Post by cowboybob on Apr 25, 2009 21:15:34 GMT -4
SWINE FLU...real or bullshit? either way, dont take the vaccine...
Medical Director: Swine Flu Was “Cultured In A Laboratory”
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Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars
April 25, 2009
Editor’s note: On Friday, NPR reported that the deadly swine flu “combines genetic material from pigs, birds and humans in a way researchers have not seen before,” thus leading us to suspect it was cooked up in a lab.
Swine flu panic is spreading in Mexico and soldiers are patrolling the streets after it was confirmed that human to human transmission is occurring and that the virus is a brand new strain which is seemingly affecting young, healthy people the worst. Questions about the source of the outbreak are also being asked after a public health official said that the virus was “cultured in a laboratory”.
“This strain of swine influenza that’s been cultured in a laboratoryis something that’s not been seen anywhere actually in the United States and the world, so this is actually a new strain of influenza that’s been identified,” said Dr. John Carlo, Dallas Co. Medical Director (video clip here).
Was this a slip-up or an admission that this new super-strain of swine influenza was deliberately cultured in a laboratory and released?
Alarming reports are now filtering in about people catching the illness who have had no contact with pigs whatsoever. These include a man and his daughter in San Diego County, a 41-year-old woman in Imperial County and two teenagers in San Antonio, Texas. In fact, in all U.S. cases, the victims had no contact with any pigs.
Dr. Wilma Wooten, San Diego County’s public health officer, told KPBS “We have had person-to-person spread with the father and the daughter,” says Wooten, “And also with the two teenagers in Texas, they were in the same school. So that also indicates person-to-person transfer.”
“Dr. Wooten says it’s unclear how people were exposed to swine flu. She says none of the patients have had any contact with pigs,” according to the report.
Although the situation in the U.S. looks under control, panic is spreading in Mexico, where 800 cases of pneumonia in the capital alone are suspected to be related to the swine flu and the virus has hit young and healthy people, which is very rare with an flu outbreak. Despite the danger of a pandemic, the U.S. border with Mexico remains open.
“Mexico has shut schools and museums and canceled hundreds of public events in its sprawling, overcrowded capital of 20 million people to try to prevent further infections,” reports Reuters.
“My level of concern is significant,” said Dr. Martin Fenstersheib, the health officer for Santa Clara County. “We have a novel virus, a brand-new strain that’s spreading human to human, and we are also seeing a virulent strain in Mexico that seems to be related. We certainly have concerns for this escalating.”
The WHO insists that the outbreak has “pandemic potential” and has been stockpiling supplies of Tamiflu, known generically as oseltamivir, a pill that can both treat flu and prevent infection, according to officials.
As we previously highlighted, those that have a stake in the Tamiflu vaccine include top globalists and BIlderberg members like George Shultz, Lodewijk J.R. de Vink and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
Indeed, Rumsfeld himself played a key role in hyping an outbreak of swine flu back in the 1976 when he urged the entire country to get vaccinated. Many batches of the vaccine were contaminated, resulting in hundreds of sick people and 52 fatalities.
The fact that the properties of the strain are completely new, that the virus is spreading from people to people, and that the young and healthy are being hit worst, has disturbing parallels to the deadly 1918 pandemic that killed millions.
It is unclear as to why, if the virus is a brand new strain, that public health officials are so confident programs of mass vaccination, which are already being prepared, would necessarily be effective.
It certainly wouldn’t be the first time that deadly flu viruses have been concocted in labs and then dispatched with the intention of creating a pandemic.
When the story first broke last month, Czech newspapers questioned if the shocking discovery of vaccines contaminated with the deadly avian flu virus which were distributed to 18 countries by the American company Baxter were part of a conspiracy to provoke a pandemic.
Since the probability of mixing a live virus biological weapon with vaccine material by accident is virtually impossible, this leaves no other explanation than that the contamination was a deliberate attempt to weaponize the H5N1 virus to its most potent extreme and distribute it via conventional flu vaccines to the population who would then infect others to a devastating degree as the disease went airborne.
However, this is not the first time that vaccine companies have been caught distributing vaccines contaminated with deadly viruses.
In 2006 it was revealed that Bayer Corporation had discovered that their injection drug, which was used by hemophiliacs, was contaminated with the HIV virus. Internal documents prove that after they positively knew that the drug was contaminated, they took it off the U.S. market only to dump it on the European, Asian and Latin American markets, knowingly exposing thousands, most of them children, to the live HIV virus. Government officials in France went to prison for allowing the drug to be distributed. The documents show that the FDA colluded with Bayer to cover-up the scandal and allowed the deadly drug to be distributed globally. No Bayer executives ever faced arrest or prosecution in the United States.
In the UK, a 2007 outbreak of foot and mouth disease that put Britain on high alert has been originated from a government laboratory which is shared with an American pharmaceutical company, mirroring the deadly outbreak of 2001, which was also deliberately released.
As we reported yesterday, last time there was a significant outbreak of a new form of swine flu in the U.S. it originated at the army base at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
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just a little reminder... URASLAVE ;D
;D
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Mexico flu: Your experiences
Mexico City residents are being told to wear protective masks
Readers in Mexico have been emailing the BBC describing the sense of fear gripping the country as a result of a flu virus outbreak, which has so far claimed up to 60 lives.
The World Health Organization says the virus has the potential to become a pandemic.
Read a selection of BBC readers' comments below.
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wiki
2009 H1N1 flu outbreak
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This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.
The outbreak of a new strain of influenza virus in March and April of 2009 is infecting many people in Mexico City, other regions of Mexico, and parts of the United States. In Mexico, in some cases it causes severe influenza-like illness, followed by pneumonia, which furthermore has in some cases resulted in death. The new strain is derived in part from human influenzavirus A (subtype H1N1), and in part from several strains of influenza virus usually found only in swines (see Swine flu). In April both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC)[1] expressed serious concerns that this novel strain, which apparently transmits from human-to-human and which to date appears to have a relatively high mortality rate in Mexico, has the potential to become a flu pandemic. On April 25, 2009, WHO described the situation as a "public health emergency of international concern", with knowledge lacking in regard to "the clinical features, epidemiology, and virology of reported cases and the appropriate responses".[2] Government health agencies around the world, including the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the UK Health Protection Agency and the Public Health Agency of Canada, have also expressed concerns over the outbreak and are monitoring the situation closely.
