Shall Not Be Questioned – Page 56 – The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …

I Guess it Took Modern Day Robber Barons to Realize This

One area where I’ve always departed with libertarian market purists is on anti-trust, but I could never really articulate it well until now:

One place where I break with the Borkian consensus on antitrust is that I donâ€™t think the Sherman Act was about maximizing consumer welfare so much as it was about inhibiting the growth of unaccountable political power. (The drafers of the Sherman Act, of course, werenâ€™t aware of Borkâ€™s theories.) Weâ€™re seeing a lot of unaccountable political power here, and itâ€™s going to get worse if nothingâ€™s done.

I probably couldn’t have come to the conclusion in my 20s, but these days I think political power and economic power aren’t really separable. The latter breeds the former.

If you worked in tech in the 1990s, you remember Microsoft using its monopoly in operating systems to essentially strangle Netscape. By the time the government came around to dealing with that, technology had moved on. Back then I felt it was a pretty good example of how anti-trust law wasn’t really well suited to a post-industrial economy such as ours. But Microsoft’s great accomplishment was swindling IBM out of their monopoly on computing. Jeff Bezos has laid waste to main streets across this country. Google has absconded with the advertising revenues of all the local news rags we grew up with. Don’t even get me started on Facebook.

And we all cheered while they were doing it. What a fool I feel like for believing technological and free market progress would eventually solve all our ills. I might not believe Trumpian populism is the answer, but I can’t help but say we’re in a hell of a pickle now.

Unhinged

When it comes to issue advocacy or issue activism, I’ve never believed it’s beneficial to do battle with a caricature in your head about what the other side is like. You have to study their arguments, study their behaviors and inclinations, and how they organize themselves.

At the end of the day, if you don’t feel like you could successfully hold your own on their side of the debate table, using their arguments, you’re probably not being thorough enough in understanding your opponents. To defeat their ideas, and confront who they are, you need to actually know them.

That’s one reason I will read Ladd Everitt’s column. I want to share some tidbits from his latest:

The modern-day NRA is a white supremacist group thatâ€Šâ€”â€Šbecause of the success of its lobbying at the federal, state and local levelâ€Šâ€”â€Šis given broad legal authority by the government to sell weapons to the general public for profit.*

NRA is a multi-billion dollar a year organization, and only a small fraction of its revenue comes from the gun industry, either directly or indirectly. Brownells the company is, first and foremost, an accessories company. So is MidwayUSA. Both are some of NRA’s biggest corporate contributors, most of it being through the “Round-Up” program. That means that the donations are still sourced from individuals in small amounts. This is not bullshit. These are verifiable facts.

I’ve spent a lot of time at NRA meetings, much of which has been in environments frequented by ordinary members. I have never heard any white supremacist rhetoric in my entire history at Annual Meeting. In fact, I seem to recall last year NRA honoredÂ Josephine Byrd, the plaintiff on the Wilmington Housing Authority case, to the cheers of 20,000 or so apparent “white supremacists” in the room. I can also recall this past meeting, a line of people lined up to meet Colion Noir. Sound like the behavior of white supremacists? I don’t think so, especially given the number of people lined up were black. I also recall this supposed white supremacist pro-gun community rallying behind Shaneen Allen. I could go on.

I’m not going to claim that all 5 million NRA members are bastions of racial tolerance and understanding. Like any group with that many people in it, there are going to be some that are racist assholes. But I’m not really angry with Ladd for saying this. In fact, I hope he keeps doing it.

They are All-In at this point on a strategy to make conservative whites repeat gun customers for life (this includes white law enforcement officers as well, as recently highlighted by Radley Balko in the Washington Post).

Yes. Please keep this up, because this is not the rhetoric of a person who is concerned with winning. I think both Balko’s article and Ladd’s statement here are important. Our opponents have spent a lot of time and money trying to demonstrate to the public that the cops are on their side. There’s an important reason for that. Here you see them conceding the point. They might not be directly conceding it, but you can’t accept that Radley Balko has a point without also acknowledging a lot of NRA’s member support comes from cops and law enforcement families.

