Guns – Page 374 – Shall Not Be Questioned

NSSF Is Not Advocating Expanding Classes of Prohibited Persons

It seems every time mental health issues come up in relation to gun laws, folks suggest that the class of prohibited persons is being expanded. That’s probably because mental health prohibitions are among the most poorly understood aspects of federal gun laws. NSSF stepped in it when they announced support for sharing of mental health records, since I’ve noticed at a number of blogs, folks suggestingÂ NSSF is selling out. This isn’t really the case, but to understand why that is takes a bit of an explanation on federal law. States often have their own prohibitions, which can be stronger or weaker than federal law, but I won’t dive into that here. I’ll concentrate solely on federal law, which is what most states generally follow in their own laws.

A mental health adjudication only occurs when a person is involuntarily committed, or held to be mentally ill by a competent judge, board or other lawfully composed body in an adversarial hearing. They cannot apply because someone sought mental health treatment on their own, or if they are suffering from depression, PTSD or what have you. The law very specifically requires an adjudication.

Now, that said, there have been cases in the past where some federal agencies, particularly the VA, entered veterans records into NICS who were deemed unable to manage their own affairs. This issue has been fixed, however, and the VA can no longer legally do such a thing unless there’s been a hearing. In addition, there is now a mechanism for restoration of rights from someone who has been adjudicated or committed in the past, but is now no longer a danger to themselves or others.

As to the issue NSSF is advocating for, which is that state mental health records in regards to commitments and adjudications be shared with the federal system. Many states currently don’t do this, either because they can’t be bothered, or they have legal issues that prevent it.

So why do we care? Because a number of states operate as what is known as a “Point of Contact” states, meaning they maintain their own background check system. Pennsylvania is one such state. The states have fairly mixed records when it comes to maintaining their own systems. Pennsylvania’s is atrociously unreliable, as we have a recent example of here. In contrast, the FBI has done a rather good job at running the federal system in a professional manner, and it works much more reliably and cheaply than the POC systems in the states that have them. Additionally, if everyone used the federal system, we’d only have one leviathan to worry about. The federal system has had more protections put in place recently to prevent the kind of abuse that happens in POC systems, such as using the system to compile a backdoor registry, as has happened in Pennsylvania.

It would be beneficial if we could get rid of all the POC systems and put everyone on the federal system. It’s not perfect, but a step in the right direction. The lack of mental health records in NICS is going to be a big club for our opponents to defeat anti-POC bills, as the lack of sharing is an issue that politicians are going to be inclined to listen to. If the federal system and state systems contain the same data, it’s much easier to make a cost saving argument to the powers that be, which helps give some softer legislators some cover to vote for an anti-POC measure as a bill that merely eliminates redundancy and saves taxpayer money. In addition, that can also be used as justification for eliminating restrictions on buying firearms out of state. If we’re all using the same system, and it has all the same data, what can be the justification for now allowing FFLs to make transfers to residents of another state?

So what NSSF is advocating is not in any way an expansion of who is and who isn’t a prohibited person. As I stated last time this issue came up, just because NICS didn’t have a record, and cleared you, doesn’t mean you have a get out of jail free card on being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm if you are under a mental health prohibition. There’s relatively little harm in what NSSF is advocating, in terms of mental health records, with the potential of a lot of ground that could be gained if lawmakers feel good that the federal system has all the records it needs to determine if someone is under a mental health prohibition.

Cozying Up to the Wrong Group?

Senate hopeful Don Stenberg seems to have put his faith in Gun Owners of America:

Stenberg had hoped to discuss the Fast and Furious investigation and Attorney General Eric Holder at the forum sponsored by Gun Owners of America, the Grand Island Independent reported.

A noble goal, but GOA doesn’t have the turnout machine to fill rooms. and as I’ve shown have questionable grading standards. Either way it goes, this ends up looking bad for gun owners. Sometimes I wish a lot of these smaller groups would understand their own strengths and weaknesses, and work within those. You should have some idea, if you’re a group like GOA, what you can accomplish in terms of turn out. If you fail, as has happened here, it just makes the movement as a whole look bad.

