Light blogging
Out of town on business yesterday afternoon and today--will have little to no chance to update anything...
NYC losing suppression mtns in fed. court
Story here. Gist is that NYC, in order to get the longer prison sentences that come under federal law, has arranged for felons in possession to be charged in federal court. But they've been losing cases right and left because the judges find the testimony as to why the person was searched incredible (in the bad sense of that term).
"But a closer look at those prosecutions reveals something that has not been trumpeted: more than 20 cases in which judges found police officers’ testimony to be unreliable, inconsistent, twisting the truth, or just plain false. The judges’ language was often withering: “patently incredible,” “riddled with exaggerations,” “unworthy of belief.”"
What's almost as interesting is that NY is helping to initiate federal cases because, presumably, NY law gives a lower (probably significantly lower, given the trouble involved) sentence for felons caught carrying. I thought NY had such a crime problem that they wanted the other 49 states to act in conformity with their desires? Certainly doesn't sound like it.
Hat tip to reader Jack Anderson....
Walmart and sportsmen
An interesting article. I didn't have time a while back to blog about Warmart's deal with Bloomberg to do things like videotape firearm sales. It was interesting, since (outside of Alaska) Walmart only sells hunting rifles and shotguns. I guess Bloomberg has bigger targets than urban handguns... oh, and the linked page has a link to where you can give Walmart some feedback.
David Codrea interview of David E. Young
Over at The War on Guns. David Young's written two crucial books on the 2nd Amendment (one of which was quoted I forget how many times in Emerson v. US, and both of which were quoted in Heller amicus brief). He and I will be exhibiting at booth 1551 at the NRA Annual Meeting.
Opinion on Eagle Act, Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and Indians
Here, in pdf. Altho it construes a statute, it applies a number of constitutional standards. When I was at Interior, I worked with some of these issues. The Eagle Protection Act generally outlaws intentionally killing eagles or using their parts. Certain Indian tribes consider them essential to various religious services. To try to deal with that, Interior puts dead eagles (road kill, mostly) into a repository and rations out feathers, etc.
Problem here was that this tribe maintained that the eagle being offered to the Almighty must be pure, i.e., not road kill. In fact, the stricter adherents maintained the eagle must be captured live by a person. Having seen their claws and beaks, I think I'd contract that job out.
Permalink · General con law · Comments (3)
Meet the gun lobby....
69 year old lady carrying for two grandkids, but with 450,000 Florida members behind her. Story here.
Permalink · NRA · Comments (2)
It depends on whose ox is being gored...
Cash-strapped Massacchusetts (wonder why?) comes up with a plan. Fund social services, etc. by imposing a 2.5% tax on college foundations, to the extent their assets exceed a billion dollars. Yes, billion with a "b." Oh, the indignation!
Via Instapundit...
ATF & FBI in turf fights
Story here. That's not unpredictable: "merging" two agencies by having them both report to one Cabinet official doesn't change anything. Where they overlap, it has a downside -- merging all intelligence functions means those above only get one "position" rather than 2-3 that might give better insight.
FBI's had turf wars with CIA over foreign intelligence gathering, and I seem to recall with DEA over drug cases. I'm sure ATF sees FBI as wanting to grab all the best explosives cases and leave them with the uninteresting or less fruitful ones, and the FBI sees itself as the older brother with certain perks.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (1)
ATF & FBI in turf fights
Story here. That's not unpredictable: "merging" two agencies by having them both report to one Cabinet official doesn't change anything. Where they overlap, it has a downside -- merging all intelligence functions means those above only get one "position" rather than 2-3 that might give better insight.
FBI's had turf wars with CIA over foreign intelligence gathering, and I seem to recall with DEA over drug cases. I'm sure ATF sees FBI as wanting to grab all the best explosives cases and leave them with the uninteresting or less fruitful ones, and the FBI sees itself as the older brother with certain perks.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (0)
What would a narrow, pro-individual right finding in Heller mean?
