Arms and the Law
Aftermath of a predawn no-knock raid in Texas
Target of the raid kills a deputy as he breaks in, grand jury refuses to indict him for homicide. He was represented by Dick DeGuerin, one of the top, if not the top, criminal defense men in Texas.
South Carolina not the place for robbers
Three men try to rob two women. One of the women shoots two of the men; the third flees, breaks into a house, and the homeowner decks him with a shotgun.
The sheriff's reaction:
"You've got to pat this lady on the back. She got two out of three of them with a 9mm, and then reloaded and was wanting some more," said Wright. "I'm going to ask her if she wants a job, apparently she knows how to shoot real well."
Sounds like a non sequitur to me....
Hartford, CT: gun used to shoot up a bar traces to a shipment of guns from Smith and Wesson that was stolen by the delivery driver.
Mayor Bill Finch proclaims, "This incident is a perfect example of why we need stronger gun laws in the United States. Loopholes need to be tightened up."
Texas town arrests, seizes rifles of open carriers
Story here. Open carry of a long arm is legal there, so the basis for the arrests isn't clear. Equally troubling, after someone posted a physical threat to open carriers, the PD refused even to let a report be filed.
Irrationality of FFL revocations
David Codrea has a interesting post on BATF's capitiulation in an FFL revocation proceeding against Brink's security. Brinks' attorneys uncovered a lot of evidence that initiation of such proceedings was utterly arbitrary, and particularly so in its case. BATF compromised: if Brinks would not appeal its revocation, BATF would issue it four new FFL licenses.
Petition to have guns confiscated (and more)
Mark Dice, famed for soliciting (and getting) signatures on outrageous petitions, visits a California college campus and successfully gets signatures on a petition to confiscate all guns. He builds on that by adding steadily more outrageous descriptions of the petition -- repeal the Second Amendment, house to house searches by the military, lock gun owners up in concentration camps, and still they sign. He goes even farther -- we want to have gun owners executed, or just shot down, they are just peasants, peasants shouldn't have guns ... and still they sign.
To be fair, one guy did refuse to "repeat after me" the line about peasants, though.
Progressives and gun control
From New Zealand comes this article, arguing that progressives should oppose rather than support gun control here.
"In January 2011 (following Representative Gifford's shooting and renewed calls for gun control), Dan Baum wrote in the Huffington Post that progressives have wasted a generation of progress on health care, women's rights, immigration reform, income fairness and climate change because "we keep messing with people's guns." "
Winchester recalls some .22 rimfire ammo
It's reporting that some of the two lots of M-22 listed were double-charged with powder. I'd guess that someone fired a round, with the expected result.
Beretta expands in Tennessee
Upset at Maryland's new gun restrictions, Beretta has decided to build its new facility in Sumner County, TN rather than at its present site in Maryland.
1933 Arizona Legislature ... the good old days
From the Journal of the (Arizona) House of Representatives, 1933, p.167:
At 10:21 AM, the Sergeant-at-Arms announced His Excellency the Governor of Arizona, who addressed the legislature as follows:
"Mr. Speaker, Gentlemen of the Senate, House, and citizens of the State of Arizona:
I am not here this morning with a .45-90, or any malice of any kind in my heart...."
Survey data on handgun bans
An interesting graphic. Starting with the first poll on the subject, in 1959, the support for a handgun ban was in the lead, 60%-38%. From that point on, support fell, with the two levels reaching equality in 1967. Then really began to decline, to where today opposition to a ban leads 74%-25%.
Prof. Nick Johnson's new book
Book TV will have Prof. Nick Johnson on to discuss his new book, "Negroes and the Gun: the Black Tradition of Arms." The next broadcast is at noon, EST, this coming Sunday. You can also get a streamed version by clicking on "watch this program" on the right side of the page.
I'm halfway thru the program, and it is very good. Law professor, degree from Harvard Law, but grew up in rural West Virginia, where guns ownership was universal. History: fugitive slaves getting guns, and using them to hold off slave catchers. Frederick Douglass. Underground Railroad units using arms to resist (and posting spies in court to get quick reports of warrants being issued). In more modern times, Robert Williams and the debate over expelling him from NAACP over his advocacy of armed resistance. The shift of the black political class against guns, in response to the Black Panthers, etc., and the latter's conflation of self-defense with political aggression. A great interview and sounds like a really great book!
