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May 2009
In the ICU
7 hours under the knife.
UPDATE and two units of blood and a load of morphine....
Open thread on Chicago case
I'm off to the hospital soon, and won't be in condition to blog for several days, maybe a week. But I know some readers will be going to the oral arguments in the 7th Circuit, so feel free to tell us how it went. (Note: I also won't be in condition to do very much if the spam blocker arbitrarily blocks a post. Just try a shorter one, less risk of hitting a banned word).
Open thread on Sotomayor nomination.
Here are Dave Workman's thoughts on the nomination.
Permalink · General con law · Comments (7)
DC crime drops post-Heller
Say Uncle notes that violent crime and gun crime are down in the District following Heller. Doesn't prove causation, of course, but does refute "striking the DC law will cause a bloodbath." Via Instapundit.
Permalink · Heller aftermath · Comments (0)
7th Circuit panel of judges
Chicago case, heard today: Posner, Easterbrook, Bauer. Posner=bad news. Bauer -- wrote the antigun Morton Grove ruling many years ago.
Permalink · Chicago gun case · Comments (8)
Thoughts on gun rights and partisan politics
Right here.
The Mythical Major Caudill
Interesting story here. In 2007, a blogger writes "Why the Gun Is Civilization," an essay that begins "Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force." It argues that weaponry eliminates the ability to use force, requires reasoning, and thus is an underpinning of a civilized society.
By late 2007, the article is on other internet locations, but attributed to an apparently mythical "Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret.)." How or why it wound up attributed to that name is unknown.
And now, the essay winds up as two pages of Ted Nugent's latest, "Ted, White and Blue: The Nugent Manifesto," and attributed to the mythical Major. If anyone's in touch with Uncle Ted, they might want to give him a heads up to the problem.
"To Shake Their Guns in the Tyrant's Face"
I blogged earlier on history prof Robert Churchill's new book on the origins of the militia movement of the 1990s. Here's the U of Michigan Press description page.
I've had time to read it, and it is excellent! He has no agenda, is simply out to write accurate history. Got into private archives, interviewed people, obtained government records. I can't sum up 300+ pages in a blog post, but a few high points are:
1) This was by no means an isolated or novel event. Throughout the history of this nation, people have responded to excessive use of government force by forming voluntary quasi-military organizations. It's almost an unconscious reflex for Americans. The critical events here were Ruby Ridge and Waco.
2) We've had various "red scares" and "brown scares" (as in brownshirt, i.e., of the right). We had a now forgotten brown scare during WWII, and a red scare thereafter (whose leaders learned from how the brown scare had worked), and then during the 1990s another brown scare directed at private militia groups. It was as inaccurate and exaggerated as the earlier scares.
3) The American Revolution left two legacies -- national building and liberty. By the 90s, the latter had almost been forgotten. The bicentennial of the Constitution was a BIG event, special commission headed by the Chief Justice, parades in DC, etc., etc. The bicentennial of the Bill of Rights passed unnoticed. Independence and nation building were seen as the legacy of the Revolution, individual liberty pushed to the side.
4) I'm flattered that he says the work on the origins of the Second Amendment, undertaken by David Caplan, Steve Halbrook, David E. Young and I, played a major role in returning liberty into the popular consciousness. It returned via the gun movement, which in the 80s and 90s began going into originalism, and which spread out from the law reviews into the popular mind. He recounts hearing two truckers on their CB radios discussing George Mason's thoughts, something that would have been beyond belief a decade earlier.
Amazon listing is right here.
Regret to report...
My blogging will be light in the next week, and maybe the week thereafter. I've been diagnosed with bladder cancer. The doc took out the four tumors, but they proved to be high grade and thus almost certain to recur, at about 4-5 year intervals, 10% chance of fatality each time. The solution is to remove the bladder and make a new one out of small intestine tissue. That'll be done Tuesday at noon local, and I'll be in the hospital for 1-3 weeks. They do have high speed internet, but I'll be out of it for a while.
