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May 2006
British police blog
The Policeman's Blog gives a view of what it's like to be an LEO in Britain. A recent entry notes that burglaries to steal car keys and then the car are a fequent occurence, and the offenders pack CS spray and knives. Police are now advising persons to take their car keys to bed with them at night. He adds:
"American Rifleman has a few alternative solutions to the Car Key Burglary problem; try keeping one of these by the bed instead of your car keys: the XD 45 ACP (.45 calibre but feels like 9mm in the hand), the Kel-Tec PLR-16 (for if you have a particularly long hallway) or the P90 (for when we tell you we’ll be out as soon as we can)."
Another entry summarizes a book that contends that to protect the public, they would have to quadruple the police forces and treble the incarcerations.
ATFE looking into NYC gun "stings"
The ATFE is looking into NY City's 'straw man' stings. The alleged straw man buys were made by private investigators under contract to a firm hired by the city.
I wouldn't hold my breath on this, but *if* those were straw man buys, then the investigators are caught cold on multiple felonies -- and city officials would be on the line for aiding and abetting and for conspiracy. It'd be all the clearer since the modern 4473 requires the buyer to certify that he is buying for himself and not for anyone else, and making a false certification on the 4473 is a felony (under GCA 68 and also under the all-purpose making false statements, 18 USC 1001).
So to worm out, the city might claim "well, they weren't REAL straw man sales, we just faked it." That doesn't do their civil lawsuit much good. "It really WAS for me, but we made it look as if it was for him, so the dealer should be liable for having gone with the reality rather than with our act."
Scotland and knife crime
From the BBC:
"People caught carrying a knife face arrest and custody until appearing in court, under new guidelines being issued by Scotland's top prosecutor.
.....
Mr Boyd said more than half of all murders were committed with a knife."
[Update: spelling corrected. I hadn't yet finished my dose of coffee when posting]
Michael Moore is sued by disabled vet
The NY Post reports that Michael Moore has been sued for $85 million by Sgt. Peter Damon. Damon was seriously injured in Iraq and wound up with both hands amputated. Moore (without Damon's consent) incorporated footage of an interview Damon gave NBC.
I don't do Intellectual Property law, but sounds like he has a case -- unless NBC got him to sign a wide-open release allowing them to do anything with the footage. From what I understand, that's rare. NBC is going to look after covering themselves -- if someone later buys rights to the footage, they have to look up the person filmed and get his permission for their use.
Moore has more than just that one suit coming. He also used footage (obtained under unknown conditions) of a funeral at Arlington with grieving wife. Not to mention that he took a newspaper's letter to the editor (Google for Moore and Pantograph, the name of the paper) and re-typeset it as a headline story.
Permalink · antigun groups · Comments (0)
MI media and Castle Doctrine bill
It's back to the good old days with some of the media -- you know, when the journalist's drive was to make sure gun laws were enacted, rather than to report on the issue.
The Lansing City Pulse has an article on the proposed Castle Doctrine bill. It begins:
"Picture this: A homeless man comes up to you and in a demanding voice asks for money. You have no knowledge if he is armed, and he says nothing to suggest he is. Still, you feel threatened. You are carrying a pistol legally because of the state’s concealed weapon law. You pull it out and shoot him. After an investigation, police determine that you acted legally — not in self-defense against someone threatening to cause you bodily harm, but simply because you felt threatened.
Sound like a farfetched scenario? Not if the state Legislature approves a new law already enacted in 10 other states."
The rest of the article is on a par with that -- lots of Brady Campaign quotes and [insert terrifying speculations here]. I haven't seen the precise text, but if it tracks what has been done in other states a person must have a *reasonable* fear of being subjected to *deadly force* before he can defend with deadly force.
Permalink · media · Comments (3)
Driver uses auto to run down five
In Covington, GA, Lanny Barnes used an auto to run down five people, including three toddlers. "One witness described the man as having a smile on his face." "Barnes' mother, Mary, told The Associated Press that her son has battled mental illness."
What kind of society do we have when any madman or felon can buy a car without a background check, and easily secure a license to drive it anywhere he desires? Why don't can't we at least regulate cars as tightly as we regulate guns?
Permalink · non-gun weapons · Comments (0)
Carnivals
The Carnival of Cordite is up, and so is the Carnival of Homeschooling.
Permalink · Festivals · Comments (0)
SWAT raid on chemical supply house
Here's a report of a SWAT-type raid on a supply house, based on complaints by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, on claims it might be shipping chemicals useful for fireworks, and that it hadn't complied with safe shipment standards. Altho the charge is apparently a misdemeanor, it involved two dozen agents packing M-16s and a battering ram. One more example of how every case is now being treated as reason to call out the SWAT team.
As a gesture of support, here's their webpage. Interesting stuff! Not just chemicals, but prizms and all else.
