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April 2014
"Why Is The Oil Industry Giving Millions To The NRA?"
That's the title of this hyperventilating article. It centers upon the fact that Clayton Williams Energy Inc. gave a million to NRA, and suggests that oil and gas interests are trying to influence the Association to oppose habitat and suchlike issues.
Clue: Clayton Williams Energy was founded by (you guessed it) Clayton Williams, whose hunting career is staggering even by Safari Club standards, and who presumably really likes guns.
Texas isn't safe for purse-snatchers, either
Houston: a perp tries to snatch a woman's purse, she holds on. Perps find themselves looking down the barrel of a bystander's gun. After police arrive, the bystander buys some candy for his kids and goes home.
Military to destroy $1.2 billion worth of ammo
So much for the ammo shortage. The article seems to suggest that ammo has a shelf life. If it does, I've never found out what it was. I've shot plenty of 20 year old ammo without a misfire.
Insight on the NRA
From Charles Cooke, an article in National Review Online:
"Contrary to the paranoid sneering of America's ever-impotent gun controllers, the National Rifle Association is not imbued with magical powers, nor can it avail itself of an unlimited supply of money and favors. The National Rifle Association is successful because it is popular, because its members are highly engaged, because it is defending a right that is enumerated in the nation's founding document and a tradition that is cherished by members of both major political parties, because its opponents routinely embarrass themselves with their hysteria and with their lack of rudimentary knowledge about the topic at hand, and, most of all, because it is a single-issue organization that maintains its focus."
His ultimate point is that we have to retain our focus on that single issue, and not stray into others.
Moms Demand Action protest
I've not posted much, because I'm at the NRA annual meeting in Indianapolis. Yesterday I attended the Moms Demand Action "protest." It was actually staged about 3/4 mile away from the convention (probably because they didn't want their handful to be seen against a backdrop of tens of thousands of NRA members going into the convention hall(, When I set up a videocam, one of their members stood in front of it, blocking the view, I assume to ensure that only trusted mass media could get footage. Given how pitifully few showed up, that was understable. In the cell phone image below, the dozen or so people in white T-shirts are the protestors.
UPDATE: Moms Demand Action claims that "More than 100 Moms Demand Action members from around the country on the ground in Indianapolis this weekend...." Not even close.
Permalink · antigun groups · Comments (7)
Humorous report of Lexington/Concord
"Seventy-two killed resisting gun confiscation in Boston".
"Speaking after the clash, Massachusetts Governor Thomas Gage declared that the extremist faction, which was made up of local citizens, has links to the radical right-wing tax protest movement."
SCOTUS takes no action on Drake
Drake v. Jerejian, the challenge to New Jersey's "may issue" system for licensing to carry, was set for the conference (where votes are taken) of last Friday. Today the Court issued its orders from that conference, and said nothing about the case. It's now up for consideration on April 25.
Conferences are entirely private, so we can't know what went on. I can think of several possibilities. Most obviously, perhaps some Justices wanted longer to think it over. A good sign. Or perhaps they wanted to see what would happen in the Ninth Circuit -- will California be allowed to intervene, which might mean a petition for cert.? There really is no way to say, although either of these possibilities mean the Court is giving it serious consideration.
Chicago "reduces crime" by cooking the books...
Story here. Under pressure from the mayor and high level administrators, police reports are changed to reclassify murders as non-criminal deaths, and aggravated assaults are understated by nearly 25%.
Unarmed man goes on shooting rampage
It's the title of this piece, by Mark Stein. NYC police open fire on an unarmed mentally ill person. They miss him but hit two bystanders. So the DA charges the person they tried to shoot with aggravated assault, on the theory that his conduct caused the officers to shoot the bystanders. As Stein concludes, "If this flies in New York, then there is no law." Which probably means it will fly.
Bloomberg canonizes himself
I can't say that I'm surprised. The College of Cardinals takes forever on things like this, and they appoint a Devil's Advocate, who would surely have raised the point that a living person is ineligible for sainthood.