UPDATE: I'll be at University Medical Center, 1501 N. Campbell, Tucson 85724.
Interesting
In the left sidebar, I have had a link to the 2004 Department of Justice report on the Second Amendment, taking a individual rights view. Click on it since the change in administrations, and the link is broken.
Apparently, they archived certain papers of the last administration. I finally found it here.
Hat tip to reader Balsaman...
Six years ago
Six years ago today my son Mark awakened and heard no labored breathing. His mother, my ex Frances, had died of cancer. Her webpage is here. About this time I was at the funeral home in Falls Church VA, making arrangements.
Chuck Michel's partner elected LA County Attorney
Cal. State Rifle and Pistol reports that Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich won the election with 55% of the vote. Of his opponent, it notes:
"This is a tremendous victory for the Second Amendment, because Trutanich's opponent, rabidly anti-gun- owner Los Angeles City Councilmember Jack Weiss, works closely with the gun ban lobby to advance its agenda. Weiss had promised to work with other anti-gun-owner cities and the Obama Administration to pass ill-conceived gun bans and to overturn the Supreme Court's ruling confirming your Second Amendment rights....
Weiss spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on mailers and TV ads smearing Trutanich with the NRA connection. The tactic backfired, and every ad Weiss ran against the NRA became a rallying cry for gun owners to vote against him. Meanwhile, Weiss didn't gain many votes based on the NRA angle, because those people would have voted for Weiss anyway, or not voted at all."
It must really suck to be on the other side, part 352
Kurt Hoffman has thoughts. He notes the changes in the Brady rhetoric (using that term in its proper sense, persuasive expression). Right after the election: we kicked butt! We rule! Let's get moving! Today: slowly awakening to "we wuz screwed."
Permalink · antigun groups · Comments (10)
The world turned upside down....
An editorial in Pravda attacks Obama for being socialistic.
Hat tip to reader Jack Anderson...
Carry in parks amendment passes!
Roll call here. Passed about half an hour ago, 279-147, with 105 Demo votes.
Hat tip to reader Alice Beard...
update: on a quick read, it appears that the House also voted for the bill as an entirity, and that it voted it out as an approval of the Senate version. So there will be no conference -- it goes right to the president's desk. And he wants the rest of the bill so bad it hurts ....
Guns in parks legislation likely to pass
Or so the NY Times thinks. It was attached to a credit card bill, scooted thru the Senate, and now is in the House.
Hat tip to reader Jack Anderson....
Some notes from NRA Board meeting
1. Jim Porter was elected 2nd vice president. (David Keene moved up from 2nd VP to first VP, and Ron Ron Schmeitz from first VP to president. John Sigler stepped down as president and was elected to the Executive Council).
The new president announced, among other things, that membership was increasing by 100,000 a month, and that over 10,000 new members had signed up during the convention.
New Para series
Stopped by the Para USA (formerly Para Ord) booth. They made the gun blogger special edition last year, and I've become very fond of mine, a 1911 action with double-action trigger.
They're now bringing out their Gun Rights models. 1911 .45s, single and double stack, fiber optics sights and match trigger, and Para is donating $25 to NRA from every sale.
They also have a VERY nice three dot sight. The central dot is orange (may be fiber optic, I don't remember) and the two on the sides are white. The three catch your eye, but the center one really catches it.
At NRA meeting
Haven't blogged much for past few days since I'm in Phoenix at the NRA annual meeting, and busy as heck. I heard the dinner last night was the largest dinner in the State's history, with 5,500 people. (I suppose it's not hard to calculate which is the largest, because anything in that ballpark would have to take place in the convention center). Attendance estimates I've heard range from 55,000 to 70,000.
Los Angeles gun buyback
Gun buybacks' primary function is to enable gunnies to sell their junkers for above market value, so I probably should not be critical of them, but report seems exceptionally brainless. One of the organizers says of the people who turned out, "It's a pretty good-looking group of citizens," he said. "We didn't expect any gangsters." Hmmm... then what was the benefit of getting their guns?