The article also mentions that someone tried to re-create the chemical sets were had as kids -- and found most of the chemicals are banned as too risky for kids today! They wound up having to create a set where the most prominent chemical is laundry starch... needless to say, a set that wouldn't interest anyone in chemistry. I often joke with a friend (who is now an MD) that if kids today did what we did, they'd have DHS breaking down their door. We made nitrocellulose, firecrackers, smoke bombs, fulminating mercury, time fuses (my invention -- burned at 20 seconds per inch, so you had time to get away and create an alibi before the sky rockets launched) and even nitrogen tri-iodide. I mentioned the last to a retired prof. of chemistry, and he said that was the most sensitive expl... the second most sensitive explosive known to man. I said yes, we'd found the formula for the most sensitive, and knew better than to try it! Nitrogen tri could be set off by brushing it with a feather. The most sensitive one could be set off by taking it from darkness into sunlight!
Supreme Court case on retaliation against prosecutor
The Supremes just handed down Garcetti v. Ceballos, which gives some insight into prosecution decisionmaking. Plaintiff was a supervisory prosecutor with the LA County Attorney's office. A defense attorney raised a question about statements in a search warrant affidavit. Plaintiff checked it out and found serious problem with veracity (e.g., the affidavit claimed to have followed defendant's tire tracks down a road, and the road surface was one on which no tire tracks would be left).
Plaintiff called up the officer who gave the affidavit and got no satisfactory explanation. The county attorney went ahead with the case anyway. Plaintiff alleged that as a result of his reporting the problems with the affidavit, he was harrassed, transfered, and denied a promotion. He sued for invasion of his civil rights, specifically freedom of speech.
The majority of the Court held that he can't sue, because in raising the issues he was acting as a government employee rather than as a citizen exercising freedom of speech, and when acting as an employee a person is subject to standard employment discipline. (The majority notes that with academics there may be a different case, but no need to decide that here).
Permalink · General con law · Comments (0)
Prof. Barnett on Liberty
Minnesota Public Radio has an hour-long broadcast on liberty, featuring Prof. Randy Barnett. Link via the Volokh Conspiracy here.
Interesting points: Lord Acton maintained that liberty was not a means to higher political ends, but was itself the highest political end. (Interesting contrast to the Court's treatment of the First Amendment, esp. in the election law context, where freedom of expression is balanced against other factors, its weight determined by the political purposes it serves, at least those purposes the Court deems valid). Barnett points out Acton's view was that of the Framers. That liberty promotes socially-desirable ends is a fortunate byproduct, not its purpose.
You need a core notion of rights to begin with -- no one has liberty to kill or rape or steal, precisely because those do not involve "doing what you want with that which you own."
Debate about Patriot Act is (for most of us) not about liberty per se -- the average person can't violate it. Debate is really about limiting gov't power so that it doesn't violate liberty in other ways.
Not unprecedented -- Barnett says his peve is the line "in these troubled times." Only for a few years have we had "untroubled times" in our history. Going back to the founding, there were troubles and the gov't tried to get of control. Alien and Sedition Acts. Got so out of hand that VA and KY state legislatures passed resolutions declaring the federal law unconstitutional. If we take view that things are uniquely bad, going to hell just now, this leads to destructive actions and destructive politics. We are really facing same issues Americans have for two centuries.
Interviewer asks -- is liberty unchanging, or does it change with society. He replies--go back to framers, one of the federalist claims was that liberty was so unbounded that you could never write down all your rights. Iredell said make as long a list of liberties as you want, and I'll come up with twenty that you didn't set down. Illustrates Framers' expansive view of liberty. Liberty changes, usually by expansion, since what we can do with what he have is continually expanding.
Caller agrees these are not unique times -- look at abuses in WWI, WWII. Barnett agrees, jests that doesn't want to depress everyone by listing all of them.
American culture distinctive in that our culture embodies concepts of liberty and of limited government. Appropriate to remember, on Memorial Day, that many thousands of Americans died to protect that. The culture of a nation affects not only domestic but foreign policy -- it's your self-image as a people.
Caller wonders if modern situation isn't different... no longer need pouring over paper to pry into lives, computers can do it. Barnett says lot of truth to that... technology is both liberator and restrainer. Almost impossible to lead an anonymous life today. Taking new job, have to fax new college two forms of ID. Unheard of a century ago, you could pack up and become someone else, and lots did. On other hand, with encryption, technology gives us a way to keep things private. Interesting contrast between Americans' sensitivity to liberty and relative insensitiviy to privacy.
Caller: should we add privacy to constitution? Barnett: we've unfortunately lost the tradition of amending constitution, perhaps because Supreme Court has gotten in habit of unofficially "amending" it. In early republic, Supreme Court held that a person could sue another state over debt. People didn't like that, and immediately adopted 11th Amendment. That was the proper response. That's healthier than expecting the Supreme Court to reconstrue the constitution to suit our desires.
Should privacy be protected? We ought to get specific. Privacy is a generality. The advantage of doing a written amendment is that someone has to put it down in specific words, and then we can have a proper debate over it.
Another prof said life liberty and pursuit of happiness in Declaration was divisive. Barnett-- dunno, know original was life liberty and pursuit of property. Famous trilogy dates back to Locke and to state constitutions. I don't know about negative reactions to original or to the change.
