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August 2009
Self defense figures by race
Howard Nemerov has some charts and statistics on justifiable homicide, race, and right to carry laws. Basically: in RTC States, blacks are on the giving end of nearly 50% of self-defense homicides (i.e., justifiable), and in non RTC States the percentage drops by nearly half. Howard notes this indicates that RTC laws are of special benefit to black Americans, since they are more likely to be put in a position where self-defense is vital.
Permalink · Self defense · Comments (4)
NC Supreme Ct holds old nonviolent felony no bar to gun rights
Opinion in pdf here, courtesy of reader Carl in Chicago. It's under discussion at the Volokh Conspiracy and by Instapundit. The latter makes a good point about "felony inflation." E.g., if the felony theft level is pegged to $500 (as I believe it was in Arizona's 1977 criminal code reform) ... in 1977 $500 was a lot of money. I was driving a used VW I bought for $600, and filling it with, as I remember, 40 cent a gallon gasoline, and living in a decent $175/month apartment.
Permalink · prohibitted persons · Comments (1)
The courtroom equivalent of "the dog ate my homework. Five times."
An interesting court transcript, from the Friesen prosecution. The prosecutor is trying to dodge and weave on why certain important documents were not disclosed to the defense, despite a court order, and neither the judge nor the defense attorney is giving him an inch of slack. "I'll go dismiss the jury for [sic--after] wasting their day. If I could sanction the government I would, but it would just be money out of the government's pocket for paying the government, but I don't want this to happen again." (No idea why he didn't sanction the individuals responsible, perhaps he just wanted to get the threat on the record in case he had to do it later).
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (2)
How fast things can go bad ...
An officer's squad car camera shows how fast things can go bad. He tasers the guy, the guy shrugs it off (report is that one of the electrodes missed) and is on top of him before he can react. The guy was 6'8", strong, and something of a mental case, so the officer was lucky to be saved by a passing off duty LEO.
Permalink · Crime and statistics · Comments (10)
Ollie North autographing books at NRA Firearms Museum
Wash Post story here. Sounds like he sold 400 of his book on heroes of the war on radical islam, which is very, very good.
UPDATE: it wasn't a pardon, he got his conviction reversed on appeal and the government never moved to retry him. At the time of his Congressional testimony, I said they had just blown any criminal charges, and got into a debate with another attorney on it. I was right. The Congressional committee subpoenaed him and questioned him under oath, on TV. BIG 5th Amendment problem when he's later prosecuted. Unless someone could find a prosecution team, and 12 people for the jury, who were completely unaware of his testimony (for several days the biggest news item) or anything resulting from it.
Thoughts re Ted Kennedy
Some thoughts on his legacy, if perhaps a legacy he did not intend.
CCW permitees vs. nonpermittees crime rates
Howard Nemerov runs the figures for Texas. Depending upon your standard (all convictions, violent offense convictions, homicide convictions, etc.) the only question is how much better the permit holders come off. For most measures, their rates are 1/9 to 1/10 those of nonpermittees.
Permalink · CCW licensing · Comments (2)
Case in Greensboro NC
Article here. There have been a lot of burglaries in the neighborhood, two teens come up to house to break in, leave when owner makes noise. Owner then steps out and fires shots in the air, and police cite him for discharging a firearm inside city limits. OK, not exactly a wise response -- he could have spent the time calling 911, and shots into the air have to come down somewhere.
But what's interesting about the story is ... keep skimming down and you come to a Google map, I'd guess of his house. You not only get his address, you can hit the "Sat" button for an aerial view and a link to an image of the house from the street. I wonder if the newspaper generally does this to people on the receiving end of attempted burglary?
Permalink · Self defense · Comments (3)
A good idea
Commemoratives for sale
Crime, Guns and Videotape is selling a pair of commemorative .357s. Price is out of my ballpark, but the engraving is quite nice.
More carry permits in Sacramento County?
Story here.
Hat tip to Dan Gifford....
Permalink · State legislation · Comments (4)
Work on designing a super penetrating bullet
Right here.
Permalink · shooting · Comments (3)
Paranoia on the rise
"Hate on the Rise in United States."
