comments in () by the same.
Brady Bunch President Minimizes Chicago Gun Case: …First, the Chicago
case, like the D.C. case, involves a handgun ban. Even before Heller,
only a handful of cities, and no states, had such laws on the books.
After Heller, only two Illinois cities - Chicago and Oak Park - retain
their handgun bans. Even if the Chicago law is struck down, such a
ruling would not necessarily jeopardize strict gun regulation falling
short of a handgun ban. Second, the right declared in Heller is narrow
in scope - the right to have handguns in the home for self-defense. If
the Supreme Court holds that the Second Amendment now applies to
states and localities, only that narrow right will be extended. Of
course, the pro-gun ideologues will try to convince the courts in
other cases to expand the narrow Heller right. In fact, Alan Gura, the
same lawyer who brought both the Heller and the Chicago cases, has
filed a new lawsuit in D.C. challenging the City's restrictions on
carrying guns outside the home. But the Chicago case itself will not
establish a broader right… (Henigan is preaching to his own choir.
Perhaps his strategy for fundraising differs radically from that of
the NRA but, if Heller opened the door for an as yet undecided lawsuit
that could create licensed carry in DC, why would McDonald not do the
same for Chicago? Chicago would not even be able to replicate DC's
claim of an unusual concentration of "sensitive" government
buildings.)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dennis-a-henigan/the-gun-issue-is-back-in_b_310122.html
The Choir Counters: Whatever significance is attached to Chicago's
failed bid to host the 2016 Olympics, it is of small importance to the
rest of the country. More far-reaching and frightening is the Supreme
Court's decision to take up a case challenging the city's ban on
handgun ownership in the court's new term, which begins this week. The
case is best considered a preview of coming attractions. The gun
lobby, if it wins in the Supreme Court, is prepared to challenge every
gun control law enacted at any level of government. It will usher in a
scary season of assault on the common sense of citizens, law
enforcement officials and others who believe that carrying today's
high-powered weapons in an urbanized, mobile - and angry - society is
chillingly dangerous, and deadly… Almost no one expects the
conservative-leaning court to uphold Chicago's prohibition, which
applies only to handguns. Owners of rifles used in hunting, for
example, are unaffected by the local law. This distinction says much
about the current state of gun politics. Only about a decade ago, gun
rights activists often claimed that they wanted their weapons in order
to hunt. They would evoke childhood memories of kinship that grew in
the woods as one generation of hunters passed an ancient art on to
another…
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20091005_a_slippery_slope_on_guns/
Et Tu, Los Angeles Times?: … If you support measures to reduce gun
violence, as this page does, it's tempting to hope that the court will
rule that states aren't bound by the 2nd Amendment. The problem is
that allowing states (and cities) to ignore this part of the Bill of
Rights could undermine the requirement that they abide by others… In
the Chicago case, the justices are considering whether the 2nd
Amendment should be applied to the states by either the 14th
Amendment's due process clause (which applies to "persons") or its
privileges and immunities clause (which protects only citizens). The
court should say yes, even as it reaffirms its assurance in its 2008
decision that government may still impose reasonable restrictions on
the right to bear arms. This is no time for the court to start picking
and choosing when it comes to the Bill of Rights.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-guns6-2009oct06,0,6190425.story
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"Public Health" Study Challenged: In Philadelphia, researchers at the
University of Pennsylvania find, possessing a gun is strongly
associated with getting shot. Since "guns did not protect those who
possessed them," they conclude, "people should rethink their
possession of guns." This is like noting that possessing a parachute
is strongly associated with being injured while jumping from a plane,
then concluding that skydivers would be better off unemcumbered by
safety equipment designed to slow their descent. "Can this study
possibly be as stupid as it sounds?" asks Stewart Baker at Skating on
Stilts. Having shelled out $30 for the privilege of reading the entire
article, which appears in the November American Journal of Public
Health, I can confirm that the answer is yes… (This link is definitely
worth clicking, to read the additional three paragraphs.)
http://reason.com/blog/2009/10/05/why-skydivers-would-be-better
… Conspicuously missing from the press release and the news story were
two critical limitations that were admitted in the original study.
