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February 2013
Senate Judiciary Committee hearings
The video is here. Click on the video playlist in the right margin.
You can fast forward by clicking on the timeline. The three witnesses opposing the legislation begin at 2:16 (yes, two hours sixteen minutes).
Got off the plane three hours ago, very, very tired. I entirely rewrote my presentation during the course of the hearing, and as a result have to consult my notes far more often than I like.
Testifying tomorrow before Senate Judiciary, on AW ban
Here's my written statement. The hearings begin at 10 AM EST and will probably last until noon. You can watch them live here.
The witness list is:
Panel I
John Walsh
United States Attorney
District of Colorado
United States Department of Justice
Denver, CO
Edward Flynn
Chief
Milwaukee Police Department
Milwaukee, WI
Panel II
Neil Heslin
Newtown, CT
Dr. William Begg
EMS Medical Director
Western Connecticut Health Network
Newtown, CT
Nicholas Johnson
Professor of Law
Fordham Law School
New York, NY
David Hardy
Attorney
Law Offices of David Hardy
Tucson, AZ
The Honorable Sandy Adams
Former United States Representative (R-FL-24)
Orlando, FL
Michael Nutter
Mayor of Philadelphia
President, U.S. Conference of Mayors
Philadelphia, PA
Heckler's Veto
In First Amendment circles, it's called the "heckler's veto." You must cancel your own peaceful exercise of freedom of speech, because your opponents are thugs and might get violent over your message.
Permalink · General con law · Comments (3)
New York Times, Kelo takings of property, and corporate welfare
Interesting... the present site of the NY Times headquarters building was obtained by having State agency condemn the land, evicting a mass of small businesses, and having the agency give the Times a 99 year lease for a fraction of its value.
Nobody tried to buy from the small businesses voluntarily; condemnation was cheaper than a voluntary transaction.
"''They never even came to ask if I wanted to sell,'' said Joseph Orbach, who has owned the 16-story building at 265 West 40th Street with his brothers, Markus and Sidney, since 1978. ''They're just taking it.'' There are some 30 tenants, including architects and engineers.
At a condemnation hearing on Sept. 24 and in later interviews, owners expressed anger that a large corporate neighbor, The Times, was getting the benefit of a fully assembled 80,000-square-foot development parcel at a price of $84.94 million, in addition to city incentives that may reach $29 million."
(Some say the tax subsidies will be nearer to $79 million). One architectural report explains, "The New York Times Company wants a headquarters building that befits its position in the media industry, in the city, and in the world." A Times spokesman explained it had a it had a duty to seek profits for its shareholders: "as long as these kinds of incentives continue to exist, it is incumbent upon us, as a publicly held company, to seek the benefit of those incentives for our shareholders."
I wonder how the Times would treat any other corporation's statement to that effect.... then, as Mel Brooks observed, "It's good to be the king!"
Permalink · media · Comments (4)
NRA ballot issue
I receive mine today. One clue in voting: if you cast the entire 25 votes that are allowed, you water down each of them. There's usually about 5 that I consider highly important, maybe even indispensable, to the organization, and then many more who would be good. But if I vote for the many more good ones, I increase the odds that one of them might displace the indispensable ones.
For me, indispensable decorated veteran Steve Shreiner and the always hardworking Carol Bambery, and soon-to-be president Jim Porter. Very, very good means Lance Olson, Sandy Froman, and Bob Sanders. Here's the webpages known to me:
Carol Bambery, hunter, NFA shooter, and busy gun activist. Heads the National Firearm Law seminar each year, chairs Bylaws and Resolutions, serves on a number of committees.
Steve Schreiner, one very dedicated activist, who in Vietnam earned the Silver Star and Bronze Star with with V for valor.
If you know any more webpages like this, please comment.
Permalink · NRA · Comments (0)
Another big day for the right to arms
Moore v. Madigan, the 7th Cir. ruling that struck down the Illinois law banning unlicensed carrying, with licenses on a may issue basis .... the State's motion for reconsideration en banc was denied. Now their choices are, go for cert. and face the risk the Supreme Court might take it, establish firmly that carrying outside the home is protected, and "may issue" doesn't suffice, or let a high favorable decision stand, one that will create future circuit splits, and hope they can control how the legislature rewrites the law.
On the other hand, the 10th Circuit in Peterson v. Martinez ruled that the Colorado CCW statute, which only allows permits to Colorado residents, did not violate either the right to arms or the Article IV ban on States discriminating against nonresidents' "privileges or immunities." It did suggest a different result might be had if the challenge were also to Denver's ordinance banning open carry, creating a situation where a nonresident could not carry at all.
