Arms and the Law

From The Truth about Guns: Mexico has sued American firearm manufacturers, and 14 state attorneys general have filed amicus briefs supporting the lawsuit. Almost all of those attorneys general have links to George Soros or groups that he organized or supports.

Normally, I'd find a half-dozen or so webpages, candidates speaking for themselves, or blog endorsing or opposing candidates. This year a quick search turned up only one, for Frank Tait, the only candidate nominated by petition. Aside from that, there is a posting last year on Only Guns and Money. If anyone sees pages that I missed, please add comments.

I always vote ONLY for people I really, really want, and never vote for the entire number allowed (this year 25 of the 30 candidates. If you have five that you really want, and vote for 25, you just dilute your vote: there is a good chance that you may be electing someone you considered just OK at the expense of someone you really wanted.

Sebastian Gorja interviews John Lott, on Biden's proposal for a gun registry. Youtube bans the video as a violation of its Terms of Service.

At the Volokh Conspiracy, WashPo is catching hades for its referring to Clarence Thomas as "the Black justice whose rulings often resemble the thinking of White conservatives."

As Josh Blackman observes,

"The Court's white conservatives issue rulings that often resemble those of Justice Thomas. Thomas is the intellectual leader of the Court's conservative wing. And he has been for decades. Gorsuch, Alito, and the rest are just trying to keep up with CT. But once again, we get the racist trope that Thomas is Scalia's clone. Just the opposite. Scalia often remarked that Thomas pushed him to the right. What lazy writing from the Post."

Right here These proposals go back to the 1980s, at least. They face a clear issue: unless you're willing to have the law unenforced (I find that an attractive idea, but few in Congress would), its enforcement has to be assigned somewhere. Anywhere else (FBI, Marshals, Secret Service) would result in enforcement by an agency with more prestige and power.

A related issue: what do you do with the existing agents? Most of those are good folk, it's the agency management that is corrupt and incompetent and (as usual with management in that state) is not about to promote the good ones. Presumably, relocate them to the new agency. But how do you move only the good ones and keep out the bad? Moving the bad ones over just gives them more power and prestige.

Good. Some of the texts or emails shown are shocking. None of these clowns should have been allowed near anything more dangerous than a butter knife.

Louisville: antigun activist ("Kentucky's concealed carry law shows your life doesn't matter to gun-loving Republicans") arrested after trying to assassinate mayoral candidate.

From View from the Porch comes an interesting discussion about whether ballistic ID, especially bullet striations, is junk science. The data summed up certainly suggests that.

(One of the first such IDs, maybe the first, happened here in Tucson. In the old law school they had the exhibits on the wall. No use of comparative microscopes, etc., the witness just looked at the bullets with a magnifying glass. One exhibit was labelled "bullets from different guns look different," with a picture of an assortment. Well, yes, they were an assortment of jacketed and lead bullets, damaged and undamaged, ones with wide rifling grooves and ones with narrow).

Story here.

The perp was caught in a stolen car, but released with a citation due to "covid protocols" that led to demands for fewer incarcerations.

"Aside from the stolen car, arrest records show Mr. Walton was currently on felony probation for a carjacking out of Contra Costa County in May of last year. Plus, three other felony arrests and a felony conviction related to auto theft and resisting arrest in California. Not to mention, Walton had a bench warrant out for his arrest in Georgia for a felony domestic violence case against one of the victims he is now suspected of murdering."

Story here Bowie, MD: four armed robbers try to rob and carjack a person, who shoots one of them and drives the others off. "The victim is described as a 38-year-old man who had a registered handgun from another state."

We may hope the police agree to look the other way, since Maryland doesn't recognize other States' carry permits nor their registrations, and carrying without a permit is a serious offense, punishable by up to three years' imprisonment.

It looks like they call them "gel blasters", but however they term them, they seem to think they are just too deadly. Perhaps they are useful in crime over there, but I wouldn't recommend trying to stick up a store with a paintball gun in, oh, Texas or Florida or any free state.

Story here. They raise an interesting question of why other pro-gun groups have not responded.

And it looks like the blog is working again. It's generally not been, for the last week or so.

there has been a problem.

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Britain: criminal fatally stabs screaming woman, witness runs criminal over, "Detectives have now arrested a 26-year-old man, the driver of the car, on suspicion of murder." Other witnesses were too frightened to intervene.

Letter to the Court here. It'd signed on to an anti-2A amicus. Now it writes the Court to say that its position has changed 180 degrees.

"Following the change in Administration on January 15, 2022, the Attorney General has reconsidered Virginia's position in this case. The purpose of this letter is to notify the Court that Virginia no longer adheres to the arguments contained in its previously filed brief. Virginia is now of the view that New York's handgun permit regime is irreconcilable with the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, which secures an individual right to bear arms outside the home for self-defense.

Virginia now urges this Court to reverse the Second Circuit. First, New York's requirement that its citizens show "proper cause" to carry a handgun in public is incompatible with the original public meaning of the Second Amendment."

Elections have consequences.....

Surprise, the hostage-taker bought it from a convicted felon. Look for that story to be buried.

Here's their summary, with links to the cases.

We're all familiar with cases where hospitals audit their drug supply and find they are missing 5,000 pills (strangely, never Amoxicillin).

Arkansas Dept of Corrections finds it is missing 28,000 rounds of .38 Special.

The armorer is suing (legal merits of that debatable) with some startling allegations. (1) The ammo supplier supplied the set with a mix of live and dummy rounds, and (2) the scene proceeded without her even being on the set ("had Hannah been called back in"). Also in badly-worded article, it seems to say that the ammo supplier Kenney said that "all rounds are rattle tested before being sent to film sets." Rattle tested? I've heard of dummy rounds with a BB inside that would rattle when shaken, but personally, when I make a dummy, I drill holes in the side so I can be sure it holds no powder.

As we know, the rules of gun safety are so devised that you can break one or a few and still no one gets hurt (although they may get scared), to hurt someone a person has to break them all. Looks like these morons broke them all, plus a few just meant for movie-making, and two bystanders paid the price.