(November 16, 1999) Some good news for those of you following the Takoma Park handgun ban situation!

Background: As you know, we got a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) issued to bar the city from placing its questions on the November 2 ballot. This itself was a major win for us, not the least of which was politically by disallowing politicians from hiding behind cover of some invalid poll in order to implement a total ban. The judge found it to be completely unconstitutional and likely to lead to serious harm to gunowners in the city were it to go forward.

But that left the question of a full hearing to get a final order. This was not so moot as it might sound: in theory the judge could change his mind, find for the defendants and let them do a special election ... out of our pocket. The full hearing was to be held thursday of this week.

The news: AN AGREEMENT WAS REACHED TODAY AND FILED WITH THE COURT. Both the city and Citizens Against Handguns backed down.

To quote the agreement: "The Defendants and Intervenor [Citizens Against Handguns] do not desire to contest the Court's rulings contained within the Temporary Restraining Order, nor appeal these rulings."

Neither these questions nor anything like them will be put on a future ballot, nor will they appeal. We locked in this victory, and are now pursuing the question of their paying legal fees as a separate action.

Takoma Park City Council will pursue gun ban legislation in the very near future, but they won't be able to hide behind phony-baloney polls to do it. They'll have to stand up and do it on their own initiative, knowing we are stalking them in the courts and fighting them at every turn. And they'll need to risk political consequences of what they do without cover.

They tried to back-door it through before for a REASON, and we've shown them it won't work. Now we're working on related projects to bring down the wrath of concerned gun owners in town.