"This next generation of hate incorporates elements of the militias, gun advocates, “nativists” opposed to immigration, tax protesters, and “birthers,” who have questioned the place of birth and citizenship of President Obama.
The alignment of these groups could provide a dangerous mix that is susceptible to violence given the right combination of encouragement and firearms.
.....
The report cites the Fox News Channel’s Glenn Beck and CNN’s Lou Dobbs as two television personalities who have fanned the flames of suspicion and hate on-air.
......
Gun shows are attracting hordes of militia types, with firearm manufacturers and the National Rifle Association (NRA) feeding the demand for guns among right-wing zealots.
Meanwhile, the voices on the right are growing angrier and more pointed by the day, as has been seen in the town hall meetings Members of Congress have hosted to discuss health care reform."
But my favorite line:
"While it would be easy to dismiss the rants of the extreme right as pure paranoia..."
Guide to interstate transport of firearms
NRA has just released the latest edition of its comprehensive Guide to the Interstate Transportation of Firearms.
It includes a section on the suit brought against the NY Port Authority, which is in the habit of violating the protections given by the Firearm Owners Protection Act. Here are links to the opening brief and here's the reply.
Permalink · Gun Control Act of 68 · Comments (12)
BATFE hierarchy largely empty
The NY Times reports that well over half of the Obama's Administration's appointive policymaking positions are are still empty, the slots filled with someone in an acting capacity.
I'm told ATF presently has an acting director, acting deputy director, and acting chief of staff.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (5)
Win for shooting ranges under RCRA
Metacon Gun Club in Connecticut was sued by homeowners in the area (who probably bought houses next to a shooting range and then became upset that a shooting was next to their houses) under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). RCRA applies to "discarded" material that is classified as hazardous waste. Plaintiffs' theory was that this applied to lead bullets and shot on the ground and in the backstops.
The Second Circuit affirmed the district court, which agreed with the EPA that the discharge of projectiles is part of their normal use, and firing them does not "discard" them within meaning of the law. It also affirmed a finding that the plaintiffs had failed to make out a case under the Clean Water Act.
Hat tip to reader William Taggart....
Permalink · shooting · Comments (3)
Nordyke ready to go
Oral argument en banc, in Nordyke v. King is set for 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, September 24, 2009, in Courtroom One at the James R. Browning Courthouse, located at 95 Seventh Street in San Francisco.
UPDATE: I think it's 9th Circuit custom to reveal names of a panel, but only very close to argument -- 1-2-3 days, that manner of thing. Here it could make a big difference. In most circuits, en banc hearing means every active (non-senior status) judge in the circuit. Due to the size of the 9th, its form of en banc consists of the Chief Judge (who is quite pro right to arms) and ten out of 20+ judges, chosen at random. The Circuit also is sharply divided, with staunch defenders of and detractors of the right to arms.
Permalink · Nordyke v. King · Comments (7)
Chicago cases up early
SCTOUSBlog reports that the Supreme Court will vote on whether to accept the Chicago 14th Amendment cases at its very first conference, on September 29. Results might be announced as early as September 30. Both dates are before the next Term officially opens, on October 5.
Permalink · Chicago gun case · Comments (9)
H.L. Mencken on Justice Holmes
The great contrarian's piece is here. A sample:
"There is even more surprising stuff in the opinions themselves. In three Espionage Act cases, including the Debs case, one finds a clear statement of the doctrine that, in war time, the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment cease to have any substance, and may be set aside by any jury that has been sufficiently alarmed by a district attorney itching for higher office. In Fox v. the State of Washington, we learn that any conduct "which shall tend to encourage or advocate disrespect for the law" may be made a crime, and that the protest of a man who believes that he has been jailed unjustly, and threatens to boycott his persecutors, may be treated as such a crime. In Moyer v. Peabody, it appears that the Governor of a state, "without sufficient reason but in good faith," may call out the militia, declare martial law, and jail anyone he happens to suspect or dislike, without laying himself open "to an action after he is out of office on the ground that he had no reasonable ground for his belief." And, in Weaver v. Palmer Bros. Co. there is the plain inference that in order to punish a theoretical man, A, who is suspected of wrong-doing, a State Legislature may lay heavy and intolerable burdens upon a real man, B, who has admittedly done no wrong at all."
