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March 2009
More good news in the States
The Montana Senate passed a modified form of earlier reforms. This version deletes the removal of CCW permit requirement for carry in cities, but preserves "no retreat" and forbids landlords to make disarmament a requirement of tenancy.
Reader Denton Bramwell emails that Utah's governor signed two measures into law that (1) allow CCW without permit on your own realty, vehicle, or business premises; (2) allows CCW without permit of a firearm with a barrel of 4" or more if hunting; (3) establishes CCW reciprocity for ALL States; and (4) forbids a company from prohibiting storage of a gun in a parked vehicle where the gun is locked up and out of sight.
Permalink · State legislation · Comments (2)
Mexican Cartels
At Andrew Breitbart's new Big Hollywood blog--
Dan Gifford has "The ‘America Is Arming Mexico’s Drug Gangs’ Lie", an excellent post.
Jeff Jena has posted "Backdooring the Second Amendment" on the same topic.
UPDATE: here's a summary of Mexico's gun laws. Given how strict they are, I'm sure they have no real problems. I mean, unless gun laws don't work or something unbelievable like that.
The media I remember
Stereotypes here.
Hat tip to reader Ambiguous Ambiguae....
Permalink · media · Comments (1)
Studies on ammo shortages
Right here.
Another case of armed criminal disarmed by citizen
Howard Nemerov discusses it here. Gun wielding crook invades house, homeowner wrestles with him for gun, crook shoots self, homeowner's girlfriend stabs crook, crook flees.
The antis have the narrative of armed citizen being disarmed by criminal, but it's all other way around. The victim has the advantage of not being drug-addled or drunk, having twice the intellect and judgment of the aggressor, and of standing on the defensive.
Permalink · Dumb crooks · Comments (4)
New Alaska Atty General...
Is Wayne Anthony Ross, an NRA director.
Kansas to vote on individual right guarantee
Story at the Volokh Conspiracy. It's esp. interesting since Kansas' existing wording was cited by its Supreme Court, when in 1905 it basically invented the collective rights approach in City of Salina v. Blaksley. The legislative vote to put it on the ballot was overwhelming: 39-1 in the Senate and 116-9 in the House.
Permalink · State legislation · Comments (3)
SoF Mag expose'
I am informed that the issue of Soldier of Fortune magazine will cover a Dept of Justice Inspector General's report on ATFE deployment in Iraq. Gist of reports is that millions have been claimed in fraudulent overtime (as in everyone consistently reporting 16 hour workdays, 7 days a week, or everyone reporting 15.5 hour workdays).
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (9)
A good day in State legislatures
The Ill. House votes down HB 48, which would have required all handgun transfers to be run thru FFLs.
And the Texas Senate unanimously passed a bill allowing guns in locked cars on company-owned parking lots.
Permalink · State legislation · Comments (29)
Back from hospital
I survived, will post an entry after I get relaxed. Amusing event: I'm in the hospital and hear a page "Dr. No, please pick up on line 1420."
Looked to the roster of licensed MDs kept by the AZ Medical Board and find:
Keun H. No MD
6567 E. Carondelet Drive
# 441
Tucson AZ 85710
and
Kee Bin No MD
6567 e. carondelet dr.
Tucson AZ 85710
Regrettably, I could find no trace of a Dr. Evil. He must not be licensed here. Closest I could come was Christopher D. Evilsizer MD, who actually practices in Colorado.
out of action
hospitalized, prob until tuesday. long story, will fill in later.
Time for some laughs
While doing some online research I came across some webpages that were most amusing, in the wake of the Heller decision.
"The best indication of what any law, including a Constitutional provision, means, is what the courts say it means. Our federal courts, including the Supreme Court, have spoken plainly and unanimously on the meaning of the Second Amendment. .... The perniciousness of the pro-gun forces, particularly the NRA, is not that they disagree with the courts, but that they lie to their members and to the public about what the law says. The success of the NRA and similar organizations in their disinformation campaign is evident in the fact that so many otherwise reasonable citizens believe that the Second Amendment, despite its reference to the militia, guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms. No-one knows that the highest federal courts in the land have consistently held that the Second Amendment is only a right held by the states against the federal government."
