Bay City man's stun gun charge dismissed, but appeal could drag on

Cole Waterman, Published: Friday, April 22, 2011, 7:12 PM

BAY CITY — Though a Bay City man is no longer facing a potential four years in prison for carrying a stun gun, his case likely will become the focus of an appeal process that could go all the way to the state Supreme Court.

Bay County Circuit Judge Joseph K. Sheeran on Thursday dismissed a felony charge of possession of a stun gun against Dean S. Yanna, 41, of Bay City. The judge ruled the statewide ban on the weapon violates the federal Constitution’s Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

Yanna said he learned of the decision Friday night when he was online. An article about it was posted on Mlive.

“It’s a load off my mind. It’s one less stressful thing I’ve got to worry about,” Yanna said.

But Bay County Assistant Prosecutor J. Dee Brooks said his office will appeal the decision, which means the case could linger over Yanna’s head for years.

“It’s definitely going to the Court of Appeals,” said Yanna’s attorney, Kenneth W. Malkin. “I can’t imagine they would not hear the case under these circumstances. It could go beyond that.

“It’s not unusual for a case to be in the Court of Appeals for a couple of years,” Malkin continued. “It’s a very long process.”

Malkin pointed out that Sheeran’s decision does not suddenly legalize stun guns or Tasers, stating that another judge could have delivered a different ruling.

Yanna said he plans to move to Savannah, Ga., to be with family, but has remained in Bay City because of the charge. Even with the charge dismissed, he said he is not allowed to leave Michigan and still is bound by the conditions of his bond.

Malkin said it is theoretically possible for Yanna to move out of state, though he would have to obtain the court’s permission to do so.

Yanna was arrested in June after he was spotted wearing a stun gun on his belt while he worked a late shift at Old Town Party Store, 204 S. Henry St. on the city’s West Side. Yanna’s father bought the stun gun in Texas and gave the device to his son as a gift.

“I thought it was ridiculous,” Yanna said of his arrest and the subsequent charge. “It makes me feel not right about the laws here. A little old lady should be able to carry one; it’s safer than giving her a gun.”

Michigan is one of six states to totally ban stun guns and Tasers.

“I think it’s great,” said Joe Lau, spokesman for Glen Allen, Va.-based BestStunGun.com. “A lot of people are looking for a legitimate way of self-defense and they don’t want a gun or anything lethal. (Stun guns are) definitely a great deal for a lot of people. They do want some protection, and to not allow it does not make sense.”

Lau said he often has to turn away potential customers from Michigan because of the state law, but is optimistic this will change.

“At least there is a case on the books that they dismissed,” Lau said. “I’m very excited for the people of Michigan.”

Related topics: dean yanna

http://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/index.ssf/2011/04/bay_city_mans_stun_gun_charge.html

Gun  Houston kindergartner had was family friend's

(AP) – 11 hours ago

HOUSTON (AP) — A loaded handgun that a kindergartner earlier this week took to his elementary school and accidentally fired, injuring himself and two other students, belonged to a friend of the boy's family, police said Thursday.

Houston police said the unidentified 6-year-old boy was showing the gun off to friends in the cafeteria at Ross Elementary Tuesday morning.

"He was working on sliding the slide back and ... in trying to grip the gun, he managed to have his finger in (the trigger). As soon as the gun went off, it surprised him. He dropped it," said Houston police Capt. Lori Bender, with the department's juvenile division.

The gun was identified as a semiautomatic 9 mm Kel-Tec. Bender said moving the slide back on the weapon, which is small and lightweight, can be difficult to do and that the boy, in trying to get a good grip on the weapon while pulling back the slide, had apparently put his finger on the trigger.

"Children see things on TV and try to emulate. We were not able to ascertain he knew exactly what he was doing or if this is something he had observed on TV or otherwise, that this is what you do," Bender said, referring to the boy's attempt to move the gun's slide, an action which puts a new bullet into the weapon's chamber.

Houston police investigators declined to name the family friend the gun belonged to or say when or how the boy got the gun, citing their ongoing investigation.

"He managed to obtain the gun, put it in his backpack, go to school, talk to other children about it, get it out of his backpack right before going to lunch with the intention of showing it off at lunchtime," Bender said.

The family friend and the boy's parents could face possible charges, Bender said.
"While we believe no adult knew he had the gun, there is still some culpability as to the access to the gun," she said.