Cases of this strain of influenza by country or state.
Country or State Confirmed laboratory cases Other possible cases* Deaths from all cases*
Mexico 18[3] 1300+[4] 81[5]
New York 0[6] 200+[6] 0
California 7[7] 0 0
Texas 2[7] 1[8] 0
Kansas 2[7] 0 0
United Kingdom 0 1[9] 0
Total 29 1500+ 81
(*) Not all cases have been confirmed as due to this strain. Possible cases are cases of influenza-like illness (ILI) that have not been confirmed through testing to be due to this strain.
Contents [hide]
1 Background of outbreak
2 Genetics and effects
3 Countries affected
3.1 Mexico
3.2 United States
4 Pandemic concern
5 Response
5.1 Canada
5.2 Denmark
5.3 Ireland
5.4 Mexico
5.5 Philippines
5.6 Peru
5.7 United Kingdom
5.8 United Nations
5.9 United States
5.10 World Health Organization
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
[edit] Background of outbreak
Train commuters in Mexico City wearing surgical masks.The outbreak was first detected in the Federal District of Mexico, where surveillance began picking up cases of ILI starting 18 March.[10] The first two cases identified as swine flu were two children living in San Diego County and Imperial County, California, who became ill on March 28 and 30.[11] A CDC alert concerning these two isolated cases was reported in the media on April 21.[12] The story of the outbreak was broadcast live first in Mexico on April 23, 2009.
Mexican soldier giving surgical mask to the populationIn March and April 2009, over 1000 cases of suspected swine flu in humans were detected in Mexico and the southwestern United States. The strain was unusually virulent in Mexico, causing more than 60 deaths, mostly in Mexico City and central Mexico;[4] In the United States, virulence apparently was below average. Some cases in Mexico and the United States have been confirmed by the World Health Organization to be a never-before-seen strain of H1N1.[10][3] The Mexican fatalities are mainly young adults, a hallmark of pandemic flu.[13] A new swine flu strain has been confirmed in 16 of the deaths and at least 100 others are being tested as of April 24, 2009.[14] Mexican Health Minister José Ángel Córdoba on April 24, said "We’re dealing with a new flu virus that constitutes a respiratory epidemic that so far is controllable."[4]
On 25th April 2009, the World Health Organization agreed that the current situation constitutes a public health emergency of international concern.[2]
[edit] Genetics and effects
Flu
Influenza
Virus
Avian influenza
Swine influenza
Flu season
Research
Vaccine
Treatment
Genome project
H5N1 strain
Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said that the American cases were found to be made up of genetic elements from four different flu viruses — North American swine influenza, North American avian influenza, human influenza A virus subtype H1N1, and swine influenza virus typically found in Asia and Europe - "an unusually mongrelised mix of genetic sequences."[15] For two cases a complete genome sequence had been obtained. This complete genome is presently being worked with by U.S. scientists to prepare it for transition to become a vaccine. She said that the virus was resistant to amantadine and rimantadine, but susceptible to oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza).[16][17][18][19]
Preliminary genetic characterization found that the hemagglutinin (HA) gene was similar to that of swine flu viruses present in U.S. pigs since 1999, but the neuraminidase (NA) and matrix protein (M) genes resembled versions present in European swine flu isolates. While viruses with this genetic makeup had not previously been found to be circulating in humans or pigs, there is no formal national surveillance system to determine what viruses are circulating in pigs in the U.S.[20] The seasonal influenza strain H1N1 vaccine is thought to be unlikely to provide protection.[21]
In an interview on April 24, acting CDC director Dr. Richard Bessar said that it was still not understood why the American cases were primarily mild disease while the Mexican cases had led to multiple deaths. Differences in the viruses or co-infection were being considered. Only fourteen samples from Mexico had been tested by the CDC, with seven found to match the American strain, and the CDC was still in discussions with Mexico about plans to send an American investigative team. He said that the virus had likely passed through several cycles of infection with no known linkages between patients in Texas and California, and that containment of the virus is "not very likely".[22][23]
[edit] Countries affected
[edit] Mexico
Mexican officials state that since March 2009, there have been over 1000 reported cases and put the death toll at 81, with 20 confirmed to be linked to a new swine influenza strain of Influenza A virus subtype H1N1.[24][25][26]
[edit] United States
Main article: 2009 H1N1 flu outbreak in the United States
Officials in the United States said that eight people were infected with swine flu in California and Texas and all have recovered.[27] Eight school children in New York City are believed to be infected after a school trip to Mexico. The New York case has been confirmed as Influenza A Virus, which meets the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (or CDC) definition of a probable case of swine flu. Tests are still underway to determine if this flu virus is the new strain of H1N1. Two cases have been confirmed in Kansas. Kansas state health officials confirmed the two cases as swine flu on April 25th 2009, just minutes after New York health officials said they had eight probable cases.
[edit] Pandemic concern
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization are concerned that this outbreak may become a pandemic, because:[28]
The virus is a new strain of influenza, from which human populations have not been vaccinated or naturally immunized.[29]
The virus has produced severe disease in Mexico, and some deaths. Furthermore, in Mexico (but not in the United States) the illness has primarily struck young, healthy adults, much like the deadly Spanish Flu of 1918. This is unlike most influenza strains which produce the worst symptoms in young children, elderly adults, and others with weaker immune systems.[30][3]
The virus appears to infect by human-to-human transmission. Investigations of infected patients indicate no direct contact with swine, such as at a farm or agricultural fair.[3] In contrast, for example, disease transmission in the last severe human outbreak of influenza, the bird flu that peaked in 2006, was determined to be entirely or almost entirely from direct contact between humans and birds.[31]
The virus has been detected in multiple regions within Mexico and multiple areas in the United States.
[edit] Response
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I work as a resident doctor in one of the biggest hospitals in Mexico City and sadly, the situation is far from "under control". As a doctor, I realise that the media does not report the truth. Authorities distributed vaccines among all the medical personnel with no results, because two of my partners who worked in this hospital (interns) were killed by this new virus in less than six days even though they were vaccinated as all of us were. The official number of deaths is 20, nevertheless, the true number of victims are more than 200. I understand that we must avoid to panic, but telling the truth it might be better now to prevent and avoid more deaths.
