SECOND AMENDMENT SISTERS FILES BRIEF IN SUPPORT OF SILVEIRA

Contact: Maria Heil of Second Amendment Sisters, 877-797-4857 (press only) or email: press@2asisters.org

AUSTIN, TX-August 8, 2003-A friend of the Court brief has been filed by the nation’s leading pro-self-defense women’s organization, Second Amendment Sisters, Inc.(SAS)

In July, a Petition for Writ of Certiorari was filed in the United States Supreme Court in the case of Silveira, et al. vs. Lockyer, et al. This week, Second Amendment Sisters filed an Amicus Curiae (or Friend of the Court) brief supporting the Petitioners and citing reasons for the Supreme Court to grant a review of the case to Petitioners. The brief supports reversing the ruling of the Ninth Circuit, which found that the right to keep and bear arms is a collective right, reserved only for police and state militias.

Second Amendment Sisters embraces the concept that the right to keep and bear arms, as recognized by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, is an individual, and not a collective right.

SAS, whose motto is “Self Defense is a Basic Human Right”™, decries the proposition that women should be victims as a result of biology. Armed women have defended themselves and their families for over 200 years in the history of this country. That right did not simply vanish with the American frontier.

Laws that restrict access to defensive weapons are elitist in nature, inasmuch as the wealthy have the means to provide security measures for themselves and their families that middle class and poor women do not. “The people” in the Second Amendment does not refer only to a privileged class, but to all Americans.

The Supreme Court should rule that the right to own and carry arms for self-defense is an individual right, even predating the Constitution, and recognized as an inalienable right by the Second Amendment. That interpretation provides women with the ability and power to defend themselves and their loved ones against rape, assault, and other violent crimes by the physically stronger sex. Any decision that rejects the individual rights interpretation of the Second Amendment is a decision that discriminates against women, and in many jurisdictions effectively relegates them to the status of home detention prisoners or chattel under the protectorate of men.

FAST FACT-(Source-“Gun Facts” version 3.1 by Guy Smith)
-The Second Amendment was listed in a Supreme Court ruling as an individual right. (Dred Scott, Casey v. Planned Parenthood, U.S. V. Cruikshank and others)

Here is the thread that started it all:

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3862b05e2577.htm
see post 3 - Hotline (aka Kim Watson, went on to be a founder of SAS)

post 10- basil (aka Marinelle Thompson, went on to be a founder of SAS)

post 21 - yours truly

Post 51 - Feddalyne (fed- a -line!) Went on to be SAS founder Deb Wasilewski (now Deb Altrath)

I do not see technochick on this post but she was sure out there!

Critter was our very first webmaster and gave us a site within hour hours of the call. What a true champion he was at just the right time in history.

Other threads:
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3872505221c4.htm
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3873813e66a1.htm
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a387a9efc7049.htm
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a38ce3c3e6485.htm (note: FReeper abundy has been with us since the very beginning. As an attorney and pro-gun activists, his insight and help have been invaulable)
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a38fbd84e1fba.htm (our march in DC on Mother's Day 2000 was called the "Armed Informed Mothers' March)

That's just a start. There are many links the article above, but as basil said, we could NEVER have pulled this off without the blessings of our dear JimRob and all the awesome FReepers!

Armed Informed Mothers Counter The Million Mom March
Jim Crispino, Canaan, CT , 04/17/2000
[excerpt:]

Many have already heard of the Million Mom March, to be held on Mother's Day, 2000, which will ask congress to enact "common sense" gun control measures. A little less known group, know as the Second Amendment Sisters will also be in DC that day, and they have some serious doubts about what constitutes "common" sense.

When politicians speak of "common" sense, who's sense do they use as a benchmark? That of persons who have never owned a firearm, and are completely ignorant when it comes to safe and responsible handling, as well as the beneficial uses of hand guns, that's who. The use of the term "common sense" implies that we, who are responsible gun owners, and who oppose their restrictions, are lacking some fundamental thought process which only those who choose not to own firearms posses.