"Over and over again, in these opinions, he advocated giving the legislature full head-room, and over and over again he protested against using the Fourteenth Amendment to upset novel and oppressive laws, aimed frankly at helpless minorities. If what he said in some of those opinions were accepted literally, there would be scarcely any brake at all upon lawmaking, and the Bill of Rights would have no more significance than the Code of Manu."
"The weak spot in his reasoning, if I may presume to suggest such a thing, was his tacit assumption that the voice of the legislature was the voice of the people. There is, in fact, no reason for confusing the people and the legislature: the two, in these later years, are quite distinct. The legislature, like the executive, has ceased, save indirectly, to be even the creature of the people: it is the creature, in the main, of pressure groups, and most of them, it must be manifest, are of dubious wisdom and even more dubious honesty. Laws are no longer made by a rational process of public discussion; they are made by a process of blackmail and intimidation, and they are executed in the same manner. The typical lawmaker of today is a man wholly devoid of principle- a mere counter in a grotesque and knavish game. If the right pressure could be applied to him he would be cheerfully in favor of polygamy, astrology or cannibalism."
UPDATE: a friend once remarked that Holmes is one of the clearer cases where you can trace a judge's jurisprudence to his life experiences. An ardent young abolitionist, he marched off to the Civil War happy that he would be helping to accomplish that end. His first combat ended with a bullet thru the lung in a botched fight, and him writing home that he was coughing up blood and probably dying. Followed by four more years of service, risk, and deprivation.
And his jurisprudence: an exceptionally powerful disdain for theory (e.g., the one that he had so embraced and in whose service he found misery and near death), an emphasis on the pragmatic, no sympathy at all for people who might impede a war even to a minute degree, not much worry about human life, etc..
Permalink · General con law · Comments (8)
If the jackboot fits...
Reason Online: The Jackboot Only Fits if You Don't Work for the Government. Some interesting points contrasting treatment of the NRA use of "jackbooted thugs" some years ago (portrayed as utterly intolerable) with the present attempt to characterize tea party types as, well, jackbooted thugs.
Media coverage of gun at rally
Michelle Malkin has a post on how the MSNBC story on how the appearance of a fellow outside the Phoenix rally with a rifle had "racial overtones" because it involved a man of color in the presidency and "white people showing up with guns strapped to their waists," and "anger about a black person being president."
As I noted yesterday, the fellow with the rifle was an African-American. Michelle Malkin notes how carefully MSNBC had to cut footage of the fellow to hide this. If the facts don't fit the story line, keep throwing them out until they do.
Reply briefs in Chicago gun case
Alan Gura's reply is here, in pdf. It's the reply (last document) on petition for cert. (moving that the Court take the case -- if it does there will be another round of briefing on the question of who should win).
My latest article is quoted at pp. 9-10.
The Court is now in summer recess. It comes back the first Monday in October to start the new Term, and will probably take a vote on this pretty quickly thereafter.
Permalink · Chicago gun case · Comments (2)
More "the government will protect you"
Story here.
Time for Brady Campaign employees to circulate resumes
When the Washington Post runs the headline "White House Backs Right to Arms Outside Obama Events," it is time for Brady Campaign folks to look for new work.
It's probably a sign of the Second Coming, but you should still have a job lined up, just in case.
Bringing guns to rallies
I can't say as I'm fond of the idea -- the media is quick to portray gun rights activists as menacing or intimidating, and there's no reason to set the stage for just that. (Note that, in the story linked below, he is described as having "heated words," when he apparently talked to people he agreed with. That might ordinarily be described as animated, etc. speech but not as heated... except that the implicit theme for a story about someone doing that requires that they be portrayed as aggressive, short fused, and intimidating).
Anyway if it's to be done, it should be done this way. African-American gun owners only. "There's a man with a gun, I'm frightened, can't you arrest him?" plays well, "There's a black man with a gun, I'm frightened, can't you arrest him?" sounds pretty racist. (Note that in this case the MSM reporters took care to photograph him from behind).