Article on the Dred Scott case
My article on the Dred Scott case is out at Northern Kentucky Law Review. It was a set-up, I tell you! And the greatest legal example of the law of unintended consequences. CJ Taney meant to insulate slavery in every way possible (Federal courts have no jurisdiction over allegedly free blacks, Congress cannot limit slavery in the territories, and territorial legislatures cannot, either), and instead his ruling made Lincoln president, and led directly to the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.
Origin of "zero tolerance" in schools
In the Clinton Presidential Library I found this memo, listing the administration's claimed successes in the gun control area.
On page two, under "Enforcing Zero Tolerance for Guns and Other Weapons in Schools," is a notation that Clinton signed the gun-free schools act, requring schools to expel anyone bringing a firearm to school, and issued a Presidential Directive to enforce that.
Arrest at airport for gun law violation; NYC officials ask for reasonableness
Of course, it's one of their employees, and the arrest took place in India. Still, it's amusing to see Chuck Schumer asking for a gun law violation to be excused because it was so technical.
Interesting...
With regard that stand-off in Nevada, it appears the FAA declared a no-fly zone around the property. A rather small one (3 miles radius, and 3000 feet and below altitude above ground). with an exemption: "ONLY RELIEF AIRCRAFT OPERATIONS UNDER DIRECTION OF BLM ARE AUTHORIZED IN THE AIRSPACE"
UPDATE: I suspected they'd delete the page, so here's a screen pull.
Officer murdered, mayor attends murderer's funeral
This is not a case of good judgment. The killer was not a model citizen. He had prior convictions for drug offenses, resisting arrest, theft, assault on an officer, and a sex crime.
Remington 700 recall
You can check your serial number against their list here. The affected rifles are 700s and Model 7s made between May 2006 and now, using the XMP trigger. They've found that under some conditions it can accidentally discharge.
Not a bad idea, actually
Let the NRA run America. Its Board of Directors has had no sex or economic scandals, works for no pay, does its job in nine days out of the year, and has numbered plenty of Medal of Honor winners among its ranks. Of course to be fair, Gun Owners of America, Second Amendment Foundation, and Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership should also get seats. And we could turn over California to CalGuns, and New York to NYSRPA for an equally beneficial effect. The shortest route to honest and efficient government! Which is of course why it will never be done.
Drake v. Jerejihan cert reply filed.
This the NJ appeal involving gun permits issued upon a finding of "justifiable need," whatever that means. Scotusblog has pdfs of all the filings. The reply points out that now the Third Circuit, involved in this case, and the Ninth Circuit, which handed down Peruta, are in clear conflict.
The Court will vote on April 18 whether to take it.
Growth of Federal LE
Egad. No wonder there are ammo shortages. Federal LEOs number about 25,000, and almost every agency has them. The Corporation for National and Community Service (which I'd never heard of) has 9. HUD has 264. DHS has 686. EPA has 265.
Services for Otis McDonald
According to the linked article,
"BELLEVUE, WA - Funeral services for gun rights champion Otis McDonald will be held this Friday at the Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church in Harvey, Ill., the Second Amendment Foundation has learned, with interment to follow at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood.
A pre-pass celebration of Mr. McDonald's life will be held from 10 to 11 a.m., and the service begins at 11 o'clock. Mr. McDonald passed away April 4 following a long illness, leaving behind his wife, Laura and five children. His nephew, the Rev. Dr. Fred Jones, will officiate, and host pastor is the Rev. Dr. J.C. Smith."
New York compliant AR-15?
Story here. Among the comments was "Quit looking for ways to skirt the law," when what they had done was to conform to it. And in the process show how meaningless it is.
Neither they nor any inventors of AW bans realize how the separate pistol grip came about -- it's an artifact of the design. Recoil comes along a line that centers on the barrel -- that's where the action and reaction occur. The standard rifle design had the buttstock and thus the shooter's shoulder several inches below the line of the barrel. This created some muzzle flip, but it was tolerable when firing shots one at a time. In full auto, it was not tolerable.
The solution, starting I believe with the German MP-44, was to move the barrel lower, putting the gas tube on top, and to raise the buttstock up to where it was just below the line of the barrel.
But that if the area where the trigger hand grips is raised that far, the position become ergonomically awkward, if not impossible. Hence the pistol grip, separate from the buttstock.
Permalink · AW bans · Comments (2)
Rest in peace, Otis McDonald...
