November 2013 – Page 7 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Self-Defense Case in Maryland

This is many gun control advocates ideal law of self-defense. A man shoots another man who allegedly broke down his door, faces 2nd degree murder charges:

The state has charged Matthew Pinkerton with 2nd Degree Murder. Their sole basis for this charge is that he should have called 911.

Here’s the original news article that came out after the shooting. It looks like this started as a domestic situation. If the facts here are true as presented, I doubt they’ll find a jury that will convict this guy, and it will be a disgrace that he was made to undergo the cost and mental anguish of a trial.

Legal costs for the Pinkerton family have been mounting. According to Michael, â€œthey already had to take out a loan for 25k to get him out on bondâ€ and â€œnow is lawyer fees are another 25k; all for defending his home and family.â€

That said, I’d like to see the Bill of Indictment, Information, or the Bill of Particulars his attorney has filed for if you look the case up online. I do believe that prosecutors can often be overzealous, and prosecute in cases that are legitimate self-defense. The Gerald Ung case comes to mind in Philadelphia. But prosecutors generally don’t like to take hopeless cases to trial. If the facts are as presented, this a likely loss in a jury trial. I’m willing to be outraged, but I suspect there’s more to this case than is being told, and I’d like all the facts before passing full judgement. But I agree on the surface, this doesn’t look good. If anyone can find me public records that describe the particulars, I’d be grateful.

Does the GOP Need to Give Up Socially Conservative Positions?

I’m going to wander a bit off topic here for a bit, because I think figuring out the future of the coalition, so to speak, has an impact on gun rights.

There’s been a lot of talk in the comments about where the GOP needs to go on social issues, and a lot of talk about how the GOP just needs to give up on all that SoCo mumbo jumbo and focus exclusively on fiscal and liberty issues. Given that I am probably more socially liberal than your average Democrat, I find this position to be emotionally pleasing, but setting that aside, and looking at things as a careful observer of politics, I don’t think that’s true. I think the GOP needs to moderate its position on social issues, but I don’t think they need to piss away the SoCo vote entirely to win. A lot of our troubles lately have been that the GOP is just fielding awful and often underfunded candidates. But I do think there are some political realities SoCos need to understand, and the GOP needs to understand.

The first is that the gay issue is lost. To younger voters, speaking against gay rights and gay marriage Â sounds like burning witches at the stake levels of Â backwardness. This issue is changing very quickly in favor of social liberalism. Where the GOP needs to focus is on SoCo fears that churches will be forced to marry gays, or that religiously-owned businesses will be forced to accommodate gay lifestyles, despite religious objections. While I generally believe homosexuals should enjoy the benefit of living in a society free of discrimination, again, looking objectively, I think the GOP could stake out a narrow position that religious freedom trumps anti-discrimination laws under some circumstances. But this is a tightrope, and it’s a fine line between standing up for freedom of conscience and favoring discrimination against homosexuals. I don’t know if I trust the GOP to walk that line in what is a complex issue.

The abortion issue is not lost. There are still plenty of voters out there who believe abortion should be unlawful in some circumstances. But only a minority of people believe abortion should be illegal in all circumstances. SoCos need to accept they can only move the needle on abortion at the margins. This is a fact of life for just about every other issue, but for some reason social conservatives expect not only complete philosophical purity on this matter from candidates, but expect them to be vocal about it. All this without expecting it to carry any electoral consequences. That’s not true for any other issue, and it’s not true for abortion either. If you’re loud and proud that you reject abortion in all circumstances, you’re going to lose in swing states, and apparently even in some red states. If you reject the morning after pill, it’s going to be successfully spun as rejecting contraception, because that’s how most voters view it. The GOP should stay far away from anything that even smells like restricting contraceptives. They can make a case the public shouldn’t have to pay for it, but beyond that, stay away.

Now, the gun issue gets lumped into the tent of “socially conservative” quite often, but I don’t really think it belongs there. Guns are a liberty issue. To the extent that one wants to consider it a “socially conservative” issue, I don’t think it’s a losing issue for the GOP. We’ve seen repeated evidence that the anti-gun position is a losing issue for Democrats. My last headline on this topic was a bit of a joke, because that’s what Bloomberg is going to spin, but the truth is if we’d have given Bloomberg another few weeks to sink another few million into campaigning for McAullife on gun control, I think Ken Cuccinelli would be the next governor of Virginia. Somewhere between the time Bloomberg stepped into the race in a big way and the election, this race went from a blowout for McAullife to a nail biter. And I’m not the only one who noticed this. But even with all that, we can still only move the needle on the margins, it’s just that after years of doing that, we’re making steady progress.

Immigration is the other big social issue, though I believe that whole area is fraught with land mines. I don’t envy any political strategist trying to figure out how to navigate through it. I personally tend to favor easy immigration law, but more restrictive laws on earning citizenship. I tend to think the GOP should work out a deal where all the illegals who have been here for years have a path to a green card, but not citizenship. But would that be cutting the GOPs own throat? I don’t know. Like I said, it’s a tough issue politically. I tend to have faith that hispanics will integrate just as well as Italians and other formerly disfavored ethnic groups did. But I do think there should be long term consequences for entering the country illegally, and that consequence is you never get citizenship, or get to vote.

