Arms and the Law

Richardson v. State, Mississippi Supreme Court, discussed over at the Volokh Conspiracy. Defendant was menaced by a guy who have moved in, became increasingly violent, and boasted of having been convicted of robbery and murder, of killing an informer in prison, and of belonging to a gang. Defendant eventually killed the guy, and the defense that he had come toward him, menacingly, with one hand behind his back.

The trial court refused to admit evidence that the decedent had in fact been convicted of robbery and murder, etc.. That'd be standard (if unjust, to my gut feeling). The American approach to self-defense keys on a reasonably fear of death or serious injury, and a person's fear could not have been based on what they did not then know (that the claims of conviction and past violence were in fact true).

But, the court reasons, the jury might have had questions about whether the decedent did in fact boast of those things. The fact that the boasts could be proven true might thus be some support for the proposition that the boasts were made. Ergo, the jury should have been allowed to hear of proof that the boasts were true.

It's Shooters' Grill, appropriately located in Rifle, Colorado.

I find this story troubling. ACLU was seeking to compile data on how often SWAT teams are called out in Massachusetts. It found that about 3/4 of LE agencies in the State organize their SWAT teams under "Law Enforcement Councils," which are entirely funded from LE agency budgets, but insist they are separately incorporated as 501(c) tax-exempt charities, and thus are not subject to public records requirements.

Right here. I would've contributed, but they've already taken the $5.61 donated and mailed it to the needy recipient.

The 2013 Term is drawing to a close (I think some opinions are due to be announced Monday) and it seems to be ending quite nicely, with two opinions on Con law which are 9-0s (rare at the end of a Term, which is when all the bitterly contested 5-4s come down).

"Undermining Our Conversation About the Right to Arms." I esp. enjoy its ending:

Story here.

And the downrange is very long, when shooting a 105mm howitzer.

I have to wonder what type of arrangements they had, with houses three miles downrange, apparently on flat ground -- a .50 BMG will travel upwards of three miles, and a 172 gr. 30-06 around two miles, if I recall correctly.

The Assad regime is sunk, if these are their reinforcements.

They don't appear to have mastered either the offhand or the overhead firing stances.

David Codrea has the scoop.

The school tried to blame the company making the blocking software, but the company says, no, it's a product of the school's chosen settings. The company recognizes sites that it has rated and classified by content, and sites that it has not gotten to. These are evaluated based on internet popularity -- more popular sites get first place in the priority for evaluation.

One of the categories evaluated is "politics/advocacy groups." The school chose to block these (I suppose that says something about how much they want their students exposed to the world and to diverse ideas in general). The default is to not block these. The school also chose to unblock unrated sites. The default is to block these, too much risk of malware and viruses.

Since sites are given priority for ratings based on popularity, what this amounts to is -- progun and conservative sites are very popular, and thus apt to be evaluated and tagged "policy/advocacy," while the antiguns sites are not very popular, and thus apt to be left without evaluation.

Consource reminds us that June 21st is the 226th anniversary of New Hampshire's ratification of the proposed US Constitution. NH gave the document the ninth vote required for it to take effect and bind all States that had already ratified -- it still remained to win over Virginia and NY, without whom the new agreement would lack the future nation's two most prosperous (and in the case of Virginia, the physically largest) States.

The New Hampshire ratification came with the provision:

"And as it is the opinion of this Convention, that certain amendments and alterations in the said Constitution would remove the fears and quiet the apprehensions of many of the good people of this state, and more effectually guard against an undue administration of the federal government, -- The Convention do therefore recommend that the following alterations and provisions be introduced in the said Constitution: --
. . . . .

XI. Congress shall make no laws touching religion, or to infringe the rights of conscience.

XII. Congress shall never disarm any citizen, unless such as are or have been in actual rebellion."

Media jumps on Violence Policy Center's proclamation that certain States have high gun death rates.

In this article, it's Wyoming. "Study: Wyoming among highest for state gun death rates," using 2011 data.

Nevermind that that Wyoming was tied for the tenth lowest murder rate in the country, at 2.4, compared to New York at 3.5, New Jersey at 4.4, and California at 5.0 (ranked No. 1 by Brady Campaign).

An interesting piece, by Prof. Volokh.

High school blocks internet access to pro-gun, Republican, and conservative sites. Strangely, Moms Demand Action and similar sites were not blocked. I'm sure that's coincidence.

"Man shoots intruder after his 911 call is transferred to voice mail".

Opinion here.

The Supreme Court reserves its most contentious cases, the type that generate vigorously disputed 5-4s. for the end of a Term. Right now, it has 17 cases to decide in 14 days. Among those is the firearms case of Abramski v. US. The Court's schedule calls for releases of opinions on each Monday this month, and also perhaps on Thursday, June 12.

The Supreme Court reserves its most contentious cases, the type that generate vigorously disputed 5-4s. for the end of a Term. Right now, it has 17 cases to decide in 14 days. Among those is the firearms case of Abramski v. US. The Court's schedule calls for releases of opinions on each Monday this month, and also perhaps on Thursday, June 12.

They caught the goon who is suspected of stabbing two little Brooklyn kids, one of whom died.

He's also suspected in another fatal stabbing, committed seven days after he got out of prison, and two days before he stabbed the girls. He was in prison for attempted murder -- for which he was sentenced to five years. Five years for attempted murder? Here, the presumptive sentence for that (a class two felony, and dangerous offense) would be 10.5 years, and the max 21 years.

Chuck Schumer shows his expertise in constitutional law: ""I think if Thomas Jefferson were looking down, the author of the Bill of Rights, on what's being proposed here, he'd agree with it. He would agree that the First Amendment cannot be absolute."

Jefferson was actually out of country just then. He was minister to France from 1784 to 1789, returning just in time to be appointed Secretary of State and to engross the copies of the bill of rights which were sent to the States for ratification.