Sebastian – Page 812 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Fixing New Jersey’s One-Gun-a-Month Fiasco

Seems to me it would just be easier to repeal it. This list of things that needs improving shows the absurdity of this law in the first place.

Holder & The Assault Weapons Ban

As Jacob points out, the Obama Administration isn’t retreating from the Assault Weapons issue entirely, but they pretty clearly aren’t in a hurry to pass it, or to take it on right now. As long as Obama has other issues he wants to get through Congress, he’s probably not going to fight with us. But just because that’s the case today, doesn’t mean it will be the case tomorrow.

Dave Kopel Bleg on Transient Possession

Dave Kopel is looking for some information:

I am asking for commenters who can point to similar cases in the U.K., United States, or elsewhere. For example, a student finds a knife on a playground at school; she picks it up and takes it directly to a teacher. She is expelled for possession of a weapon on school property. Iâ€™m not looking only for cases involving weapons.

The case that immediately came to my mind was the case of US v. Baker in the 10th Circuit. Mr. Baker saw a loaded speed loader for a revolver laying on the ground, which had been previously stolen. He took this item into his possession for fear children would find it, intending to turn it over to police. But police stopped him, and found it before he could turn it over. He asked that the jury be allowed to get an instruction about innocent possession, which the panel denied. Looking a bit further, in a case with very similar facts,Â this would also appear to be law in the 4th Circuit as well. There wouldn’t appear to be an innocent possession exemption to the felon-in-possession statutes, but one wonders whether a felon-in-possession could claim a necessity defense under some circumstances.

Where Does the Media Find These People?

I just watched Paul Helmke and Jacob Hornberger debate on Nightline’s Twittercast, and I thought Paul mopped the floor with him. Hornberger came off as a foaming at the mouth libertarian extremist, while Paul Helmke was, well, Paul Helmke. Hornberger is President of the Future of Freedom Foundation, which has little to do with gun rights, and I wish would have nothing to do with gun rights after hearing him debate Helmke. My disdain for doctrinaire Libertarians is well known, but it’s hard for even me to believe Hornberger’s statement on Fort Hood:

Amidst all the debate over whether the Ft. Hood killer is a terrorist, murderer, enemy combatant, traitor, sleeper agent, or insane person, there is one glaring fact staring America in the face: what happened at Ft. Hood is more blowback from U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, specifically the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Even at this early stage of the investigation, the evidence is virtually conclusive that the accused killer, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was motivated to kill U.S. soldiers at Ft. Hood by deep anger and rage arising from the things that the U.S. government has been doing to people in the Middle East for many years.

Yeah, you can go to hell Mr. Hornberger. You don’t represent the views of mainstream gun owners, hell, you don’t even represent the views of mainstream libertarians. With guys like this on our side, we don’t need enemies. Hornberger is an extremist, and yet he was chosen by Nightline to represent gun owners. Unbelievable.

How to Fix Sagging Ratings?

CNN has dropped to the bottom of the crap pile of Cable News. They must think they can help up their ratings by scaring people with the militia bogeyman:

There might have been a time when they would have worked, but I think everyone realizes by now that the emperor has no clothes.

Economy Doesn’t Seem to be Hurting DC Area

It’s interesting to compare and contrast things in DC to here back home. I think you can argue that the Restaurant business is a good bellwether of how people are feeling about the economy. Back here in the Philadelphia area, since the economy went into the crapper, wait lists have shortened or disappeared altogether, often even on weekends. You can still find waits at some of the econo-chains, like Outback, but most everywhere else it’s just a matter of walking in. Especially in higher end restaurants.

So you can imagine my surprise when we hit the dinner scene in DC and we’re back to one hour waits. Even past 8:00, we had to wait 45 minutes at one place in Arlington. If people are feeling uncertain about the economy and their jobs in DC, it’s certainly not showing up in people eating more at home like it is here. But why should people in DC worry about their jobs? Their major industry is growing like gangbusters, and they can always suck more money away from parts of the country that really are struggling and uncertain. No wonder people are fed up.

Public Opinion

I’d like to know the numbers without the word “registered” being in there, but this is interesting:

Our survey included the question: â€œIn general, do you agree or disagree that an individual should have a right to have a registered handgun at home?â€ 52% strongly agreed, 30% agreed somewhat, 10% disagreed somewhat, and 7% strongly disagreed. This is also consistent with polls concerning views of the Second Amendment, where over 70 percent view gun ownership as an individual right. See [here].Â It appears that support for gun rights has increased during Obamaâ€™s first year in office, although the trajectory seems to be a continuation of a trend that began during the last years of the Bush Administration. See [here].

And I have to wonder how much of the 10% somewhat disagreement was people who hated the “registered” language. I think a lot of gun owners would have a tough time saying yes to that entirely. Either way, it’s enough of a majority to pass a constitutional amendment, in all likelihood.

Author: Sebastian