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September 2011
Challenge to 21 yr age limit for handguns denied
Story here.
A brief timeline for Operation Gunwalker
February 2009: AG Holder calls for reinstating the "assault weapon" ban, saying "I think that will have a positive impact in Mexico, at a minimum."
March 2009: Hillary Clinton visits Mexico, delivers a speech. "These criminals are outgunning law enforcement officials," Clinton said of the street warfare in towns near the border that have claimed more than 6,000 lives in the past year. And since we know that the vast majority, 90% of that [weaponry] comes from our country, we're going to try to stop it from getting there in the first place," Clinton said."
April 2009: President Obama visits Mexico. "Meeting face-to-face with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, President Obama on Thursday said the U.S. is to blame for much of Mexico’s drug violence, and he set up a major congressional gun-control battle by calling on the Senate to ratify a treaty designed to track and cut the flow of guns to other countries. Mr. Obama said he wants to renew a ban on some semiautomatic weapons but that it is not likely to pass Congress." He adds, "more than 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States, many from gun shops that lay in our shared border."
September 2009: Operation Fast and Furious appears to begin at about this point.
October 2009: Field Field Division establishes "Group VII." Its plans include allowing guns to "walk" to Mexico.
March 2010: An email to Group VII supervisors informs them that the acting head of ATF and the Deputy Director of FBI are very interested in the operation and receiving weekly briefings.
Some agents are objecting, since Agent Voth sends an email telling agents that if “you don’t think this is fun,” you should find another job.
April 2010: Group VII reports the straw men purchased 359 firearms, including some .50 rifles, last month alone.
May 2010: President Calderon visits Washington, calls for renewal of the "assault weapon" ban.
December 2010: The Administration proposes to require reporting of multiple long-gun sales by dealers in border States. Dennis Henigan of Brady Campaign rejoices that it may be the end of appeasement, and calls for more: "The new ATF initiative to fight Mexican gun trafficking has crossed a line -- and the administration knows it. "
December 10, 2010: Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry is murdered, and Fast and Furious guns are found at the site.
December 22, 2010, ATF agents Bloggers pick up the story.
January 2011: Fast and Furious is suddenly shut down. ATF arrests the straw men. Agent Newell vigorously denies the agency allowed guns to "walk."
Feburary 2011: story goes mainstream when CBS Evening News covers it.
So in Spring 2009 the Administration was pushing its agenda with references to American guns going to Mexico -- with spokesmen including the President, the AG, and the Secretary of State. In the following months, Operation Fast and Furious took form. The gunwalking involved offices in Arizona and Texas, and perhaps Florida, and involved FBI as well as ATF. FBI even bankrolled one of the smugglers. Occam's Razor ... gunwalking was meant to serve a political agenda that (at the outset) was seen as setting the stage for some major pushes, and that required lots of Mexican crime guns to trace to US dealers. And if a few hundred people got killed, that was just the price.
Oregon court strikes campus carry ban
Opinion here. Oregon Firearms Federation scores a win: the court strikes a ban on carrying on campus, as violating the State's pre-emption statute.
Hat tip to Kevin Starritt of Oregon Firearms Federation...
Permalink · State legislation · Comments (0)
San Francisco challenge: motion to dismiss denied
Order here. It's the [correction made] California Rifle and Pistol Assn/NRA challenge to San Francisco's ordinances, based on McDonald, and the court rejects a motion to dismiss for lack of standing. The ordinances require that guns be trigger-locked or stored in a locked container, ban the sale of ammunition that has no "sporting purpose," and prohibits all discharge of firearms (including discharge in self-defense).
It's especially good in that the court calls into question the continuing vitality of some 9th Circuit rulings on the issue. The 9th Circuit is one which has two entirely different bodies of law on standing. One that usually governs follows a correctly loose concept of standing: you have standing if you have to refrain from conduct because it is forbidden by a statute you argue is unconstitutional. The other body of law applies only to gun cases and a few other classes of cases that the 9th Circuit probably dislikes: you only have standing if the enforcing agency has been kind enough to give you a one-on-one guarantee that you will be prosecuted if you violate the law. Thus the agency can never be sued unless it is foolish enough to give you that, and to guarantee it. The 9th has never bothered to reconcile the two different standards it applies.
