Shall Not Be Questioned – Page 124 – The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …

Second Circuit Upholds SAFE Act, Mostly

This is not really much of a surprise, as the Second Circuit has been in open defiance of Heller and McDonald since the Court handed down those decisions. The Second Circuit sustained the unconstitutionality of the seven round load limit, made by the lower court, but also invalidated the ban on the pump-action Remington 7615.

You can read the whole opinion here. They followed the same reasoning as the Heller II court, arguing that they are indeed in common use, and typically possessed for lawful purposes. But they put all that aside and said they could be banned anyway. The reasoning is even worse than in Heller II.

Heightened scrutiny need not, however, â€œbe akin to strict Â scrutiny when a law burdens the Second Amendmentâ€ — particularly when that burden does not constrain the Amendmentâ€™s “coreâ€ area of protection. The instant bans are dissimilar from D.C.â€™s unconstitutional prohibition of â€œan entire class of â€˜armsâ€™ that is overwhelmingly chosen by American society for [the] lawful purposeâ€ of selfâ€defense.94 New York and Connecticut have not banned an entire class of arms. Indeed, plaintiffs themselves acknowledge that there is no class of firearms known as â€œsemiautomatic assault weaponsâ€â€”a descriptor they call purely political in nature.95 Plaintiffs nonetheless argue that the legislation does prohibit â€œfirearms of a universally recognized typeâ€”semiautomatic.â€ Not so. Rather, both New York and Connecticut ban only a limited subset of semiautomatic firearms, which contain one or more enumerated militaryâ€style features.

In other words, it bans an entire class of arms, but we’ll just use some trickery and tell you how it really doesn’t. After that it’s your basic Intermediate Scrutiny two-step. One wonders why the Court of Appeals even bothered with the first part of the analysis.

Again, the lower courts are in open revolt against Heller and McDonald, and I do not think the Supreme Court has any stomach to put the revolt down. If we can win the White House in 2016, we need to call on Congress to save the states which treat the Second Amendment as if it were toilet paper.

I Guess Bloomberg Forgot to Tell the Israelis Civilians Don’t Stop Mass Shooters

From a story over at Breitbart talking about how Israelis who can’t gun licenses are still arming themselves with whatever they can find:

â€œ[O]nly 2.5 percent of the population can legally carry a firearm,â€ the Times of IsraelÂ reportedÂ in 2012. â€œBut those who are licensed to carry a weapon have proved capable of acting swiftly and effectively time and again to neutralize attackers during acts of terrorism.â€

Armed civilians have often stopped terror attacks.

I’d note that more than 2.5% of the US population can legally carry firearms. If it works in Israel, why would it suddenly not work here? No, if you’re an American you’re apparently more likely to shoot yourself with it.

Punching Back Twice as Hard

Mockery is a powerful way to influence public opinion. This bit from Californians Opposing Gun Restrictions is brilliant:

How’s That “Corporate Gun Lobby” Meme Going?

This article from CNN Money destroys the notion that NRA is funded by the gun companies and is primarily concerned with selling guns for the industry. Keep this article link handy when you see this meme pop up on the Internet. It pops up often. There’s an important psychological reason that the gun control groups push this meme hard. No one really feels bad for corporations, and especially people on the left feel empowered by taking on entrenched corporate interest.

If NRA is just a corporation representing merchants of death out of make a profit, you can call them terroristsÂ and keep smiling at yourself in the mirror. If you’re fighting to stop the tainted profits of an evil industry, you can go to bed at the end of the day feeling righteous.

But if instead you are calling millions of your fellow citizens terrorists, and fight to take away something your fellow Americans cherish and believe is very important, rather than being a Social Justice Warrior speaking truth to the corporate death machine, you instantly transform into a horrible person.

So don’t let them get away with telling themselves and their fellow travelers soothing untruths. Remember this article, and spread it forth. No one can accuse CNN of being conservative stooges.

Hillary Clinton Endorses Mass Confiscation of Firearms

Mass confiscation now seems to be the official policy of the Democratic front runner. When asked about the Australian and British models, Hillary responded:

Australia is a good example, Canada is a good example, the U.K. is a good example. Why? Each of them have had mass killings. Australia had a huge mass killing about 20-25 years ago, Canada did as well, so did the U.K. In reaction, they passed much stricter gun laws.