Testy caller: Bush talks of liberty in Iraq, but in US tries to curtail it. Barnett: liberty is not specific. Sometimes used to mean political liberty, voting. Offtimes I think president uses it in that sense in Iraq. I disagree with many of pres. policies, but don't believe he's conspiring to violate liberties. I do think he should be more sensitive to individual liberty... he seems interested in political liberty, but not in expanding individual choice (exception for his Social Security proposal).
Permalink · General con law · Comments (0)
Have to share this
A .wmv file of the worst rendition of the national anthem yet recorded. The singer gets thru the first ten seconds OK, and then it starts.
Wrapup of Castle Doctrine enactments
The Star-Telegraph has an wrapup of the trend.
Permalink · Self defense · Comments (0)
Gunfire on Capitol Hill, or maybe not
Story is just breaking. Unclear what happened, and possibly nothing did, but they've sealed off the Rayburn House Office Bldg.
Permalink · contemporary issues · Comments (0)
Article on Virginia Constitution, militia, and rt to arms
Over at Virginia 1774, Rudy has posted a .pdf article on origins of the Virginia constitutional provisions relating to its militia and arms-bearing.
Brady hires former Tucsonan as Calif. leader
Brady Campaign has hired Ellyne Bell as California Field DIrector. The press release describes her as "an experienced and creative progressive grassroots organizer and coalition builder."
She used to work here in Tucson as head of the Brewster Center for battered women, and "coalition builder" was not a term that comes to mind.
Here's another article: "Ellyne Bell abruptly resigned from the Brewster Center last week, just before City Councilmember Steve Leal did the right thing with a community sit-down that resulted in restoration of domestic violence services at El Pueblo Neighborhood Center... The Brewster crew has a long way to go to repair the damage done by the union-busting tactics they've happily practiced. .... Brewster, sadly, is typical of many in the non-profit Mafia that soak up dollars for big salaries, toot their own horns and then don't deliver."
Permalink · antigun groups · Comments (2)
ABC firearm news covered by former antigun group staffer
ABC News has brought on Jake Tapper to handle gun issues, and here's his take on the NRA convention.
Turns out Tapper is a former employee of Handgun Control, Inc., which is today known as the Brady Campaign.
Here's a story with links to his past writings for Salon.com, which make it obvious why HCI would have hired him. "Another day, another school shooting -- and another brief focus by the media on gun control. But believe it or not, despite the rash of high-profile school shootings in recent years, not one major gun law has passed the U.S. Congress since 1996..." "That Congress continues to slay any and every gun law -- no matter how popular, incidental or seemingly reasonable -- is a tribute to the gun industry's powerhouse of a lobby, the National Rifle Association."
Here's a page where you can send ABC a comment. Let's see now -- hiring a reporter on an issue where he'll be quoting his former bosses and coworkers? No disclosure of the linkage?
Permalink · media · Comments (5)
Markup of GCA reform bills
Via Subguns.com comes a summary of GCA/ATF reforms that were recently marked up (committee session where you actually vote on amendments to and content of the bill) -- click on the extended remarks below for full text.
Continue reading "Markup of GCA reform bills"
Permalink · Gun Control Act of 68 · Comments (1)
Brady & Calif hearings on microstamping
Brady Campaign rejoices that a proposal for gun microstamping (putting tiny engravings on the firing pin to mark cartridges fired from the gun) has been shown to function.
Of course, the real issue is how little effort is required to defeat the measure. With a .45 and a spare firing pin, I'd say about 2-3 minutes. If they microstamp the bolt face, then it'd take a spare slide and about 45 seconds. And if you can't get the spare parts, I suspect a 15 second pass with a Dremel mototool would do the job.
[UPDATE: Refugee notes in comments that a legislator says they had a guy remove 70 microns from the firing pin tip and the marking were still visible. I've hunted around to get an idea of whether 70 microns is significant enough to where removing more would cause a malfunction. It doesn't look that way. This webpage on the Steyr Scout says factory tolerances for firing pin protrusion are ".050" - .059" (1.3 mm – 1.5 mm)." This military manual indicates that for an M-1 tolerances are broader: "The minimum should be 0.044 inch and the maximum should be 0.0590 inch." And here's an exchange about the Remington 700, saying tolerances are .055-.060," and he used .052" but had some misfires.
I haven't found the specs for handguns, but these would indicate that the tolerances in question are at least about .2 mm, and at most over 1mm (.05"). Since a micron is a thousandth of a millimeter, seventy of them would be .07 mm. This suggests that the amount removed in the test is far less than factory tolerances would allow, let alone how far it can be taken before the gun malfunctions. You might be able to take 3-10x that much off without going out of tolerance]
Media and emergencies
NRO Online takes down the media over Katrina coverage. You know, the 40,000 dead, bodies stacked like cordwood, mass rape, etc.