NRA has made a huge gamble, or perhaps that ought to be yuge gamble, in lashing their ship to Donald Trump. NRA’s bet is that essentially the Democrats will not come back from the wilderness by doubling down on the Obama coalition. To make a come back, they will need to soften their rhetoric and come back to the center, remembering that the Dems last time came back by a process that encouraged pro-gun Democrats.

My fear is and will remain that it’s a very risky bet, because I’m not sure the Dems are wrong about demographic trends. NRA hasn’t done as well as it needs penetrating outside its traditional demographic. It’s made some progress, but I worry not enough. But NRA has been playing Trump’s game since before Trump made it cool, and they are very good at it.

I will continue to rail against NRA dragging itself into the right culture wars, because I do ultimately think while we may see short term benefit in it, long term it’s not a winning strategy. ButÂ I’ve made big bets against the NRA before and turned out to be wrong.

Women’s March on NRA

The same people that organized the gigantic post-inaugural Women’s march decided to target NRA headquarters. The number I’ve heard is 212 people, including press. Pictures would seem to back that up.

As I saw on social media: “I’ve taken shits bigger than that rally.” That’ll show em! How many do you think will make the 17 miles to the DOJ building in DC? It’s a pretty long walk even to the Metro.

I will continue to assert: the left doesn’t give a shit about gun control. Ladd Everitt’s theme lately is trying to convince Progressives not to buy guns. He’s come seriously unglued over this. This is not what a successful movement looks like.

And why on earth would you march people 17 miles in July when you know you have commitment issues, and most of the people who care about gun control are old? The whole idea is a recipe for fail. But I’m not one to interrupt my opponent when they are in the middle of making a mistake.

Sandwichgate

I don’t know how many of you have followed David Brooks’ stepping in it with his story of introducing a working class friend to an upscale sandwich shop.

Recently I took a friend with only a high school degree to lunch. Insensitively, I led her into a gourmet sandwich shop. Suddenly I saw her face freeze up as she was confronted with sandwiches named â€œPadrinoâ€ and â€œPomodoroâ€ and ingredients like soppressata, capicollo and a striata baguette. I quickly asked her if she wanted to go somewhere else and she anxiously nodded yes and we ate Mexican.

Ace of Ace of Spades has a somewhat different take on it:

By the way, where did David Brooks come by this non-college-educated “friend”? Last time I heard from him, he was asking the government to set up Adult Day Camps where people of different social classes could meet and mingle.

I’m already involved with such an Adult Day Camp, namely my local shooting club. It’s difficult for me to relate to this kind of class anxiety. I think a key part of getting along and enjoying new experiences is just not giving too much of a crap what other people think of you. Now, to a degree, we all care somewhat. I certainly don’t enjoy offending people, and try very hard not to poop in other people’s pools. But I don’t see what the issue is asking what a Padrino is, and couldn’t really care less if someone thinks I’m a rube for not knowing.

My father worked in an office, but only completed some college. My mother only had a high school education and was a full time mom. Both my grandfathers were tradesmen. Most of my father’s friends were either tradesmen or worked for a living. None of my grandmothers had more than a high school education. So I don’t get class anxiety being around wealthy elites or working class people. Both groups of people have their bullshit, even if it’s different bullshit. Both groups engage in “virtue signaling,” it’s just that their virtues are different. But somehow increasingly, the two groups can’t talk to each other. Why?

I blame social media.

Using Castile Case to Hawk Carry Guard? Are You Kidding Me?

NRA breaks its silence on the Philando Castile case:

Do I believe that Philando Castile deserved to lose his life over his [traffic] stop? I absolutely do not. I also think that this is why we have things like NRA Carry Guard, not only to reach out to the citizens to go over what to do during stops like this, but also to work with law enforcement so that they understand what citizens are experiencing when they go through stops like this.

