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September 2017
Nancy Pelosi has a ....
I dunno what to call it, just watch the video.
DC Circuit denies en banc review in Wrenn v. DC
Order here. Wrenn struck down the strict "may issue" DC standard for carry permits, adopted to try to deal with Heller. David Kopel discusses the panel decision, which was upheld when the petition for en banc review was denied.
My new book is in release today!
Amazon is shipping! Here's the page I created to link to Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and to set out the audio and video evidence. (The Waco evidence is quite impressive... want to hear ATF radio traffic from the first day's raid, or the FBI radio traffic during the fire? I've got them posted, and they took a three year Freedom of Information Act suit to obtain).
https://www.fromthegovernment.com
Strange and unusual typos
This story concerns the Alabama GOP primary, which pitted Roy Moore against Luther Strange. Somehow the story manages to use, in place of "Strange," words such as "odd" and "unusual."
"Trump has been outspokenly supportive of odd since before the August primary ..."
"Top establishment Republicans were looking to spin a possible odd loss away ..."
"...said he had been undecided in the race but was swayed to vote for unusual...."
RIP James "Jim" Norell
I received word yesterday that my friend, and NRA/ILA "founding father" Jim Norell had died in his sleep. age 74. Jim was with NRA HQ before ILA was created, was there at Cincinnati for the revolt, and became the first head of ILA's public relations department. I'd known him since 1978. He was a brilliant writer, with the ability to come up with astounding insights. He was on vacation in Chincoteague, VA, with his fiancé Tammy, whom I'd finally met at the last NRA annual meeting. I'll miss him greatly at a personal level (we would talk on the telephone 3-4-5 times a week) and the gun rights movement will greatly miss him at a practical level.
His wife Nancy passed on five years ago. Here's the obit I ran for her. She and Jim both played major roles in pushing the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986.
UPDATE: Here's Jim's online obit in The American Rifleman.
2016 FBI Uniform Crime Reports out
Dave Workman has thoughts on the matter.
Homicides are up 8%, and he notes rifles of all types are still a tiny part of that, 374 cases (compared to 16.04 knife homicides). His own Washington state saw a decrease in murders and in gun murders, while the number of concealed carry permits went up by 10% over the year.
Bloomberg pouring $1 million into Virginia races
Story here.
"The Washington Post reported Thursday that Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund is donating $450,000 to the campaign of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam. It also plans to spend another $250,000 on campaign mailers to support him.
The group is also giving $300,000 to Attorney General Mark Herring for his re-election bid."
A well-deserved hit at the Amer. Bar Ass'n
"The ABA is committed to due process, unless you're a gun owner," at Forbes. I have much fun whenever ABA tele-marketers call and try to convince me to join that group of big-firm stuffed shirts.
Article on Heller's "firearms in common use" test
Just published in the Arizona Law Review.
UPDATE: I've long had problems with using "in common use" as some sort of a legal test. Heller takes the words from US v. Miller, where Justice McReynolds just threw them in as window dressing, noting that when the militia turned out it brought arms of the type in common use at the time. That hardly makes it a legal test, it's just a passing mention. Further, to the extent Miller can be described as having any meaning, it put a "militia-centric" meaning on the Second Amendment, which the Heller Court rejected. Moreover, it uses circular reasoning. If an arm is sufficiently restricted, it will never come into common use. If the National Firearms Act had never been enacted, I suspect millions of people would have full-auto .22s for fun plinking. Finally, why should "common use" define a constitutional right? The First Amendment doesn't protect only mainstream media or mainstream churches.
Baltimore's Gun Trace Task Force gets busted
To be sure, as PAGunBlog notes, there was one member who hasn't been charged with racketeering, stealing from suspects, or overtime fraud.
What passes for news these days
The New York Times is reporting that "Within the Justice Department, several long-serving lawyers have decided to retire or quit rather than help carry out the new [Trump Admin] policies."
The Justice Department has over 113,000 employees. So "several" resigning is hardly news.
ATF guidelines on FFLs facilitating private sales
Right here.
Hat tip to Alexis Tunell of Orchid Advisors.
Another ATF scandal, millions of dollars worth
Story at Legal Insurrection. Federal statutes require that (unless there is a specific exemption) all money brought into an agency be turned over to the "General Fund," rather than become part of the agency's funds. Some eleven years ago, tho, ATF agents essentially merged with a tobacco supplier, with the original objecting of finding interstate tobacco smugglers trying to get around local taxes.
Soon, however, it became a very profitable enterprise, and was itself buying untaxed cigs and reselling them at a high profit.
"The secret fund became known as a "management account," and word spread quickly among A.T.F. agents that if you needed something, Mr. Lesnak could get it without red tape.
As Mr. Lesnak described it, senior officials in Washington frequently sent agents to him for untraceable license plates, credit cards and more. Automobiles, particularly luxury cars, were hot items. "We had so many vehicles that we actually set up a company just for leasing," Mr. [Christopher] Small [Carpenter's business partner] said in a deposition.
Agents relied on the management account for routine expenses, and Mr. Small said hotel bills and gas alone could run to $23,000 a month. "We had 14 or 15 agents carrying American Express cards that we paid the bill on," Mr. Small said."
One informant alone got $6 million from the account. Hundreds of thousands were steered to selected organizations. "The money in this account paid for a $21,000 at a NASCAR race and a trip to Las Vegas."
From what has been discovered, no one in the agency every really authorized the creation of this secret, multi-million slush fund. It just "came to be."
hat tip to Jeff Harris....
Hurricanes and FFLs
David Codrea has thoughts on the subject. NFA owners have problems moving their firearms interstate, which requires pre-approval, and FFLs have problems with removing their inventory from their licensed presmises. Both these can and should be addressed by changes in regulations.
Ohio isn't a good place for robberies, either
Men try to rob Taco Bell, two employees draw guns and put six bullets into one of them.
And another one bites the dust....
Inver Grove Height, MN: armed robbers try to stick up a cell phone store, a clerk, who has a concealed carry license, shoots one and drives the other off.
More dumb crooks
Two armed robbers target a bar where police are having a retirement party.