March 2017 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Arrest for Guns in Schools

Firearms Attorney Joshua Prince notes that in the recent case of a man in Upper Darby getting arrested for having a firearms in school, the Chief of Police may have violated the LTC privacy laws by releasing his LTC status to the press. Also, the arrest would seem to be in violation of the recent Superior Court decision Commonwealth v. Goslin.

Chitwood is an absolute shit to gun owners, and I would love to see a nice judgement against him. I’m not sure I agree that the reporter, Stephanie Farr, would be liable, since she should be protected under New York Times v.Â US. It’s the bozo who leaked it that’s liable.

Nazi-Era Guns

Apparently a Canadian MP running for Prime Minister decided to do a photo op shooting a pistol, causing the Canadian outlet “The Hill Times” to opine that said MP, who was shooting a 1972 Walther P1, was firing a “nazi-era handgun.” Twitter, of course, immediately started having fun with the accusation. My comments:

Congratulations to Canadian gun owners: you’ve made it. You’ve become a constituency the politically ambitious feel they should pander to. Note this is different from getting them to actually do something for you (that will, sadly, always be pulling teeth), but if you keep at it you might have some victories ahead of you.
I’m always reluctant to comment on firearms in foreign markets. For different reasons, different firearms are more common or less common in other countries. So if you go by what you’d expect here, you might be wrong. I often wonder how often “experts” really means “friends I know who like guns.” Apparently there are a lot of P1s in Canada, which is a postwar variant of the P38. So not even a “nazi-era handgun,” anymore than a Volkswagon Beetle is a “nazi-era car” (a point made quite humorously on the Twitter thread).

It was a cheap shot by The Hill Times, and I’m glad to see if backfire. The story showing now has obviously been edited to not quite be so comically bad. I actually haveÂ a Mauser 98K manufactured by Sauer and John in 1938 (Russian capture, and in not great shape, so no big collector’s item). Am I now a nazi-sympathizer, as The Hill Times was obviously trying to imply here?

McAuliffe Vetos Carry for People Protected by Protective Order

The Virginia legislature put several carry bills before the Governor, related to allowing people who were the subject of a protective order (i.e. the protectee, not the person the order is against) to carry firearms without a permit for 45 days (giving them time to seek a permit, and offering relief from training costs). Surely such a modest measure would meet with little resistance from a governor in favor of common sense gun laws, correct?

Nope, veto.Â Now it’s back to the legislature for an attempted override. If Trump and the GOP were smart (I know, I know), they’d put Virginia back in play by building up population around Norfolk with some Navy spending, and moving some federal agencies from Virginia to Maryland.

Better She Mind Someone Else’s Business Other than Mine

I have Google Alerts set up for the leaders in the gun control movement, so I know when they are making the news. Shannon Watts’ alert has been very quiet. No one was really paying a lick of attention to her until a few days ago when the alert I have forÂ Shannan Watts blew up in a frenzy, because apparently she can’t keep her nose out of the business of people she doesn’t have the first clue about. Oh well, I’d be happy if she would rather be the legging police than the gun police. Spandex came into fashion in the 1980s. It mercifully went out of fashion until recently. How quickly we forget the horrors.

I kind of like it that even when Shannon Watts scores, she still kind of loses. I’ve often said she’s not terribly good at what she does. We should be thankful for that.

UPDATE: Miguel thinks she might be gearing up to run for a political office.Â If she’s looking for federal office and not looking to be put up as a sacrificial lamb, she’s going to have to move. Her district is R+9. The other district near her is R+11 on the Cook Partisan Voting Index. That’s a tough hill to climb for someone with talent, and Shannon Watts has never impressed me.

The Left Has Discovered Armed Protesting

Featuring about the same amount of Stay Puft as a right-wing armed protest. Not that I really have room to talk these days, but I’m also not out there acting like I’m in shape enough toÂ fight the revolution.

Deadly High-Capacity Magazine

I guess this guy heard reports of deadly high-capacity magazines from gun control advocates and politicians, and took it to the next level.

A man tried to rob a pizza place on Ocean Boulevard Tuesday night by pointing a gunâ€™s magazine at the employee, but the employee slapped it out of the suspectâ€™s hands, according to a Myrtle Beach Police report.

Apparently that ejected two rounds out of the magazine, which the robber quickly scooped up and beat a retreat. Whatever that dude was on must be one hell of a drug.

Weekly Gun News – Edition 57

Been under the weather this week. Nasty chest cold set in last weekend, and the crud is still clearing out. Speaking of clearing out, time to clear out the tabs:

A four year old found a .22 shell casing and took it to school. Got suspended for 7 days.

Court to Chicago: quit dragging your feetÂ on Ezell. The 7th Circuit has been one of the better circuits on gun rights. I don’t think that’s a case of natural inclination, so much as the 7th got overturned in McDonald. Judges don’t like being overturned. We need to overturn some others.