I guess all things are taking a back seat to what’s really important: signing people up for Carry Guard. Radley Balko has an article in the Washington Post: “How the NRAâ€™s allegiance to cops undermines its credibility on gun rights.”

A law-abiding gun owner was shot and killed by a cop after doing everything he was supposed to do. It then took more than a year for anyone from the nationâ€™s largest gun rights organization to comment, and when she did, she offered aÂ vague, heavily qualified, quasi-criticism of the cop while implying not only thatÂ Castile contributed to hisÂ death but also that he might be alive if only he were carrying an NRA Carry Guard card.

Actually, Castile did a number of things that you should never do in a stop, but in my opinion the officer did not handle the situation well either. More training on both sides of a stop is a valid answer, but I really don’t like using this to hawk Carry Guard.

Where I really part with Balko is that I don’t want the NRA taking sides on the militarization of police any more than I want them to be militantly pro-police for the sake of taking sides a culture war that has nothing to do with gun rights. NRA has fostered police involvement for years through it’s LE program, and I’m fine with that. That’s part of NRA’s mission.

But I’ll be bluntly honest, I’m not happy where NRA’s PR firm, and Dana Loesch in particular, seem to be taking the organization.

The NICS Figures for June

What I think the June NICS figures boil down to is that there will never again be a better driver for gun sales than the Obama Administration alongside the “inevitability” of a Hillary Administration.

But the repeated media stories about an utter collapse in gun sales don’t appear to be true. We’re still nearly double what we were when Obama took office. Will it continue to drop? Time will tell, but I think as long as we live in uncertain times, sales will remain above historical levels.

Bucking Precedent

While I was taking a break over the week of the 4th of July holiday, a ruling was handed down by a federal court in California enjoining the state from carrying out its confiscation of standard capacity magazines. Dave Kopel’s article about the case is the best I’ve seen, so read the whole thing.

The court ruled that the Second Amendment was implicated in the magazine ban and such a ban failed intermediate scrutiny. To me this should trigger strict scrutiny, but intermediate scrutiny, prior to Second Amendment law, was still a pretty high standards if Courts actually applied it. The problem with what the lower courts have done is they’ve taken to just reclassifying rational basis review as some higher level of scrutiny, and so far SCOTUS has allowed them to get away with it.

The court here also ruled that the taking was an issue, that essentially the state can’t confiscate property without fair compensation.

It will take courts willing to buck precedent in the future if the makeup of SCOTUS improves, so that we can move cases forward. There are judges out there that think what the lower courts have done with Second Amendment law is wrong and are willing to help us address that. It should be noted that Judge Benitez, who wrote the opinion in this case, was appointed by George W. Bush. It is possible for us to improve our lot even with very imperfect presidents in the White House.

Good News in Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has denied appeal on FOAC et al. v. Lower Merion Township, basically upholding the ruling in Commonwealth Court that their ordinance banning firearms and discharge in township parks was illegal.

Our current preemption law usually works when we can take these ordinances to court, but getting them there is difficult.

Also from Josh Prince: “It is time for the citizens of Pennsylvania to stop paying millions of dollars, each year, for a broken and duplicative system, when the FBI offer NICS to us for free.” PICS is awful. At some point I’d like to see a bill in Congress to eliminate POC states. That way there’s only one entity to keep an eye on. POC state agencies have gotten away with a lot worse malfeasance than the FBI, and the FBI does a much better job with uptime on NICS than the PSP does with PICS, which is very outage prone for as much as it’s costing taxpayers.

Weekly Gun News – Edition 61

It’s been a few weeks since I did a gun news post. Weekly is just an indicator that it’s not monthly. It doesn’t mean I have to do one every week, right? Unfortunately I got a call from my cousin informing me that my Uncle had passed away quite unexpectedly during the night. In truth I was raised calling them Aunt and Uncle but they are not blood relations. He was my dad’s best friend from childhood. But other than my own father, he probably had more impact on who I am today than any other male figure in my life. I did not grow up in a gun owning family. He is the reason I took up shooting and the gun rights cause. If he had not been the influence on my life that he was, none of you would be reading this blog. So things might be a bit scarce this week.

