Shall Not Be Questioned – Page 783 – The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …

SAF Chicago Case Update

John Richardson has some detailed information about the Ezell v. Chicago case, sponsored by SAF. Looks like the judge denied the preliminary injunction. It’s amazing what the City of Chicago is claiming in this case. They are literally worried that the parking lots of shooting ranges present a potential for criminal activity and accidents, and therefore we have to be protected from ourselves. That’s what they think of us. The judge in this case also seems to be treating the right to bear arms as a property right, which I think is improper.

It’s a shame we don’t have a more friendly Congress. I’d get Congress to charter a few indoor ranges in Chicago using their militia powers, open them to the public, and defy Daley to try to do anything about it.

Fueling Unrest in Mexico

Clearly this recent phenomena of American guns being shipped to Mexico to fuel unrest must be stopped. Where was the ATF and ICE to stop this? How did they get the guns across the border? Clearly they needed more funding. Did H&R sell this first to the Mexican police? (at least I think it’s an H&R, not sure).

NRA-PVF Starting to Spend Money

Even the New York Times is saying a favorable word this year. The bill is going to be fifteen to twenty million this election cycle. One of the ads they are running is against Joe Sestak:

In a year that most people aren’t too concerned about guns, this ad doesn’t give it more than a passing mention. The messaging works out in Pennsylvania because we have pro-gun conservative Republicans running against anti-gun leafy Democrats, in both our major state-wide races. Dems here haven’t gotten the message that being anti-gun is uncool yet.

The great challenge this year is that everyone is worried about big government, deficits, spending, and the economy. A message that Joe Sestak is a wild-eyed gun grabber isn’t going to carry as much water as saying he’s an out of touch big government politician, who, by the way, doesn’t care much for your Second Amendment rights.

Duty to Retreat

The York Daily Record correctly points out that this case has nothing to do with castle doctrine. The guy basically fired a shot into the air, blocked the thief from leaving with another vehicle, and held him at gun point until police arrived. He has not been (and should not be) charged.

This falls pretty squarely under prosecutorialÂ discretion, probably significantly bolstered by the fact that the prosecution is well aware they will have a hard time finding a jury that’s going to convict this guy. In many ways, the civil immunity is the real change Castle Doctrine brings, despite the fact that it also revises the self-defense law. It’s highly unlikely that anywhere in Pennsylvania you’ll be convicted of shooting someone who has broken into your home, no matter what the law may technically say. Dave Hardy recently told of a similar situation in Arizona:

Here in AZ, with real juries, the results are quite different. A prosecutor once told me that he’d urged the County Attorney to stop prosecuting homeowners who shot burglars in the back. They’d just lost three of those cases in a row. Whatever the statute law might be, jurors saw one fewer burglar as a good thing and would not convict a fellow homeowner for having done a good thing.

Trial by jury is one of the most important legal institutions we inherited from English Law. It doesn’t really matter what the Arizona Revised Statutes or the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes say, if you can’t find a jury that will convict under those circumstances, the practice is, for all practical purposes, legal. Trial by jury is one of the great checks the people have on their government. Self-defense law is probably one of the areas the people differ most greatly from the officials who serve them. Castle Doctrine doesn’t do much more than bring statutory law into line with what most people think it already is, or should be. It’s not surprising, then, that the law has broad, bi-partisan support. Yet the politicians still don’t really want to vote on it, as the current debacle in the Pennsylvania Senate is showing us.

Philly Area Not Doing so Well

I’m not surprised we’ve lost so many jobs, considering what an awful place Pennsylvania is to do business. We have among the highest corporate tax rates in the country, and our government is increasingly looking for ways to make it even worse. If I were going to start a business, I’d go to an up and coming market. This area has been my home all my life, but it has no future as long as the people keep sending politicians to Harrisburg that make anti-business policy choices, and vote for bloated an expensive government. And this is just the ‘burbs I’m talking about. The City of Philadelphia is a basket case in its own right, and beginning to rival such stellar cities as Detroit and Baltimore in sheer craptitude.

The only thing we have going for us is housing prices haven’t taken as bad a beating as other markets, because we never bubbled very much since even in good times no one wants to live here.

Final Push for Castle Doctrine

It’s stuck in the Senate. Click here to see the NRA alert and who to call. We also need to reiterate to State Senators that we expect a clean bill. Efforts are underway to amend the bill. We have to do this now, or it’s dead for this session, and we have to go through this all again.

Gun Marketing in the Past

This even makes me cringe, so I can’t imagine what a certain someone would think of it. Flies in the face of modern assumptions about safe gun handling, in terms of not relying on mechanical safeties. Also clearly before the days when we sued people over anything. I can’t imagine a teddy bear maker today saying their product was “absolutely safe” let alone a gun maker.

UPDATE: I should probably make clear what made me cringe is a gun being marketed as “absolutely safe,” rather than children being used in the context of marketing guns, or being photographed with guns. Obviously I have no problem with messages like this,Â this, or this.

Just Like “Lost and Stolen”

Upper Moreland Township, in suburban Philadelphia, wants to fine citizens who don’t lock their cars. Funny, I kind of thought the punishment for that was built-in.

Maybe We Need an ROA

Maybe we do need an organization to defend all of the Bill of Rights, and to defend traditional republican (small r) values. If so, I eagerly await Gun Owners of America to change its name to Republicans of America. It would be a more accurate description if this post at Red State is to be taken seriously:

While I donâ€™t know enough about theÂ Gun Owners of America yet, it is interesting to note that (contrary to the more liberal-leaning NRA)Â the GOA has given Tim Walz a â€œDâ€ rating. Â Perhaps the GOA is looking at the other nine Amendments to the Constitution and realizes that a politician who is good on one Amendment, but despises freedom in so many other ways, isnâ€™t all that he portrays himself to be?

That’s great for GOA. But I have to wonder why this doesn’t look like a record of support on our issue. If GOA wants to become a generic freedom organization, I think that’s great, but they should give up all pretense of being a gun rights group if they want to go there.

Self-Defense Opponents Won’t Give Up

I have a headache. I don’t think it was caused by beating my head against the wall over getting a simple bill like Castle Doctrine passed, but I’m pretty sure that’s why it won’t go away.

Good News: Today there should be movement in the Senate. (Link courtesy of reader Adam Z.) This is particularly important because of this is the week it has to pass to make it to the Governor’s desk.

Bad News: Reports that the anti’s just won’t give up on this one. This may mean a problem with amendments. If any amendments are added, the bill is dead. There’s no opportunity for the House to take it up again. It must be a clean bill.

Back to what makes this so infuriating: How on earth does a bill that passed the House by a 4-1 margin end up being so hard to pass through the legislature? This isn’t even a gun bill, it’s an issue of clarifying the self-defense laws!