Otis McDonald, petitioner in McDonald v. Chicago, has gone to his rest. Here he is, with his wife, on the steps of the US Supreme Court after the oral argument, four years ago.
Here's his memorial Facebook page. A good man, and a moment in human history. As I recall, about half of Americans own guns; isn't often that an individual can pass on and have 150,000,000 people, and the generations who succeed those, in their debt.
Problem fixed
My thanks to the reader who suggested that the "hit counter" was for some reason locking up the system when viewers tried to load a page.
More on Fast and Furious
From today's hearings before Issa's committee. B. Todd Jones, the new head of BATFE, is testifying:
ISSA: Thank you, Director Jones.
And I too want to reiterate the importance of the work that the men and women of the ATF do. And how much we appreciate the many who take a risk to do the right thing in the right way.
Let me go through a couple of questions, no surprise, the first one is a little related to Fast and Furious. Everybody at Department of Justice, from yourself to the attorney general, is living under the specter of Fast and Furious and how it discredited the men and women who do these jobs otherwise right.
Just to make the record clear, was anyone fired as a result of Fast and Furious?
JONES: Mr. Chairman, I can say publicly in this forum that everyone involved at ATF and the chain of command has either been disciplined or is no longer with the agency. ISSA: OK.
But, the answer of, fired, is no. Is that correct?
It's a yes or no -- it really is, Todd.
JONES: As a result of the inspector general's report, the answer is no.
ISSA: OK, so no one was fired. Some chose to retire. But let's go to a particular individual of interest, William Newell. The I.G. recommended he be removed, but in a settlement we have learned that he was demoted from SES [Senior Execute Service, which to be fair pays very well] to GS-13 [which pays nicely, but not very well, depending upon the "step"].
Did you approve that settlement?
JONES: Mr. Chairman, we have provided, in great detail to the committee, in a confidential document, the processes that we followed internally following the release of the I.G.'s report. It outlines, with some particularity, all of the individuals that were identified in that report and the actions taken.
I am not at liberty, in this public forum, to get into detail...
ISSA: Director -- director, you're here pursuant to a subpoena specifically because Congress does not afford you that choice on the Privacy Act by the statute itself.
But, more importantly, we know what occurred.
My question simply was one that you can answer. It has nothing to do with privacy. Did you make that decision?
JONES: The process at ATF involves professional responsibility board...
ISSA: Director, I understand. I'm only asking, did you influence or have an input into that call of his not being fired, his continuing to draw a paycheck and eventually retire at his high pay as an SES? [Federal retirement, under the old system anyway, is calculated on your "high three" years of employment salary]
JONES: I did not.
ISSA: You did not. Did your number two have that input?
JONES: The process involves the bureau deciding official and the ultimate decision maker is the deputy director, with appeal to me, should the employee not be satisfied when it comes to...
ISSA: Well, you were satisfied, and the number two made the call. Is that fair to say for the public record?
JONES: That's fair to say.
ISSA: OK. Similarly, the professional review board proposed that Hope MacAllister receive a 14-day suspension, which I consider pretty minor. This was reduced to a letter of reprimand. Would that also have gone through your deputy?
JONES: Again, Mr. Chair, the process is pretty well delineated in terms of the rights of the employees to grieve and the ultimate decision being made with my involvement with the senior executive service being a little different than anyone who is not a member of the SES ranks.
ISSA: OK, the professional review board proposed a David Voth be demoted to a non-supervisory special agent position. In settlement, he was demoted. Again, that would have been the same process you're alluding to.
JONES: There is a process, and it was followed.
ISSA: OK, so MacAllister, Voth, and Newell -- none of them were fired. All of them received certainly less than what the American people would expect.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (1)
April 1 satire worthy of The Onion
Brady Center rescinds Piers Morgan 'Visionary Award' after gun sales skyrocket.
"Yeah, it's weird," Wilson said. "I've always been pro gun-control but when I heard Piers Morgan on television saying we'll all mindless barbarians too afraid of the NRA, I thought, 'you know what? This guy is annoying.' I don't know, something inside me said 'screw that twit, I'm buying a gun.' And that's what I did. It was really out of character."