In the Australian example, as I recall, that was a buyback program. The Australian government, as part of trying to clamp down on the availability of automatic weapons, offered a good price for buying hundreds of thousands of guns.

No, Mrs. Clinton, Australia offered $200 per firearm, often for guns worth thousands, and you either took the money and turned over your gun, or you went to prison. Australia forcibly confiscated every semi-automatic rifle in the country, and then offered a pittance in return, as a “so sorry.” Great Britain forcibly confiscated every handgun in the country, upon penalty of going to prison. And they were successful. Why? Because both countries had registration, so the police knew exactly who had them. Universal Background Checks are really universal registration. That’s not an exaggeration, it’s the truth, and it is the primary reason the gun control folks want them. How do we know this? Because every time we’ve offered a UBC system that doesn’t involve the registration component, they’ve rejected it. Registration is what they want, and look to where it lead in Britain and Australia. Now you have both the Democratic President, and Democratic front-runner endorsing the British and Australian model.

Folks, we are in real serious trouble if she wins in 2016. Real serious.

How’s That Gun Control Working Out For Ya Pat?

Toomey still narrowly leads his potential Democratic opponents, but in terms of approval ratings, his real trouble seems to be with Republican voters:

A big part of what drags down Toomey’s overall approval numbers is that he’s not very popular even with Republican voters- only 42% approve of him to 27% who disapprove. But most of those people will still vote for him in a general election even if they don’t approve of him, which is why he still leads the Democratic field.

That’s probably true, and likely will continue to be true as long as Democrats are howling at the moon mad. But what could it be that turned Republican voters off to Toomey? Gee, I wonder. How many gun voters are just going to not vote in that race? I volunteered for the guy in 2010. I will not be going forward, unless he makes it up to me and renounces the Manchin-Toomey fiasco, and votes for some things I want.

I get Toomey is trying to position himself as a moderate, but in a state with high levels of gun ownership, a strong hunting tradition, and about 1 out of every 7 adults citizens having a License to Carry Firearms, ours was not the issue to choose to go soft on.

Off topic:

If you look at that poll it shows Hillary losing to the GOP front runners in Pennsylvania. The prospect of losing The Keystone State should be putting Dems into a panic. If we go red, Ohio certainly will, and so will Florida. Where’s Hill’s path to the White House without those states?

Democrats All Over Embracing Gun Control

Embracing the new Democratic Zeitgeist on gun control, Governor Terry McAuliffe of Virginia shows he’s not going to be left out of the gun hatin’ gameÂ with a new Executive Order which supposedly outlaws firearms in some state-owned buildings. I’m not sure how he has the authority to do that absent action from the legislature. He’s also setting up a task force and hot line. Oooh. That’s action for you. All Virginia needs is for politicians to set up a few more task forces and problem solved, right? In his EO, he repeats the lie that 40% of all guns are processed through private transactions. We know, in fact, it’s a lie because the states that have banned private transfers of firearms have seen very little in the way of transactions going through their background check systems. So either people are ignoring the law, or this was a very small subset of transactions to begin with.

Obama stated the other day that it was easier to buy guns in this country than books. That’s funny, because I’ve never had to go through a background check and fill out federal forms to buy a book. I don’t even have to show ID to buy a book. There aren’t people out there trying to make it illegal for me to lend a friend a book. You don’t need a license to write, print, distribute, or sell books. I don’t need to show I’m literate to and have a license to carry a book in public.

It’s ridiculous. Obama knows it’s ridiculous. McAuliffe knows it’s ridiculous. So why do they lie? Because they know the needle of public opinion is swinging more toward people not wanting more gun control laws. They need that needle to start swinging back in their favor, and one way to accomplish that is to lie to the ignorant about what the current federal gun laws are. They need people to believe that the gun business is like some kind of free wheeling, third world open air bazaar like you’d fine in Somalia. If people understood what the gun laws really are, they might be satisfied, or even a little ticked off.

The only way we can stop these people is by punishing them at the ballot box. McAuliffe and Obama are both lame ducks, so punish their party. Tim Kaine was up there with McAuliffe on stage, cheering him on. Tim Kaine is up for re-election in 2018, a midterm. In 2014, Mark Warner barely got by Ed Gillespie, and Warner is far more moderate. Kaine is vulnerable with the right candidate.

