Arms and the Law

Some leaked audio from a private fundraiser. Held, appropriately, at the house of a wealthy "prohibited person," a fellow convicted of selling cocaine.

"I'm going to speak out, I'm going to do everything I can to rally people against this pernicious, corrupting influence of the NRA and we're going to do whatever we can."

"And here again, the Supreme Court is wrong on the Second Amendment. And I am going to make that case every chance I get."

Story here.

"Smith said according to multiple witnesses, the two men began arguing when Delpit punched the victim to the ground, and then continued to assault him. When bystanders tried to intervene, witnesses said the ATF agent pulled out a pistol and waved it at the crowd."

"When Rios declared, "By the way, we all carry," the crowd erupted in applause."

I attended, and spoke at, Second Amendment Foundation's GRPC, held in Phoenix this last weekend. The audio isn't up yet (the one online is the 2014 conference), but will eventually be accessible here or here.

Among the many good presentations were: John Lott of Crime Prevention Research Center, on the other side's statistical abuses, a panel from Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership, and a panel of attorneys on "winning firearms freedom one case at a time."

Back in the 1930s, the Army experimented with semi auto versions of the Browning M-2, meant as portable tank-killers. Back then, armor was thin enough to be punctured by guns of this class (the Pazer I's armor ran from a quarter inch to a half inch), and the great weight even of a relatively light M2 could be handled by a cavalry horse. Soon, of course, tank armor got thick enough to make .50 attack useless (except, as one British source writes, to alert the tank's crew to the fact that someone was annoying them and motivate them to go looking for their tormentor).

Audio here. I found both sides a little hard to follow, but the judges who asked questions seemed inclined in a friendly direction.

Hillsdale involves as "as applied" challenge to the bar on firearms possession by those who have been involuntarily committed to an institution. The challenger was so committed, I gather 20-30 years ago, and is ready to present medical opinion that his mental problem is long gone. The 6th Circuit panel ruled in his favor, in an opinion that seemed unclear as to whether it was ruling "as applied" or on a "facial challenge," and the entire circuit took the case en banc.

The Second Circuit has mostly reversed a trial court ruling that Knife Rights members had no standing to sue.

"Standing to sue" is often a complex issue, and some courts use it as a "dump button" when faced with a case they don't like. The challenge is to the NY ban on "gravity knives," defined as any folding knife that opens by force of gravity or centrifugal force. The statute doesn't define how much centrifugal force, and in practice NYPD will cite or arrest for any folding knife that any officer can flip open in this way, or even for a knife that he cannot, if he speculates that someone stronger or faster might be able to do so.

Concealed carrier downs bank robber in Warren, MI.

"Lockheed Upbeat Despite F-35 Losing Dogfight to Red Baron". (A bit of background: billions are being spent on the F-35, intended as a vulnerable and hyper-expensive replacement for the study A-10 Warthog, and the F-35's backers were recently embarrassed when it came off second-best in a dogfight against a 30 year old F-16. Among other things, the virtual reality helmet restricted the F-35's pilot's ability to see the actual reality to his rear quadrants).

News reports of a partial win in the DC Circuit.

Josh Blackman reports on Bush's appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Story here. A section is devoted to the James' gang's attempt to rob the bank at Northfield. with a display of the .50 Smith carbine that a local used to bring down Clell Miller and Bob Younger.

84 shots, one hit (in the calf) on a bad guy. Also noteworthy: at age 27, the perp had 12 prior arrests, including ones for armed robbery. The experiment in having gun laws that make it safe even with known violent criminals on the loose does not appear to be succeeding. Surprise.

I was just researching in the Clinton Presidential Library archives, and came across this. The cover sheet is my summary, the rest is a fax from "Deputy Secretary" (of what, is unstated) to Clinton's Domestic Policy Council, relating to settlement terms to demand in the lawsuits against gun manufacturers (which were then being brought by New York, some other jurisdictions, and private plaintiffs, and held the risk of bankrupting the industry.

It lists demands which would have achieved most of the antigun legislative objectives, without the work of getting Congress to agree. One gun a month, gun registration, eliminate non-inventory small FFLs, no guns capable of taking greater than ten round magazines, no sales of greater than ten round magazines, no juveniles allowed on gun dealer premises without a parent or guardian, gun manufacturers to finance a fund to propagandize on the dangers of guns, etc., etc.. And all without asking Congress to pass legislation.

An interesting study. Law faculties are the most liberal/left of all 60+ categories of attorneys, more so than other fields where you might expect the practitioners to be liberal -- civil rights lawyers, criminal defense lawyers, government lawyers.

My Primal Scream has an interesting post on the matter. From 1803 onward, DC forbade its militiamen to show up for muster while carrying arms, and also tightly controlled the possession of flints. By 1812 only a third of its military had the required muskets, and those of course lacked flints. Congress protested without avail.

While there were a great many causes for the American rout at the Battle of Bladensburg (terrible tactics, divided command, use of Revolution War drill in place of the more modern systems evolved out of the Napoleonic Wars), the fact that Washington's militia was largely disarmed and short on flints (and got into position late because it took time to issue the flints) certainly didn't help things.

From the Washpo:

"Repeat violent offenders, according to Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), are a chief problem. She makes the point that at least 22 homicide suspects were under supervision pending trial or on probation or parole at the time of the crime, and almost half, or 45 percent, had prior gun-related arrests in the District (compared with 27 percent in 2014).

Not to get all existential, but the problem is much deeper than synthetic drugs, high-capacity gun magazines, turf wars, rejiggering police deployment or keeping an eye on repeat violent offenders.

We have on our hands -- in our neighborhoods, on our streets and maybe living next door -- walking disasters: individuals who believe that their lives matter, but not yours or mine. Neither do our laws and institutions."

John Lott will be appearing on CBS Evening News tonight to discuss gun control issues. The show will be on at 6:30PM EDT, though it can't be predicted when Lott's segment will be on.

"Brady's Empty Suits", at America's First Freedom. The title is a pun on a phrase lawyers use -- "empty suit," or just "suit," to describe a person whose clothing is impressive but their contents are not.

Rather, he was just a homeless guy hoping to stick up train passengers for food money. Exactly how a homeless guy would have acquired an AK-47 and a lot of ammo for it is not explained. Heck, at current ammo prices he could have dined on steak and lobster for what he invested in 7.62x39.