Arms and the Law

So far--

The male had a felony auto theft conviction, and the female killed an armed citizen who tried to stop the male in the WalMart store.

The male had a long rap sheet. Included were multiple arrests on drug charges, another felony conviction for criminal recklessness, battery, and violating conditions of release.

They did go to the Bundy ranch, where they were refused admission after the male admitted he was a convicted felon.

The Daily Caller has an impressive list.

Hat tip to reader Jim K.

Ann Althouse has the answer: when it can be used to portray a GOP governor and possible presidential candidate in a bad light. The fellow in the story was convicted of aggravated assault after breaking a man's nose, and wants a pardon so that his gun rights will be restored. Funny that a few years ago the Times ran an article headlined "Felons Finding It Easy to Regain Gun Rights."

Stephen Wright has done done an interesting study. In terms of "likes," NRA has 10:1 advantage. In terms of increasing number of those, a 4:1 advantage. And in terms of age, NRA's following is clustered in the 25-44 age class, while Bloomberg's is in the 55+ age class.

Candidate for California Secretary of State withdraws after being indicted for trying to arm terrorists, still gets 287,000 votes. He got nearly 11% of the total, while the two winners got 29%. A very respectable showing!

Bluegrass Bruce has a good summary of the effects of the Justice Department's program aimed, in part, at causing banks to sever relationships with lawful firearm dealers.

An interesting case. The US entered into a treaty to prohibit the development, etc., of chemical weapons. Congress then enacted a statute prohibiting the possession or use of chemical weapons.

He has one up. His postings aren't too frequent, since he has an active practice, a family, and a life, which are disadvantages to blogging which I would like to share. But it's very interesting in terms of Supreme Court practice and inside notes on Heller and McDonald. Looks like he's set up to teach a course at Georgetown Law on strategic litigation.

Story in the Washington Times. It envisions their used against "domestic unrest," and the story reports that the Administration considered using the military against Clive Bundy and his supporters, but rejected it. Interesting, too, in that the military apparently leaked the plan. When a ruler starts to lose control of his own defense forces, it's time to reconsider.

As far as constitutional authority, Article IV §4 says that the United States shall "protect each of them [States] against invasion; and on application of the Legislature, o of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence." I doubt the orders have a "the President, when requested by the legislature or governor of the State involved, may..." provision. But then, "we don' need no steenking constitution."

A while back, I noted that Bloomberg had given $2,000,000 to the Joyce Foundation, which turned around and awarded $400,000 to "Media Matters," which immediately began postings defaming NRA. Today, it posted a whopper, under the headline of "Pundit Who Blamed UCSB Mass Murder On Gay Marriage Is An NRA Official." It attacks NRA Board member Ken Blackwell. If you read what Blackwell actually wrote, he said "here's a crumbling of the moral foundation of the country," and that the attack on "natural marriage and the family that has been a part" of this. "When these fundamental institutions are attacked and destroyed and weakened and abandoned, you get what we are now seeing and that is a flood of these disturbed people in our society that are causing great, great pain. And as opposed to dealing with the foundational problems, we look for ways of blaming the Second Amendment, or blaming knives or blaming cars when they are used."

Operation Choke Point officially involved investigating banks that dealt with "high risk" businesses, in order to pressure them to drop their customers. Now it's becoming obvious that its targets include licensed firearms and ammunition dealers. (It also was expanded to payday lenders, for no apparent reason except that the government frowns upon them).

Clayton Cramer gives his thoughts, at PJ Media.

The study will take into 2015, I note.

Hat tip to reader Jeff Harris.

"On October 16th, 1814, a 15-ft. wave of beer ran rampant through the streets of London". The tidal wave of brew drowned seven.

Why am I not surprised?

BTW, he bought his guns legally, in California, which Brady Campaign rates as having the strictest gun control laws in the U.S.. And killed three people with knives.

Restaurant with "No Weapons/No Concealed Firearms" Sign Robbed at Gunpoint."

"Craig said he doesn't understand why anyone would have a problem with a police chief saying he supports the Constitution.

"I'm pro-life," he said. "I'm pro-safety. I support law-abiding citizens' right to protect themselves against imminent danger."

"Police officials said Monday there have been 13 justifiable homicides by citizens so far this year -- up 2 from the same period last year.

"This is something that's been going on since before I got here," he said. "Clearly, Detroiters are sick and tired of being victims."

Here's the complaint. Essentially, the NJ legislature passed a law in 2002, which required the attorney general to report whenever "smart gun" technology went on sale in the US. Three years after he so reports, the only handguns that can be sold in NJ will be ones so equipped. The complaint alleges that the technology is now on sale, and seeks an order that the AG file the report. Nevermind that there are major concerns about reliability and safety. If people don't want to rely on such guns, Brady figures, we'll just have to force them to do so.

Ah, "reasonable gun control"! Brady apparently thinks that even New Jersey is "unreasonably mild" on the subject.

Humane Society of the US pays $16,000,000 to settle racketeering suit against it. It had sued Ringling Bros. for alleged mistreatment of elephants, lost after it was discovered that HSUS had paid its lead witness almost $200,000, and then was sued for racketeering.

The request for bids is here. They don't want just any subguns, these must be in .40 S&W, with tritium night sights, rails for flashlights, enlarged trigger guard for winter operations with gloves.

The solicitation is on behalf of their Office of Inspector General, the watchdog office that searches for fraud, waste, and abuse. So they must anticipate needed full auto fire while investigating departmental employees, or perhaps while investigating abuse of food stamps. Although it seems hard to imagine either group shooting back with a Thompson while shouting "you'll never take me alive, G-men!"