A question raised by a comment a few days back, too busy just now to find it. Suppose, as I'd expect, the Supremes come down, perhaps narrowly, for an individual right, that there are some limits, but here we only need rule that a total federal ban on handguns is not a permissible limitation.
What does the near-term future world look like, in terms of (1) future litigation and (2) politics and (3) gun control promoting organizations? On the last, would it be a great blow to morale, or just confirm their modern tactics of asking for rather small things (instead of national registration and permit systems, take that bayonet lug off that nasty-looking gun!) I have little idea.
Permalink · Parker v. DC · Comments (14)
"We're all gun nuts now"
It's the title of an election-related article in the Weekly Standard.
"With both contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination evading the gun control issue as if it were sniper fire, you couldn't blame gun control advocates for feeling bitter. Yet Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence--the pro-gun control counterweight to the National Rifle Association--says Obama and Clinton are "coming fairly close to delivering the message that we'd like." On licensing and registering guns, Helmke says, they are "being realistic" in recognizing "there's no support for pushing that forward at this stage." His thoughts on the candidates' ducking questions on the D.C. gun ban? "They're politicians, and most politicians on tough calls do not answer."
Where to comment on allowing CCW holders to carry in national parks
Here's the comment website. I'd cut and paste the Docket ID, FWS-R9-NSR-2008-0062, into the message just to make sure it gets to the right place. You can read the proposed rule as a pdf off the comment page, too.
The admin rules are essentially: if the agency wants to change a rule, they must publish a proposed rule with explanation. The public must be given a reasonable time (30-60 days is customary) to comment on it. Then the agency publishes the final rule, together with a response to significant comments. So it's not just a letter to the editor: although numbers don't hurt, logical reasons affect the process better than simple statements of support. I'd suggest emphasizing how law-abiding CCW licenesees are (preferrably with links to sites with hard numbers), and responding to claims it'd lead to risk of poaching.
UPDATE: reader Carl in Chicago provides his comment, pasted into extended remarks, below.
Continue reading "Where to comment on allowing CCW holders to carry in national parks"
Permalink · CCW licensing · Comments (3)
Defense of others in Dallas
Video here. I see an officer carrying an AR-15 variant, not clear if that's what was used, or if it was the officer's gear.
Permalink · Self defense · Comments (6)
GA court strikes down Atlanta ordinance on guns in parks
Story here. Congrats to the plaintiff, GeorgiaCarry.org.
Permalink · State legislation · Comments (3)
Comcast continuing...
I told the person yesterday, when the tech people are coming out, call my office number, here it is. Do not call the cell number, the one on the account.
They were supposed to be here between 10 and 12: nobody showed up.
So I call back in... and am told the tech called me. I ask, did he call the office number? Yes, that's the number we gave him. I responded -- I have caller ID, that shows two calls today, and I answered both. Uh... no explanation, we'll tell him to put you on the list when he's available.
Checked home phone. Yep, he called there. Called back and was told someone will be here "today."
Someone was angered enough to create Comcast Must Die.
UPDATE: 6 PM local, it was fixed. First repair guy again called the wrong number, but that was handy since I wasn't here, but was available via the wrong number. He showed up, traced the problem to the box at the edge of the property (which contains the amplifier), but that was something a separate team had to fix. They showed up, left (I suspect to get a replacement?) returned, and high speed is operational again.
Mayor Bloomberg has problems with 1st as well as the 2nd amendment
According to the New York Sun, Mayor Bloomberg has moved, in the suit against a GA gun dealer, to forbid the defense from mentioning the Second Amendment. As the paper notes, "While trials are often tightly choreographed, with lawyers routinely instructed to not tell certain facts to a jury, a gag order on a section of the Constitution would be an oddity."
I suppose we'll see if Hon. Jack Weinstein has problems with both amendments as well.