Permalink · Chicago aftermath · Comments (1)
Testing black powder guns with modern equipment
Fascinating. They set out with radar that can track bullets, to see if Billy Dixon's famous 1874 shot (he reportedly shot an Indian off his horse at over 1,500 yards, using a .50-90). Yep, the Sharps could do it. It may launch its heavy bullets at 1200-1300 fps, but they can reach out over 3,600 yards and are deadly even at that range. Fired at 45 degrees, the projectile travels that distance while rising 4,000 feet above the ground and staying in the air for thirty seconds.
Permalink · shooting · Comments (0)
comment glitch fixed
When I awakened, I found no spam comments. That was a clear indication things were broken -- normally I wake up to find 8-20 that have made it thru the spam filter. (Spammers must have day jobs: most of the spam comments come at night, or over weekends -- the purpose is to raise the Google rankings of those who hire them). I fixed the problem. In the neverending war of blogs vs. spammers, sometimes they'll insert links designed to screw up your blog if you blacklist them, a count countermeasure as it were. If you don't spot them (and it's easy to miss when you have 20 spam comments to deal with and each has several links), things get messed up.
NY Times and the "terrorist watch list"
Yesterday's NY Times has an article on the "terrorist watch list, and here are a few segments:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is permitted to include people on the government’s terrorist watch list even if they have been acquitted of terrorism-related offenses or the charges are dropped, according to newly released documents.
......
The 91 pages of newly disclosed files include a December 2010 guidance memorandum to F.B.I. field offices showing that even a not-guilty verdict may not always be enough to get someone off the list, if agents maintain they still have “reasonable suspicion” that the person might have ties to terrorism.
.......
Ginger McCall, a counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said: “In the United States, you are supposed to be assumed innocent. But on the watch list, you may be assumed guilty, even after the court dismisses your case.”
......
Normally, it says, if agents close the investigation without charges, they should remove the subject’s name — as they should also normally do in the case of an acquittal. But for exceptions, the F.B.I. maintains a special file for people whose names it is keeping in the database because it has decided they pose a national security risk even though they are not the subject of any active investigation.
......
The procedures offer no way for people who are on the watch list to be notified of that fact or given an opportunity to see and challenge the specific allegations against them.
Chris Calabrese, a counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union, called the watch list system a “Star Chamber” — “a secret determination, that you have no input into, that you are a terrorist. Once that determination is made, it can ripple through your entire life and you have no way to challenge it.”
Strange to recall that only last year the the Times had this to say:
There seems to be a strong sentiment in Congress that the only constitutional right suspected terrorists have is the right to bear arms.... The Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on “Terrorists and Guns: The Nature of the Threat and Proposed Reforms,” concerned a modest bill sponsored by Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey. It would allow the government to stop gun sales to people on the F.B.I. terror watch list the same way it does people who have felony convictions. Because Congress has repeatedly rejected this idea, 1,119 people on the watch list have been able to purchase weapons over the last six years. One of them bought 50 pounds of military grade explosives."
Not to mention this:
The mayor’s [Bloomberg's] speech is a plea for lawmakers to close the so-called “Terror Gap,” a hole in the law that prevents the federal government from blocking the sale of firearms or explosives to people on the the terrorist watch list. Because this kind of stuff is on people’s minds lately, we thought we would post the text of his prepared remarks.
Or this:
But the law is such that the F.B.I. can’t tell a gun dealer like Mr. Mastrianni not to sell a gun to somebody we think is a terrorist and whom the T.S.A. won’t let on a plane. Two years ago, 400 mayors, led by Michael R. Bloomberg of New York and Thomas M. Menino of Boston, called for this oddity to be eliminated.Permalink · prohibitted persons · Comments (1)
Article on women and guns
Posted by David Hardy · 28 September 2011 01:53 PM" Chicks with Guns’: Some 15 million US women pack heat." . It's a book review, which begins:
"Pop quiz: Name one accessory that grandmothers, moms, girls, wealthy socialites, middle-class females and low-income women might be likely to own — and cherish — all across America.
If you answered “a gun,” you’d be correct."
But here's the real shocker -- it's not in Guns and Ammo. it's from msnbc, and in US Today.