"How the NRA Rewrote the Constitution", Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting:
"The Hickman case is the most recent in an unbroken chain of federal decisions, spanning 60 years, ruling that the Second Amendment does not confer an individual right to possess firearms. .... Winless pitchers and hitless hitters seldom make the big leagues. Why should serious journalists continue to print as presumptive truth the NRA's view of the Second Amendment, when its record in the courts is no wins and all losses?"
Violence Policy Center (time to update your webpage, guys):
"In short, the federal courts have consistently given the Second Amendment a collective, militia interpretation. Moreover, no gun control measure has ever been struck down as unconstitutional on Second Amendment grounds. "
Permalink · Parker v. DC · Comments (16)
More on injunction against park CCW
Dave Workman has thoughts and links.
Having read the opinion (linked in a comment to the prior post), I can see how this happened. All agencies have to comply with NEPA, the National Enviro Policy Act. NEPA isn't, as we bureaucrats called it, an action-forcing statute, it doesn't dictate a result. It requires that all agency actions be analyzed for environmental effects in a certain way.
Since it applies to ALL agency actions of any type, the lowest level of analysis, in fact non-analysis, are the categorical exemptions. That's where the agency lists all actions where enviro impact is virtually impossible. Hiring and firing. Repairs of existing structures. Issuing legal opinions. Maybe building shed-size storage areas. Stuff that just doesn't affect the environment.
Probably because this was being raced thru in the last days of the Bush Admin., that's all that Interior did in the way of NEPA. Just applied a categorical. They didn't put together the usual environmental assessment.
So they got nailed. You can see it coming. NEPA requires analysis of environmental impact, both good and bad. Well, if the rule does good things -- allows people to defend themselves against criminals and predatory wildlife -- that's a good impact on the human environment. Which means the categorical exemption is inapplicable.
It was a rushed rule, perhaps prepared by agency personnel who didn't care, or might even enjoy it if it got struck down. There might have been a chance at winning on standing to sue (and I note from the opinion the government didn't argue that!).
Judge enjoins allowance of CCW in parks
Story here.
IL Supreme Court on Lawful Protection of Commerce Act
PDF here. Adames v. Sheahan. UPDATE: this is strange. The link stopped working. I had a perfectly ordinary pdf in another window, so to test it I hit reload ... and it went blank, too.
Basically, a correctional officer kept a Beretta at home. His son got the gun (apparently despite being locked away) and thought that removing the magazine leaves it unloaded. He pulled the trigger with a round chambered and killed a friend.
Next of kin sued the government and Beretta, the latter because the gun didn't have a magazine disconnect safety and the loaded chamber indicator supposedly wasn't enough (I suspect the argument was it didn't have something saying "loaded chamber"), and on failure to warn.
The Illinois Supreme Court holds that the Protection of Lawful Commerce Act applies, and bars the suit since the suit is based on criminal misuse (negligent manslaughter). Plaintiff's arguments that doesn't apply because the shooter was adjudicated delinquent rather than convicted, that the adjudication doesn't count because it's unpublished, etc. are rejected.
Permalink · Gun manufacturer liability · Comments (5)
Charges against X-Caliber Guns dismissed
This is a strange case. The Arizona Attorney General (not ATF) brought State charges against a Phoenix-area gun dealer, claiming he'd supplied over 700 guns to Mexican drug cartels.
And the AG loses on a directed verdict -- meaning the judge finds that the evidence is nonexistent: no rational juror could find for the prosecution.
And then the AG's office says it will appeal. ???? Ever hear of double jeopardy? He was on trial, jeopardy clearly attached by any standard (I forget the AZ rule, but jeopardy usually attaches when the jury is empanelled or when the first witness begins testimony, and a motion for DV is made when the prosecution finishes its case, much later), and he can't be retried.
