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January 2012
The origin of the Sullivan Act
NY Post: The Strange Birth of NY's Gun Laws.
I researched the Sullivan Act for an amicus brief. Tim Sullivan started it out as a very narrow bill -- it just made unlicensed concealed carry a 3 year felony, rather than a misdemeanor. Then NYC's medical examiner lobbied him to pul all the other provisions in, and he agreed. But when he spoke on the floor, which he hated to do, he only talked about the three year penalty.
Even as first enacted, in 1911, it was nothing like what we see today. It required some dealer paperwork, but not registration. There was no provision forbidding open carry. It applied only to handguns. The permits were "may issue" to the max -- as in a felony could get one, if the judge allowed it. (The only bars were to juveniles and non-citizens_/
Permalink · State legislation · Comments (8)
US Attorney Dennis Burke and Fast and Furious
A very interesting article on his background. As a Senate aide,
"And he began working on gun control. DeConcini said Burke helped draft the Anti-Drug Assault Weapons Limitation Act of 1989. A five-year battle ensued, ending with President Bill Clinton signing the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which made it a federal offense to possess certain semiautomatic rifles manufactured after the law's passage.
DeConcini said Burke fostered the measure in concert with a key figure in the White House, policy analyst Rahm Emanuel, who years later would become chief of staff for President Obama. Emanuel now is mayor of Chicago.
"Dennis was the one who worked with everyone on the Judiciary Committee to line up these members and votes," DeConcini said. "Dennis had all these pictures of these guns -- the Streetsweepers and the AK-47s. And it passed by one vote. A lot of it was not my eloquence on the bill, it was stuff that Dennis had done."
The law was adopted shortly before Burke left his Senate job for a position in the Clinton White House as a senior policy analyst for law enforcement and drug issues, again working with Emanuel.
According to preserved e-mails, Burke continued handling firearm issues, discussing whether executive orders could be used to extend the Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act requirement for background checks.
. . . . . . .
During a news conference in 2010, Burke complained that scores of guns from Arizona were being recovered in Mexico. "We have a huge problem here. We have now become the gun locker of the Mexican drug cartels." What Burke did not mention was that his prosecutors had allegedly instructed ATF agents to let some of those weapons "walk" across the border.
In fact, just one month after Burke's appointment as U.S. attorney was confirmed by the Senate, Operation Fast and Furious was secretly launched in Arizona.
. . . . . .
In an April 2010 e-mail to a colleague, Burke predicted that the operation would have a huge public impact: "It's going to bring a lot of attention to straw purchasers of assault weapons," he wrote. "Some of these weapons bought by these clowns in Arizona have been directly traced to murders of elected officials in Mexico by the cartels, so Katie-bar-the-door when we unveil this baby.""
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (6)
Case on use of machine gun in crime
Story here. Federal law provides a 30 year mandatory minimum for use of a full auto in a violent crime. The question is -- does it require that the defendant knew it was full auto? (In this case, a real AK).
Permalink · Gun Control Act of 68 · Comments (5)
Well, that was quick
"Ariz. attorney who pleaded 5th in Fast and Furious investigation leaves job"
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (6)
Issa closes in
Letter here. He's taken a focus on the US Attorney's Office. The head of its Criminal Division has taken the Fifth, and Justice refuses to let the "line attorneys" testify, claiming it always keeps them out of Congressional investigations. But, the letter points out, there is a fellow who was under the head of Criminal, but was a supervisor rather than a line attorney, and Issa sets a deadline of close of business today to state whether he will appear voluntarily or have to be subpoenaed.
Via Dave Workman.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (0)
VA considering repealing "one gun a month"
And as Alphecca notes, Bloomburg will be apoplectic!.
Permalink · State legislation · Comments (1)
Issa letter to Holder
Yesterday's letter is here. The most stinging part is on p. 2, where Issa asks how the Department of Justice can be continuing a man who has to plead the Fifth as head of Criminal Division in the US Attorney's Office.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (1)
SoF endorsements
Col. Brown informs me that Soldier of Fortune has issued its endorsements on the upcoming NRA Board elections. At the top of SoF's list is Steve Schreiner, a major Colorado activist (head of Firearms Coalition of Colorado), who won the Silver Star for courage in Vietnam. SoF also endorses Scott Bach, Bob Viden, Joe DeBergalis, Wayne Anthony Ross, and Manny Fernandez.