Magazine Confiscation Initiative Proposed in California

Mr. and Mrs. America, turn them all in. Jerry Brown has vetoed a lot of gun control bills (and signed a few too), and it would appear that Gavin Newsom, who is planning to run for Governor, is determined to get some of these failed bills via ballot measures in 2016. The magazine confiscation measure isn’t everything. The initiatives would also mandate background checks and new licensing for buying and selling ammunition.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you they aren’t after your guns. First they came for the magazines. A ban on semi-automatic rifles entirely is coming. You can count on it. California is lost. The only thing that can save it is either Congress acting under the 14th Amendment or the Courts, and the Courts have pretty much left Heller and McDonald to the buzzards.

Pro-Gun Dems Should Rally Around Jim Webb

Jim Webb is the only Democrat in the race who isn’t after your guns. So how about it, Liberal Gun Club? Sanders has always been a mixed bag on the issue, and he’s been distancing himself from the parts of his records that are actually good. Every Democrat except Jim Webb basically declared open war on us in that debate. If Democratic gun owners can’t give Webb a bit of a bump, to be honest, what good are you to the cause? If you only start clubs of like minded people who will gladly vote your gun rights away to Clinton, Sanders or O’Malley, really, what good are you? I’m not issuing this challenge because I hate you guys. I’d be thrilled if the Democrats supported gun rights, or were at least not openly hostile toward it. I’d be thrilled to see an insurgency in the Democratic Party that favored gun rights. This is your chance. He might not be the best candidate in the world, but the contrast on guns is stark here.

I in no way expect Webb to be the nominee. He doesn’t have the chops to win. But giving Webb a bump would help tremendously. The election in 2016 is sure to be very close, and if in 2016 the nominee does eventually lose the general election, the party might start to wonder if maybe those Jim Webb Democrats could have been useful. What’s made gun rights successful are single issue and near single issue voters who are capable of swinging close elections. Increasingly, the Dems are believing those numbers are already baked into the GOP voting figures, and the NRA can’t come up with new voters that are going to help Republicans and hurt Democrats. What keeps me up at night is I’m not sure they are wrong.

The Dem Debate Still Convinces Me This is a Cartoon Race

I think Jim Geraghty has summed it up best, “America Now Has An Openly Socialist Party”, but he notes about Hillary:

With that in mind, Hillary Clinton is the class of the field on that stage, and the only real obstacle to the nomination that remains is a Joe Biden bid. Compared with everyone else, sheâ€™s polished and knows what sheâ€™s doing. Even when sheâ€™s being robotic and inauthentic, sheâ€™s remembering her talking points, pivoting to her preferred issues. The software upgrades to her personality may look awkward when sheâ€™s alone, but sheâ€™s still a much, much better candidate than anybody else on that stage.

Geraghty is absolutely right about his assessment of where the Democratic Party has ended up, as the party of Democratic Socialism. But Bernie Sanders struck me as a formidable candidate given the populist zeitgeist among both the right and left baseÂ in this race. Back to Geraghty:

In one of the few surprises of the night, Bernie Sanders did his best to try to save her on her troubles with her personal e-mail server. Heâ€™s an old fool if he thinks Hillary will return the favor when he needs it.

That struck me as an unwise move on the part of Sanders. What better way to sink her as an establishment candidate than to ride that hobby horse? But I don’t agree with the rest of Geraghty’s assessment of Sanders. There is a tendency to want to dismiss populism — I speak as someone who has that tendency. There is no denying it anymore. Nothing I saw in the Dem primary convinces me that this is anything other than a race between Bernie Sander’s left-populism and Hillary Clinton’s left-establishmentarianism, and I think Bernie’s populism is going to be more appealing to the Democratic base.

I do have to agree with Geraghty about Jim Webb, in that “Webb has a good chance of winning the Democratic nomination in 1948.” But I don’t think anything I saw tonight will help Hillary stop feeling the Bern, and for anyone else to put serious pressure on either candidate.

God help us. The stakes are very high, and I don’t honestly think anyone who’s a real contender, on either side, is really anything other than a cartoon.