Potential charges in the case could include making a handgun accessible to a child, a misdemeanor, and endangering a child, which is a state jail felony, Bender said.

In addition to the boy who brought the gun to school, another 6-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl were injured.

The boy who brought the gun was shot in his foot and the other boy was grazed in his leg, while the 5-year-old girl was injured in her knee, officials said.

All three were treated at Texas Children's Hospital and have since been released, said hospital spokeswoman Christy Brunton.

Some parents said the incident has made them think twice about safety at the school and they wondered if additional security measures, including extra officers and even metal detectors, are needed.

Norm Uhl, a spokesman for the Houston school district, said it would not be economically feasible for the district to provide extra officers or metal detectors at all of its elementary schools.

He said no school in the district has metal detectors and officers at middle and high schools use hand held wands to check students, but only if they have probable cause to do so because students can't be randomly searched.

The district would not be able to station officers at its elementary schools because most of the district's 200 police officers already are deployed to middle and high school campuses.

"That's where we have the most issues, (at middle and high school) where you would expect. We don't have many issues at the elementary level," Uhl said.

The school district will instead focus on educating elementary school kids and their parents on the potential dangers of guns, Uhl said.

"The only sure-fire way to prevent something like this from happening again is that adults put guns where kids don't get to them. We think most parents are doing that, that parents are being responsible," he said.

Uhl said school district officials are waiting for Houston police to finish its investigation.

"Once we know the facts of the case, we can see if we could have done (anything) to increase the chances of finding (the gun) before the fact," he said.

The district's police chief is also looking to centralize security procedures, which are sometimes decided upon by individual schools.

The kindergartner who brought the gun faces an automatic one year expulsion. If the child were expelled, he would go to an alternative elementary school, Uhl said.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g5LWz2x5H7a_A9ULTB-30DY9-f5w?docId=21f80cadfa91438c84fbaa62b05812ba

HISD: Kindergartner had .380-caliber pistol in pocket

By ERICKA MELLON and ANITA HASSANCopyright 2011 Houston Chronicle April 21, 2011, 12:00AM

A 6-year-old boy remained hospitalized in good condition Wednesday while police continued to try to determine how he obtained the handgun that injured him and two classmates in a northeast Houston elementary school cafeteria a day earlier.

Houston ISD officials say the kindergarten student at Ross Elementary had a .380-caliber pistol in his pants pocket during lunchtime Tuesday. The weapon fell to the floor, they said, and discharged a single bullet.

Ross Principal David Terrell said seven adults, including the cafeteria manager, some custodians and teaching assistants, were in the cafeteria around 10:35 a.m. Tuesday when the gun fired. He added that the boy was wearing oversized khaki shorts, which police told him could conceal the small weapon without staff noticing.

Larry Arnold, a director of the Texas Concealed Handgun Association, agreed that the type of gun could have gone unnoticed, depending on the size of the model. His .380-caliber pistol extends from the base of one hand to the middle of his fingers.

"It's small enough to fit in a pocket — unless somebody was looking for it — and not be observed," he said.

Arnold, who has taught handgun classes for 25 years, expressed surprise that the pistol discharged upon hitting the floor.

"You really don't get a lot of guns that will go off if you drop them, particularly with a modern manufacturer," he said. "It'd be a lot more likely somebody tried to catch it or pick it up. I can't say what happened in this case."

The Ross cafeteria has surveillance cameras, which have become part of the Houston Police Department's investigation, said Houston Independent School District spokesman Norm Uhl.

HPD officials have refused to release details of the case, saying only that the investigators were interviewing witnesses and working with HISD and Harris County Child Protective Services.

Mom declines to talk

The boy's mother, who was with him at Texas Children's Hospital Wednesday, declined to be interviewed.

For having a gun on campus, the boy could face a yearlong expulsion to an alternative school, according to HISD policy.

Criminal charges filed in the case, if any, would be against any adults involved in the incident, said the president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association, Nicole DeBorde.

"What will make a difference in this case are the facts on what led to this child getting the gun in his hands," she said.

Depending on findings of the investigation, DeBorde speculated a charge of making a firearm accessible to a child - a Class C misdemeanor, comparable to a traffic ticket - could be applicable.

