Arms and the Law

Story here. Sen. Leland Yee plead guilty to racketeering after being accused of conspiring to run guns to Islamic terrorists, not to mention taking $40,000 in bribes from undercover agents and money laundering.

For his previous service, Brady Campaign had named Yee to its Gun Violence Prevention Honor Roll.

One of his codefendants is Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow, a onetime gangster whom Sen. Nancy Pelosi praised for his "tenacity and willingness to give back to the community and working 'in the trenches' as a change agent."

An 8-1 in Jonnson v. U.S.. The ACCA provides for increased prison terms for an offender with three priors for certain offenses. The offenses are listed, with a residual clause, a crime that "otherwise involves conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another." In construing that, the Court had held that you look at the legal definition of the offense, not at the facts of a particular offense, and so it covers flight from an officer and attempted burglary, but not DUI.

At issue here was a past conviction for possession of a short barreled shotgun. The majority rules, per Justice Scalia, that the whole thing is simply too vague to pass muster. The case law required courts to think of the "typical" offense of a given type, and guess how much danger that posed. That requirement was simply too vague to be constitutional.

His Swiss Guard has halberds and swords for show; for serious work they pack:

"SIG P220 pistols

Steyr Tactical Machine Pistol

SIG P220 (P75)

Glock 19

Steyr TMP

Heckler & Koch MP5A3

Heckler & Koch MP7A1

SIG SG 550

SIG SG 552"

Not a bad assortment: handguns, subguns, assault rifles. They've retired their Mauser 98s and Suomi KP-31s in favor of modern firearms.

Details here.

at New York Daily News, he goes into the claim that the US has such a high rate of mass slayings.

It's a good time to call upon Maryland to ditch its State song. In fact, that was my reaction when I first heard of the song, decades ago.

Over at Reason Online, Brian Doherty joins in the fun. I have an article, accepted and in edit, on how the grant-induced wave of medical studies (published in medical rather than criminology journals, so the editors and peer reviewers have no idea what they are dealing with) plays with the books. It's been a problem with medical articles in general, where the author sometimes has a vested interest in promoting some therapy or drug, and there the editors at least know what they are dealing with. One editor notes many different ways to cook the books, for example: run your study and use survival data from one, three, and five years out. If one and five years show no result, report only the results from three years, and never admit that you ran the other periods. Or ignore confounding variables (was this therapy only given to the less sick patients?). This "study" seems a clear example of those problems. It ends in 2005, for no convincing reason, and when extensions to 2010 or even 2014 would have found gun homicides rising. It compares CT, not to easily chosen controls (the region in which it is situated, or the entire nation) but to an artificial CT composed of parts of several States. With that sort of liberty, I'm...

About 44,000 have been registered, which is perhaps 4% of the total.

The high point of the Battle of Waterloo. Commemorated yesterday with a major re-enactment.

I've read a few sources that argue that Wellington spent the rest of his rewriting history, to play up the role of his army, and especially its British components, and play down the role of the Prussians, who were coming down on the French right flank, forcing Napoleon to divert part of his reserve against them, and to launch an attack on the Allied center with the remainder in an attempt to win before his time ran out.

1864 case, Chief Justice Taney sitting as circuit judge (in those days Justices did double-duty as circuit judges). In the opening days of the Civil War, the movement of Union troops down to defend Washington led to fatal rioting in Baltimore, where troops had to shift trains and move between train stations to do so. Lincoln reacted by authorizing Union commanders to suspend the writ of habeas corpus (and thus to take and prisoners without being subject to judicial action). The governor ordered militia units to destroy railroad bridges, and Union troops arrested a militia lieutenant Merryman for his role in that, and took him to Fort McHenry, in Baltimore harbor.

Right here. And the order itself is online here.

"It is apparent that this case was filed to pursue the political purposes of the Brady Center and, give the failure to present any cognizable legal claim, bringing these defendants into the Colorado court where the prosecution of James Holmes was proceeding appears to be more of an opportunity to propagandize the public and stigmatize the defendants than to obtain a court order which counsel should have known would be outside the authority of this court."

It's hard to predict an outcome from an argument, and impossible with an en banc. Eleven judges, half of whom did not ask a question, and several who did grilled both sides equally.

Streaming video should be here. It's set to start at 3:30 Pacific, 6:30 Eastern.

Story here. Chapter 11 isn't "we're going under" bankruptcy, but more "if you'll hold our creditors at bay, we can make changes and survive (maybe)" bankruptcy.

Given the booming gun economy (last I heard Ruger was running three shifts of workers, factories going 24 hours a day) and the government contract for M4s, I have no idea how they could get into this bind.

LA Times:

"One sheriff's deputy shot himself in the leg while pulling out his gun to confront a suspect.

Another accidentally fired a bullet in a restroom stall. A third deputy stumbled over a stroller in a closet as he was searching for a suspect, squeezing off a round that went through a wall and lodged in a piece of furniture in the next room.

Accidental gunshots by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies have more than doubled in two years, endangering bystanders and occasionally injuring deputies."

The study, as usual, got play in the press... and then the bloggers took it apart.

Dave Workman reports on the results.

Asked if they would feel safer living in a neighborhood where guns were allowed, or whether they were forbidden, option with guns allowed beat the opposite by 68-22%.

Story here. Chicago thieves break into railroad car to loot, steal 111 guns and divide them up, each getting 12-13 of them. One admits to police he kept one gun and sold the other 12 to "Chuck" for $2,200, or about $180 each. "Chuck" turns out to be a convicted felon and fence. Police search his storage area, find stolen property but no guns, apparently he'd already sold them.

The theft occurred in April, and already six guns have been recovered on the streets. It's safe to say that no one involved had an FFL or Firearm Owners' ID card, and probably did not stop to perform a background check....

Order here. The Court denies cert., not a big surprise, but Thomas and Scalia dissent and say the Court should have accepted the case, even though there is no split in the circuits.

Carol Brown, 39. Fatally stabbed by ex-BF while waiting to receive a gun permit. She applied in mid-April, the law says the police are supposed to decide within 30 days, but in practice they never do.

Laws are for you, not for them.