I meant to get up a news links post yesterday, but tasks conspired against it, which seems to be happening a lot lately. At work, we had a window blow open and freeze all the pipes, which caused quite a disaster. Last week I couldn’t open my back door. Fearing the header might have failed, causing the weight from the house to fall onto the door, I went into the drywall to check. The header was fine. I think the severe dry, cold air just made the wood contract enough to jam the door. I managed to pull hard enough to get the door open, but it took a hammer to close it again. That door has always been tight, and the seal on the double pane failed years ago. It is time to replace it, which is money I wasn’t expecting to spend. Such are distractions of life, like the news:
Joe Huffman collects bigotry from the other side, something for which there is no shortage.
Gun control works! No, really, it does.
Shannon Watts is a propagandist, not an activist. She’s honestly not very good, and prone to making gaffes and mistake. If it wasn’t for Bloomberg’s money, I wouldn’t be too worried about her.
Apparently Governor Wolf’s pick to run the Pennsylvania State Police is already generating controversy. It’s worth noting that this office has, in the past with hostile Democratic administrations, been used to screw with gun owners.
What’s that? Associating with Bloomberg is bad for a Democrat’s political aspirations? Who would have guessed.
Bring handguns back to Britain!
Turning out for Constitutional Carry in Idaho.
Shocking: Some lawmakers who are friendly to the Second Amendment are (gasp!) active NRA members.
SCOTUSBlog takes a look at Henderson v. United States. A gun case, but not a Second Amendment case, at least not directly.
John Richardson has more on the M855 ban.
Tam: “It was within my lifetime (albeit barely) that you could order an actual 20mm anti-tank rifle in the mail with less drama than buying a packet of Sudafed today.” Also, “Might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb.”
Yes! Next question.
Eugene Volokh: Open Carry v. Announced Carry. I’ve also thought there might be stronger First Amendment protection for open carry than Second, given that the courts take the former more seriously than the latter.
Off Topic:
What ISIS Really Wants. A very excellent piece of journalism from The Atlantic. If you haven’t read it yet, you should.
That story “What ISIS Really Wants” is really good stuff, and so is the follow-up about the response. Apparently ISIS Twitter accounts think Graeme Wood understands them.
Yeah, it’s a really good read. I was particularly amazed at their prophetic beliefs regarding some kind of epic clash between them and “Rome” in a specific area in Syria. We always talk about how these guys are living in the 7th century, and it seems like they quite literally are. Someone might want to tell them the Byzantine Empire fell over 600 years ago.