However, she said if the circumstances surrounding the case are serious enough, prosecutors could accept a charge of endangerment to a child, a state jail felony.

Officials with CPS were charged with looking into the safety of the boy's home. Estella Olguin, CPS spokeswoman, would not disclose details but said agency investigators generally would speak with the child and family members, particularly about gun safety.

CPS did not take custody of the boy.

Two other children wounded during the incident, Khoran Brown, 6, and 5-year-old Za'keyah Thomas, were believed to have been hit by a single bullet or fragments in the legs or feet. Khoran was released from the hospital while Za'keyah remained at Texas Children's in good condition, expected to be released by today, according to hospital officials.

Absences rise

HISD Superintendent Terry Grier called the situation "senseless" and said he was thankful the three students weren't hurt more seriously.

"The disturbing thing is, where did he get the gun and why did he bring it to school?" Grier said, saying he had not yet received answers from police investigators.

In the last five years, Ross has had no other cases of students bringing weapons on campus, according to district data, which excludes the current school year.

HISD reports that only one elementary school, Reynolds, had a gun on campus last year. A fifth-grader said he had found the unloaded gun in a ditch on his way to school, said district spokesman Norm Uhl.

The absentee rate at Ross was higher than usual Wednesday, with about 50 of the 460 students staying home. Some parents had expressed fear about sending their children back to school so soon after the cafeteria turned to chaos.

At least 10 counselors descended on the campus visiting classrooms to observe students and let them express their anxieties.

"I got the sense they felt very safe in school, and they were eager to re-engage in the learning once our talks were over," said Patricia Weger, manager of psychological Services for HISD. "That was a very good sign."

ericka.mellon@chron.com
anita.hassan@chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7531077.html

New Mexico official denied bail on gun-running charges

Tue, Apr 19 2011

By Ashley Meeks
LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (Reuters) - A trustee of a New Mexico border village will remain behind bars with the mayor and police chief pending trial on charges they ran guns to warring drug cartels in Mexico, a judge ruled on Tuesday.

District Judge Robert C. Brack denied bail for Blas Gutierrez at a hearing in Las Cruces, calling the former trustee of Columbus a dangerous flight risk who had abused his public trust "to fuel the war that's going on south of the border" in Mexico.

Gutierrez was among 13 people, including the mayor and police chief of the tiny frontier town, charged last month in an 84-count gun-running indictment.

It alleged that the defendants used their positions to facilitate and safeguard the trafficking of around 200 guns, including assault rifles, to Mexico, where about 40 people a day were killed in raging drug cartel violence last year.

Arguing against bond, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Nammar said Gutierrez was "an organizer and a leader" of the ring which acquired guns through so-called third-party "straw purchases."

"From the first straw purchase case to the last, the evidence shows Mr. Gutierrez organized them all," Nammar said. "He did this while he was supposed to be representing the people of Columbus."

Gutierrez's attorney, C.J. McElhinney, argued that the charges of conspiracy, weapons smuggling and making false statements in the acquisition of firearms neither involved violence, nor carried mandatory prison terms on conviction.

"This is not smuggling grapefruit," Brack countered, adding that Gutierrez had already been dishonest in telling the court he only made monthly trips to Mexico. Gutierrez had actually made 53 trips across the border in a recent 13-month period, the court found.

Brack also questioned Gutierrez's finances, saying he had been "unemployed for many months," but nevertheless drove a brand new vehicle with a $700 monthly payment.
"I see no visible source of support - and a lifestyle that raises concerns," Brack added.

Dressed in a red prison jump suit, Gutierrez kept his palms pressed together beneath his chin and his eyes on the judge for most of the hearing.

He turned to his wife Eva, who is also charged with conspiracy in the case, to mouth "I love you" at the end of the hearing. Eva Gutierrez is bailed pending trial.

The case has brought fresh notoriety to Columbus, best known for a raid by bandit-turned-revolutionary Francisco "Pancho" Villa in 1916 which left 18 Americans dead and the dusty frontier town a smoking ruin.

Also arrested with Gutierrez on March 10 were Columbus mayor Eddie Espinoza and police chief Angelo Vega. Both have been denied bond at previous hearings.

