Akins Accelerator district court ruling
Pdf of ruling here. As I understand it, the Akins involves letting the action slide in the stock so that the trigger essentially pushes itself against the finger, firing as fast as the device can cycle. ATF initially ruled that an Akins-equipped firearm was not a Title II since the trigger is pulled once for every shot. Then, after Akins began production, ATF reconsidered and ruled that it was a Title II since once the trigger is first pulled, it will continue firing until it runs out of ammo or you consciously "release" the trigger by moving your finger away. The court rules with ATF's last position.
Permalink · National Firearms Act · Comments (7)
Inspiring story
The story comes via Instapundit...
Knox County (TN) Commissioner Greg Lambert hears a commotion at the shopping mall, cries that someone had been shot. Two unarmed security guards are trying to respond. Luckily Lambert is a CCW carrier, so when they find the armed suspect he holds him for police. As they arrive, the perp apparently tries again to start firing and they put him down.
The linked articles say the perp killed a store clerk because he was unhappy about a purchase, and was shot and wounded.
Permalink · Self defense · Comments (0)
Georgia citizen detained for open carry
Another one. GeorgiaCarry.org filed suit and reports on the case. (A bit of background: the plaintiff is enlisted military, and was openly carrying in a store. He was stopped and the firearm confiscated. When he asked for its return, he was told it couldn't be returned, because they had forwarded it to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Within hours of word that he had retained counsel, they were asking him to come down so they could return it to him. Investigation showed it had never been forwarded to GBI.)
Not again, again
I've previously posted about a Norfolk VA fellow who open carries, entirely lawful in VA, was arrested, sued and settled for $10,000....
And a few days later, doing the same on a bus, was detained by Norfolk police.
Well, Virginia Civil Defense League held a dinner rally in his support. And as he was leaving, Norfolk PD arrested him.
I don't lightly play the race card ... but it's hard to escape the suspicion that the fact that he's African-American might be playing a role here.
AHSA: just Brady Campaign in a flannel shirt?
An interesting concept. Sensible Progressive lists the positions of American Hunters & Shooters Assn and Brady Campaign on gun control issues and demonstrates, surprise, that they are identical.
Permalink · antigun groups · Comments (2)
NRA to make announcement tomorrow
I'd guess it might be a certain endorsement. I'm just glad I don't have to make this schedule -- four cities, from the east coast to Nevada, in a single day. Details in extended entry below.
Continue reading "NRA to make announcement tomorrow"
I know these guys would do anything to win an election...
But misappropriating the National Shooting Sports Foundation emailing list, to send out pro-Obama emailings? Snowflakes in Hell has the story. And here's the NSSF release on it, with links to their cease and desist letter.
UPDATE: I don't know about the Electronic Espionage Act, and don't do intellectual property law, but it sounds like common law trade secrets or copyright fits nicely. (1) They got the list from somewhere. (2) It wasn't from NSSF. This leaves possibilities that either they had someone else buy it for them -- chuckle, a straw man sale -- or someone had bought it earlier and they got it from him. (3) NSSF says that they only rent the list on the condition that the recipient gets a one-time use and only by himself, and cannot assign rights to anyone else.
Article on Nordyke v. King
An article in Reason, dealing with the Methusala of gun cases.
Hat tip to reader Mark Noble...
Permalink · Heller aftermath · Comments (0)
Settlement in New Orleans gun seizures
AP reports the case has settled. It suggests that part of the settlement is a permanent injunction against seizures in similar future situations.
UPDATE: Here's the NRA press release giving more details.
False flag operations enter the election
The antigun false flag American Hunters and Shooters Association is stumping for Obama in Ohio.
Permalink · antigun groups · Comments (2)
District court rulings post-Heller
The Volokh Conspiracy has discussions of Industrious v. Cauley, and US v. Yanecy, both prohibited person prosecutions.
Industrious strangely cites the Parker Court of Appeals dissent as if it was the rule of Heller -- and botches the dissent at that (seeming to think it means the 2A only applies in DC, when the dissent claimed the 2A didn't apply in DC).
Yancey suggests that we'll see a return of what happened in Lopez: lower courts taking a Supreme Court ruling that they dislike and treating it as incredibly narrow (in that case's aftermath, finding that the ruling only applies to firearms possessed in a school zone, since the ruling mentioned that schools were traditionally a State/local matter, and refusing to extend its limitations on the commerce power to any other setting).