Bonus points if the carrier can memorize some Shakespeare. It's hard to portray a fellow as menacing while he's doing Monte Python or BlackAdder.
"So what do you think of the Administration's health care proposals?"
"I'd not give a farthing for that whoreson bull's pizzle."
"And his recovery plan?"
"Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't."
"Why did you bring a firearm?"
"Tho the pike be more puissant, many a knave would ha' tripped over it."
"What do you think of the President?"
"Longshanks hath a lean and hungry look; I trust him not. Methinks he is a knotty-pated fool, an hourly promise breaker, the owner of no one good quality."
Hat tip to reader Jack Anderson....
Gun and knife turn-ins in Britain
The real story.
Permalink · non-US · Comments (7)
Federal court records -- I find this hilarious
For the Firefox browser: a plug in that gives free access to many PACER court files.
PACER is the system (if we can call it that) that stores pleadings in Federal trial courts. It is indeed primitive and difficult to use. A second problem, tho, is that if you retrieve a document, you get charged 8 cents a page.... to look at a public record.
They ought to hire the guys who created this plug-in to redo their entire system. With the plug-in, if you try to access a PACER document the program first asks if the document is already in their free database. If so, you see the free version. If not, you can buy the document from PACER, and it gets added to the free database for everyone else to use.
Armament and disarmament in South Ossetia
Story here. South Ossetia wants to secede from Georgia, which seceded from the Soviet Union. Which I guess means it's like West Virginia or Eastern Tennessee....
“When I saw it, I closed the door and laid it down on the rug. I almost fainted. The sight of such a weapon can make you crazy.”
A 74 year old lady describing her delight at buying a 12.7 mm heavy machinegun.
Hat tip to Landis Aden....
Permalink · non-US · Comments (2)
Self defense in Harlem
Story here. The defender was about as restrained as can be imagined. Told them his store had no cash at the point, tried to talk them into just leaving. Only after the four robbers began beating and pistol-whipping one of his employees did he pull the shotgun out and fire.
Even the NY Times is quasi favorable. It does note police may charge the defender with a misdemeanor...
When will criminals learn....
When will thugs learn ... never cross a nun. All you can do then is run. If you have a rifle, do as this robber did and drop it to speed your flight. Conventional weapons are useless against an angry nun.
10th Circuit on DV cases and Heller
Dave Kopel has the story. They reversed, 2-1, the district judge who allowed a defendant to raise, as a defense to prohibited possessor status due to a misdemeanor DV conviction, that he posed no danger.
I do find it interesting that there have been several prohibited possessor cases that have gone for the prosecution, but by 2-1s. Not long ago that would have been unthinkable -- a 3-0 would have been a sure thing.
Permalink · Heller aftermath · Comments (0)
Gun traces
As is usual, after ATF releases its gun trace data for the previous year, Brady Center denounces a bunch of States because guns first sold in them have been traced elsewhere. (The purpose is to create the impression that criminals zip over to those States to buy guns and return. Nevermind that traced guns are not the same as crime guns, and that the average lag between first sale and trace is over ten years, meaning that a lot of purchasers -- burglars who stole a gun from them -- will have moved).
Here's PBS picking up Brady's pitch in relation to West Virginia: "On a per capita basis, West Virginia exports the second highest number of guns involved in crimes in the country."
But looking a the ATF tracing date for guns recovered in West Virginia, it looks as if West Virginia has traced guns flooding into it. 37 from Ohio, 27 from Pennsylvania, 9 from Maryland. Not to mention two from New Jersey, the same from California, and one from D.C. About a quarter of West Virginia traced guns came from other States. And while West Virginia traced two guns from California, traced none that came from WV.
Now, we can conclude that West Virginia criminals evade its gun laws by buying in laxly controlled areas such as California and New Jersey. Or was can conclude that in a mobile society, over a period of ten years enough people move to account for some guns tracing to first retail sale in a different State.
Just when you think you've seen it all...
Bill Clinton's former chief of staff busted smuggling shiv and needles into prison.
Via Instapundit....
Permalink · Politics · Comments (3)
Interesting data from the Czech Republic
Story here. Its population is about ten million. 650,000 citizens are licensed gun owners, and 200,000 have CCW permits. Police say unknown hundreds of thousands have guns without the formality of licensing.