The United States is under pressure to curb the illicit flow of guns to Mexico, where more than 37,000 people have died in drug violence since President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006 and sent the army to break the powerful cartels.
(Writing by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Jerry Norton)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/19/us-newmexico-guns-idUSTRE73I6P220110419

Kindergartner brings gun to Texas school, 3 hurt

By JUAN A. LOZANO, Associated Press Juan A. Lozano, Associated Press

HOUSTON – A kindergartner who brought a loaded gun Tuesday to his Houston elementary school was among three students injured by fragments when it fired after falling from his pocket as he sat down for lunch, officials said.

One bullet was fired about 10:35 a.m. in the Ross Elementary School cafeteria, spraying fragments at the students, said Houston Independent School District Assistant Police Chief Robert Mock.

"Either some type of chips off the floor, or it could be pieces of the round that discharged," Mock said. "They had some cuts and stuff on their legs, they don't appear to be life threatening."

Kennedi Glapion, 6, who was being picked up from school by her grandmother, said she saw the gun after it fell under a cafeteria table.

"It dropped on the floor, under the table. It was loud, it was so loud," said the kindergartner, who added that after the gun went off she was scared and started crying.

Glapion also said she saw one of the children who was injured and pointed to her right foot to indicate where the child was injured.

Two 6-year-old boys were wounded, including the one who had the gun. The boy who brought the gun was injured in his foot and the other boy was grazed in his leg, said Sam Sarabia, the elementary chief school officer for the Houston school district. A 5-year-old girl was injured in her knee, he said.

All three children were put on stretchers and taken in ambulances to be checked out at a hospital. The students were sitting up and appeared to be talking with emergency personnel as they were wheeled away.

Houston police spokesman Victor Senties said it is too early in the investigation to tell if any charges will be filed.

Upset parents rushed to the school in northeast Houston where yellow crime scene tape was strung and more than a dozen police and district patrol cars were parked.

Parents were allowed to take their children home for the day if they preferred to do so, and counselors were on hand as classes resumed for the afternoon, said district spokesman Norm Uhl.

"Although the danger is over, that doesn't make it any less frightening," Uhl said.
Most parents who were picking up their children after the shooting said that overall, Ross is a good school and there haven't been similar problems.

While some said it's not the fault of the school and the responsibility for what happened falls on the parents of the child who brought the gun to school, other parents said that the incident has made them think twice about safety and they wonder if additional security measures, including extra officers and even metal detectors, are needed.

"Being that this is an elementary school you would think that it would be safe, but now this makes you think nothing is safe," said Shawn Dixon, 33, whose 10-year-old daughter Tyra is third-grader at the school.

Dixon said he would be in favor of additional security measures such as metal detectors at the school.

Vonetta Moffett, 35, who has a 10 year old son and a 12-year-old son at the school, said even though she thinks the blame lies with the parents, she believes some kind of extra security is needed.

"The parents need to be more concerned about checking backpacks before their kids leave home. It's the parents' fault because the kids don't know better," said Moffett, a security officer at a medical building.
 
Uhl said that the kindergartner could face disciplinary action including being sent to an alternative school for up to 180 days. He said that no punishment has been decided yet.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_houston_school_gun/print

Harold Volkmer dies; blunt-talking Congressman fought gun bans
BY MICHAEL D. SORKIN • msorkin@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8347 STLtoday.com |

Harold Volkmer was a blunt-talking guy who went to Jefferson City and helped reorganize state government.

Then he got elected to Congress, where he spent 20 years helping Missouri communities fight floods and helped the National Rifle Association beat back efforts to ban assault rifles.

"He wasn't anybody's rubber stamp," said former state Sen. Wayne Goode. "He was his own person."

Mr. Volkmer died Saturday (April 16, 2011) at age 80 at a nursing home in Hannibal after battling pneumonia.

From 1977 to 1997, the Hannibal Democrat represented central and northeastern Missouri. The district sometimes included St. Charles and Franklin counties and part of north St. Louis County.

Mr. Volkmer wasn't just against gun control, he was famous as the NRA's point man in Congress.

He helped stop President George Bush from passing legislation in 1989 to ban the import, manufacture or sale of semiautomatic gun magazines capable of firing more than 15 rounds of ammunition.

While such weapons probably weren't used for hunting, Mr. Volkmer conceded, he said they could be used for target practice. "And that's a sport," he said.