Permalink · Chicago aftermath · Comments (2)
Clayton Cramer on fixing our mental health system
He has an article in PJ Media. It sounds quite convincing to me.
We're in the best of hands, pt. 1021
A Washington State lawmaker introduces an AW ban, apparently without reading it, and later is startled to find that it would authorize warrantless searches of owners' homes. I guess he figured they'd have to pass it in order to find out what was in it.
Permalink · State legislation · Comments (1)
We're in the best of hands, pt. 1021
A Washington State lawmaker introduces an AW ban, apparently without reading it, and later is startled to find that it would authorize warrantless searches of owners' homes. I guess he figured they'd have to pass it in order to find out what was in it.
Permalink · State legislation · Comments (4)
1998 Massachusetts law doesn't seem to have worked...
Continue reading "1998 Massachusetts law doesn't seem to have worked..."
Permalink · State legislation · Comments (5)
I so love irony
"Based on the recent legislation in New York, we are prohibited from selling rifles and receivers to residents of New York. We have chosen to extend that prohibition to all governmental agencies associated with or located within New York. As a result we have halted sales of rifles, short barreled rifles, short barreled shotguns, machine guns, and silencers to New York governmental agencies.
For "civilian" customers residing in New York: At your choice, we will:
complete your order and ship to a dealer of your choice outside of NY
refund your payment in full
hold your items here for up to 6 months, at no charge - if you are in the process of leaving NY and taking residence in another state.
For LE/Govt customers in New York:
Your orders have been cancelled.
Illinois: Bloomberg commits millions against Halvorson
Shall Not Be Questioned reports on the primary in the special election to replace Jesse Jackson, Jr. in the House. Debbie Halvorson, formerly rated A by NRA, and still a massive improvement over Jackson (among other things, she opposes a AW ban), is running, and Bloomberg has committed millions to her defeat. Here's her webpage; to contribute hit the red button at the top right. Here's a report on his attack ads, focusing on her opposition to banning AW and large magazines.
Chicago: no jail space for gun criminals, but we need more gun laws
Story here.
"Last December, minutes after he allegedly shot at a neighbor, Julian Gayles was caught by Chicago police. Gayles, 22, already had a record of gun crimes and parole violations, but had spent little time behind bars. Since 2009, he has been sentenced to seven years in jail, but has served just two.
Gayles was on parole when CBS News witnessed his arrest by police commander Leo Schmitz and is now in custody again, awaiting trial.
. . . . . .
But Cook Country Sheriff Tom Dart says he doesn't have the cells to hold more inmates.
"I mean, we are at capacity right now," Dart said. "The state prison system is beyond capacity. You talk to them right now, they haven't had a population like this in decades. And there's no place to put 'em.""
New book on zombies and gun control
Prof. Brian Anse Patrick, author of "NRA and the Media: The Motivating Force of Negative Coverage" and “Rise of the Anti-Media: In-Forming America’s Concealed Weapon Carry Movement,”, will soon be bringing out "“Zombology: Zombies and the Decline of the West (And Guns)".
He's the only academic I know who has a shooting range in his backyard. Wish we'd had some zombie targets that day...
Thoughts on private gun sales bans and registration
The Captain's Journal and Kurt Hofman have interesting thoughts on the connection between bans on private sales and registration.
Here are my own thoughts. A ban on private sales will be unenforceable in the near future, since guns being found will have been initially sold before its effective date, and thus a lawful private transfer before the ban went into effect cannot be ruled out.
But even after, say, ten years pass, the ban will still be unenforceable in practice unless Congress also either:
1) Enacts national firearm registration, requiting FFLs to report all sales so they can be placed in a national database, and requires such reporting backdated to the effective date of the private sales ban, or
2) Makes firearm possession illegal, period, providing for a defense if the gun owner can prove they bought the gun before before the effective date of the ban, or bought it from an FFL after the ban.
If Congress doesn't enact (1) or (2), then a private sales ban could not be enforced. A prosecution would be required to prove that the possessor didn't acquire the gun through an FFL, and that would require checking the 4473s of every FFL in the State, quite possibly for years in the past.
Justice Scalia predicts more 2A cases coming
Jaimie Zapata's survivors sue over Fast and Furious
Zapata was the ICE agent who was murdered in Mexico by cartel killers using Fast & Furious guns. David Codrea reports on the lawsuit, and links to a copy of the complaint. Some quick observations:
1) All three rifles found at the scene appear to have been Fast and Furious guns. Of the six guns found on the killers when they were arrested, one traced to Fast and Furious.