Mixed Results in Pennsylvania’s Elections

Unfortunately, the two Supreme Court justices who did not deserve retention were retained. However, with 99% of state precincts reporting, the favored judge of Superior Court won, Vic Stabile.

Locally, our elections were a mixed bag. On the one hand, the lesser of two evils won the county-wide offices. However, a MAIG mayor managed to retain his seat by a stinking 8 votes.

This is why gun owners need to at least look at what’s happening right in their backyards. I’m not saying you need to track every little borough happening or know every little piddly fight going on between township and county or whatnot. As I told folks yesterday, simply look up the page to see if your mayor is in MAIG. If s/he is, vote for the opponent. It’s a simple strategy. In Pennsylvania, mayors aren’t legally allowed to make gun policies, so you don’t need a “pure” candidate, just send a message by voting people out if they back Bloomberg.

Bloomberg Successfully Buys the Virginia Governorship

But just barely, it’s looking like. A few weeks ago it looked like Cuccinelli was going to go down hard, probably by double digits. I don’t honestly think Bloomberg did McAuliffe any favors, since it was during his big gun control push that he started losing ground. But a win is a win, and hopefully the GOP does well enough in the down ticket races that we won’t have much to fear from McAuliffe. We shall see. But I think this is another indication that strong social conservatives aren’t viable candidates in swing states.

UPDATE: More on Bloomberg not helping.

Another “I’m a Gun Owner But…” Article

This time in “Runner’s World” of all places. I’m not sure why Runner’s World needs to stake out a position on gun control, but it does.

On Friday, I was booked to fly from Los Angeles to Eugene, Oregon. That morning, a gunman walked into LAX with a semiautomatic assault rifle and opened fire, killing a TSA officer and wounding several other people. Fortunately, I was lucky enough to be booked on an afternoon flight.

So he walked into a place where guns are banned, being from a state that banned the gun he was carrying, being in a state that banned the gun he was carrying, and what we clearly need are some more laws?

I propose:Â Ban assault rifles and handguns for everyone except police and military personnel.Â These weapons are made to kill humans and should be strictly limited.Â At the same time, allow responsible citizens to own rifles and shotguns.

If you think they are going to let you keep your rifles and shotguns for deer hunting once the rest of us are out of the fight, you have no idea what you’re up against, and I can’t help you achieve reality. The truth is those kinds of firearms work just fine for mass killing. Just look at the guy who shot up the Navy Yard in DC.

And I’d note I went through a similar thing in the Houston airport right after we arrived, and it didn’t scare me enough to advocate taking everyone else’s freedoms away, because I don’t believe in punishing the sane for the acts of the insane.

This guy is taking a beating on the Facebook page, and he deserves to.

What’s at Stake in Virginia

The Democrats are already spinning that this a great victory for gun control, to be able to elect someone like Terry McAuliffe in Virginia. I will make no bones that I absolutely can’t stand Ken Cuccinelli’s positions on a range of social issues, but gun rights are sinking along with the Republican brand, and we can’t honestly afford too many losses before this whole game will be up. We can make a statement in other races. Bloomberg is spending dollars by the millions to buy elections in swing states. Take this article from the New York Times.

â€œI donâ€™t think youâ€™ve seen any Democratic candidate run in Virginia as rabidly anti-gun as McAuliffe has in the last two weeks,â€ said David Adams, legislative director for the Virginia Shooting Sports Association, the state affiliate of the NRA.

Cuccinelli reminds me a lot of Santorum, only without having a Bob Casey at least talking a good A rating as was the case in our 2006 Senatorial race. I would reluctantly vote for Cuccinelli were I in Virginia. Especially given that it’s coming out that a big Obama Donor is bankrolling the Libertarian ticket, and that the Libertarian candidate isn’t very err… libertarian.

So to Virginia gun owners, close your eyes and think of England. I’d be sure to get out and vote for Cuccinelli. You’ll only have to deal with him for four years.

Tuesday: The News Links

It’s Tuesday, and time to clear the tabs. The news cycle is all about the collapse of Obamacare, and not guns. I guess we got our time in the sun pooping on the Obama Administration for a while, and now it’s other issue’s turn.

I’ll lead off with a non-gun story, just because it’s cool. Apparently someone shattered the cannonball run speed record, and cracked the 30 hour mark doing it.

Virginia Tech is not liable for failing to warn students about the shooter. The government won’t let you protect yourself if you’re a college student, but they’ll absolve themselves of any responsibility if they fail to protect you.

The last lead smelter in the US shuts down. I guess we’ll be importing all our lead from now on, or more accurately recycling most, and importing some. But no more lead manufactured from ore in the US.

Simple ideas for Simple Minds.

