In New York City, of all places. I seem to recall hearing that half of all gun possession cases in DC ended up nullified. What do you think a London jury would have found? There is a Second Amendment in the minds of the people, whether our opponents want to recognize it or not.
Author: Sebastian
Media Bloggers Association Stands up to Righthaven
Media Bloggers Association are standing up for a blogger who was sued, and rather than fight took a default judgement, they argue:
Media Bloggers Association on Wednesday called Righthaven’s demands for damages against Hyatt outrageous given the nature of the alleged infringement and what they call Righthaven’s abusive business model.
If you’re interested in joining, you can sign up here. This might be something I have to consider. Righthaven needs to be stopped. Take, for instance, this Pennsylvania couple who spent six months fighting a lawsuit when they weren’t even the proper party. Supposedly Righthaven has racked up $364,000 in settlements so far. This is a sick and twisted abuse of our legal system.
This blog will continue its policy of scrubbing links to any media outlet that works with Righthaven. I’m not driving traffic and Google love to pond suckers.
Chris Christie Pessimistic About Gun Law Reform
Unfortunately, the Governor is right. New Jersey is probably the most hostile legislature in the country when it comes to gun rights. Christie is coming at this issue in the same manner the Obama Administration is, in that he’d really prefer it go away, doesn’t want to burn any political capital on the issue, but at the same time doesn’t want to piss anyone off too much.
Hypocrisy? What Hypocrisy?
Dennis Henigan says we’re being hypocrites, because we say we want to enforce existing laws, but then have Congress cut funding off for ATF to implement long gun reporting. Where to start? First off, the long gun reporting requirement isn’t going to accomplish jack, because even with the information voluntarily provided to ATF by dealers, they apparently lost track of about 2500 firearms, one of which was used to murder a border patrol officer. Secondly, this is not enforcing existing law, this is ATF making up law from whole cloth and implementing it. We’re in favor of using existing laws to lock up violent criminals, we are not in favor of a totalitarian state where bureaucrats get to make up their own law and ignore the limits Congress has placed on their powers.
Four Suggestions
Bryan Miller apparently thinks they are the four suggestions too:
Good to see Miller, a world renowned advocate of “gun safety” demonstrating just how little he knows about the subject.
I’ve been doing a little research on the incident that happened with Miller’s brother, and there’s a whole lot more to it than most of you have ever heard. For instance, there was a lawsuit filed for negligence against the District of Columbia because they failed to follow their own security protocol for the building. There is more I will speak of once I have time to put everything together.
Civil Rights Victory in Virginia
Three bills headed to McDonnell. All of them pretty moderate. So when does the Old Dominion get rid of one gun a month?
Schumer’s Faulty Metrics
Schumer wants to penalize states that are “not enforcing background checks.” At first I thought this meant perhaps adding a stick to the carrot as far as mental health reporting goes, but that might not be the case:
Under the plan endorsed by Schumer and Bloomberg, states and federal authorities would be required to increase the percentage of denied gun permit applicants to the national gun database. The penalty for not reporting would be a loss of federal funding for crime prevention.
Not required to make sure the data in the database is more accurate and up to date, but to just deny more people the right to purchase a gun, with no regard to accuracy? They call the proposal “modest.” If their Thesaurus has the word “stupid” next to “modest,” I might buy that.
I haven’t seen language for a proposed bill, however, so it could very well be this is a case of the journalist reporting writing gibberish in their ignorance of the subject at hand, and perhaps ignorance of clear English as well.
Harry Reid’s “Stimulus”
Or perhaps anti-stimulus. Apparently Reid thinks that ending prostitution in Nevada is going to somehow going to grow the economy:
“One of the businessmen in that meeting told me he simply couldn’t believe that one of the biggest businesses in the county he was considering for his new home is legal prostitution,” he said.
Sounds like a great way to help Nevada’s economy, shuttering the biggest industry in a county. You’d think that would be a fringe benefit to a lot of executives.
More on Whether HR822 Covers New York City
There’s a principle in statutory construction that statutes should be read in a way that gives effect to the will of the legislature. Pretty clearly the language that preempts “the law of any State or political subdivision thereof,” would be key here. But it’s not just that. It’s also what legislators are arguing. The following is from the Congressional Record:
[A]nybody who has a concealed carry permit from the State of South Dakota goes to New York and is in Central Park, Central Park would be a much safer place.
– John Thune, Senator sponsor of the amendment, 7/22/2009
Known gun runners would go to Vermont, get a gun license, get a concealed carry permit, and they could get 20, 30, 50 guns concealed in a backpack, in a suitcase, and bring them and sell them on the streets of the south Bronx or central Brooklyn, bring them to Central Park or Queens, and our local police would have their hands tied.
– Charles Schumer, in the Congressional Record, 7/21/2009
In addition to this, schumer is also on record in the same day’s record saying the bill “would affect every city in the country.” We also have to consider statements by NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly:
New York City’s strict requirements as to who can carry a concealed weapon have contributed to the city’s unparalleled public safety. Our effort, indeed our entire mission, would be severely undercut by this bill. In a city where 90 percent of all guns used in crimes come from out of State, it is easy to see how S. 845 would pose a danger to New Yorkers by greatly increasing the availability of illegal handguns for purchase.
So clearly on both sides we have ample evidence that legislators on both sides of the issue understand that New York City is subject to this law. I just wanted everyone to be aware there’s two sides to every issue. There may be a plausible reading that suggests NYC is exempted as an off limits place under New York State Law, but there’s an equally plausible, and possibly stronger reading that it is covered.
It would be nice if the language could be made more clear, but great precision is difficult to get out of the sausage grinder of Congress. It’s a given that there will be handful of states, cities, and local municipalities that will challenge whatever language comes out. My concern is people are aware of the risks, and how the language could be twisted and interpreted. Ultimately it is the courts who decide these things, and it’s worthwhile pointing out there are plausible arguments each way.
AZ Star Didn’t Do the Math
In all other high-income democracies, it would have been very difficult for Loughner legally to have obtained his weapon. Some of these countries have very few private guns (e.g., Japan, United Kingdom), while others have fairly many (e.g., Canada, Australia, Israel, Switzerland, Finland), but have more restrictive gun laws than the United States.
Actually, Israel has few private guns. But either way, this is news to me. If you actually look at the data, you have to pretend Eastern Europe is largely non-existent for this to be true. Why is it that I, a lowly engineer from a second tier school, can do better statistical analysis than a Harvard Ph.D.? Maybe because I’m not receiving oodles of money from the Joyce Foundation.