Yeny Gregorio Dávila, Mexico City
The situation in Mexico City is really not normal. There is a sense of uncertainty that borders on paranoid behaviour in some cases. At this very moment, Mexican TV is showing how military forces are giving masks to the people in the streets. Moreover the news is sending alarming messages for the audience. Really, the atmosphere in the city is unsettling, a good example: pubs and concerts are being closed or cancelled and people don't haven thorough information. In this city (and country) there is an urgent need for assertive information, no paranoid messages from the government or the Mexican media.
Patricio Barrientos and Aranzazu Nuñez, Mexico City
Massive events have been cancelled at the National Auditorium - Mexico City's largest indoor venue with capacity of 10,000 - which has been closed. Two soccer games have been cancelled at the Olympic Stadium. A sold out game with 70,000 expected attendance will be played behind closed doors. Another game at the famous Azteca Stadium that would draw an attendance of 50,000 will also be played behind closed doors.
Juan Carlos Leon Calderon, Mexico City
It's eerily quiet here in the capital. Lots of people with masks, Facebook communities exchanging gallows humour, everybody waiting to see if schools and universities will stay closed for ten days (as goes the rumour). All masks have been used up, and we are waiting for new supplies.
Dr Duncan Wood, Mexico City
We will be sick soon and, well, do the math - 400 can infect at least another two per day
Adriana, Mexico City
Yesterday in my office it was a bit surreal walking in to see all in blue masks with deep cleansing of computer equipment and surfaces going on. Let's hope it is contained and does not escalate. The local news is reporting 200 fatalities and reports of flu spreading from areas outside of Mexico City. Given the volume of daily commuter traffic on cramped busses and trains, this may not have to be too virulent to be disastrous in human terms. I wonder what controls there will be on flights in and out.
Will Shea, Mexico City
I work for the government as a head of a computer infrastructure operations department. At work we are doing several actions to try not to expose workers. We sent several home. I support the Pumas football team and the very important match with the Guadalajara team will be played behind closed doors. My family and I are going to stay home all weekend. We feel a little scared and confused with the feeling that we are not given being told the truth. Many people think the numbers of dead people is higher than we are being told.
Marcos, Mexico City
The whole city is affected, I have a very bad feeling about this. Two of my friends at work are sick, they were sick for a couple of days, they went to the hospital and they sent them back to work. The doctor told them it was just a flu until Friday when the alarm was spread, then they were allowed to go home. I work in a call centre and I'm worried because there are no windows in the building so it cannot be ventilated and around 400 people work there.
We all have talked to our supervisor but no one has done anything not even sterilise or disinfect the area. We will be sick soon and, well, do the math - 400 can infect at least another two per day. The authorities say there's nothing they can do since it's a private company and I can assure you, the company I work for is not the only one like this in the whole city. Us workers don't have much protection from our government and if we want to keep our jobs we have to go anyway.
Adriana, Mexico City
My sister got influenza like symptoms two weeks ago. She is fine now, thank god, but similar cases have been showing up since two weeks ago. I work for a bank and we were told to take our laptops because there is a high possibility to work from home. I have gone out to buy some face masks.
Ruben Farfan, Mexico City
I'm a college student in Mexico City, and I can only say that the information that the media has provided doesn't seem to be enough, we do not now how serious it is because they have failed to mention it. There have been two ways of responding to this event, the ones that have entered themselves into quarantine claiming that the government is hiding something much more serious, and those who take this as a joke saying that everyone is overreacting. To put a cherry on top all kind of crazy rumours are flying around - that they are going to quarantine Mexico City, that a school and some specific branches of offices and jobs are going to be suspended for days to come, and so on. I wish more info was available, for example how to prevent it? Have there been many deaths? Is there a threat of an epidemic?
Mari A, Mexico City
I didn't hear about the flu epidemic until last night at 2330. Yesterday the streets were almost empty compared to a normal Friday afternoon. The media is bombarding the same information over and over again, but the authorities haven't said anything new yet, only that they have enough vaccines for those with the flu and that we should avoid public spaces.
Paulina, Mexico City
This is another blow to the tourism industry in Mexico, even though non of the events that is taken place is anywhere near the tourist areas of Cancun, Playa del Carmen or Puerto Vallarta, the news comes across as all of Mexico is affected! After wrong reports of drug related violence, military presence etc. in Cancun, which hurt the industry tremendously, now people think that all of Mexico is affected by a virus that is mostly present in the capital. I guess the problem is that this is a country where the capital carries the same name as the country, thus when people hear news about Mexico, albeit it refers to Mexico City, they assume it is affecting the whole country.
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The Mexican Flu and You
In the past 24 hours I've received dozens of e-mails from SurvivalBlog readers about the emerging Mexican Flu. Some news stories have included cryptic comments from heath officials, implying that the mechanism of infection makes this particular virus "very difficult to contain." This leads me to conclude that those infected have a long latency period during which they are infectious, yet, they do not display frank symptoms. This does not bode well for any hopes of containing the spread of the virus.
Then we hear a CDC official stating: "The swine flu virus contains four different gene segments representing both North American swine and avian influenza, human flu and a Eurasian swine flu." That strikes we as something very peculiar.
The disease is respiratory, and has one strong similarity to the 1918 Spanish Flu: "The majority were young adults between 25 and 45 years old," said one official under the condition of anonymity. Since, young and healthy people with strong immune systems are the most likely to succumb, this might indicate that the biggest killer is a cytokene storm--a collapse caused by the human immune system's over-reaction to a pathogen.
I strongly recommend that everyone reading this take the time to re-read my background article on flu self-quarantine and other precautions: Protecting Your Family From an Influenza Pandemic. The details that I give there are quite important. Pay special attention to my discussion of the shortage of hospital ventilators. If anyone in your family is immunosuppressed, consider yourselves on alert. Make your final preparations to hunker down, immediately.
In the next few days, there is a good chance of wholesale panic, including some well-publicized "runs" --probably first for hand sanitizer and face masks, and soon after for bottled water and groceries. Plan on it.
UPDATE: The BBC News web page Mexico flu: Your experiences has some updates posted from individuals in Mexico City
To summarize, here are some key quotes from a recent article:
"This outbreak is particularly worrisome because deaths have happened in at least four different regions of Mexico, and because the victims have not been vulnerable infants and elderly.
"The most notorious flu pandemic, thought to have killed at least 40 million people worldwide in 1918-19, also first struck otherwise healthy young adults."
...