In 1994, he helped defeat President Bill Clinton's crime bill. Mr. Volkmer objected to the proposed ban on assault rifles.

Mr. Volkmer was the primary House sponsor of the McClure-Volkmer Gun Decontrol Act. He was proud of the legislative wrangling that got it done: He got a majority of House members to sign a petition to get the bill out of committee after the chairman pronounced it "dead on arrival."

Many law enforcement organizations opposed the law, which they said made it easier to buy guns. It became law in 1986.

Mr. Volkmer, a deer hunter, said most voters in his district opposed gun control.
"I have a Browning semiautomatic shotgun — a beautiful gun," he told the Post-Dispatch. "You going to say I can't use it anymore?"

Mr. Volkmer grew up in Jefferson City and got his start in politics as a young boy carrying placards for his mother supporting Franklin D. Roosevelt. She taught him to succeed by becoming an insider.

He worked his way through Jefferson City Junior College as a stock boy and butcher at Kroger. In gratitude, he shopped at Kroger the rest of his life.

After graduating from the University of Missouri Law School, he became an assistant state attorney general before serving in the Army.

Back in Missouri, he was elected prosecuting attorney for Marion County in 1960 and then state representative from 1967 through 1976. He served on the "Little Hoover Commission" that led to reorganization of the executive branch in 1974.

In 1976, he was elected to the first of 10 terms in Congress.

He helped pass legislation that got Hannibal's flood wall completed just days before the flood of 1993, and the Flood Relocation Act that helped entire communities move out of flood plains.

His first wife, Shirley, died in 1995. In 1996, he lost a bid for an 11th term to Republican Kenny Hulshof.

While still in Congress, he worked for the NRA as chairman of its Civil Rights Defense Fund, providing legal help to individuals.

After leaving Congress, he served 12 years on the NRA's board of directors.

Mr. Volkmer had a reputation as a workhorse. Even in recent months, as his illness progressed, he used a walker to attend a January meeting of the NRA board.

Visitation will be 5 to 8 p.m. today at the James O'Donnell Funeral Home in Hannibal. A funeral Mass will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Holy Family Catholic Church in Hannibal. Burial will be at Holy Family Catholic Cemetery.

Survivors include his widow, Dian Volkmer; two sons, Jerry Volkmer of Farmington, N.M., and John Volkmer of Chesapeake, Va.; a daughter, Beth Volkmer of Fairfax, Va.; a brother, Paul Volkmer of Jefferson City; and four grandchildren.

Kim Bell of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

Copyright 2011 STLtoday.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/obituaries/article_6ea020fa-853c-513c-97a0-5e24e517aa9d.html

Riverside County gun sales' 154 percent jump in 10 years far outpaces population growth

Across Riverside County, gun sales are booming at a much faster rate than the population is growing.

A surge in recent gun violence and fatal shootings in the Coachella Valley points to the ubiquity of guns in the community, most of them legal and legally owned.

From 2000 to 2010, the county's firearm sales increased more than 154 percent, state figures show. The county's population, meanwhile, grew by 42 percent over the same time.

In all, more than 169,500 handguns, rifles and shotguns were sold in the county during the past decade.

Just last year, a record 24,072 firearms were sold in Riverside County, including 11,611 handguns.

“I'm always amazed by how many guns are sold in the Coachella Valley,” said Mark Wasserkrug, president of the Guns of Distinction gun shop in Palm Desert.

Wasserkrug tells his customers there's likely a greater chance their purchases will be stolen than used for self-defense.

“To think about all these guns that are out there and you think about the potential of burglaries, it's scary,” he said.

Since Nov. 2, the valley has recorded a string of high-profile incidents involving guns, some fatal.

Nine days ago, a 2-year-old girl and her 24-year-old father were shot multiple times and killed after a dispute with their next-door neighbor in Palm Desert.

The neighbor accused in the shooting, Juan Carlos Alcala, worked as a security guard and did not have a criminal record. Authorities have declined to say whether Alcala owned the gun used in the attack, but they have not suggested it was illegally obtained.

Four people have been killed and at least seven others wounded, including a 2-month-old boy, in two apparently unrelated Cathedral City shootings.

In February, a 4-year-old boy, Adam Noah De Leon, was hit in the stomach by a stray bullet from a gun battle near his Indio home. A suspect arrested in that shooting, Javontae Garcia, has no known ties to gangs and no major criminal police history, police said.