These qualifiers mean that the press release headline, as well as all
the other statements and implications of causation, were quite
mistaken. Perhaps defensive possession and carrying of guns helps
protect the possessor and carrier, and perhaps it doesn't. But the
study sheds virtually no light on the subject… So it's possible that
gun possession was "perilous," in the sense of increasing the risk of
the possessor's being injured. It's possible that it "did not protect
those who possessed guns," in the sense that it didn't reduce the risk
of the possessor's being injured. But it's also possible that it was
"protective," in that it reduced the risk of the possessor's being
injured, but this result is swamped by the other phenomena I point to.
The study doesn't give us much extra information about which theory is
correct. And yet it is publicized, and it's reported, as if it did
robustly show the causal relationship.
Ninth Circuit to Rehear Another Firearm-Related Case: The U.S. Court
of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has agreed to sit en banc to rehear a
closely watched case involving gun rights and searches and seizures by
law enforcement. The case stems from an incident involving the foster
mother of a man who was sought by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's
Department for allegedly firing a gun at his girlfriend. Sheriff's
deputies, believing the man might be staying at the foster mother's
home, searched the house and, in the process, seized the woman's gun…
In her dissent, the third panel member, Judge Sandra Ikuta, said that
the deputies had no probable cause to search for the broad list of
items outlined in the warrant. She said that "no reasonably
well-trained officer…could have concluded that there was probable
cause to search for the wide variety of firearms, firearm accessories,
and gang paraphernalia listed in the search warrant." Ikuta said that
the gun used during the alleged assault had been identified in a
photograph. "Mere possession of firearms is not, generally speaking, a
crime," the judge wrote, citing the Supreme Court's D.C. v. Heller gun
rights opinion from last year. Ikuta isn't likely the only one
concerned about Heller. The case, and perhaps the upcoming Supreme
Court review of McDonald v. Chicago, another gun case, may have
influenced the circuit on Oct. 2 to rehear the case, Mann said…
Are You Really a Law-Abiding Gun Owner?: In all likelihood, you're a
felon and don't even know it. Despite your best efforts to be a
law-abiding gun owner, the vast number of arcane, misinterpreted and
sometimes misdirected gun laws in state and federal statutes means
that almost inevitably, you are a law-breaker. Maybe you drove to your
favorite hunting spot, rifle in your trunk, and unwittingly passed
within 1,000 feet of a school. Oops. You just violated the federal
"Gun Free School Zones Act." Maybe you just went leaf-peeping on the
Blue Ridge Parkway, unknowingly bringing a gun into a national park.
One of the most laughable assertions made by gun control advocates is
that guns are "unregulated." In truth, with (by some estimates) as
many as 30,000 gun laws on the books, navigating the minefield they
create becomes nearly impossible…
"Did you really think we want those laws to be observed?" said Dr.
Ferris. "We want them broken...There's no way to rule innocent men.
The only power any government has is the power to crack down on
criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them.
One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible
for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law
abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the
kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively
interpreted - and you create a nation of law breakers - and then you
cash in on guilt..."
- Ayn Rand (1905-1982), spoken by Dr. Floyd Ferris in Atlas Shrugged, 1957
---
Congressmen Defend Lead Bullets in National Parks: A letter signed by
members of the U.S. House of Representatives' Second Amendment Task
Force raising important questions about the National Park Service's
intent to ban the use of traditional ammunition in parks that allow
hunting has been sent to Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
The letter, which follows a similar message sent to Salazar by U.S.
