WNCT | North Carolina may reconsider 'stand your ground law' WNCT GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) A bill making its way through the General Assembly would repeal and replace North Carolina's stand your ground law. The current law gives residents the right to defend themselves with deadly force in their home, workplace ... |
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North Carolina may reconsider 'stand your ground law' - WNCT
The U.S. Supreme Court, including the newly confirmed conservative Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, will soon conference to discussa gun-rights case from California that has the potential to expand the Second Amendment.
Related: Supreme Court denies hearing case challenging assault weapons ban
In Peruta v. California, the justices would decide whether the Second Amendment entitles law-abiding citizens to carry handguns outside of the home for self-defense, including concealed carry when open carry is prohibited by state law. Edward Peruta and other gun owners who were denied concealed-carry permits by the San Diego County sheriff appealed the case to the Supreme Court in January, The San Diego Tribune reported earlier this year. California has some of the strongest gun laws of all 50 states. Regarding concealed carry, every state and Washington, D.C., allows it in some form.
Perutafirst filed a lawsuit in 2009 to challenge the countys policy of requiring good cause to obtain a concealed carry permit, saying the policy violates the Second Amendment. The strongest concealed carry laws in the country require applicants to demonstrate good cause or a justifiable need as to why she or he needs a permit. In California, for example, good cause exists to issue a concealed carry weapons permit when there is a clear and present danger to the applicant or the applicants spouse, family or employees, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
The gun-rights advocatesmost recently lost on appeal in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in June 2016, when federal judges ruled that San Diegos policy is constitutional. Earlier this week, the court rescheduled discussion related to the case. It remains unknown when the justices will meet to consideranddecide whether to hear it.
Judge Neil Gorsuch is sworn in as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, as President Donald Trump watches in the Rose Garden of the White House on April 10. With Gorsuch as the courts ninth justice, it could soon decide to hear a case involving gun rights in California. Carlos Barria/Reuters
If the justices decide to take on the case, though, it could be the most important ruling on guns since the 2008 landmark decision in District of Columbia vs. Heller. In that ruling, the justices recognized, in a 5-4 vote, an individuals right to keep firearms at home for self-defense. Scalia, who was a strict originalist and conservative, wrote the majority opinion in Heller, joined by Justices John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas. Besides the late Scalia, those justices allstill serve on the court. But the high court hasnt yet ruled on the right to carry a gun outside of the home.
Since, the Supreme Court has rejected taking on dozensof cases fighting gun laws, including a challenge to an ordinance in an Illinois city that bans assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines. The exceptions are the 2010McDonald v. City of Chicago, which basically extendsHeller beyond the federal government to the local andstate levels, and the 2016Caetano v. Massachusetts, which dealt with the use of stun guns, not traditional guns, for self-defense.
After President Donald Trump nominated Gorsuch in January, the National Rifle Association gave him a strong endorsement. The organization aired, for example, a nearly $1 million advertising campaign across the country duringhis Senate confirmation hearings to emphasize his impact on the Second Amendment.
But Gorsuch, who is considered an originalist much like Scalia, hasnt written extensively on gun rights. In 2012, he wrote that the Second Amendment protects an individuals right to own firearms and may not be infringed lightly. In one case, he sided with a Colorado police department after an officer killed a 22-year-old man with his stun gun in 2006. He ruled the officer didnt use excessive force.
Gorsuch also argued in favor of a convicted felon, who appealed his conviction for possessing a gun and said he shouldnt be held accountable because he didnt know he was considered a felon.
Gorsuchs confirmation, which passed the Senate mostly on a partisan vote, restores the Scalia-era balance to the Supreme Court. Despite vehement opposition from most Democrats,three from red states joined their 51 Republican colleagues, who hold the majority, to solidify Gorsuch as justice.
Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers in both the House and Senate have introduced a separate, but similar, bill in their respective chambers to allow for national concealed carry reciprocity. The policy, backed by Trump and the NRA, would require states that issue permits allowing gun owners to carry concealed weapons to recognize such permits from other states.
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Guns in America: Gorsuch and Other Supreme Court Justices to Consider Gun Case That Could Expand 2nd Amendment - Newsweek
A SCOTS charity boss is preparing for the worst as up to one million migrants try to cross the Mediterranean for a new life in Europe this summer.
Rob MacGillivray, 58, from Ardrossan, previously served as director of operations for Save the Children in Sierra Leone during the Ebola outbreak in 2014.
This summer he will direct the charitys lifesaving efforts aboard a ship out of Sicily.
He is wary of Europes level of preparedness to deal with what he fully expects to be an increase in the ongoing crisis as a result of government leaders being focused on the ongoing political discussions surrounding Brexit.
He said: This crisis in the Mediterranean has never gone away or waned, only peoples concentration on it.
Brexit and other political issues are significant in detracting attention and we fully expect an increase in the crisis this summer. However there is still no joined up response from within the EU and it seems that the concentration of the media and people in general has shifted.