UPDATE: here's the ruling, in pdf. The State charges were under the "scheme or artifice" statute, and the court says that materiality is a requirement there (in the typical case, that it was something where if the person knew the truth they'd not buy, or otherwise would act differently), and the court notes that the prosecution was unable to prove a single gun wound up in the hands of someone who couldn't legally possess it. Sounds like a pretty big gap between press reports and the evidence.
Hat tip to Practical Tactical....
Comment on 14th Amendment cases
Here, in the Wall Street Journal Online. It would be better if the writer didn't think of the right to arms in liberal vs. conservative lights.
Permalink · 14th Amendment · Comments (2)
Eugene Volokh on the increase in gun sales
He does an interesting month-by-month breakdown over several years and concludes that Obama's election and subsequent events are the most likely cause. Compared to the previous year, sales increased 3% in September, 15% in October, and 42% in November, and stayed high since.
65 Demo Congressmen write AG Holder...
telling him to kindly forget about an "assault weapon ban."
One year ago today
... was the oral argument in Heller. I didn't have the angle to see it, but a friend who did said that the face of DC's advocate, Walter Dellinger, fell when Justice Kennedy's questions showed he was pro-individual right. Kennedy was the likely swing vote.
Permalink · Parker v. DC · Comments (5)
Revival of "assault weapon ban"?
Story here.
DoD backs down on destruction of fired cases
I was delaying reference to this, trying to gather more info, but apparently the Dept of Defense has sold expended cartridges to companies that reload, but recently announced that it would cease doing so and only transfer cartridge casings after they'd been mangled into scrap. It's now reported that DoD had backed down.
UPDATE: the NRA press release confirms that Sen. Baccus & Tester, and Rep. Rehberg, played key roles. Since they're all from Montana, that'd bear out the Montana folks' role.
Your tax dollars at work
The National Institutes of Health, after a study of children and teens in six States, concludes that....
"swimming lessons do not increase drowning risk."
BATFE explosives ruling overturned
Summary and link to opinion here. Issue was whether a model rocket fuel crossed the line from "burns fast" into "explosive." Court gave the agency two tries at formulating and explaining its ruling, and it still couldn't get it right.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (5)
New Admin and arming pilots
A Washington Times editorial. Mind you, given how lousy the last administration was on the issue, it would be hard to do worse, but they're at least giving it a game try.
Opening brief in Chicago case
Pdf here. As always, written in splendid manner.
Permalink · Chicago gun case · Comments (2)
A fellow's memories of Joe Foss
The Minot Daily News carries the recollections of businessman/photographer Mark Hamilton, including:
"Hamilton's love of the outdoors and enthusiasm for every task he undertakes has also led to developing friendships with some very notable personalities. Among them is one remarkable man that captured Hamilton's attention. He is Sioux Falls native Joe Foss, a Congressional Medal of Honor winner, former governor of South Dakota, former commissioner of the American Football League and one-time leader of the National Rifle Association.
"That man made the most indelible impression on me. He's the most interesting character I've ever been around," said Hamilton. "The first year he was here he had just come from Jimmy Doolittle's funeral. He marched alongside Doolittle's casket down Pennsylvania Avenue."
Foss and Hamilton spent time together, mostly duck hunting over prairie potholes. The rugged Foss shared many of his World War II experiences with Hamilton.
"He shot down 18 Japanese Zeroes and four Japanese bombers while serving with the Marine Air Corps at Guadalcanal," remarked Hamilton. "He was shot down four times himself. He told me stories about Pappy Boyington of the famous Flying Tigers, even when Boyington punched him hard and knocked him down outside Boyington's restaurant in California.""
UPDATES: from what I heard, the real count of enemy planes he downed was more like a hundred. To get a kill officially counted, someone had to confirm seeing it actually crash or something close to that (blow up in flames, etc.). The fact that in the witness's opinion the plane was going down was not enough. In a dogfight, of course, your buddies usually had better things to do than watch the plane you'd hit go all the way to the ground.