senators last week, was applauded by the National Shooting Sports
Foundation, trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting
and shooting sports industry…
http://www.ammoland.com/2009/10/05/house-members-support-traditional-ammunition-in-national-parks/
---
Bloomberg Group Misleads on Gun Shows: Michael Bloomberg's Mayors
Against Illegal Guns – a group boasting some 450 members including
Seattle's lame duck Mayor Greg Nickels – has petitioned President
Barack Obama to adopt several alleged "reforms" MAIG is pushing that
sound suspiciously like a federal crackdown on gun shows. It doesn't
appear to matter to people like Bloomberg and Nickels that various
studies have concluded that criminals don't get their guns from gun
shows. The rare exception and the one that seems to be repeatedly
exploited was the case of Columbine High School killers Dylan Klebold
and Eric Harris. Three of the four guns used in that crime were bought
for them by Robyn Anderson at a gun show, who was not prosecuted, but
did testify in favor of background checks at gun shows. Now, full
disclosure: I sit on the board of directors of the Washington Arms
Collectors, which operates gun shows. The experience has provided an
inside look at gun show operations…
Inspector General Critiques F Troop Expansion: …In a 39-page report,
Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said that while a proposed expansion
of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
"Project Gun Runner" should enhance its ability to combat firearms
trafficking along the Southwest border, other planned activities did
not appear to represent "the best use of resources to reduce firearms
trafficking." The report also said ATF has an insufficient number of
personnel proficient in Spanish to staff the project, "which could
pose significant safety and operational challenges," and noted that
while ATF had implemented several Spanish-language-training pilot
programs and had also made efforts to hire Spanish-proficient staff,
better training and hiring were needed to "ensure effective operations
and personnel safety on the new Gun Runner teams." It also said the
agency needed to develop "better program measures to assess the
impact" that new teams of agents have on firearms trafficking and
related violent border crime. ATF received $10 million in the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to support and expand Project
Gun Runner, in addition to $11.9 million for the project in fiscal
2009 appropriations and supplemental funding…
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/06/anti-gunrunning-lauded-questioned/
---
"Bizarro" Is a Matter of Perspective: …Where else but in Bizarro world
would the Credit Card Act of 2009, an act designed to protect
consumers against unscrupulous credit card practices, be coupled with
amendment 1067, inserted by Senator Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, that
allows concealed weapons to be carried into The National Park and
National Wildlife Refuge system? …Quickly following on the heels of
the kind of logic that protects credit card holder's rights by
endangering both humans and animals, Arizona joined 41 other states in
allowing handguns to be carried into bars. I've seen enough cowboy
movies to appreciate the excitement of mixing two fisted drinking with
a one fisted handgun, but even the old West got civilized and had
patrons check their side arms. As stated by many gun advocates, "Each
person has the right to bear arms to defend themselves." However, they
seem to be protecting themselves from each other. According to the
FBI, states with the least restrictions on gun control, such as
Arizona, Texas and Arkansas, also have the highest rate of violent
crime involving firearms. Only in a Bizarro world would anyone think
the combination of guns and alcohol was a good thing…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/b-jeffrey-madoff/only-in-the-bizarro-world_b_309507.html
---
VCDL Protests Gun Ban at Republican Roundup: For many years Republican
leaders in Virginia and their deep pocket contributors have been
gathering annually at the Innsbrook "Snagajob" Pavilion in Henrico
County, VA for the "Republican Roundup." The managers of Innsbrook's
"Snagajob" Pavilion, out of step with most commercial establishments
enforce a strict rule mandated by the Highwoods Corporation against
gun carry. In 2005 the facility deployed Sheriffs deputies to escort
the Philip Van Cleave, the President of the Virginia Citizens Defense
League (VCDL), from the Republican Roundup… In response to the
Republican snub, VCDL has organized the "Freedom Rally" immediately
outside and surrounding the entire Roundup with hundreds of picketers
carrying signs and chanting against Republican hypocrisy for selecting
an anti-gun venue each year for the Roundup. Speakers and music are
planned, along with some "surprise" events…
Oops, Wrong House: Investigators said the homeowner, Mark Brown,
returned to his house in the 8500 block of Norton at about 9:30 a.m.
when he heard someone inside. Brown grabbed a shotgun hidden under a
bed and found the burglar in a bedroom, police said. The homeowner
fired several shots after the burglar rushed at him from a closet. The
burglar was hit three times, according to investigators. The burglar,
whose name was not released, died at the scene… Brown said he felt
lucky that the burglar did not find the shotgun… (No smelly brown
stuff! Rule Five: Maintain control of your firearm. Brown was lucky in
two regards: his unsecured shotgun was not used against him and he was
able to access it before being attacked by the burglar. Perhaps he
will now get his CHL, carry a handgun and purchase a safe to secure
the firearms he leaves at home.)
http://www.click2houston.com/news/21205738/detail.html
http://www.examiner.com/x-18149-SelfDefense-Examiner~y2009m10d5-Northwest-Houston-TX-man-shoots-violent-burglar-in-self-defense
… In the latest incident, a man returning from a grocery store at 9:30
a.m. Monday shot and killed a man intruder he found hiding in a
closet, said Homicide Detective C.E. Elliott. The homeowner, who had
taken the day off from work, returned to the 8500 block of Norton and
noticed items has been disturbed inside his northwest Houston
residence. Mark Brown told police he grabbed a shotgun he kept for
security, and began to search his home. He found the intruder hiding
in a closet, carrying a screwdriver. A confrontation developed, and
Brown fired three rounds of birdshot at the man, Elliott said… Earlier
on Monday, a man who broke into a kitchen window of a home in the
13000 block of Lima, near Beechnut in Harris County, was shot by a
resident. Harris County Sheriff's deputies confirmed that Johannson
Rios, 19, has been charged with burglary of a habitation to commit an
assault. Rios is accused of entering the resident's bedroom around 2
a.m. while the man was on the telephone with 911 operators. He was
shot in the arm. Rios was taken to a hospital for non-life-threatening
injuries… (It looks as though Mr. Brown was also lucky that the
burglar was incapacitated by birdshot, a poor but often recommended
choice for home defense.)
