Shall Not Be Questioned – Page 256 – The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …

California Court of Appeals Rejects Assault Weapon Challenge

The decision is here. It’s important to note that this is a California state court and not federal court, but since the McDonald decision, the Second Amendment is applicable to the states and state courts are bound to consider it. Well, consider it the California Appeals court did, and decided the right was essentially meaningless, and because an AK-47 is at least as dangerous as a short barreled shotgun, it could be banned, since Heller agreed short barreled shotguns could be banned. Dave Hardy notes:

The inclination of the court is obvious. The situation probably indicates how essential it is to “develop a record” at the trial level. What proportion of firearms are “assault weapons”? One of the answers is that over 20% of current rifle production is by manufacturers who make nothing but AR-platform rifles.

Trial courts are finders of fact, so having trial evidence that these are, in fact, weapons in common use and not unusual (I’d note that Heller says dangerous and unusual, not dangerous or unusual), could help on appeal. I also don’t think one can single out a single model of firearm. I could find plenty of handguns by model or description that are unusual, but few would argue ought to be banned because they fit inside a broader type of gun that’s common. I think you have to consider firearms by functional class, in other words, can you ban or restrict semi-automatic rifles? Bolt action rifles? Lever action? Machine guns? Not by singling out a single model by name, or some obscure feature that doesn’t have any real bearing on how people normally classify firearms.

But then again, I don’t really think the courts give a crap, to be honest. I’ve gotten little indication that most state and lower federal courts, and even most federal circuit court show much interest in seriously evaluating the current state of the law, and making an honest attempt to construct a meaningful right.

A Woodpecker Control Bleg

I’ve had a female Downy Woodpecker whose taking a liking to the Type 111 siding on my house, like she has a calendar that says “From 11AM to 2PM: Go Peck on That Dude’s House.” Since it’s not the right season for woodpeckers to be drumming, and since female woodpeckers don’t do that anyway, my first belief was that I had wood boring insects. A quick romp around the attic with a flashlight and a knife showed no sign of insect infestation in the studs or siding. Whew.

I came across research that showed woodpeckers like Type 111 siding painted in earthy colors. There are insects that like to lay eggs in the channels, which the woodpeckers eat, and then peck around at other parts of the hollow sounding siding to see what else they can find. She doesn’t seem to be boring, as if to make a nesting site. She’s chipped away not very deep in a few areas. It could also be that she just like the sound my house makes when she pecks on it.

Now, if I lived in the middle of nowhere, this would be a prime opportunity to practice the three S’s, but I’m not living in an area where that can exactly be done discretely, and I’m concerned that she’s pecking pretty high up on the house, and a miss with an air gun could damage the flashing or overhang on the roof. So I’m stuck with other forms of control. She didn’t seem too impressed with me chasing her off with a super soaker. She’d leave for a while then come back pecking just as before. I thought about an airsoft gun, but I’m concerned that would maim the bird, and I don’t think that would be very humane.

The only solution I could come with is appeasement. If she’s hungry, she can have her fill of suet, rather than peck at my house.

BirdFeeder

What other control techniques have people found effective for dealing with woodpeckers, short of lethal means or trapping? So far she hasn’t done very serious damage to the siding, but it’s bad enough I’m going to do some puttying and repainting up there once I’ve been rid of her.

Interpol Secretary General Says We Need to Talk about Armed Citizens

The current Interpol Secretary General, the first American to hold the post, says that after the Westgate Mall act of terror, it’s time to start having a serious conversation on the value of armed citizens. He basically highlights that to minimize the risk of these kinds of attacks, we can go to a police state where you need exceptional security to go into any building or there’s the option of an armed populace:

“Societies have to think about how they’re going to approach the problem,” Noble said. “One is to say we want an armed citizenry; you can see the reason for that. Another is to say the enclaves are so secure that in order to get into the soft target you’re going to have to pass through extraordinary security.”

He notes that these terrorists didn’t go to a place like Texas to find victims. They went to a place where citizens are largely unarmed.

Looking up his story, this is a complete break from so many things you would expect about a man with his background. He was born in New Jersey and went to New England for college. He’s a tenured professor, and he served in the Clinton Administration as Undersecretary for Enforcement at the Department of the Treasury. That means he was also involved in the “review” of ATF’s actions at Waco. He has previously been so well liked by his colleagues in the international law enforcement world that his last two elections as Secretary General have been supported unanimously.

Mini News Links

For Monday:

Daryl Metcalfe wants to impeach Kathleen Kane for refusing to defend the state’s marriage laws. Just the kind of thing we want Corbett to have to deal with as we head into a shaky re-election campaign.

Gun T-Shirt ruines Joan Peterson’s vacation, and it looks like the Ugly American may be an ugly Australian. Yes, it’s an offensive T-shirt I think someone would have to be a jerk to wear, but usage is different in other cultures, and someone noticed this looked like non-American usage of the c-word. Don’t let your bigotry get the better of you on vacation!

Looks like another showdown is shaping up in Illinois. They won’t leave well enough alone.

