Shall Not Be Questioned – Page 635 – The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …

ATF, FBI Sold Guns to Felons

Howard Nemerov points to evidence that shows ATF and FBI collaborated to sell guns to people who were convicted felons, who otherwise could not pass a NICS check:

When asked about the breakdown, Stephen Fischer, a spokesman for the NICS System, said the FBI had no comment. However, an ATF agent who worked on the Fast and Furious investigation, told Fox News that NICS officials called the ATF in Phoenix whenever their suspects tried to buy a gun. That conversation typically led to a green light for the buyers, when it should have stopped them.

I don’t think I really care whether or not Holder says he didn’t know about it. This happened on his watch and he should step down. This operation is looking more and more reckless and illegal every day.

Ohio Courts Dodge Second Amendment Issue

The case involves someone convicted of a drug misdemeanor so minor, there’s not even jail time for it. The court mentions the Second Amendment argument, and then proceeds to completely ignore it. Eugene Volokh notes:

So it seems that the court is concluding that the Second Amendment doesnâ€™t protect people who have even a minor misdemeanor marijuana possession conviction â€” not a felony, not a violent misdemeanor, not even a misdemeanor that could yield any time at all in jail, and not anything that involves a finding that the defendant is an illegal drug user right now â€” without at all explaining why this should indeed be so. Strikes me as pretty hard to defend; or am I missing something here?

I’d say it’s pretty hard to defend, and I find it interesting how many lower level courts just want to dispose of the Second Amendment issue, usually through citation of the “longstanding prohibitions” language in Heller. I think it’s probably constitutional to deny Second Amendment rights to people addicted to drugs much in the same manner as people who are mentally ill. But that prohibition shouldn’t be permanent. It seems ridiculous that someone could suffer a lifetime prohibition for a crime that doesn’t rank much higher than a traffic ticket.

Dum Dum Bullets

Lots of talk on the internet and media about the Norwegian killer using “exploding bullets.” I’m going to bet this is not the case, and this is an instance of Norwegian doctors not having a lot of experience treating gunshot wounds. Most rifle rounds are going to fragment and cause horrific wound channels.

The term dum dum bullet is somewhat antiquated, and to use it to describe modern JHP ammunition is not really correct. The name comes from the Dum Dum arsenal, near Calcutta in British India, where they were invented. Their inventor was Neville Bertie-Clay. The bullet he invented is today what we would call a soft tip, or soft point, which is now commonly used in hunting, but rarely used for police or civilian self-defense rounds.

It’s been disheartening but not surprising watching how ignorantly the press is misconstruing what “Dum Dum” bullets actually are. They are, essentially, common hunting rounds. They do not explode inside the body. Rifle rounds, traveling typical speeds of about mach 2.5 to mach 3, generate enough energy to cause horrific wounds in their own right. That’s why they are used in hunting.

Liquor Control Woes

Capitol Ideas continues to document the back and forth in regards to privatizing the state liquor system:

Speaking to reporters in his Capitol offices last week,Â Scarnati, R-Jefferson, said legislators need to “take the handcuffs off” theÂ Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board by allowing the agency to vary its prices by region and to try different mark-ups for different products. Allowing the agency to act more like a private business will drive up the state’s potential asking price for the current system, he said.

The problem here is that when you have monopoly pricing power, you have to put handcuffs on the body that wields that power. The PLCB does not and can not act like a private business because it is not a private business. The Capitol Ideas article speaks of Scarnati’s concern that we do not know the true value of the system. They could give it away for all I care. My goal is a decent selection of bourbon and scotch without having to smuggle it across the neutral zone.

Don’t Worry Robb

Robb notes that he was filmed on TV committing a felony, based on a section of Florida law that would seem to prohibit firing in a shooting range. By my reading of the statute, because discharging a firearm at a shooting range is not “wanton or malicious,” this crime can’t be applied to such an act.

Obvious Headline of the Day

“Norway’s tough firearms laws prove easy to ignore” I’ve been watching some of our opponents over the weekend coming to terms with how this happened. How did he get the gun? You know, we’ve been telling you it doesn’t work. Either way, one thing is certain, Norway’s gun laws are about to get much tougher.

Even as an opponent of gun control, if you asked me what kind of potential killer gun control would be most likely to deter, I would have suggested mass shooters, since they usually come from law abiding backgrounds, and may not have the black market connections to illegally obtain firearms. But that doesn’t appear to be the case. These kinds of mass killings seem to happen in countries with strict gun laws as readily as those in countries with relatively free gun laws. The death tolls seem to be generally higher in the more restrictive countries as well.

Einstein or Marylyn Monroe?

Go have a look at this image, and then take off your glasses. This has been making it’s way around, and I thought it was pretty neat. I’m not actually near sighted enough without glasses that I see the alternate image, so I had to blur my eyes a bit.

Leave Gun Safety to Experts

~~CSGV would like to think they know a thing or two about gun safety. They do not. Otherwise they would not be promoting~~ [UPDATE: Completely misread this tweet. CSGV isn’t promoting it, they are having it pitched to them.] This product is dangerous:

So let me see if I understand how this product works. The bar goes through the trigger guard? Brilliant! What could possibly go wrong? They warn you not to use it to store loaded weapons, but the fundamental design is flawed and unnecessary. It is, without a doubt, completely inferior to a product like this, which is what I’d recommend if you have children in the house. It has the added advantage of being able to safely store a loaded firearm. I believe trigger locks are inferior and dangerous for the same reason. Cable locks are great for child access prevention, if used properly, but not so great for theft prevention.

Warnings about not storing loaded guns or not, someone is going to get injured if this product is widely adopted. It’s a bad idea, and these folks should be ashamed of themselves for promoting it.

51 Senators Oppose UN ATT

This basically spells doom for the possibility of ratification of the UN Arms Trade Treaty. I don’t think there was any possibility that the Senate would have ratified, but it’s good to have them on record, regardless. The real danger of the UN treaty is not so much that the blue helmeted troopers would come during the stealth of night and take your guns, but that the rest of the world would refuse to allow firearms to be exported from their countries to the Untied States, due to the fact that the United States lacks sufficient international controls. That’s an awfully large percentage of the available civilian stock.

Note that both Chris Cox, and Wayne LaPierre, have been spending time at Turtle Bay. If anyone doubts the intent of the governmental and NGO interests pursuing this treaty, just look at the reaction to the Canadian proposal to exempt hunting weapons:

Gun-control advocates following the treaty negotiations blasted Canada’s stance, calling it a “poison pill for treaty negotiations.”

Remember, they don’t care about grandpa’s deer gun. Yeah right.

Law Dog on Canton Video

“As a law enforcement professional my-own-self, I state here and now that that man makes me ashamed of my chosen profession.“