Arms and the Law

In the dispute over how many self-defense cases occur, one data point often cited by those seeking to minimize the number is the FBI Uniform Crime Report's count of justifiable homicides (a legal category that includes self-defense). This is usually in the range of 900 a year, including several hundred by police. While that doesn't count self-defense that doesn't result in the perp's death, it is argued that it is inconsistent with hundreds of thousands or millions of defensive uses annually.

Washington, DC. Federal employee gets into a minor fender-bender, gets a $100 traffic ticket. Alleging he was on duty at the time, the Dept of Justice appears on his behalf and gets the traffic ticket removed to U.S. District Court. (It later reconsiders).

It's a blog post by Prof. Nick Johnson of Fordham Law. He discusses Otis McDonald and Shaneen Allen (who faces a mandatory three year jail term for having driven into NJ with a firearm for which she had a PA permit to carry concealed).

An interesting article by Frank Miniter. The part I found most amusing:

"[A] mainstream reporter next to me in the press section gasped, "Oh no," when Justice Anthony Kennedy hinted that he believed the Second Amendment to be an individual right while asking the government's attorney a question."

I was there and remember the question. Actually, there were two, but a listener wouldn't have noted unless he'd been following the Second Amendment legal issue for thirty years. The second, yes, a reporter could understand where Kennedy was coming from.

The first question was whether we could grasp the meaning of the Second Amendment by considering its two clauses separately. Yes, a militia is important. And yes, the people have a right to arms. The importance of the militia is independent of the right to arms and the right to arms independent of the militia.

"RESISTANCE BY INFERIOR COURTS TO SUPREME COURT'S SECOND AMENDMENT DECISIONS," by Alice Beard, in Tennessee Law Review. It takes an optimistic view of long-term trends. At the moment, judicial recognition of the 2A as an individual right is relatively new and, to many courts, even irregular, something to be approached with caution or outright resistance. In the longer term, it may become accepted as one more American constitutional right.

Rather funny. Remington decides to move its AR-15-making operations to Alabama, and with it 2,000 jobs. Cuomo's reaction:

"We have been talking to Remington about rehabbing and redoing their facility in New York. It is a very important part of New York. It is a big employer in New York. Their plant here is old and we want to work with them on restoring that."

So these rifles are just killing machines, that do not belong in civilian hands, but please manufacture them here, we'll be happy to help?

Filed this morning, Silvester v. Harris (Eastern Dist. of Cal) looks like a solid win (after you go through all the pages detailing California's unbelievably complex answer to trying to prevent bad guys from buying guns). It finds the "cooling off" period rational for the 10 day mandatory waiting period to be unfounded, and basing the requirement on "we need the time for all the background checks" makes no sense when applied to (1) a person already permitted to own a firearm or (2) a CCW permit holder or (3) anyone whose background checks are completed in less than 10 days.

Reading between the lines, you can get a grasp of how much work went into this win. You don't base a winning record on "this is wrong, so let's sue and look for an obvious win."

Washington state is involved in a battle over Initiative 541, a lengthy antigun measure... and, as David Workman reports, a study of contributions in support of it finds that 84% of contributions came from ten zip codes in urban and suburban Seattle. Here's a map of the Seattle area to give some idea.

Self protection, like laws, are for the little people.

Story here.

But won't the parakeets dislike the new format? It'll probably be glossy and not very absorbent.

High school student suspended over writing assignment where he said he'd shot a neighbor's pet dinosaur.

The assignment was to write something that could be a "status" statement on Facebook. Glad to know the schools are teaching and valuing the important things in life.

This time its Gordon Jenkins, of Monticello, NY, arrested for taking bribes and intimidating the witnesses. We need to bust MAIG for RICO violations! Where are DoJ's Organized Crime Task Forces when you need them?

This is hilarious. 'Nuff said.

Court allows suit against Aurora theater, based on allegations of inadequate security. The court notes that it is only saying the issue is sufficiently disputed to require going to trial, not that either side might necessarily win.

Patterico pretty well takes it apart, but I'd add a thought.

Gun stores packed in St. Louis area.

"He says nearly 100 percent say they are buying them for defensive purposes. "They're buying AR-15s, home defense shotguns, handguns, personal defense handguns something for conceal carry." said King."

He'll be presenting on "Are there lessons for us today from Nazi Gun Control?" on CSPAN-2, Book TV, this Sunday, August 17 at 5 PM EDT.

Here's his closing coulumn.

"I began over a decade ago because I was one of those well-meaning liberals who believed the propaganda that we'd be safer in a disarmed society. I believed that gun owners were the problem. I believed that the Brady Campaign were the good guys.

Then, at the behest of a law enforcement client, I set out on my own research journey. I learned that gun control is both racist and sexist in its impact on the real people who have to live in disarmed societies. That offended my liberal sensitivities: I was outraged. So I began to write, first for small local sites, and then for progressively large sites. PJ Media was kind enough to hire me to write features in 2010, and it's been a good run."

Dave Workman has the story. Use a load of money to buy mass media advertising ... their methods are SO twentieth century!

Vesely v. Armslist, LLC (7th Cir. Aug. 12, 2014), as discussed by Prof. Volokh. A person was killed by a stalker who bought a handgun, from a private individual, illegally since they were not residents of the same state, via the online site Armlist. Brady's legal theory was that Armslist facilitates private sales without background checks, and facilitates illegal interstate sales.

The Seventh Circuit upholds dismissal, without getting into the Federal statutory issues. A person generally has no legal duty to protect others, absent a special relationship with them (landlord to tenant, etc.). Armlist did not aid an illegal sale; it simply allowed someone to advertise, and was entitled to assume he meant to sell in compliance with the law.