Arms and the Law

David Codrea reports a conversation with Mike last night. He and Mike were keys to opening up "Operation Fast and Furious." He writes that Mike is coming home from the hospital, but that doctors give him about a month to live.

No Lawyers, Only Guns and Money has an updated one online. It says something that things are changing so quickly (and all in the direction of greater freedom) that you have to make sure any chart is up to date.

In terms of population, they calculate that 65% live in "shall issue" states, 27% in "may issue," 7% in "don't need" and 0.4% in "can't get" states.

It's not so many years ago, I think up 'till the mid 1980s, that the entire country was, in terms of concealed carry, either "can't get" or "may issue," Vermont being the one exception. (Like many western states, Arizona was "can't get" for concealed carry and "don't need" for open carry).

Right here. Guy Smith, its central person, hopes to expand efforts toward pro-gun Youtube messages and undertake other projects.

"To continue this winning streak, we need your help. We want to continue educating the masses, like we did last year when we:
• Broke the code on why some polls show gun ownership steady while others show it declining.
• Showed that "lax law" states are not the source of crime guns, but that "strict law" states are.
• Launched a YouTube channel with snappy 60-second videos for you to share.
• Showed why "universal" background checks are not universal, and why they make no difference in gun crime.
• Ignited a push-back to the phony "gun violence research" drive, a counter-punch already organically circulating on the net.
• Deconstructed the myth that firearms are an anti-woman issue.
• Destroyed the Missouri myth that getting permission to buy a gun stops crime.
• Demonstrated why American street gangs are the prime source of gun violence.
• Showed that permitless (constitutional) carry is a non-problem."

In Idaho. And for that matter, most of the tier of states contiguous to Canada.

British tourist robbed, fatally stabbed, in middle of a busy San Francisco street, and locals express shock.

Man steals hot dog and beer from a couple running a 7-11 in Los Angeles, stabs the wife and fatally stabs the husband coming to her defense, locals express shock.

Three armed robbers attack South Los Angeles taco stand, the owner is armed and shoots, one robber DOA, the surviving robbers being sought.

Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned here....

It's the favorite tool of serial killers. We probably have to go slowly, though, better half a loaf than none, maybe just take one slice at a time. First, regulate cars as tightly as we do guns, no purchases without a background check, no interstate sales, possession forbidden to felons, persons with mental commitments, illegal aliens, etc.. Then outlaw these particularly dangerous vehicles.

Hat tip to Instapundit.

Right here. Very handy -- 1,800 manuals already in the database, and two thousand more to be uploaded.

This animated chart tracks the dramatic expansion of right to carry between 1986 and 2014. Impressive!

Dave Workman asks, Did Hillary's antigun position hurt her in the Michigan primary?

Here's an article I wrote on the subject, eons ago in 1986, when the bicentennial of the Constitution was approaching (a very big deal in Washington DC at the time). I later found it interesting that while the Constitution got a bicentennial committee headed by former Chief Justice Burger, and plenty of hoopla, the bicentennial of the Bill of Rights two years later got almost no play. I suppose in Washington, DC, a company town if ever there was one, the document that created the company/government was occasion for major celebrations, whereas the document which restrained that government was a mere inconvenience, a sop to Americans who had so unwisely distrusted the wonderful government that had been created.

UPDATE: Thanks, I corrected the pdf....

Story here. The Senate vote was 23-11, House vote was 64-33. (As I read the State constitution, a veto override requires a simple majority).

Video here. For some reason, the bill was withdrawn.

Sheriff David Clarke, of Milwaukee County.

That's the title of a rather interesting article by Josh Blackman and Ilya Shapiro.

Right here. Very interesting trends. In 1986, a total of three million firearms were produced. In 2013, it was well over ten million. Pistols (here used to mean semiauto handguns) totaled over four million in 2013 -- so the number of handguns made in that year was greater than total firearms production in 1986. Total gun production doubled, repeat doubled, between 2010 and 2013.

Looking at Exhibit 1a, by the early 2000s, production was about what it'd been in the late 1980s, with about the same distribution except that the proportion of revolvers had declined. The current surge in production began in about 2005-2006, and became spectacular after 2010. The only product that hasn't expanded much is shotguns. Everything else, rifles, handguns, and "misc. arms," have had their production greatly increase. Even "miscellaneous firearms" went from 4,000 to 495,000 over 1986-2013.

(2013 is the latest year reported -- reports are delayed since manufacturers want exact production figures treated as trade secrets and kept quiet for a time).

The latest exchange is detailed at Above the Law. A short summary: Georgetown issued a generic statement to the effect that it mourned Scalia's passing (he was a Georgetown undergrad). Two law profs sent out a response, which stopped only a little short of "we're glad he's dead." It called him "a defender of privilege, oppression and bigotry, one whose intellectual positions were not brilliant but simplistic and formalistic." Profs Randy Barnett and Nicolas Rosenkrantz responded, and hit hard. "[W]ere Georgetown Law a genuinely diverse intellectual institution, I doubt any faculty member could have been so callous on this occasion."

Tam asks : Are AR-15/M-4s "high-caliber, rapid-fire rifles ... essentially killing machines" as one of its articles claims, or "simply too small for modern combat," as another article claims?

Her ironic answer: "I guess the Stoner weapons system only reaches its full automated death-spraying-made-easy capability when wielded by untrained civilians. The Army should look into this."

Todd Rathner, an NRA Board member from Arizona, explains why he opposes the attempt to recall Grover Norquist from the Board.

Right here.

At Captain's Journal.