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August 2013
The mentality we have to deal with
For some time, Pierce College (a Los Angeles community college) had offered firearm safety courses. Now, the trustees of the college have have ended the course by banning all guns, including unloaded ones, from all campuses. The explanations given:
""The one thing we wanted to prevent was Pierce College being the Wild Wild West,” said Scott Svonkin, a trustee with the Los Angeles Community College District, author of the anti-gun resolution passed this month.
“By preventing guns on campus, I wanted to prevent people who took the class from shooting a horse or cow on campus.”
And....
"Proponents of the ban emphasized they weren’t against guns or gun ownership. They said it was simply unsafe to have guns in the presence of thousands of students on college campuses, adding that even an unloaded weapon seen from outside a classroom could spark panic, a 911 call or a police SWAT response."
But ....
"The district’s new policy permits only fake weapons used during a theatrical performance or real cops with guns."
Permalink · antigun groups · Comments (8)
Constitution Day event in DC
Announcement here. It's hosted by ConSource, a remarkable constitutional research institute. (One of their recent additions is a letter from George Mason to George Washington, 1758, recommending a fellow for a commission in Washington's regiment).
The event takes place Monday, Sept. 16, 1-2 P.M., and the speaker is Justice Scalia.
No indictment, and hardly surprising
Father fatally beats a man molesting, and apparently trying to rape, his five year old daughter. The law has the concept of justified homicide. The average person has the concept of "good riddance."
Administration to announce Exec Orders today
AP story here. The part about re-importing arms sold to other countries is a bit of a mystery to me. As I recall, that was already banned, by a legal provision outside the Gun Control Act. Under the GCA, you could import curios and relics, but this other provision banned American military guns that had been exported. Which is why you see surplus Mausers and Mosins advertised, but not Springfields.
Kates and Mauser on international comparisons
At the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy.
Interesting comparison (sorry, for some reason things don't indent here):
Country Murder rate and Gun ownership per 100,000
Russia 20 and 4,000
Sweden 1.87 and 24,000
Norway 0.81 and 36,000
Permalink · non-US · Comments (4)
"Infringed" documentary going for crowd-funding
"Infringed: The Second Amendment in the Crosshairs," has a kickstarter page for contributions that went live a few hours ago. This is a professional team out to create a professional product, and I hope they keep at it after this.
In the right hand column they have various rewards for different levels of support.
He'll probably get fired, but it beats being stabbed
Robber with a knife goes after pizza deliveryman, and discovers that he's just brought a knife to a gunfight. It happened in Florida, BTW.
Permalink · Self defense · Comments (0)
George Zimmerman to file claim for legal costs
Here's the story.
I found the statute cited:
"939.06 Acquitted defendant not liable for costs.—
(1) A defendant in a criminal prosecution who is acquitted or discharged is not liable for any costs or fees of the court or any ministerial office, or for any charge of subsistence while detained in custody. If the defendant has paid any taxable costs, or fees required under s. 27.52(1)(b), in the case, the clerk or judge shall give him or her a certificate of the payment of such costs, with the items thereof, which, when audited and approved according to law, shall be refunded to the defendant."
In most jurisdictions, "taxable costs" do not include attorney's fees. They do include costs such as depositions, sometimes travel, expert fees, and some other expenses.
Permalink · Self defense · Comments (2)
Failed ATF sting in Milwaukee yields more disasters...
Story here.
"Among the screw-ups and failures uncovered by a Journal Sentinel investigation: Agents hired a brain-damaged man to promote the store and set up drug and gun deals, then turned around and arrested him on federal counts. Three government-owned guns, including a machine gun, were stolen and the undercover storefront was ripped off of $40,000 in merchandise. The machine gun remains missing.
In the end, authorities arrested four of the wrong people and three were charged — including a man who was in federal prison at the time of the sale. Those charges were quickly dismissed, with two cases dropped the same day charges were filed.
Now prosecutors have dropped charges against defendants in three cases that hinged on confidential informants."