A city councilwoman comes up with an idea: the guns "no longer can be used in a crime."
Senate passes bill allowing carrying in parks
Story here. Vote was 67-29.
Hat tip to reader Jim Kindred...
Washington Times calls for arming ship crews
Editorial here.
A thought: it might take no more than a pistol. assuming the target ship unbolts its ladders, they have to come up via grappling hook. As soon as the first guy's head appears, the crewman shoots him. The pirate crew now must call for volunteers to be the next up. If, repeatedly, the point man get shot between the eyes, this will eventually lower morale.
That might explain why the pirates veered off when the cruise ship's crew just fired some shots in the area. They had AKs, but so long as the guys with pistols could duck out of sight and wait for them to expose themselves, they could wipe them out.
Hat tip to Don Hamrick....
Washington Times calls for arming ship crews
Editorial here.
A thought: it might take no more than a pistol. assuming the target ship unbolts its ladders, they have to come up via grappling hook. As soon as the first guy's head appears, the crewman shoots him. The pirate crew now must call for volunteers to be the next up. If, repeatedly, the point man get shot between the eyes, this will eventually lower morale.
That might explain why the pirates veered off when the cruise ship's crew just fired some shots in the area. They had AKs, but so long as the guys with pistols could duck out of sight and wait for them to expose themselves, they could wipe them out.
UPDATE: I wouldn't worry much about the videotaping. It's easy to prove a case when only one party is alive at the time of trial.
Hat tip to Don Hamrick....
Florida alert
United Sportsmen of Florida is sending an alert (see "below the fold") that the Legislature raided most of the funds produced by CCW licenses, which are supposed to be set aside to handle license issuance only. Legislature also put in a proviso to pressure against veto, by saying if provisions of the appropriations bill are vetoed, the money to finance them will come out of the education budget.
Continue reading "Florida alert"
Amicus briefs in Chicago 14th Amendment case
They're all posted here. Five for the Plaintiffs/Appellants, four for the scoundrels.
Permalink · Chicago gun case · Comments (4)
He IS "The One"
To the gun industry, that is. Obama continues to justify his title as the Greatest Gun Salesman of All Time. Sturm, Ruger's corporate report, in pdf. Firearm sales up 55%, production up 69%, but not keeping pace with demand, backorders are up to nearly half a million firearms. And "we hear anecdotally from retailers that a significant portion of their customers are new and often buying their very first firearm."
The rest of the economy, esp. the manufacturing sector, is shot, but the gun industry is skyrocketing.
Forest fire danger from muzzleloaders?
The Forest Service has a presolicitation, forest-fire related notice out for "Multi-variable analysis on the probability and prediction of fire ignitions from muzzle loaded guns".
During the Civil War, musketry did start fires at the Wilderness and a few other fights. But (1) Civil War muskets were fed via paper cartridge, and some soldiers tended to ram the paper in, too, which meant burning paper fragments were shot off and (2) the battles were mostly fought in the spring and summer, whereas deer hunting takes place in the fall and winter. It's not easy to start a forest fire after a snowfall.
Hat tip to Alan Korwin...
Self defense in the grand style
"Startled burglar pleads for his life." Can't say as I recommend his approach, tho.
We had a Judge Meehan here, Marine, former LEO, great fellow. One night he finds someone crawling in his bathroom window, which was right the tub. He grabs the guy by the back of his collar and yanks him in, sending him head-first into the tub. Then he rolls him over, sticks his .357 up his nostril and while the guy is still upside down begins shouting "GIVE ME ONE REASON I SHOULDN'T BLOW YOUR BRAINS OUT, RIGHT NOW!" In the meantime his wife called 911, and the police soon arrived. I suspect that burglar was "scared straight" that night.
