Free Republic

NAVISTAR GUNMAN GOT PAST CRACKS IN GUN LAW By Alex Rodriguez and Matt O'Connor, Tribune Staff Writers... February 07, 2001 When a DuPage County judge convicted William D. Baker of criminal sexual assault on May 22, 1998, authorities should have made him relinquish possession of firearms he owned. They didn't. When a federal judge accepted Baker's guilty plea last November to charges he helped steal engines and engine parts, authorities had a second chance to force him to turn in the guns. Again, Baker kept them. State law prohibits convicted felons from possessing firearms. But as Baker's case illustrates, authorities ...

Bill asks UC to analyze economic benefits of slavery SACRAMENTO (AP) -- California lawmakers want scholars to calculate the profits that slaveowners and businesses made from slavery. A bill approved Wednesday by the Assembly asks the University of California to assemble scholars to analyze the economic benefits of slavery. "Can you imagine the kind of economic benefits that came from individuals being enslaved?" asked Assemblyman Jack Scott, D-Altadena. "This is essential to our understanding of our history." Scott, the Assembly sponsor of the bill, said UC officials have agreed to conduct the study. Some members have Congress have introduced bills ...

June 1 update -- The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral argument in the critical Emerson case June 13 in New Orleans. A Federal conviction of Emerson of possessing a Beretta 9mm while under a routine restraining order, a violation of the 1996 Lautenberg amendment, was struck down last year on Second, Fifth and Tenth Amendment grounds. Judge Sam Cumming's ruling reads like a law review article. It declared the Second to apply an individual right, making it the most important case to be pointed toward the Supreme Court in many years. Evidence that the Fifth Circuit ...