2011 – Page 184 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Body in a Dump

My first thought on this issue was agreement with Tam, and a chuckle over her characterization of the issue of the former DoD guy found dead in a landfill. But now it seems like some are saying this may not be a homicide after all:

William Fleisher, an ex-cop who co-founded Philadelphia’s murder-solving Vidocq Society, said that the discovery of eyewitnesses and surveillance video of a disoriented Wheeler before he died suggests that the 66-year-old man had suffered a head or brain injury.

And that apparent disorientation, Fleisher speculated, could have caused Wheeler to voluntarily crawl into a trash Dumpster – either seeking shelter, as happens sometimes among the homeless, or perhaps looking for his reportedly lost papers.

“He may have crawled into the Dumpster looking for his briefcase, or simply to get warm,” said Fleisher, who runs a Center City investigations firm, Keystone Intelligence Network.

Fleisher also agreed with increasing speculation that Wheeler – who was filmed Dec. 29, two days before his body was found, in a downtown office with no overcoat and holding a shoe – was the victim of a traumatic event such as a mugging, or a stroke.

Apparently homeless people sometimes shelter in dumpsters to keep warm, as sad as that is. So this kind of thing is not apparently unheard of. Still, my first thought of a body showing up in a landfill that doesn’t have a bottle of hooch clutched in its hands would generally be murder.

Even if this was a mugging, the mugger, in this case, could be charged with murder if his disorientation was caused by a blow to the head. You could make a pretty good police/legal drama with a story like this.

ATF Power Grab Delayed by White House

John Richardson has the details, including this tidbit:

At the heart of this “delay” is stiff opposition from gun rights groups and their allies – including Democrats – in Congress. The Montana delegation has been particularly vociferous on the issue.

That’s because Tester and Baucus were out there in front telling people Obama wasn’t anti-gun. They have the most to lose if Obama makes them into liars. Tester is up in 2012, and Baucus in 2016. Tester, particularly, has a lot of credibility that can be flushed down the toilet if Obama decides to pick a fight with us, especially since both he and Baucus voted yes on Obama’s court picks, which we opposed.

I agree with John’s conclusion that it’s time to turn the heat up. The White House may be looking for a face saving way to say no to ATF. I would focus on the fact that they lack Congressional authority to act in this area, and are statutorily prohibited from doing what they are proposing.

How To Buy a Gun Shop

Craigslist, apparently.

Larry Pratt Lives Up To His Name

The ACLU in South Dakota is doing the right thing by filing suit to get a UK citizen, but permanent resident of the United States, his right to keep and bear arms back. Larry Pratt things that’s a bad thing, apparently:

Even gun rights advocates are divided on the issue.

“If you’re a law abiding citizen and you’re allowed to buy a gun you should be allowed to carry it to defend yourself,” NRA spokesman Andrew Arulananda told FoxNews.com. “Just because you’re not a us citizen doesn’t mean that you’re somehow to immune to crime outside your home.”

But Gun Owners of America Executive Director Larry Pratt says the state has every right to restrict conceal and carry permits to citizens.

“If the guy wants to enjoy the full benefit of residing in the United States become a citizen. Heâ€™s been here for 30 years whatâ€™s he waiting for?,” Pratt told FoxNews.com.

Pratt says the only reason the ACLU brought the suit is to pave the way for illegal aliens to have conceal carry permits.

“They want to make it so illegal aliens have the same rights as everybody else…every little bit chipping away,” he said.

If you believe that rights come from God, nature, Shiva, or whatever source of natural rights you want to recognize, and are merely infringed or recognized by governmental entities, on what constitutional basis can we restrict the Right to Keep and Bear Arms to legal immigrants into this country? Hell, on what legal basis can we restrict the Right to Keep and Bear Arms to illegal immigrants, for that matter? Perhaps a distinction can be made, but I’d like it to be based on a little more sound reasoning than it gives Larry Pratt the heebie-jeebies.

Does Larry Pratt believe the right to keep and bear arms is one that fits in with, “we are endowed by our creator, with certain unattainable rights,” or doesn’t he? Is he so horribly blinded by his socially conservative prejudices that he can’t see the forest for the trees?

Personally, I think that anyone ought to be able to walk into a store, plunk cash on the table, and walk out with a gun, and carry it with lawful intent. I accept that will probably never be reality, and agree we have to work practicably within the constraints that reality imposes on us, but South Dakota’s law is not necessarily among those realities we have to live with. ACLU has a good case. Larry Pratt doesn’t like it. NRA does. Tell me who’s really a believer in the Second Amendment here?

UPDATE: I should make clear I think there can be a basis for denying illegal immigrants rights, like the right to keep and bear arms, based on the fact that they are in the country unlawfully, but there is very questionable legal basis for restricting the right for people who are lawfully in the United States, even if they are not citizens of the United States. If you think it’s a fundamental right, that has consequences.