The holding is hardly exceptional: the 2A doesn't forbid laws against possessing guns while using illicit drugs. But the language, "Heller stands only for the proposition that the District of Columbia cannot constitutionally ban handgun possession in the home for use in self-defense by persons not otherwise prohibited from gun possession" is what gives concern.
Permalink · Heller aftermath · Comments (8)
Video from Blackwater Gun Blogger Weekend
Here, via Michael Bane's Downrange TV. If you want to see how fast Todd Jarrett can fire on the move, check out the "shooting on the move clip." If you'd like to see the fun in the shoothouse, try "lasers in the shoothouse." Not to say you get a little zoned out during that exercise, but this was the first I knew the videographer was behind me (and he's toting a big professional camera). The jokes about being startled were based on the fact that inside the last door, the "bad guy" target was right in your face, which is why I shot without taking a stance.
Permalink · shooting · Comments (1)
Another 911 call
Video here. The video clip doesn't relate the whole story; apparently she called 911, wound up relayed to wrong police department, got transferred, related her location (although too panicked to give an exact address), fled to the police station and was killed in their parking lot after being kept out by some manner of fence.
The commentators have a point: given that the event lasted 3.5 minutes, with her changing locations, it'd be hard to prove that even if 911 had handled it efficiently, she would have lived. On the other hand, if she'd been able to dial 357...
Hat tip to Don Kates...
NRA expanding ad campaign
Announcement here. The expansion is aimed at six States, I'd guess chosen because they are in play and have high firearms ownership.
Obama, the Joyce Foundation, and the Heller case
I have a Pajamas Media article up exploring the connection between the three.
UPDATE: the comments to the story have several commenters saying that their Dish Network suddenly began defaulting to the Obama Channel. I had someone say that to me this morning, too. Unless the campaign is paying for the privilege, I'd think that's a thing of value (you'd pay good money for it), and thus an illegal corporate campaign contribution.
Continue reading "Obama, the Joyce Foundation, and the Heller case"
Permalink · antigun groups · Comments (4)
ACLU suit against ATF?
Joe Huffman reports on it. A lady was driving around on April 19, 2006 (the anniversary of the Waco fire) with "remember the children of Waco" written on her windows, and got pulled over and questioned. At least from the description, it sounds like local police, rather than ATF, stopped her.
Ah, here's more. But not much more, and the link to the judge's order is inoperative.
UPDATE: comments have a good link to the judge's order. It appears that ATF asked local police to make the stop. One question to me is how the communication with the local ATF would have turned up that she had a CCW permit.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (5)
Amusing historical find
While researching the 14th Amendment, I found in the Chicago Tribune a report of same-sex marriage ... in 1866!
"Women's Rights -- A Woman with a Wife
[From the New Bedford Mercury, 4th]
About a year ago, a daughter of Major Daniel Perry, who was somewhat deranged, disappeared, and wandering off, was at last lodged in the Sullivan County, New York, alms house as a vagrant. Here she met another monomaniac, by the name of Lucy Slater and the two, becoming very much attached to each other, decided to become man and wife. THey left the alms house last summer, and returned to Abington, where they have lived in the bonds of wedlock, as supposed by the neighbors -- Lucy, alias James Salter, wearing male attire up to the present time."
Of course in 1866, with no picture ID, no social security number, it was easy to take an alias. Read somewhere that 300 women served in the Union Army. Everyone kept their uniform on (the hotter and muggier it was, the more necessary to avoid your pores absorbing malaria, it was thought), the medical exam was rudimentary (mostly focusing on teeth, to tear open a cartridge, and beyond that just observation of whether the recruit was visibly disabled), and with puberty coming later (and so many underage fellows enlisting), a recruit who didn't shave didn't stand out. A band wrapped around the chest would flatten out her breasts, and so long as a woman's face could pass for that of a male, all she needed was a haircut and an alias.
UPDATE: yep, what usually gave the game away was a hospital admission. One in the 2nd Michigan, Sarah Seelye I think she spelled her real name, got sick and hospitalized and they figured it out. Someone told me that another was discovered by Clara Barton herself. Soldier was brought in WIA, she opened the shirt, and found cloth wound tightly around the chest... hmmmm.....
Clinging to guns and religion
A Jewish Manhattan resident clings to his guns and his religion.
Another dumb crook report
Arrested for burglary, posts bond, is released and is immediately caught in the jail parking lot, going thru cars.