As all gun owners know, .50 BMG rounds with micronucular warheads have been strictly regulated under federal law since 1994. They are unavailable to civilians. The VPC greatly exaggerates the danger of this threat.
Category: Guns
Looking a Little Upset There Petey
Peter Hamm is looking a little angry these days. I’m pretty sure Justice Kennedy didn’t help his mood any after it was all over. I think in this picture he was confronting some of our megaphone wielding bozos who were provoking a confrontation outside of the Courthouse. Petey got angry, but to the best of my knowledge, he didn’t threaten to shoot any of them.
Note to pro-gun activists: Leave the megaphones at home. We’re not dirty hippy protestors. You don’t want to be a hippy, do you? The object of rallying like that is to get your happy, smiling, articulate face in front of the media. Megaphone amplified anger doesn’t persuade people, and persuading people is the object of the game.
Downrange TV Heller Coverage
Michael Bane also has some coverage over at Downrange TV. You can hear oral arguments here. It’s a little better than the C-SPAN feed that NRA links to. Also see here for commentary by John Lott, Jim Shepherd, Michael Bane, and Dave Kopel. There’s also coverage of the press conferences behind that link too.
Pennsylvania “Castle Doctrine” Vote
I received the following from the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs:
The House debated the “Reporting Lost & Stolen” amendment till 11:00 last night. It was mostly a speech by Rep. Parker (Phila.) about why this was needed and how it was not an infringement on our rights to buy a firearm. A few other representatives spoke against it, then Rep. Cutler asked to have the amendment withdrawn saying it was unconstitutional based on court rulings that said a convicted felon could not be charged for not reporting, because he would be incriminating himself.
Before Rep. Cutler finished, and any votes could be taken, discussion was cut off because of their rule to end session by 11:00pm.
They were to pick up where they left off at 11:00am this morning. (7 more amendments were filed on the bill last night.) However, when they got to the floor at 11:00, the Democrats were short by about 8 legislators, as they were all in Philly for the Obama rally this morning. When the Republicans made a motion to bring a bill up for vote, the Democrats had to quickly recess for some emergency. They kept everyone waiting around all day to give the 8 missing members a chance to return. When that didn’t happen, they eventually recessed for the day.
They do not return for session until March 31st.
Rumor was that they didn’t have the votes to pass their amendments, so they were going to try to table any further votes on amendments so we couldn’t get any of our amendments voted on either. We’ll have to wait till they return to see what develops.
Thanks to the NRA and John Hohenwarter for working with us on these issues! And thanks to everyone who took the time to contact their legislators on these issues.
It’s good news they don’t think they have enough to get the amendment passed, but it sucks we have to wait until March 31st.
More Heller Opinion
From Professor Orin Kerr at the Volokh Conspiracy. Go check it out. Also be sure to check out Bob Liebowitz’s commentary here.
Paging Bob Ricker
Bob Ricker of AHSA is back haunting Bitter’s blog in the comments here.
Schoenke Schmoozing With Peter and Paul?
Word on the street is that Paul Helmke and Peter Hamm of The Brady Campaign were paling around with Ray Schoenke from American Hunters and Shooters Assocation outside of Heller oral arguments. Nope, they aren’t even trying anymore to hide it.
Maybe Schoenke was just making sure that 5 grand he gave them when they were HCI had been well spent.
Transcript
Anyone who missed the oral arguments can access the transcript and the audio over at NRA’s Heller page.
Best Line in Oral Arguments
I’m paraphrasing here, but as best as I can from memory [Thanks to Uncle for finding the exact quote], when Justice Scalia Roberts was asking Dellinger about trigger locks, and Dellinger claimed they could be removed quickly, since it was an easy three digit combination. Scalia Roberts quipped back:
“So then you turn on the lamp, you pick up your reading glasses…”
Everyone in the room chuckled. I’m thinking Justice Scalia Roberts is not a fan of trigger locks.
Roberts Not Liking Standards of Review
Anyone notice in the oral arguments that Roberts took a swipe at having standards of review like “strict scrutiny” “lesser scrutiny” etc? He indicated that since we’re starting with a fresh slate, why don’t we just define the scope of the right, and not worry about what level of scrutiny to apply. I’m thinking he’s setting up to uphold the lower court, punt on the standard of scrutiny, and just have a ruling that says the DC statutes in question violate the second amendment.
That would be the ideal outcome, in my opinion. Leave it to the lower courts to decide how to implement the ruling in regards to restructuring The District’s gun laws.