Via Instapundit....
Permalink · Politics · Comments (1)
Now this is the media I'm accustomed to!
From yesterday's New York Times:
"the so-called wisdom"
"timidity about standing up to the National Rifle Association"
"needed measures to curb gun violence."
"well-founded enthusiasm for reviving the assault weapons ban"
"this season of successive mass shootings"
"the nation’s lax regulation of guns"
"N.R.A. distortions"
etc., etc.
Permalink · media · Comments (9)
A simple solution to piracy
Reader Scott Sterling emails what seems to be a simple, easy, and cheap solution to piracy. I would just add that I doubt an AK is a 300-400 yard weapon in Somalian hands. Videos I've seen of their land fighting suggests their firing stance is: hold gun sideways, or overhead, dance around and pull trigger while taunting foes. A good fellow with a .50 would (or two teams, for each side) would take them apart in complete safety. (An ad in Soldier of Fortune would produce more volunteers than are needed, too). Here's his idea:
From all accounts, small groups of pirates are successfully attacking and hijacking ships in the waters within 100 miles of the Somali coast. Many fancy ideas have been suggested to solve this problem. There is one answer that could be used to great effect that needs consideration: the use of 2-man teams with .50 cal rifles. This plan would not put any weapons on ships in any ports.
Since the area where ships are threatened is limited, the rifle teams could board ships at each end of the major sea-lane that passes along the Somali coast. When a ship is about to enter the lane a team
would board, when the boat gets safely to the other end of the lane the team would disembark. A midsize ship stationed at each end on the sea-lane would act as home base for the rifle teams. These ships could be naval vessels or civilian ships that only dock at ports friendly to the shipping protection program. All weapons would stay on the base ships after the cargo ships leave the danger zone,
therefore no weapons would be aboard ships entering ports that prohibit weapons.
The U.S. Marines and Army have an inventory of M82 and M107 .50 Cal rifles that would be ideal for this use. The rifles are also available commercially. The key to why this system would work is the
range of these rifles and their anti-materiel capability. With an effective range over 1500 meters and the ability to disable the engines of speedboats, the rifle teams could engage and disable the
speedboats long before they enter the AK-47 range of 300-400 meters. Also, the rifle teams would be attacking a large target (speed boat) from a relatively stable platform (large ship) and the pirates would have to make almost impossible shots at a tiny target (the rifleman), at long range, from a boat bouncing in the waves.
The rifle teams could also use armor and shields, to minimize the chance of any harm to them. Due to the lopsided nature of the target dynamic, there is no way for the pirates to "escalate" this situation. Even if they had exactly the same rifles as the rifle teams, the shots they would have to make are almost impossible, before the speedboat is disabled and the ship sails out of range. The .50 cal cartridge can penetrate over 1 inch of armor plate, so attempts to armor the speedboats would not work. There is no other weapons system available to anyone that could change this no matter how much money the pirates have.
Once the pirate boat is disabled, the rifle team would radio a navy ship in the area to come pick up the pirates and return them to shore, without their boat and weapons. Once a few pirate boats are
left floating offshore and the pirate business stops being profitable, pirates will be forced to move on to other endeavors. Once they know the ships have effective defenses, only a percentage of ships will need to carry rifle teams in the future, the possibility a team is aboard will provide protection for all ships.
Rotating Rifle teams armed with M82 or M107 Rifles on ships as they pass through the danger areas would provide protection and deterrence effectively stopping pirate attacks at sea.
UPDATE:(THese are Dave Hardy thoughts) the pirates' ability to armor is going to be quite limited. I think .50 AP can go thru 3/4" of steel armor, so figure 1" is minimal protection. (And the steel available may not be of this grade). Steel weighs, if I remember, 440 lb per cubic foot. So it takes that to provide 12 square feet of 1" thick. Probably need twice that to protect crew and engine (and that only on a straight-in run). That's adding nearly 900 lb to a small boat that has to chase down another, and still leaves much of the hull exposed to punctures that'd allow slow flooding. And they have to turn at some point if they're going to fire or board.