I recall from somewhere that the Special Agent in Charge is being transferred to a similar post in Arizona, to replace a guy relieved in the wake of Operation Fast and Furious. So Lord Cardigan is being replaced by George Custer. No, that's not fair to Custer, who had a good Civil War career.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (3)
Interesting thought
With print media declining, and newspaper companies being sold for scrap value, gun magazine sales are soaring. It's a new world....
[Update: you should have seen gun mags in the 1980s.. then it was, every issue had a debate on revolvers vs. automatics...)
Proposed changes to Form 4s
An early notice of a proposal to amend the NFA regulations. The present regulations and form 4 require that an individual submit photo and fingerprints, and get a chief LEO to certify that he is a nice person. Since the chief LEO has no duty to so certify, no matter how nice a person might be, he has essentially a veto power over any NFA transfers. Those requirements do not apply to NFA arms bought by a corporation, trust, or other business entity. The result has been the creation of gun trusts to deal with the problem.
The proposal is to (1) require that the principle owner of the trust or other entity submit photo and fingerprints, and (2) remove the requirement that the chief LEO certify (instead, he is simply sent a copy of the form 4). It sounds like a logical approach to the question.
Lawyers, historians, and originalism
I see an interesting discussion on the subject, between Seth Tillman (National University of Ireland) and Mike Rappaport (U of San Diego).
Another consideration is functional: a historian can afford to (indeed, usually delights in it) finding that an event or what motivated the actors is complex. A court cannot answer "the intent of Congress/the Framers is here so complex -- some of them intended one results, others another, and many had no understanding that we can find -- so we cannot construe these words."
Prof. Nick Johnson's new book
"Negroes and the Gun: The Black Tradition of Arms."
"Chronicling the underappreciated black tradition of bearing arms for self-defense, law professor Nicholas Johnson presents an array of examples reaching back to the pre-Civil War era that demonstrate a willingness of African American men and women to use firearms when necessary to defend their families and communities. From Frederick Douglass's advice to keep "a good revolver" handy as defense against slave catchers to the armed black men who protected Thurgood Marshall, it is clear that owning firearms was commonplace in the black community."
Insight on the three "bored" teens who killed Chris Lane
PJ Media has the story. The Australian papers are reporting that the killers members of the Crips, and meant to kill another juvenile because he'd refused to join. They're getting that info from the father of the intended second victim. Somehow the Australian media is able to reach him in Oklahoma, when the US media cannot.
Randy Barnett on originalism
Prof. Barnett's points, as always, are concise and sharp.
"If it was genuinely not possible to identify the meaning of language at a previous point in time, then old contracts could not be enforced according to their meaning at the time of their formation (which is what the law of contracts requires), old statutes would be a mystery and impossible to follow or enforce, and classic Supreme Court opinions would be impossible to understand."
We can go even farther. There are, in Arizona, the "Baca Float Ranges," large tracts of land given to the Baca family in settlement of a land grant to them from the King of Spain. Court there had to carry out an agreement made prior to the Framing, and in another language.
"The only language that is claimed to be inscrutable mystery to lawyers (but not historians) is the foundational law provided by the U.S. Constitution. How are we lawyers able to follow the 200+ year-old-opinions in Marbury, Gibbons and McCulloch, but not the Constitution itself, written a mere 30-40 years earlier? Has anyone seriously suggested that lawyers need to consult historians to tell them the communicative content of these precedents?"
Permalink · General con law · Comments (2)
Interesting campus rule
Los Angeles Community College has promulgated regulations banning even non-operational firearms used in safety classes because (in words of one trustee), "We should make sure that students don't come to campus being afraid to run into somebody with a gun."
But they exempt non-operational guns used in "theatrical performance."
Difference between Massachusetts and Florida
"In court, prosecutors described a brutal and determined attack, saying Jared Remy assaulted Martel in the kitchen, living room, on a stairway and then pinned her to the ground in the patio where he stabbed her several times. At least one neighbor who tried to help Martel was driven back when Remy slashed at him, a prosecutor told a judge in court. Remy was arrested at the scene, his clothes soaked in the victim's blood.
