Arms and the Law

The Volokh Conspiracy answers Biden's latest display of dementia.. (Eugene definitely knows the 2A but isn't a gunny, so he had to check it out). I wonder if Biden thinks the .223/5.56 has a muzzle velocity in the 15,000 fps range (that would make it rather flat-shooting, if the bullets would just hold together) or the average rifle has one of about 600 fps?

Can a federal magistrate judge issue a search warrant? Magistrate judges aren't nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. They are chosen from among attorneys by the judges of the district. They can't try a civil case unless both parties agree, nor any criminal felony or misdemeanor above a petty offense. In a civil case, they can *recommend* what the district judge should do on a motion, but cannot decide it. As the article points out, until recently they weren't called "magistrate judges," but simply "magistrates."

Story here. I don't see the class action, nor the 14th Amendment involvement. He plans to sue Daniels Defense, well, he'd better have a way to get around the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, and this Texas case.

August 21, 1982, at a hotel in the Maryland suburbs of DC. I, Frances (Avery), and Harlon Carter. Carter and his sometimes-ally, sometimes-enemy Neal Knox, created the modern NRA.

Harlon died in '92, Frances died in '03, Neal died in '05, all of cancer.

Just incredible.

The FBI reports there was no malfunction of the gun; it could not have gone off unless Baldwin cocked it and pulled the trigger. Why the PD went to the FBI for this, instead of just asking a gunsmith to take it apart, is unclear, as is why the FBI would consider a local homicide within their jurisdiction.

So now we wait to see what the prosecutors will do, and whether a celebrity can literally get away with murder, or at least manslaughter.

A letter referencing FBI's desire to "audit" their CCW license holder list. What business has FBI "auditing" lists of CCW holders? And how would you audit it anyway? The AG quite properly tells them where to stick their request. I wonder if FBI ever bothered to comply with the Privacy Act, which requires agencies to make public their databases and the "routine uses" of each.

Here. The historian Oswald Spengler defined caesarism as, not one-man rule, but a point when all traditional political norms are abandoned. Hmmm...

An interesting article. Considering the decision is only six weeks old....

I've been reading and re-reading the decision, and writing an article on it. The ruling is SO important. Heller and McDonald laid the groundwork, but themselves decided little but "to entirely ban handguns is unconstitutional," (a regime that existed in no state and only maybe a half dozen cities) and gave little guidance on how to assess everything else. Bruen strikes down a major aspect of the oldest of the modern gun laws, and lays out a detailed framework. Text, history, and tradition, and what matters there is evidence relevant to the understanding of Americans of 1791, or at most 1868. Don't go quoting the gun laws of Henry VIII, or those of a few territories in the 1890s.

A forthcoming article in the Cato Supreme Court Review. I haven't read it yet and so cannot comment, but it certainly sounds comprehensive.

That's what NSSF dealer surveys show. Purchases by first-time gun owners in 2021 totaled over 5 million. Plus large numbers of dealers reporting increases in purchases by women and minorities.

I've felt that Americans were always a nation of gunnies; that was depressed in the 1960s and 1970s, and now we're returning to the norm.

An incident in Virginia. A 61-year old black pastor discovers five people dumping a refrigerator on his land, confronts them, and they start threatening him. He throws down on them, and winds up arrested for brandishing a weapon. Fortunately, charges were dropped, the five arrested, and two police supervisors given unpaid leave. The sheriff says, "Actually, as I told Mr. McCray, if I were faced with similar circumstances, I would have probably done the same thing."

Text here. Among other things, it would cover any semiautonomous rifle with a "pistol grip" or a "threaded barrel." Note this would cover even those where the pistol grip is a portion of the shoulder stock. The M-1 Grand and Carbine would be covered, since their stocks have pistol grips. (The Garand's clip is likely a "detachable feeding device.") So would the Remington Model 8, first sold in 1906 (which also has a detachable buttstock, another banned feature). Among handguns, any that have a magazine outside the pistol grip (There goes the broom handle Mauser). Among shotguns, any that have a magazine (fixed or not) that can accept more than 5 rounds (with the new 1 3/4" shells, that means all of them) and has "a pistol grip or a bird's head grip."

Guns "banned" by name: all "AK types" and "AR types," including some .22 rimfire.

Also covered is any parts designed to "accelerate the rate of fire" of a semiauto.

I can't bear to read any farther. That a majority of the House would pass this is beyond belief...

This video from Radio Canada, which generally has and anti-gun (and esp. anti-American gun) position. It originates with WION (World Is One News), about which I know little. The theme is that the Taiwanese, like the Ukrainians, are out to train themselves in shooting, and for the same reason.

Gotta wonder that the anti-gunners haven't simply packed up and gone home. Americans' gun purchases are sky-high. The biggest problem shooters face is that, even with factories running 24/7, manufacturers can't produce enough ammo. The AR-15 has become the most popular rifle. The Supreme Court (three cheers for Justice Thomas!) has trounced them. The BLM riots have shown everyone that only fools rely on the government for protection. International aggressions have led to the people of other nations seeing the same.

It's not just that the anti-gunners are losing. It's that their cause is becoming irrelevant, obsolete.

Video here. I think the impact of the decision is still sinking in. Balancing tests are out the window. Stop debating strict scrutiny vs. intermediate review. The only question is what did the American people understand they were doing when they ratified the Second Amendment, and the Fourteenth Amendment.

At least one court appreciates that it's a new world out there. How do you reconcile an AW and magazine ban with the understanding of Americans in 1791 and 1868? Americans at either date would have been laying hands on an AR-15 and asking why they couldn't get an M-4 instead.

By the Netherlands' chief of defense. As he puts it, he didn't choose the pen or the brush as his instrument, but a gun. A very impressive presentation.

He does not take it well. The action starts at 5:10.

He took the killer down in 15 seconds, first round hit at 40-50 yards! Total ten shots, eight hits, at that range under combat conditions and pandemonium. He must be a LOT more practiced than I am!

Clayton Cramer has a post on, with link to, the FBI's active shooter (which does have a broader definition than mass killer) report. Among other things, the FBI notes that 14 such shooters were stopped by law enforcement, and 4 by civilians (2 by shooting the perp). It appears that both of the perp-killed-by-civilian cases involved multiple civilians fighting back.

Plus, the Uvale report is out. The killer had quite a budget for an 18 year-old: $3,000 in guns, and a $1,100 order of ammo. The police response is as bad as you think.

A mass slaying at a shopping mall is stopped by the accurate fire of a 22 year-old civilian.

The head of Brady Campaign seems to see him as a vigilante;

"Here's what we're not going to do: continue to uplift the NRA myth of a "good guy with a gun."

Let me be clear: If more guns made us safer, America would be the safest country in the WORLD.

We need sensible gun laws, not vigilante safety nets."

And there's more. "Shootouts in malls between the bad guy & good guy is not freedom. It's a war zone. It's the Wild West. It's a 3rd world nation. It's sick. Stop glorifying the good guy with a gun. If your only thought is "well it could have been worse," then you're the problem." "My opinion of the Greenwood Mall mass shooting yesterday: 4 people are dead. Other people are saying a civilian killing the shooter is a sign that we are on the right track. This is chaos we're living in, not a viable society." "You're comfortable with the firearms aim of a random mall shopper. Others are not."