Arms and the Law

Here's an interesting article on its brief, filed by John Frazer of Virginia.

"Our brief in the ACLU matter argued that the government's broad interpretation of its authority to collect information from private entities could effectively override legislative protections for privacy, such as provisions intended to block gun registration. Our lawyer, John Frazer of Virginia, also referred to potential abuse of data mining. Aggregating forms of data to perform inference analysis about individuals and portray their connections and networks could allow the easy identification of our members and other gun owners for unlawful purposes."

Shaneen Allen, a 27 year old mother of two, carried a pistol and a PA permit in her car -- but she wound up being stopped in NJ. Now she's looking at three years mandatory, no probation or parole.

US v. Indelicato, 97 F.3d 627 (1st Cr. 1996). The Gun Control Act technically doesn't forbid felons to possess guns; it forbids those convicted of a crime punishable by more than a year's imprisonment, or of one expressly denominated a misdemeanor, and not punishable by more than two years' imprisonment, to do so. It also provides that a conviction does not count if the person has received a restoration of civil rights. In most States, a crime punishable by more than a year's imprisonment is a felony, so the difference is zero.

Officer shoots at dog, instead hits boy.

It's good for some amusement. The only good points are ones that have been used for decades... never let a good crisis, or victim, go to waste, and exploit them quickly. The rest shows a profound misunderstanding of the gun rights movement. NRA (by which they mean the gun rights movement) is only big "inside the beltway," so organize local groups. The gun rights movement went there years ago: CalGuns, United Sportsmen of Florida, etc., etc.. The gun rights movement has money, now Bloomberg will match it. Buying TV ads -- that is SO twentieth century! It isn't millions of dollars, but millions of committed supporters that make the difference, especially today, when thanks to the internet the mass media no longer have a choke hold on communicating with supporters.

Captain's Journal has the story.

From Dick Morris' book Power Plays:

"In the spring of 1967 [presidential candidate] Nixon asked her [Anna Chennault, widow of General Chennault] to be his advisor on Southeast Asian affairs. As Herbert Parmet writes, 'cables intercepted by the National Security Agency from the South Vietnamese ambassador in Washington revealed that the 'Nixon entourage', working through Anna Chennault, was pressuring [South Vietnamese President] Thieu to resist the peace talks....'

Realizing what Nixon was up to, President Johnson ordered a wiretap on Chennault's phone. Yet whatever evidence the tap turned up went unreleased, since it would put the Democrats in an embarrassing position to admit that they had been using wiretaps to defeat Nixon."

The proposal is being floated by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.). I assume it's focusing upon the enforcement operations, presently in Justice. There may be a good case for transferring the industry operations to Commerce, as I heard proposed in the 1980s. BATF started out in Treasury only because the NFA was passed as nominally a tax measure. Commerce has historically dealt with regulated industries, and isn't famous for causing them problems.

With a proposal like this, I'd expect most of the agents to be transferred, but much of the management would be laid off, as redundant with that in the receiving agency -- which might benefit everyone.

Former New Orleans mayor (and former poster child for Mayors Against Illegal Guns) just got ten years in prison on his corruption conviction.

The judge "departed downward" from the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which would have called for a 15-20 year sentence. A judge can do that, although the government (in this case) can appeal.

The prosecutor "compared Nagin's crimes with those of other public officials who drew stiff sentences, including former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (28 years), former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich (14 years) and former Birmingham, Alab., mayor Larry Langford (15 years)." Kilpatrick and Langford were members of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and Blagojevich was about as antigun as is imaginable.

Complaint here. It's brought by Students for Concealed Carry and Ohioans for Concealed Carry. The campus code forbids possession of firearms or ammunition "even if otherwise permitted by law," plus placing other restrictions upon possession (interestingly, the code for residence halls also prohibits possession of knives, airsoft guns, "paint guns," darts, and tasers, and extends the ban to areas near the residence halls).

While there is a constitutional challenge, it sounds as if the statutory points will suffice: from what the complaint alleges, Ohio has some pre-emption statutes, including one specifically saying that public colleges cannot prohibit a CCW licensee from having a firearm in a locked vehicle, and restricting the colleges regulating matters off their actual property.

The District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has awarded NRA $940,000 in attorney's fees against Chicago. I'm think SAF also has a motion for fees pending, so the full price tag hasn't yet been rung up.

It may seem obvious, but it's handy to have hard proof of this.

Richardson v. State, Mississippi Supreme Court, discussed over at the Volokh Conspiracy. Defendant was menaced by a guy who have moved in, became increasingly violent, and boasted of having been convicted of robbery and murder, of killing an informer in prison, and of belonging to a gang. Defendant eventually killed the guy, and the defense that he had come toward him, menacingly, with one hand behind his back.

The trial court refused to admit evidence that the decedent had in fact been convicted of robbery and murder, etc.. That'd be standard (if unjust, to my gut feeling). The American approach to self-defense keys on a reasonably fear of death or serious injury, and a person's fear could not have been based on what they did not then know (that the claims of conviction and past violence were in fact true).

But, the court reasons, the jury might have had questions about whether the decedent did in fact boast of those things. The fact that the boasts could be proven true might thus be some support for the proposition that the boasts were made. Ergo, the jury should have been allowed to hear of proof that the boasts were true.

It's Shooters' Grill, appropriately located in Rifle, Colorado.

I find this story troubling. ACLU was seeking to compile data on how often SWAT teams are called out in Massachusetts. It found that about 3/4 of LE agencies in the State organize their SWAT teams under "Law Enforcement Councils," which are entirely funded from LE agency budgets, but insist they are separately incorporated as 501(c) tax-exempt charities, and thus are not subject to public records requirements.

Right here. I would've contributed, but they've already taken the $5.61 donated and mailed it to the needy recipient.

The 2013 Term is drawing to a close (I think some opinions are due to be announced Monday) and it seems to be ending quite nicely, with two opinions on Con law which are 9-0s (rare at the end of a Term, which is when all the bitterly contested 5-4s come down).

"Undermining Our Conversation About the Right to Arms." I esp. enjoy its ending:

Story here.

And the downrange is very long, when shooting a 105mm howitzer.

I have to wonder what type of arrangements they had, with houses three miles downrange, apparently on flat ground -- a .50 BMG will travel upwards of three miles, and a 172 gr. 30-06 around two miles, if I recall correctly.