Ditto with mother ships pursuing. The whole purpose of the speed boats is to pursue a fleeing merchantman. Mother ships are, I gather, third world fishing trawlers, and unlikely to chase down a tanker. RPGs, or 20mms--the merchantmen are mostly HUGE vessels, and could shrug off hits.
And for close in work, a bit of experimentation should show what part of a stick of dynamite can go off near a merchantman hull without damage.... but with enough waterhammer effect to crush a speedboat's hull. Tie some to weights, and as soon as they pull alongside, light fuse and drop. Assuming that they aren't crushed as well, nor sucked into the propellers, wave good bye. For added fun, don't tell anyone. All the pirates will know is that their ships keep vanishing.
Comment posting is apt to be delayed since Somalia, etc., contain Soma, which is on the "hold the comment until I approve it" list. It's some sorta drug that spammers promote via blog comments.
Car violence
Horward Nemerov asks why no one discusses auto violence, when the DUI death toll exceeds that for all forms of murder.
Politics of a Supreme Court nomination
Interesting insights here.
Permalink · General con law · Comments (0)
Cool statement from an LEO
Story here. Toledo has laid off 75 officers, may lay off 75 more. An officer advises its citizens to "Invest in precious metals: lead, gun powder, and brass."
Around here, all those can be had -- it's the primers that are gone!
Self defense in a "gun free school zone"
Racine, WI. Four thugs knock a fellow down, try to rob him, fail to see that he is open carrying (which is legal). He draws, points in a safe direction, and announces that he is armed, and they of course flee.
Now the issue is: since he was within 1000 ft of a school, should he be charged with carrying in a "gun-free school zone"?
Hat tip to reader Carl in Chicago...
Olofson conviction affirmed
Snowflakes in Hell has a solid analysis. Once the government got testimony (true or false) from the fellow he lent the rifle to, that Olofson knew it would fire a full auto burst before jamming, he was in deep trouble, and if convicted, odds of reversal on appeal would be very low.
Permalink · National Firearms Act · Comments (16)
A college student shooting that will never make the national media
It was lucky just to get this local coverage, because the good guy shot and won. Two armed invaders crash a party. Their conversation suggests the plan was to kill everyone after robbing them, but a student draws, drives one off and mortally wounds the other, who was preparing to rape a female student.
That really doesn't fit the desired narrative....
Hat tip to reader David McCleary... gad, look at the comments! A friend of the deceased thug is upset at the negative attitudes toward him.
Antis amicus in Chicago case
Clayton Cramer discusses "Embarrassingly Bad Amicus Brief in the Chicago Case.". He does a good job of taking its historical claims apart, and has a link to it.
I read it and think his title justified for a different reason as well. Legal citation is done to the standard of the Blue Book (at various times the White Book, etc.). This brief has ... well, it reads as if nobody had ever read that set of standards. It cites to State reporters without West reporters, or West without State, inserts the court's name next to the date when which court it was was already apparent from the cite, got the title of the case wrong, etc.. It'd be astonishingly sloppy work for a routine trial court brief, but for an appellate brief on an new and important issue, is about unbelievable.
Permalink · Chicago gun case · Comments (12)
CalGuns Fdn and SAF challenge Calif carry permit law
Posting about it here, with link to the complaint. Filed in Federal District Court, attorneys Alan Gura and Don Kilmer.
It builds up their recent 9th Circuit incorporation win, by challenging California's carry permit system as applied in two counties. The system gives sheriffs absolute discretion in issuance, and in those county the sheriffs simply refuse to issue any. In theory, it's may issue, but in practice it's a ban, on carrying at least.
As in the other cases, very careful choice of plaintiffs and targeting of defendants.
