Arms and the Law

Right here. The sheriff has released video of Baldwin during earlier segments of the filming. These show he wasn't worrying about having his finger inside the trigger guard and pressing the trigger while handling a cocked single-action. Of course, he's playing a gunman who's drawing and ready to fire, but all the more reason to follow the tightest safety procedures -- starting with making very, very, sure the gun isn't loaded and there isn't a live round anywhere in the area. And, of course, not pointing it at anyone. Plus a few other things that anyone who respects a gun's power would be doing.

More video here.

A report of an interesting study. A Memphis newspaper published data on concealed weapon permit holders, itemized by zip code. Someone set out to study what happened to burglary rates in the years after the publication. Answer: burglary rates for the areas with high populations of permit-holders fell, while those for areas with low populations of permit-holders rose. The newspaper had inadvertently pointed out where the safest burglary targets in the city were located.

Article here. A nice win in the Washington Supreme Court.

Here's a link to a webpage I created, with pictures and audio and video, to accompany my book I'm from the Government, and I'm Here to Kill You. At the first link, audio and video links are on the left. David Koresh talking to 911, and sounding entirely reasonable for a man who's been shot and seriously wounded. Radio traffic for the first day's gunfight. FBI radio traffic during the fire, with one FBI leader demanding firetrucks, and a higher commander refusing, quite in cold blood.

Plus an ATF report indicating that (contrary to the official story that Koresh could not be arrested without a raid, since he never left the building), ATF agents had actually gone shooting with him a few days before the raid! Koresh was unarmed until an agent lent him a .38 Super.

This is not going to be easy, since the killer acted in New York City, generally considered already to have the most oppressive gun laws in the country, and the killer had no trouble getting around them all. But here is Everytown's email fundraiser:

"Brooklyn Subway Shooting Highlights Dangers of Adverse Ruling in Supreme Court Case

Yep, such a ruling could give victims the power to defend themselves. Can't have that. It might mean more gun violence -- that the killer gets shot.

Here's the video. Skip the first 41 minutes of blank screen and intro. He proclaims a "ghost gun" can be completed on a kitchen table in under 30 minutes, that 20,000 were seized by police last year, etc. Then he calls for bans on gun purchase by anyone on a "terrorist watch list," cracking down on rogue gun dealers (using old figures indicating that 90% of traces -- which he describes as guns found at crime scenes -- trace to 5% of dealers, wants the usual shopping list of background checks for private sales, "assault weapon" and "large magazine" bans, repeal of the Lawful Commerce in Firearms Act (saying that no other industry has legal immunity... has he heard of vaccine makers?).

And, "this should just be a start."

I forgot -- "I support the Second Amendment."

There was at least a little humor. He keeps referring to the ATF as the AFT.

Right here.

"Since the modern affirmation of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), much scholarly attention has focused on two issues: the soundness of Heller's originalist approach to the Second Amendment, as well as the pragmatic question of whether the Second Amendment right is now being underenforced by the lower federal courts.

This Article examines a subject at the intersection of both of these questions: the role of traditionalist interpretation in interpreting and applying the Second Amendment. It particularly focuses on how traditionalist interpretation sheds light on the constitutionality of restrictions on the carrying of handguns for self-defense, the issue before the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen."

It's upcoming in the Texas Review of Law and Politics....

Predictably, it's being used as a call for more gun control. Even though it happened in a state which Brady Campaign consistently ranks as having the most restrictive gun regulations in the country.

It turns out one of the arrested shooters was on the streets only because, after being sentenced to ten years of assault with great bodily injury, he was given early release, over the prosecutor's objections that he is a violent criminal who "has no regard for his victims" and no respect for the law.

Add in that the one gun found at the scene was both stolen and converted to full auto, and the event is more like a demonstration of why California's gun laws, indeed their entire approach to crime, is completely moronic.

A pending Supreme Court case deals with state sovereign immunity; specifically, do Congress' constitutional war powers permit it to allow states to be sued under the statutes governing re-employment of honorably discharged veterans?

Since I believe court-created sovereign immunity to be neither good law nor wise policy, on the one hand, and cannot see how a 1789 constitutional provision could override a 1795 constitutional amendment, on the other, I don't have a dog in this fight. But for those who do, here is an article pointing out that the Constitution divides military power (if not the power to declare war) among states and the federal government.

An interesting article.

Story here. That makes it 25 states, half the Union! The bill passed the state senate by a 3:2 majority.

Very interesting! Designed by Colt for Eastern Airlines back in the 70s. Plaster of Paris bullets, disposable cylinders. I wonder if Jim Reinke, later NRA director, was involved, he was president or VP of Eastern at one point.

Story here. David Codrea has a clever response: he emailed the story to ATF's "hot line" for gun law violations.

Hurrah! Please Lord, give him another fifty or so years....

Standing his ground, by a pro-gun member of the George Mason Law faculty.

Story here. There are just too many PDs that aren't sending in data. I don't recall this happening before, there were some scandals in individual cities (in the 60s, the FBI stopped reporting NY City for a time, after concluding it was cooking the books to make things look better than they were), but I don't recall any mass failures to report.

24 States now! One more and we'll have half the country!

Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, has died of a heart attack while flying back home. He was a first-rate fellow, a former riverboat captain and dedicated shooter and hunter. He made it to 88, and was the longest-serving member of the House.

An email from "Everytown":

"DEVELOPING: PERMITLESS CARRY, A TOP NRA PRIORITY, ADVANCING ACROSS THE COUNTRY DESPITE WIDESPREAD OPPOSITION

David--if the gun lobby gets their way, more than half the country will have permitless carry laws in place by the end of 2022.

Just in the past week, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Alabama Governor Kay Ivey sided with the gun lobby and signed new permitless carry bills into law, ignoring widespread opposition from law enforcement, community leaders, and their constituents.

Now we're running an all-hands-on-deck veto campaign after the Indiana legislature sent a similar bill to Gov. Holcomb. And the gun lobby is doubling down to pass permitless carry in states like Georgia and Nebraska."

With a nice graphic (I can't find a link to it) showing the growth of constitutional carry.

Of course, being a member of the elite, nothing happened. Law enforcement even stored the gun for him and returned it when he came back. Laws are for the little people.