Indio police say they've recovered multiple handguns in their investigation of the shooting, but it's not yet clear whether the suspect used or legally owned any of them.
On Wednesday, a 19-year-old Coachella man was shot in the chest. Authorities suspect his 17-year-old neighbor to be the shooter.

Indio resident Adam De Leon said the “freak” shooting of his son, who has since recovered, has convinced him too many guns have wound up in the wrong hands.

“I just want (the police) to hit every house” and seize as many unlawfully possessed guns as possible, De Leon said last week.

The Dec. 7 “Operation Eastern Encore” anti-gang police sweep across Indio and parts of La Quinta and Coachella took more than 100 firearms off the streets.

The majority of those and other firearms seized by Indio police are models that could legally be purchased — not assault weapons, modified guns or other guns banned under state law, Indio police Capt. Richard Bitonti said.

State regulations

Even as local gun sales spike, California regulates gun ownership with some of the strictest laws in the nation, limiting purchases to one handgun per month and requiring buyers to pass a safety test.

Palm Desert resident and gun owner Dick Folkers said he worries about the “misuse and abuse” of firearms, but he's also confident the state's laws effectively promote gun safety.

Having more responsible, legal gun owners armed is not worrisome, Folkers said.

“Unfortunately, law enforcement agencies cannot always respond as fast as they'd like or the citizens would like,” he said.

Desert Hot Springs Police Chief Pat Williams said most guns used in valley violent crimes were typically stolen in home burglaries or purchased on the black market.

“That's why it's so important for people to be so vigilant about their property if they do possess guns,” Williams said.

Sheriff's Capt. Raymond Gregory agreed. While gun sales “could logically relate to availability to criminals,” Gregory's more concerned that owners safely handle their firearms.

“The number (of gun sales) isn't so important as far as when we see trends” of gun accidents, or crimes involving stolen guns, said Gregory, who oversees the sheriff's Indio station.

In a statement, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department said the rise in handgun sales is “not disproportionate to the gun sales statistics in every county nationwide.”

However, a department spokesperson later said that's based on federal FBI statistics. The FBI keeps data on background checks for those looking to buy firearms but not on actual sales, bureau officials said. The U.S. has seen a nearly 69 percent increase in those checks from 2000 to 2010.

The number of guns sold isn't the same as the number of guns owned. But officials with the California Department of Justice say the sales records are the best statistics available related to gun ownership because the state doesn't require that most firearms be registered.

Federal gun laws

Wasserkrug, who's been in business since 2006 and at his Palm Desert location since 2008, attributes the sustained increase in gun sales in recent years to fears President Obama could change federal gun laws.

In 2008, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government couldn't ban handguns but could tightly regulate their ownership, fears rose that Obama would push for stricter gun laws after his election. Gun outlets across the country reported running out of merchandise.

“It was amazing,” said Wasserkrug, whose business also saw a “significant” spike. “The concern was Obama was anti-gun.”

There have been no major changes to the nation's gun laws under Obama to date, but the concern looms amid gun rights advocates, he said.

Wasserkrug said his business saw a similar bump after Gov. Jerry Brown's election in November.

Many new customers are pointing to the threat of public safety cutbacks as the reason they're buying a firearm, he added.

“Everybody's just trying to protect themselves ... but I think it's falling into the wrong hands,” said De Leon, the father of the boy who was shot. “Everybody has a gun now.”


http://www.mydesert.com/article/20110418/NEWS08/304180001/0/NEWS01/Gun-sales-154-percent-jump-10-years-far-outpaces-population-growth?odyssey=nav%7Chead

Marcel Honoré covers government affairs for The Desert Sun. Reach him at (760) 778-4649 or marcel.honore@thedesertsun.comMarcel Honoré  The Desert Sun

A gun permit - and a medical marijuana card

Jeff Barnard, Associated Press

Sunday, April 17, 2011

(04-17) 04:00 PDT White City, Ore. --
Cynthia Willis calls up and down the firing range to be sure everyone knows she is shooting, squares up in a two-handed stance with her Walther P-22 automatic pistol and fires off a clip in rapid succession.

Willis is not only packing a concealed handgun permit in her wallet, she also has a medical marijuana card. That combination has led the local sheriff to try to take her gun permit away.

