Arms and the Law
Rest in peace, Mike Vanderboegh
Cancer got him early this morning. David Codrea has a number of posts on Mike. He notes that services will be Saturday, 2 PM, in Leeds, Alabama, just outside of Birmingham.
Trump scores points on the 2A
At a rally in North Carolina, Donald Trump remarks, of Hillary Clinton, "By the way if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks." Then he adds "Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know."
Hillary's campaign responds "This is simple -- what Trump is saying is dangerous. A person seeking to be the President of the United States should not suggest violence in any way."
And Trump's campaign replies that his reference was to political power: "2nd Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power. And this year, they will be voting in record numbers, and it won't be for Hillary Clinton, it will be for Donald Trump."
Very, very clever. The first statement was merely setting the ambush.
Judge Kozinski has a good one....
Apparently, there has evolved a custom in the Ninth Circuit of filing an oversized brief at the last moment, figuring that the court won't reject a motion to do so because that'd throw off the court's briefing and argument scheduling. In a recent ruling, however, Judge Kozinski dissents and comes up an effective deterrent to such an approach:
"For my part, I don't feel bound to read beyond the 14,000 words allowed by our rules, so I won't read past page 66 of the state's brief. If counsel for the state wishes me to consider any argument in the remaining portion of her brief, she should feel free to file a substitute brief, no longer than 14,000 words, which I will read in lieu of her oversized brief, so long as it is filed no later than 7 days from the date of this order."
Antigun Mayor bites the dust. part 287
This time it's R. Scott Silverthorne, mayor of Fairfax City. A while back he wrote an antigun column for "Everytown". He proclaimed that 2015 had been a terrible year for him.
Doesn't look like 2016 will be any better. Silverthorne just got busted for giving an undercover officer meth in exchange for sex.
"According to Fairfax County police, they encountered Silverthorne after learning of an individual who was distributing meth through a website used to arrange male-on-male sexual encounters.
An undercover detective created a profile on the site and was contacted by Silverthorne, who said he could provide meth in exchange for sex. They arranged to meet at a hotel, where Silverthorne was arrested for felony distribution of methamphetamine."
VP candidate Tim Kaine's gun position(s).
Dave Workman has his take on it, drawing from this WashPo article.
"Kaine has pivoted on guns, in style and substance, depending on the political climate, the office he sought and particular events.
He has been an urban mayor determined to reduce gun deaths. And he has been a statewide candidate who embraced the Second Amendment and promised not to tighten gun laws. He has become quiet on the issue at times, and played offense at other moments."
He seems to have more positions than the Kama Sutra....
James O'Keefe strikes again!
This time he gets undercover video of a Clinton delegate describing how to work for a gun ban.
Leg history of the 1927 Federal ban on mailing handguns
Clayton Cramer has it.
Only law enforcement is fit to have guns, part 1,230
Officer (incorrectly) thinks caregiver is in danger, solves problem by shooting him. The caregiver says he asked why the fellow shot him, and the officer in confusion frankly replied, "I don't know."
SAF sues over adoptive parents' rights in Illinois
Story here. Apparently the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has decided that gun owners are unfit to adopt children. I suspect the lawsuit will lead them to reconsider their bigotry.
It is possible he and his friends might make it to the elevators
Some sorta academic clown suggests he and some buddies might storm NRA headquarters.
It'd be like "The Keystone Cops Storm Okinawa." Amusing, but rather messy for the cleanup crews. Of course an anti gunner sees nothing wrong with homicide, that's not really the issue....
That little meeting at the Phoenix airport
Bill Clinton for some reason was in Phoenix, and somehow heard that AG Lynch was flying in (in a private plane apparently), and they managed to have a meeting in a private plane about grandkids and golf. "He mentioned the golf he played in Phoenix..."
He must be a sturdy fellow.. it hit 113 that day in Phoenix. I've never golfed, but I'd imagine that when it hits 113, walking around in a big humid grassy field is probably not a good idea.
NRA's first political TV ad for the upcoming presidential election
Here's a preview on Youtube.
SCOTUS: "reckless" rather than "intentional" DV results in gun possession ban
Voisne v. US, handed down a few hours ago. Justice Thomas dissents, with Justice Sotomayor [correction, not Kagan, thanks for pointing it out] joining two of the three parts of his dissent. Parts one and two argue (convincingly, to my eye) the interpretation of the statute, part three argues that in light of the Second Amendment, the statute should be read narrowly to avoid creating a constitutional issue.
Civil Rights figure calls for incarcerating more African-Americans
A thought with regards that "sit-in," led by "famed civil rights leader [Rep.] John Lewis" to seek more gun controls.....
I happened upon this study of prisoners sentenced for gun offenses, conducted by the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics. The information given on page 6 had to be broken down and recomputed to get the data for Federal and State prisoners added together, but when that is done we find that, for total persons imprisoned on firearms charges, 57.8% are African-American. 69.7%, well over two-thirds, are either African-American or Hispanic. So Lewis and associates are essentially seeking to increase the number of minorities in prisons.
Antigun Representative takes the dive
2013: Nancy Pelosi names Rep. Chaka Fattah vice chair of her gun violence (i.e., gun control) task force.
2016: Rep. Chaka Fattah is convicted of racketeering, bribery, fraud, money laundering and a few other details.
Why, you'd almost think that the gun issue is a legislative surrogate for the conflict between criminals and honest people....
Should journalists be a new class of prohibited person?
Iowahawk makes a strong case.
"Unrelated incidents, or mounting evidence of that America's newsrooms have become a breeding ground for murderous, drunk, gun-wielding child molesters? Answers are elusive, but the ever-increasing toll of violent crimes committed by journalists has led some experts to warn that without programs for intensive mental health care, the nation faces a potential bloodbath at the hands of psychopathic media vets.
"These people could snap at any minute," says James Treacher of the Treacher Institute for Journalist Studies. "We need to get them the help and medication they need before it's too late.""
I had no idea the AR-15 and .223 were this powerful
I mean, yesterday's piece by Gersh Kuntzman told me that his bruised his shoulder, rang his ears through hearing protection, and just shooting it gave him PTSD. Now this piece tells the reader that the AR-15 "can shoot about 40 rounds per second. Hunters can take out grizzly bears with two rounds." 40 rounds per second -- that's take a very quick trigger finger, and being a bit faster on the magazine change than I am. At a cyclic rate of 2,400 rounds per minute, it'd make the MG-42 look slow. And hunting grizzlies with a .223 is apt to be overly exciting.
What all this illustrates is that we should arm our troops with the mindblowingly powerful AR-15, and let civilians have the popgun M-4s and M-16s and SAWs.