"But it may be too late to contain the outbreak, given how widespread the known cases are. If the confirmed deaths are the first signs of a pandemic, then cases are probably incubating around the world by now, said Dr. Michael Osterholm, a pandemic flu expert at the University of Minnesota.
"No vaccine specifically protects against swine flu, and it is unclear how much protection current human flu vaccines might offer."
Current statistics show a less than 10% lethality rate, but of course the first wave of flu victims are getting access to the best medical care available. If the contagion spreads, sheer numbers will quickly overwhelm hospital facilities--particularly the number of mechanical ventilators available. So the lethality rate may rise, even if there is not a viral mutation.
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FACTBOX - Some facts about past flu pandemics
Sat Apr 25, 2009 12:51am BST Email | Print | Share| Single Page[-] Text [+] (Reuters) - Health officials around the globe are closely watching an outbreak of a new kind of flu that has killed at least 60 people in Mexico and infected seven in the United States.
Health officials have been warning that a new strain of influenza that can pass easily from person to person could spark a pandemic, a global epidemic that could kills tens of millions of people. Experts agree another flu pandemic is overdue.
Here are some facts about past flu pandemics and pandemic threats:
* The 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic is the benchmark by which all modern pandemics are measured. Some 20 to 40 percent of the worldwide population became ill and more than 50 million people died. Between September 1918 and April 1919, it killed more than 600,000 people in the United States alone. In a normal flu season, about 36,000 people die in the United States, and 250,000 to 500,000 globally.
* While the very young and the very old are most at risk with seasonal flu, the 1918 pandemic primarily struck young adults. It disrupted the global economy. Many small businesses, which were unable to unable to operate during the pandemic, went bankrupt.
* The virus that caused the 1957 Asian flu pandemic was quickly identified, and vaccines were available by August 1957. The elderly had the highest rates of death. The Asian flu killed 2 million people globally, according to the World Health Organisation.
* The 1968 influenza pandemic was first detected in Hong Kong. Those over the age of 65 were most likely to die. It killed an estimated 1 million people globally, according to WHO, making it making the mildest pandemic in the 20th century.
* In 1976, a strain of swine flu started infecting people in Fort Dix, New Jersey, and worried U.S. health officials because the virus was thought to be related to the 1918 Spanish flu virus. Forty million people were vaccinated but the program was halted after several cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a severe and sometimes fatal condition linked to some vaccines, were reported. The virus never moved outside the Fort Dix area.
* H5N1 avian flu is the most recent pandemic threat. It first surfaced in 1997 and continues to infect humans who have direct contact with chickens. The H5N1 or avian influenza virus does not spread easily from one person to another.
* Since 2003, H5N1 virus has infected 421 people in 15 countries and killed 257. It has killed or forced the culling of more than 300 million birds in 61 countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.
* WHO has six pandemic stages. A full-blown pandemic requires sustained, human-to-human spread over many countries of a new and serious virus.
-- Sources: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; World Health Organisation
(Editing by Maggie Fox and Eric Walsh)
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Citizens can challenge state, local gun laws
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
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mindless distractions from myspace... heather, is 23 and has dreams of one day being a model (stripper). she has her whole life ahead of her and she knows it... at least until that little meth habit takes hold! enjoy! ;D
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(04-20) 19:10 PDT San Francisco -- A federal appeals court ruled Monday that private citizens can challenge state and local gun laws by invoking the constitutional right to bear arms - the first such ruling in the nation - but upheld a ban on firearms at gun shows at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton.
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More Bay Area News
Mexico may isolate flu patients, inspect homes 04.25.09
Fourth slaying in Oakland this week 04.25.09
Governor offers reward in slaying 04.25.09
Four cops fired in drug-warrant case 04.25.09
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The ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco followed last year's landmark Supreme Court decision that the Constitution's Second Amendment protects an individual's right to possess guns for self-defense.
The high court struck down a handgun prohibition in Washington, D.C., a federal enclave, and did not say whether the Second Amendment also applied to state and local laws. Nor did the court spell out the extent of the government's authority to regulate firearms, although it said guns could be excluded from "sensitive places such as schools and government buildings."
National Rifle Association lawsuits in the aftermath of the ruling prompted some local governments and agencies to abandon restrictive gun laws, including a ban on possession of guns and ammunition in public housing that the San Francisco Housing Authority dropped in January. But no court had ruled on the scope of the Second Amendment until Monday.
The case was a challenge by gun show promoters to a 1999 ordinance that banned firearms on all Alameda County property, including the fairgrounds, where 16 people had been injured in a melee that included gunfire the previous year. The court could have decided the case with its conclusion that the ban was a reasonable safety measure, without addressing the Second Amendment, but opted for a broader ruling.
While a few sections of the Bill of Rights apply only to the federal government, amendments that protect fundamental rights - including the Second Amendment - can be enforced against the states, said Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain in the 3-0 decision.
"The right to bear arms is deeply rooted in the history and tradition of the republic," O'Scannlain said, citing selected passages from speeches and writings during the colonial and post-Revolutionary War period and the years leading up to the Civil War. "It is a means to protect the public from tyranny" as well as "to protect the individual from threats to life or limb."
Judge Ronald Gould, in a separate opinion, pictured a gun-wielding citizenry defending 21st century America against invaders or terrorists.
"That we have a lawfully armed populace adds a measure of security for all of us and makes it less likely that a band of terrorists could make headway in an attack on any community before more professional forces arrived," he said.
The judges concluded, however, that the Supreme Court's reference to exclusion of guns from "sensitive places" allows a county to ban firearms from its property. The ordinance "does not meaningfully impede the ability of individuals to defend themselves in their homes," O'Scannlain said, and county officials are entitled to conclude that guns sold at shows on the fairgrounds could be dangerous.
Donald Kilmer, lawyer for the gun show promoters, said they have not yet decided whether to appeal. He said other Bay Area counties - including San Mateo, Marin, Santa Cruz and Sonoma - have emulated the Alameda County ban, despite what he described as a lack of evidence linking the gun shows to any crimes or violence.
"The county was never able to point to any problems," Kilmer said. "Isn't it a good idea for gun shows, if they're going to take place, to be on public property" patrolled by law enforcement?
The county's lawyer was unavailable for comment. Sam Hoover, an attorney with Legal Community Against Violence, which supports gun regulation, said the court had needlessly opened the door to challenges of other state and local laws.
