This was published after the first closing...
Copyright 2000 Bill Clede. All rights reserved.
First published in Shotgun News, October 2000.
Gun Laws on the Web:
Laws, Lobbies and Lies
By Bill Clede
Regular readers may remember how excited I was to find the Second Amendment Law Library on the World Wide Web. It disappeared. Now it's back.
The Second Amendment Law Library (www.2ndlawlib.org/) is transitioning to a new corporation and participants. Norman Heath is its owner. Founders Mark Fuller and Dr. Steve West serve as technical and organizational advisors respectively. What makes this site different is that it is impartial, not affiliated with any gun interest group. It compiles laws, lobbies, and lies from other groups and leaves it up to you to decide what's true or false -- just as a library does.
The Second Amendment Law Library turned up among 68 sites found in a search on Yahoo for "gun + laws".
It features Law Journal articles on the Second Amendment and interesting materials on the subject including those by authors in other forums. State, federal, and Supreme Court decisions on the right to arms subdivide a section on Court Decisions. A History section includes historical documents pertaining to American and foreign origins of the right to arms. The final section is composed of a search utility, links and site background.
An Ask Jeeves search on "gun + laws" turned up many pertinent options. Jeeves first questioned back to me was if I wanted federal or state firearms laws. The next question offered me information on gun rights and gun controls from a choice of anti-gun organizations, objective gun control organizations, or pro-gun organizations.
Then I had to choose from links for and against gun control, feature articles on American gun control and other controversial subjects. Jeeves also offered me a pull down menu of Al Gore, George W. Bush, Pat Buchanan, and Ralph Nader positions on another pull down menu of subjects including gun control.
JURIST (jurist.law.pitt.edu/gunlaw.htm) is the legal education network guide to gun laws, gun control, and gun rights. Launched at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in March 1997, JURIST is accessed 25,000 times per week by visitors from more than 90 countries. It provides an authoritative non-commercial forum in which law professors, students, lawyers, judges, journalists and citizens can share a wide range of legal information and ideas.
A News section presents the latest stories on guns, gun laws, gun control, gun rights, the right to bear arms, shootings, and firearms. News Releases includes releases from the National Rifle Association (NRA) Institute for Legislative Action (ILA), Handgun Control Inc. (HCI) and Center to Prevent Handgun Violence (CPHV).
A section on Current Cases includes links to other sites (courts, pro-gun and anti-gun) wherever there is a summary online. Similarly, Case Law links lead you to sources for information on such as Bryant V. United States (interpreting the Firearms Owners Protection Act), Hamilton v. Accu-Tek, Printz v. United States (holding the Brady Law background checks unconstitutional), United States v. Lopez (holding the gun free schools act of 1990 unconstitutional), United State v. Miller, and other Supreme Court, federal and state court decisions.
Under Studies and Reports, papers from the US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Center for Disease Control and other groups are included.
The Smoking Gun (www.thesmokinggun.com/) is a simple but attractive site. It brings you exclusive documents -- cool, confidential, quirky -- that can't be found elsewhere on the Web. Using material obtained from government and law enforcement sources, via Freedom of Information requests, and from court files nationwide. everything here is guaranteed to be 100% authentic.
ATF Online (www.atf.treas.gov/firearms/bradylaw/) has all sorts of information including an FFL list offered for sale. The 93,000 FFL holders, except collectors of curious and relics, list is available to the public. List shows licensee name, trade name, mailing address, license number including type, and business phone number. Minimum charges are $109 for computer tape, $141.50 for print outs, $145.50 Cheshire labels and $233.00 for adhesive labels.
Also on ATF Online are links to Brady Law, Open letters to FFL licensees 1998, Q&A regarding permanent provisions of the Brady Law, Letters to licensees regarding transfer to aliens admitted under a nonimmigrant visa, Letters to licensees regarding pawnbroker transactions, and others.
CNN offers a page specifically on gun laws. Gun laws in the United States (www.cnn.com/specials/1998/schools/guncontrol/) offers a map of the US. Click on a state and a form in the right frame shows you the state name, whether the state has a child access prevention law, a juvenile possession law, a juvenile sale/transfer law, and if a permit is required to purchase, register, license owners or permit to carry long guns and short guns.
Concealed Carry for Iowans site (www.oe-pages.com/POLITICS/law/ccw4iowa/) is an attractive page lobbying for a new law in that state. Concealed Carry for Ohioans (www.ofcc.net/) lobbies for an Ohio law. Gun Owners of Arizona (www.goaz.org/) does the same for Arizona. Gun Owners Action League (www.goal.org/) covers Massachusetts.
Luger Update
I should know better than to make an absolute statement where the Web is concerned. As soon as the Luger article appeared, the following email arrived.
"Dear Bill, I read your fine article about Luger sites in Shotgun News. I hate to differ with your assertion that there are no web sites "devoted solely to the Luger pistol", but if you click to the site below you will find out that there is. It is truly the one web sight for the purist Luger collector. Sometimes, while using a web search engine, you can inadvertently miss the obvious. Regards, Armonde Casagrande http://members.xoom.com/_XOOM/p08luger/frame.html"
It includes links to many other Luger sites.
Send feedback to bill@clede.com. Visit Bill's Web Site at www.clede.com/.
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