Arms and the Law

The Assad regime is sunk, if these are their reinforcements.

They don't appear to have mastered either the offhand or the overhead firing stances.

David Codrea has the scoop.

The school tried to blame the company making the blocking software, but the company says, no, it's a product of the school's chosen settings. The company recognizes sites that it has rated and classified by content, and sites that it has not gotten to. These are evaluated based on internet popularity -- more popular sites get first place in the priority for evaluation.

One of the categories evaluated is "politics/advocacy groups." The school chose to block these (I suppose that says something about how much they want their students exposed to the world and to diverse ideas in general). The default is to not block these. The school also chose to unblock unrated sites. The default is to block these, too much risk of malware and viruses.

Since sites are given priority for ratings based on popularity, what this amounts to is -- progun and conservative sites are very popular, and thus apt to be evaluated and tagged "policy/advocacy," while the antiguns sites are not very popular, and thus apt to be left without evaluation.

Consource reminds us that June 21st is the 226th anniversary of New Hampshire's ratification of the proposed US Constitution. NH gave the document the ninth vote required for it to take effect and bind all States that had already ratified -- it still remained to win over Virginia and NY, without whom the new agreement would lack the future nation's two most prosperous (and in the case of Virginia, the physically largest) States.

The New Hampshire ratification came with the provision:

"And as it is the opinion of this Convention, that certain amendments and alterations in the said Constitution would remove the fears and quiet the apprehensions of many of the good people of this state, and more effectually guard against an undue administration of the federal government, -- The Convention do therefore recommend that the following alterations and provisions be introduced in the said Constitution: --
. . . . .

XI. Congress shall make no laws touching religion, or to infringe the rights of conscience.

XII. Congress shall never disarm any citizen, unless such as are or have been in actual rebellion."

Media jumps on Violence Policy Center's proclamation that certain States have high gun death rates.

In this article, it's Wyoming. "Study: Wyoming among highest for state gun death rates," using 2011 data.

Nevermind that that Wyoming was tied for the tenth lowest murder rate in the country, at 2.4, compared to New York at 3.5, New Jersey at 4.4, and California at 5.0 (ranked No. 1 by Brady Campaign).

An interesting piece, by Prof. Volokh.

High school blocks internet access to pro-gun, Republican, and conservative sites. Strangely, Moms Demand Action and similar sites were not blocked. I'm sure that's coincidence.

"Man shoots intruder after his 911 call is transferred to voice mail".

Opinion here.

The Supreme Court reserves its most contentious cases, the type that generate vigorously disputed 5-4s. for the end of a Term. Right now, it has 17 cases to decide in 14 days. Among those is the firearms case of Abramski v. US. The Court's schedule calls for releases of opinions on each Monday this month, and also perhaps on Thursday, June 12.

The Supreme Court reserves its most contentious cases, the type that generate vigorously disputed 5-4s. for the end of a Term. Right now, it has 17 cases to decide in 14 days. Among those is the firearms case of Abramski v. US. The Court's schedule calls for releases of opinions on each Monday this month, and also perhaps on Thursday, June 12.

They caught the goon who is suspected of stabbing two little Brooklyn kids, one of whom died.

He's also suspected in another fatal stabbing, committed seven days after he got out of prison, and two days before he stabbed the girls. He was in prison for attempted murder -- for which he was sentenced to five years. Five years for attempted murder? Here, the presumptive sentence for that (a class two felony, and dangerous offense) would be 10.5 years, and the max 21 years.

Chuck Schumer shows his expertise in constitutional law: ""I think if Thomas Jefferson were looking down, the author of the Bill of Rights, on what's being proposed here, he'd agree with it. He would agree that the First Amendment cannot be absolute."

Jefferson was actually out of country just then. He was minister to France from 1784 to 1789, returning just in time to be appointed Secretary of State and to engross the copies of the bill of rights which were sent to the States for ratification.

So far--

The male had a felony auto theft conviction, and the female killed an armed citizen who tried to stop the male in the WalMart store.

The male had a long rap sheet. Included were multiple arrests on drug charges, another felony conviction for criminal recklessness, battery, and violating conditions of release.

They did go to the Bundy ranch, where they were refused admission after the male admitted he was a convicted felon.

The Daily Caller has an impressive list.

Hat tip to reader Jim K.

Ann Althouse has the answer: when it can be used to portray a GOP governor and possible presidential candidate in a bad light. The fellow in the story was convicted of aggravated assault after breaking a man's nose, and wants a pardon so that his gun rights will be restored. Funny that a few years ago the Times ran an article headlined "Felons Finding It Easy to Regain Gun Rights."

Stephen Wright has done done an interesting study. In terms of "likes," NRA has 10:1 advantage. In terms of increasing number of those, a 4:1 advantage. And in terms of age, NRA's following is clustered in the 25-44 age class, while Bloomberg's is in the 55+ age class.

Candidate for California Secretary of State withdraws after being indicted for trying to arm terrorists, still gets 287,000 votes. He got nearly 11% of the total, while the two winners got 29%. A very respectable showing!

Bluegrass Bruce has a good summary of the effects of the Justice Department's program aimed, in part, at causing banks to sever relationships with lawful firearm dealers.

An interesting case. The US entered into a treaty to prohibit the development, etc., of chemical weapons. Congress then enacted a statute prohibiting the possession or use of chemical weapons.

He has one up. His postings aren't too frequent, since he has an active practice, a family, and a life, which are disadvantages to blogging which I would like to share. But it's very interesting in terms of Supreme Court practice and inside notes on Heller and McDonald. Looks like he's set up to teach a course at Georgetown Law on strategic litigation.