Local police in Wisconsin favor the new concealed carry law. Shocking what happens when you bother to look beyond big city police chiefs appointed by big city politicians.
Veteran Denied Second Amendment Rights
Garry McCarthy think federal gun laws are racist. By contrast Chicago’s are just fine by him. For Chicago’s un-racist gun laws, they seem to be denying an awful lot of African Americans:
He once legally owned a gun, but lost his privileges roughly 15 years ago after firing a gun in his backyard to scare a pack of dogs. Since then, he said, there’s been incident after incident at his home, including fires, broken windows and other disturbances.
I heard his attorney last night on Cam & Company, and his line of argument is that such a minor ordinance violation, such as this one, cannot be grounds for denying a fundamental constitutional right. That sounds like a good line of reasoning.
DiFi: No Guns for Political Dissidents
Diane Feinstein is getting on her closing the foreign felon loophole hobby horse again. For those unaware, about six years ago the Supreme Court ruled that the Gun Control Act’s prohibition, worded that someone convicted of certain offenses “in any court,” only applies to convictions and adjudications in American Courts. Feinstein wants to extend that to foreign courts, because clearly we can’t have Cuban dissidents, or other such dangerous persons who were not good Comrades, and displeased the party.
The fact that foreign courts routinely defecate on what we would regard as due process, even in civilized countries such as Japan, apparently is not a concern to DiFi. This is not surprising, since I doubt she’s all that thrilled about due process here, at least not when it comes to rights not valued by the left.
Do Newspapers Even Hire Editors Anymore?
I was reading an article about a cat hoarder (these seem to happen about once every few months in this area) from the newspaper of record where I grew up, and I was amused at the sad lack of editorial oversight:
Shelter workers and volunteers spent much of Wednesday afternoon vaccinating and bathing the cats, as well as applying flee vaccine.
One of the best flee-removal treatments, Calgiano said, was Dawn soap.
“It kills fleas on contact,†she said.
I was completely unaware there was a flee vaccine on the market now. Amazing what the animal health divisions of pharmaceutical companies are coming out with these days. The big problem with cats is that some of them just get the wanderlust, and then one day you never see them again. No parent will ever have to explain to teary-eyed little Mary why Rufus the cat wandered off. We truly live in miraculous times.
But all snark aside, I know the business is tough these days, but what I think boggles the mind is they got it right on the first and fourth try.
Crapping on the First Amendment Because You Hate the Second
This looks to me like a pretty clear cut First Amendment violation by a Chicago suburb:
“Without legal authority and in violation of the Constitution, my client, a federally licensed firearms dealer, was delayed by the village when he initially applied for a weapons dealers business license in Norridge,†Maksym said.
“When village officials realized they couldn’t stop him from obtaining a gun dealer’s license, they arbitrarily imposed more restrictions on him without any legal basis.â€
After failing to keep Kole from opening, Maksym said, his client was restricted by the village from advertising.
That should be a slam dunk in court. It might be permissible for a local governmental entity to regulate advertising generally, but it do it on the basis of content has no basis. I just hope his attorney is decent. They should not be able to condition the exercise of one constitutional right on the surrendering of another.
Last Day of Work
Today is my last day on the job. I will receive my last paycheck, along with a generous severance. Despite being short on things to do for the past few days, I do have one last task I need to do today. Next Tuesday I will do something I’ve never done in my life, which is file for unemployment. Because my entrepreneurial adventure has definitely fallen through (for now), I will begin my job search then as well.
Ten years ago I was 27, and this was an entrepreneurial adventure for me then, as I was one of the early employees. It’s only fitting I should be among its last. I survived through a lot of bad times, and I have to admit, looking back, it was mostly bad times. It was an A+ idea turned over to a D- management team, who proceeded to essentially blow through millions of dollars without ever giving the A+ idea a chance. We shed the D students a few years ago, but it was too late. I still want to give that A+ idea a chance, but I now have no money to do so.
It makes one wonder how many revolutionary ideas have been lost in the course of human events because they people who were tasked with developing and nurturing those ideas were complete morons with no understanding or appreciation for the idea or the people who created it. That might accurately describe our country, sadly, but my involvement in politics and this company is because I don’t accept that outcome gracefully.
Dangerous Insurrectionists
Speaking of in the Tank
CNN softballs an interview with Michael Bloomberg, describing New York City’s gun laws as “wonderful.”
No wonder no one watches CNN anymore. This isn’t journalism.
NRA News Interviews Fired Whistleblower
It looks like the retaliations against ATF “Fast and Furious” whistleblowers are continuing. NRA News has an interview with one of the whistleblowers who was recently fired, illegally, in retaliation:
We’re Talking Hull Crushing Depths Here
Titled “Outgunned,†the 26-page report recommends stronger penalties for “straw purchasers†who illegally buy guns for others and a reporting requirement for multiple purchases of long guns, such as AK-47s. Cummings will hold a forum on the report Thursday on Capitol Hill.
It’s really puzzled me how multiple long-gun reporting would have helped this situation, given that ATF knew about these sales, because they were reported by dealers, and told the dealers to process them anyway. In short, even given what they knew about, they couldn’t mount a competent enforcement operation.
And increasing penalties against straw purchasing? How is that going to help when ATF is facilitating straw purchasing? The penalty for straw purchasing is ten years in prison. How exactly is that toothless? Well, it’s pretty clear why:
Larry Alt, a lawyer and senior ATF field agent, testified that “we don’t get traction with the U.S. attorney’s office. They don’t follow through. They don’t want to prosecute cases.â€
That’s Obama’s justice department, folks. Get a gun control supporting administration and suddenly prosecutions under gun laws fall… for people who are actually criminals.
Agents also said their efforts to combat the cartels would be strengthened with a federal statute criminalizing gun trafficking.
Isn’t gun trafficking already illegal? And pardon me if I’m not worried such a law is going to make it difficult for people like you and me to “traffic” firearms across state lines for the purpose of recreation and competition.
Sari Horwitz chooses to help deflect blame on to our gun laws because like many of our opponents, the only gun violence they really care about is that which can be used to advocate for new controls.
UPDATE: John Richardson notes that the report in question was available on the WaPo web site before it was available on .gov servers. More evidence the WaPo is just a mouthpiece.