We older fogies can remember the riots of 1967 (I know -- if you can remember the sixties, you weren't there). Cities terrorized by snipers (which was a major impetus to GCA 68). When they investigated later, it turned out there had been almost no sniping (sniping to media = gunshots somewhere). What had been happening was that from time to time a National Guardsman would feel threatened and fire a shot. That would go zipping or ricocheting for a mile, and every Guardsman who heard it would conclude he'd been fired on and fire back, and those would go zipping and richoceting... sorta like a nuclear chain reaction, with .308s instead of neutrons. Next day would come the story about how several square miles of (insert city name) had been terrorized by snipers in regimental strength. I remember one incident where a gunowner was seen taking rifles into his house (not surprising in the setting), someone called the authorities, and a tank was sent out ... which proceeded to demolish his house with .50 fire. (Luckily, he and his family had time to flee into the basement and survived).
Permalink · media · Comments (2)
DC gun lawsuit tossed
A DC district court has dismissed the DC lawsuit against gun mfrs.
Interesting to read the parts of the opinion quoted. The judge plainly has little use for gun or gunmakers, but the integrity to reach a result contrary to the world as she'd like it to be. And anyone who thinks that level of integrity is standard issue hasn't spent a lot of time in court!
Permalink · Gun manufacturer liability · Comments (1)
WWII ordinance turning up
From Reuters:
"McCain's Whittlesey plant near Peterborough in eastern England has also been evacuated several times this year after World War Two ordnance was found in batches of potatoes.
"Occasionally during the use of imported potatoes from Belgium and northern France, ordnance debris from the First and Second World War is found," McCain said in a statement."
Nothing like politics
2001: Brady Campaign rejoices in the election of Jim McGreevey as governor of N.J.: "In analyzing the huge win for McGreevey, Mrs. Brady said: "New Jersey has been at the forefront of the national gun control movement for many years, and voters supported Jim McGreevey because they knew he is a proven leader who will fight to protect New Jersey's strong gun laws."
2006: The now ex-governor has a few problems.
2001: Rep. William Jefferson gets a 100% rating from Brady Campaign.
2006: The Congressman gets a $100,000 rating in an FBI bribery investigation.
Body armor debate
I had an entry a while back on a claim that the militiary was unfairly preventing troop use of Dragon Scale body armor.
There's now a report that it was tested and failed mil-spec, no details given. Interesting comments on both sides at Murdoch Online.
[Thanks to James Rummel of Hell in a Handbasket.]
Notes on NRA convention
It was a pretty good one, attendance said to be 40-60,000. I got to meet Bitter, of the Bitch Girls --sorta funny, since she is not bitter at all!
Spent Friday in the legal education seminar, which I'd highly recommend to legal types. It was useful, and I'd rather send my CLE money to NRA than to the state bar anyway. The most interesting part came when a defense attorney discussed the latest NYC "sting" lawsuits. My notes:
It's indeed been assigned to Judge Weinstein. They said he was extremely bright, indeed brilliant, and he has a definite agenda. And does things which sound pretty wacky to me. In one past trial he sat in the jury box. The defense tore the plaintiff's expert to pieces. Sitting in the box, the judge asked the expert questions to rehabilitate him (lawyerese for revive his credibility). Finally, they objected that the judge was leading the witness, and he sustained the objection, still there in the jury box.
In past cases, he'd refused to allow the defense to probe Brady Center's data on tracing -- they were arguing many guns had traced to the dealer in question, which must prove he was dealing with criminals. But in some other city suits they managed to get that discovery, and looked at it closely. They found that only 1 in ten or twelve traces had anything to do with criminal use of a gun. The rest were police tracing because a widow had dropped off her husband's guns because she didn;t know what to do with them, lost guns, guns seized when a DV order was served, etc.
The latest suits focus on nuisance because some states have criminal nuisance statutes and the gun mfr liability act has an exception for criminal conduct. It's a real stretch.
ATF has said they will be investigating every aspect of these "sting" sales (and there were ATF people present who repeated that). This may be bad news for the city, since IF the sales were illegal straw sales, their investigators committed felonies.
One gun was traced TWICE in NYC. The first time was for a crime, so it would have to have been confiscated. Only explanation for how it would later be on the street is that someone in NYC PD is selling seized guns on the street.
NYC suit wants very strange relief, dealers to post a bond for their good behavior, and judge to oversee their training and operations. This would be crazy relief (even if the FFLs in question were in NY, which they aren't), but this is Judge Weinstein. In normal case, there'd be problem with personal jurisdiction. Gun shops aren't in NY, have never sold to anyone in NY.
Other notes--I got a chance to share cigars with former Sheriff and present Director Jay Printz. He'd been over in Iraq as a law enforcement contractor for some months. He said that the present rules allow an Iraqi to keep one gun per home and one per place of business. He mentioned one prime 1911 that a trooper had ... they found a fellow with the 1911 and an ancient pinfire revolver in his house, and the trooper proclaimed the pinfire was the one allowed gun and confiscated the 1911. The sheriff thought that a rather lousy way to win hearts and minds.
Also ran into Susan Hupp Gratia, whose father was killed in the Luby's Massacre, and who speaks on how, if Texas had had liberal CCW back then, she would have had a clear shot at the killer... but it didn't, and so her gun was in the car. She's quite a talker, informally as well as formally, and in the Texas legislature.
