January 2012 – Page 9 – Shall Not Be Questioned

NSSF Loses Suit Against ATF

Yesterday, a ruling was handed down in NSSF’s case fighting the multiple long gun reporting requirement to dealers along the border. The short of it is that NSSF lost, and multiple reporting of long guns will have to proceed. I wanted to take the time to read the ruling before commenting on it. In short, several courts in sister circuits to DC have ruled that the demand letter power granted to the Attorney General (and thus ATF) by the Gun Control Act, while not unlimited, is quite broad. The DC district court just went along with these sister circuit rulings, and agreed the demand letters are not beyond that exercise of power.

I believe this is mistaken on the part of all the federal courts. The demand letter power was clearly intended to be limited to records already required to be kept, while in the course of a bone fide investigation. It was certainly not intended to allow the Attorney General to invent from whole cloth new record keeping rules.

The Demand Letter only requires FFLs to report record information that FFLs already are required to maintain. There is no evidence that ATF is using the Demand Letter as a ruse to create a national gun registry.

Plaintiffs here rehash arguments rejected by the Fourth and Ninth Circuits in J&G, Blaustein, and RSM, contending that ATFâ€™s reporting authority under Â§ 923(g)(5)(A) is limited by Â§ 923(g)(1)(A) (protecting FFLs from reporting requirements â€œexcept as expressly required by this sectionâ€) to the subject matters on which reporting is required under Â§ 923(g)(1)(B), (g)(3), (g)(4), (g)(6), and (g)(7). These subsections require FFLs to permit inspection or report record information under specific circumstances: Â§ 923(g)(1)(B) permits ATF to examine records without a warrant during a criminal investigation; (g)(3) requires reporting of sales of multiple handguns to the same person; (g)(4) requires FFLs that go out of business to report their records to ATF; (g)(6) requires FFLs to report loss or theft of a firearm within 48 hours; and (g)(7) requires FFLs to respond within 24 hours of a tracing request.

Except that this is a) not among the records dealers are already keeping. That includes 4473 and the dealers A&D record. b) this is not connected with a bone fide criminal investigation, but rather a sweeping edict that effectively creates a new requirement, and c) Congress only has required multiple handguns to be reported. Certainly there would have been no need to statutorily authorize this if it was already a power under the demand letters, and certainly Congress knew how to include shotguns and rifles if it had intended to.

NRA is requesting folks contact their Senators to get them to support S.570, sponsored by John Tester (D-MT) and Richard Burr (R-NC). This would prohibit long gun reporting by statute. I am pleased to report that both our Pennsylvania Senators are co-sponsors.

For the Children, Part MDCCXXIII

Our opponents are currently going hog wild over a blog post appearing Art on the Issues, by Dr. Art Kamm. I suspect they like it because Dr. Kamm runs some numbers which make gun ownership look weak, but I find his methodology suspect:

In examining the crude firearm homicide rate per 100,000 inhabitants in countries that have a population exceeding 3.8 million and a GDP per capita, adjusted for purchasing power, in excess of $20,000 (World Health Organization, 2002), the US rate dwarfs that of any other industrialized country(ref). Â The firearm homocide rate in the US was 5.5 times higher than Italy (the next highest) and several European Union countries reported insignificant levels of firearm homicides: only 45 were reported in the UK, 15 in Denmark, 10 in Norway, and 7 in Ireland. Â Whereas the US reported a total of 10,801 firearm homicides in 2000, the European Union, having a population of over 376 million (exceeding that of the US) reported only 1,260 firearm homicides. Â And in Japan, where less than 50 handguns were present (they are reserved to athletes participating in international shooting competitions), only 22 firearm homicides were reported.

Why is it legitimate to only examine homicide by firearm? Isn’t a better measure overall violent crime, or perhaps homicide in general? I’ve done some calculations on homicide rates as to whether there’s correlation to levels of gun ownership in industrialized countries (defines as GDP > 14,000) and there was none. I even threw out countries that would have made my numbers better, because they were highly undemocratic, or unstable.

