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September 2010
Another defensive shooting shooting in Chicago
It seems to be becoming the new fad. Or perhaps this was always happening, and the media only now covers it -- which might be even more significant.
Note the mantra: the shootee admits to throwing a rock or brick through the woman's window, the neighbors say he harasses everyone, and his family and friends say "He wasn't the type of little boy to do that; to throw a brick in an old lady's window like that."
Hat tip to reader Jim Kindred...
Permalink · Self defense · Comments (2)
4th Amendment, that obsolete detail....
Mobile backscatter x-ray units are coming into use, to scan the inside of vehicles from a distance. I have some difficulty seeing how x-raying a vehicle is not a "search" (applying passive infrared imaging to a house has been held to be a search, and this involves active rather than passive imaging), and how doing it to every vehicle, with no reason to suspect criminality, is not "unreasonable."
Permalink · General con law · Comments (3)
San Diego concedes in suit over open carry
CalGuns Foundation happily announces that San Diego, in reparation for having arrested a person engaged in legal open carry, has agreed to clear his record and cough up $35,000. The officers didn't know, and San Diego PD had not trained them to know, that in CA open carry of an unloaded firearm is lawful, and thought that the fact he had loaded magazines on him (lawful, too) made it a loaded gun.
Trouble in NJ, too.
An attorney is busted for bribing another inmate to confess to possessing the gun that his client, a convicted violent felon, had. We can only guess what he was up to when, before this, he served as chief prosecutor and chief judge ....
NYPD has some serious problems
When an attorney sets up a webpage to advertise his willingness to represent officers suing NYPD after being sanctioned for failure to meet quotas or for complaining of corruption, things must be getting pretty serious. And here's a pdf of the latest lawsuit's complaint. It alleges that the officer was sanctioned for failure to generate 20 traffic summons a month, that he was ordered to approach and detail people sitting on steps in a high crime area, to arrest them if he heard them cuss, and that after he complained to Internal Affairs he was harassed, stalked, and thrown into a mental institution for six days, based on false reports.
If any measurable part of the allegations are provable, I could see a jury writing some very long numbers on a verdict form....
Mayor's group's report on "gun trafficking"
MAIG's report is here. It's grabbing headlines on a theme of "49% of crime guns trace to only ten States."
First problem: those ten States have about 52% of the US population, so it'd not be surprising that they account for 49% of traces. According to the 2000 Census, the US population was then 281 million, and the population of the ten States was 149.6 million (CA 39.6, TX 24.7, GA 9.8, FL 18.5, VA 7.8, IN 6.4, OH 11.5, PA 12.6, NC 9.4, AZ 6.6).
Second problem: the report constantly refers to "crime guns," then buries on p. 32 the concession that it is talking about traced guns, which are not the same as guns used in crime. (Its concession is misleadingly worded -- not all crime guns are traced. The real problem is that not all traces, in fact a majority of them, are of crime guns).
Third problem: its attempt to tie liberal gun regulations to interstate trafficking at times is almost humorous. For example, it argues that States with "shall issue" CCW licensing have a higher trafficking rates. That's licensing to carry, not to purchase. What could it possibly have to do with trafficking after purchase?
Hat tip to reader Ted Louis Glenn, who not only gave me the lead but also ran the State population data...
Mock jury research on shooting burglars
Study here.
"Jurors" were given written summaries of a situation and asked if they'd convict or acquit, and if they convicted, what sentence they would impose. The scenario involved a homeowner encountering a burglar under ambiguous conditions tending toward shooting not justified (burglar makes a verbal threat but no moves -- technically, that might not be enough. In Arizona, it's more than enough: one fewer burglar, where's the harm?).
Findings: mock jurors were told the homeowner used different firearms. If told was an AR-15 (and shown a picture) they were MUCH more likely to convict than if told it was a Ruger Mini-14, although both shoot the same cartridge. They also imposed sentences 50% longer if told it was an AR-15. Then the study's creators changed the scenario to a female homeowner/shooter. Her odds of conviction went up, over that of a male, and if she used an AR-15 the sentence went WAY up.
