Recently I wrote to you about the Gun Grabbing Judge of Texas, Tarrant County's Judge James Munford.
How did Judge James Munford earn his reputation as the "Gun Grabbing Judge of Texas"? With cases like the 2009 case involving Mike Ives, in which the NRA had to get involved to help Mike Ives protect his gun rights from Gun Grabbing Judge Munford.
In 2018 Texas Gun Rights Executive Director Chris McNutt wrote of this case in a mass email saying:
James Munford, the Associate Judge of the 322nd Family Court, showed his gun-grabbing ways by signing a court order in 2009 that stripped law-abiding gun owner and father Michael Keith Ives of his Second Amendment rights.
In a 2018 article about anti-gun Judicial activism, Open Carry Texas described the Ives case this way:
The specific case involved a Michael Keith Ives, a party to divorce proceedings in Judge James Munford’s Family Court. The court order, issued on the Court’s own initiative, without motion by either party or supporting evidence, prohibited Mr. Ives from possessing or using firearms. Mr. Ives is an avid hunter and the order had the effect of preventing him from participating in that activity. He was also prohibited from otherwise possessing firearms even though there was no evidence supporting a conclusion that Mr. Ives had in any way used or threatened the use of violence or firearms in any way against his spouse or children or would otherwise justify such an order. That order was overturned in subsequent judicial proceedings.
Texas Gun Rights' Chris McNutt also wrote concerning the Ives case:
Ives himself questioned the validity of this order, but did not have the resources to fight back at the time:
“I don't believe there is justification to do this but it is too expensive to fight and not as high a priority as custody of my children.”[2]
Despite no evidence of foul play, the gun-grabbing Judge Munford had the gall to proceed in stripping Ives of his Second Amendment rights....
Thankfully, the provision of this order did not go through.
Originally, Nancy Berger, the District Court Judge of Munford’s Court, carried forward the provision in an attempt to make it a permanent order.
It wasn’t until gun rights activists stood up and fought the order, that the Court finally backed down and removed Munford’s gun-grabbing provision from it.
One would think such behavior would only come from a gun-grabbing Democrat.
But in this case, Associate Judge James Munford showed his true colors by legislating from the bench to strip a parent’s Second Amendment rights.
Open Carry Texas pointed out the profound impact this case could have had on gun rights in Texas, saying:
Judicial activism such as this has a substantial chilling effect upon the rights of other litigants and casts doubt on the impartiality of the judiciary. Open Carry Texas supports the rule of law and urges voters who share those concerns to carefully evaluate the record of candidates for office, not merely their claims, especially those which merely claim to support the Second Amendment.
In fact, Chris McNutt also pointed out that "To add insult to injury, Judge Munford has the gall to campaign at gun events as if he was some champion of gun rights."
Above, Judge Munford an his wife actually campaigning at a gun show!
Texas must vote Gun Grabbing judges out! Judge Munford will be up for reelection in in the 2022 elections. We
need to be getting prepared now to make sure that the Gun Grabbing Judge
of Tarrant County, and judges like him, are "primaried" and voted out
of office in 2022.
