Sebastian – Page 233 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Kill Me Now!

Gun news is slow, since the media is focused on other things for the moment, like how racist America is. In the mean time, those of us in the Northeast are baking. It’s not often I’ll say I’d trade Houston for its weather, but:

Today we’re getting a break on humidity. Dewpoint today is under 70, whereas it’s been 70-72 the past several days. I learned from my days being an avid hiker, before I got too busy and too fat, that dewpoint is the number to watch. A lot of people think relative humidity is the important number for comfort, but dewpoint, which tells you how much moisture is actually in the air, is a more reliable measure. Dewpoints below 60 are generally comfortable, even if it’s fairly hot out. You can go do a long hike, even in 90 degree weather, and do fine if the dewpoint is below 60. From 60-65 you can generally manage, but pushing closer to 65 you’ll start to feel the suck. At 65-70, it’s generally pretty uncomfortable. Anything above 70 is unbearable even if the temperature is not that high. You’ll be dripping with sweat with even minor exertion. I’ll take 105 in Phoenix over this crap any day of the week. Dry heat is much easier to deal with. On days like today, I just try to stay indoors and not do much that requires physical exertion, which conveniently is generally what my jobs requires.

But that’s not to say it doesn’t still suck. Few houses built here before the 1990s were built with central air conditioning. Most people who have it in older houses retrofitted it, which is expensive if you don’t have forced-air heat. My house has hot water baseboard heating and no AC, so retrofitting is more pricy. The open floor plan of the house is nice, but in summer it makes AC difficult. I’m relying on a 14,000 BTU/hr portable unit downstairs, and a 6000BTU/hr Wal-Mart special window unit upstairs. They’ve been running flat out for days without cycling. Not good. But they are keeping the house reasonably comfortable. Right now my office is 80 degrees, with a dewpoint of 63 degrees indoors. That’s pretty good. I’d call that a beautiful day if it was outside. Eventually, I’m going to get another 14,000 BTU portable unit for upstairs, which should hopefully be enough to do the whole house, and let the units cycle a bit even in craptacular heat and humidity such as this.

PLCAA Success Story? Colt Remerges

Colt Defense and Colt Manufacturing are becoming one again. They split in 2003 to shield their defense business from potential lawsuits. With the passage of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms ActÂ in 2005,Â lawsuits aren’t the threat they used to be, and thus ends a chapter in the firearms industry that never would have happened, if not for religious fanatics who set on a mission to do to the firearms industry what they did to the tobacco industry. PLCAA is far from perfect protection, and said fanatics are still busy looking for weaknesses, but it was an understated victory of the last decade that I think helped put the anti-gun organizations on the ropes. They spent a lot of money and resources on those suits which got nowhere.

Hey, Gun Industry, Better Ignore New Business Models

SayUncle has a few things to say about an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispach, decrying Lucky Gunner, LLC for essentially being what’s called a “virtual company,” acting like it’s some kind of stealth and shady operation rather than just a smart business. It’s quick becoming a trend in Biotech as well, and, in fact, I had considered trying to help start such a company if we could practically do it (and we couldn’t, but not because the virtual model couldn’t work).

Why run your own warehousing and logistics services if you can hire someone who specializes in that to do it for you more efficiently than you could yourself? I guess if you’re in the gun industry, new business models are out of the question, lest you attract the attention of reporters who think they’ve got something on you. It’s amazing how much of the firearms industry our opponents want to leave stuck in the 1950s.

CSGV Failing to Give the Full Context

I haven’t blogged about the CSGV for quite some time, mostly because they are irrelevant in the current debate. But their claim on the jury instructions, as you may imagine, fail to give the whole picture. The full jury instructions are posted online. You can find them here and here. There’s a lot more to the jury’s instructions than that. They, of course, fail to mention this would also be part of the instruction:

In deciding whether defendant was justified in the use of deadly force, you must judge [him] [her] by the circumstances by which [he] [she] was surrounded at the time the force was used.Â The danger facing the defendant need not have been actual; however, to justify the use of deadly force, the appearance of danger must have been so real that a reasonably cautious and prudent person under the same circumstances would have believed that the danger could be avoided only through the use of that force.Â Based upon appearances, the defendant must have actually believed that the danger was real.

