April 2011 – Page 12 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Weaknesses in FOIA

It’s pretty easy to see, based on the heavily redacted documents that were produced in response to David Codrea’s FOIA request on the gunwalker scandal that there is something wrong with how we’re implementing the idea that the records the government produces belong to the people. Part of that has to do with how the act is structured.

Currently every agency is required to have a FOIA office that handles those kinds of requests and produces the documents. This is going to create bad incentives for that agency to release as little as they can get away with, and bend the requirements of the law to the greatest extent possible in order to achieve that goal.

There should be a separate government agency in charge of FOIA requests, who are authorized to go into every government office, look at and duplicate records, and make the determination about how to implement the law. With FOIA being a separate agency, it will put the natural power hungry and empire building nature of bureaucrats to work doing the people’s business. Agents may even revel in revealing embarrassing or damning information from other agencies.

There should also be a mechanism that if a FOIA agent feels a document is improperly classified, its status can be challenged before an administrative law judge, with all the proper security clearances and precautions for classified data in place. Currently if you feel an agency is inappropriately denying your FOIA request, the onus to file suit is on you.

I’d even be up for paying the agents on a per document basis, and giving them bonuses based on the number of documents they get declassified. You can think of incentives here that could work pretty well. A lot of politicians have never liked FOIA, but if the government wants me to be an open book to it, then my government damned well better be an open book to me.

The Republican Bench in Pennsylvania

SayUncle in Tennessee seems to share some of my anxiety about GOP prospects in 2012. He speaks of the national race, but any national race starts in the states, and Pennsylvania, as the nation’s 6th largest state, is a good example of that problem.

Bitter and I were speaking yesterday afternoon about the dire situation represented by the GOP bench headed into the 2012 elections.Â Ignoring the factÂ this article is mostly about how Tom Corbett is getting into trouble with our commonwealth’s schizophrenic voters (who want pet programs, a balanced budget and reasonable taxes), it shows something important about Bob Casey:

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Scranton, enters his campaign next year for a second term with what Lee called a limited base of support. Thirty-two percent of voters said he deserves re-election, compared with 43 percent who told pollsters it’s time for someone new.

Pennsylvania is generally accepted as a purple-hued blue state. After 2010, we have one conservative Republican Senator in the form of Pat Toomey, whoÂ I’d like to think is all of Rick Santorum’s fiscal conservatism, without the paranoia about what the queers are doing to the soil. Could we have two? Traditionally, there’s been Arlen Spector for those who wanted to vote GOP without really doing so. But we don’t have Arlen Specter to kick around anymore.

Who is the GOP going to put up against Bob Casey? Tom Ridge is about the only candidate who comes to mind. Only because he’s is well known and a well liked former governor. HisÂ name was floated his name in 2010 to run against Specter. Ridge carries the stench of having carriedÂ Bush’s homeland security agenda for longer than is healthy for average mortals. That’s not even mentioning Ridge isn’t really a conservative on important issues, much like his spendy former boss. Besides, rumor has it that Ridge is now a Marylander, and couldn’t run even if he was interested the Pennsylvania Senate race.

Who else? Curt Weldon was driven out of Congress on questionable accusations of corruption in 2006. Maybe he’d like to make a comeback. But let’s face it, we are sending him to Libya right now because every hostage taker worth his salt will only abduct someone that someone else wants back. That probably isn’t Curt. I think Weldon is well done at this point. He’s not coming back for a statewide race.

Jim Gerlach certainly wants a state-wide seat, but after dropping out of the primary for the 2010 Governor race, I think he needs to stay right where he is. Otherwise I’m not confident his 6th district seat will stay in GOP hands without some gerrymandering magic. Gerlach is a poster boy for the fact that there are few GOP Congressional seats safe enough in Pennsylvania that can surely be held in an open race.

Who else does the GOP have with solid statewide name recognition? I really can’t think of anyone. But then, why did Bob Casey Jr. win the 2006 election? Maybe because Santorum was getting gay sex acts named after him, and Bob Casey Jr. happened to be the son of this Bob Casey. This problem also cuts both ways. To make the point, do Democrats want to run Onorato, “Dan Onorato,” again for anything? That was your bench against Corbett.

Pennsylvania is legitimately up for grabs, for either party. But don’t anyone get too excited. Neither party is much in a position to exploit it. Perhaps that is good for our Commonwealth in the long run, because I’ve never been convinced of the benefits of single party rule, no matter what that party is.

Self-Defense Options in New York City

SayUncle is headed into the belly of the beast, and asks about self-defense options. My first suggestion would generally be spray, which is legal just about everywhere, except for places that have been controlled by the left for years. Sadly, New York City is among those places, at least not without a permit of some kind. New York State is not much better, but the New York Penal code treats spray very strangely by my reading of it. It specifically mentions spray as an exception, but nowhere in the rest of the statute, that I can see, does it criminalize possession of it, except in the case where that possession is with criminal intent. It does criminalize “disposal,” which includes sale, transfer or other type of disposition, without being an authorized seller (firearms dealers and pharmacists). I can’t find anything about it being unlawful to bring pepper spray into the state for personal use for lawful self-defense.

Either way, I’ve never thought the Second Amendment should be limited to firearms. Defensive sprays are neither particularly dangerous or unusual. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t be covered. Not that it helps if you can’t get a judge to agree with you, though.

