July 2013 – Page 8 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Another Misbehaving Mayor in MAIG

He hasn’t been arrested or charged with a crime at this point, but San Diego Mayor Bob Filner admits that he has been sexually harassing female employees who work under him and then trying to intimidate them. He claims that his continued sexual harassment and intimidation efforts against his victims can be cured with a little bit of “help” and some more sexual harassment training.

In the meantime, Filner would like you to know that joining MAIG and standing up against law-abiding gun owners is one of his top accomplishments in his term. Oddly, I don’t see a mention on that list of his effort to create a sexually hostile work environment for women and trying to intimidate those who think they have some “right” to not be harassed by their employer, but that certainly seems to have been a priority for him!

Mayor Mike Bloomberg really does surround himself with some quality folks in Mayors Against Guns.

Under Lawsuit, Colorado Backs Down A Little

With the threat of a temporary injunction looming, the State of Colorado decided to back off the claim that even temporary transfers of magazines constitutes a transfer, and magazines with removable baseplates will no longer be considered “readily convertible.”Â Apparently this agreement will have force of law.Â The lawsuit will still go ahead, but this is at least some progress. Hopefully not progress that will quell any flames of anger gun owners feel to the politicians who did this to them. They still need to get the boot come election time.

There’s an App for That

While on principle I have no issues with something like this, because it’s not government, it’ll likely end up being used by our opponents to punish responsible gun owners. Especially those of us who are vocal about standing up to them.

“The gun rights community has been busy making personal threats (we remain unconcerned), as well as spamming the Gun Geo Marker database with false markers,” he exclusively told FoxNews.com. “Though these fake markers are not useful for identifying dangerous guns and owners, they are certainly representative of the highly paranoid reaction we have come to expect from any attempt to improve gun safety in the United States.

I kind of like the idea of a disinformation campaign, but at the same time I’d hate to drag some random schlob into this whole thing.

News Links for Thursday 7/11/13

Been battling on multiple fronts, but none of them are the blog, so here’s all the news that’s fit, or perhaps unfit, to link.

The 2nd Circuit has found that charging more than 300 dollars to get a license to exercise a fundamental constitutional right is just peachy.

Das Iron Glock. I guess they don’t have to be made of plastic. Looks like something someone could make in their garage.

Ruger is opening a plant in North Carolina. Well, it’s not the first time that people have been driven out of New England by religious fanatics, is it?

Meanwhile, Kahr is moving from New York to Pennsylvania. I’d have kept moving south. I’ll feel better about Pennsylvania if Corbett gets a second term, and Kane is a one termer. Until then, I think there’s a danger we’re going blue all over eventually.

Meanwhile, NSSF is filing suit in Connecticut, challenging their new gun control on the grounds that Governor Malloy abused the emergency legislation provision of state law. I’d consider this a long shot. A similar challenge against New York’s intolerable acts hasn’t fared all that well so far.

Speaking of courts not taking rights seriously, the 2nd Circuit court of appeals has found New York’s 300+ dollar permit to be just fine constitutionally. Poor people don’t need rights, or at least not rights that are disapproved of by the blue elite.

The Congressional Black caucus is urging Obama not to back off gun control.

A word of caution to mulsurp lovers out there.

.50 cannon ring.

ABA hears stand your ground testimony in Philadelphia. There’s concern about racial disparity. Everything has to be about race these days. SYG should equally protect people of all races if they are engaged in lawful self-defense. End of debate on that count.

A debate over at Volokh on whether “arms” as in those you keep and bear, means you can keep and bear more than one. Both say yes, but one disagrees it can be arrived at textually. Response to that here. And even more here.

All gun deaths are equally tragic?

The Ms. Magazine train wreck is to the continue. I love all the talk is how we’re bullies. To the gun control advocates, a bully is just someone with better arguments.

You can’t order a sense of perspective off Amazon, but you can go read this.

What did Arkansas Actually Pass?

Clayton Cramer wants to know more about what kind of bill Arkansas actually passed to address carry issues. There were questions even in the comments of Sebastian’s post on the issue of Arkansas going constitutional carry, and it looks like the Attorney General is saying that open carry under the new law isn’t legal. Obviously, there can be differences between the two topics, but many gun owners view them as directly connected. Make sure you know the law wherever you plan to carry a gun – whatever that law may or may not be since there seems to be some debate in Arkansas at the moment.

Scary Headlines vs. Not-So-Scary Facts

As gun owners, we’ve seen many cases where headlines and teasers for news stories involving firearms or perceived threats are played up in order to attract more eyeballs to a story or viewers to a newscast. It’s not something new to us.

But, a couple of recent observations have made me wonder if this is actually going to get worse across all issues and news outlets in order to compete for traffic and the possibility of going viral.

One great example of this is @HuffPoSpoilers. The description lays out the exact point of the account: “I give in to @HuffingtonPost click-bait so you don’t have to.” I follow because I think it’s pretty funny most of the time. But reading the original HuffPo teasers and headlines has really floored me about just how much of a stretch they take to make the most mundane sound interesting in order to get people clicking on their site.

The reason I wonder if this effort to stretch relatively run-of-the-mill stories into even more over-the-top headlines came from an incident today from one of our local news outlets. This is the headline: “Arrest Warrant Issued For Alleged Wedding Crasher”

Now, if you’re like me and have actually crashed a wedding, this gets attention. Is this a case of insane prosecution? Do we have a new breed of Bridezilla that would actually file charges against that person who stumbled onto her dance floor and maybe had an appetizer or drink? My wedding crashing story involves no eating or drinking on the wedding party’s tab. However, my friend did end up in some reception photos. Still, as a person who has technically met the definition of crashing a wedding, this gets my attention.

