4th circuit rules against 2nd Amendment protection on semiautomatic firearms
Of course these semiautomatic rifles in common use are protected by the 2nd Amendment. They are no different, and no more militarily-useful, than any other semiautomatic rifle. And the 2nd Amendment absolutely does protect weapons of war; that's what it was written to do, to allow a militia to be raised to fight a war from the body of the people, bearing their own arms, to fight a war if necessary.
No doubt we will see this issue before the Supreme Court again soon. Hopefully, we have a better court now than we did then. In any event, while Heller has some language that goes both ways, these are semiautomatic rifles in common use and thus should fall squarely under the 2nd Amendment protections outlined in Heller.
Supreme Court rules in favor of 2nd Amendment in New York case
We'll get a lot of detailed commentary as people read the case, but the bottom line is that ordinary people won. The Supreme Court declared that New York's rules about carrying firearms and specifically their rules about who qualified for a license to do so were unconstitutional. New York pistol permits have a lot of discretion involved, and it was -- until this ruling -- very difficult for an ordinary person to get one. Celebrities, police, armed security, politicians and their donors, sure. Ordinary people not so much.
This result is not justice, but that's the nature of plea bargains. But the requirement to forfeit the specific firearms involved in the case stinks of anti-gun politics, especially as he can legally replace the weapons immediately.
Cornyn is a creature of the establishment despite his Texas senate seat. He needs to hear from Texans that negotiating for gun control is not acceptable.
NRA declines to file amicus brief in 2nd Amendment case
The NRA's failure to put legal pressure behind 2nd Amendment court cases has long been a reason for gun owners to support other groups that do apply that pressure. I've supported the 2nd Amendment Foundation for that purpose. Even the major gun cases early in this century, particularly Parker v DC which became the Heller case, did not have support from the NRA initially. The NRA had to seek to intervene in the case later.
It's not enough to just ask for a restraining order; there needs to be specific evidence of threats to do physical harm. Judges have long treated firearms as something they can seize upon the merest allegation, even just as a precautionary measure. That appears to be coming to an end.
This is good news. The NRA will be sidelined for a while, possibly even permanently. We need new people to get into the political side of this debate. Our gun rights are under serious attack right now.
Let's deal with the obvious first. A dog cannot smell the lack of a serial number.
Further, lack of a serial number doesn't make the gun illegal either. You just can't engage in commerce with it.
And guns don't have to be registered in most states, with or without a serial number, not even in California -- with an exception for so-called "assault weapons" which means basically anything with a reasonably sized magazine.
A dog can probably smell gun oil or fresh rubber or plastic. But a dog who alerts on anything with oil or plastic is useless to anyone who cares about accuracy. (What is your car made out of again?) To the sort of police who think "ghost guns" are actually a threat, though, such a dog would be quite useful. "Probable cause on four legs", as the saying goes, because such a dog will alert at every single traffic stop, 100% of the time, and that's only a problem when a savvy defense attorney requests the dog's scent records.
But hey, the police departments gets to show off their very expensive new pet who can smell gun oil. (Note: the police officer can probably smell it too; stuff is pretty pungent).
I just wish I could be there to watch the dog alert to his handler's own firearm.
Bottom line: Biden and his handlers have a hard-on for gun control and the BATFE plans to deliver whatever they can without going through Congress. The media and police in at least some areas are ready to get out their kneepads like it was the Clinton administration again.
Putting AR-15s (and inevitably all other magazine-fed, semiautomatic rifles, and probably most magazine-fed handguns) under the National Firearms Act would mean they would be registered and subject to draconian regulations. Arguably, it could even mean banning the manufacture of new AR-15s, and allowing individual states to ban ownership and possession retroactively.
As AR-15s are undeniably in common use, such a policy would be in direct contravention of the Heller case. And it's not just AR-15s.
Write your Senators to point this out and demand they refuse to confirm him. You might mention that twenty different state Attorneys General oppose his confirmation, and that he worked for the anti-gun lobby. You can also write Mitch McConnell even if you are out of his state.
Police officer investigated for Molon Labe keychain
The phrase has been associated with the right to keep and bears arms -- not just the three-percenters, which are a more recent development -- since ancient Greece. This whole panic over anyone who believes in America as the Constitution defined it is political bullshit. And no, the right to keep and bear arms is not extremist.
Texas Senate passes 2nd Amendment Carry -- now back to the House
It's going back to the House because both sides have passed slightly different legislation, but similar 2nd Amendment Carry legislation did pass the House recently. I would expect the House to pass this, and the governor to sign it.
It feels like the Supremes finally taking a gun case has opened the floodgates.
