Arms and the Law

Opinion here.

The Supreme Court reserves its most contentious cases, the type that generate vigorously disputed 5-4s. for the end of a Term. Right now, it has 17 cases to decide in 14 days. Among those is the firearms case of Abramski v. US. The Court's schedule calls for releases of opinions on each Monday this month, and also perhaps on Thursday, June 12.

The Supreme Court reserves its most contentious cases, the type that generate vigorously disputed 5-4s. for the end of a Term. Right now, it has 17 cases to decide in 14 days. Among those is the firearms case of Abramski v. US. The Court's schedule calls for releases of opinions on each Monday this month, and also perhaps on Thursday, June 12.

They caught the goon who is suspected of stabbing two little Brooklyn kids, one of whom died.

He's also suspected in another fatal stabbing, committed seven days after he got out of prison, and two days before he stabbed the girls. He was in prison for attempted murder -- for which he was sentenced to five years. Five years for attempted murder? Here, the presumptive sentence for that (a class two felony, and dangerous offense) would be 10.5 years, and the max 21 years.

Chuck Schumer shows his expertise in constitutional law: ""I think if Thomas Jefferson were looking down, the author of the Bill of Rights, on what's being proposed here, he'd agree with it. He would agree that the First Amendment cannot be absolute."

Jefferson was actually out of country just then. He was minister to France from 1784 to 1789, returning just in time to be appointed Secretary of State and to engross the copies of the bill of rights which were sent to the States for ratification.

So far--

The male had a felony auto theft conviction, and the female killed an armed citizen who tried to stop the male in the WalMart store.

The male had a long rap sheet. Included were multiple arrests on drug charges, another felony conviction for criminal recklessness, battery, and violating conditions of release.

They did go to the Bundy ranch, where they were refused admission after the male admitted he was a convicted felon.

The Daily Caller has an impressive list.

Hat tip to reader Jim K.

Ann Althouse has the answer: when it can be used to portray a GOP governor and possible presidential candidate in a bad light. The fellow in the story was convicted of aggravated assault after breaking a man's nose, and wants a pardon so that his gun rights will be restored. Funny that a few years ago the Times ran an article headlined "Felons Finding It Easy to Regain Gun Rights."

Stephen Wright has done done an interesting study. In terms of "likes," NRA has 10:1 advantage. In terms of increasing number of those, a 4:1 advantage. And in terms of age, NRA's following is clustered in the 25-44 age class, while Bloomberg's is in the 55+ age class.

Candidate for California Secretary of State withdraws after being indicted for trying to arm terrorists, still gets 287,000 votes. He got nearly 11% of the total, while the two winners got 29%. A very respectable showing!

Bluegrass Bruce has a good summary of the effects of the Justice Department's program aimed, in part, at causing banks to sever relationships with lawful firearm dealers.

An interesting case. The US entered into a treaty to prohibit the development, etc., of chemical weapons. Congress then enacted a statute prohibiting the possession or use of chemical weapons.

He has one up. His postings aren't too frequent, since he has an active practice, a family, and a life, which are disadvantages to blogging which I would like to share. But it's very interesting in terms of Supreme Court practice and inside notes on Heller and McDonald. Looks like he's set up to teach a course at Georgetown Law on strategic litigation.

Story in the Washington Times. It envisions their used against "domestic unrest," and the story reports that the Administration considered using the military against Clive Bundy and his supporters, but rejected it. Interesting, too, in that the military apparently leaked the plan. When a ruler starts to lose control of his own defense forces, it's time to reconsider.

As far as constitutional authority, Article IV §4 says that the United States shall "protect each of them [States] against invasion; and on application of the Legislature, o of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence." I doubt the orders have a "the President, when requested by the legislature or governor of the State involved, may..." provision. But then, "we don' need no steenking constitution."

A while back, I noted that Bloomberg had given $2,000,000 to the Joyce Foundation, which turned around and awarded $400,000 to "Media Matters," which immediately began postings defaming NRA. Today, it posted a whopper, under the headline of "Pundit Who Blamed UCSB Mass Murder On Gay Marriage Is An NRA Official." It attacks NRA Board member Ken Blackwell. If you read what Blackwell actually wrote, he said "here's a crumbling of the moral foundation of the country," and that the attack on "natural marriage and the family that has been a part" of this. "When these fundamental institutions are attacked and destroyed and weakened and abandoned, you get what we are now seeing and that is a flood of these disturbed people in our society that are causing great, great pain. And as opposed to dealing with the foundational problems, we look for ways of blaming the Second Amendment, or blaming knives or blaming cars when they are used."

Operation Choke Point officially involved investigating banks that dealt with "high risk" businesses, in order to pressure them to drop their customers. Now it's becoming obvious that its targets include licensed firearms and ammunition dealers. (It also was expanded to payday lenders, for no apparent reason except that the government frowns upon them).

Clayton Cramer gives his thoughts, at PJ Media.

The study will take into 2015, I note.

Hat tip to reader Jeff Harris.

"On October 16th, 1814, a 15-ft. wave of beer ran rampant through the streets of London". The tidal wave of brew drowned seven.

Why am I not surprised?

BTW, he bought his guns legally, in California, which Brady Campaign rates as having the strictest gun control laws in the U.S.. And killed three people with knives.