Police departments can either pay for their officers to have decent training, or they can pay that money out in settlements.

Cert has been denied in the case of Sessions v. Binderup, which leaves the 3rd circuit decision standing.

I have to agree with Miguel on this one… Everytown is reaching. NRA doesn’t comment on a lot of things, and they aren’t obligated to respond to every single person who is ever shot. I do think NRA missed an opportunity to show they don’t just care about OFWGs, but this is ridiculous. Somehow I believe Shannon Watts is behind this one.

Looks like CNMI is looking to reinstate its handgun ban, despite Heller. And why not? Heller has been effectively rendered meaningless by the lower courts.

Some sneakiness going on in Indiana. Seems you can’t carry in buildings with courtrooms in them, so some local communities are claiming there are court rooms in municipal buildings.

John Feinblatt of Everytown: “In the wake of Scalise shooting, gun control couldn’t be more urgent.”

Over at Reason: “Why Did a Conservative Judge Uphold an Assault Weapons Ban?” Judicial minimalism are judges abrogating their responsibility to the Constitution and the people. It forwards this silly notion that the silly people we elect and send to Washington somehow so represent that who needs any kind of pesky constitution? It’s time for the dinosaurs who practice this travesty retire from the court.

There are a lot of things about this NRA Carry Guard offering that seem poorly considered.

WaPo: “These GOP lawmakers are pushing for more gun rights after baseball shooting”

Delaware has been living on borrowed time for a while. But probably not as much borrowed time as New Jersey if it gets a Dem governor in 2018. You can definitely forget about pardons if that happens.

On the other hand, this proposal in Delaware seems worthwhile, even if it falls short of actual shall-issue.

Dave Kopel: “Bad police training may have killed Philando Castile.”

More Dave Kopel: “The Hearing Protection Act and ‘silencers’”

Training Scars: Brass in Pockets.

NJ Supreme Court says you can answer the door with a defensive weapon. More here.

Well, well. It looks like Shannon Watts might be running for office after all. I didn’t know Polis had ambitions to be Governor. She better be better at campaigning than she is at running MDA if she wants to have a shot.

Concealed Carry as a Martial Art.

Cert Denied in Peruta v. California

The Supreme Court will not hear Peruta. It looks like Thomas and Gorsuch dissented from the cert denial, signaling that Gorsuch is willing to take the torch from the late Justice Scalia when it comes to Second Amendment issues. From the dissent, written by Justice Thomas:

Had the en banc Ninth Circuit answered the question actually at issue in this case, it likely would have been compelled to reach the opposite result. This Court has already suggested that the Second Amendment protects the right to carry firearms in public in some fashion. As we explained in Heller, to â€œbear armsâ€ means to â€œwear, bear, or carry upon the person or in the clothing or in a pocket, for the purpose of being armed and ready for offenÂ sive or defensive action in a case of conflict with another person.â€

For those of us who work in marbled halls, guarded constantly by a vigilant and dedicated police force, the guarantees of the Second Amendment might seem antiÂ quated and superfluous. But the Framers made a clear choice: They reserved to all Americans the right to bear arms for self-defense. I do not think we should stand by idly while a State denies its citizens that right, particularly when their very lives may depend on it. I respectfully dissent.

Also, some tea leaf reading: if Kennedy retires this summer, as is rumored, if you ask me it’s a strong signal that he’s not the weak link in the Heller majority. The case would be heard before whatever justice replaces him, which given Trump’s short list, is liable to be good on the issue. I’ve long argued that I believe Roberts’ judicial minimalism is the issue we’re up against, and not Kennedy’s tendency to switch hit. Though, it could be a combination of both.

What we do know is that Thomas, Alito, and now Gorsuch have written or joined forceful dissents of the Supreme Court abrogating its responsibility to the Second Amendment. That’s three solid votes. Unfortunately, we need five solid votes to move the ball forward.