What Dr. Kamm is doing here is essentially proving, to take this to another context, that countries that have a higher ownership of automobiles per capita have a higher rate of fatal accidents. That is hardly startling, given it takes owning an automobile to have a fatality with one, but it would tell us little overall about the dangers of automobiles compared to other forms of transportation. The question is whether firearms ownership has any effect on violent crime overall. I’ve found you can get correlation, but only by reducing the size of the sample set by choosing an arbitrarily high number for GDP, which excludes virtually all of Eastern Europe (some of which have high gun ownership rates, but low murder rates, and some which have very low gun ownership rates, and very high murder rates.) Barron Barnett has done some excellent work in this area as wellÂ on the domestic front.

I also note Dr. Kamm mixing firearms homicides (which does not include suicide) and firearm deaths (which does). As I’ve mentioned before, treating firearm suicide as a reason for restricting the rights and freedom of others is inappropriate in a free society. Research also bears out that internationally there is no correlation between gun ownership and suicide rates.

Dr. Kamm’s research on NRA’s funding sources is also very poor. A quick analysis of their publicly available form 990s (some of which I’ve done here, in a different context) show that NRA gets the vast majority of its funding from its individual members, rather than from corporations or large donors. While NRA’s recent efforts in seeking larger donors are paying off, its bread and butter is still fundraising from its membership base, much to the chagrin of many of its members. Dr. Kamm also fails to note that MidwayUSA, the largest corporate donor to NRA, raises that money through a “round up” program, that asks customers to round up to the nearest dollar to support NRA. This money may have a corporate source, but its a grassroots effort. It is not something easily matched by our opponents, because there’s no anti-gun shop, where you could source “round up” donations from.

Our opponents are far more reliant on donations from large foundations than NRA is. That they don’t come close to matching our grassroots muscle is probably the reason may of them are angry, bitter, and lashing out.

A Measure of Excitement?

One of the factors in determining the outcome of the 2012 presidential election will likely be how excited 2008 Obama voters are to get out and vote again. Think the Occupy movement knocking on doors and registering voters. Yeah, that will be fun.

But, with all that hate toward Republicans, how are those former Obama voters feeling about their guy this election? This might be one clue:

The uncontested primary of an unchallenged incumbent doesn’t mean much, but it can perhaps be taken as some kind of measure of intensity, partisan loyalty, or simple willingness to show up to and be counted.

And by those measures, George W. Bush handily defeated Barack Obama in New Hampshire last night.

The story compares the uncontested primary for Bush to the uncontested primary for Obama. But, there are also many data points lacking in the article. For example, how did each compare to the percentage of registered party voters? Regardless, we’ll have lots of points to compare once the primary really gets going.

Have any readers been visited by campaigns yet?

Obama is Addressing Important Middle Class Needs

There is nothing this nation needs more right now than the splashy new offerings from the official Fashion Designers for Obama campaign coalition group.

The 99% protesters who graduated college with tens of thousands of dollars in debt who can’t find jobs – they are absolutely looking to pick up the $55 tank top or the $95 silk scarf. The blue collar worker who got laid off in 2009 and still hasn’t found steady work can totally turn his life around with the Vera Wang campaign gear. And what single woman struggling to keep her job and balance the rising healthcare costs that are coming when her low-cost insurance is banned by Obamacare won’t see her life turned upside down with an $85 Diane von Furstenberg nylon totebag?

I’m not sure that tone deaf begins to adequately describe the campaign.

Where’s Lydia’s Candle?

Jennifer asks a poignant question. It’s a very good post, and one I expect our opponents will respond to with anger rather than thought. It’s all they have left, really.

Another Gun Running Scandal for ATF?

The LA Times is reporting there appears to be yet another gun running scandal involving ATF. This one is called White Gun. Some of the details of the investigation are startling:

According to the ATF documents, Guzman Patino told the undercover agent that “if he would bring them a tank, they would buy it.” He boasted he had “$15 million to spend on firearms and not to worry about the money.” He wanted “the biggest and most extravagant firearms available.”