Permalink · women & guns · Comments (0)
Governor proposes suspending Congressional elections
Posted by David Hardy · 28 September 2011 08:40 AMNC Governor Perdue proposes to solve the debt crisis suspending the next Congressional election so Reps won't be distracted by democracy.
Her press secretary says it was a joke. Sounds serious to me. Seriously psychotic. But then she is under some pressure.
NJ ruling on "possession"
Posted by David Hardy · 28 September 2011 08:08 AMPdf here. One of Ev Nappen's cases, it concerns a juvenile who borrowed his grandfather's case, had a traffic stop, whereupon police found a rifle and some ammo in the trunk. Around here, it would be "nice rifle." In NJ, it's a year on juvenile probation.
The legally interesting point is that the appellate court finds there was no evidence of knowing "possession": at most, he knew of the ammo and/or gun at a point when there was no opportunity to get rid of it (short of leaving it on the sidewalk) before he was stopped.
Permalink · State legislation · Comments (0)
House Judiciary Chairman raises interesting questions
Posted by David Hardy · 27 September 2011 12:04 PMRep. Lamar Smith's letter is here The end is interesting to me:
"5. Is the [Justice] Department confident that ATF can fulfill its mission with a part-time director who is based in Minnesota?
6. Have you issued a waiver of the residency requirement for [new acting director] Todd Jones under 28 U.S.C. §545? If so, for what period does the waiver extend?"
Jones is retaining his U.S. Attorney's post in Minnesota while serving as acting director of ATF in Washington, DC. 18 U.S.C. §545 provides:
"Each United States attorney shall reside in the district for which he is appointed, [with exceptions not relevant here]. Pursuant to an order from the Attorney General or his designee, a United States attorney or an assistant United States attorney may be assigned dual or additional responsibilities that exempt such officer from the residency requirement in this subsection for a specific period as established by the order and subject to renewal."
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (1)
Operation Gunwalker -- key witness sent to Iraq
Posted by David Hardy · 27 September 2011 08:18 AMJust as the House Committee wants to interview him, to investigate White House links to Operation Fast and Furious, National Security Council Advisor Kevin O'Reilly is is "currently on a previously scheduled assignment to Iraq." I hope he's got a good room in Baghdad, as it sounds like it may be a long stay.
UPDATE: David Codrea and Michael Vanderboegh have gotten a copy of a January ATF HQ email warning, from their blog postings, that ATF employees were willing to come forward on Operation Gunwalker.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (2)
Amicus brief on carry bans
Posted by David Hardy · 27 September 2011 08:07 AMRight here. It's in People v. Aguilar, pending in the Illinois Supreme Court, principal author is Prof. Michael O'Shea, co-counsel are David Kopel and Nicholas Johnson.
Gunwalker: agents personally obtained guns for the cartels
Posted by David Hardy · 26 September 2011 07:48 AMAnother staggering find by Mike Vanderboegh & David Codrea. Story here. The agent named in the management memo to the FFL is one of the whistelblowers, and the memo translates as (1) sell this guy the AKs and (2) don't do a 4473 because they are for official government duties.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (2)
Gun Rights Policy Conference
Posted by David Hardy · 25 September 2011 07:52 PMOn the plane returning --last few days were too busy for blogging. The conference hotel was also hosting a major conference of exterminators, who were focusing on a major problem in their business. But it was a bit of a shock to wlak into the lobby and see signs like tis:
facial vs applied challenges
Posted by David Hardy · 23 September 2011 03:34 PMAn interesting debate at The Volokh Conspiracy.
Permalink · General con law · Comments (0)
Operation Gunwalker: strong opinions forcefully expressed
Posted by David Hardy · 22 September 2011 03:56 PMOn a thread at CleanupATF.org, they have a long "clarifying letter" from Bill Newell, one of the supervisors of the operation, and an agent's response:
"ill Newell you are a lying coward. This letter was written not to clarify anything you lied about but to attempt to avoid an indictment. You repeated your lame justifications and made excuses, the same thing you have done since the day you set foot in ATF. You lied to Congress and you are trying to cover your lies by calling the Whistleblowers, Gil and Canino liars. You are a 100% chickenshit.