Spent time, too, with Alan Corwin, who publishes his own gun law books via www.gunlaws.com. As always, he's full of new ideas.
The members' meeting passed a resolution memorializing David Caplan, and the directors are planning to do the same. Jeff Knox moved a resolution in favor of his late father's plan to change Board elections (instead of 76 directors at large, have 50 from the states and 26 at large). The vote was to pass the matter to the Bylaws and Resolutions Committee.
Permalink · NRA · Comments (1)
Back home
Got back from the NRA convention, will blog some notes on it tommorrow. In the meantime, Alphecca notes that the local press coverage was favorable. (In my memory, it usually is -- NRA coming to town is interesting news, and the local press will happily cover it without much negative spin). In this case, I was told, the city of Milwaukee had done a lot to bring NRA in, and there were 40,000-60,000 people attending. There was word that it might set an all-time record for persons attending an event at the convention center there.
Permalink · NRA · Comments (0)
Take on Bloomburg's gun suits
Gun Law News has a very good analysis of the effect of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Firearms Act on the latest NYC suits.
I'd add:
1. I doubt that NYC meets the requirement that the plaintiff be directly injured by any alleged violation. At most, they claim to have paid someone else's bills.
2. There may be dormant commerce clause problems with a civil suit, against an out of state company, on the claim it sold to some persons in its state (I assume the alleged straw sales were to residents) and should be liable in NY for a transaction in, say, PA, on the theory that someone else might thereafter use a gun illegally in NY.
3. The suit seem pretty flimsy to me. Why bring them? I can only think of (a) publicity; (b) try to drive up insurance rates for ALL dealers, and hence get rid of them or (c) the fix is in.
Continue reading "Take on Bloomburg's gun suits"
Permalink · Gun manufacturer liability · Comments (1)
Mens rea under Calif. gun law
Here's a discussion of a recent California Supreme Court ruling on the state of mind required under one provision of its gun laws, which ban possession of a rifle with overall length under 26 inches. (Defendant had a rifle 24" overall). The question was whether defendant had to know that the overall length was under 26". The California court rules:
1. The statute requires that Defendant know the gun was under the limit, but
2. This is satisfied by proof that he must have known the gun was "unusually short," and a 24 inch rifle is just that.
(2) appears to contradict, or at least defeat (1).... but that's caselaw for you.
Permalink · State legislation · Comments (1)
Three years ago
I'll be heading to Milwaukee tommorrow, and will likely be doing very little blogging until Sunday.
Three years ago today I was flying to Falls Church VA, for my eldest son's 18th birthday. He lived there with my former wife... we'd divorced in 1990 and years later I'd remarried, but we were on good terms, if still, well, arguing from time to time.
His mother had been diagnosed with cancer in January, and she'd been telling me the chemo was taking care of it. I got out to the house and found her in bed on oxygen. A four day trip turned into two weeks, during which (the rest of the family chickening out) I had to tell her that the docs said she wouldn't make it, arrange a funeral and a probate. I've got a memorial page to her here. Look in the wedding photos if you want to see a young Wayne LaPierre with Austin Powers-type haircut.
You'd think after 20 years of argument it wouldn't hit hard, but it certainly did. I still put flowers on her grave every time I'm in the DC area, tho I stopped weeping while doing it after a year or so. Bottom line was that we'd shared a life and a love and a bed and a child for years. Her father, my best friend, had died in 1985, and she was laid to rest next to him. Her mother died nine months later, and went in the plot as well. That entire family wiped out.
Continue reading "Three years ago"
Permalink · Personal · Comments (2)
Brady v. NRA annual meetings
This weekend is the annual NRA meeting, and by coincidence also the Brady Campaign annual get-togther. The contrast between the two meetings is, I think, rather interesting.
The NRA meeting is usually attended by 20-30-40,000 people. It rotates around the country -- last year at Houston, this year Milwaukee. The meeting itself is free. The banquet is attended by several thousand and costs $75.
The Brady gathering is attended by a few hundred, located in D.C., and costs $250 per plate.
Permalink · antigun groups · Comments (0)
Another municipal lawsuit
New York City just filed one, against out of state FFLs, alleging that they were allowing straw purchases.
If they can prove that, they can probably invoke the exception to the gun mfrs' liability protection. I still see major barriers in terms of (a) duty (b) causation and (c) damages. Not to mention (d), standing. I mean -- if you can prove a dealer on a certain day was willing to make a strawman sale, does that prove he ever did so in the past? How many times? What crimes were caused or not caused?
As far as standing goes -- anyone who's ever tried to represent a cop or fireman suing a private individual for negligence that resulted in on-duty injuries runs afoul of the "fireman's rule" -- they can't sue, because running those rirks are part of their job. A city as a government is, I'd think, in an even weaker position.
UPDATE: most of the stories so far have just been paraphrases of the NYC press release. Here's one with a bit of detail. One interesting question is which judge got the case. If Jack Weinstein -- then the fix is in.
Permalink · Gun manufacturer liability
Carnival of cordite
The latest Carnival of Cordite is up!