And obviously this is unconstitutional. If you have to remove three guns on the list in order to add one, eventually your list will have just one or two guns on it and no other models -- ever -- will be allowed.
This is a small but significant step forward, as the FOID card itself represents an effective state level registration list of who owns a gun even if it does not map individuals to specific firearms. The card itself also represents a prior permission requirement.
It looks like we are going to find out if we have 5 votes for gun rights on the Supreme Court. I'm a bit less sanguine about that now than I was before the Texas case got shut down.
There are three boxes to which a free man can go when seeking to remain free.
He begins with the soap box -- advocating for retaining his liberty, using the 1st Amendment to protect his ability to speak. The media's bias (especially following the final capitulation of Fox News), combined with Big Tech's censorship of the internet, and pervasive cancel culture, have created a situation where speech is no longer free.
If speech alone is insufficient, he moves to the ballot box, voting for leaders who will correct the situation. While this may not resolve the problem immediately, so long as leaders are chosen by popular vote in free and fair elections there remains hope.
The presidential race in 2020 appears to have demonstrated that the ballot box is no longer free or fair.
That only leaves one box left. Pray we need not open it.
2nd Amendment Foundation sues over age limit on handgun purchases
With the current composition of the Supreme Court, this seems a promising way of advancing gun ownership rights. The age limit is arbitrary and contravenes a specific enumerated right. While there are other age limits other than 18 in effect (alcohol, 21) that case has so many special factors that it isn't much help.
This is hardly a surprise. Biden has signaled his opposition to gun rights by such things as hiring "Beto" as his gun control czar. But it's nice to have him on the record as opposing the Bill of Rights.
... and they did it because of red flag laws. They are also refusing to share their bodycam footage, because of course they are. After all, that footage would expose them as liars who shot and killed a man while he slept peacefully in bed next to his pregnant girlfriend, who they also shot.
The police are keeping the survivors under surveillance and threatening them with arrest if they attend protests.
Everyone involved here needs to go on trial for murder and violation of civil rights. But they won't. Because they are police.
It's a district court, meaning appeals are inevitable. But the ruling is narrow and based on sound Constitutional law, particularly as it is focused on possession in the home and the impossibility of compliance with the plain language of the law (eg, everyone in the home would need to have a FOID and have it on their person literally at all times).
I think the smart play by the antis would be to not appeal this. They might -- might! -- win one level up at the Illinois Supreme Court. But if this gets to the national Supreme Court, it tracks so closely to Heller that I have to image the statute is doomed -- and that would put at risk similar statutes in other states.
But, of course, they already have.
We're likely to find out what our new Justices think of the 2nd Amendment sooner rather than later.
Detroit requires background checks... on ammunition?
The legislation requires a mental health check and limits the quantities that can be bought at one time. It will, obviously, be completely ineffective.
Retired Justice Stevens suggests Supreme Court may advance gun rights
First the factual aspect. Assuming it's accurate, it confirms something the gun rights community has long suspected. (I don't particularly doubt the accuracy of the claim, although Stevens may be overstating his own role as as persuasive force...)
Now the facts.
We don't know where the current court sits on gun rights. Roberts has demonstrated squishy behavior before. Kennedy was replaced with Kavanaugh, presumably a solid 2nd Amendment vote, but Trump's first pick Gorsuch replaced Scalia (solid pro-gun vote) with a presumably solid pro-gun vote. Neither Kavanaugh nor Gorsuch have really been tested yet and Roberts is untrustworthy. We're probably better off with Kennedy replaced. But we need to win one more to feel secure, and even then, we can't count on the new Justices until we see how they vote.
Since Stevens is clearly trying to stoke panic here, let me rebut.
Gun free zone laws around schools have stopped precisely zero school shootings. As with other places declared gun free, criminals view them as soft targets. The only people deterred from carrying in such zones are the honest, law-abiding people who you would want to have a gun in case of such an attack.
"Laws intended to keep firearms out of the hands of especially dangerous individuals" has a couple possible meanings. Do they mean felons? Most felons will be able to get a gun as easily as they can get drugs, ie, illegally. Challenges to the core of felon-in-possession laws seem unlikely in the near future, though we will likely see nibbles around the edges for people acting in self-defense, whose crimes were not violent in nature, and who have been rehabilitated into society. Do they mean people like the Parkland shooter, who should have been on the naughty list but was not due to law enforcement failures? Law enforcement will have failures no matter what laws you pass. Do they mean people like the man who died at the hands of police in Maryland recently? How many innocent people need to die because one of their in-laws didn't like them owning a gun?