2) There are references to guns being given to ATF "CIs" -- "cooperating individual" or "confidential informant," meaning informants. This suggests that letting cartel straw men buy guns wasn't enough, ATF's own informants were given guns to pass on to the cartels.
3) ATF policy is that a written report must be filed within five days of an event, but in this case some were not filed until more than three months passed.
4) I think the Federal Tort Claims Act claims are going to be very hard for the government to defend. The usual defense is the "discretionary function exception," which says the government does not consent to be sued over discretionary functions, a term the Supreme Court construed to mean actions where the decisionmaker had discretion to act, in the sense of not having been forbidden to do so by a superior. Here, the decision(s) to run guns to the cartels didn't just violate regulations or policies, they violated multiple sections of the Gun Control Act and of various arms export statutes. I don't think an agency supervisor will be able to claim he had discretion to do what Congress had specifically outlawed.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (2)
Amicus briefs in Kachalsky
Kalchalsky is the challenge to NY's Sullivan Act, which is a very broad, if not the broadest, type of "may issue" statute and relates to all handgun carrying. It now has a cert. petition pending.
Academics for the Second Amendment, authored by Joe Olson and myself.
Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence
Permalink · Chicago aftermath · Comments (0)
Don't worry, the city will protect you
Strangely, NYC doesn't take that position in court. A madman kills four, NYPD manhunt follows. Two officers are in a subway cab when the madman enters the car, and they do nothing to stop him. He stabs a passenger right next to them, who in turn wrestles him down, at which point the NYPD folks finally emerge. Now he sues the city, and it of course argues that it has no legal duty to protect the citizenry.
My comments to Senate Judiciary
My comments (pdf) for tomorrow's Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution hearings on gun control and the Second Amendment.
Further update: my spam blocker has blocked several comments, so I'll put them in the extended entry below.
Still further update: I think Heller uses "in common use" as a sort of entry test: the 2A protects such guns, so if gun meets that test, then you assess the validity of the regulation with conventional standards of scrutiny. I see "in common use" as flawed even there. (1) An armed banned at the outset will never get into common use, no matter how flawed the ban might be. (2) It comes from Miller, which was a militia-centric case. To the extent it has any discernable holding, Miller suggest that guns not suited for militia/military use are not protected. Heller uses an entirely different approach. (3) At that, Miller does not treat "common use" as a true test. It says militia were expected to appear bearing arms that were in common use. That's more a historical statement than a test. As a historical statement it is true. As a test, there's no explanation of just why that would matter.
Continue reading "My comments to Senate Judiciary"
Robert Levy on the 2A
His comments on the 2A and present gun control proposals are in the National Law Journal.
Pretty funny...
Jay Leno turns the Obama-Clinton interview into a Cialis commercial. (Caveat: "cialis" is blocked from comments)
Permalink · humor · Comments (1)
PA Attorney General ends CCW reciprocity with Florida
And the Prince Law Offices are looking for a plaintiff for a challenge.
Update: More on the issue from Shall Not Be Questioned.
We can imagine the outcry if private citizens did this...
LAPD and another team protecting Chistopher Dorner's targets shoot up a newspaper deliverywoman's truck and another vehicle. Fortunately, the results were wounds rather than deaths.
Viva Ted Cruz!!!
Here's his letter to gun manufacturers and their banks. Rahm Emanuel had urged banks to refuse to fund firearms manufacturers, and Cruz suggests that if the banks don't like being pushed around by government they can always relocate to business-friendly Texas, or contact Texas-based financial institutions.
Permalink · antigun groups · Comments (1)
Joe Biden isn't so foolish as I thought
Media suppresses politics of Los Angeles cop-killer
A former LAPD officer goes on a shooting spree, murders three, says he will kill more police, and leaves a manifesto.... and the media omits half of it, the half where he endorses gun control, praises the President, Vice President, and Nancy Pelosi, and expresses hate for the NRA.
"I know your route to and from home, and your division. I know your significant others routine, your children’s best friends and recess. I know Your Sancha’s gym hours and routine. I assure you that the casualty rate will be high."
"Sen. Feinstein, you are doing the right thing in leading the re-institution of a national AWB. Never again should any public official state that their prayers and thoughts are with the family. That has become cliche’ and meaningless. Its time for action. Let this be your legacy that you bestow to America. Do not be swayed by obstacles, antagaonist, and naysayers."
Via Instapundit.
Permalink · media · Comments (1)
DHS must really need ammo
It's requesting bids to sell it over 21 million rounds of handgun ammo. 100 lots of 100,000 rounds of .40, the same of 9mm in 115 gr. hollow point, and 40 lots of 40,000 9mm ball.