You can find exactly how the instructions changed in the Florida Supreme Court case showing here. What is also mentioned is that previously, retreat was only required when one could do so in complete safety. Zimmerman’s claim was that her was pinned to the ground. Either you believe it or you don’t. If you believe it, duty to retreat doesn’t come into play regardless, under current law or the old law.

UPDATE: You can find the exact and lengthy jury instructions here.

Again with the Same, Tired Narratives

And now the Marissa Alexander case rears up again in the media. I covered her case more than a year ago at this point, when the narrative first hit the media. Alexander is a poster child against mandatory minimum sentences, not against stand your ground laws. A big problem we’re having is that journalists, when they don’t outright have an agenda, which is often, don’t really understand our laws or legal system. Stand Your Ground laws honestly don’t change a whole lot when it comes to self-defense cases. It still comes down to credibility, and that was the difference between Alexander and Zimmerman.

UPDATE: More here, at WTBGU.

UPDATE: Also at Ace of Spades.

Update on Illinois Ordinance Fights

We’re winning more than we’re losing, which is good. When we show up, we win. And even where we lost, we didn’t lose as badly as one might fear. Perhaps we’ll get to see how the convictions of the town councils that defied us stand up under a federal lawsuit.

Could Impact Gun Rights

Reid is considering the “nuclear option” to ending the filibuster.Â At this point, it may only end up applying to nominees, but that’s not clear. It’s worth noting that the filibuster is the only thing keeping gun control from passing the Senate. Of course, it’s also the only thing keeping national reciprocity from passing as well. We could end up with a Manchin-Toomey like deal with national reciprocity tacked on to it. How bad do the likes of Bloomberg want Manchin-Toomey? Probably not at the cost of letting us tote firearms in Manhattan.

Who Will Try to Ban Your Rifle this Week?

Communities have until Friday to get in under Illinois’ grandfathering, because all firearms ordinances get preempted. Several are going to try for bans this week. This is like the lottery, you have to play to win, except the odds of winning are much much higher when we play.

Zimmerman Roundup

One thing I have to say is that I’m glad the Zimmerman case is over, because I’ve grown tired of this whole case. Of course, it’s over, or is it? The feds are deciding whether they want a stab at him too. Jonathan Adler has an excellent write up of that possibility over at Volokh. He seems to think the feds will take this Very Seriously, and then pass.

Meanwhile, Eugene Volokh suggests if the Zimmerman case suggests there should be anything changed in regards to Florida’s law, perhaps they should look at the six person jury law. In all but one other states, for serious crimes, juries are composed of 12 people.

Massas Ayoob has his say on the case, and will have more to say. He’s been silent because he’s been involved in the case.

Apparently people on the streets have more measured opinions than many in the media. That’s probably why there hasn’t been much in the way of rioting that a lot of people feared. Though, I’ve seen my share of people on Facebook who still think this was about 13 year kid who was hunted down for buying skittles, and who obviously didn’t follow the case or the trial one iota since they heard the initial narrative. But that jury, who actually heard all the evidence, how could they get it so wrong??

Mike Bloomberg thinks we need to stop with these “shoot first” laws, even though this was a pretty run-of-the-mill self-defense case where stand-your-ground never entered into the equation.

Michael Bane thinks it’s a huge victory for self-defense, and offers some useful advice.Â Tam has some similar thoughtsÂ about getting involved. I’m not your sheepdog. If it’s not my ass on the line, I’m not getting involved. The powers that be don’t want to see anymore of this. They’re from the government, and there to help, OR ELSE!

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence has a predictable reaction to the Zimmerman verdict. They don’t believe in self-defense. To them, Hitler was a victim of tragic gun violence.

A Sense of Perspective

In yesterday’s news links, I linked to an article that actually linked to my Tiny-Tiny RSS instance. Ooops. I fixed the link, but the article, written by Tam, I think was good enough to link here. Just a bit of perspective.