You are a whiny little bitch to actually compose a letter to Congress after you lied to their faces and blame your lies the the "pressure" you feel and that this is "unlike anything you have ever experienced". You are pathetic to say that this experience has taken a toll on your health and family.
What about the toll on Brian Terry's family? What about the toll's on the hundreds of dead Mexican citizens and their families? All you ever have or ever will care about is you. You are one self-centered m_ _ _ _ _ rf _ _ _ _ r.
Here is where I am going to get off and probably be deleted. My friend is Jay Dobyns. Newell you are quite possibly the biggest hypocritical pussy ever in ATF to make the statements that you made in your letter knowing what you did to him and his family. You helped your boys Gillett and Higman go above and beyond to try and frame him as an arsonsist and attempted murder. You turned your back just like you did in Fast and Furious. I don't have the vocabulary to state what a double-standard POS you are. You think Dobyns felt pressure living under the allegation that he tried to murder his family for the last three years? How about the toll on his family have to hear that their husband and father intended to burn their house down on them and murder them? Then you lied under oath in that case too.
Don't bother to appologize. Whatever it is that happens to you, it is not evil enough to balance what you have done. Rot in hell."
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (1)
A 3.8" group -- at 1,000 yards
Posted by David Hardy · 22 September 2011 08:17 AMA good shot with a good rifle. He uses the 6mm Dasher.
Permalink · shooting · Comments (2)
Background to Gunwalker
Posted by David Hardy · 22 September 2011 07:51 AMDavid Codrea reveals a very interesting ATF HQ email.
Right after the murder of BP Agent Brian Terry, a posting on CleanupATF.org reported that ATF in Phoenix was letting 500 guns go to Mexico, and the possibility that Terry had been murdered with one of them. Acting Director Melson and Chief Counsel Rubenstein discussed, not the issue of letting the guns leave, but the issue of whether the anonymous poster (certainly a ATF agent) broke agency policy by discussing it.
"Suspects may alter their behavior if they know that law enforcement is allowing certain firearms to 'walk' into Mexico. In addition, public knowledge of this type of operation potentially places informants and undercover agents in jeopardy. Finally, public disclosure of such information could ATF's working relationship with Mexico.”
OK, Phoenix has let hundreds of guns walk to the Mexican cartels, and they may have been used to murder an American LEO. That's not remarkable nor disturbing. What is disturbing is that cartels might react if they knew this was being done with the agency's blessing, or that the Mexican government, which has been kept in the dark, might become upset.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (3)
Memorial page and fundraiser for murdered BP Agent Terry
Posted by David Hardy · 21 September 2011 06:57 PMHere. The fundraiser for his family is Saturday, Nov. 12, in Scottsdale AZ. There is also a Facebook page in his memory.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (0)
Operation Gunwalker -- another agent comes forward
Posted by David Hardy · 21 September 2011 12:39 PMPermalink · BATFE · Comments (0)
FBI Uniform Crime statistics out
Posted by David Hardy · 20 September 2011 08:35 PMState breakdown here.
Interesting trends on murder rates:
Massachusetts, probably strictest gun laws in the nation,: up by 22%.
Vermont, perhaps loosest in the nation, down by 13%
New Jersey, close runner-up to MA, up by 15%. NY UP BY 13%.
PA, far looser laws, down by 1.8%.
Florida, home of "shall issue" CCW, down by 4.3%
Permalink · Crime and statistics · Comments (5)
Pharmacist fired by Walgreens releases video
Posted by David Hardy · 20 September 2011 08:07 AMIt's the usual story: fellow working for a store is robbed, defends self successfully, and is fired for violation some policy against impeding robbers. This time, the un-victim has released the security cam videos, which has the store all bothered.
The change in the robber's attitude when he draws and shoots is marked. In about half a second it goes from aggressive to "run like hell" mode.
Permalink · Self defense · Comments (6)
Self defense in Canada
Posted by David Hardy · 19 September 2011 11:23 AMSounds like it's going the way of England. Article here. Man arrested for shooting at masked group that hit his house with six firebombs, another charged after he strikes a burglar (which is smashing his car into the homeowner's car) with the flat of an axe, another jailed for driving off burglars with an unloaded gun.
