Synagogue hostage situation: how'd he buy the gun?
Surprise, the hostage-taker bought it from a convicted felon. Look for that story to be buried.
Justice Breyer retiring
He's stepping down at the end of the Term, that is, late June. His Second Amendment record is such that, no matter who replaces him, the vote count won't change. Hopefully, things will improve otherwise.
I remember during oral arguments in Printz v. US, he asked Steve Halbrook an utterly off-the-wall question about how the Germany Republic handled similar constitutional issues. In an earlier argument, I heard him ask a question so irrelevant that the others justices seemed, well, embarrassed and rushed in other questions before the attorney could think "WTF?" and answer.
Here's the "Everytown" reaction:
EVERYTOWN RESPONDS TO REPORTS THAT JUSTICE STEPHEN BREYER WILL RETIRE
NEW YORK - Everytown for Gun Safety, and Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, both part of Everytown's grassroots networks, released the following statements in response to reports that Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will retire at the end of this term:
"Throughout his tenure on the Court, Justice Breyer has ruled in favor of reasonable measures to keep Americans safe from gun violence," said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. "President Biden's nominee to replace Justice Breyer should also understand that the Second Amendment is fully consistent with common sense gun safety laws."
"The gun violence prevention movement is grateful for Justice Breyer's distinguished career and understanding that reasonable gun safety laws are constitutional," said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action. "We look forward to President Biden nominating a Black woman to continue this legacy, and we will mobilize our grassroots army of volunteers to ensure the Senate swiftly confirms them."
Gun ownership diversifying
So runs an article in the Economist.
"Decades ago most people bought guns for hunting and recreational shooting. Now they mostly do so for self-defence, which is a universal concern. People who feel vulnerable to crime or hold less faith in the police are more likely to arm themselves.
Rising murder rates in 2020 and 2021 heightened those anxieties (blacks are the likeliest victims). Membership of the National African American Gun Association grew in 2020 by more than 25%, to 40,000. Blacks have a long history of owning guns: Harriet Tubman toted them, Martin Luther King kept them at home. But this tradition was long "surreptitious", says Aqil Qadir, a third-generation shooter who runs a firearms-training centre in Tennessee."
The manner of thing you'll rarely, if ever, see in the American media.
9th Circuit panel ruling on covid shutdowns of gun stores
McDougal v. County of Ventura is the case. The ruling itself is nice, but the real amusement is in Judge VanDyke's concurrence in the opinion (which, as he notes, he also wrote).
"But I write separately to make two additional points. The first is simply to predict what happens next. I'm not a prophet, but since this panel just enforced the Second Amendment, and this is the Ninth Circuit, this ruling will almost certainly face an en banc challenge. This prediction follows from the fact that this is always what happens when a three-judge panel upholds the Second Amendment in this circuit." "Our circuit has ruled on dozens of Second Amendment cases, and without fail has ultimately blessed every gun regulation challenged, so we shouldn't expect anything less here."
"My second point is related to the first. As I've recently explained, our circuit can uphold any and every gun regulation because our current Second Amendment framework is exceptionally malleable and essentially equates to rational basis review....
"it occurred to me that I might demonstrate the latter while assisting my hard-working colleagues with the former. Those who know our court well know that all of our judges are very busy and that it's a lot of work for any judge to call a panel decision en banc. A judge or group of judges must first write a call memo, and then, if the en banc call is successful, the en banc majority must write a new opinion. Since our court's Second Amendment intermediate scrutiny standard can reach any result one desires, I figure there is no reason why I shouldn't write an alternative draft opinion that will apply our test in a way more to the liking of the majority of our court. That way I can demonstrate just how easy it is to reach any desired conclusion under our current framework, and the majority of our court can get a jump-start on calling this case en banc. Sort of a win-win for everyone."
FPC wins two lawsuits over COVID-19 gun store shut downs
Here's their summary, with links to the cases.
A sign of the times....
We're all familiar with cases where hospitals audit their drug supply and find they are missing 5,000 pills (strangely, never Amoxicillin).
Arkansas Dept of Corrections finds it is missing 28,000 rounds of .38 Special.
Latest on Alec Baldwin shooting
The armorer is suing (legal merits of that debatable) with some startling allegations. (1) The ammo supplier supplied the set with a mix of live and dummy rounds, and (2) the scene proceeded without her even being on the set ("had Hannah been called back in"). Also in badly-worded article, it seems to say that the ammo supplier Kenney said that "all rounds are rattle tested before being sent to film sets." Rattle tested? I've heard of dummy rounds with a BB inside that would rattle when shaken, but personally, when I make a dummy, I drill holes in the side so I can be sure it holds no powder.
As we know, the rules of gun safety are so devised that you can break one or a few and still no one gets hurt (although they may get scared), to hurt someone a person has to break them all. Looks like these morons broke them all, plus a few just meant for movie-making, and two bystanders paid the price.