"We already have a patchwork, piecemeal system of gun regulation in the United States," he said. "This is going to make it that much harder to stem the tide of gun deaths and injuries."
E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.
Medical Director: Swine Flu Was “Cultured In A Laboratory”
Text size
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars
April 25, 2009
Editor’s note: On Friday, NPR reported that the deadly swine flu “combines genetic material from pigs, birds and humans in a way researchers have not seen before,” thus leading us to suspect it was cooked up in a lab.
Swine flu panic is spreading in Mexico and soldiers are patrolling the streets after it was confirmed that human to human transmission is occurring and that the virus is a brand new strain which is seemingly affecting young, healthy people the worst. Questions about the source of the outbreak are also being asked after a public health official said that the virus was “cultured in a laboratory”.
“This strain of swine influenza that’s been cultured in a laboratoryis something that’s not been seen anywhere actually in the United States and the world, so this is actually a new strain of influenza that’s been identified,” said Dr. John Carlo, Dallas Co. Medical Director (video clip here).
Was this a slip-up or an admission that this new super-strain of swine influenza was deliberately cultured in a laboratory and released?
Alarming reports are now filtering in about people catching the illness who have had no contact with pigs whatsoever. These include a man and his daughter in San Diego County, a 41-year-old woman in Imperial County and two teenagers in San Antonio, Texas. In fact, in all U.S. cases, the victims had no contact with any pigs.
Dr. Wilma Wooten, San Diego County’s public health officer, told KPBS “We have had person-to-person spread with the father and the daughter,” says Wooten, “And also with the two teenagers in Texas, they were in the same school. So that also indicates person-to-person transfer.”
“Dr. Wooten says it’s unclear how people were exposed to swine flu. She says none of the patients have had any contact with pigs,” according to the report.
Although the situation in the U.S. looks under control, panic is spreading in Mexico, where 800 cases of pneumonia in the capital alone are suspected to be related to the swine flu and the virus has hit young and healthy people, which is very rare with an flu outbreak. Despite the danger of a pandemic, the U.S. border with Mexico remains open.
“Mexico has shut schools and museums and canceled hundreds of public events in its sprawling, overcrowded capital of 20 million people to try to prevent further infections,” reports Reuters.
“My level of concern is significant,” said Dr. Martin Fenstersheib, the health officer for Santa Clara County. “We have a novel virus, a brand-new strain that’s spreading human to human, and we are also seeing a virulent strain in Mexico that seems to be related. We certainly have concerns for this escalating.”
The WHO insists that the outbreak has “pandemic potential” and has been stockpiling supplies of Tamiflu, known generically as oseltamivir, a pill that can both treat flu and prevent infection, according to officials.
As we previously highlighted, those that have a stake in the Tamiflu vaccine include top globalists and BIlderberg members like George Shultz, Lodewijk J.R. de Vink and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
Indeed, Rumsfeld himself played a key role in hyping an outbreak of swine flu back in the 1976 when he urged the entire country to get vaccinated. Many batches of the vaccine were contaminated, resulting in hundreds of sick people and 52 fatalities.
The fact that the properties of the strain are completely new, that the virus is spreading from people to people, and that the young and healthy are being hit worst, has disturbing parallels to the deadly 1918 pandemic that killed millions.
It is unclear as to why, if the virus is a brand new strain, that public health officials are so confident programs of mass vaccination, which are already being prepared, would necessarily be effective.
It certainly wouldn’t be the first time that deadly flu viruses have been concocted in labs and then dispatched with the intention of creating a pandemic.
When the story first broke last month, Czech newspapers questioned if the shocking discovery of vaccines contaminated with the deadly avian flu virus which were distributed to 18 countries by the American company Baxter were part of a conspiracy to provoke a pandemic.
Since the probability of mixing a live virus biological weapon with vaccine material by accident is virtually impossible, this leaves no other explanation than that the contamination was a deliberate attempt to weaponize the H5N1 virus to its most potent extreme and distribute it via conventional flu vaccines to the population who would then infect others to a devastating degree as the disease went airborne.
However, this is not the first time that vaccine companies have been caught distributing vaccines contaminated with deadly viruses.
In 2006 it was revealed that Bayer Corporation had discovered that their injection drug, which was used by hemophiliacs, was contaminated with the HIV virus. Internal documents prove that after they positively knew that the drug was contaminated, they took it off the U.S. market only to dump it on the European, Asian and Latin American markets, knowingly exposing thousands, most of them children, to the live HIV virus. Government officials in France went to prison for allowing the drug to be distributed. The documents show that the FDA colluded with Bayer to cover-up the scandal and allowed the deadly drug to be distributed globally. No Bayer executives ever faced arrest or prosecution in the United States.
In the UK, a 2007 outbreak of foot and mouth disease that put Britain on high alert has been originated from a government laboratory which is shared with an American pharmaceutical company, mirroring the deadly outbreak of 2001, which was also deliberately released.
As we reported yesterday, last time there was a significant outbreak of a new form of swine flu in the U.S. it originated at the army base at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
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just a little reminder... URASLAVE ;D
;D
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Mexico flu: Your experiences
Mexico City residents are being told to wear protective masks
Readers in Mexico have been emailing the BBC describing the sense of fear gripping the country as a result of a flu virus outbreak, which has so far claimed up to 60 lives.
The World Health Organization says the virus has the potential to become a pandemic.
Read a selection of BBC readers' comments below.
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wiki
2009 H1N1 flu outbreak
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This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.
The outbreak of a new strain of influenza virus in March and April of 2009 is infecting many people in Mexico City, other regions of Mexico, and parts of the United States. In Mexico, in some cases it causes severe influenza-like illness, followed by pneumonia, which furthermore has in some cases resulted in death. The new strain is derived in part from human influenzavirus A (subtype H1N1), and in part from several strains of influenza virus usually found only in swines (see Swine flu). In April both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC)[1] expressed serious concerns that this novel strain, which apparently transmits from human-to-human and which to date appears to have a relatively high mortality rate in Mexico, has the potential to become a flu pandemic. On April 25, 2009, WHO described the situation as a "public health emergency of international concern", with knowledge lacking in regard to "the clinical features, epidemiology, and virology of reported cases and the appropriate responses".[2] Government health agencies around the world, including the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the UK Health Protection Agency and the Public Health Agency of Canada, have also expressed concerns over the outbreak and are monitoring the situation closely.