Permalink · non-US · Comments (3)
Interesting Colorado case on felons and self-defense
Posted by David Hardy · 17 September 2011 02:41 PMPeople v. Dewitt, discussed over at The Volokh Conspiracy. The Colorado court holds, based on the State right to keep and bear arms, that a felon charged with possession is entitled to a jury instruction on his right to self-defense if he presents any evidence on that issue (in this case the evidence offered was that there had been muggings and suspicious activity in the area, so it need not be "someone was coming at me with a knife" type immediacy.
Permalink · prohibitted persons · Comments (5)
Moral/Rational case against SWAT raids
Posted by David Hardy · 14 September 2011 08:28 AMAn interesting post. The comments, many by military who served in Iraq, are likewise of interest. I don't doubt that there are situations where use of a SWAT team is wise, but it seems to be becoming the default tool for search warrant execution. One commenter notes such a team was used, with fatal results, to arrest a doctor for gambling on sports events. I noted earlier use of a team, flash-bangs, and an armored vehicle in Maricopa County, to raid a guy charged with cockfighting. I know a fellow in Tucson who experienced that sort of a raid on charges of forgery (not even faking a signature; in AZ forgery includes any use of a "false document").
National right to carry considered in the House
Posted by David Hardy · 14 September 2011 07:45 AMStory here. Never thought I'd live to see the day... Back in 1968, it took much effort just to keep it to GCA 68 instead of national registration and permit proposals that were floating and had serious support. It stayed that way for a decade.
Operation Gunwalker keeps expanding
Posted by David Hardy · 12 September 2011 09:41 AMThe LA Times interviews one of the gun dealers.
"He said he supported law enforcement, and never imagined a thousand weapons, or half of the entire Fast and Furious inventory, would "walk" out of his store. And when arrests were not forthcoming, "every passing week I was more stunned," he said.
According to a confidential memo written by assistant federal prosecutor Emory Hurley, "Mr. Howard had expressed concerns about the cooperation he was providing and whether he was endangering himself or implicating himself in a criminal investigation."
Other firearms dealers shared his concerns. At the nearby Scottsdale Gun Club, the proprietor sent an email to Agent David Voth. "I want to help ATF," he said, "but not at the risk of agents' safety because I have some very close friends that are U.S. Border Patrol agents in southern AZ.""
And PJ Media points out that FBI gave the cartel insider $70,000 in "seed money" to start buying the guns. It probably came from stimulus dollars... although why the drug cartels would need economic stimulus is not clear. So now we have a multi-agency program not only to allow the cartels to get American guns, but to also to fund the buying.
And speaking of multi-agency efforts, there's Grenadewalker, where a fellow was exporting hundreds or thousands of grenade casings (I assume practice grenades) into Mexico, and there making them live, to supply the cartels. Customs caught him, they wanted to prosecute him, but DoJ (via the US Attorney) insisted that they let him go.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (0)
More on Fast and Furious (Gunwalker)
Posted by David Hardy · 9 September 2011 10:29 AMFox News reveals that (1) there was a third Gunwwalker gun found at the scene of Agent Terry's murder; (2) this one came from Texas; (3) the FBI covered it up to protect its informant within the cartel; (4) that informant was the guy who procured the three guns.
David Codrea critiques Eric Holder's sorta-denial that high level DOJ people knew of the gun-running. "Something that, at this point, I don't think is supported by the facts." That's not "it isn't true"; it's attorney-speak for "you can't prove it. Now, anyway."
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (1)
How airline hijackings ended in the good old days
Posted by David Hardy · 9 September 2011 09:03 AMCrime, Guns, and Videotape has the story. And the aftermath.
As I remember, back in the 60s one airline (Frontier?) didn't care if you carried, and the others cared but really couldn't do much since airports didn't have metal detectors.
Permalink · Self defense · Comments (2)
Eric Holder's position on Gunwalker
Posted by David Hardy · 8 September 2011 10:10 AMOK, so his subordinates were letting guns go to the drug cartels, getting people killed by the dozens, arguably committing acts of war against Mexico, without bothering to ask permission from their superiors. And the discipline imposed is ... the US Attorney for AZ has to resign, and the Ass't US Attorney directly involved gets transferred across the hall, from doing criminal work to doing civil work. Sounds more like "OK, you did your job, but we've been a little embarrassed by this" rather than "you insubordinate morons got people killed."