2014 NRA Board elections
Got my ballot. I know almost all the people involved, but to sum things up briefly:
Directors who I think are absolutely indispensable to the organization:
William Dailey
Charles Cotton
Curtis Jenkins
Patricia Clark
J. William Carter
The first three are firearm attorneys who serve on Legal Affairs Committee (Bill Dailey and Curtis Jenkins also serve on Legislative Policy Committee). Patricia Clark is a competitor who serves on or chairs five committees in that field. Bill Carter serves on committees ranging from competition to law enforcement to finance, and yes, is the son of Harlon Carter.
Directors that I think are very important to the organization:
Bob Viden, John Cushman, David Bennett, Joel Friedman, Allan Cors, Tom Avras, Anthony Colandro, Ken Blackwell, Todd Rathner, (sheriff) Peter J. Printz, Carl Rowan, Roy Innis. Most of these are long-serving, experienced folks and lifelong activists.
Here are Col. Brown's recommendations. They overlap with mine except in one case.
If anyone has their own favorites, comment away!
We're in the best of hands...
On a related note, War on Guns is paging Mr. Snowden with a good question: did all that NSA snooping include looking at attorney-client communications?
Gun buyback corruption in Philadelphia
Story here. An audit of $800,000 in DoJ grants to run a guy "buy-back" program showed that nearly $480,000 was corruptly used. The director of the program gave himself a $85,000 pay raise (without asking the board of directors to approve), brining his total pay to over a quarter of a million a year. He also spent thousands on gas, hotel rentals, and clothing. It paid $44,000 in rental and utilities for a building it used one a month. And it could not account for $28,000 in gift cards that were not traded for a gun but could not be accounted for.
On the side, it obtained 2,871 guns ... at a cost of $279 per gun. Since it handed out $100 gift cards for each, that indicates that close to two-thirds of the money went to "overhead." For an operation where the police actually collected the guns, and the organization simply handed out the gift cards.
Supreme Court transcript, Abramski v. US
Transcript of this morning's oral argument here. It's the case where an LEO who bought a gun for his uncle, and transferred it to him through a second FFL, was charged with making a straw man sale and with lying on the 4473 where it asks if you are the actual recipient of the firearm.
Initially, I was concerned because the Justices (apart from Scalaia) were pretty hard on Abramski's attorney. Then came the government's argument, and they were pretty hard on its attorney as well. Abramski's attorney then gave an excellent rebuttal, focusing on the positions the Justices had suggested. Rebuttals are too often neglected in appellate argument -- he certainly did not neglect his chance to score points!
Rather strange legal issue. The back of the 4473 says if you are going to make a gift of the gun to someone you should answer yes, you are actual recipient. The government theory here is that it wasn't a true gift... the uncle had sent him money for it, so he should have answered no. And if he'd bought it from himself and later decided to sell it to the uncle, he'd be okay to answer yes. I find it hard to reconcile all those positions, if the issue is how you answer that specific question: are you the actua
Antigun politician shows the depth of his knowledge
On youtube-- This is just incredible. He proclaims a rifle to be a "ghost gun," and explains that "with a 30 caliber magazine" or "30 magazine clip" it can fire thirty shots in half a second.
DC going to trial over one cartridge
... and a misfired one, at that. Reporter David Gregory was given a walk on possessing an illegal magazine, but businessman Mark Witaschek is being tried on possession of one shotgun shell (which had proven to be a dud) in his house.
ATF's latest appropriation bill
Joshua Prince has thoughts.
Past appropriations bills had restrictions protecting FFLs, and forbidding use of funds to narrow the curio and relic list. These were missing from the current bill. But, Prince discovers, prior appropriations restrictions had contained language forbidding use of funds appropriated then "and in any fiscal year thereafter," which is a legally valid restriction, operating into the future, so it does not have to be repeated in later appropriations acts.