Supreme Court denies cert in all pending 2A cases
Docket here. Justices Thomas and Kavavaugh dissent. I could not anything of their rescheduling these cases, some for over a year, and can make even less of then denying them all.
Joe Tartaro passes on
Just got the word. He'd been with the gun rights movement for eons. He left the only written account I know of relating to the Cincinnati Revolt of 1977, which created the modern NRA, and of which he was one of the team of good guys. Yep, he was an established activist 43 years ago. Good man.
Local covid-19 data
Yesterday the Arizona Daily Star ran an article on covid-19, saying that its incidence increased ten days after Governor Ducey lifted the order closing non-essential businesses. Ten days was chosen, the article said, because that was the accepted interval between exposure and the development of symptoms. (They were a little mistaken: it's more like five days average for symptoms to develop, plus five days average for testing results to be posted. But ten days is a good interval.
I responded with a letter to the editor, which I doubt they will publish, pointing out that by the same standard the demonstration/riot downtown on May 31 had a much worse effect. Which is just commonsense. Which is more likely to pass a respiratory virus, having your hair cut by a barber wearing a mask, or standing shoulder-to-shoulder for hours in a crowd of chanting and shouting people?
Here are my figures, taken from the Arizona Dep't of Health Services website. I take the numbers and rate of daily increase for one day before and after the tenth day:
Business reopening, May 16
May 29: 56 new cases, 2.6% increase
May 30: 78 " " 3.4%
May 31: 14 " " 0.5%
Demonstrations/riot, May 31
June 9 189 new cases, 6% increase
June 10 129 " " 4%
June 11 149 " " 4%
Why is the Supreme Court holding onto so many 2A petitions for cert?
Some thoughts. I don't have a clue, either.
Hilarious!
June 9: Antifa takes over six blocks of Seattle calls it Free Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.
June 10: They invite some homeless into their zone.... who promptly swipe all their food.
I wonder why they didn't call the police ... oh, that's right, I forgot...
Loss of a good man
My friends lost their son. I never had the honor of meeting him, but Stephen Peter Tylutki was a hell of a good fellow.
Bad acid trip....
It's especially bad when the tripper breaks into an armed citizen's home and attacks his wife.
Minneapolis city council may dissolve its PD
Story here.
The proposal is to do away with the police department and adopt a "transformative new model of public safety," whatever that is supposed to mean. As Herschel says, thank you, Antifa, for publicly demonstrating why the 2A is so relevant. And how the "progressive model" is insane as a model for government. Near five centuries ago, Hobbes laid out the core purpose of government: providing security. We all give up the legal right to victimize others, in return for them giving up the same, and government comes into being as a way of enforcing that. And, P.J. O'Rourke reminds us, after that comes putting out fires and fixing potholes in the road.
How quickly time passes...
On May 31, 2020, the last Civil War pensioner passed away.
FLA Supreme Court strikes down ballot initiative aimed at "assault weapons"
Story and opinion here. Initiatives require a description of the measure being voted on (and for which petition signatures were sought), and the court found, 4-1, that the description was inaccurate. It said that existing firearms would be registered and "grandfathered in" without disclosing that they could never be transferred, by transaction or will or otherwise.
A note of thanks to Antifa
Captain's Quarters nails it. They've brought the Second Amendment home for many uncommitted people, put paid to the argument that since police are there to protection you you don't need self-defense capabilities, why would you need a large capacity magazine, etc.