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (1)
Good analysis of Operation Gunwalker
Posted by David Hardy · 7 September 2011 04:01 PMHere. I agree with the author. The more we look into it, it appears that the object of sending guns to the Sinaloa Cartel was to ... send guns to the Sinaloa Cartel. Since they lost track of the guns as soon as they crossed the border, the shipments couldn't have yielded any intelligence or evidence. The only info that could be obtained were that guns were being recovered in Mexico that traced to American dealers. Added benefit: if anyone asked just how many of those came directly from dealers, as opposed to having been legally sold long ago, stolen, and then shipped, you have salted the mine with 2,000 that will in fact trace directly to a dealer sale. It would also drive down the average "time to crime" figure.
District Ct decision in Kachalsky
Posted by David Hardy · 6 September 2011 11:18 AMIn PDF. It finds that Plaintiffs pass all procedural hurdles, but rules the NY firearm carry permit system constitutional. It construes Heller/McDonald narrowly, refusing to go much outside the "core right" of having firearms in the home, and pays little heed to what I think was the key argument: the NY system vests almost unbridled discretion in the licensing official, to find or deny "good cause" for the permit.
Permalink · Chicago aftermath · Comments (5)
Good fellow moves to Mass., complies with gun laws, winds up sentenced to a year
Posted by David Hardy · 6 September 2011 10:09 AMMeet Clint Cornelius. He decides to move to Northampton, MA. He researches MA gun laws, and notes that a person moving there has sixty days to register guns and comply with its laws (which also restrict ammunition). He transports his three firearms in accord with MA law.
But he didn't realize that MA also has a ban on large capacity magazines, and that is NOT subject to the sixty day window. The firearms are, the ammo is, but magazines are not. So he winds up serving a year in jail for having three, unloaded, pieces of metal. And he only got that by taking a plea -- if convicted of having the pieces of metal, he'd have gotten a mandatory minimum of 2.5 years in prison!
Permalink · arms law victims · Comments (9)
So much for Bloomberg's touting NYC as safe
Posted by David Hardy · 5 September 2011 10:06 AM24 shot in NYC in 24 hours. You can of course guess what his answer is.
Issa, Grassley focus on US Attorney's office
Posted by David Hardy · 4 September 2011 11:11 AMWashington Times has the story. The allegations are that the office explicitly approved getting the guns into Mexico, one way or another, and that an Ass't US Attorney aided the process by by telling agents they must meet impossibly high standards before they could stop or question suspected straw men.
As was suggested in comments to earlier posts, it's becoming increasingly hard to deny the suspicious that the object of getting guns to the Sinaloa Cartel was ... to get guns to the Sinaloa Cartel.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (5)
Detroit sees two armed self-defense incidents in one day
Posted by David Hardy · 4 September 2011 09:24 AMReport here. Perhaps I should say "reports two," since armed self-defense is unlikely to be reported where the authorities are seen as hostile to arms.
Permalink · Self defense · Comments (2)
Suppressors now legal in Michigan
Posted by David Hardy · 2 September 2011 02:41 PMAn Attorney General's opinion takes a realistic view of the State laws. The Shekel has the historical background.
Permalink · National Firearms Act
Suit filed in warrantless seizure
Posted by David Hardy · 2 September 2011 11:52 AMComplaint, in replevin, is here. I trust an action for damages will follow. Replevin is essentially asking for the property's return, and compensation for any damage done to it.
Hat tip reader Jim K. ...
Lawsuit filed in wake of a record unreasonable search
Posted by David Hardy · 2 September 2011 08:57 AMA while back I mentioned a raid in Phoenix in which the publicity-addicted sheriff let Steven Seagal drive the departmental tank (actually a self-propelled howitzer), and the SWAT team apparently threw in flash bangs, all to raid a fellow accused of cock fighting. And of course to film the event for a TV series.
Looks like a lawsuit has been filed. More here. He used the armored vehicle to crash through the gates and level a wall, and in the course of things the family's puppy was killed to boot.