Apparently, according to the June issue of Reason Magazine, officials in the State of Montana are contemplating seceding from the Union if the Heller decision doesn’t go the way they prefer. (Not kidding.)

Stephen Colbert, are you listening?

Several dozen Montana politicians, including Secretary of State Brad Johnson, have adopted an unconventional take on the Second Amendment case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court: They’ve threatened secession. D.C. v. Heller, the first substantive Second Amendment case the Court has heard in nearly 70 years, could definitively settle whether the right to bear arms is an individual right or a collective right.

In a joint resolution, the Montana politicians argue that when Washington approved the state constitution, including a clause granting “any person” the right to bear arms, upon the Treasure State’s entry into the Union in 1889, the federal government recognized that clause as consistent with the Second Amendment. If the Court comes down on the side of a collective right, they argue, it would breach the compact for statehood between Montana and the federal government….

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Today’s New York Times reports on NRA efforts to make us afraid of America’s National Parks:

… The federal government is considering a proposal to allow visitors to carry loaded, concealed weapons in some national parks, wildlife refuges and monuments.

The National Rifle Association favors the proposed rule, arguing that it would help keep crime down and protect visitors from potentially dangerous wildlife.

“You read stories about people attacked by animals or who stumble upon meth labs or women who are raped in a national park,” the N.R.A.’s chief lobbyist, Chris W. Cox, said. “We don’t believe law-abiding citizens should be kept from protecting themselves and their families in national wildlife refuges or in national parks.”

“Read stories about people attacked by animals…in a national park”?

In African parks, perhaps. Meanwhile, here in the U.S., studies show that death from animal attacks — tragic losses though they are — average about 177 per year (compared to, say, gunfire which accounts for about 30,000 deaths per year).

Studies show further that “…most nonvenomous injuries are probably caused by farm animals.” (Brings new meaning to mad cow disease.)

The Times story continues:

But opponents [of guns in parks], including several former National Park Service officials, say that the current rules are effective — there is little crime in national parks — and that the change would threaten visitors’ safety and could easily ruin the family-friendly atmosphere of the parks and other attractions….

Other opponents stating these criticisms include the Ranger Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, who have written Congress on the matter:

… Our members are certain that the low incidence of violent crime in our National Parks is a direct result of parks being viewed as places where guns are discouraged and loaded guns are prohibited.

As law enforcement rangers, charged with protecting our National Parks and Monuments, the Ranger Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police firmly believes that, in a nation too often subject to random gun violence, our parks are a refuge for not only wildlife, but as peaceful havens to our citizens as well. For the safety of the visiting public, our rangers, park employees and, especially, for the continued preservation of our nation’s wildlife, we urge you to reject this proposal….

If the NRA is so afraid of animals in the park, maybe they shouldn’t go.

Good editorial in today’s Albany Times-Union about states plugging the gaps in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS):

… While more and more states are now tightening their gun laws by, among other things, requiring that more treatment records be provided to authorities, a huge gap remains at the national level. That’s because it is up to the states to decide if they want to participate in a federal database that collects mental health records from around the nation.

In theory, gun dealers who tap into the system can easily tell if a prospective buyer has a history that makes him ineligible to own a firearm. But the system will only be as good as the information supplied to it. If there are gaps, then some troubled people would still be able to get their hands on guns.

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From the Seattle Times:

The man accused of opening fire at Seattle’s Northwest Folklife Festival, wounding three people, had obtained a concealed-weapon permit from the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office even though federal and state laws should have prevented him from having one.

Clinton Chad Grainger, 22, has been on a methadone program for drug addiction since he was 18 and also has a “history of anxiety and mental illness,” according to King County Superior Court booking documents. Federal and state law prohibits people with mental illness or drug addiction from obtaining a concealed-weapon permit.

Grainger, who lives in Snohomish with his father, went to the Sheriff’s Office and completed a state concealed-pistol license application, said sheriff’s spokesman Capt. Kevin Prentiss. The permit asks applicants whether they have spent 14 days or longer in a mental-health facility and requires them to sign a waiver allowing police to look at mental-health records.

Grainger was granted his permit in January 2007.

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From the Post-Intelligencer:

… He takes medication for anxiety and schizophrenia and has been in a methadone maintenance program through the WCHS Renton Clinic since the age of 18, according to court documents.

He applied for a permit with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, and it was approved in January 2007 after a background check showed no disqualifying history, police said.

Grainger is being held in the King County Jail on three counts of second-degree assault after three people were shot during a fight between him and another man. Bail has been set at $350,000.

One bullet struck all three victims, passing through one man’s nasal cavity before it penetrated another’s wrist and lodged in a woman’s leg.

Prosecutors have until Thursday to file charges, Prosecutor’s Office spokesman Dan Donohoe said.

Under state and federal law, a mental health diagnosis by itself isn’t enough to invalidate someone’s right to firearms or a concealed weapon permit, said Eric Nelson, state assistant attorney general, who chaired a Washington state workgroup on mental health and firearms access after the Virginia Tech massacre last year.

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We’d like to introduce a new feature of the Brady Blog that will appear as events in the news warrant. It is called the Brady NewsWatch, and it will provide a running tally of items in the news relating to guns and gun violence prevention. We hope you find it useful as one more resource to supplement your regular news diet.