UPDATE: I was heavily involved with FOPA's passage, though I did have to miss the House debates. A day or two before the debates, I recall Rep. Volkmer telling me that Hughes was going to offer amendments, I think three. I recall in addition to the full auto one, another put a similar ban on newly-made suppressors; I forget what the third was. Volkmer said that he'd been sounding out the other Members, and one was going to pass, although he wasn't sure which one. (Literally, they were going to pass one and apparently which one didn't matter). The Members had stuck their necks out farther than they wanted to (remember, the House was under Demo control then, and its leadership was VERY antigun), and they were afraid of the backlash, and wanted to be able to tell the media and constituents that they weren't blindly following the gun lobby, why, they'd voted for something anti-gun, too. I said that made little sense, and Volkmer said he agreed, but that the reality.
It wasn't like it is today, and I'm glad to have lived to see it. To give you an idea: it took six months or so to negotiate changes that satisfied the Reagan Administration! Reagan may have given pro-gun speeches, but the Administration would have opposed FOPA if changes weren't made, weakening some provisions. I know, I was there.
Permalink · NRA · Comments (6)
Starbucks boycott
Some place called the National Gun Victims Action Council (probably three people with a big Joyce Foundation grant) is calling for a boycott of Starbucks coffee on February 14.
They say Starbucks "allows guns and assault weapons to be openly carried in its stores (in 43 states) and concealed and carried in its stores (in 49 states). Starbucks' compliance with the National Rifle Association's Pro-Gun Agenda was exposed in 2010 when members of the "open carry" movement began meeting in popular chains, such as California Pizza Kitchen, Peets, IKEA, Disney and Starbucks openly carrying their handguns and assault rifles. To protect their customers and employees, all of the retail chains—except for Starbucks— banned guns from being carried in their stores."
I generally brew my own, but think I'll have a cup of their fanciest on that day.
UPDATE: the PA Gunblog is pushing for it to be Starbucks Appreciation Day.
Permalink · antigun groups · Comments (11)
Tips for shooting an RPG
Do not stand behind the shooter. Followed by a first aid tip: dragging the guy around face-down is rarely a good first step.
AZ legislature to investigate "Fast and Furious"
AP reports the Arizona House has established a special committee to investigate "Fast and Furious".
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (0)
CCW customer kills robber
Story here. With all the permit holders, it's getting to where violent crime isn't safe anymore.
Permalink · CCW licensing · Comments (1)
Erin Simpson speaking for gun rights at the SHOT Show
Erin is a friend, and an attorney here in Tucson. Here's the interview she gave.
Great 4th Amendment case
U.S. v. Jones holds that attaching a GPS device to an auto constitutes a "search" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. 9-0, on the result. Scalia writes for the majority, The liberal wing concurs, with a rather confusing opinion, starting by denying this is a Fourth Amendment issue, and ending by agreeing that it is. I can see the reasoning (that the violation was not the attachment of the device, but its use to monitor) but the wording is a little hard to follow.
Permalink · General con law · Comments (2)
The times they are a'changing....
An interesting chart, from NSSF, of firearm sales (or at least NICS checks, which not quite the same thing -- CCW permit holders can skip them, and the number of those permits is rising, but the figures at least indicate minimal numbers for gun purchases). The 54% rise over a decade is impressive. I can remember when, in the 1970s, production numbers were more like 3-4 million, not 11 million. Equally interesting is that the first years of the Obama Administration do not show a surge. It's a long term trend, not something driven by political fears.
Equally interesting, it may be a global phenomenon. In Australia, New South Wales to be specific, gun control advocates are upset because gun permits are up about 25%, and uo about 80% over five years ago. It's also interesting that they have formed a "Shooters Party" in Parliament.
Permalink · shooting · Comments (0)
Yet another case of "gun walking"
It was reportedly named Operation White Gun. Not much detail yet, but the note that the agent in charge found firearms "relating to" her investigation in Mexican evidence lockers suggests that guns were flowing.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (0)
2012 2A Scholars' Conference online
Images, text, and audio files of presentations are online here. Presenters included Don Kates, Bob Cottrol, Joyce Malcolm, Randy Barnett (whose discussion of originalism is a very good background to the area), Josh Blackman, Steve Halbrook, Nick Johnson, and Ilya Shapiro. It was sponsored by the NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund.