That neighbor, identified as Ben Ray, spoke to MyFoxBoston.com, saying "It's not an easy thing to watch ... It's not an easy thing to try to stop and not be able to.""
"At around 6 a.m., a Vickie Rock, 50, of Riverview, was visiting a home at the Grand Oaks Apartments at 10103 Sherwood Lane in Riverview, when she heard glass breaking and screaming coming from next door, deputies said.
Rock, who was armed with a .45 caliber handgun, went outside to investigate and found a Daniel S. Robertson beating his girlfriend, Cristy Vasilakos, 40, with a metal object, deputies said.
Rock yelled at Robertson to stop, but when he turned and began attacking Rock, she fired the gun at least once, deputies said.
Deputies later arrived to discover Robertson dead in the parking lot."
Florida's "no retreat" law in action, while Massachusetts was spared another case of gun violence.
Permalink · Self defense · Comments (7)
Fast and Furious: more guns at Mexican crime scenes
Three more guns have turned up. As the article notes, the mainstream media seems more interested in rodeo clowns just now.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (1)
Interesting letter
I found a letter from myself to my parents and sister here, dated Sept. 28, 1986. I was then in DC, working for Interior and starting out a new family.
Stuff I'd long forgotten about FOPA passing the House. Since the antigun Rep. Hughes was chairman of Judiciary and wouldn't report it out, we had to get a discharge petition (to discharge his committee from considering the bill) passed, which took 218 signatures, a majority of the House. Under the then-rules, the House leadership got to see the signatories, but one else got the list.
We solved that by asking a number of friendly Reps to go down, look at it, memorize five names apiece and later write them down.
Two signatories withdrew their names after Hughes told them he'd kill bills that they wanted.
The number of signatories kept increasing, and Speaker Tip O'Neil called Hughes in and told him he was the most incompetent chairman in the House, he was letting a landslide develop. Hughes asked O'Neil to help, and he refused, told Hughes to report out a water-down version of FOPA and he'd see that it went to the floor immediately.
Two days later John Dingell, who didn't mind getting physical, actually dragged two Congressmen down and made them sign. Right after, Larry Craig (then a Rep) dragged two more down, literally.... and the clerk announced they couldn't sign because Dingell's pair had made it 218, and the petition had passed.
Craig started to debate the point, then he heard someone behind him cursing a blue streak. It was Rep. Hughes, who had heard the clerk's pronouncement, standing there red in the face and cursing. It was only the eighth such discharge petition to succeed in the previous quarter century.
Permalink · Gun Control Act of 68 · Comments (13)
Gov. Christie vetos ..50 BMG ban
Good news. The speaker of the Assembly responded: " Weaponry designed for the battlefield, that serves no legitimate civilian use, should not be landing on our streets." Yep, you see a lot of Barretts used in street robberies and drive-by shootings.
Ilya Somin's new book
On Amazon, here. "Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government Is Smarter " is the title and the theme. It revolves around "rational ignorance." We cannot know everything about every subject, and rationally focus on those where we can make a difference. In a democracy, the odds that your vote in an election will be the deciding vote are virtually zero, therefore it makes sense to spend little thinking over, and learning about, the issues. The result is that most voters have little grasp of major issues, and none at all of minor ones. Even in Congress, we have appeals to pass legislation so they can learn what's in it.....
I thought of a parallel point. The Framers were the most intelligent men of their age, which (outside the sciences) may have been the most intelligent age of US history. They put a LOT of thinking into the Constitutional Convention, and at least a fair amount into the Bill of Rights. Does it not make sense to give a lot of deference to that thinking, as against decisions made by rationally ignorant legislators chosen by a rationally ignorant electorate?
Animal rights types post manual on sabotaging wolf hunts
Story here.