Update: I think the units are counted two ways. It looks to me like the order is for lots of 100,000, but the price is requested as per 1,000. This is of course just one order. I doubt DHS is up to anything nefarious, to me this is more an indication of how enormous the Federal law enforcement establishment has become, that it thinks in terms of tens of millions of rounds just to keep in practice for a while. If you look back to, oh, the late 1960s, the Federal LE establishment was quite tiny. In Federal courts, tax evasion cases made up the majority of prosecutions. When I started in practice, Tucson had I think two Federal judges and one magistrate, and with this being on the border, it probably had much more Federal activity than would most courts.
State of the gun industry
Unbelievable. The bottleneck for several manufacturers is reportedly the ability to get enough steel of the right grade.
Now that we know of the secret of reviving the economy, President Obama has only to announce that he plans to restrict automobile ownership, purchases of stocks and bonds, or houses, and the economy will be booming overnight.
It's election time!
For the NRA Board, that is. The ballot issue should be out next week or thereabouts. And there are some webpages up for candidates. Here's one for Carol Bambery, hunter, NFA shooter, and busy gun activist. And here's one for Steve Schreiner, one very dedicated activist, who in Vietnam earned the Silver Star and Bronze Star with with V for valor.
Photo of President Obama shooting
Everyone has seen the picture of President Obama shooting a shotgun on the Camp David skeet field. But a careful look raises some questions in my mind. Here's the image in question:
Note the background: a road-sized path or road, that either expands, or goes into a T-junction, in front of his firing position. Beyond that some grass, and a forest. No tower is visible, nor is any fence.
Here’s an image of JFK shooting on the range. Note the high wooden fence about ten feet behind him, and the narrowness of the pathway.
Of course, that would have been around fifty years ago. But you can see modern images of the range, up through the time of George Bush, Sr. at the following address (for some reason the html tag won't work:
http://aboutcampdavid.blogspot.ca/2010/08/skeet-range.html
In them, the towers and the wooden fence are visible. Here is a modern aerial view, obtained from Google Maps, of the Camp David skeet range. Note the throwing towers at either end of the range, and what appears to be the wooden fence, especially visible next to the left tower. The towers are about five feet on a side, so the walkway is about three feet wide. The only areas where the path widens are at the ends, right next to the towers.
I can’t see how the Obama photo could have been taken on that range. There’s no fence visible, the pathway or road is far wider than the range walkway, and the only places where the path widens are next to the towers, yet no tower is visible.
UPDATE: the rectangular object isn't, I think, the corner of one of the towers. On that webpage I cited, you can see the towers, and their roofs are 12-14 feet up. The object here appears to be more like half that.
The photo appears to be taken at right angles to his direction of fire; for it to omit the tower, Obama have to have left the shooting area, and that still wouldn't explain why he has the road/path behind him and in front of him (or else a widening of it in front of him). The area where it widens near the tower in the overhead view is behind the tower, so to speak, and within the wooden fence.
With regard the firearm--some shotgun loads can be pretty smokey, and you can have a ported over-and-under which would send some of it directly up. I can't figure out what the yellow object at the end of the barrel is, though. Possibly some uncombusted powder gasses igniting as they reach the air?
David Young on the "Mason Triad"
David E. Young has an interesting post on the Mason Triads, a term he invented to describe the triple provision often found in early constitutions, starting with the Virginia one -- (1) either praise of the militia, or a right to bear arms; (2) restrictions on, or at least discouragement of, standing armies in time of peace; and (3) recognition of civilian control of the military. As he notes, Madison could omit the last two since the Constitution itself ensured civilian control, and legislative control over the military. All that remained was to implement (1), by ensuring that the civilian populace would be armed.
"...its purpose was to assure the people's control over the new Federal Government they authorized and any forces it might raise. This information fully explains the Second Amendment's references to a free state and the necessity of an effective militia of the people, who would be able to self-embody for organized defense with their own arms, because their right to possess and use arms was protected against any meddling by the government. "
Advice for the President
NSSF offers some constructive advice on his skeet shooting form. I notice that he shoots from the left shoulder, but have never heard it said he is a southpaw, so I assume he's cross-dominant, as am I.
FLA CCW holder arrested ... for letting firearm be visible
Video here. I suspect FLA is like AZ used to be: a CCW permit authorizes you to carry concealed, and nobody needs a permit to carry openly.
MSNBC edits video
To make it appear that gun rights advocated heckled the father of a Sandy Hook victim.
Permalink · media · Comments (3)
Excerpts from Anderson Cooper on guns
Videos here. I didn't have time to watch, but at least he appears to have picked a fair sampling of people on both sides of the issue.