She is part of what is considered the first major court case in the country to consider whether guns and marijuana can legally mix. The sheriffs of Washington and Jackson counties say no. But Willis and three co-plaintiffs have won in state court twice, with the state's rights to regulate concealed weapons trumping federal gun control law in each decision.

With briefs filed and arguments made, they are now waiting for the Oregon Supreme Court to rule.

When it's over, the diminutive 54-year-old plans to still be eating marijuana cookies to deal with her arthritis pain and muscle spasms, and carrying her pistol.

"Under the medical marijuana law, I am supposed to be treated as any other citizen in this state," she said. "If people don't stand up for their little rights, all their big rights will be gone."

A retired school bus driver, Willis volunteers at a Medford smoke shop that helps medical marijuana patients find growers, and teaches how to get the most medical benefit out of the pound-and-a-half of pot that card carriers are allowed to possess. She believes that her marijuana oils, cookies and joints should be treated no differently than any other prescribed medicines. She said she doesn't use them when she plans to drive, or carry her gun.

"That's as stupid as mixing alcohol and weapons,"' she said.

Oregon sheriffs are not happy about the state's medical marijuana law.

"The whole medical marijuana issue is a concern to sheriffs across the country who are involved in it mainly because there is so much potential for abuse or for misuse and as a cover for organized criminal activity," said Washington County Sheriff Rob Gordon, who became part of the Willis case because his office turned down three medical marijuana patients in the Portland suburbs for concealed handgun permits. "You can't argue that people aren't misusing that statute in Oregon.

"Not everybody, of course. Some have real medical reasons. But ... the larger group happens be people who are very clearly abusing it."

The sheriffs argue that the 1968 U.S. Gun Control Act prohibits selling firearms to drug addicts, and they say that includes medical marijuana card holders. Their briefs state that they cannot give a permit to carry a gun to someone prohibited from buying or owning a gun.

But the cardholders have won so far arguing this is one situation where federal law does not trump state law, because the concealed handgun license just gives a person a legal defense if they are arrested, not a right.

Oregon's attorney general has sided with the marijuana cardholders, arguing that the concealed handgun license cannot be used to buy a gun, so sheriffs who issue one to a marijuana card holder are not in violation of the federal law.

Willis' lawyer, Leland Berger, says it is much simpler.

The sheriffs "are opposed to the medical marijuana act," Berger said from Portland. "It's not based on reason. That's how they are."

Rural southern Oregon is awash with marijuana - legal and illegal. Arrests for illegal plantations are commonplace. The region's six counties also have the highest rate of medical marijuana use in the state. There are also a lot of guns in the Rogue Valley, where Willis lives.

Sixteen states now have medical marijuana laws, according to NORML, an advocacy group. There is no way to determine how many medical marijuana cardholders also have gun permits. Patient lists are confidential, and an Oregon court ruled the sheriffs can't look at them.

NORML executive director Allen St. Pierre said Oregon courts have not been entirely medical marijuana friendly. While they have upheld the right to pack a pistol, they have also ruled that employers can fire people who use medical marijuana.

"A person who uses medical cannabis should not have to give up their fundamental rights as enumerated by the Constitution," St. Pierre said.

Gordon said he expects the gun issue to come up in other states with medical marijuana laws.

Oregon was the first state in the country to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana, with legislation enacted in 1973. And it was right behind California in making medical marijuana legal when voters approved a ballot measure in 1998. But voters here stopped short of following California all the way to selling medical marijuana to cardholders at dispensaries. A ballot measure failed last year, so patients still have to grow their own or get someone else to grow it for them at cost, with no profit margin.

Oregon is one of 37 states where the sheriff has to give a concealed handgun permit to anyone meeting the list of criteria, though they have some discretion to say what those criteria are. They generally require people to be 21, a U.S. citizen, pass a gun safety course, and have no criminal record or history of mental illness, drug or alcohol abuse, or domestic violence.

The issue doesn't really come up in California, where concealed handgun licenses are much harder to get.

If Willis loses, she plans to carry her pistol out in the open, in a holster on her hip, which is, under Oregon law, perfectly legal.

"I've been done harm in my life and it won't ever happen again," she said about her reasons for wanting the gun. "I've never had to draw it."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/04/17/MN561IPH36.DTL&type=printable