Permalink · Festivals · Comments (0)
Million Moms
The Million Moms March traditionally rallied on Mother's Day. This Mother's Day, apparently their only event involved handful of people in Eugene, OR.
The article notes " A year later, the group merged with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, advocating for tougher gun laws..."
Of course, there might be another reason for the merger...
Permalink · antigun groups · Comments (0)
California's revolving door
The LA Times notes that, due to prison overcrowding, California is giving early release even to violent inmates. It cites the case of a gang-banger who committed a murder, was then caught with drugs and a sawed-off shotgun, and served six days. A few meditations in extended remarks below.
Continue reading "California's revolving door"
Permalink · Crime and statistics · Comments (5)
NYC permits for celebrities
From time to time reports come out on how, although handgun permits are rarely granted in New York City, celebrities seem to have little trouble getting them.
According to Reuters, NYC police arrested "DJ Star," a radio disk jockey, for threatening a rival over the air. "He was also ordered to surrender his gun license and a handgun."
Here's an article on the NYC permit system. Of the approximately 50,000 permits, 9,000 have been snatched up by non-police city employees. Other permittees include the publisher of the NY Times, Donald Trump, and Laurence Rockefeller, none of whom are especially likely to hang out in high crime areas. Here's another report -- the NY Time editor got his permit with the statement that he has special needs since he carries lots of cash. (One of the many paradoxes of the law is that wanting to protect yourself isn't sufficient grounds, but wanted to protect money and other valuables is).
Permalink · State legislation · Comments (3)
Bloomsburg's mayors' conference
I agree with Bitter's assessment: at least one of the mayors attending the antigun mayor's conference sounds certifiably insane.
Permalink · antigun groups · Comments (1)
Lautenberg and ex post facto
Over at Gun Law News there's a debate on whether the Lautenberg amendment (making persons convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence into persons prohibited to possess guns) violates the ban on ex post facto laws.
I think GLN has it right. Lautenberg doesn't violate one arm of ex post facto (you can't criminalize conduct retroactively -- Lautenberg passes muster because to violate it a person must possess a gun after it was enacted) but does violate the other arm, at least for DV offenses commited before Lautenberg was passed (you can't increase punishment, in this case for the DV offense, after the offense was committed).
Not that any court's going to buy the theory. As I recall, they either ignore it, brush it off, or reason by analogy that putting conditions on something like permit or licensing isn't punishment. It might be interesting to bring a case in the Fifth Circuit, tho, since that circuit has recognized that the Second Amendment is an individual right. It's hard to apply reasoning keyed to permitting (government has no duty to license a person, it merely grants a privilege) to a restriction, indeed a complete cutoff, of a constitutional right.
Permalink · prohibitted persons · Comments (1)
Canadian gun registration costs hidden by gov't
The Ottawa Citizen reports that auditors have found that Canada's former Liberal party government hid the real costs of its gun registry by listing its expenses in other categories. "Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to use the auditor general's report as a reason to begin dismantling the disputed program, which is opposed by many of the party's core supporters, particularly in Western Canada."
Permalink · non-US · Comments (0)
House markup cancelled
House subcommittee markup of three bills was set for this morning, but was put off due to lack of a quorum. "Mark up" is when the subcommittee or committee votes on the actual wording of a bill.
I've described two of the bills -- HR 1384 and HR 1415 -- in HR 5005 appears to overlap with the others. It makes some wording changes in a few sections, and allows importation of certain firearm receivers as replacement parts for existing firearms.
Another TSA foul up
TSA screeners detain and pat down Marines in dress uniforms escorting a fallen comrade. I guess they met some profile. Reminds me of the time they hassled Joe Foss over his Congressional Medal of Honor ... it had sharp points! He must have met the profile, too -- an 80 year old fellow in a suit, Marine, retired Air Force General, former governor, on his way to speak at West Point. He was particularly upset that neither the screeners nor a couple of National Guardsmen nearby knew what a Medal of Honor was -- he called over their superior officer and gave him a world-class dressing down in front of everyone.
I was on the flight and he told me about it on arrival, so I tipped a buddy who knew the local AP reporter...
Military procurement
Defense Review raises some questions regarding procurement of body armor, and why our troops are carrying weapony designed a half century ago, when better stuff is available.
Wyoming sues ATFE
Via Alphecca comes this AP story of a lawsuit filed by Wyoming.
The Lautenberg amendment bans gun possession by persons convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence. The 1986 amendments to the Gun Control Act (some of which I drafted, long story) provide that a conviction is not a conviction if it has been expunged or set aside or rights have been restored (unless the order doing so, or the State law, provides that it does not restore firearm rights).
The local ATFE (this is the only case I've heard of it happening, so I think it's a local position) took the position that a conviction is not "expunged" unless its effects are entirely wiped out. Wyoming, like most states with expungement proceedings, doesn't really wipe them out -- the order says that they are, but in fact they can be used to enhance sentences in case of a second offense.