Caveat: the mock jury on the last was composed of university students rather than a segment of the community at large. [Correction in light of comments: all juries were students. A good reason to use pre-emptory challenges against university students!).
Here in AZ, with real juries, the results are quite different. A prosecutor once told me that he'd urged the County Attorney to stop prosecuting homeowners who shot burglars in the back. They'd just lost three of those cases in a row. Whatever the statute law might be, jurors saw one fewer burglar as a good thing and would not convict a fellow homeowner for having done a good thing.
Hat tip to reader Joe Olson....
Permalink · Self defense · Comments (10)
Handy calendar of post-McDonald events
Only Guns and Money has a convenient calendar of upcoming events in the McDonald followup cases.
Strange to think back ... five years ago, no one would have foreseen any of the coming events. Even a year ago, the total of real right to arms (2nd or 14th Amendment challenges) was, what, McDonald and 1-2 other cases. Today you really need a calendar to keep track of the next right to arms courtroom event!
Permalink · Chicago aftermath · Comments (0)
Madison WI proclaims peaceful open carry is disorderly conduct
Press release here.
Five open carriers went into a restaurant. One patron called police to check them out, stating she "felt uneasy" despite their calm behavior. The city is classifying it as disorderly conduct (disturbing the peace), noting "The DC statute does not require an actual disturbance take place, only that conduct in question is of a type that tends to cause or provoke a disturbance."
The relevance of that is unknown. The city's position must boil down to -- conduct that is both legal and peaceful becomes a misdemeanor if it upsets someone to where they call police. And that, even if it is constitutionally protected. It seems like a 2A version of the 1A "hecklers' veto" -- we will ban your speech, the content of which is permissible, because your opponents might become violent if you gave it.
UPDATE: the point about respondeat superior raises an interesting issue. In a ยง1983 civil rights action, there is no respondeat superior liability (as I recall, because a violation of constitutional rights cannot be within the scope of duty of a government employee). To make a governmental unit liable, you have to prove that its organizational actions were wrong -- one approach being to argue that the unit gave insufficient training to its agents. Usually, though, this is more easily claimed, than proven.
But the City has just officially determined, as an entity, that disorderly conduct charges should be issued. It's no longer a decision by officers on the scene, but an official determination by the City through its highest decisionmakers. I think the City is on the hook.
Hat tip to reader Chris...
IG report critical of "Operation Gunrunner"
Story here. It does repeat the false mantra that "80 percent" of guns confiscated in Mexico come from the US. But it notes that ATFE does not cooperate or share intel with ICE, and ATFE tracing operations in Mexico get little cooperation with ATFE in the US, and supervisors pushing small investigations that can be completed quickly rather than larger ones.
Needless to say, the agency says that if it just had more money and laws it wouldn't be incompetent: "One senior ATF official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that many of the problems identified in the report stem from a lack of funding from Congress and weak U.S. gun laws, including the absence of a specific statute making weapons trafficking a federal crime."
UPDATE: yes, the "we need another law" excuse is especially lame, since it's already illegal to export firearms without permission, to engage in the business of dealing in firearms without a license, to transfer guns to a nonresident of your State, to transfer guns having reason to believe they would be used in crime, etc., etc..
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (7)
Thoughts on tracing of guns in Mexico
Here's an AP article on tracing of guns seized in Mexico. A few thoughts:
1. "In all, the military has 305,424 confiscated weapons locked in vaults..." :The Mexican government has handed over information to U.S. authorities to trace 12,073 weapons seized in 2008 crimes..."
Now, that's comparing total to one year's figures. But the major drug wars really got nasty around 2006. A logical conclusion is that only a tiny fraction, 1/6 or less, are being traced, and those most likely chosen as likely originate in the US. Why waste time trying to trace a full auto Bulgarian AK using American records? When the sampling is limited to gun likely to have a US origin, it stands to reason that much of the sample will ... have a US origin.