Permalink · non-US · Comments (6)
Antigun group on townhall/tea party meetings
Josh Horwitz of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence cites the tea party gatherings as "the violent, insurrectionist philosophy that has corrupted the Second Amendment."
"right wing activists have stormed these meetings en masse to shout down speakers "
"The Tea Party "mobs" are not as spontaneous as they might appear."
"On August 6, a town hall meeting in St. Louis was marred by a physical confrontation which resulted in multiple arrests." (As in several thugs attacked a peaceful protestor.)
I find his complaint about insurrectionist understandings a little humorous, since if you look at the Heller ruling, the majority cites individual self defense as the primary reason for the right to arms, while the Stevens dissenters are the ones who say the primary purpose was to give the States military power to match the Feds -- i.e., an insurrectionary approach.
UPDATE: I see Snowflakes in Hell has a post on it, too.
Hat tip to reader Jack Anderson....
California microstamping law going nowhere
Story here.
Update on medical condition
Some readers have asked for one, so here's the short version--
Here is what I had.
Here is the procedure that dealt with it. The version with all the trimmings, orthotopic diversion, lymph node removal.
Pathology report says they got it all. Lymph nodes (they took 25 of them) were clear (if it gets out, the lymph system is usually its first avenue of spread).
It's been over two months since the op, and I'm mostly recovered. Still a little lacking in energy and concentration, but the body is in good order, apart from bellyaches (the intestines are still resentful of having had a stretch of them cut away). I've got a hefty 8" scar running from navel down to pubis, so I'm just glad I never had a chance as a swimsuit model anyway,
Permalink · Personal · Comments (15)
lawsuit vs. Oregon university ban
Story here. And here's a pdf of the filing, by Oregon FIrearms Educational Foundation. Primary argument is based on the State pre-emption statute, secondary argument is based on the 2nd Amendment.
Florida CCW permits following general firearm trends
In Florida, applications for CCW permits are up 67%, to 150,000 and the issuing agency is asking for 61 temporary employees to tackle them.
Hat tip to reader gunshytourist...
Permalink · CCW licensing · Comments (0)
Palmer v. DC -- latest suit against DC
Here's the complaint, in pdf. It's filed by Alan Gura, on behalf of Second Amendment Foundation and DC residents. It challenges a number of remaining or new DC requirements, including:
Imposing a permit requirement for carrying, and then having repealed any mechanism for obtaining such permits (and refusing to register handguns if purpose stated is defense outside of home).
Refusal to issue to non-DC residents, thus violating rights to travel and equal protection.
It's one more carefully aimed followup to Heller. Heller established that the right to keep in the home would be judiciary recognized, at the federal level. The followups seek to extend that to the States, to get recognition of the right "to bear," and to chew up a number of arbitrary restrictions.
Permalink · Heller aftermath · Comments (6)
14th Amendment incorporation and contradiction
A comment to my posting on the Chicago brief opposing cert. brought to mind something that had popped in my head in the past: a party arguing against 14th Amendment incorporation of a right can hardly avoid contradiction between its privileges or immunities and its due process positions.
Privileges or immunities: under the Slaughterhouse and Cruikshank rulings, a right is only a priv. or immun. of US citizenship if the right was CREATED by the Constitution. A pre-existing or natural rights merely GUARANTEED by the US Constitution is not a priv. or immunity of US citizenship. Examples: right to travel interstate, right to petition Congress and only Congress, because it didn't exist until created. [I disagree strongly, but those are the rulings]. So an opponent of incorporation must here argue that the right in question stems from long tradition, is a natural right, is inherent in free government (Cruikshank uses a slight modification of those words), etc.
Due Process incorporation: here the Court has ruled that certain rights (actually, almost all the ones enumerated in the Bill of Rights, and some that are not) are sufficiently important that deprivation of them is deprivation of "due process of law" (no matter how much process the person is given). The tests here include the antiquity of the right, its importance, etc., etc. So here the opponent of incorporation must argue that the right in question is of minor value, is of recent origin, certainly could not be seen as a natural right, and is nowhere near inherent in every free government.