Cases of this strain of influenza by country or state.
Country or State Confirmed laboratory cases Other possible cases* Deaths from all cases*
Mexico 18[3] 1300+[4] 81[5]
New York 0[6] 200+[6] 0
California 7[7] 0 0
Texas 2[7] 1[8] 0
Kansas 2[7] 0 0
United Kingdom 0 1[9] 0
Total 29 1500+ 81
(*) Not all cases have been confirmed as due to this strain. Possible cases are cases of influenza-like illness (ILI) that have not been confirmed through testing to be due to this strain.
Contents [hide]
1 Background of outbreak
2 Genetics and effects
3 Countries affected
3.1 Mexico
3.2 United States
4 Pandemic concern
5 Response
5.1 Canada
5.2 Denmark
5.3 Ireland
5.4 Mexico
5.5 Philippines
5.6 Peru
5.7 United Kingdom
5.8 United Nations
5.9 United States
5.10 World Health Organization
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
[edit] Background of outbreak
Train commuters in Mexico City wearing surgical masks.The outbreak was first detected in the Federal District of Mexico, where surveillance began picking up cases of ILI starting 18 March.[10] The first two cases identified as swine flu were two children living in San Diego County and Imperial County, California, who became ill on March 28 and 30.[11] A CDC alert concerning these two isolated cases was reported in the media on April 21.[12] The story of the outbreak was broadcast live first in Mexico on April 23, 2009.
Mexican soldier giving surgical mask to the populationIn March and April 2009, over 1000 cases of suspected swine flu in humans were detected in Mexico and the southwestern United States. The strain was unusually virulent in Mexico, causing more than 60 deaths, mostly in Mexico City and central Mexico;[4] In the United States, virulence apparently was below average. Some cases in Mexico and the United States have been confirmed by the World Health Organization to be a never-before-seen strain of H1N1.[10][3] The Mexican fatalities are mainly young adults, a hallmark of pandemic flu.[13] A new swine flu strain has been confirmed in 16 of the deaths and at least 100 others are being tested as of April 24, 2009.[14] Mexican Health Minister José Ángel Córdoba on April 24, said "We’re dealing with a new flu virus that constitutes a respiratory epidemic that so far is controllable."[4]
On 25th April 2009, the World Health Organization agreed that the current situation constitutes a public health emergency of international concern.[2]
[edit] Genetics and effects
Flu
Influenza
Virus
Avian influenza
Swine influenza
Flu season
Research
Vaccine
Treatment
Genome project
H5N1 strain
Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said that the American cases were found to be made up of genetic elements from four different flu viruses — North American swine influenza, North American avian influenza, human influenza A virus subtype H1N1, and swine influenza virus typically found in Asia and Europe - "an unusually mongrelised mix of genetic sequences."[15] For two cases a complete genome sequence had been obtained. This complete genome is presently being worked with by U.S. scientists to prepare it for transition to become a vaccine. She said that the virus was resistant to amantadine and rimantadine, but susceptible to oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza).[16][17][18][19]
Preliminary genetic characterization found that the hemagglutinin (HA) gene was similar to that of swine flu viruses present in U.S. pigs since 1999, but the neuraminidase (NA) and matrix protein (M) genes resembled versions present in European swine flu isolates. While viruses with this genetic makeup had not previously been found to be circulating in humans or pigs, there is no formal national surveillance system to determine what viruses are circulating in pigs in the U.S.[20] The seasonal influenza strain H1N1 vaccine is thought to be unlikely to provide protection.[21]
In an interview on April 24, acting CDC director Dr. Richard Bessar said that it was still not understood why the American cases were primarily mild disease while the Mexican cases had led to multiple deaths. Differences in the viruses or co-infection were being considered. Only fourteen samples from Mexico had been tested by the CDC, with seven found to match the American strain, and the CDC was still in discussions with Mexico about plans to send an American investigative team. He said that the virus had likely passed through several cycles of infection with no known linkages between patients in Texas and California, and that containment of the virus is "not very likely".[22][23]
[edit] Countries affected
[edit] Mexico
Mexican officials state that since March 2009, there have been over 1000 reported cases and put the death toll at 81, with 20 confirmed to be linked to a new swine influenza strain of Influenza A virus subtype H1N1.[24][25][26]
[edit] United States
Main article: 2009 H1N1 flu outbreak in the United States
Officials in the United States said that eight people were infected with swine flu in California and Texas and all have recovered.[27] Eight school children in New York City are believed to be infected after a school trip to Mexico. The New York case has been confirmed as Influenza A Virus, which meets the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (or CDC) definition of a probable case of swine flu. Tests are still underway to determine if this flu virus is the new strain of H1N1. Two cases have been confirmed in Kansas. Kansas state health officials confirmed the two cases as swine flu on April 25th 2009, just minutes after New York health officials said they had eight probable cases.
[edit] Pandemic concern
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization are concerned that this outbreak may become a pandemic, because:[28]
The virus is a new strain of influenza, from which human populations have not been vaccinated or naturally immunized.[29]
The virus has produced severe disease in Mexico, and some deaths. Furthermore, in Mexico (but not in the United States) the illness has primarily struck young, healthy adults, much like the deadly Spanish Flu of 1918. This is unlike most influenza strains which produce the worst symptoms in young children, elderly adults, and others with weaker immune systems.[30][3]
The virus appears to infect by human-to-human transmission. Investigations of infected patients indicate no direct contact with swine, such as at a farm or agricultural fair.[3] In contrast, for example, disease transmission in the last severe human outbreak of influenza, the bird flu that peaked in 2006, was determined to be entirely or almost entirely from direct contact between humans and birds.[31]
The virus has been detected in multiple regions within Mexico and multiple areas in the United States.
[edit] Response
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I work as a resident doctor in one of the biggest hospitals in Mexico City and sadly, the situation is far from "under control". As a doctor, I realise that the media does not report the truth. Authorities distributed vaccines among all the medical personnel with no results, because two of my partners who worked in this hospital (interns) were killed by this new virus in less than six days even though they were vaccinated as all of us were. The official number of deaths is 20, nevertheless, the true number of victims are more than 200. I understand that we must avoid to panic, but telling the truth it might be better now to prevent and avoid more deaths.
