Arms and the Law

It's the title of this piece, by Mark Stein. NYC police open fire on an unarmed mentally ill person. They miss him but hit two bystanders. So the DA charges the person they tried to shoot with aggravated assault, on the theory that his conduct caused the officers to shoot the bystanders. As Stein concludes, "If this flies in New York, then there is no law." Which probably means it will fly.

I can't say that I'm surprised. The College of Cardinals takes forever on things like this, and they appoint a Devil's Advocate, who would surely have raised the point that a living person is ineligible for sainthood.

My article on the Dred Scott case is out at Northern Kentucky Law Review. It was a set-up, I tell you! And the greatest legal example of the law of unintended consequences. CJ Taney meant to insulate slavery in every way possible (Federal courts have no jurisdiction over allegedly free blacks, Congress cannot limit slavery in the territories, and territorial legislatures cannot, either), and instead his ruling made Lincoln president, and led directly to the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.

In the Clinton Presidential Library I found this memo, listing the administration's claimed successes in the gun control area.

On page two, under "Enforcing Zero Tolerance for Guns and Other Weapons in Schools," is a notation that Clinton signed the gun-free schools act, requring schools to expel anyone bringing a firearm to school, and issued a Presidential Directive to enforce that.

Of course, it's one of their employees, and the arrest took place in India. Still, it's amusing to see Chuck Schumer asking for a gun law violation to be excused because it was so technical.

With regard that stand-off in Nevada, it appears the FAA declared a no-fly zone around the property. A rather small one (3 miles radius, and 3000 feet and below altitude above ground). with an exemption: "ONLY RELIEF AIRCRAFT OPERATIONS UNDER DIRECTION OF BLM ARE AUTHORIZED IN THE AIRSPACE"

This is not a case of good judgment. The killer was not a model citizen. He had prior convictions for drug offenses, resisting arrest, theft, assault on an officer, and a sex crime.

You can check your serial number against their list here. The affected rifles are 700s and Model 7s made between May 2006 and now, using the XMP trigger. They've found that under some conditions it can accidentally discharge.

Let the NRA run America. Its Board of Directors has had no sex or economic scandals, works for no pay, does its job in nine days out of the year, and has numbered plenty of Medal of Honor winners among its ranks. Of course to be fair, Gun Owners of America, Second Amendment Foundation, and Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership should also get seats. And we could turn over California to CalGuns, and New York to NYSRPA for an equally beneficial effect. The shortest route to honest and efficient government! Which is of course why it will never be done.

This the NJ appeal involving gun permits issued upon a finding of "justifiable need," whatever that means. Scotusblog has pdfs of all the filings. The reply points out that now the Third Circuit, involved in this case, and the Ninth Circuit, which handed down Peruta, are in clear conflict.

The Court will vote on April 18 whether to take it.

Egad. No wonder there are ammo shortages. Federal LEOs number about 25,000, and almost every agency has them. The Corporation for National and Community Service (which I'd never heard of) has 9. HUD has 264. DHS has 686. EPA has 265.

They're set for Friday.

According to the linked article,

"BELLEVUE, WA - Funeral services for gun rights champion Otis McDonald will be held this Friday at the Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church in Harvey, Ill., the Second Amendment Foundation has learned, with interment to follow at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood.

A pre-pass celebration of Mr. McDonald's life will be held from 10 to 11 a.m., and the service begins at 11 o'clock. Mr. McDonald passed away April 4 following a long illness, leaving behind his wife, Laura and five children. His nephew, the Rev. Dr. Fred Jones, will officiate, and host pastor is the Rev. Dr. J.C. Smith."

Story here. Among the comments was "Quit looking for ways to skirt the law," when what they had done was to conform to it. And in the process show how meaningless it is.
Neither they nor any inventors of AW bans realize how the separate pistol grip came about -- it's an artifact of the design. Recoil comes along a line that centers on the barrel -- that's where the action and reaction occur. The standard rifle design had the buttstock and thus the shooter's shoulder several inches below the line of the barrel. This created some muzzle flip, but it was tolerable when firing shots one at a time. In full auto, it was not tolerable.

The solution, starting I believe with the German MP-44, was to move the barrel lower, putting the gas tube on top, and to raise the buttstock up to where it was just below the line of the barrel.

But that if the area where the trigger hand grips is raised that far, the position become ergonomically awkward, if not impossible. Hence the pistol grip, separate from the buttstock.

Otis McDonald, petitioner in McDonald v. Chicago, has gone to his rest. Here he is, with his wife, on the steps of the US Supreme Court after the oral argument, four years ago.

Here's his memorial Facebook page. A good man, and a moment in human history.

My thanks to the reader who suggested that the "hit counter" was for some reason locking up the system when viewers tried to load a page.

From today's hearings before Issa's committee. B. Todd Jones, the new head of BATFE, is testifying:

ISSA: Thank you, Director Jones.

And I too want to reiterate the importance of the work that the men and women of the ATF do. And how much we appreciate the many who take a risk to do the right thing in the right way.

Let me go through a couple of questions, no surprise, the first one is a little related to Fast and Furious. Everybody at Department of Justice, from yourself to the attorney general, is living under the specter of Fast and Furious and how it discredited the men and women who do these jobs otherwise right.

Just to make the record clear, was anyone fired as a result of Fast and Furious?

JONES: Mr. Chairman, I can say publicly in this forum that everyone involved at ATF and the chain of command has either been disciplined or is no longer with the agency. ISSA: OK.

But, the answer of, fired, is no. Is that correct?

It's a yes or no -- it really is, Todd.

JONES: As a result of the inspector general's report, the answer is no.

ISSA: OK, so no one was fired. Some chose to retire. But let's go to a particular individual of interest, William Newell. The I.G. recommended he be removed, but in a settlement

An editorial in the Arizona Republic is entitled "Dennis Burke should've been celebrated, not sanctioned" and begins "Exactly why the State Bar of Arizona pursued sanctions against Dennis K. Burke for his involvement in the "Fast and Furious" gun-running scandal is a mystery..."

No, it isn't. He was at the very heart of Fast and Furious, may even have invented it. It sent 2,000 guns to the Mexican drug cartels, got quite a few people killed. On the side, he leaked documents to the press that were meant to harm whistleblowing agent John Dobson, either as revenge or to intimidate him, and in so doing broke the Privacy Act. USA Today has fairer summary. But to the Republic why the Bar gave him -- get this -- a reprimand (the second lowest sanction that can be given), is mystery. He is a scapegoat for Washington, was "standing up" for his office, "He sought to correct the record when others were blinding the American people to the truth."

Strangely, nowhere does the editorial state what that truth was.

Brady Center rescinds Piers Morgan 'Visionary Award' after gun sales skyrocket.

"Yeah, it's weird," Wilson said. "I've always been pro gun-control but when I heard Piers Morgan on television saying we'll all mindless barbarians too afraid of the NRA, I thought, 'you know what? This guy is annoying.' I don't know, something inside me said 'screw that twit, I'm buying a gun.' And that's what I did. It was really out of character."

Hat tip to Peter Buxton....

Right here. As to the State, they have to agree that the court has the power to allow intervention in its discretion; as to everyone else (Brady Campaign, etc.) the argument seems clear that they have no standing to become parties. The State and they are seeking to intervene in order to file a motion for rehearing en banc.