On the Greek Elections

I was using the recent example of the Greeks electing 25 members of what is essentially a Nazi-like party to the Greek ParliamentÂ in a conversation with CSGV, as further refutation of their notion that sometimes democratic republics fail. Here’s what they had to say:

I don’t know if Skippy the Intern is running the Twitter feed here, but there’s somewhere on the order of 50,000,000 people, and about 6 million jews, who would take exception to the notion that far-right participation in European governance has never lead to catastrophe. That is, they’d take exception if they were still alive. But they aren’t alive, because the far-right governance in Europe decided to kill them all in a bit of a catastrophe the rest of us call the Second World War. They continue digging:

Yes, and if only the Weimar government had instituted strict gun controls, perhaps World War II never would have happened, since we all know gun control is quite effective at stopping National Socialists from arming themselves.

Our opponents are poor students of history, and naive in regards to human nature. The perfectibility of man has always been a conceit of the left. The Judeo-Christian tradition of viewing mankind as fallen is probably the more accurate way to approach questions of human nature. Civilization is a very thin veneer, easily scratched off, and what’s under the veneer is very very ugly. The disarmed Germans found that out the hard way.

CSGV Taken to Task by Daily Caller

Looks like Coalition to Stop Gun Ownership Communication Director Ladd Everitt is continuing his very best Baghdad Bob impersonation, this time denying to the Daily Caller that Fast and Furious has had all that much impact on people’s lives.

Coalition spokesman Ladd Everitt argued that there was no evidence for The Daily Caller to report that â€œ[t]here are hundreds of Mexican citizens who were murdered with weapons the Obama administration gave to cartels through Fast and Furious and two American law enforcement officers â€” Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata â€” were killed with Fast and Furious guns.â€

Everitt argued that he didnâ€™t think there is â€œactual trace and ballistics evidence to prove that conclusively.â€

So we can count on the National Coalition to Ban Handguns to drop its support for ballistics databases then? I mean, since it doesn’t work and all. But this is further proof that their phony baloney concern for gun violence is nothing but a ruse. I never thought I’d see the day when “gun violence prevention” groups covered for an administration aiding and abetting illegal smuggling of firearms. I always knew they were dishonest, but I did not believe they would stoop that low.

OC Fail in California

Now they are looking to ban open carry of rifles.

Constitutional Carry in Pennsylvania

It would seem that we have a bill introduced, HB2176. It does not, at this point, have many cosponsors, and has yet to be scheduled for a hearing. It would be worthwhile to put pressure on the members of the House Judiciary Committee to try to get this a hearing.

It is no doubt an uphill battle, and I expect this time around, it won’t even get a hearing. But it’s worthwhile to get it on legislator’s radar screens.

Self-Defense: How Not to Do It

Generally a bad idea to try to shoot shoplifters. It will tend you get you in trouble with the authorities. Is a bottle of liquor really worth someone’s life? Especially given the shot went errant and narrowly missed killing an innocent third party.

It’s also not a good idea to play cop. When cops make mistakes, they get to claim qualified immunity. When you make a mistake, you get to claim top or bottom bunk in the prison. Not exactly fair, but that’s how it goes.

Air Rifle Ban in Scotland

Apparently it’s being pushed by a couple that lost a child to an air rifle. As much as people might feel for them, we ought not, in a free society, remove other people’s freedoms for the sake of a single grieving couple. Grief seldom makes good public policy.

But this does go to show, eventually they will come after anything dangerous. They will turn the world into a huge padded cell, for your own protection. Future generations will never miss freedom they never had.

Constitutional Carry Shot Down in New Hampshire

Apparently a number of legislators thought it was just to dangerous, and there was no need for the Granite State to replicate the bloodshed and carnage that runs rampant next door in Vermont, which has never required any permit, and does not issue them.

More on Robert Bork

A reader pointed out that Robert Bork signed onto an Amicus Brief in Heller in support of Mr. Heller. So it would seem that Robert Bork has had a change of opinion since his earlier days when he embraced the collective rights theory.