Arms and the Law

Story here. The charges were a big stretch, the plea (no contest to two misdemeanors) is a prosecution face-saving move. "We can't afford to dismiss the charges, but offer him a misdemeanor and a fine that will be less than his legal costs."

Justice Gorsuch incorrectly says "I believe" flu kills hundreds of thousands, correct number tens of thousands, and people go nuts. He's displaying his ignorance, spreading disinformation, making false statements, etc.

Justice Sotomayor says Covid has put 100,000 children in the hospital, actual number 700-3,300, and nobody seems much concerned.

Here's his article. I'd agree. We'll probably see this ruling at the end of June, because the Court likes to hand down the most controversial rulings of each Term in its last few days, and to break and end the Term just before the 4th of July.

A French cuirass recovered from the battlefield at Waterloo. They were meant to protect against pistol shots and saber slashes, not against a direct hit from artillery. The caption says the wearer was "wounded by a cannonball." I doubt he was wounded for very long.

Article here.

Lead case: perp caught after burning a car with murder victim dead in the trunk. Perp and victim are known to have been involved in an unemployment fraud scheme. Perp was free on bond after gun charges filed. Perp asked mother to follow him to where he dumped the car and give him ride back. She asks no questions.

Perp is charged with a misdemeanor, concealing a body.

At the end is a list of other Chicago cases where a perp killed someone while charged with a gun offense but was released or charges were dropped. In one, a convicted felon began a gun fight that left a person dead, and was charged with unlawful use by a felon rather than homicide. "Mitchell was on bail for two separate felony cases at the time of the shoot-out."

Chicago sets an all-time record for homicides. In fact, it managed to have more homicides than 47 of the 50 States. And a suspect can be located in only about one case in ten (witnesses know that their lifespan will be short if they talk), the rate is likely to continue.

Story here. I do find this amusing, as fear of mass crime comes to the gated communities where crime was seen as a reaction to deprivation and self-defense was seen as uncivilized, if not outright racist.

Interesting results. Firearms ownership 32% (probably understated: some gun owners don't like to reveal that to strangers). One-third have used gun at least once in self-defense, amounting to 1.67 million defensive gun uses per year.

48% of gun owners own or have owned magazines that hold over ten rounds, and 30%, or over 24 million, own or have owned an AR-15 platform rifle.

Not good news for anti-gunners, at all. When tens of millions of Americans already own what you want to ban.... your cause is out there with the dinosaurs already.

There are estimates that we have 8,000,000 first-time gun owners over the past couple of years. Nearly half those were women, according to other studies.

I've said it before--historically, we were a nation of gun owners. I found a newspaper article describing New York City in the 1890s, saying that let a rabid dog run around Times Square, and you'd see how many people were carrying guns. Another New York City article from the early 20th century gave tips on creating a DIY shoulder holster. That trait was repressed during the 1960s, when gun ownership became unfashionable (or, to more precise, gun ownership among the masses became unfashionable to the elite). It took half a century for that to turn about, but it has turned. The present abandonment of certain cities to massed psychopathy, "defund the police," and police stand-downs while "mostly peaceful" protests burned out cities has certainly raised everyone's consciousness of the need to be able to self-defend.

Story here, without much detail.

I am reminded (hate to date myself) I was in Washington, DC, at the bicentennial of the Constitution. A big event, Warren Burger (thankfully a former Chief Justice) chairing the Commission, and so on.

The bicentennial of the Bill of Rights ... nothing.

Of course, DC is a company town, and the company is the Federal government. So the event that gave it power is a major celebration, the event that limited that power is best forgotten.

Austin pays a price for "defund the police". Murder nearly doubles, to an all-time high. This is called "bad luck," as Heinlein says.

I've seen it all now.

Los Angeles: Three men try armed robbery, the victim gets his hands on their gun, and kills one of the perps. I like a story with a happy ending!

Gun Owners of America v. Garland. The trial court denied a preliminary injunction against the ban, plaintiffs appealed, the Circuit went en banc -- and splits 8-8, with the result that the trial court ruling is affirmed by an equally divided court (which establishes no precedent).

The homicide rate is greatly up, at least in major cities, tho any push for gun control is unlikely because left/progressives/whatever are insisting that it really isn't a bad thing. They have to, because it's coming hot on the heels of their BLM, defund the police, end bail, etc. campaigns.

Something I noticed years ago, and haven't kept up on or researched more recently, is that accidental automobile deaths tend to parallel homicide trends. Sure enough, in the first half of 2021, auto fatalities rose by 18%, the largest increase since they've kept records.

It's even more BS. He didn't pull the trigger. It was a Colt single action Army, I think, which means he cocked it and pointed it at someone, at a minimum. If he let the hammer loose before it was fully cocked, the safety notch or the half-cock notch should have prevented firing. Those have been known to fail, but that's just another reason not to get stupid with a firearm.

Story here. The police academy has a gun store. and it turns out the manager has been selling a lot of guns "off the books." quite a few to officers.
One of California's more stupid restrictions is that only handguns on the state safety roster can be sold new at retail. Qualifying for the roster is expensive, and the manufacturer must pay, with the result that a lot of perfectly safe handguns are banned from sale. BUT the law exempts law enforcement (and if I recall, prosecutors). Obviously if it were really aimed at safety, why would you exempt law enforcement? Why would you want them to have unsafe items? But I digress.
The law does not, however, ban private sale or possession of non-roster guns. Thus there is a thriving trade in LEOs buying banned guns and then reselling them to non-LEOs.

An essay. Not so long ago, pro-gun liberals and Dems were a potent block. The 1986 Firearm Owners' Protection Act was sponsored by Harold Volkmer, later an NRA director, and passed by a Democratic House that rebelled against its leadership (a majority signed the petition to discharge the bill from Judiciary Committee). "Big John" Dingell was a pro-gun leader in the Senate. JFK and Hubert Humphrey were pro-gun. Today....

Update: An interesting article on how the criminal defense bar is starting to argue for the inherent injustice of gun control. Earlier, in NYSRPA, a group of public defenders filed an incredible brief on that theme.

Just glad it was Arizona State, and not U of AZ, my alma mater.