The War on Women continues.

The front-runner in the New York Mayor’s race thinks Bloomberg didn’t go far enough on gun control. He doesn’t think there’s enough socialism to Bloomberg’s activism.

Another school shooting in Nevada.

UPDATE: Colorado wrestles with guns in pot stores. Federally it’s going to be problematic, because selling drugs is a federal crime, and there are sentencing enhancements if you have a gun with you. Additionally, there are federal crimes for carrying a firearm during the commission of other federal crimes.

The Remington 700 Controversy Continues

Someone is calling for criminal charges against Remington execs because he claims the Remington 700 trigger system is dangerous.

The Aleksich lawsuit was over a 1988 incident similar to the one that killed Barberâ€™s son. Fourteen-year-old Brent Aleksich was shot through both legs by his brother, Brock, when the Remington 700 Brock was holding fired after he released the safety, the lawsuit said.

Of course, the question I would have is why you were pointing a rifle at your brother’s legs? This is why we have the four rules. I don’t know enough about the Remington 700 to have an opinion as to whether the trigger is flawed, but this is why we don’t point guns at people.

Campus Carry on the Hot Seat in Pennsylvania

There are currently fourteen Pennsylvania State Universities that are looking at their concealed weapons policy, citing recent court decisions, and a concern for being good neighbors. I tend to think that the regents of state universities are political subdivisions of the state, and therefore preemption should apply to them. Currently, there’s no law in Pennsylvania that prohibits someone with an LTC from carrying on a college campus. Most colleges and universities ban firearms from campus by policy rather than law.

Some 5.7 Myths Busted

There’s a lot of talk in the gun world about the FN-Five-Seven. It’s regularly demonized as a cop killer. The folks at The Firearms Blog put some of the claims to the test with both the sporting ammunition, and with the S190 armor piercing ammunition that is not available to civilians. Their conclusion?

SS197 sporting ammunition from a handgun will not penetrate IIIA armor
SS190 armor piercing ammunition from a handgun will defeat soft body armor
5.7 from a 16â€³ barrel will slice through body armor, but only FMJ will defeat stronger stuff
Surplus German helmets are really, really strong

Read the whole thing. Without the special SS190 armor piercing rounds, which are restricted to government and law enforcement only, the Five-Seven won’t penetrate soft body armor, and won’t penetrate tougher armor even with SS190 unless it’s fired from a rifle.

On Revolvers

Caleb caused quite a stir when he noted that wheelguns are obsolete. Tim followed up, noting that the issue was capacity. Tam notes that the correct word is “obsolescent.”

Any bets on how long it takes for the first commenter to say “If’n my revolver’s so obsole… obsolecs… obso-whatever, why don’t you stand over there and let me shoot it at you?” Hey, a Model A is obsolescent, but I wouldn’t bet you couldn’t drive one to New York.

I used to carry an N-frame sometimes when I hiked, mostly because it’s a cheaper and more reasonable option over a Desert Eagle, if you want a pistol capable of firing a cartridge that can top 1000ft-lbs of muzzle energy. I’ve never had much interest in revolvers other than as a trail gun and for IHMSA competition, back when I had time for that.

Meetings, Meetings, and News

As you might be able to tell, Friday posting is getting more difficult for me, since Friday is basically wall-to-wall meetings for me these days at work, and I’ve been busy enough with other work things to not really have time to do post-aheads the night before. Technically we have launched our new product that I have been working on since starting the new job nearly two years ago, but things don’t really get started until we make a sale. We’re getting pretty close, but it’s still crunch time. But with that, here’s the news for Friday, even though it’s Saturday.

Celebrate diversity. Wait, aren’t they pacifists?

Jim Geraghty has been pretty pessimistic about Ken Cuccinelli’s electoral prospects. McAullife has been throwing the standard “War on Women” playbook against Cuccinelli, who is a darling of social conservatives. Why does this tactic work so effectively in swing states? This is a question the GOP needs to ask itself.

What caliber for giant killer hornets?

JayG has landed a job as a professional gun writer! Congrats! Also in the “Congrats” genre, Weer’d is now father to a new baby girl.

Crushing dissent mercilessly. But hey, we’re told nothing like that could ever happen here by the same kinds of people.

People are upset Magpul hasn’t up and moved yet. Our company is currently looking to move, because we’re running out of space at our current location. We’re only a 25 person company. Trust me, even finding the right space takes a good bit of time. I would advise patience among gun owners.

“Common sense” used to involve banning guns.

I hope the Supreme Court puts the smack down on this practiceÂ among federal prosecutors, because it’s egregiously wrong.

Bloomberg has his fingerprints all over Rahm’s push for new gun control laws.

The Gift the Keeps on Giving

More dead people in Mexico thanks to the Obama Administration’s gun walking scandal… err… sorry… grenade walking scandal. This scandal would have brought down a Republican administration, had something like this happened on their watch. But as it is, it was too easily dismissed as the work of lower-level incompetence.

UPDATE: Just to be clear, the title is sarcastic.