He told me that Hollywood contacted him, proposing to do a movie on him, and offering a huge sum, 75,000 or 100,000 -- considering military pay of the time, certainly more than he'd make in his entire military career. Then they showed him the script. He protested that it had him doing things that he'd never done, and a love interest with a nurse when the Corps permitted no women within hundreds of miles of Guadalcanal. The studio wouldn't budge and he turned down the money. The later added still more fiction and brought it out as "The Flying Leathernecks."
After he died, there was a letter to the editor in the NRA magazines. A lady had gotten a flat tire on the highway in the middle of nowhere. An older gent stopped, jacked up her car, put on the spare. She was happy, offered money, he declined. Then she said she'd like to write a letter of praise to his boss. He replied he didn't really have a boss. She said -- but you're driving a car with State government plates. How can you not have a boss?
She wrote the fellow looked a little embarrassed and replied, "I'm the governor, Joe Foss."
Ted Cruz campaign website
Ted Cruz's campaign for Atty General of Texas has this new website. It has a link to video of him defending the 2A on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer.
Cruz filed a very good amicus in the Heller case....
U.S. parks to eliminate lead projectiles & fishing weights
Story here.
Hat tip to reader Jack Anderson...
More debate over St. George Tucker
A few months ago, Northwestern Univ. Law Review Colloquy published my paper on the lecture notes of St. George Tucker. One of the points I made was that the Stevens' dissent in Heller had picked up on an article by Saul Cornell that argued Tucker was a collective-rights type, and in fact this had greatly misconstrued his lecture notes.
I just noticed that Prof. Cornell has published a response in Colloquy.
Permalink · Framing of Constitution · Comments (5)
Mexican drug cartels' armament
There's been some claims from the present Administration that US firearms are going south and fueling drug cartels' wars. It is probably the case that some US handguns are being shipped south, but the serious armament of the cartels is now full-auto AK-47s, former Soviet RPGs, hand grenades and some American light antitank weapons. The sources of these are not gun shows or fun shops, but (1) central american countries such as Venezuela and the insurgent groups they support (2) the Mexican military itself (esp. the hand grenades) and (3) for the LAWs, thefts from American military bases. The last can flow south because for a $10-20 tip, you can get your car, and whatever is in its trunk, in without inspection.
Need to have priorities, I suppose...
Chicago's running a massive deficit, with things getting worse. For a time it cut back on snowplowing to save money. Mayor Daley is telling other mayors that they must "“Tell your employees that there’s going to be layoffs. Tell your citizens there is going to be cutbacks of services....”
But nothing will stop Chicago from agreeing to pay another town's legal liability should they lose the handgun prohibition test case.
Hat tip to reader Ambigous Ambiguae....
Permalink · Chicago gun case · Comments (4)
Historical question
Just had this pop into mind....
When John Wilkes Booth went to assassinate Lincoln, he carried a small single-shot derringer and a knife. He succeeded because Lincoln's usual bodyguard (who carried a pair of revolvers and a bowie) was away, and his replacement left his post to go drinking.
If the usual bodyguard had been there, Booth would have been blown away on the staircase. If the replacement had stayed, it might have been the same, or at the very least Booth would have had to use his derringer and then face a much larger Lincoln, and a Union officer, with nothing but a knife.
Booth didn't have a chance to wait and see if Lincoln was vulnerable that night, and try again later if not. The other assassins had already departed to seek their targets, so Booth either succeeded that night or failed.
Question: how could he have expected his plan to work out? It has to presuppose that there is nobody guarding Lincoln, when there should have been someone there. Did Booth not know that Lincoln would have had a guard, go in without any study or recon, and kill Lincoln by pure happenstance? Did anyone ever give the replacement guard a good grilling?
UPDATE: I have somewhere a photo book on Lincoln...had it for 30 years or so, so it's not recent. In it is a photo of his 2nd Inaugural speech. The photo had been overlooked because in developing the plate someone managed to put a thumbprint right over Lincoln's image, making it seem unusable.
Then someone noticed there is someone looking very like Booth, standing to Lincoln's side and rear.
And right below Lincoln's stand/podium are 3-4 of the conspirators, in a group.