UPDATE: the afternoon session audio files aren't ready yet, but will be online in a few days.
Insane rules
Gunowners aren't the only ones faced with those. A Florida regulation requires each vending machine to sport a sign. The sign informs the reader that ... this sign is required. It thoughtfully has a phone number where you can report a failure to post. But then, if the sign wasn't posted, how would you know the phone number?
Permalink · humor · Comments (4)
Fast and Furious: subpoena to Justice official
Rep. Issa's committee has subpoenaed the Chief of the Criminal Division, US Attorney's Office for Arizona. He was second in command to US Attorney Dennis Burke, and heavily involved in the gun running operation.
He's followed his boss's lead and tendered his own resignation, effective January 27. Not to say the committee is hot on his trail, but they subponeaed him for testimony this coming Tuesday, by deposition.
UPDATE: here's Issa's letter. It has very strong language. You cancelled your voluntary appearance today. So a subpoena is on the way, requiring you to appear in Washington on 72 hour's notice. By the way, the offer your attorney made is what might be expected from an indicted defendant trying to plea bargain, and unacceptable to the committee.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (3)
Another great summary of Fast and Furious
This one at Foreign Policy Blogs:
"First, ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious was never intended or designed to be a ‘gun tracking/tracing’ operation, since there were never provisions in place to allow agents to trace or interdict weapons once they were sold, with the backing of ATF, to straw buyers and allowed to be trafficked, unimpeded, across the US-Mexico border.
Second, ATF never intended the existence of Fast and Furious to become public knowledge; funding requests were buried in larger appropriations requests. Although no tracing or tracking devices were attached to the military-grade weapons that ATF allowed to be trafficked into Mexico, serial numbers were entered in ATF’s eTrace data bank, allowing agents, once weapons had been recovered at crime scenes and returned to ATF by Mexican authorities, to verify that they had been obtained illegally and within a short ‘buy-to-crime’ time frame from US gun dealers. Verification of this kind would offer strong support to Mexico’s claim that gun violence along border regions is fueled by illegal gun sales in the US and lend muscle to cries in the US for stronger gun legislation.
Third, any ATF operation that involved the trafficking of weapons across the US border required Justice to coordinate first with ICE (DHS), the agency with legal jurisdiction for cross-border weapons transfers, and the US Department of State, which is responsible for issuing exemptions to the Arms Export Control Act (AECA). Janet Napolitano, in charge of ICE, denies any knowledge of Fast and Furious, as does Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State. If ATF did indeed walk roughly 2000 lethal weapons across the US border absent waivers from State, the agency and the officials involved would be guilty of violating USC 7228 (AECA)–multiple felonies.
Fourth, Fast and Furious was not a bottom-up operation: Special Agent John Dodson, a field agent in the Phoenix office was the first to claim ‘whistleblower status’ and inform Congress re the existence of the Operation and its consequences–the deaths of roughly 300 people attributable to ATF’s gunwalking operation, including the death of US Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry on US soil. Emails and other documents proving the involvement of DOJ and other admininstration officials in Fast and Furious at early stages of the operation suggests motive and planning at high levels."
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (0)
Fast and Furious: the Administration's attack on the whistleblowers
Story here. An excellent summary of how the whistleblowers were sanctioned, and those responsible for running the guns protected.
Seems like Bloomberg's idea of "reasonable gun laws"
Brooklyn operator of a 99 cent store is fined $30,000 for selling six toy "sheriff's sets" that included a toy gun. Apparently the guns even had a red tip, but it sounds as if NYC requires that the entire toy gun be of a distinctive color.
"Stand your ground" is doing well in PA
Story here. Good guys survive, bad guys go down or are driven off.
Permalink · Self defense · Comments (0)
A wonderful day....
A Mayor Against Illegal Guns gets convicted of assault and harassment, and arrested for violating an order of protection obtained by the victim, his wife.
Brady Campaign loses a lawsuit against an FFL when it blows a filing deadline -- by four minutes.
Ruger shares soar, while the rest of the market drops, on reports that its sales are up 33% from the fourth quarter the year before.