I think the local ATFE is in error here. Most expungement statutes work in the way the Wyoming one does. And the statute also recognizes restorations of civil rights (voting, etc., in the case of felonies) that do not affect the conviction at all. It's hard to see why Congress would have wanted a provision to apply in the case of a felony but not in the case of a misdemeanor. I suspect the US Attorney will roll over on it, but if not, the case might pose some interesting Second Amendment issues as well. After all, even the collective rights approach agrees that a State could raise the issue....
Permalink · prohibitted persons · Comments (0)
Lumbee Indian resistance to Klan
I've been researching a long-lost event, for incorporation into the documentary film on the right to arms... the pain is that the local accounts were in the Robesonian newspaper, North Carolina, and the Library of Congress collections of that have been shipped to the New England Antiquarian Society. But I do find (just in case someone needs a term paper!) New York Times, 1/19/58 pp. 1 & 41, Life magazine, 1/27/58 at 26-27, Life 2/3/58 at 36-37, and a much later summary by the AP reporter who covered it, True Magazine, March 76 at 64.
Short summary of the events: In 1957, a Klan leader named James "Catfish" Cole tried to lead a Klan cavalcade (basically a mass drive-by shooting) to attack the home of a friend of Robert Williams (the friend being vice president, and Williams being president, of the local NAACP). It was, well, an unusual chapter of the NAACP -- it was also chartered as an NRA-affiliated club, composed mostly of veterans, and armed to the teeth. Williams' men blew the Klan cavalcade away -- no casualties reported, so they probably shot for engine compartments and aimed well, but there was a line of disabled autos and guys in bedsheets running for their lives.
A while later the same Klan leader decided to hold a cross-burning rally near the Lumbee Indians -- he objected to their intermarriage and dating of europeans. About 50 Klansmen showed up. And about 500 Lumbees. The rally was lit by a single lightbulb, which was either shot or knocked out, and the Lumbees charged in. In the aftermath, the Klan leader was charged with incitement to riot and imprisoned for two years. The twin defeats disintegrated the Klan in the State. I'll post my summary of the press coverage in extended remarks below.
Continue reading "Lumbee Indian resistance to Klan"
Permalink · arms vs. genocide · Comments (2)
Interesting insight on PA gun politics
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on the Philadelphia mayor's push for State gun control: ""I haven't heard from them," said State Rep. Dennis M. O'Brien, ...who chairs the legislative committee where many gun bills favored by city leaders are currently bottled up.....
"The only time I hear about it is when they have press conferences," he said.
Study on liberalizing CCW & crime rates
Here's a media report of a study indicating that liberalizing CCW does not increase crime rates (from the report it's unclear whether the result is that it has no effect, or whether, as John Lott's work indicates, it reduces crime rates).
Permalink · CCW licensing · Comments (1)
Gunnies get more sex drive?
The New York Times reports a study of a whopping 30 persons that indicates that, after handling a gun, male testosterone levels rise and they are more willing to put hot pepper in someone else's drink. (Control subjects played a board game called Moustrap rather than handling a firearm). This is interpreted as proving that handling a gun increases aggressive tendencies.
I'd suggest better interpretations would be:
1. Diassembling firearms is good for your sex drive.
2. People consigned to playing Mousetrap just want to get out of there ASAP.
OK passes Castle Doctrine law
Oklahoma just passed a Castle Doctrine statute. The governor is expected to sign.
Permalink · State legislation · Comments (2)
John Lott defends "More Guns, Less Crime" studies
The Raleigh News-Observer has a letter to the editor from John Lott, defending his studies against another letter to the editor that claimed his results did not stand up when others performed similar studies. Lott links to a page listing numerous studies, which he says support his conclusions that liberal CCW reduces crime.
Permalink · Crime and statistics · Comments (0)
PBS series on Annie Oakley
Just was informed PBS should be running tonight (Monday) a documentary on Annie Oakley, entitled "Annie Oakley: Little Miss Sure-Shot." I don't have schedule information, so consult your local source.
This is the documentary that Riva Friefeld has been working on, for several years. Don Kates just emailed me a review in the NY Times (can't find it online yet) that praises it with NY Times-type reluctance, beginning "Plenty of women accomplished plenty of things in the first century or so of United States history, so it's a little dismaying to think that the country's first female superstar was famous not for her voice or her musicianship or her brain, but for her ability to shoot firearms accurately. Yet tonight's installment of "American Experience" on PBS makes the case that Annie Oakley was the first American woman whose fame and knack for spawning legends (a close cousin of gossip) qualified as superstardom."
Media: Bruce Willis interview
Actor Bruce Willis gives an interview, in which he says everyone should have the right to defend themselves, gun control disarms only the law abiding, and that he believes even a pacificist would fight to defend their own life.
And the story runs with the title "Bruce Willis Supports Gun Laws."
Permalink · media · Comments (2)
Patrick Kennedy
Off topic, but ....
1. The Smoking Gun has the police report. Whatever he had in him, he must have been completely plastered. Weaving to where he hit curbs and went into the opposing lanes of traffic, not pulling over when the squad put on its lights, crashing into a barricade....
