Arms and the Law

Here's the video. Skip the first 41 minutes of blank screen and intro. He proclaims a "ghost gun" can be completed on a kitchen table in under 30 minutes, that 20,000 were seized by police last year, etc. Then he calls for bans on gun purchase by anyone on a "terrorist watch list," cracking down on rogue gun dealers (using old figures indicating that 90% of traces -- which he describes as guns found at crime scenes -- trace to 5% of dealers, wants the usual shopping list of background checks for private sales, "assault weapon" and "large magazine" bans, repeal of the Lawful Commerce in Firearms Act (saying that no other industry has legal immunity... has he heard of vaccine makers?).

And, "this should just be a start."

I forgot -- "I support the Second Amendment."

There was at least a little humor. He keeps referring to the ATF as the AFT.

Right here.

"Since the modern affirmation of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), much scholarly attention has focused on two issues: the soundness of Heller's originalist approach to the Second Amendment, as well as the pragmatic question of whether the Second Amendment right is now being underenforced by the lower federal courts.

This Article examines a subject at the intersection of both of these questions: the role of traditionalist interpretation in interpreting and applying the Second Amendment. It particularly focuses on how traditionalist interpretation sheds light on the constitutionality of restrictions on the carrying of handguns for self-defense, the issue before the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen."

It's upcoming in the Texas Review of Law and Politics....

Predictably, it's being used as a call for more gun control. Even though it happened in a state which Brady Campaign consistently ranks as having the most restrictive gun regulations in the country.

It turns out one of the arrested shooters was on the streets only because, after being sentenced to ten years of assault with great bodily injury, he was given early release, over the prosecutor's objections that he is a violent criminal who "has no regard for his victims" and no respect for the law.

Add in that the one gun found at the scene was both stolen and converted to full auto, and the event is more like a demonstration of why California's gun laws, indeed their entire approach to crime, is completely moronic.

A pending Supreme Court case deals with state sovereign immunity; specifically, do Congress' constitutional war powers permit it to allow states to be sued under the statutes governing re-employment of honorably discharged veterans?

Since I believe court-created sovereign immunity to be neither good law nor wise policy, on the one hand, and cannot see how a 1789 constitutional provision could override a 1795 constitutional amendment, on the other, I don't have a dog in this fight. But for those who do, here is an article pointing out that the Constitution divides military power (if not the power to declare war) among states and the federal government.

An interesting article.

Story here. That makes it 25 states, half the Union! The bill passed the state senate by a 3:2 majority.

Very interesting! Designed by Colt for Eastern Airlines back in the 70s. Plaster of Paris bullets, disposable cylinders. I wonder if Jim Reinke, later NRA director, was involved, he was president or VP of Eastern at one point.

Story here. David Codrea has a clever response: he emailed the story to ATF's "hot line" for gun law violations.

Hurrah! Please Lord, give him another fifty or so years....

Standing his ground, by a pro-gun member of the George Mason Law faculty.

Story here. There are just too many PDs that aren't sending in data. I don't recall this happening before, there were some scandals in individual cities (in the 60s, the FBI stopped reporting NY City for a time, after concluding it was cooking the books to make things look better than they were), but I don't recall any mass failures to report.

24 States now! One more and we'll have half the country!

Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, has died of a heart attack while flying back home. He was a first-rate fellow, a former riverboat captain and dedicated shooter and hunter. He made it to 88, and was the longest-serving member of the House.

An email from "Everytown":

"DEVELOPING: PERMITLESS CARRY, A TOP NRA PRIORITY, ADVANCING ACROSS THE COUNTRY DESPITE WIDESPREAD OPPOSITION

David--if the gun lobby gets their way, more than half the country will have permitless carry laws in place by the end of 2022.

Just in the past week, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Alabama Governor Kay Ivey sided with the gun lobby and signed new permitless carry bills into law, ignoring widespread opposition from law enforcement, community leaders, and their constituents.

Now we're running an all-hands-on-deck veto campaign after the Indiana legislature sent a similar bill to Gov. Holcomb. And the gun lobby is doubling down to pass permitless carry in states like Georgia and Nebraska."

With a nice graphic (I can't find a link to it) showing the growth of constitutional carry.

Of course, being a member of the elite, nothing happened. Law enforcement even stored the gun for him and returned it when he came back. Laws are for the little people.

Alabama and Ohio join the trend! I think that brings us to 23 states, nearly half the Union. I just realized Kentucky allows permitless concealed carry, which is a bit ironic, since the state was the first to ban concealed carry, back in 1813.

To fight in the Ukraine!

Story here.

I wonder that the machine's results are even admissible in court. Some tests are, like fingerprints and DNA, because they are accepted and have been proven to the point that their results are admissible without having to call an expert to prove that, for example, the odds of two people having the same fingerprint or DNA are very, very low. But this technology is said to rely upon algorithms that will not be disclosed, and upon some human judgment. I can see it being good enough for probable cause, but admission into evidence at trial? This machine says the defendant is guilty, and no, we won't tell you how the machine works? I'd be one thing to say, we got three digital records from these locations, they are gunshot sounds and of the same shot, and a human triangulated the location of the shot, but this machine, by secret methods, does the same, is a different matter.

This Article in Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities describes Joe Olson and I as "two right-leaning scholars." Quite a promotion from "two elderly crackpots!"

He wants people to use dating sites and Twitter to undermine the invading Russian army's morale. As the responses suggest, the troops are probably a bit busy just now. On the other hand, he probably does not want to acknowledge what the Ukrainian government is doing -- arming its citizenry and calling up its militia.