In the first instance the EU needs to step up to the plate and fund and support increased search and rescue operations for 2017.
Ebola very quickly became a global concern once people realised that those outside the country could be infected and as a result it was contained and dealt with. Meanwhile the Mediterranean migrant crisis has been ongoing since 2015 and there is still no real international team in place to tackle it.
Mr MacGillivray is joined in fearing the worst for the summer by the former head of the British embassy in Libya, Joe Walker-Cousins, who has warned that famine and war in Africa had led to more than one million migrants to make their way to Libya with a view to crossing.
He said: My informants in the area tell me there are potentially one million migrants, if not more, already coming up through the pipeline from central Africa and the Horn of Africa.
Nearly 600 migrants drowned on the central Mediterranean route in the first three months of this year and The International Organisation for Migration estimates 21,900 refugees reached Italy over the same period, up from 14,500 last year. After working at Italian ports supporting refugee and migrant children for the past eight years, Save the Children launched its search and rescue operation in the Mediterranean last September and its ship remained in the water until the end of November.
During this period, 2,700 migrants were rescued, including more than 400 children, 80 per cent of which were unaccompanied.
Mr MacGillivray said: The issue of unaccompanied children is very distressing as they are open to many dangers not just the crossing itself but trafficking and exploitation. People need to ask themselves just what it would take for them to put their children in a raft or dinghy on their own. Just how desperate a situation could it be for a parent to choose this option.
A four day-old baby was one of over 480 migrants rescued by humanitarian ships on Saturday during search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean.
The baby was traveling on one of two rubber boats carrying over 200 migrants from North and Central Africa, Sri Lanka and Yemen and seen drifting some 22 nautical miles north of the Libyan town of Sabratha, the most frequently used departure point used by people smugglers in Libya.
Of the 5,096 refugees and migrants reported dead or missing at sea last year, 90 per cent travelled along the Mediterranean sea route to Italy, according to the UNs refugee agency.
Meanwhile, 97 migrants are today missing and believed drowned after their Europe-bound boat sank on a crossing of the Mediterranean, the Libyan coastguard has said. Fifteen women and five children are among those missing.
Coastguard spokesman Ayoub Gassim said 23 migrants were rescued around six miles off the coast after authorities received a distress call on yesterday morning.
He said the boat, which was loaded with African nationals, completely collapsed.
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Migration crisis 'left ignored as EU focuses on Brexit' - Herald Scotland
MashReads Podcast: 'Exit West' is a stirring novel about the migrant crisis, with a fairytale twist Mashable Author Mohsin Hamid has an observation about how people migrate today: "Human existence is an existence of transience. We don't stick around, sadly, and we change from moment to moment." It is this observation that inspired Mohsin's latest novel Exit ... |
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MashReads Podcast: 'Exit West' is a stirring novel about the migrant crisis, with a fairytale twist - Mashable
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During the month that President Donald Trumptook office, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported amajor drop in illegal immigration at our southern border, with 27 percent fewer apprehensions than in any of the last three full months of the Obama administration.
Fox News reported that31,575 individuals were taken into custody during the month of January.Thats still a high number The Washington Times reported itwas the worst January since 2012 but it highlighted just how bad illegal immigration had gotten by the end of the Obama administration.
Trump was sworn into office Jan. 20.
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The CBP report released Monday revealed that on average, 45,000 individuals were caught crossing during October, November and December.
Fox News reported that the elevated levels were due to family units and unaccompanied children from three groups: Central Americans, Haitian nationals migrating from Brazil and Cuban nationals.
There are a lot of reasons why numbers go up and down, but some of it could be a reaction to statements from President Trump that were going to increase border security and seeing media reports that were going to get tougher on illegal immigration in the U.S., said Jim Carafano,security expert with the Heritage Foundation. People may be more resistant to come.
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You cant make too much of monthly numbers, but if you see the total lawful immigration population drop, that means youre doing something thats impacting the system overall.
Its hardly a surprise, though, considering the focus on illegal immigration under the Trump administration. During his Tuesday speech to a joint session of Congress, the president yet again reaffirmed that he planned to make stopping illegal immigration a priority.
Weve defended the borders of other nations while leaving our own borders wide open for anyone to crossand for drugs to pour in at a now unprecedented rate, Trump said, according to a transcript fromThe New York Times. And weve spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas, while our infrastructure at home has so badly crumbled.
Trump returned to the theme later in the speech.
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By finally enforcing our immigration laws, we will raise wages, help the unemployed, save billions and billions of dollars, and make our communities safer for everyone, he said.
We want all Americans to succeed, but that cant happen in an environment of lawless chaos. We must restore integrity and the rule of law at our borders. For that reason, we will soon begin the construction of a great, great wall along our southern border.
It may not be much, but its certainly a start.
Please like and share on Facebook and Twitter if you agree that the border should be a priority for the Trump administration.
Do you think President Trump can stop illegal immigration? Scroll down to comment below! Suggest a correction