Guns – Page 365 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Mexico No Threat to Second Amendment, Says Ambassador

From Arturo Sarukhan, Mexican Ambassador to the United States:

â€œThere is an urban myth out there that somehow the Mexican government … is seeking to lobby against and destroy the rights enshrined in the Second Amendment,â€ said AmbassadorÂ Arturo Sarukhan. â€œThis isÂ gobbledygook.â€

So I guess this is a figment of my imagination then. I have to hand it to the Mexican Ambassador, I don’t know if he’s gotten lessons from the gun control people in this country in talking out of both sides of the mouth, but if not he would seem to be a natural at it. Next he’ll be telling us we must destroy the Second Amendment in order to save it.

Unarmed Self-Defense

There seems to be a debate going on in the gun blogosphere about whether unarmed self-defense, or hand-to-hand combat, is a good idea or not. I haven’t been following closely enough to get an idea of what the major arguments are for or against, but I thought I’d throw my two cents into the debate, hopefully without summoning the drama llama.

There’s two types of force, legally. There’s force, and deadly force. Force is generally everything that is not deadly force, which is generally the level of force that is likely to result in grave bodily injury or death, such as a gun, knife, club, etc. Fists can be deadly force under some circumstances.

But your likelihood of running into a situation where force is allowed in self-defense, but not deadly force, are probably greater than your likelihood of encountering a deadly force situation. The force spectrum is awfully wide, before you get to deadly force, and it seems to me that it’s a good idea to have some option in that regard. In that case, I’m not likely to look down on unarmed defensive training. The more tools you have at your disposal if you have to defend yourself the better.

UPDATE: OK, I think the conversation started with this, but I didn’t put two and two together. Yeah, I’d definitely think about seeking out alternate HTH training.

UPDATE: Getting a bit more caught up on this debate, looks like it was an accident, though, I’d be open to the argument that the instructor pushed too hard. Though I’m not an expert on this to really have an opinion on that matter.

Stand Your Ground Still Under Attack

An article in the Herald Tribune speaks of the problems with the law. It’s almost like everyone is suddenly looking at self-defense cases and discovering that, shockingly, self-defense cases are all rather circumstantial, and juries can be inconsistent in how they see those circumstances as being self-defense or not.

Unfortunately for the poorly educated media, this was true before Stand your Ground laws, and it will be true after stand your ground laws.Â In the mean time, it looks like the task force is holding hearings. Our people would do well to mob these hearings so that the opponents of the law are not the only ones being heard.

Holder Contempt Vote

Scheduled for June 20th, according to CBS.

h/t Dave Hardy

UPDATE: More from Jacob. I tend to agree with him about how much impact this will have on the election.

Suing an Airline Over a Gun

Short of this case is, a guy from South Dakota, with a South Dakota permit, takes a gun to New York City. Upon checking his baggage to go back home, he’s arrested, so he’s suing Delta Airlines, suggesting they should know the law and inform him. That’s a bit of a leap for me. You’re responsible for understanding the law. You can’t expect the airline to do that for you. By the same token, can you blame the guy for assuming New York City was part of America?

Oral Arguments in Shepard & Moore

You can listen to the oral arguments here. At first I was a little worried, because the questioning of the panel seemed to be all over the place, and asking difficult questions of Mr. Gura and Mr. Cooper which to me seemed to be outside the scope of what the courts can do, but I guess reflected some concern from the panel about carrying in bars, etc.

But then the grilling of the Illinois Attorney started, and things started, to put it mildly, looking up. Go have a listen. Keep in mind, the courts can only really say Illinois’ statute is constitutional or not. It would be up to the legislature to craft a bill that would pass constitutional muster, and it should be noted a bill is already introduced that would accomplish that, and has very near the votes needed for passage.

Now if the Illinois law is tossed on Constitutional grounds, I don’t believe Illinois would be permitted to enforce it. The question is, will the legislature want to “settle out of court,” so to speak, and pass a right-to-carry bill now, rather than risk the state, essentially, going constitutional carry. Would our side be willing to take the deal? Risk is inherent for both sides. What if the courts opinion hints at may-issue being constitutional? What if we lose outright? For them, what if it invalidates the law, and essentially anyone who can legally possess a gun in Illinois can carry?

Also interesting is whether the disposition of Judge Posner to the Right to Keep and Bear Arms has changed. It seems from this case he may have warmed up to the idea.

Days of our Trailers has more.

Ouch

This is one of the worst ideas I’ve seen in a long time.

Pants on Fire

Eric Holder claims the people who approved the wiretaps for Fast and Furious never actually read them, and just signed them. How sad is it when your excuse is gross incompetence and negligence? Because both of those things are better than the likely truth of the matter.

Competitive Shooting

SayUncle ponders whether those who can’t shoot, blogÂ after getting beat by a law professor. There may be truth to this. I haven’t really been shooting since the job situation went crazy about two years ago, but even when I was quite active, and practicing and shooting regularly, the most I could muster was the middle of the pack in competition. To be a competent shooter doesn’t take a whole lot of practice. A trip to the range once a month or so will keep you competent. To be a good shooter, you’re looking at once a week. In my experience, to be a great shooter, you really have to live shooting, or just have a natural talent for is, which some people do. I can generally stay good without a whole lot of work, but I’ve never been willing, or had the time, to put in the work to be great, nor do I have the natural talent to get to the head of the pack without a lot of work to do it.

And so I blog.

What’s your experience in regards to the amount of work to go from just a good shooter, to a great shooter?

Victory in Kentucky

The are repealing the requirement to have a concealed weapons permit to carry in a business or a home. Pretty ridiculous for a state like Kentucky that was ever a requirement. But clearly we are reeling under the newfound momentum of our opponents. They have stopped the “gun lobby” in its tracks. Florida was their Battle of Midway.