UPDATE: A commenter found a pic online. I'm not sure it's the same pic I saw, but was taken at about the same time. The conspirators have their back to the wall directly below Lincoln's podium. The guy with the wide-brimmed hat, and I think the guy with the military kepi, were two of them, as I recall. Booth was right around that big lantern to the right of Lincoln.
Texas Two-Step on Mexico's drug wars
Howard Nemerov has an excellent report.
More reform in TN
Eliminating fingerprints for gun purchases. Sounds like "common sense gun control."
"Casada, of Franklin, cited Tennessee Bureau of Investigation information that the agency has only once asked for a thumbprint from the 2.3 million guns sold since the law went into effect in 1998. And he said that print was smudged and unusable."
Of course there was some opposition. "Rep. G.A. Hardaway, a Memphis Democrat who voted against the bill, suggested that fingerprinting procedures should be improved instead of abandoned."
Yep. That might have ensured that one fingerprint was good.
Good lobbying day in Illinois
Story here. Turnout estimated at 3,500 - 5,000.
Good bills advancing in Utah
Discussion here. One protects employees who have a firearm in the car and park on a company lot, the other makes a number of liberalizations of the CCW laws.
Permalink · State legislation · Comments (1)
Reform in Tennessee
Via Instapundit comes this report from Rustmeister's Alehouse. I found the ban on microstamped guns and ammo interesting. Normally, of course, it makes sense to manufacture stuff to the specs of the tightest (large) State, so it can be sold anywhere. But if some States ban the same, then the equation changes.
“You can reject the post but not the will of God”
Indians (as in India) are really taking shooting seriously. I mean, Todd Jarrett was a great instructor, but none of us had religious visions concerning him. Well, nobody mentioned such, anyway.
Historical trivia
Napoleon termed his cavalry leader, Murat, the bravest of the brave. Murat sided with Napoleon after the latter's return from exile, and was shot.
His son, Achille Charles Louis Napoléon, Royal Prince of Naples, 2nd Prince Murat, and nephew of Napoleon, wound up living in Florida, a militiaman and elected official, and married to a grand-niece of George Washington. On the side, he spoke seven languages and could fix an alligator steak.
AHSA post election
I vote for Willing Shills.
Permalink · antigun groups · Comments (7)
Georgia Carry adopts highway, gets good press
Story here.
Followup lawsuit against DC
Press release here, and complaint, in pdf, here. As part of its new rules, DC adopted California's roster of acceptable sorts of handguns... largely ones that "look right." CalGuns Foundation lent a hand with the research and targeting. The suit singles out guns that were not certified because their manufacturers failed to pay the required fee, or had gone out of business, and listings that are exceptionally arbitrary -- i.e., one gun that is certified, but only in certain colors of finish.
Permalink · Heller aftermath · Comments (7)
Supreme Court turns down Bloomberg suit appeal
Report here. The denial of cert. leaves in place rulings that dismissed NY City's suit against gun manufacturers.
Hat tip to reader Ambiguous Ambiguae...
Permalink · Gun manufacturer liability · Comments (3)
"Gun rights and voting rights clash in DC"
Story here.
Count the errors....
PopSci.com tries to explain whether conventional firearms work in outer space.
Egad. Let's see, primers give off sparks, most but not all of the gunpowder's oxygen comes from its own composition, which uses saltpeter, recoil would be worse because there's no air resistance to slow the bullet...
Permalink · shooting · Comments (21)
Georgia Carry sues Atlanta mass transit
Story here. The legislature last year passed an act that allows carry on mass transit, by persons with a firearms permit. So this fellow got on the MARTA system with a firearm and a firearm permit, and still was detained for half an hour. Here's GCO's webpage, with a press release on this and other lawsuits.
This is not recommended
When a person has been convicted of attempted murder of police officers, and is at sentencing, after the prosecution recommended a 120 year sentence... it's not good idea to defy and annoy the judge on top of it all.
Permalink · Crime and statistics · Comments (3)
Ted Cruz to run for Texas Atty General
Story here. As TX Solicitor General, Cruz wrote one of the most important of the Heller amicus briefs. He'll run for AG if the current AG, a friend of his, decides to run for higher office.
