Arms and the Law

An entirely nice female student, who has to travel though rough areas of Detroit, gets suspended from school for an entire year after she is found with a pocketknife that was a quarter inch longer than the school rules allowed.

I can't help but wonder if what we are seeing is "cracking down on the aggressive thugs in school might be difficult or dangerous, so let's crack down on the decent students."

Prices of black market semiautos rise into the thousands, so criminals turn to sharing or leasing out their guns. They even do so on a contingency basis: the user only pays if he actually commits a crime with it.

Joe Foss, NRA President who earned the Medal of Honor. I got off the plane with him in DC when he was talking about the incident with airport security, and I called some folks who had media contacts.

Interesting. But I wish the story explained how the person lost their firearm rights. I can only think of (1) it's some State disqualified or (2) while he was incapacitated following the stroke, they had a guardian created for his property, and that was treated as being found mentally defective.

Article here. It's apparently military contract overrun, and loaded to 9mm+P levels, good in modern guns but not in all.

David Codrea has the story. The BATF hierarchy terminated Agent Vince Cefalu after he exposed illegal wiretapping. (The grounds for the firing were essentially "telling the truth while under oath"). The District Court settlement is that he will be reinstated, allowed to retire, negative references will be deleted from his record, and the government will pay attorneys' fees.

Unless, as the saying goes, "that's not a bug, that's a feature!" The District is requiring submission of a second set of fingerprints, stating that it somehow lost the first set.

NRA lights a fire under the former mayor.

To his mind, it's not hypocrisy, mind you. One of the traits of narcissistic personality disorder is for the person to feel that he can lay down rules, but they don't apply to him because he is "special," with unique purposes, attributes, and needs.

Story here.

MSNBC finds someone to blame for the Ebola scare: the NRA.

I just hope they never figure out how the virus was genetically modified in the NRA labs so that it cannot infect anyone who has recently been exposed to nitrocellulose smoke or Hoppe's No. 9.

Story here. The trial starts Monday, and the defendants are two Sacramento County deputies, an FFL, and a private purchaser.

As I read the story, it arises out of California's discriminatory gun laws. To be sold new in CA, a handgun must pass "safety tests," which are expensive (they must be done by State-licensed labs, and involve a lot more than safety). Lots of ordinary handguns -- such as the Ruger .380 said to be at issue) don't have the certification.

BUT (despite this being a supposed safety standard) police officers (and as I recall the law, employees of a prosecutor's office) can buy unlisted guns from a dealer. I'd guess that the charges involve officers buying unlisted guns and reselling them to private persons who wanted an unlisted firearm. Since California requires all sales to go through an FFL, and also as I recall requires handgun sales to be reported to the State, there can't be an argument that these were true "straw sales," intended to hide the identity of the ultimate owner.

A judge of the Federal Court of Claims has awarded former agent Jay Doybyns over half a million in damages for agency misconduct. "Misconduct" that amounted to betraying and backstabbing an agent who had spent years infiltrating the hell's angels.

His book outlines his work. It's likely the most dangerous undercover work of which I've ever heard: he was infiltrating a large gang to whom murder was a casual matter, and he got full membership by faking the murder of a rival gang member. Then his agency abandoned him, let his new false ID become known, and when his house was destroyed (and wife and kids nearly killed) in an arson fire, backstabbed him with suggestions that he might have done it himself.

An article in the Christian Science Monitor asks "Oklahoma City beheading: Will jihad-style attack boost 'bring gun to work' laws?"

I can remember when CSM made the Washington Post look like Guns and Ammo; if the other side is losing CSM (phrased otherwise, if it's become open to arguments on the issue) they are indeed in deep trouble. The article says that the defender used a handgun (earlier reports stated it was some manner of rifle). It says the sheriff's department confirms he was not acting in any capacity as their deputy at the time. The only even vaguely antigun point is the very last sentence (which I suspect was stuck in by an editor who was gritting his teeth) to the effect that since the defender had special training (which may or may not be true, depending on the office) maybe this doesn't prove that allowing guns at work is always good.

Moore, Oklahoma. Business fires violent nut case, he rams vehicle into headquarters, charges inside with knife, decapitates one woman, begins stabbing another...

It's a promotion project for a new book on guns featured in movies.

'Nuff said. At least they did bring criminal charges against the shooter; only his poor marksmanship kept this from becoming a homicide charge.

Binderup v. Holder, Eastern Dist. of PA, No. 13-cv-06750. (I won't attach it because it's an 86 page pdf).

She's going to be admitted to pretrial diversion, which in practice means going to a bit of effort in exchange for having charges dismissed. Kudos to attorney Ev Nappen!

Here's the Attorney General's memo, dated today, finding that (absent aggravating factors) a prosecutor can offer diversion to avoid imprisonment under the NJ statute imposing a 3.5 year mandatory minimum sentence.

After striking Washington DC's complete ban on firearms carrying, district judge Frederick Scullin granted the city a stay until Oct. 22 to give it time to pass new regulations. DC then requested an indefinite stay until it had appealed the ruling, and the judge has denied the request. This keeps the pressure on for DC to actually do something, rather than figuring that it might have to do something a year or two down the road. DC has filed a motion to reconsider, which will be argued October 17 (and is rarely granted) and the time to file a notice of appeal won't start until after that ruling.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post is editorializing that the City should appeal even if it passes new regulations.

Story here. Brady tries to claim credit for Cabela's involvement in anti-straw man training, when in fact the program was created long ago by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, and Cabela's enrolled in it before Brady opened their latest anti-FFL campaign.

Of course, it will only be a fundraising "scandal" if the media cares about it, so this will never achieve scandal status...