March 2014 – Page 10 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Tuesday News Links

Sadly, I managed to lose a number of tabs in Safari, so that means a smaller news dump today than usual:

Are people really this stupid? Sadly, yes.

When they come. When you boil away all the feel good nonsense, Bob’s nightmare scenario is what gun control means in the end. They don’t enforce these laws with time outs and hugs at the end. If you’re going to make something a serious felony, it had better be worth subjecting people to this, because that’s what it means.

Predictions of doom from Idaho on allowing campus carry. None of these predictions have panned out anywhere else. By now they should have zero credibility.

Massad Ayoob: Why gun people need to travel carefully.

Brady’s fuzzy math on NICS denials. They act like every single one of those people denied would have robbed a bank or something if they had gotten a gun. A large percentage of them are actually false positives.

ATF:Â They set a higher standard for us than they live up to themselves.

At what age can someone set up an NFA trust?

Our opponents at least do failure well.

All Nine Yards is looking to target some Florida MAIG mayors.

Ruger is expanding in North Carolina. We won the Civil War because the North had all the arms manufacturing. My guess if America wants to excise the blue state appendix in the future, it will have little trouble.

NRA is scoring the surgeon general vote. I’m kind of surprised they’d pick a fight over this. Does anyone care what the surgeon general has to say these days?

West Virginia enhancing preemption.

They get an A for boldness, but I doubt Giffords and Kelly will find much success in this strategy.

New Background Check Regulations

There’s been a fair amount of talk about new NICS regulations from the right, but I don’t see anything that really causes me great concern. The provisions are:

Grant access to NICS for tribal police.
Allow police to use NICS when returning seized firearms.
Store records for people who have been denied.

I’m not sure that, under the Brady Act, that the President has the authority for provisions one or two, as the Act makes it pretty clear that the NICS system is for the use of Federal Firearms Licensees. State or tribal law enforcement access is simply not mentioned.

This is another case where the Obama Administration is acting unilaterally, beyond its power, but where it’s unclear who would have standing to sue. Federal Firearms Licensees are still permitted to access the system, and therefore aren’t harmed, necessarily, by tribal or or state and local police having access to the system.

The third provision would be allowed under the Brady Act. Perhaps it could be argued that provision one and two are reasonable, but they should require Congress to act rather than the President acting unilaterally.

Peruta Stayed

John Richardson notes that late Friday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the mandate in the Peruta case. It’s worth noting that San Diego already agreed to start issuing on a shall-issue basis. I was very intrigued with Dave Hardy’s line of thinking:

Quaere: since the Defendants have announced they will issue CCW permits to all law-abiding folks, is there even a “case or controversy” left, or is the case moot?

Good question. What happens from here will be interesting. Hopefully the Court here just wants to appear to be reasonable, but will find that neither party has any standing to intervene. No state law was challenged here, only the sheriff’s interpretation of “good cause.”

The 64,000 Dollar Question

So with the Russia reasserting itself on the world stage, and rumors of Putin wanting to build a new Russian military base in Cuba, does that mean that the original Red Dawn is timely again? The bear is back, folks! Thank God we have sensible people in the White House who really get this Smart Diplomacy thing.

NJ Dems Saving the World From the Scourge of .22 Rifles

Emily Miller notes they are at it again:

Thus, the experts found that at least 43 common rifles would suddenly be considered a prohibited â€œassault firearm,â€ such as the .22 caliberÂ Marlin ModelÂ 60,Â Remington NylonÂ 66 and Winchester 190.

When New Jersey instituted its original Assault Weapons Ban back in the 90s during the Florio Administration, the Model 60 had a 17 round tube magazine standard. There were tons of these weapons in the hands of New Jersey gun owners, with their owners completely unaware they had an assault rifle that had to be registered. You still hear stories every once in a while of some poor fool getting pinched for having an unregistered early Model 60.

Marlin modified the rifle to only hold 15 rounds, but now it appears all those people who have compliant guns would be forced to register them as assault weapons, which most won’t because they would never imagine they own an “assault firearm” as they are classified in New Jersey Law. This will instantly create more felons, which is probably the idea.

If we can’t get a veto out of Christie for this, he might as well just decide not to run for President right now.

The Trend is Toward Gun Rights

Glenn Reynolds notes in USA Today:

Overall, the trend of the past couple of decades seems to be toward expanding gun rights, just as the trend in the 1950s and 1960s was toward expanding free speech rights. America has moreÂ guns in private handsÂ than ever before, even asÂ crime rates fall, and, after a half-century or so of anti-gun hysteria, the nation seems to be reverting to its generally gun-friendly traditions.

I agree, and it’s good to be optimistic. But it’s also worth noting that we’re one death or retirement away from losing the Second Amendment entirely. Once the lower courts get the green light, they’ll reduce it to a meaningless right, and the Supreme Court will willingly go along with it. Remember, right now, in most federal circuits, the Second Amendment only means a right to have some kind of handgun, but not any type of handgun, in the home, and even that being subject to severe requirements, limitations, and qualifications. At this point, the Second Amendment may be “ordinary constitutional law” as Prof. Reynolds notes, but it’s far from a meaningful right for a sizable number of American citizens. We still have a lot of work to do, especially in 2014 and 2016.