If you ask the Second Amendment Sisters though, it is the Million Moms who lack the common sense. To them, common sense is knowing that most crimes perpetrated against women, including domestic violence, can be thwarted by armed and informed women. Let's say, for instance, a woman has been threatened by an abusive ex, and has taken the steps to get a restraining order. She is now armed with a piece of paper, and a telephone number (911) to use in her defense should he attempt to carry out his threats of violence. He has a knife. Who wins? He does.

In a free society, she would be able to walk into her local gun dealer, purchase a handgun, be trained in it's care and use, and go home feeling infinitely more secure, and in all actuality, be more secure, because she now has the means to defend herself, rather than praying that the police will arrive in time to save her. But in our state, and in most of the country, she cannot do this. She needs to "apply" for "permission" to protect herself, and that can take weeks or even months.

There have been numerous cases where women have tried to obtain handguns, and could not, and were subsequently attacked and killed by violent exes. On March 5, 1991 Bonnie Elmasri called a firearms instructor, worried that her husband-who was subject to a restraining order to stay away from her-had been threatening her and her children. When she asked the instructor about getting a handgun, the instructor explained that Wisconsin has a 48-hour waiting period. Ms. Elmasri and her two children were murdered by her husband twenty-four hours later.

On June 29, 1993, at three o'clock in the morning, a 21-year-old woman named Rayna Ross was awakened by the sound of a burglar who had broken into her apartment and entered her bedroom. The burglar was her ax-boyfriend, a man who had previously assaulted her. This time, having smashed his way into her apartment, he was armed with a bayonet. Miss Ross took aim with a .380 semiautomatic pistol and shot him twice. The burglar's death was classified as a "justifiable homicide" by the Prince William County commonwealth's attorney, which determined that Miss Ross had acted lawfully in shooting the attacker.

Miss Ross had bought her handgun one full business day before the attack, thanks to Virginia's "instant background check." Virginia's 1993 Democratic candidate for governor, Mary Sue Terry (endorsed by Handgun Control, Inc.), proposed that-although the Virginia instant check already checks all handgun buyers-Virginia handgun purchasers should undergo a "cooling-off period" of five business days. Had the proposal been law in Virginia in 1993, Rayna Ross would now be undergoing a "permanent" cooling-off period.

In September 1990, a mail carrier named Catherine Latta of Charlotte, North Carolina, went to the police to obtain permission to buy a handgun. Her ex-boyfriend had previously robbed her, assaulted her several times, and raped her The clerk at the sheriff's office informed her the gun permit would take two to four weeks. "I told her I'd be dead by then," Ms. Latta later recalled. That afternoon' she went to a bad part of town, and bought an illegal $20 semiautomatic pistol on the street. Five hours later, her ex-boyfriend attacked her outside her house, and she shot him dead. The county prosecutor decided not to prosecute Ms. Latta for either the self-defense homicide, or the illegal gun.

These are just a few of hundreds, if not thousands of examples of how gun control ends up costing lives and ready access to firearms save lives.

Very well written piece by Critter and great activism by FReepers!

Next to the high-powered .25-caliber Mauser rifle was a plate of chocolate chip cookies.

That's an unforgettable line from another thread by the blossoming Second Amendment Sisters here on FR! Post #5 on that thread is the first link to the current SAS website. History - gotta luv it.

Squantos, I saw a post by you there, but I wondered if any of our other 2ndA brothers & sisters knew this FR/SAS history? Maybe it's just me that's behind in my FR/SAS homework!

PistolPaknMama, it would be neat if those threads/this history were linked on the SAS site, don't you think? I could only find one mention of FR in one of the founder's bios - Marinelle W. Thompson's.

I can't think of a better way to invest $500 than by becoming a life member, so I am filling out the paperwork today - regardless of whether or not I become a state coordinator.

Somebody did a fine job on VT's SAS site, BTW! Was it Evelyn, VT's Co-Coord?

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