Permalink · 14th Amendment · Comments (8)
Great tribute to John M. Browning
Article here.
Hat tip to Alphecca....
Privacy Act request to report health plan objections
The Administration has asked that anyone who gets an email or "see[s] something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy" report it to [email protected].
Evan Coyne Maloney suggests the request may be illegal under the Privacy Act and the Dept of Justice's statement about its purpose.
As a recovering bureaucrat, I can point to a much, much, bigger illegality under that Act.
5 US Code §552a(e)(7) commands that any Federal agency
"(7) maintain no record describing how any individual exercises rights guaranteed by the First Amendment unless expressly authorized by statute or by the individual about whom the record is maintained or unless pertinent to and within the scope of an authorized law enforcement activity;"
Persons posting to the web or sending emails are exercising First Amendment rights. I can't see how gathering this information is expressly authorized by statute, nor within the scope of an LE activity. It doesn't get much clearer than that.
{Plus, 552a(e) generally requires that agencies collecting information about individuals into a records system, upon establishment or change to that system, publish in the Federal Register a detailed description of that records system, maintain appropriate security, etc.)
I'd say there are glaring Privacy Act violations here. And the penalties, per §552a(i) include fines of up to $5,000, not only for gathering forbidden data, but for disclosing it or maintaining an undisclosed system.
Chicago brief opposing Sup. Ct. review
In pdf, here. I'm not very impressed. The issue is whether the Court should take the case, but most of the (far too long) brief is on a theme of "if you take it we could win." OK, if they take it you'll have merits briefing to make the claim.
Permalink · Chicago gun case · Comments (4)
Texas: Cash for Clunkers?
Gun "buybacks" in Dallas and Ft. Worth!.
Last one we had in Tucson, every gun collector cleaned out his junkers and pocketed cash for them. Others staked out the sites to see if anyone was bringing in a real collectible, and would then easily outbid the official price. Rumor had it that an FFL had teams of salesmen rotating from one site to another to dispose of his 30 year accumulation of junkers.
I'd suggest lobbying them to increase the price from $50, tho.
Bill aims to reverse US v. Small
Snowflakes in Hell discovers Diane Feinstein's latest, S.1526. It would overturn the Supreme Court determination, in Small v. US, that foreign law convictions do not count as convictions that bar gun possession under the Gun Control Act.
It does have two exemptions:
1) If the defendant can show the conviction "resulted from a denial of fundamental fairness that would violate due process if committed in the United States." Uh ... what does that mean? Due process PLUS fundamental fairness? Is denial of a jury trial within this, nor not, since after all a judge can be fundamentally fair? And how do you prove that a conviction "resulted from" any such violation? How do you prove a jury wouldn't have convicted, etc.?
2) conduct that would be legal if committed in the US As Snowflakes in Hell points out, that wouldn't cover Francis Gary Powers, convicted by the Soviets of espionage (which is an offense here), nor others who were similarly charged. And how about our POWs, often charged with "war crimes"?
Permalink · Gun Control Act of 68 · Comments (5)
Plaxico Burress indicted
Yesterday, the NY Times had this story. His attorney notes that Burress could face 3.5 years prison time for having an illegal gun (its really stupid handling is a different matter), whereas another football player got 30 days for killing someone while driving drunk. But Paul Helke of Brady Campaign says he should get "at least" the 3.5 years.
Today comes this report that he has been indicted.
Here's another NY Times piece, with details on local politics. It seems he choose a bad time for his foulup: Mayor Michael Bloomberg was gearing up for re-election and "Cracking down on gun violators is virtually a sacred cause for the mayor."
Hat tip to reader Jack Anderson....
Permalink · State legislation · Comments (3)
Friesen NFA case settles
Data here, with links.
Basically, it was an NFA prosecution, where the defense launched a HARD attack on the messed up nature of the government's NFA firearm files, including calling a very well qualified expert to testify to the unreliability of files with such flaws.
In the end, he accepted a plea -- anytime the government drops multiple felony counts, each carrying up to 10 years in prison, in exchange for a plea to a misdemeanor and a $25 fine, you take it.