More on the 14th Amendment Citizenship Law

Good dialog on this topic over at Volokh.

UPDATE: Why I love my commenters. From the comments, probably the best case for 14th Amendment birthright citizenship I think I’ve seen:

I think the 14th Amendment’s greatest gift to the country has been in preventing us from creating a permanently disenfranchised class of people in our midst. The lesson of watching Palestinians dancing in the streets as the Iraqi tanks rolled in back in ’90 shows what can happen when you base your economic system (and by extension your political system) on people who are not allowed to ever enjoy the benefits of it. And make no mistake that “we,” as a country, have definitely decided to let illegal aliens in; we’re not so helpless as we pretend. Today illegal immigrants are mainly Mexicans who work in the industries (agriculture, canning, and increasingly construction and landscaping) we’ve decided are best staffed by underpaid workers whose wages and benefits are kept low by denying them access to jobs in other sectors or to legal recourse when they get ripped off. Without the 14th Amendment, their children would forever be stuck in the predicament, making our agricultural “caste system” permanent, like in most of Europe (Gypsies, Turks, etc.) Our 14th Amendment stops us from re-instituting hereditary slavery under another name, though we know many would try to if they could (see: Irish, Chinese, etc.)

First Comment. Read the whole thing.

The Obvious

Sometimes, it’s just better left unsaid.

A car crashed into a South Jersey bar Thursday morning, leaving one man dead, two others seriously injured — including a man celebrating his birthday — and thousands in the area without power for a few hours. …

Investigators believe alcohol was involved in the crash that left passenger, 33-year-old Kevin Botta of Somers Point, dead.

Really? They only believe that alcohol was involved? What was the first clue? The fact that the driver ran into a building? Or the fact that the building he ran into was a bar?

It just gets weirder.

The crash also sent a fire hydrant flying through the air, hitting 26-year-old Joseph Higbee of Northfield who was standing outside of the bar. He was at the bar to celebrate his birthday.

“The fire hydrant actually went over close to a city block,” said Fire Chief Michael Sweeney.

Just wow. Remember, the car hit a fire hydrant hard enough to send it flying for nearly a block and hit a man. Investigators only believe alcohol may have been involved.

Great Resource

Dave Hardy is working to bring the history of the Firearms Owners Protection Act of 1986 into the digital age by getting it all online. I know I’ve been frustrated at the difficulty of finding good information, and this will be a great help. This was our major legislative victory of the 1980s, and it’s a shame it’s been stained with the stench of the Hughes Amendment, because it really did represent a pretty significant restructuring of the Gun Control Act.

Textualism vs. Intent

Capitol Ideas is reporting on the latest publicity stunt by Rep. Metcalfe, to deal with the illegal immigration issue, namely re-examining the 14th Amendment, which says:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

There’s been a lot of talk in originalist circles about whether this was even intended to apply to people who are citizens of another country who have a child in the United States. I suppose to whether you adhere to the school of originalism that says the intent of the founders is important, or whether it’s better to pay attention to what they actually wrote. What they actually wrote seems to mean to me that if you’re born here, you’re a citizen. I suppose it would hinge on “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”

But regardless, while I appreciate Metcalfe’s leadership on Second Amendment rights, I find his demagogic promotion of populist issues (populist federal issues, I would note) like illegal immigration, tiresome.

Illustrating the Difference

This columnist from the Palm Beach Post is disappointed that Florida is enforcing preemption about guns in Palm Beach County parks being legal:

Do you really think we’d be better off if all of us law-abiding citizens went about our business in public with guns at our sides?

Think of all the anger-management-challenged drivers you’ve encountered on I-95. Think of all the vile, racist comments that blossom in the commentary section under online local news stories.

Think of all the self-deputized patriots who’ve confused a virulent strain of bigotry with heroism.

Now put them at the picnic table next to you in the park. And give them guns.

No thanks. After years of living in South Florida, I’ve come to believe that the allegedly law-abiding citizens among us are as apt to be ticking time bombs as the guys looking to steal your wallet to feed a drug habit.

The statistics just don’t bear that out, but it shows the fundamental problem. I trust that ordinary people, under most circumstances, can generally be counted on not to be raging murderers. What contempt you must have of your fellow citizens to think this way? The logical conclusion to this, if you think about it, is that republicanism and democracy are a folly. We’d be better off with an enlightened few running things for the good of us all.

The system the founders set up is based on the idea that a population can have sufficient civic virtue to be capable of self-government. If you think about it, that’s really one of the fundamental intellectual foundations of our form of government. Does Frank Cerabino really agree with that? To reject that is to reject America.

Travor Renominated

This was to be expected, but in this Senate he might have a hard time getting through. What we have to be concerned about is Obama cutting a deal with the GOP on some other issue, in exchange for them moving on his nominees.