The two met again outside a Phoenix restaurant, and the undercover agent showed Guzman Patino five weapons in the trunk of his vehicle, including a Bushmaster rifle and a Ramo .50 heavy machine gun. The undercover agent said he could get that kind of firepower for the Sinaloans.

Can someone from the other side explain to me how you’re going to keep an organization with a 15 million dollar arms budget disarmed?

The same undercover agent met the pair in February 2010 at a Phoenix warehouse. David Diaz-Sosa and Jorge DeJesus-Casteneda brought 11 pounds of crystal methamphetamine to trade for weapons. The undercover agent showed them shoulder-launched missiles, rocket launchers and grenades before ATF agents moved in and arrested them.

All of which you can surely buy at US gun shows. In ATF’s defense, it would seem that the guns lost in White Gun were accidentally lost, rather than deliberately lost, so this can at least be chalked up to incompetence, rather than malice.

Blaming Guns

Three teens are dead in Philadelphia (17 homicides in the first 12 days of 2012), and Mayor Michael Nutter is making headlines for strong words against the parents. He ranted that late on a Tuesday night, kids should have been in bed, getting ready for bed, or doing homework. They shouldn’t be driving around looking for fights and other trouble. A little shocked by his rant? Well, you won’t be shocked to know that the next thing he blamed was the lack of gun laws. But, that’s not actually the problem with why the shooter was on the streets:

Meanwhile, Eyewitness News has learned the suspect in the shooting, Axel Barreto, has a lengthy criminal record, including at least seven arrests since 2000, mostly for drugs. But on Saint Patrickâ€™s Day 2004, court records show Barreto was arrested for illegally possessing a gun, but those weapons charges didnâ€™t stick. …

They found him in possession of marijuana but also with a gun, which was illegal because he was already a convicted felon according to Tasha Jamerson, a spokeswoman for District Attorney Seth Williams.

Barreto was charged with five gun-related crimes, including trying to scrape off the serial number on the gun, but the charges were dropped six months later. His defense attorney at the time, Anthony Stefanski, says the judge ruled that police illegally searched Barreto that day without cause, so prosecutors were left with no evidence and little choice but to drop the charges. (emphasis added)

This guy committed at least five gun-related crimes in one incident. That’s not an indication of too few laws on the books. The reason this guy is on the street isn’t because the charges were too light, it’s because the police didn’t follow the law. There’s no gun law that will help Philadelphia if they conduct illegal searches so that all of the evidence of the search has to be thrown out in court. Hell, even an outright ban on possession by any civilian under any circumstance wouldn’t have put this guy behind bars since they found the gun in an illegal search.

Homicide No Longer a Top Cause of Death

This is certainly progress:

For the first time in almost half a century, homicide has fallen off the list of the nation’s top 15 causes of death, bumped by a lung illness that often develops in elderly people who have choked on their food.

And all this has happened while we’ve been liberalizing our gun laws, and selling more and more guns. Kind of puts a damper on the narrative of the gun control busybodies doesn’t it?

The Madness Deepens

CSGV took something I said out of context, and then we get a great example of how they don’t want to take our guns. In truth, I don’t worry that they will. They quite frankly don’t have the political power. I haven’t really been able to figure out if the folks at CSGV are genuinely mad and offended, or they are just poking their foaming at the mouth followers with a stick in hopes of making something happen.

Unfortunately this is what leads our country down the path to nasty discourse, and where we can no longer have reasonable people agreeing to disagree. How can you agree to disagree with someone who wants your friends and fellow citizens in jail and ruined, as we can see in the example here and here?Â These aren’t people who are just concerned citizens. They are hate filled people out to destroy lives. How are these people different from a bigot who would enjoy the idea if a black man got an ass beating because he was visiting Mississippi in 1954, and didn’t know certain fountains weren’t for his kind? I posit they are no different in terms of their corrupt character, only in the form of bigotry they have chosen.

First Plea Deal from New York City

Tea Party leader who was pinched in LaGuardia for transporting a firearm pleads to disorderly conduct. Gun charges are dropped.