I have a friend who's encountered folks trying to sabotage a hunt by following them and making noise. She had a way to deal with it. She was clad for the hunt in sturdy clothing that could deal with bramble, they were wearing ordinary pants and short sleeve shirts. So she took them through the worst bramble patches she could find and then, at the end with night coming on, shook them off.
Hat tip to a reader at Hunt for Truth, which deals with the legal attacks on traditional ammunition.
Permalink · animal rights and eco-terrorism · Comments (1)
"How a comma gave Americans the right to arms"
This article is making the rounds. It's rather fanciful. I don't see much difference in meaning between "A well regulated militia being necessary to a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed," and "A well regulated militia, being necessary to a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
The other problem is that both versions in fact exist. I have a letter from the Librarian of Congress on it. Records are sketchy, since many were lost when the British burned the Capitol during the War of 1812, but the version which was sent out to the States for ratification (at least the engrossed copy kept by the new government) had three commas, but when States sent back their ratifications, they recorded the Second Amendment with one, two, or three commas. There were no photocopy machines back then, and apparently scribes felt free to punctuate as they pleased when copying things.
Louisiana--off duty police cannot carry in bars
It's a statutory interpretation by its Attorney General.
Permalink · State legislation · Comments (4)
Bloomberg and the Fourth Amendment
I've been out of action for a while -- personal matters, work, and then my main computer died this morning. But some good news: Judge rules NYC systematically violated Fourth Amendment with its stop and frisk (for firearms) policy. She orders some pretty serious remedies.
Permalink · General con law · Comments (7)
Steve Halbrook's next book
It's "Gun Control in the Third Reich: Disarming the Jews and 'Enemies of the State'". From the summary:
"Based on newly-discovered, secret documents from German archives, diaries and newspapers of the time, Gun Control in the Third Reich presents the definitive, yet hidden history of how the Nazi regime made use of gun control to disarm and repress its enemies and consolidate power. The countless books on the Third Reich and the Holocaust fail even to mention the laws restricting firearms ownership, which rendered political opponents and Jews defenseless. A skeptic could surmise that a better-armed populace might have made no difference, but the National Socialist regime certainly did not think so—it ruthlessly suppressed firearm ownership by disfavored groups."
Good advice
"Dear gunstore lawyer. Shut. Up.".
Here in AZ we have a statute that (rather generously) lays out the conditions under which may be display a gun in self-defense without actually using it.
HT to Sixgun Sarah.
Permalink · Self defense · Comments (1)
Another story with a happy ending
Argumentative jackass tries to pull gun, shoots self in groin.
MSLF sues Corps of Engineers
Morris v. Corps of Engineers, summarized here. "Issue: Whether the total ban by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers of the possession of function firearms for self-defense on Corps-managed lands violates the Second Amendment?"
Headline of the year award...
goes to the Washingon Times, for "13 Wisconsin officials raid animal shelter to kill baby deer named Giggles". The worst part -- that accurately describes what happened.
And beforehand, they overflew the shelter to verify that there was, in fact, a baby deer there. Sounds like the agency is having no financial troubles.
Hat tip to Sixgun Sarah...
Good shooting
Pair kidnaps bank teller and her husband, force them to unlock the bank, puts loot in vehicle, forces them to drive away, at which point the husband shoots both. One robber dead, one wounded.
I like stories with a happy ending.
Permalink · Self defense · Comments (2)
Virginia: gun sales up, crime down
Gun sales rise by 16%, crime falls by 5%.
And there's an almost-incomprehensible response:
"Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, said that the real question is how many guns are sold without a background check.
"In other words, if people who buy those guns and have a background check, and keep those guns and don't sell them, then you would not expect that those guns would affect the crime rate," Horwitz told the newspaper. "The important analysis is not the total number of guns sold with a background check, but rather the number of guns sold without a background check.""
The simple response would be -- there are so many things that affect the crime rate, including some we don't understand, that you can't draw cause and effect between gun ownership and crime rates. But that's not an argument an anti-gunner can make.