Feds move to un-seal court records in Brian Terry murder
Report here. As I mentioned earlier, while sealing of specific documents is known, the sealing of an entire court file is, in my experience, not known.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (0)
Next Generatin RKBA Scholars conference
Summary here. I was there, and it was quite good... essentially a meeting of 25 new law profs, or those who are seeking to become law profs, and who are interested in the right to arms. At the evening dinner, Don Kates was presented with an award for his critical role in developing the modern (and correct) view of the right to arms. In 1983, he got his article into Michigan Law Review, one of the top five or ten. Before then, we'd been publishing in the lesser reviews. Hitting a major review was critical because the major names in con law read those, and it resulted in the major names publishing their own articles.
Judge Silberman of the DC Circuit, who wrote its opinion in Parker/Heller finding for an individual right, spoke at dinner. He was great. I learned one interesting practice tip. If you're heading for the Supreme Court, and at the Circuit level you lose before the three judge panel BUT know there is a favorable judge that wasn't on the panel, move for rehearing en banc (before the entire Circuit, rather than just a panel), even tho you know it will be denied. That gives the favorable judge(s) a chance to write a dissent from the denial of rehearing, and the dissent may carry weight with the Supreme Court when it decides whether to take the case.
UPDATE: in the 9th Circuit, rehearing en banc gets complicated, but I think all the 20+ judges get a vote, and hence a chance to dissent. If accepted, which rarely happens, it's a roll of the dice, since it's not heard by all the judges, but by a panel of ten plus the chief judge.
So much for "common sense" gun laws
Marine faces 3.5 years "hard time" in NYC for carrying without a license. He had a CCW permit in his home state, Indiana, and was carrying $15,000 in jewelry at the time.
Fast and Furious -- every agency wants in on it!
Now come reports that DEA helped launder millions for a drug cartel.
That much has been in the open, but now there's a new twist: "They lost track of much of that money."
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (1)
Prof. Lerner on self-defense
I blogged a presentation of hers years ago, now she has her paper online. By "proportionality" she means self defense law that implicitly treats the life of the defender as equal to the life of the attacker. If the defender can only use lethal force if his or her own life is on the line, then the law treats the two lives as of equal value. But, as she points out, the vast majority of people (and not only in the US) do not consider the life of a violent criminal as equal to that of his potential victim. Sometimes, indeed, the European laws do a better job of reflecting this. For example, should the victim use force out of anger rather than fear, they allow a defense or partial defense (reduction of charges) on the basis that the attacker should bear responsibility for having created that anger.
Permalink · Self defense · Comments (1)
Excellent article on Heller/McDonald future
Hat tip to reader David McCleary.
Permalink · Chicago aftermath · Comments (2)
Irony
"Gun Control: A Movement Without Followers," in Bloomberg Businessweek.
Journalists and the "chump effect"
Interesting article on how the media buys and publicizes any "new study shows ...". Never happens in the field of firearm regulation, of course
Hat tip to reader Thirtyyearprof.
Permalink · media · Comments (3)
Castle doctrine as applied
Four thugs break into NC home, teen inside uses shotgun to blow one into the next zip code.
"Police said the teen will not face any charges for killing Michael Henderson on December 29.
Under North Carolina's Castle Doctrine Law, homeowners can use deadly force if they fear their lives are in danger."
Permalink · Self defense · Comments (1)
Oak Park reacting toys with "let's make it the best two out of three"
They don't learn easily, I suppose.
Challenge to GCA definition of felony
Story here. The underlying problem is well-known. Maryland has (or had?) "common law misdemeanors," for which (I think) the judge could impose an unlimited term of imprisonment. GCA 68 defines as a felony any offense punishable by more than a year's imprisonment, or if the offense is expressly termed a misdemeanor, punishable by more than two year's imprisonment. So the Maryland misdemeanors are GCA felonies.
Permalink · Gun Control Act of 68 · Comments (0)
Sniper surpasses Hathcock
300+ confirmed kills To be fair, he had a target-rich environment..
ATF letter rulings
An interesting article in the Washington Times. I can understand the ATF's problems here -- it's stuck with interpreting a 70 year old statute that wasn't thought thru at the time of enactment. What I don't understand is how, given the Admin Procedure Act and FOIA, the "letter rulings" aren't completely public (things like those should at least be on public display in the agency reading room, and likely be codified in the Code of Federal Regs).
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (0)
A call for common sense gun laws
In the NY Post, not the NY Times.
PJ Tattler has some fun with the Brady Campaign
Right here.
Happy New Year to all! I'm happy just to have survived 2011 -- and have a year with no surgery!