2. Checked the DC Code and yep, driving under the influence of any drug, including a prescription one, is as much DUI as is driving under the influence of liquor. So the statement "I wasn't under the influence of alcohol -- it was prescription drugs" is actually a confession to DUI.
UPDATE: Riverdog sent the following comment, which for some reason was blocked by the spam filter:
"The two drugs are Phenergan, which is an artificial opiate, I believe, and is given only under direct medical supervision when necessary to calm a bad attack of colitis, usually. I had it recently in the ER in Chandler to reduce a bad colitis/bleeding episode. The drug hit me like a ton of bricks and I felt as if I was floating. It is a major central nervous system depressant.
The second drug is Ambien, a new sleep-inducing drug.
Phenergan and Ambien are NEVER prescribed together, according to my daughter, who, as a third-year medical student, looked it up for me. Ambien actually has a primary warning to never prescribe it with CNS depressants.
The Junior Bloviator HAD to have been "doctor shopping" to get two different doctors to prescribe the two different depressant drugs. Hmmmm....where have I heard about "doctor shopping" lately?
Oh, yes. It was the left-wing talk shows lambasting Rush Limbaugh about his alleged doctor shopping. I wonder of these same lambastors will now excoriate Kennedy for the same thing?
The other thing is that addicts usually only take these depressants drugs to counteract a severe high from a stimulant drug such as methamphetamine. I would bet a serious amount of moolah that Kennedy checked in to rehab not to kick any bad habits, but so that he couldn't be tested for meth for the two to three weeks that it takes to get it out of his system.
Oh, and BTW, there are some interesting details in that "confession": such as hallucinations. The guy drove and put the citizens of DeeCee in danger while undergoing a self-induced hallucination.
It seems to me that transcends driving misdemeanors, and might rise to the level of a felony. Perhaps DeeCee has a felonious Reckless Endangerment law? It would have to be an indictable misdemeanor if not a felony.
Does that fit "high crimes and misdemeanors"?
Title II ideas
An interesting discussion on getting NFA permits issued to a trust, corporation or limited liability company, instead of to an individual.
One problem with an NFA permit is that it's issued to one person or entity, and only that one can possess the firearm. If the permit is to you, your spouse cannot use it without you being present, even tho the spouse is co-owner. I don't do trusts, but it does sound like an interesting idea.
Permalink · National Firearms Act · Comments (4)
Harvard Law Rev. on Firearm Mfrs Protection Act
Don Kates pointed out at recent Note in the April 2006 Harvard Law Review. (pdf file--down at bottom of cover). It discusses enactment of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, and in particular how the Act's purposes clause (which invoked the 14th Amendment as protecting an individual right to arms, might play an advisory role in any Supreme Court decision on the right to arms.
Permalink · Gun manufacturer liability · Comments (2)
New chairman at Brady
The Brady Campaign has announced that Paul Helmke will take over as their president. He replaces former Congressman Michael Barnes. Helmke was mayor of Ft. Wayne, Indiana, and lost in the congressional primary against Rep. Souter. Basically, their leadership is changing from an antigun Democrat to an antigun Republican.
I can remember back to when it was the National Council to Control Handguns. Then (because the name was too close to the National Coalition to Ban Handguns) it became Handgun Control Inc., and then the Brady Campaign. In its first incarnation, curiously, it argued that gun registration, permits, etc. are useless against crime -- back then it had hopes of a handgun ban, and feared that these would be used to head off that move.
Permalink · antigun groups · Comments (1)
"License to murder"
Here's a new antigun (anti-self-defense) webpage entitled License To Murder, claiming that "Castle Doctrine" laws allow people to " kill another person just because they look "suspicious,"" and "allow people to open fire without consequence."
I would think that a law creating a presumption of self-defense where an aggressor has violently and illegally entered a home requires a bit more than his "looking suspicious"...
It is supposedly posted by Freedom States Alliance. Here's their "about" webpage. FSA claims to be a "grassroots" organization, yet nowhere on its pages can you find one human name. Looking up the domain name on whois.com indicates it is registered anonymously via Domains by Proxy. So this supposedly grassroots group is going to unusual efforts to hide who or what is behind it.
Hmmm... the organizations that receive its money are mostly antigun groups that have been receiving Joyce Foundation funds. The links to other gun issues are to issues that Violence Policy Center, another Joyce-bankrolled group, have been pushing. I smell another Joyce front, a fake grassroots organization created by the Foundation's millions.
Permalink · antigun groups · Comments (4)
Back on duty
Back in town from a filming trip for the documentary. I may be a bit slow for a time. As a one man film crew, I have to carry everything myself, and the load is about 70 lbs. My lower back and hip joints are killing me!
Ouch!
Last entry before leaving for the plane--last night I got nailed by a bark scorpion while in the back yard. Ouch! Nailed me in the foot, and the leg is still tingling halfway up the shin (their venom is mainly neurotoxic). So I got out my big sprayer and nuked the area, and that around every door and window, with insecticide. Teach that little sucker who to play with...
Offline for this week
I'll be out of town filming, tomorrow morning thru late Friday night, so apart from any last minute additions Tuesday morning I'll be out of internet contact for that period...