How NRA became ATF’s biggest enemy. But the fact that we can have some input into ATF’s operations, director and budget is one reason you don’t see a huge move to abolish the agency. Gun owners wouldn’t get that kind of input into the FBI, and the FBI will very competently violate your rights.

Facebook is become some lame thing old people use.

Government is magic. Highly recommended, though off topic.

Looks like Newtown might just want to be left in peace as the anniversary approaches, but the gun control groups and Obama Administration aren’t going to let that happen.

John Lott also takes down the new study showing owning a gun makes you a racist.

Ted Cruz speaks about Stand Your Ground.

More zero tolerance nonsense.

Landowner liability act finally passes the PA Senate.

Serving the people.

The media is still getting it wrong about assault weapons.

This is how we spell e-n-t-r-a-p-m-e-n-t

Billboards advertising jury nullification. More of this please.

Piracy has dropped significantly since ships are being armed. Who would have guessed?

Why people own guns. If someone asked me that, I’d have to ask “Well, which gun are you talking about?”

Can You Shoot .22LR in This Rifle?

[Guest bleg from sometimes guest blogger Jason. I didn’t know the answer to this so I asked him to post the question to all of you. – Sebastian]

I have a Winchester model 1902 rifle that’s been in the family since at least 1920, when my grandfather carved his name and the year into the stock.

The barrel is marked “22 SHORT LONG OR EXTRA LONG.” Does anyone know if its safe to use .22 Long Rifle or high velocity .22 Long Rifle in this gun? A .22LR round seems to chamber ok, but I can’t find any decent information on whether or not the higher pressures or different bullet geometry will cause problems if fired.

Update: some more pictures:

Continue reading “Can You Shoot .22LR in This Rifle?”

ATF: “Give us Funding!”

I’m wondering who floated this piece to the San Francisco Chronicle. It essentially says the reason that Fast and Furious happened was because the agency isn’t well funded enough. It takes an increase in federal funding to realize that deliberately allowing firearms to be trafficked to drug cartels is wrong? Really? The alternate message is that since the NRA apparently controls ATF’s funding, it’s really NRA’s fault that ATF can’t do its job.

The NRA’s efforts to control the ATF have ended up costing the bureau millions. An NRA-supported congressional appropriations provision prevents the agency from building a national gun registry. As a result, the 375 contract employees at itsÂ National Tracing CenterÂ in Martinsburg, W.Va., work largely without computers, relying on phone calls and scanned or microfilmed paper records to connect crime gun serial numbers to originalÂ purchasers.

Because if you put them into a computer, you have a searchable, national registry of what guns people own, that would actually have very little little missing information, given the number of dealers that go out of business. If the ATF and government are so concerned about what the West Virginia facility is costing, it’s always an option to shut the doors and destroy all the records. I’d feel a lot better if we weren’t always one hostile appropriations bill away from having a national gun registry, wouldn’t you?

Sending a Message to the Judiciary

Unlike many states, Pennsylvania gun owners actually have a method to send a direct message to the judicial branch about their views on how judges might be doing at either upholding or uprooting our rights to keep and bear arms.

Pennsylvania does a range of judicial elections – outright partisan competitive elections at some levels and during some years, and then retention elections (simple, is this person doing a good enough job to remain on the bench vote) for some levels of the court. There are perks and drawbacks to such a system, but it is our system. That means we gun owners should participate.

Tomorrow is Election Day, and the only offices on the ballot are local, county, and judicial. It means that turnout will be ridiculously low. Gun owners need to be concerned since we just had an elected judge make a completely new interpretation of our concealed carry laws that made any Pennsylvania resident carrying on an out-of-state license a criminal.

In fact, two Supreme Court justices are up for a retention vote tomorrow. One of them, Chief Justice Ron Castille, wrote the opinion that has opened the door to redefine Pennsylvaniaâ€™s self-defense standard from one which requires the state to disprove a claim of self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt, to one where the defendant has to prove self-defense by a preponderance of the evidence. This would essentially shift the burden from the state to the defendant. If gun owners think this is a bad idea, then vote against retention.

Gun owners aren’t the only interest group that should be looking more to the courts as voters. A Tea Party group is also encouraging voters to vote against retention of both justices up tomorrow. Whatever you think about their views on whatever it is that’s irking them is irrelevant, what it presents is an opportunity to see that Castille is especially weak.

This isn’t the only time in recent months that gun owners have needed to wake up to judicial elections. In Erie, there’s a low level judge who just blatantly ignored the state’s preemption law. This is a situation that can easily be solved at the ballot box, and the message will spread to other judges.

Unfortunately, of all the bad rulings issued for gun owners lately, Chief Justice Castille is the only one facing an immediate election. However, he can be sent home. We should take the opportunity to help him enjoy his retirement a little earlier than he expected. (He actually faces mandatory retirement next year, so it’s pretty pointless to keep him on the court. Unfortunately, he is fighting that mandatory retirement. Though he can’t fight a voter-mandated retirement.)