May 2011 – Page 8 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Restaurant Carry Bill in Ohio

Our opponents areÂ already in hysterics over the bill, and appear to be conceding the Senate vote on the matter, and are appealing directly to Governor Kasich by asking him to veto it. This is good.

This weekend I took advantage of Virginia’s new restaurant carry provisions, and somehow, by some miracle, managed to avoid consuming alcohol while carrying as prescribed by law, and managed to avoid shooting up the place. That’s in contrast to back home in Pennsylvania, where you can have a glass of wine with dinner while carrying. Clearly back home I’m shooting up restaurants on a regular basis, along with all my other fellow 600,000 LTC holders in the Commonwealth.

Weed and Guns

A Rhode Island Superior Court has upheld the gun rights of a person growing medical marijuana under the state’s medical marijuana law. Obviously this only applies to a state action, the feds could still take a whack at this defendant if they chose to do so.

SAF Lawsuit in Illinois

SAF has filed Moore v. Madigan. Over at Only Guns and Money, John Richardson talks about the plaintiffs. John also noted that the NRA suit is filed in the Southern District of Illinois, and the SAF suit is filed in the Central District, so the cases cannot be combined. I believe, however, they could be combined on appeal to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, much like McDonald was with NRA’s case. Either way I don’t think it’s bad for the circuit court to have more than one case to choose to hear in the event this gets appealed, which it probably will.

Quote of the Day

Via Volokh commentary on the decision by the Indiana Supreme Court to eliminate the right to resist unlawful entry of a government agent. This quote is attributed to William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, after whom the city if Pittsburgh is named:

The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail; its roof may shake; the wind may blow through it; the storm may enter; the rain may enter; but the King of England cannot enter â€“ all his force dares not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement!

Indiana is not alone in eliminating common law provisions in regards to resisting unlawful intrusions by the state on property or person. A number of states had already eliminated this right by statute, including, in part, Pennsylvania (no right to resist an unlawful arrest). We’ve strayed from William Pitts’ ideal, and I don’t think we’re better off for it.

New Gun Owner

Came down to Roanoke this weekend because Bitter’s mom, who has previously not been a gun owner, decided that, being a woman living on her own, it was time to take the plunge. Since she was looking to save money getting a used gun, I decided to tag along to check it out before she bought it. The first shop we went to was Trader Jerry’s in Salem, Virginia. We had planned to visit several shops to do a bit of comparison shopping, but first stop we ran into this:

I know the stereotype of getting the little lady a snub-nose .38, but in her basic pistol course, and after trying a lot of guns, she prefers the shorter barreled revolvers to heavier revolvers or semi-autos. This is a Smith & Wesson Model 36 Chief’s Special. The reason this was such a great find was that we were looking for a used J-frame in .38 Spl. This is a used gun. It was bought by a guy who returned it because he didn’t like the grips, and had not been fired. It looked brand spanking new, based on everything I could see. The price was a good bit less than new. I think it was actually a great find for her.

Trader Jerry’s seemed to be a pretty good shop. Her experience was very pleasant, and comparing to prices back home, they were pretty good in that area too. She had to fill out her 4473 twice because of making a mistake on the first one. After filling out all three forms, she commented “My, this is worse than doing my taxes!” A quick call to the Virginia Instant Check System, and the gun was hers. I got her some .38 Spl Low Recoil Hydrashocks and some snap caps to refresh her on loading and unloading.

Next step for her will be a refresher pistol course, then some range time. Then she wants to do a concealed carry course and get her license to carry.

An Evil Plot Uncovered

Miguel notices CSGV has busted one of NRA’s most closely guarded secrets wide open

NRA Suit In Illinois

NRA is filing suit against Illinois’ total prohibition on carrying firearms. I have not yet read the complaint, but will take a look at it as soon as I have time. It’s worth noting that the Concealed Carry bill was pulled before all the votes were in, so it’s still alive. This presents a cash strapped state with two options. One option is to spend a lot of money fighting a lawsuit in the courts, the other is to pass the concealed carry bill, which will be a source of revenue. The choice is theirs.

Restoring Right-to-Carry on More Federal Land

Representative Bob Gibbs (R-OH) has introduced new legislation that would open up more federal land to lawful carry. Specifically it would legalize carry on lands controlled by the Army Corps of Engineers. There a number of such federals lands in Pennsylvania. To be honest, I didn’t even know carry was an issue on these lands until a few years ago.

Does not Compute

This article on the analysis of the Bin Laden files is interesting reading. But this does not compute:

The Associated Press reported tonight that some of bin Laden’s writings show him musing over how many Americans he would have to kill to force the U.S. to withdraw from the Arab world and concluding that the body count would have to be in the thousands.

Wasn’t 9/11 in the thousands? And I seem to recall that lead to a justification for invading and toppling one Islamist regime, and one Arab dictator. I’m not sure the math on that one works out too well for you beardy. Plus, there’s only so much you can jack the American body count before we’re getting out of the Arab world because we need to wait for the radiation levels to come down a bit before we move in to pump out the rest of the oil.

Luzerne County Lowers Permit Fee

The new Sheriff of Luzerne County is lowering the fee for License to Carry from $31 to $20. This is good news, because overcharging for LTCs has been a persistent problem among PA Sherrifs. It’s good at least one is doing something about it.