Arms and the Law

The pitch for "nontoxic," i.e., non-lead ammunition has long been at odds with the pitch to ban "armor-piercing" ammunition. Under Federal law, AP ammo includes any ammo with "a projectile or projectile core which may be used in a handgun and which is constructed entirely (excluding the presence of traces of other substances) from one or a combination of tungsten alloys, steel, iron, brass, bronze, beryllium copper, or depleted uranium." 18 U.S.C. §921(a)(17). In short, all bullets made of any likely useful metal OTHER than lead. The definition does have some exceptions, including "a projectile which the Attorney General finds is primarily intended to be used for sporting purposes."

Here's some video from Attorney General Lynch testifying in House hearings, in which Rep. Ratcliff points out that ammo manufacturers have sent in 32 requests for exemption over the past four years, and so far none has been acted upon, or even gotten a responsive letter. (Ms. Lynch responds that she has never heard of the requests). Odds are pretty good that it's the same today. Somewhere there is a letter delegating the AG's power to someone else, and that someone else could care less, nor does the AG.

Right here. After playing tennis, he collapsed and went into cardiac arrest. Odds of surviving an arrest outside of a hospital are about 6.7%. But they had a portable defib unit on site and a cardiologist in the clubhouse, plus he had a playing partner that knew the latest form of CPR. So a week after he "died," he was back home, aching from a quadruple bypass. There's some quite useful info on operating the most recent and most automated defib units.

Apparently this Alaskan store owner never heard of that idea. When the robber transferred the gun to their weak hand, she grabbed it and threw it away. The robber then came at her with a knife, and she took that away, too. Her cries for help brought people rushing from nearby stores and they held the robber for police.

A review of the Armatix iP1 "smart gun."

It required execution of seven push-button commands before firing, misfires 3-4 times per magazine, costs three times what comparable firearms cost, keys on being "paired" to a watch with defective resistance to water, and has a terrible double-action pull. Apart from that, it is just what you are looking for in a self-defense arm. Oh, it also has a "kill switch" function so another person can turn it off.

"The watched kettle never boils," so the saying goes, but there are several involved here.

In the State legislative races, Bloomberg spent $2,400,000, pro-gun groups spent $77,000, and Bloomberg's candidates went nowhere.

From Everytown: "Gun safety prevailed on the NRA's home turf because we made sure that every voter knew where the candidates stood on gun safety." Yep, and they voted pro-gun.

CIA staffer's house is searched, his computers are seized, and he's forced to resign because he (with agency permission) had classified files on a private computer.

"It was 14 months later, this January, when Scudder was told he wouldn't face criminal charges. By then, his CIA career was over. The agency had mounted an internal investigation that determined that Scudder's FOIA request "contained classified titles" of CIA articles and that he had deleted a "TOP SECRET" label from one document, according to a memo from an agency personnel board."

I could swear I'd heard of another government employee who did something like this on a far bigger scale, and one not involving historical documents...

Chicago's handgun ban was struck down in McDonald. It responded by enacting a tight permitting system, requiring among other things training on a range, while retaining its ban on shooting ranges. That got struck down in Ezell I. It responded by allowing ranges, but only under high restrictive zoning (among other things, they must be in areas zone for manufacturing, not just for commercial use, must be 500 feet from any other building, and no person under 18 may enter them. That resulted in Ezell II.

Here's the oral argument, held this morning. Chicago's attorney leads, and walks into a firestorm of plainly irritated judges.

On Amazon, Prof. David Berstein's (George Mason Univ. Law) new book, "Lawless: The Obama Administration's Unprecedented Assault on the Constitution and the Rule of Law." It also makes the point that the Obama Administration's actions are often predicated on questionable actions of the Bush II Administration. Bottom line: power begets, and seeks, power.

Nearly two years ago, "Bill Clinton Warns Democrats Against Overreaching on Gun Debate."

"Former President Bill Clinton warned a group of top Democratic donors at a private Saturday meeting not to underestimate the passions that gun control stirs among many Americans.
"Do not patronize the passionate supporters of your opponents by looking down your nose at them," Clinton said.
"Alot of these people live in a world very different from the world lived in by the people proposing these things," Clinton said. "I know because I come from this world.""

2,475 meters, 2,700 yards, using a pair of Barrett .50s against a Taliban commander in Afhghanistan.

Story here.

"those arming themselves are primarily women.

"If anyone wants to buy a long gun in Austria right now, too bad for them," the Czech newscaster says. "All of them are currently sold out.""

Here's is another account, via Google Translate.

Pro-gun attorneys Joshua Prince and Allen Thompson have an article on the subject in the St. Thomas Law Review.

An alternate approach to the question was taken by Thomas Hobbes. To him, we start in a state of nature which is pretty rugged. Everyone is legally free to murder, rob, etc. their neighbor, and their neighbor is legally free to do the same to them. We give up certain of these legal impunities to form a government, the object of government being personal security. But we cannot bargain away the right of self-defense, since personal security is the object of the bargain, and the reason we gave up certain things to the government. One cannot sell a house, pocket the proceeds, and then demand the house back. To Hobbes, self-defense was the one and only inalienable right.

I like this!. "Hillary for Prison 2016."

It's here, on Kickstarter. The idea is to create a 24x36" poster with images of firearms through the ages. If the project succeeds, the posters will be ready next month, well in time for Christmas.

That report, and some interesting thoughts, here at Breitbart. NRA's approval ratings are about twenty points (or 50%) higher than either.

The survey also found that, if you subtract the unfavorable from the favorable, NRA comes out +23. In the most recent poll, Hillary came out -8.

Conservatives gave NRA the highest ratings, moderates not far behind, self-identified liberals gave it the lowest, with a lot in the strongly unfavorable category.

You can access the opinion here. (For some reason a direct link to the opinion doesn't work -- go to the menu bar at the top and click on "decisions" and look for NY State Rifle and Pistol). Pretty much affirms the lower court's ruling, which sustained most of the gun laws at issue. Dave Workman has some interesting thoughts, tho -- such as the court at least recognizes that "assault weapons" and larger magazines are in "common use," and thus within Heller (even tho they can be banned because the court really doesn't like them).

No Lawyers, Only Guns and Money, has an interesting chart on the spread of "may issue" CCW, from 1986 to the present. In 1986, a minuscule percent of the population lived in States where no permit was necessary, and under 10% in "shall issue" areas. Today over 72% of the American population lives in States that fall into those classes.

Story here. It's not an "x-ray," but more like radar. Same thing they use (to the limited extent it has "use") at many airports. I'd say there are some serious Fourth Amendment issues posed here (compare the Supreme Court case on using passive thermal detection to spot "grow houses" through walls).

The article suggests that it can see thru the sides of autos. If have fiberglass panels, I wouldn't be surprised. But since the entire idea is that it reflects off metal, it's seem to me that seeing through a metal car body would be impossible, absent an enormously powerful signal and some means to read the return in very fine detail, perhaps not even then.

Right here.

It's just a ploy to pick up the pro-gun vote, with a promise that she'd support repeal of GCA 68 and enactment of 50-State constitutional carry, plus a $10,000 gift to each gun owner, so long as we self-verify that we have no plans to commit a crime.