Ed Friedman of NRA’s Shooting Illustrated magazine has the scoop on the prototype Palm Pistol. It’s all black, so clearly it’s evil and must be banned immediately. And it’ll have rail? Seriously?
Category: Guns
NRA Anti-Kagan Print Ad
They seem to be pulling out all the stops on Kagan (PDF). If I were a guy like, say, Lindsey Graham, who had an endorsement in 2008 and an A-rating, I’d be nervous about the level of opposition coming out of NRA. Especially when the Democrat running that last ran against him also had an A-rating.
Progress in Nordyke
The panel the case has been remanded to has asked for supplemental briefs speaking to the standard of review that ought to be used. Eugene Volokh also speaks of standards of reviews, addressing the SNBI crowd:
The trouble is that “shall not be infringed†doesn’t resolve much until we figure out what it means to “infringe†a right. […]
And I think as a general matter this is probably the right interpretation of the constitutional provisions. But in any event, it seems unlikely that courts will take an absolutist view towards the right to bear arms, to the point that any regulation of any possession of any arms in any place will be seen as an “infringement.â€
Now this having been said, I’m happy to argue against restrictions that really are infringements; I discuss some in this article. But it’s not enough just to say “shall not be infringed,†especially when we’re in an area — such as government control over government property — where some degree of government restrictions have long been accepted in many areas.
The trick is to get the Courts to carve out a broad right. While I have some minor and specific disagreements with Professor Volokh in his paper Implementing the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, it provides the best context I’ve seen to date for thinking about the issue. It’ll be very interesting to see what the 9th Circuit has to say about this.
Had By His Student
At Least One Blogger on Terror Watch List
According to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel, and the Brady Campaign, Chris from AK is no longer part of the American Family.
How Many FFLs Are There?
ATF is publishing the whole list now. It would seem to exclude type 03 (C&R) FFLs. But the number is a bit north of 60,000. Josh Sugarmann is in there.
Post McDonald Gun Boom
I believe it will happen. DC only has half a million people, and options for getting a legal gun are still pretty thin. Chicago and the surrounding communities that once banned guns are closer to 4 million, and gun shops, while not present in the city, are still accessible. Chicagoans who want a legal gun have more options now than DC residents do.
Public Range Good Practices
Tam has some good advice on public ranges, where you’ll, generally speaking, encounter the worst gun handling. I’ve been to public ranges in a few states. Southwestern Virginia was the scariest, in terms of safety, though I’ve had people muzzle me at some of the PA ranges too. Thankfully, the really dangerous types seem to be pretty rare.
But it was the Pennsylvania Public Ranges System where I first encountered a mall ninja in the wild — all black outfit, what looks to be body armor but probably isn’t, black ranger hat, thigh holster, wrap around sunglasses, and tactical shotgun — obviously a skilled and valuable member of Food Court Team Six. It was after that I joined a club, so I can’t say for sure whether this species is becoming a more common sight at public ranges.
Getting on Board?
ACLU has never stuck up for gun rights. There are some state chapters that differ in that regard. I think the times may be a changin’ if this is any indication of things to come. I don’t demand that the ACLU actively push gun rights. It’s a perfectly reasonable position for ACLU to say “If you want to support gun rights, there are better organizations for that, but we recognize it as one of the core American liberties,” that would be fine by me. In cases, like this, where ACLU’s core mission intersects with the right to keep and bear arms, I welcome them to the fight.
More Guns, Less Crime
NRA notes that all the fear mongering from DC and Chicago has not come true:
In 1979, the group now known as the Brady Campaign said “over 50 million handguns flood the houses and streets of our nation. . . . If we continue at this pace, we will have equipped ourselves with more than 100 million handguns by the turn of the century. One hundred million handguns. Will we be safer then?”
Then they note:
Since 1980, the number of handguns has increased 50 percent, and the nation’s murder rate has decreased 52 percent. After Chicago imposed handgun registration in 1968, murders in the city increased.  After D.C. banned handguns in 1976, its murder rate rose 201 percent through 1991, while the U.S. rate increased 12 percent. After Chicago banned handguns in 1982, its murder rate increased 49 percent through 1994, while the U.S. rate decreased one percent. And in the year following the repeal of D.C.’s handgun ban, its murder rate decreased 24 percent. In sum, the number of handguns is at an all-time, and the nation’s murder rate is at a 45-year low.
Sorry guys, you lose, and the nation wins. We get our right preserved and a lower crime rate. There a risk with fear mongering based on flimsy data. You lose credibility when the sky doesn’t fall. That same thing could have been true for NRA too, but anyone who was paying attention knows they were trying to ban guns, and erase the Second Amendment. Even as a teenager, from a non-gun-owning family, Â I knew that.