Scott Bach on Heller

Scott Bach, who is President of the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs, and an NRA Board member, has this to say about the Heller ruling:

That such a question was even the subject of controversy, or that there were dissenting Justices, is a sad testimony to the state of our nation. It is also a testimony to one of the worst hoaxes and frauds ever perpetrated by gun ban extremists: the phony claim that the phrase “right of the people” really means “right of only those people in state militia service” when firearms are involved.

There is no basis for such an assertion. Yet for years, those unable to legislate the Second Amendment away have shamelessly pursued a scheme to interpret it out of existence by convoluting its words and rewriting its history. They have actually argued, with a straight face, that one provision of the Bill of Rights doesn’t really apply to all Americans – just to some Americans.

Read the whole thing.  It’s sure to displease this particular hoaxster, since the The Court has no doubt put the brakes on his attempt to ban muskets.

2008 ATF Party

Every year, the Independence Institute, which Dave Kopel is Research Director of, throws an Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Party (not in that order).  Here are the pictures from 2008, held this past Saturday, June 28th.  I will say, I am impressed by a second amendment scholar with such a wide collection of marksmanship badges.

Texas Burglar Shooting Case Update

Joe Horn, who last year shot two burglars that had broken into his neighbor’s home in Pasadena, TX has been cleared by a grand jury.  It would seem that “because he needed shooting” is still an affirmative defense in the great state of Texas.

UPDATE: A time honored tradition, apparently.  The lesson here would appear to be: don’t break into houses in Texas.

UPDATE: A commenter adds:

… The law is not that you can just go and protect your neighbor’s house if you feel like it, the law is that you can protect your neighbor’s house if they have asked you to look after it for them. Also, the grand jury failed to indict not because of this particular law but because he shot the suspects in his own yard, proving to the grand jury that the suspects were then a danger to him, NOT simply a threat to his neighbor’s property…

That’s pretty much my understanding of the case here as well.  His argument was that the burglars came onto his property and threatened him.

Last Day of Para-USA Contest

Today is also the last day to vote for your favorite blogger to go to Blackwater with Todd Jarrett, and win a chance to go yourself.  It should be a pretty good time.  This time, instead of pimping myself, I’m going to ask if you haven’t voted for me, to pick some of the other bloggers who might need a few extra votes to push them over the top.  Some suggestions for bloggers who I think want to go but might need a few extra votes.

  1. Keyboard and a .45
  2. The Unforgiving Minute
  3. Squeaky Wheel Seeks Grease
  4. Captain of a Crew of One
  5. Rustmeister’s Alehouse
  6. Sharp as a Marble
  7. The Ten Ring
  8. The View from North Central Idaho
  9. Traction Control

These are the folks I think are interested in going, but aren’t likely lock-ins.  So if you’ve already voted for me, thank you.  If you still want to vote for me, knock yourself out, but please consider voting for some of the other blogs on the list.  The most important thing to do is vote, since that helps all blogs.  They are only asking for your e-mail for the purposes of the contest, and you don’t have to opt-in for recieving e-mail from them.

If you’re not on this list, it means I don’t think you’ll need much help, or didn’t realize you were interested, so I’ll leave it to you to decide whether or not that’s a compliment or an insult.

Last Day for E-Postal

Tonight is the last night to shoot the e-postal match.   I’m going to have to ask everyone who has results to e-mail them to me, if possible with a picture of your target.  I shot the match last night and scored a 10 out of 20 with my Ruger Mk.III with a Millett SP-1 red dot sight riding on top.  That’s about what I typically score outside, so this shoot is a pretty good approximation of the difficulty of the sport of silhouette.  I meant to shoot rifle silhouette, but when I pulled my .22LR rifle out of the case, I realized the bolt was missing, so I had to go home and search frantically for it.  I have found it, so I may go back tonight and shoot rifle.  You have until midnight to get your targets into me, but if you get them to me the next day, I don’t complain too much.  It’ll take me a few days to compile the score.

I did not manage to shoot air gun, as I had wanted to.  Just not enough time.

Mumbles & Bloomy Post-Heller

Looks pretty much like the same agenda they had pre-Heller.  Just as a warning to gun owners, everything except the terrorist watch list that they propose probably would be upheld by the courts.  And even the terrorist watch list issue I’m not sure about.  There’s still a fight to be had.

New York Gun Laws and Heller

Dave Kopel has an excellent article in the New York Sun.  Interesting factoid I didn’t know:

As a Monroe County court accurately observed in the 1994 case Citizens for a Safer Community v. City of Rochester, “The Courts of this State have concluded that the language of federal law interpreting the Second Amendment (which is identical in its language to Article 2, section 4 of the Civil Rights Law) should be used in interpreting the provisions of this state law.”

Some New York courts have interpreted the New York right to arms restrictively, but these decisions were explicitly based on misunderstanding of the same language in the Second Amendment. The cases treating the Civil Rights Law as almost meaningless are of dubious validity now that Heller has made is clear that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms” is a broad and important individual right.

So basically, the ruling in Heller reinterprets, under New York State case law, the meaning of their state right to keep and bear arms provision.  That doesn’t speak well for the future of the Sullivan Act.