Permalink · Crime and statistics · Comments (2)
Connecticut, which requires retreat, wants to weaken self-defense even farther
"In Wake of Zimmerman Acquittal, Legislators Plan to Scrutinize Laws."
The president of the CT Police Chiefs Association "sees no reason to change the current law. "Basically a citizen has to make an attempt to get away, to get to an area of safety. Citizens have to make a reasonable effort to get away before they [can] use deadly force.""
I wonder how the Legislature is supposed to write something more favorable to criminal than that. Maybe no resistance to violent criminals at all?
"No retreat laws" and race
A while ago I posted regarding the Tampa Bay Times' claims that Florida's no retreat law was racially discriminatory because conviction rates were higher when a minority member was shot. I concluded, from reviewing their raw data, and looking at the defender rather than the person killed, that blacks and whites had almost exactly the same exoneration rate, and hispanics had one much higher.
Economist John Lott has used a much more sophisticated means of analyzing the issue. The Times also gave other data on each shooting, such as was it a home invasion, etc., whether the person shot was armed, whether they initiated the confrontation, etc.. He ran multiple regression on that to essentially ask "in identical situations, what are the odds of conviction? Note that he's taking the Times' own test -- ethnicity of a person who was shot. He concludes:
"Everything else equal, in cases with only one person killed, killing a black person, rather than a white person, increases the defendant's odds of being convicted, though the result is not statistically significant. If you also include multiple murder cases, killing a black person increases the chances of conviction even more.
These regressions also show that white defendants are more likely to be convicted than black defendants, and both effects are significantly greater than for Hispanics.
Whether the person killed initiated the confrontation and having an eyewitness were the most important factors in determining whether there was a conviction."
He also notes:
"Blacks may make up just 16.6 percent of Florida's population, but they account for over 31 percent of the state's defendants invoking a Stand Your Ground defense. Black defendants who invoke this statute to justify their actions are acquitted 8 percent more frequently than whites who use that same defense."
Permalink · Self defense · Comments (0)
NFA collector suing Baltimore Police
Story here. They raided him based on a tip from BATF.
Clue to local authorities: when a Federal agency has jurisdiction, and it's a big case that will draw publicity but they hand it to you .... that's right up there with an email from a guy who says he's a Nigerian bank president, has embezzled $10 million, and would like to wire it to you. They have a grudge against the guy, but know they have no case.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (2)
Maryland situation
Maryland has a seven day waiting period for background check, applicable to handguns and some long guns. But State Police have been taking around 100 days to perform the check. Surprise, the Baltimore Sun runs with the headline "Guns Released to Buyer with Criminal Histories."
When asked why not just go with the standard NICS check system, the reply is that Maryland has other prohibited person categories beyond the Federal, with the result that a check requires consulting 16 different databases. Let's see ... amend the law, or hire more people (the article says the backlog started building up in January, so there was plenty of warning), sounds like a solution to me.
I think I'll let someone else shoot it
a .90 [corrected: .95] caliber rifle. Recoil: 2,777 foot pounds. Cost of ammo: $40 a round (you could probably handload it for $30, if you could find a press). And legally it's a destructive device. No wonder that the manufacturer has built only three.
(It's also amusing how the British press has trouble describing guns and ammo).
Petition for cert in NRA v. BATFE case
Summary here, at SCOTUSblog. It's a challenge to the Federal ban on FFL sales to people aged 18-21.
Permalink · Heller aftermath · Comments (1)
Offhand hit on man-size target at 1,000 yards
Firing a Barrett .50, offhand, former sniper Ryan Cleckner rings the steel at 1,000 yards.
NYC: no duty to protect
Here's a classic case of it, arising in Mayor Bloomberg's own city. A violent lunatic begins stabbing people. Police are present, but flee and lock themselves in the conductor's car for protection. An unarmed witness wrestles the lunatic down, but is stabbed and cut in the process. Eventually, the NYPD officers emerge from their hiding place.
Held: the fellow who tackled the lunatic when the officers fled has no right to sue the city.