2. "Some of the more powerful arms, such as M16 machine guns and sniper rifles, are added to the military's own arsenal." Where do you get a full auto M-16? The likely source is Mexico's military, by theft. But those, too, are counted as having American origin.
3. "About a third of the guns submitted for tracing in 2007 were sold by licensed U.S. dealers." Yet later the story says "Most of the guns traced were originally sold by U.S. dealers in border states, with more than half purchased in Texas."
4. Tracing ends when the gun is traced to the dealer who first sold it at retail. So a gun sold legally in 1990, stolen in 2010 and smuggled into Mexico, would count as traced to an American dealer -- but hardly show that the dealer did anything wrong. The story adds, "Indeed, the ATF gave the AP data showing the average "time to crime" - the time between when a gun was sold and when it was seized in a crime - is 14 years. That's an average of four years longer than guns in American crimes, the ATF said." It certainly sounds like the problem isn't with the dealers; they're making legitimate sales, and the guns wind up stolen long after that.
5. You'd think for something of this magnitude, AP would pick a reporter who knew a little about firearms and tracing. The story talks of M-16 machine guns, a 9mm grenade launcher, of AR-15s modified to fire .50 caliber ammo "the kind of high-powered ammunition designed for sniper rifles."
Here's David Codrea's takedown of the story.
New article on Privilege or Immunities
By Alan Gura, Ilya Shapiro, and Josh Blackman, online here. It'll be in Cato's upcoming Supreme Court Review.
Permalink · 14th Amendment · Comments (2)
Vegas police kill CCW permittee for legal conduct
Story here.
Hat tip to reader Russ Howard...
Self-defense in Brooklyn getting great press
The 63 year old grandfather who popped a burglar in Brooklyn is getting great and favorable coverage. Here's the New York Post, the the Wall Street Journal, and the Gothamist. The last end with:
"Goldstein's neighbors were relieved: One told the Post, "Hopefully, he'll make people think twice about coming here and knocking down doors," and another said, "As a person who's been an opponent of gun ownership, I'm glad he had one now.""
This is the type of story you'd never have seen in print a few years ago. Then it'd have been ignored or, if covered, had quotes from the burglar's family about how terrible it was. There is a quote from the burglar's mother, but it leaves the reader chuckling:
Maginat, who is at Brookdale Hospital, had eight prior arrests and was charged with robbery, criminal possession of a weapon and possession of burglar's tools. However his mother, a former auxiliary cop, told the Daily News that her son couldn't possibly be a burglar, "My son knows better than that."
Hat tip to Sixgun Sarah...
Permalink · media · Comments (4)
lawsuit against EPA refusal to ban lead bullets
Press release here.
Excellent article
At Reason Online, an excellent article on Chicago and its aftermath, by Brian Doherty.
Permalink · Chicago gun case · Comments (0)
Another Bloomburg Mayor bites the dust
Eddie Perez, former mayor of Hartford, gets three years in the big house. Crimes included accepting bribes and committing extortion.
I'll have to update my website for Gun Owners Against Illegal Mayors.
Hat tip to reader Gene Hoffman....
A good place to bank
I wish this bank had a branch in Tucson!
Hat tip to Len Savage...
More Guns, Less Crime
Bob Owens points out that in 2009, Americans bought a record 14 million firearms and about 14 billion rounds of ammo -- and violent crime rates fell.
Comment spam today
Well, at least it's interesting. Spammers post spam comments linking to sales sites, because part of a site's Google ranking is based on the number of links to it. Today's crop includes a sales site for helicopters, a place selling tapestries in Europe, and three from a place selling plastic water bottles.
Oral argument set in Nordyke
Gene Hoffman of CalGuns reports that the 9th Circuit has ordered oral argument, 15 minutes for each side, on October 19 at 1:30PM in Courtroom 1.
This is the one where the 9th Circuit panel (3 judges) issued a ruling, then the entire Circuit voted to rehear it en banc, then after the Chicago decision the Circuit voted to scrap the en banc and send it back to the three judge panel again. Major issues would be (1) standard of review and (2) under whatever standard applies, can the county ban guns shows on county property?
