Arms and the Law

President commutes sentences of fifty persons convicted of Federal gun law violations. Oh, possession of stolen firearms, carrying a firearm during a drug offense, things like that.

I had lunch at a new Chinese restaurant here. The menu had a typo. At least, I HOPE it's a typo for "crab puff."

Bob Dowlut, NRA General Counsel and acting GC since ... way back in the last century, and Alice Beard, both of them published Second Amendment authors ... here's Alice's Facebook note about their 42nd anniversary. Dig that crazy tux! It's cool, or maybe the cat's pajamas! : )

Bill Weld, Libertarian VP candidate, interviewed on gun laws:

"The five shot rifle, that's a standard military rifle; the problem is if you attach a clip to it so it can fire more shells and if you remove the pin so that it becomes an automatic weapon, and those are independent criminal offenses. That is when they become, essentially a weapon of mass destruction. The problem with handguns probably is even worse than the problem of the AR15."

With an incoherence like that, how did he wind up on any ticket?

Story here. She's Ginny Thrasher, and a graduate of the West Springfield High rifle team and West Virginia U's shooting team. Both of those were helped by NRA Foundation grants.

Cancer got him early this morning. David Codrea has a number of posts on Mike. He notes that services will be Saturday, 2 PM, in Leeds, Alabama, just outside of Birmingham.

At a rally in North Carolina, Donald Trump remarks, of Hillary Clinton, "By the way if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks." Then he adds "Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know."

Hillary's campaign responds "This is simple -- what Trump is saying is dangerous. A person seeking to be the President of the United States should not suggest violence in any way."

And Trump's campaign replies that his reference was to political power: "2nd Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power. And this year, they will be voting in record numbers, and it won't be for Hillary Clinton, it will be for Donald Trump."

Very, very clever. The first statement was merely setting the ambush.

Apparently, there has evolved a custom in the Ninth Circuit of filing an oversized brief at the last moment, figuring that the court won't reject a motion to do so because that'd throw off the court's briefing and argument scheduling. In a recent ruling, however, Judge Kozinski dissents and comes up an effective deterrent to such an approach:

"For my part, I don't feel bound to read beyond the 14,000 words allowed by our rules, so I won't read past page 66 of the state's brief. If counsel for the state wishes me to consider any argument in the remaining portion of her brief, she should feel free to file a substitute brief, no longer than 14,000 words, which I will read in lieu of her oversized brief, so long as it is filed no later than 7 days from the date of this order."

This time it's R. Scott Silverthorne, mayor of Fairfax City. A while back he wrote an antigun column for "Everytown". He proclaimed that 2015 had been a terrible year for him.

Doesn't look like 2016 will be any better. Silverthorne just got busted for giving an undercover officer meth in exchange for sex.

"According to Fairfax County police, they encountered Silverthorne after learning of an individual who was distributing meth through a website used to arrange male-on-male sexual encounters.

An undercover detective created a profile on the site and was contacted by Silverthorne, who said he could provide meth in exchange for sex. They arranged to meet at a hotel, where Silverthorne was arrested for felony distribution of methamphetamine."

Dave Workman has his take on it, drawing from this WashPo article.

"Kaine has pivoted on guns, in style and substance, depending on the political climate, the office he sought and particular events.

He has been an urban mayor determined to reduce gun deaths. And he has been a statewide candidate who embraced the Second Amendment and promised not to tighten gun laws. He has become quiet on the issue at times, and played offense at other moments."

He seems to have more positions than the Kama Sutra....

This time he gets undercover video of a Clinton delegate describing how to work for a gun ban.

Clayton Cramer has it.

Officer (incorrectly) thinks caregiver is in danger, solves problem by shooting him. The caregiver says he asked why the fellow shot him, and the officer in confusion frankly replied, "I don't know."

Footage here.

Donald Trump's big sister is a senior judge on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

Story here. Apparently the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has decided that gun owners are unfit to adopt children. I suspect the lawsuit will lead them to reconsider their bigotry.

Some sorta academic clown suggests he and some buddies might storm NRA headquarters.

It'd be like "The Keystone Cops Storm Okinawa." Amusing, but rather messy for the cleanup crews. Of course an anti gunner sees nothing wrong with homicide, that's not really the issue....

Bill Clinton for some reason was in Phoenix, and somehow heard that AG Lynch was flying in (in a private plane apparently), and they managed to have a meeting in a private plane about grandkids and golf. "He mentioned the golf he played in Phoenix..."

He must be a sturdy fellow.. it hit 113 that day in Phoenix. I've never golfed, but I'd imagine that when it hits 113, walking around in a big humid grassy field is probably not a good idea.

Here's a preview on Youtube.

Voisne v. US, handed down a few hours ago. Justice Thomas dissents, with Justice Sotomayor [correction, not Kagan, thanks for pointing it out] joining two of the three parts of his dissent. Parts one and two argue (convincingly, to my eye) the interpretation of the statute, part three argues that in light of the Second Amendment, the statute should be read narrowly to avoid creating a constitutional issue.