Gun clubs are banning police from using their range in… New Zealand. Reason? The cops were harassing legal gun owners.

NRA is dropping a lot of money to ensure Gorsuch’s confirmation.

Charles C.W. Cooke: “Another Federal Court of Appeals Attacks the Second Amendment.”

Gun sales up. Accidents way down.

You’ll be able to take your firearm more places in Arkansas.

Constitutional Carry on the move in South Carolina. Good. Their reciprocity is awful.

Nevada moving to ban guns in libraries. Why libraries? Why do I have a feeling this is coming about because some of our open carry friends decided to try to educate some library patrons?

Eliminating the “character and reputation” clause in Pennsylvania’s LTC qualifications.Â This has been the mechanism that hostile jurisdictions have used to deny people LTCs for parking tickets.

Question and Answer: “Why are guns a right in the US while health care is not.”

No guns for vets, you see, because CSGV cares so much about our veterans. It’s not that they hate people owning guns. No… not at all. Where do veterans groups stand on this? Oh yeah. Not with them.

If we have a favorable ruling from the 3rd Circuit on either one of the pending 302 commitment cases, it willÂ help New Jersey as well as Pennsylvania.

Utah is looking to lower its DUI level to 0.05, which is basically have a beer with dinner and go to jail if you’re not a big person. Gun rights groups are fighting as well, because it will lower the threshold for carrying too.

Clayton Cramer: why public opinions surveys should be taken with a large bag of salt.Â Public opinion surveys tell you want people want to tell pollsters.

Pocket pistol practice doesn’t have to be punishment.

3D printed grenade launcher.

Fake news.

Spring is coming: “20 Hikes in Pennsylvania Everyone Should Take.” I’ve done a few of these.

Senator Hatch’s Transport Bill is a Nice Thought, But Useless

Senator Orrin Hatch has introduced S.618, which purportedly enhances the FOPA safe travel provision, but this bill suffers from the same flaw that the Manchin-Toomey version did:

(b) In subsection (a), the term â€˜transportâ€™â€”

(1) includes staying in temporary lodging overnight, stopping for food, fuel, vehicle maintenance, an emergency, medical treatment, or any other activity incidental to the transport; and

(2) does not include transportationâ€”

(A) with the intent to commit a crime; or

(B) with knowledge, or reasonable cause to believe, that such a crime is to be committed in the course of, or arising from, the transportation.

(c)(1) A person who is transporting a firearm, ammunition, magazine, or feeding device may not be arrested or otherwise detained for violation of any law or any rule or regulation of a State or any political subdivision thereof related solely to the possession, transportation, or carrying of firearms, ammunition, magazine, or feeding device unless there is probable cause to believe that the person is doing so in a manner not provided for in subsection (a).

I think they need to make it much clearer that subsection (b)(2)(A) and (B). It is a crime to transport hollow point ammunition through New Jersey. It is a crime to transport a 15 round pistol magazine through New York. It is a crime to possess any firearm in Washington D.C. if you’re not a resident of DC and have not registered it. So when someone transports through these states, they are technically committing a crime in that state. Also, people will tend to have firearms discovered when they got pulled over for a traffic offense, which is technically a crime. Do you lose protections then?

I get what Hatch is trying to accomplish here, but given the resistance of the jurisdictions this will apply to, it needs to be iron clad. If the bill gives hostile local judges the room, they will take it.

Hatch probably doesn’t want to surrender the ol’ law & order that Republican love themselves so much of, but I don’t see a way to save (b)(2) that doesn’t risk nullifying the entire purpose of the law. It needs to be removed or this bill is a waste of everyone’s time.

Dems Want Deal on Gorsuch

The Dems are looking for a deal that would allow Neil Gorsuch through without a filibuster, but would preserve the filibuster for further appointments. The dumbest thing the Stupid Party could do is take this deal. Force the Dems to filibuster Gorsuch,Â and use the “nuclear option” if they do. The GOP already know the Dems would have done this to them if they had taken the Senate and White House and we were looking at Hillary’s nominee to replace Scalia. They know because when they thought victory was a lock they said as much.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind compromising on a more liberal originalist like Randy BarnettÂ if one of the Dem appointees on the Court kicks it or retires. But for political reasons, that probably isn’t happening. Neither side wants a justice who will limit government too much.

I’ve thought for a while that they should return to the old filibuster rule that requires the filibustering Senator to actually hold the floor. You’d think Senators would love opportunities to grand stand on issues that are important to voters, especially in this social media driven world.

I Hate This Fiction That Judges Don’t Have Legal Opinions

I can understand why a judge would not want to comment on the merits of a particular case, but could we dispense with the fiction that judges don’t have, or aren’t allow to express opinions on the law?

I’d feel a lot better if he actually answered Feinstein’s questions. She wants to know, and I want to know too.