Arms and the Law

Story here.

"Hero SAS sniper saves father and eight-year-old son from being beheaded by ISIS maniac". No way you'd see that in an American paper.

Panama Lifts Ban on Gun Imports Amidst Rising Crime Wave / More Firearms Will Mean Fewer Homicides, Says Public Safety Minister."

John F. Kennedy's National Match M-1.

He introduces himself at the door with the words "Live or die?" And winds up being the one dying. He's a suspect in ten murders.

$39 million, over defective safeties.

Here is advice from Simplisafe Security Sellers. Put a deadbolt lock on a closet and retreat there, then use your cellphone to call for help. I guess it never occurred to them that a modern closet door (and for that matter, most interior doors) are nothing but two very thin sheets of plywood that would be easily broken by a kick.

But don't grab a weapon, not even pepper spray! "They all sound like a good idea, but again, we don't know how the burglar will react to seeing an armed person." No, but we can probably predict how he will react to the impact of 1.25 ounces of 00 buck.

Report here. I suppose that, as with any other law that demands people give up their right to defend themselves, some folks will choose to disobey the unreasonable demand.

A mental case run into a Target, pursued by some bystanders (reasons for pursuit unstated). Mental case begins stabbing a teenage girl. One of the pursuers, Michael Turner, makes a flying tackle and drags the mental case off her. Now Target is suing Turner.

According to story, the mental case had stabbed a friend of Turner outside the store, and Turner and others pursued him inside.

My guess from the above stories: the teenager has sued Target, and target made a third-party claim against Turner and the other pursuers, claiming that were partially to blame because their initial pursuit of the mental case led to the stabbing. Good luck with the jury -- if it gets that far.

Hat tip to Alice Beard and Sixgun Sally....

At George Public Radio. He speaks with Philip Smith of the National African-American Gun Association.

The news has been out (and I too busy to blog it) that the VA is moving to report the names of certain pension recipients to NICS, so as to ban them from purchasing firearms -- and in legal effect, from possessing them, as well. The rationale is that those veteran-pensioners who receive payments thru a fiduciary (appointed because the pensioner was found incompetent to handle his or her financial affairs) comes within the GCA 68 ban.

Now, it's reported, the Social Security system is going to do the same for its pensioners who receive payments through a fiduciary.

This would certain curtail the number of mass shootings and drive-by homicides caused by our WWII vets and SSI recipients, except for the fact that it's hard to reduce zero.

To add to the mess, the reasoning must be that these people come within the 18 U.S.C. §922(d) ban on a person who has been "adjudicated as a mental defective." That's a term from the 1920s and 1930s, the heyday of progressivism ... and of eugenics. Its use appears to have faded out after the Nazis showed their method of dealing with the "mentally defective." Yet here it is in Federal law.

Sander's attitudes on gun control have the liberal/progressive commentators befuddled, or at least more befuddled than they generally are. The one explanation they can put up is that it's a posture to please his Vermont constituents. As the Christian Science Monitor puts it, "Why would a candidate who is staking his campaign on progressive reform be so soft on gun control? The simplest explanation, as my Middlebury colleague Bert Johnson argues, is that, like it or not, Bernie is representing the preferences of a good number of his Vermont constituents."

A New York City police officer is busted for stealing other LEO's guns and selling them to a drug ring.

Some background. He's New Mexico firearm collector and importer who had DHS pull a mega-raid on his house.

The Tenth Circuit just affirmed a District Court ruling suppressing the results of the search, on grounds of no probable cause. The claimed probable cause was that he bought some firearms in Canada, got the permit to import them, but only reported importing some of them. Yes... that and he'd occasionally gone to Canada, and on one occasion apparently drove back rather than flew. Yes...

Over 100,000 concealed carry permits issued in Illinois: 14% to women, many in minority neighborhoods. Rest in peace, Otis McDonald.

Eugene Volokh thinks FBI director was wrong, the shooter actually wasn't a prohibited buyer. If so, it is interesting that our gun laws are so vague that even the Director of the FBI can't get them right.

The Gun Control Act's prohibited person category does have an ambiguity. It bars gun receipt and possession by those who are illicit users of controlled substances. But, except in those cases where the defendant is caught with both drugs and a gun at the same moment, this gets murky. Does he have to be using the drugs at the moment he possessed the gun?

From ABC News. The story is somewhat off, tho, when it says the problem was that the check system did not note that he'd been caught with drugs:

Maine becomes latest State to allow concealed carry without a permit requirement. Note the law goes into effect 90 days after the legislature adjourns, which would mean an effective date sometimes in October.

How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse in North Dakota. A state full of guns, ammo, pickups and crude oil does have the advantage when there is a zombie outbreak.

Came across this by coincidence. The Sandy Hook massacre came on December 14, 2012. On January 14, 2013, Brady boasted that the incident had raised $5 million for it..