Yeny Gregorio Dávila, Mexico City
The situation in Mexico City is really not normal. There is a sense of uncertainty that borders on paranoid behaviour in some cases. At this very moment, Mexican TV is showing how military forces are giving masks to the people in the streets. Moreover the news is sending alarming messages for the audience. Really, the atmosphere in the city is unsettling, a good example: pubs and concerts are being closed or cancelled and people don't haven thorough information. In this city (and country) there is an urgent need for assertive information, no paranoid messages from the government or the Mexican media.
Patricio Barrientos and Aranzazu Nuñez, Mexico City
Massive events have been cancelled at the National Auditorium - Mexico City's largest indoor venue with capacity of 10,000 - which has been closed. Two soccer games have been cancelled at the Olympic Stadium. A sold out game with 70,000 expected attendance will be played behind closed doors. Another game at the famous Azteca Stadium that would draw an attendance of 50,000 will also be played behind closed doors.
Juan Carlos Leon Calderon, Mexico City
It's eerily quiet here in the capital. Lots of people with masks, Facebook communities exchanging gallows humour, everybody waiting to see if schools and universities will stay closed for ten days (as goes the rumour). All masks have been used up, and we are waiting for new supplies.
Dr Duncan Wood, Mexico City
We will be sick soon and, well, do the math - 400 can infect at least another two per day
Adriana, Mexico City
Yesterday in my office it was a bit surreal walking in to see all in blue masks with deep cleansing of computer equipment and surfaces going on. Let's hope it is contained and does not escalate. The local news is reporting 200 fatalities and reports of flu spreading from areas outside of Mexico City. Given the volume of daily commuter traffic on cramped busses and trains, this may not have to be too virulent to be disastrous in human terms. I wonder what controls there will be on flights in and out.
Will Shea, Mexico City
I work for the government as a head of a computer infrastructure operations department. At work we are doing several actions to try not to expose workers. We sent several home. I support the Pumas football team and the very important match with the Guadalajara team will be played behind closed doors. My family and I are going to stay home all weekend. We feel a little scared and confused with the feeling that we are not given being told the truth. Many people think the numbers of dead people is higher than we are being told.
Marcos, Mexico City
The whole city is affected, I have a very bad feeling about this. Two of my friends at work are sick, they were sick for a couple of days, they went to the hospital and they sent them back to work. The doctor told them it was just a flu until Friday when the alarm was spread, then they were allowed to go home. I work in a call centre and I'm worried because there are no windows in the building so it cannot be ventilated and around 400 people work there.
We all have talked to our supervisor but no one has done anything not even sterilise or disinfect the area. We will be sick soon and, well, do the math - 400 can infect at least another two per day. The authorities say there's nothing they can do since it's a private company and I can assure you, the company I work for is not the only one like this in the whole city. Us workers don't have much protection from our government and if we want to keep our jobs we have to go anyway.
Adriana, Mexico City
My sister got influenza like symptoms two weeks ago. She is fine now, thank god, but similar cases have been showing up since two weeks ago. I work for a bank and we were told to take our laptops because there is a high possibility to work from home. I have gone out to buy some face masks.
Ruben Farfan, Mexico City
I'm a college student in Mexico City, and I can only say that the information that the media has provided doesn't seem to be enough, we do not now how serious it is because they have failed to mention it. There have been two ways of responding to this event, the ones that have entered themselves into quarantine claiming that the government is hiding something much more serious, and those who take this as a joke saying that everyone is overreacting. To put a cherry on top all kind of crazy rumours are flying around - that they are going to quarantine Mexico City, that a school and some specific branches of offices and jobs are going to be suspended for days to come, and so on. I wish more info was available, for example how to prevent it? Have there been many deaths? Is there a threat of an epidemic?
Mari A, Mexico City
I didn't hear about the flu epidemic until last night at 2330. Yesterday the streets were almost empty compared to a normal Friday afternoon. The media is bombarding the same information over and over again, but the authorities haven't said anything new yet, only that they have enough vaccines for those with the flu and that we should avoid public spaces.
Paulina, Mexico City
This is another blow to the tourism industry in Mexico, even though non of the events that is taken place is anywhere near the tourist areas of Cancun, Playa del Carmen or Puerto Vallarta, the news comes across as all of Mexico is affected! After wrong reports of drug related violence, military presence etc. in Cancun, which hurt the industry tremendously, now people think that all of Mexico is affected by a virus that is mostly present in the capital. I guess the problem is that this is a country where the capital carries the same name as the country, thus when people hear news about Mexico, albeit it refers to Mexico City, they assume it is affecting the whole country.
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The Mexican Flu and You
In the past 24 hours I've received dozens of e-mails from SurvivalBlog readers about the emerging Mexican Flu. Some news stories have included cryptic comments from heath officials, implying that the mechanism of infection makes this particular virus "very difficult to contain." This leads me to conclude that those infected have a long latency period during which they are infectious, yet, they do not display frank symptoms. This does not bode well for any hopes of containing the spread of the virus.
Then we hear a CDC official stating: "The swine flu virus contains four different gene segments representing both North American swine and avian influenza, human flu and a Eurasian swine flu." That strikes we as something very peculiar.
The disease is respiratory, and has one strong similarity to the 1918 Spanish Flu: "The majority were young adults between 25 and 45 years old," said one official under the condition of anonymity. Since, young and healthy people with strong immune systems are the most likely to succumb, this might indicate that the biggest killer is a cytokene storm--a collapse caused by the human immune system's over-reaction to a pathogen.
I strongly recommend that everyone reading this take the time to re-read my background article on flu self-quarantine and other precautions: Protecting Your Family From an Influenza Pandemic. The details that I give there are quite important. Pay special attention to my discussion of the shortage of hospital ventilators. If anyone in your family is immunosuppressed, consider yourselves on alert. Make your final preparations to hunker down, immediately.
In the next few days, there is a good chance of wholesale panic, including some well-publicized "runs" --probably first for hand sanitizer and face masks, and soon after for bottled water and groceries. Plan on it.
UPDATE: The BBC News web page Mexico flu: Your experiences has some updates posted from individuals in Mexico City
To summarize, here are some key quotes from a recent article:
"This outbreak is particularly worrisome because deaths have happened in at least four different regions of Mexico, and because the victims have not been vulnerable infants and elderly.
"The most notorious flu pandemic, thought to have killed at least 40 million people worldwide in 1918-19, also first struck otherwise healthy young adults."