Via the Volokh Conspiracy. where he gets high marks from commenters. e.g., "the dude like Paul Clement has star quality," "The best oral advocate I saw during those four years," "Ted Cruz is awesome. He should win in a landslide, and he will be phenomenal. He's hugely talented, brilliant, and very principled."
Permalink · Politics · Comments (6)
International comparisons
Howard Nemerov raises an interesting point. If we take UN claims as to firearms privately owned per capita, and national homicide rates, and divide countries into quartiles based on firearms owned per capita...
The quartile with highest gun ownership had a homicide rate of 1.6. The second quartile (with under half the first's gun ownership) had a homicide rate of 2.5. Third quartile (with gun ownership a fifth of the first quartile) had a homicide rate of 2.7. Fourth quartile, with gun ownership near zero, had a homicide rate of 3.5.
Permalink · non-US · Comments (3)
New Supreme Ct case on standing
Summers v. Earth Island Institute. A quick read suggests it's no change in direction. (1) Plaintiff must challenge a specific decision, not a general policy or manner of decisionmaking; (2) Plaintiff (or its members) must show some risk of concrete risk of injury -- "I visit Forests and this sometimes happens on Forests and so I might see it" is not enough.
It's a 5-4, and a major factor in the split is that the dissent argues that a large organization should be able to argue that, given the size of its membership and the activities of its members, it's likely in general that some of them will encounter results of the policy being litigated, even if the group's attorneys cannot come up with specific member names and affidavits. (In this case, the challenge was to Forest Service sales of timber on small parcels, but thousands of them, and one of the plaintiff organizations had 700,000 members).
Justice Kennedy concurs, noting that "procedural standing" (the argument that whether or not the result harmed a person, the person had standing because the procedure used to reach the result was flawed in a way that stacked the deck against them) doesn't cut it.
Permalink · General con law · Comments (1)
Prof. calls police after student discusses guns in class
Here's the story.
"Last October, John Wahlberg and two classmates at Central Connecticut State University gave an oral presentation for a communications class taught by Professor Paula Anderson. The assignment was to discuss a “relevant issue in the media,” and the students presented their view that the death toll in the April 2007 Virginia Tech shooting massacre would have been lower if professors and students had been carrying guns.
That night, police called Wahlberg, a 23-year-old senior, and asked him to come to the station. When he arrived, they they read off a list of firearms that were registered in his name and asked where he kept them. Guns are strictly prohibited on the CCSU campus and residence halls, but Wahlberg says he lives 20 miles off-campus and keeps his gun collection locked up in a safe. No further action was taken by police or administrators.
“I don’t think that Professor Anderson was justified in calling the CCSU police over a clearly non-threatening matter,” Wahlberg told The Recorder, the CCSU student newspaper that first reported the story. “Although the topic of discussion may have made a few individuals uncomfortable, there was no need to label me as a threat.”"
hat tip to readers Jim Kindred and Bret Gallo...
Self defense and the media
Howard Nemerov has some thoughts on a recent case. Homeowner awakens to find armed intruder coming into his bedroom, shoots first. Newspaper article focuses on people saying the intruder was a nice guy, and how tragic it was.
Of course it could be pure laziness. Cookie-cutter story line for "somebody gets killed in unusual way" is (1) get next of kin or neighbors to say he was a nice guy and (2) get someone to say they're terrified to think something like this could happen to them. Fits nicely, whether the fatal event is a flaming car crash, a plunge off a bridge, a homicide, or an airline crash.
Permalink · media · Comments (11)
Pulling the troops out...
Out of New Orleans, that is. After 3.5 years.
""I don't know if crime will go up after these guys leave. But I know a lot more of us will be packing our own pieces now to make sure we're protected," said Calvin Stewart, owner of a restaurant and store."
Un-Swiss
There's a move afoot in Switzerland to forfeit their status as a nation of riflemen.
Permalink · non-US · Comments (4)
Open carry in San Diego
Story here. Check out the cool picture!