a Sheriff's office who act on a Sheriff's behalf in supporting equal protection violations can be *individually* sued for their part in constitutional equal protection violations. And their liability can trigger liability on the part of their local government employers.
* A denied permit applicant can seek such equal protection remedy from his Sheriff even if he's a resident of a town within the county - and if he can show collusion between his PD Chief and the Sheriff, he can sue the whole rotten batch at once. This puts the final nail in the coffin of "Sheriffs discriminating against town residents".
In other words, I am *not* the first person to think of all this, and the last guys that tried it WON.
Better yet, as a high court Fed decision, the same principles apply in New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey and anywhere else there's "unequal issuance in CCW"!!! The Guillory case may not be binding outside of the 9th, but it's "citable" and the equal protection issues aren't "radical" in any sense. Guillory simply links standard equal protection straight to discretionary gun permits in a clear fashion.
The case is Guillory vs Gates, 731 F.2d 1379, and the full text of the decision is available here: http://www.ninehundred.com/~equalccw/guillory.html -this is an ABSOLUTE MUST-READ for anyone fighting any sort of "discretionary licensing" in CCW, or Class3, or whatever.
---------------
I've decided to re-publish the latest version of "CCW In California: A Disaster Analyzed". Something much better is in the works, but this has a ton of info that I just don't have time right now to re-publish in any other form. Full details on the LA County CCW fiasco under Sheriff Baca is here, including all four scathing LA Times articles. There's an enormous collection of pro-CCW news reports from a variety of shall-issue states, much more. It's actually very well organized. Find it here: http://www.ninehundred.com/~equalccw/inca.pdf (another Adobe Acrobat file)
---------------
Everything else is either improved or at least better-organized. I've got a new (somewhat modest) links section, mainly focused on CCW versus trying to be another "general RKBA megasite".
Check it out. Guillory alone could change *everything*, especially when combined with Bob's opinion in California. Feel free to re-post this to lists for New York, New Jersey or similar - I'm CCing the MA list on this broadcast, because Guillory is crucial all over.
Jim March
Equal Rights for CCW Home Page http://www.ninehundred.com/~equalccw
.I've got a major set of updates here, some of it of interest in states like MA, NY, NJ and the other "discretionary CCW states".
My site at: http://www.ninehundred.com/~equalccw has been totally revamped. It's easier to read, and there's a ton of new information (clearly labeled as such). I'll go over highlights of the new stuff below, some of it is truly, seriously important, possibly enough so to change the whole debate.
---------------
First thing, both my PD Chief and my Sheriff have now formally denied me on paper. That's actually progress of a sort, as opposed to just being ignored
. In both cases the stated reason has been "lack of good cause". This is GOOD news - because my particular Sheriff (Warren Rupf of Contra Costa) has been treating "good cause" as an utter joke and I can prove it. See also the "Contra Costa Cronies Roster" at: http://www.ninehundred.com/~equalccw/cccr.pdf (Adobe Acrobat reader required) (NOTE: version 1.2 of the CCCR file has some typos cleaned up and has been streamlined for "greater impact, faster".)---------------
Next, attorney Bob Beauchamp's formal opinion on the legality of certain common practices in CCW abuse is DONE. Anyone can download it and show it to their PD Chief, City Attorney, Sheriff or County Counsel. The key issues discussed are:
* "Blanket zero issuance" as performed by San Francisco (PD and Sheriff), Richmond, Oakland, Los Angeles city, tons of others.
* "Sheriffs that discriminate against towns" as seen in Sheriffs in LA, Sacramento, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo, Alameda, Santa Clara, too many others to count. At least 74% of all Sheriff pull this game.
* "Individual crony handoff between PD Chiefs and Sheriffs" - we can prove this happens in Marin and Contra Costa, and is suspected elsewhere.
Most of these issues are "California CCW law specific". The opinion is at: http://www.ninehundred.com/~equalccw/opinion1.html (this page has info on the opinion, some notes on it's possible uses and a well-labeled link to the actual document which is an Acrobat .PDF file.)
---------------
Next: in researching the opinion, Bob Beauchamp found an absolutely awesome piece of case law. It's from a Federal civil rights discrimination suit on CCW, from Orange County in 1983. The case went all the way to the 9th Fed Circuit, which decided that:
* There IS an equal protection principle in CCW, and that people who are denied have the right to compare their treatment, in court, to that of the PD Chief's or Sheriff's personal cronies/campaign contributors or other "elite types" who received permits - and that a Judge CANNOT prevent such a comparison!
* Individual staff members within a Sheriff's office who act on a Sheriff's behalf in supporting equal protection violations can be *individually* sued for their part in constitutional equal protection violations. And their liability can trigger liability on the part of their local government employers.
* A denied permit applicant can seek such equal protection remedy from his Sheriff even if he's a resident of a town within the county - and if he can show collusion between his PD Chief and the Sheriff, he can sue the whole rotten batch at once. This puts the final nail in the coffin of "Sheriffs discriminating against town residents".
In other words, I am *not* the first person to think of all this, and the last guys that tried it WON.
Better yet, as a high court Fed decision, the same principles apply in New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey and anywhere else there's "unequal issuance in CCW"!!! The Guillory case may not be binding outside of the 9th, but it's "citable" and the equal protection issues aren't "radical" in any sense. Guillory simply links standard equal protection straight to discretionary gun permits in a clear fashion.
The case is Guillory vs Gates, 731 F.2d 1379, and the full text of the decision is available here: http://www.ninehundred.com/~equalccw/guillory.html -this is an ABSOLUTE MUST-READ for anyone fighting any sort of "discretionary licensing" in CCW, or Class3, or whatever.
---------------
I've decided to re-publish the latest version of "CCW In California: A Disaster Analyzed". Something much better is in the works, but this has a ton of info that I just don't have time right now to re-publish in any other form. Full details on the LA County CCW fiasco under Sheriff Baca is here, including all four scathing LA Times articles. There's an enormous collection of pro-CCW news reports from a variety of shall-issue states, much more. It's actually very well organized. Find it here: http://www.ninehundred.com/~equalccw/inca.pdf (another Adobe Acrobat file)
---------------
Everything else is either improved or at least better-organized. I've got a new (somewhat modest) links section, mainly focused on CCW versus trying to be another "general RKBA megasite".
Check it out. Guillory alone could change *everything*, especially when combined with Bob's opinion in California. Feel free to re-post this to lists for New York, New Jersey or similar - I'm CCing the MA list on this broadcast, because Guillory is crucial all over.
Jim March
Equal Rights for CCW Home Page http://www.ninehundred.com/~equalccw