UPDATE: it's called "long arm jurisdiction." A very technical end of the law (took a case to the state Supreme Court on it once). Basically, you can sue a person or company where they reside, and also sue a company where it "does business," so to speak. If you go beyond that, it's a denial of due process. The question of how much contact the company has to have with a State is confused and confusing, even at the US Supreme Court level. But local courts of course want to assert jurisdiction (having locals sue out of Staters sounds like a great idea). In my case, it was product liability, a single action being dropped and firing. The mfr was in Italy. At the time the gun was sold, the mfr had no advertising in the US, no local company. Its sole contact had been to make one lot of arms, which an American importer based in Connecticut picked up in Italy and sold in the US. Twenty years later, one of them was dropped in AZ and fired, killing a local. How it got from CN to AZ was not determined; someone could have bought it back east and moved here.
AS Supremes held that the AZ courts had jurisdiction over the Italian manufacturer, and the US Supremes denied cert..
Purposeful availment--I forget how they dealt with that. Claimed to go with the Asahi plurality, using that standard, but then construed it to mean ... memory is faint, but it was something like: this was shipped to the US, a single-action is a Western looking gun and would be likely appeal to a person in a Western state such as AZ, aha, that's purposeful availment of AZ markets! The state Supremes were very pro-plaintiff then, which I didn't mind since I mostly do plaintiffs' work. The case was A. Uberti v. Leonardo, 181 Ariz. 565, 892 P.2d 1354 (1995).
Permalink · Gun manufacturer liability · Comments (8)
NYC police gunfights
A summary of studies.
Two figures -- only 13% of shots fired hit, and only 34% of the time was the person being fired on hit at all -- aren't too astonishing. One of the revolutions in training came years back, when they realized that people were being trained in shooting from a good position at a well-lit target in a fixed location, when in fact gunfights usually occurred under conditions too dark to see the sights, while you were trying to take cover, the other guy was doing anything but standing still facing you, and your blood was full of adrenalin, often with bullets whizzing past.
Hat tip to Joe Olson...
Typos fixed...
Atty interested in talking to private investigators in Chicago
Just got a relayed email from an attorney who has represented several private investigators and security folks in that city. Even though state law says they're exempt from many gun regulations, the city police have been busting them or confiscating their guns.
If any of you know anyone in that situation, they should contact attorney Joel Ostrander, voice 1-708-383-2112, fax 1-708-383-2237. I don't have an email for him.
Video of Len Savage on CNN re:BATF
Right here. At least I think so. On dialup I can't do very much to watch video.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (6)
Comcast ... grrrr...
Some Comcast workers are out front, installing a new distribution box or whatever it's called. High speed internet goes down (it did so temporarily yesterday while they worked). OK, it's called working on the system.
I look out and notice everyone's gone. And the high-speed still doesn't function.
Call their number. Reach a human, who asks that I test everything here. I do. Then he puts me on hold for another department ... and the call is cut off.
Call back, run thru the entire matter. Am told, around 2:30 PM, that the earliest they can have a repair guy out here is between 10 AM and noon tommorrow. He'll call first, and it's mandatory that someone answer. If no one picks up, he will not try again, just cancel the appointment.
Fortunately, I have dialup backups on this computer, but the rest of the family has none on theirs.
Brady Campaign campaigning
Against the Ill. Firearm Owner ID card. They want background checks in addition to the firearm permit, because the permit spans ten years. (I think there is a requirement, for a gun permit system to exempt the holder from background checks, that the permits not go beyond a certain time, or have a way to revoke if the holder is convicted of something disabling).
UPDATE: see comments. Carl in Chicago, who oughta know, says the ID cards are updated if convictions occur, and background checks are run for each sale atop them. If that's so, then Brady is campaigning only because they don't understand the law.
Permalink · antigun groups · Comments (6)
CCW and NRA meeting
Snowflakes in Hell is reporting that CCW permit holders can carry in the convention center, anyway. Maybe I'm old and overly cautious, but I'm not going shod. I wouldn't count much on a newspaper article (Sebastian already notes one correction to the story; this may or may not be true as to the celebration of Amer. values), wouldn't know the local laws (is the center only open to concealed carry?) and any misunderstanding will be on the evening news (esp. if there is more than one misunderstanding).