Permalink · Nordyke v. King · Comments (2)
Illinois
I'm at the NRA Board meetings, and last night talked with some Illinois activists, and the conversation turned to their former governor Blago. The consensus was that the jury hung 11-1 for conviction because he only bought one juror. He apparently kept two governor's limos at the capitol. He came in in the morning in one that parked in the space marked for the governor. A few minutes later he sneaked out to the other one and went back to campaign headquarters or wherever else he really wanted to be. That way it looked as if he was putting in long hours on official business, when he was doing anything but.
Supreme Court to hear case on mandatory minimum sentence
Abbott v. US is set for argument on October 4. Here are the briefs, which include some interesting amici.
Permalink · Gun Control Act of 68 · Comments (2)
BATF budget
Here's the pdf. I know it's been remarked that the only sector of the economy (other than guns) that is growing is the government sector. Look on p. 10 (pdf page 10, page six in print). In the last ten years the agency's budget has doubled, from half a billion to a billion, and its employment has increased by 20%, from a little over four to a little over five thousand people.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (9)
San Fran's only gun store fights for permit to open
Story here.
5th Circuit rules no jurisdiction over Italian manufacturer
The ruling was that plaintiff had failed to establish either general or specific jurisdiction over the foreign company. Opinion, in pdf, here.
Permalink · Gun manufacturer liability · Comments (0)
Challenge to CA ban on lead ammo in condor areas
Chuck Michel's letter is here, in pdf. I gather that an admin law challenge of this type requires filing a demand for action as a predicate.
Hat tip to alert reader Jim D. ...
Shipping guns in baggage has risks
At least they caught this guy. $100,000 in items stolen from baggage in his house.
Frontier Justice
Beer thieves, horse thieves, what's the difference?
State of emergency in NC
Paul Valone makes some observations about how the governor's office, having declared an emergency, is trying to side-step on the State law that forbids carrying of a firearm after such an emergency is declared.
Conflict over transit system firearm ads makes CBS
Story here.
Other side's assessment of things
The Legal Community Against VIolence [a handful of attorneys and a big Joyce Foundation grant] has posted its annual report in pdf.
It starts with, well, that little setback in McDonald v. Chicago and Heller v. DC. (p.8 8-9), predicting it will unleash a flood of litigation from the progun side.
Their explanation of legislation they'd like to see (their hopes, not their successes) occupies 3 1/2 pages, pp. 10-14.
Their explanation of where they were defeated recently (guns in parks, guns on Amtrack, Tiahrt Amendment, DC statehood defeated over an amendment cutting back DC gun laws, State legislation including Firearm Freedom Acts ("Regrettably, many state legislatures are running amok") and expanded "shall issue" CCW permits, runs seven pages.
Permalink · antigun groups · Comments (6)
Good timing....
The Bateman case is a challenge to North Carolina's statute that makes it illegal to carry a firearm off your own land during a declared emergency; defendants have moved to dismiss, as I recall. So here comes Hurricane Earl, and the governor's declaration of a state of emergency, three days before dove season starts.
Permalink · Chicago aftermath · Comments (4)
Hate speech -- does it lead to violence?
Somehow I don't think we'll see that debate in the the case of the gunman who took hostages at Discovery Channel headquarters.
"Lee is believed to have distributed a manifesto outside the Discovery building several weeks ago that called on the network to "broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet."
"All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions," the list of demands read.
. . . . . . .
He said he was inspired by "Ishmael," a novel by environmentalist Daniel Quinn and by former Vice President Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth.""
Good news from California
Last night the legislature voted down registration of long arms, a prohibition on open carry, and a proposal for ammunition registration -- that is, not just requiring recordkeeping, but filing of those records with the government.
Interesting story
In Alabama, a 69 year old grandmother shoots a burglar, and gets a nice writeup, complete with a picture of her holding the gun. What's astonishing is, the story is carried by the New York Daily News.
Hat tip to Sixgun Sarah...