It turns out that the story gets far less titillating in the second paragraph where we find out a closer version to the events: “…he allegedly crashed a local wedding reception and stole thousands of dollars worth of wedding gifts.” By the third and fourth paragraphs, we find it’s more accurately described as a man who simply broke into a car visibly stuffed with valuables. Somehow, the story of a pretty typical car break-in becomes a headline about arresting a wedding crasher.

I guess the reason I bring this up here is because I think it’s an interesting phenomenon to address as news viewers/readers. I think as gun owners, we’ve actually already been through the worst of it. Even when we still see bias in the media, it tends to be less over-the-top than in the 90s or earlier. I suspect part of that is because gun owners have managed to jump all over the really inaccurate stories and writers. The fact is that many reporters don’t want the hassle of many gun owners correcting their stories, so they’ll tone down the tendency to exaggerate claims. But does this trend to making other news even more overly sensational than it was before signal that maybe we’re headed back down that path? What do you guys and gals think?

Motions Proceeding in Federal Court in Illinois

Madigan makes a motion to dismiss the case as moot, since the state has fixed the problem. Plaintiffs say, “not so fast,” and request the State of Illinois be enjoined from enforcing the newly passed FCCA until the permitting system is in place and operating “in a timely manner,” as mentioned in the motion for injunction. There’s also a motion to expedite briefing on the motions, so we can get this over with quickly and prevent the State of Illinois from dragging its feet even further. It would be a good incentive for the State to get everything set up quickly. Otherwise I’d expect they’ll drag this out as long as possible. From the response to the motion to dismiss:

The Plaintiffs’ Second Amendment rights have been violated each and every day since December 11, 2012, when the Seventh Circuit reversed this Court and held that the UUW and the AUUW violated the Plaintiffs’ rights …. Indeed, they have been violated each and every day since Illinois enacted its carry ban …. The FCCA makes plain that said violation of Plantiffs’ rights will not cease for up to another 270 days — 180 days to make application forms available and another 90 days to process said applications…. The State has effectively given itself that which the Seventh Circuit refused — a further stay of the appellate court’s mandate… The violation of the Plaintiffs’ Second Amendment rights occurred today and will occur tomorrow and each and every day until the expiration of the 270-day stay that Illinois has given to itself in the FCCA. The Defendants cannot meet the first prong of the voluntary-cessation test described above.

Nope. This isn’t over. Not by a long shot folks. These people need to start understanding this is a right, and not a privilege. This all could have been easily avoided by passing a reasonable shall-issue bill as soon as the court ruling came down. But that’s not what many Illinois Democratic leaders chose to do. They chose to stall, whine, kick, scream, delay, and obstruct. Well, the wages of that might be FOID carry until they can get their act together. Let us hope.

Doesn’t Fit the Narrative

The White House asks the CDC to do some research to help drive the narrative on gun control. They went ahead and did the study, but the results lead to narrative fail:

Furthermore, the key finding the president was no doubt seekingÂ â€” that more laws would result in less crimeÂ â€” was missing. The study said that â€œinterventions,â€ such as background checks and restrictions on firearms and increased penalties for illegal gun use, showed â€œmixedâ€ results, while â€œturn-inâ€ programs â€œare ineffectiveâ€ in reducing crime. The study noted that most criminals obtained their guns in the underground economyÂ â€” from friends, family members, or gang membersÂ â€” well outside any influence from gun controls on legitimate gun owners.

Read the whole thing.

What Progress Looks Like

The Chicago PD has issued a directive to its officers not to enforce the previous laws which are now off the books:

D. Members will not enforce the following city ordinances:

8-4-010(i) â€“ Disorderly Conduct in that a person carries in a threatening or menacing manner, without authority of law, any pistol or revolver or conceals said weapon on or about the person or vehicle.
8-20-020 â€“ Unlawful Possession of Handguns
8-20-030 â€“ Unlawful Possession of Long Guns
8-20-035 â€“ Unlawful Possession of Unregisterable Firearms â€“ relative to 8-20-170(b) and (c)
8-20-040 â€“ Firearm Kept or Maintained in a Home
8-20-080 â€“ Possession of Ammunition
8-20-110 â€“ Chicago Firearm Permit (CFP) – Required
8-20-140 â€“ Firearm Registration Certificate â€“ Required
8-20-180 â€“ CFP and Registration Certificate â€“ General Provisions
8-20-185 â€“ Additional Duties.

Hey, hey, hey, Goodbye! Eat it Rahm! Chicago is now preempted in these matters.

If you’re going to be the face of our issue …

… please try to avoid the trap of getting busted for having controlled substances while possessing a firearm. I tend to think most people will frown on possessing a firearm with hallucinogenic substances, and it kind of destroys the whole being a sympathetic character for pulling off effective civil disobedience. Rosa Parks didn’t have pot in her purse when she got arrested.

But I will note this:

â€œNumerous police vehicles, including a light armored vehicle and two low-flying helicopters barricaded Adamâ€™s street,â€ the news release says. â€œMore than 20 armored SWAT team members surrounded the house, as well as a number of detectives, and plainclothes officers.â€

Two helicopters and an armored vehicle? To take down one guy who only kinda, maybe might decide it’s better to shoot it out than get taken in? I can get using a tactical team, given you just don’t know, maybe he’d rather shoot it out, but what’s so hard about waiting for him to leave the house and jumping him with 5 or so officers? Why invade the whole neighborhood? The problem is, you give the guys the toys, and it gets hard to resist taking them out to play.