Dave Kopel publishes in the Washington Times, debunking the notion that the Zimmerman case has anything to do with Florida’s stand your ground law. He does not go easy on the media, nor should he. They’ve been carrying a false narrative for people who are deceptive if I’m in a charitable mood, or outright liars and charlatans if I’m not.
Month: April 2012
Know Your Target
This is just a little reminder that it’s a good idea to actually check your target before you pull the trigger. The drugged up drunk with the red mohawk passed out on your property isn’t really a bird.
Derrill Rockwell told police he grabbed his rifle, the .22-caliber he kept handy to kill rodents around the house, about 5 a.m. Oct. 5 and walked outside to confront it.
The bird. …
It was red, sitting at the top of a hill about 90 feet away from Rockwell.
“His intent was to spook it away,†Deputy District Attorney Jason Conley told District Judge Richard Gurley on Friday.
Rockwell shot once but said he didn’t see the bird fly away. Soon after, he heard a woman’s voice, moaning in pain. Rockwell discovered a 23-year-old woman, with a large red mohawk, with a gunshot wound to the head.
The woman lived. In fact, he drove her to the hospital where he left his name and information with the staff. However, he was not a lawful gun owner since he was a prohibited person for a 1995 attempted burglary. While he did try to cover up his involvement at first, he actually confessed against the advice of counsel who pointed out that the police wouldn’t have otherwise known based on the evidence the woman left behind. For his cooperation, and the fact that the drunk druggie with the mohawk took off after the incident, the prosecutor appears to have cut a deal for a guilty plea on being in possession of the firearm. (h/t Wyatt)
In a Defensive Shooting
Your first call should be to your lawyer. Reading over this post over at Tam’s, one thing strike me: if there’s one lesson to learn from the Zimmerman case, your next call should probably be to a PR firm. We’ve seen two cases recently, Gerald Ung and now George Zimmerman, where the parents of the shootee have hired PR firms and made life a living hell for the the shooter.
They used to say the first person to call 911 is generally the victim. Now it’s probably accurate to say the first person to hire a PR firm to start setting the narrative in the media is probably the victim.
More Poor Reporting from the Media
Via SayUncle, who notes that NYC firearms instructors seem to be out of touch with the gun culture as much as the media is, “$2 PATH fare-beater had pistol loaded with cop-killer bullets, cops say.” New York City is so far gone that even the cops don’t understand ballistics or guns.
David Frum and the Martin Shooting
Lead and Gold is not impressed with his analysis. I don’t understand why anyone pays attention to Frum anymore.
BTW, root canal was mercifully short. Less than an hour. That was my fourth root canal, over all, but the third on a second molar. The other ones seemed to take a lot longer. This one was about 50 minutes.
More Wins for SAF & Alan Gura
A federal court in Massachusetts has struck down Massachusetts’ practice of denying pistol licenses to permanent resident aliens. I wonder whether our opponents have noticed while they’ve been busy exploiting another shooting, we’ve still been quietly winning victories. Is it just me, or does it seem like we’re having more success in District Court these days?
Could It Happen Here?
That Patriot-News, the world renowned experts on self-defense, hysterically say yes, someone could indeed shoot another in Pennsylvania under questionable circumstances. Shocking! Clearly these folks were Presidents of the debate society in school. No, says the York Daily Record, since Pennsylvania law is different from Florida.
The York Daily Record is closer to correct, but the fact of the matter is even Florida’s law isn’t factoring into the Martin shooting, based on both narratives. Maybe the traditional media ought to take a look at their shallow and inaccurate coverage of complex issues, often deliberate in my opinion, to understand why people are turning away from them in ever increasing numbers.
Tab Clearing: Root Canal Edition
Off to the dentist this morning for a root canal, so I’ll have to leave you with some tab clearing this morning.
Michael Bane talks about the self-defense implications of the Trayvon Martin case.
What’s happening to Zimmerman can happy to any of us.
Some thoughts on the Trayvon Martin case from The Balloon Goes Up.
How common are deaths like Trayvon Martin’s?
CoBIS, New York’s failed ballistic database, has been repealed.
Joe Biden says the Florida killing could spur gun law debate.
NBC Doing Internal Investigation Regarding Alteration of Zimmerman 911 Call.
More on Audio Forensics
The former defense attorney over at Crayfisher isn’t impressed either, and a commenter at another blog noticed this:
Golly, the Easy Voice Biometrics software has only been available since March 7. And the webpage that it is sold on is registered to:
Registrant:
Owen Forensic Services, LLC
Administrative Contact:
Owen, Thomas
Owen Forensic Services, LLCHe has managed to get a lot of free publicity for his new software product with this story!!
Sure has. Plus some other audio analysis folks over at another blog suggest that the conditions aren’t correct for a good analysis. Once again, the real world is not CSI.
2 out of 3 of Brian Aitken Convictions Squashed
Eugene Volokh mentions the case. Aitken’s convictions for unlicensed transport, and high capacity magazines were reversed. His conviction for having hollow point ammunition was allowed to stand. There’s one crime Brian Aitken is guilty of, and that’s believing when he moved to New Jersey he was still living in America.
- On the charge of transportation without a permit, the court found that the judge’s failure to properly instruct the jury as to exceptions was sufficient to squash the conviction.
- On the charge of the high capacity magazine, the court ruled that the state failed to introduce proper evidence that the device was a large capacity magazine. At trial they showed that the magazine could hold 16 rounds of ammunition, but they failed to show that it was operable with that many rounds of ammunition, and the court ruled that was required.
- On the issue of hollow nosed ammunition, Aitken argued that the statute was unconstitutionally vague. He also argued that the rule of lenity should apply, given that the statute didn’t exempt moving between residences, that it should based on a reading of the statute, which allows possession in the home.
- Aitken also made a Second Amendment claim, which the court summarily dismissed without any discussion. This is wrong.
So Aitken is still a convicted felon and prohibited person, because of the hollow nose bullet charge. I think he should appeal, and appeal all the way to the US Supreme Court if necessary.