SAF, NYSRPA, Files Suit Against New York City

This is what we’ve been waiting for, a direct attack on Bloomberg’s unconstitutional edifice. The metaphorical equivalent of this is the Doolittle raid. It shows we can attack him where he lives, and where he controls. It is also, as is the SAF/Gura modus operandi, a narrow question. I believe this is wise.

The New York Times is paying attention. This won’t be the last. My goal in all this is to be able to legally carry in the heart of Manhattan. Five years ago I would have said it was a pipe dream. Now I don’t think so.

New Gun Introduced in Indiana

The Glock service revolver. Glad to see them entering this vital market.

Coalition to Waste Time and Money

Ladd Everitt, and the other fine folks over a Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, are doing a fine job at bringing the vast diversity of the right to keep and bear arms movement together. They don’t seem to have much time these days to use their Twitter feed for anything other than sniping at bloggers.

This is not honestly surprising. You can see it’s not a wealthy organization. None of their money comes from any kind of membership dues, so they are not accountable to individuals. In fact, if you look at their 2008 tax forms, of the 219,000 or so CGSV took in, less than 95,000 dollars went to program services. One hundred eight thousand dollars of that went to something called EFSGV Consulting. That would be the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence. As of 2008, EFSGV itself was hemorrhaging money, while having cut their overall budget substantially over the past five years. They took in approximately 346,000 dollars, 108,000 of which we know came from their nearly bankrupt 501(c)(4). BecauseÂ 312,000 went to salaries and benefits of the people who are spending their time taunting bloggers, they had to cut substantially into cash to pay for programs. I can’t imagine anyone who’s donated money to this farce would be very happy about this. Charity Navigator won’t even track them, and tell me how well they do with this guideline.

As quipped on Twitter Â yesterday, we bloggers are the diversionary troops. Yes, please, pay attention to us, by all means. Ignore the Gucci loafered fellowÂ on his way to Capitol Hill to lobby for more and more Second Amendment freedoms. Ignore all evidence of the new legal framework we’ve established. Continue to fiddle, while the anti-freedom movement around you burns. We “anti-Constitution insurrectionists” are watching with delight.

Story of Gun Shop Records Being Seized by ATF

I’ve seen this rumor going around about ATF seizing the records of a shop that closed in PA. By law ATF is entitled to the records of an FFL that is going out of business. They typically scan the 4473s into a computer system and store them as images. While it’s quite possible ATF did something wrong here, this could very well be a rumor generated by someone who doesn’t get that when a shop closes, ATF is going to demand the records. This could very well be an embellishment on a story of a gun shop that just closed, or a case of someone forgetting to file their FFL renewal and finding out by ATF showing up and demanding he stop selling guns and turn the records over as the law requires.

If ATF did indeed misrepresent the law, and the owner capitulated without a fight without even contacting NRA, or someone else who could help with that kind of thing, there’s not much that can really be done after the fact, after the license has already been forfeited.

Two Things Don’t Add Up

The media is so full of crap, they don’t even smell their own half the time. This statement:

Police inÂ Colorado spent early Tuesday morning in a terrifying standoff with a suspected sniper who pinned down officers with shots from a semi-automatic rifle.

Does not jive with this statement:

As two officers approached the house, a gunman opened fire from close enough that one of the officers said he could hear the spent shells hitting the ground, Edgewater cops told Colorado’s KUSA television.

But he’s a sniper. Just look at the picture in the headline, which is clearly what he must be shooting with. Doesn’t that scare you? Plus, apparently despite this being at a frighteningly close range, the article would seem to suggest that he missed. I swear, if he had thrown a trombone at the cops, the Daily News would headline “Colorado Police Assaulted by Trombone Virtuoso.” If he had thrown a cabbage “Police in Standoff with Executive Chef.” A baseball? “Colorado Rockies Star Reliever Held Up in Home.”

But put a gun in his hands and suddenly everyone in the press room turns stupid.

State College Bucking Preemption

They want to ban guns in parks, or rather continue to ban guns in parks. They are weaseling around the preemption language by dishonestly arguing that application of such ban is not a law “inconsistent with the laws of this commonwealth,” quoting from our preemption statute, and is therefore not preempted.

It approved sending a resolution to the Central District meeting of the Pennsylvania League of Cities and Municipalities later this month, requesting it support legislation prohibiting firearms in municipal parks and buildings, treating them like courtrooms and schools under state law.

Got that? Because the state bans guns in courthouses and schools, it’s consistent for towns to then ban guns in their own buildings. Additionally, because hunting regulations don’t allow discharge in certain zones in parks, banning all firearms period in any municipal park is consistent with state law.

This is delusional legal thinking. This issue needs to be pressed. Let them enforce it, and then sue them. This is well established in this Commonwealth that only the state legislature may regulate guns.

More on Craigslist Killer Idiocy

This time from the Boston Globe:

Showing up at the State Line Gun Shop in Mason, N.H., Markoff presented an ID that wouldnâ€™t pass muster at a campus dive bar. The blond Markoff showed an old New York driverâ€™s license belonging to Andrew H. Miller, who is dark-haired and heavier.

Except here is a picture of the two licenses. I wouldn’t necessarily say they are identical, but there is a resemblance. We could always try some laws like making it unlawful to present a fake ID, or impose penalties for making false statements to authorities. That will surely put a stop to incidents like this.