...
"But it may be too late to contain the outbreak, given how widespread the known cases are. If the confirmed deaths are the first signs of a pandemic, then cases are probably incubating around the world by now, said Dr. Michael Osterholm, a pandemic flu expert at the University of Minnesota.
"No vaccine specifically protects against swine flu, and it is unclear how much protection current human flu vaccines might offer."
Current statistics show a less than 10% lethality rate, but of course the first wave of flu victims are getting access to the best medical care available. If the contagion spreads, sheer numbers will quickly overwhelm hospital facilities--particularly the number of mechanical ventilators available. So the lethality rate may rise, even if there is not a viral mutation.
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FACTBOX - Some facts about past flu pandemics
Sat Apr 25, 2009 12:51am BST Email | Print | Share| Single Page[-] Text [+] (Reuters) - Health officials around the globe are closely watching an outbreak of a new kind of flu that has killed at least 60 people in Mexico and infected seven in the United States.
Health officials have been warning that a new strain of influenza that can pass easily from person to person could spark a pandemic, a global epidemic that could kills tens of millions of people. Experts agree another flu pandemic is overdue.
Here are some facts about past flu pandemics and pandemic threats:
* The 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic is the benchmark by which all modern pandemics are measured. Some 20 to 40 percent of the worldwide population became ill and more than 50 million people died. Between September 1918 and April 1919, it killed more than 600,000 people in the United States alone. In a normal flu season, about 36,000 people die in the United States, and 250,000 to 500,000 globally.
* While the very young and the very old are most at risk with seasonal flu, the 1918 pandemic primarily struck young adults. It disrupted the global economy. Many small businesses, which were unable to unable to operate during the pandemic, went bankrupt.
* The virus that caused the 1957 Asian flu pandemic was quickly identified, and vaccines were available by August 1957. The elderly had the highest rates of death. The Asian flu killed 2 million people globally, according to the World Health Organisation.
* The 1968 influenza pandemic was first detected in Hong Kong. Those over the age of 65 were most likely to die. It killed an estimated 1 million people globally, according to WHO, making it making the mildest pandemic in the 20th century.
* In 1976, a strain of swine flu started infecting people in Fort Dix, New Jersey, and worried U.S. health officials because the virus was thought to be related to the 1918 Spanish flu virus. Forty million people were vaccinated but the program was halted after several cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a severe and sometimes fatal condition linked to some vaccines, were reported. The virus never moved outside the Fort Dix area.
* H5N1 avian flu is the most recent pandemic threat. It first surfaced in 1997 and continues to infect humans who have direct contact with chickens. The H5N1 or avian influenza virus does not spread easily from one person to another.
* Since 2003, H5N1 virus has infected 421 people in 15 countries and killed 257. It has killed or forced the culling of more than 300 million birds in 61 countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.
* WHO has six pandemic stages. A full-blown pandemic requires sustained, human-to-human spread over many countries of a new and serious virus.
-- Sources: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; World Health Organisation
(Editing by Maggie Fox and Eric Walsh)
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Citizens can challenge state, local gun laws
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
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mindless distractions from myspace... heather, is 23 and has dreams of one day being a model (stripper). she has her whole life ahead of her and she knows it... at least until that little meth habit takes hold! enjoy! ;D
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(04-20) 19:10 PDT San Francisco -- A federal appeals court ruled Monday that private citizens can challenge state and local gun laws by invoking the constitutional right to bear arms - the first such ruling in the nation - but upheld a ban on firearms at gun shows at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton.
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The ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco followed last year's landmark Supreme Court decision that the Constitution's Second Amendment protects an individual's right to possess guns for self-defense.
The high court struck down a handgun prohibition in Washington, D.C., a federal enclave, and did not say whether the Second Amendment also applied to state and local laws. Nor did the court spell out the extent of the government's authority to regulate firearms, although it said guns could be excluded from "sensitive places such as schools and government buildings."
National Rifle Association lawsuits in the aftermath of the ruling prompted some local governments and agencies to abandon restrictive gun laws, including a ban on possession of guns and ammunition in public housing that the San Francisco Housing Authority dropped in January. But no court had ruled on the scope of the Second Amendment until Monday.
The case was a challenge by gun show promoters to a 1999 ordinance that banned firearms on all Alameda County property, including the fairgrounds, where 16 people had been injured in a melee that included gunfire the previous year. The court could have decided the case with its conclusion that the ban was a reasonable safety measure, without addressing the Second Amendment, but opted for a broader ruling.
While a few sections of the Bill of Rights apply only to the federal government, amendments that protect fundamental rights - including the Second Amendment - can be enforced against the states, said Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain in the 3-0 decision.
"The right to bear arms is deeply rooted in the history and tradition of the republic," O'Scannlain said, citing selected passages from speeches and writings during the colonial and post-Revolutionary War period and the years leading up to the Civil War. "It is a means to protect the public from tyranny" as well as "to protect the individual from threats to life or limb."
Judge Ronald Gould, in a separate opinion, pictured a gun-wielding citizenry defending 21st century America against invaders or terrorists.
"That we have a lawfully armed populace adds a measure of security for all of us and makes it less likely that a band of terrorists could make headway in an attack on any community before more professional forces arrived," he said.
The judges concluded, however, that the Supreme Court's reference to exclusion of guns from "sensitive places" allows a county to ban firearms from its property. The ordinance "does not meaningfully impede the ability of individuals to defend themselves in their homes," O'Scannlain said, and county officials are entitled to conclude that guns sold at shows on the fairgrounds could be dangerous.
Donald Kilmer, lawyer for the gun show promoters, said they have not yet decided whether to appeal. He said other Bay Area counties - including San Mateo, Marin, Santa Cruz and Sonoma - have emulated the Alameda County ban, despite what he described as a lack of evidence linking the gun shows to any crimes or violence.
"The county was never able to point to any problems," Kilmer said. "Isn't it a good idea for gun shows, if they're going to take place, to be on public property" patrolled by law enforcement?
The county's lawyer was unavailable for comment. Sam Hoover, an attorney with Legal Community Against Violence, which supports gun regulation, said the court had needlessly opened the door to challenges of other state and local laws.
"We already have a patchwork, piecemeal system of gun regulation in the United States," he said. "This is going to make it that much harder to stem the tide of gun deaths and injuries."
E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.