Pair that off with their challenge to California's list of approved handguns, and it's an excellent expansion of the attack. Heller gets the right recognized, Nordyke gets it incorporated, these will hopefully lay groundwork that it cannot be arbitrarily curtailed, and move onward from there.
Permalink · Heller aftermath · Comments (8)
Call 911 and ... get arrested for cuss word?
story here. Via Instapundit....
Is ammo really this hard to come by?
I mean, the seller won't even give a warranty, it's as-is.
Novel Brittish approach to home invasions
Officers go about with megaphones, and empowered to enter houses, shouting warnings to lock doors and windows. And the press describes it as a "burglary crackdown."
Permalink · non-US · Comments (3)
Piracy and arming crews
The skipper of the not-hijacked Maersk Alabama testifies before the Senate, and agrees with Blue Dog Demo Sen. Jim Webb that crews should be armed against pirates. The chairman of his line loses control of his bladder while worrying that pirates might escalate, and a comment from a Navy vet suggests that four .50 M-2s would do a very nice job. I suspect four .50 Barretts would be adequate. A few API rounds and the average speedboat would either be sinking, aflame, or running to get out of range. Which would mean a lot of running. The only downside would be that the battle might last for multiple seconds, whereas with the Mah-deuce it'd be over in the first second.
Newsbusters notes that it's strange the NY Times refused to cover the story.
As to the pirates having the intellect to upgrade their equipment... they just attacked a French naval frigate, thinking it was a merchantman. Clue: a ship that has a gun turret fore and a helicopter aft is probably not a merchantman, and will probably get REALLY annoyed if you attack it with AKs, in small boats.
Hat tip to reader Don Hamrick...
LA City Attorney's race
One contender is Carmen Trutanich, law partner of pro-gun attorney Chuch Michel, and Trutanich's opponent is trying to use that against him.
Hat tip to reader Ambiguous Ambiguae...
Permalink · Politics · Comments (6)
Now, those were the days!
May 2, 1946: prisoners at Alcatraz Prison riot, where a group aiming to escape gets out of their cells and into and armory for guns and ammo. They herded captured guards into a cell and then one of the prisoners shot into the cell, killing two and injuring others.
Authorities sent for the Marines who, with their traditional subtlety, attacked with 60 mm mortar, bazookas, machine guns and frag grenades.
LE shooting in Florida
Article here. If this had been a private citizen shooting, I suspect there'd be homicide charges, and if it'd been a CCW permit holder, the paper would probably be citing as an example of dangerous recklessness.
Retired firefighter is reported armed and suicidal. Officers knock on door and he opens it, apparently with one hand holding a cell phone, the other turning the knob, and a long arm tucked under his arm so as to free up both hands. Whereupon they shoot him in the head. And charge him with attempted murder, since a second officer took a shot on his shield. Then it turns out the second officer was shot by another officer. Oops.
Hat tip to reader David Hustvedt...
Thoughts on crime
Peter Hitchens has some deep thoughts on conditions in Britain.
"The frequent arrests of people for defending themselves or their property are not accidents or quirks. They are the consequence of the Criminal Justice system's abandonment of old-fashioned ideas of punishment; also of that system's social democratic belief that crime has 'social' causes and the ownership of property isn't absolute. Most law-abiding people don't really accept this. They think criminals do bad things because they lack conscience or restraint, not because they were abused as children or their dole payments are too small. And they don't see why they have to barricade their houses or hide their worldly goods from view on the assumption that some unrestrained low-life is otherwise bound to steal them. So they regard it as legitimate to hurt and punish those who rob them or otherwise attack them. If they were allowed to enforce the law as they see it, they would quickly show the police and courts up as useless and mistaken. One of the most important jobs of the police is to stop us looking after ourselves, in case we do a better job than PC Plod."
California is trending that way... with news that Contra Costa County is decriminalizing crime. To save money, it's decided not to prosecute assault, battery, petty theft, vandalism, and some other offenses.
Hat tips to Instapundit and Howard Nemerov....