gun rights

Just for the heck of it, I decided to attend the "Restore the Constitution" open-carry rally in Greensboro today:

I wasn't the only unarmed person around, but we were in a distinct minority, to say the least.

And a court ruling here could be used as precedent in courts across the nation:

The Second Amendment Foundation on Monday filed a federal lawsuit in North Carolina, seeking a permanent injunction against the governor, local officials and local governments from declaring states of emergency under which private citizens are prohibited from exercising their right to bear arms.

“Through this lawsuit in North Carolina,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb, “we intend to show that state emergency powers statutes that allow government officials to suspend fundamental civil rights, including the right to bear arms, are unconstitutional and therefore should be nullified.

What are you starin' at?

Randy Dye will sometimes carry a gun on his hip, right out in the open, no jacket pulled over it, no inside-the-belt holster. It draws funny looks, and Dye doesn't much care.

One time, Dye explains, he was standing in line for a money order when the guy behind him asked, "Are you a police officer?" Dye said no, and the guy kept staring, so Dye stared back. "We good?" Dye asked, and the conversation stopped.

"I wasn't trying to intimidate," says Dye, a retired trauma nurse in Chatham County. "He approached me. If you don't understand your constitutional rights, you need to go read them."

Couples heading to the magistrate need a "cooling off" period:

Could a 30-day waiting period for marriages performed by magistrates be in North Carolina’s future? Rep. Bill Current, R-Gaston, said he hopes the idea results in making marriages stronger.

“Most ministers won’t marry you unless they talk to you for a while,” Current said, explaining why the suggestion wouldn’t put a similar requirement on ministers. Current said that local and state officials spend a lot of time trying to fix problems that are a result of marriages falling apart.

Well, at least he didn't spoil the President's round of golf the other day:

At about 2 p.m., airport police saw McVey get out of a maroon car with Ohio plates and that he had a sidearm, airport police Capt. Kevan Smith said. Both airport police and the Secret Service questioned him and he was taken into custody.

When McVey got out of the car, he was listening to a handheld scanner and radio that had a remote earpiece, Smith said. Police said he was monitoring local agencies and had formulas for rifle scopes on a note in his cup holder.

Cross-posted from a post at Proverbially Penned.

Freshman congressman Larry Kissell has drawn his first official challenger in the form of Tim D'Annunzio, who, it appears, is also acting as a tea-party candidate within the GOP. D'Annunzio did a fantastic job, as CQ Politics reports, of garnering free media attention by holding fundraisers appealing to the crazier individuals among us. D'Annunzio decided a $25 a plate dinner of North Carolina barbeque and sweet tea just wasn't enough to get people excited about his campaign. So he decided to let his supporters come out, enjoy a good meal, and shoot an Uzi or an MP-5 submachine gun.

No, I'm not kidding; he seriously did this:

But wait! There's more. Not only is D'Annunzio running for Congress, he's also acting as if he is the savior of the GOP. More after the break...