Sebastian – Page 802 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Right to Arms in Pennsylvania History

Dave Kopel talks about a law review article that will be appearing in the Widener Law Journal next year, coauthored with Clayton Cramer,Â on the history of Pennsylvania’s right to bear arms provision in the 1776 constitution. I covered a bit of the constitutional history of Pennsylvania’s right to bear arms provision back in September, for those who might have missed it. The 1776 version read:

That the people have a right to bear arms for the defence of themselves and the state; and as standing armies in the time of peace are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up; And that the military should be kept under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.

Seems hard to believe that anyone could read “defence of themselves” as being purely the right to participate in a militia. While it’s not as direct and to the point as the 1790 and subsequent state constitutions, it’s still pretty crystal clear for anyone who hasn’t already made up their mind about there being no real individual right.

Violent Attack Back Home

I normally don’t report on armed citizen stories, but this one was from back home where I grew up. An 84 year old man managed to ward off an attacker with a .32 caliber colt pistol, after a brief gunfight. I’m wondering if it was one of these, in which case it wouldn’t be a six shot, but you never know with the media. Criminals often target the elderly because they seem to be easy targets, but being a veteran of World War II, my guess is this is “professional thief” is probably not the first, or the most dangerous person, who has fired bullets in Mr. Kaighn’s general direction. I would say he held up remarkably well to the stress of a gunfight at 84.

Texas Article on MAIG

Good to see people in the hunting and fishing community getting it. My big fear is that people won’t take this threat seriously until it’s really a threat. Things have a habit of turning quickly.

OCIW Alive and Well in Korea?

The US Army abandoned this concept, but it seems the Koreans are prepared to deploy it. I can see the usefulness of an airburst grenade, but I don’t see why this should be general issue. In the US Army, my understanding is that only one member of a four man fireteam is typically equipped with a grenade launcher attached to his M4. It’ll be interesting to see how the Koreans do with this in Afghanistan, but that doesn’t look like something you’d enjoy carrying over that terrain.

No Right to Know

Looks like there’s a bit of a concealed carry permit crisis brewing in Indiana, with an Indiana newspaper threatening to publish all the gun permit records in the state. Caleb is getting a little bit of revenge on them too. As I recently told an anti-gun commenter, I don’t have a problem with the state keeping aggregate statistics on permitting, and to be honest, until newspapers started publishing names, and sometimes even addresses, in the paper, no one really thought too much about whether the records were published or not.

Suppose I were to propose that the public has a right to know your magazine subscriptions? You might be a sexual deviant, and molest children, you know. Shouldn’t we have a right to check your mail? See what you’re downloading? Do you have high speed internet service? Are you frequenting services known to aid in the facilitation of child pornography? It’s a serious crime, and we need to keep children safe, no? OK, OK, we’ll just make you get a license to access porn on the internet. Keep the children and child molesters away. But then why not allow that list to be published? I mean, your neighbors have a right to know, right?

Back in the Gun Control Saddle

Looks like Richard Aborn is back in the gun control issue after being handed a “humiliating man-beating” on election day. For those who don’t know, Richard Aborn was president of Handgun Control Inc. (which would later become the Brady organizations) during their glory days when they were actually achieving something legislatively.

Refining Boomershoot

Looks like Joe Huffman has been trying to refine the formula to Boomerite, which is how they convert ammunition into explosions out in Idaho every year, and has turned Joe into a bit of a rock star. Hey, explosions work for those guys too.

The Elite in New York Have Always Had Access

SayUncle notes that Goldman Sachs execs seem to be getting pistol permits in New York City. Good thing they are rich bank execs, because a New York City pistol permit costs 170 bucks every three years. Now, if they want a license to carry a gun, they have to be connected, but no doubt a wealthy bank exec will have no trouble. Ordinary Joes might have a lot more.

Another MAIG Mayor Convicted

Mayor Shiela Dixon of Baltimore is among the latest criminal members of Mayors Against Illegal Guns. She was stealing gift cards from the poor. She beat the felony rap, but was convicted of fraudulent misappropriation by a fiduciary.

Clearly we need to do something about keeping illegal guns out of the hands of Mayors Against Illegal Guns!

Lautenberg Introduces PROTECT Act

Press release here. He’s calling for NICS audit records to be kept for 10 years if your name happens to match up to someone or some alias on the terrorist watch list, which as we know would have been the late Senator Kennedy. For the rest of us lucky folks, the records will only be kept for half a year. You will have no way of knowing that you’re on the list, or that your purchase records are being kept and scrutinized by the government. Not being a Senator, you will also have no way of getting the name off the list. Lautenberg is also reporting some misleading information about how the NICS system currently operates:

The 24-hour destruction requirement hinders the FBIâ€™s ability to verify that gun dealers are conducting background checks properly and to retrieve guns from those who are prohibited from having them.

The destruction requirement only applies to records that have been cleared by NICS. In other words, only for people who have no criminal record. In addition, it only requires that identifying information be destroyed. For the purposes of verifying that a background check was conducted, the system is permitted to store an anonymized identifying token, which can allow matching to the number provided on ATF Form 4473 for purposes of verifying the dealers are conducting the background checks properly.

This is another one of those things there can be no negotiation on. NICS is not to be used as a backdoor registry for firearms. Its purpose is to conduct background checks on sales, and the standard should be a an up or down answer within a reasonable amount of time. Can you imagine the response if this proposal was for logging and keeping track of abortions?