S&W integral trigger lock failures
They're being discussed at the Smith & Wesson Forum. Quite a few reported -- trigger lock engaging under recoil, if dropped, etc..
Link via Xavier's Thoughts, reporting his own gun lockup.
Hat tip to reader John M. Maraldo, who adds: "puts me in mind of the differing attitudes gunnies and gunphobes have as to safety. Ask a gunny what safety is and they'll relate the rules of safe handling and safe shooting. Ask them what safe design is and they'll tell you it is a design that makes the gun shoot when the trigger is pulled, but not when the trigger is not pulled. Ask gunphobes what safe design is and they'll tell you it is a design which makes the gun unlikely or difficult."
Permalink · shooting · Comments (4)
Burglar fights with police, shoots self by accident
Story here.
Pro-gun media pieces
1. Just got tipped that Lou Dobbs, CCN at 7 PM, will be doing a pro-gun piece. Could be tonight or tommorrow night, or perhaps later.
2. Howard Nemerov will be on NRANews.com tonight, at 11:40 PM EDT. Apparently the topic will be Brady and VPC's system of ranking states.
Steve Halbrook's new book out!
"The Founders' Second Amendment." You can order it here, from Independent Institute. 20% discount, so $23.16. Which for a 448 page hardcover, is very, very modest.
Antigun fundraising
Snowflakes in Hell has an interesting post regarding the pro and antigun PACs this election cycle. Brady Campaign's PAC has under $50,000, and has so far raised... $73. NRA's PAC has over six million, and has raised eight million, of which about 3/4 came from donors of under $200.
His guess that perhaps Brady has been forced to cross off PAC fundraising in an effort to keep its regular operations bankrolled does seem a likely explanation. But $73?
Hat tip to Instapundit, whose referrals are keeping Snowflakes in Hell swamped for the moment...
Permalink · antigun groups · Comments (5)
McCain announces Justice Advisory Committee
Story here. I have no knowledge of what such a critter does, but the story says it would advise him on judicial appointments. What stands out to me is that it includes:
Sandy Froman, the Tucson attorney who is former NRA President.
Prof. Eugene Volokh, a quite pro-2nd Amendment academic and operator of the Volokh Conspiracy;
Prof. Orin Kerr, a member of the Volokh Conspiracy.
Charles Cooper, whom I recall filing some pro-2A amici, tho the memory is faint.
Former Sen. Phil Graham, with whom I've gone shooting.
Sen. John Kyl, quite pro gun.
Former Sen. Fred Thompson.
UPDATE to comments: Nope, a different Frank Keating! Former Gov. of Oklahoma, not former convictee in AZ. I actually have a bit info regarding the other. McCain was junior Senator, and the senior one, Dennis DeConcini, talked him to going along for a meeting with the agency that was investigating Keating's savings and loan. Supposedly, it was just a meeting to encourage the regulator to act quickly and not delay a ruling any farther. At the meeting, however, DeConcini bluntly pressured the regulator to act favorably to Keating. Who, it turned out, had been ripping off the S&L blind, or equivalent conduct (I forget now).
I was told by officials at the U of Arizona that the outcome made the football games a bit difficult. Both Senators had seating in the, I forget the term, the fancy box seats up on top. McCain was so angry at DeConcini that, to avoid a conflict, they had to work things out so neither Senator entered or left at the same time, and neither passed the other during the game.
Hat tip to Joe Olson....
Permalink · Politics · Comments (11)
Gunfight and police siege ... in London
Story here.
Permalink · non-US · Comments (3)
NRA celebration to be loaded with former candidates
The Kentucky political blog PolWatchers reports that the NRA's Celebration of American Values in Louisville will be attended by John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Karl Rove, several senatorial candidates, Those backing Ron Paul won't be left out, as he's having his own rally on the 17th.