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6652958.html
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Speaking of Rule Five…: Tyler [TX] police say they are forwarding the
case of a parent's handgun in his 4-year-old's backpack at a local
school to the Smith County District Attorney's Office, which will
present it to a grand jury. Don Martin, Tyler Police public
information officer, said detectives have completed their
investigation into the Monday incident at the St. Gregory School at
500 S. College and have decided, after a conference with DA Matt
Bingham, to allow a grand jury to review the case. Tyler police were
contacted by school authorities and the child's mother on Monday
afternoon when a teacher discovered a loaded handgun in an overnight
bag of a female student on campus. Tyler police recovered the weapon
and took custody of it pending further investigation. It was
determined the weapon belonged to the student's father, a local
certified concealed handgun instructor [emphasis added].
http://www.tylerpaper.com/article/20091001/NEWS08/910019996
---
Ten Commandments of Concealed Carry: Carrying a lethal weapon in
public confers a grave power that carries with it great
responsibilities. Those who lawfully engage in the practice realize
that. Those who are considering "carrying" need to know what those
experienced people know… (I served my "apprenticeship" as a firearms
instructor under Massad Ayoob. During that time I learned many
valuable things and many that I have chosen not to continue sharing
with students. I do not generally share his material when I see it
posted but this article has very little with which I can quarrel. For
those with little formal training it is a good introduction. For the
rest of us it is a good review.)
http://www.tactical-life.com/online/exclusives/10-commandments-of-concealed-carry/
---
Remington Acquires Suppressor Company: Remington Arms Company, Inc.
through a wholly owned subsidiary has entered into a purchase
agreement to acquire certain assets of Advanced Armament Corp (AAC).
The transaction closed on October 2, 2009. Located in Norcross,
Georgia, AAC is an industry-leading supplier of signature noise
reduction and flash reduction devices and combat-related accessories
for the military, government and commercial markets. With their
innovative design concepts, technologically-advanced manufacturing
techniques and core focus on the end-user, AAC silencers and
accessories have been selected by major firearms manufacturers, law
enforcement agencies, commercial consumers, and military organizations
globally since the company's inception in 1999. AAC will continue
day-to-day operations at their Georgia-based location under the
guidance of company founder, Kevin Brittingham, and report to the
Remington Military Products Division (MPD)… (Remington is owned by
Cerberus Capital Management, which has acquired several other firearm
manufacturers, including Bushmaster, DPMS and Marlin. Cerberus
director George Kollitides ran unsuccessfully this year for a seat on
the NRA board of directors.)
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/10/prweb2998684.htm
---
Background on the Izhmash (Kalahnikov) Bankruptcy: The Russian firm
Izhmash (Izhevsk Mechanical Works) holds the patents for the AK-47,
and it is going broke because of all the illegal copies of its weapons
being produced worldwide. Izhmash is having little success in trying
to force companies in Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Israel, China and the
United States to pay licensing fees for the AK-47s they produce. The
typical defense is that it is a much improved rifle, with only a
superficial similarity to the Izhmash AK-47. Some claim that Russia
abandoned the AK-47 design in the 1970s, when they switched to the
5.45mm AK-74. Actually, the original AK-47 design was replaced in
1963, at least in Russia, by the similar (in appearance) AKM. Izhmash
is 201 years old, and was originally founded by the Czarist government
as a state arsenal, for the production of military weapons. In the
1920s, the firm began to produce motorcycles as well, and later,
automobiles, and eventually machine tools. It has long been a major
manufacturer of Russian military rifles, machine-guns and pistols…
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htmurph/articles/20091003.aspx
---
Tangentially Related: …My own contribution is on Arizona: its politics
and culture. What on earth inspired me to investigate that? Well,
first, it's interesting on its own. Second, you may remember an
anti-Obama protest in Phoenix, while the president was giving a speech
to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. This anti-Obama protest was also a
pro-gun rally, or stunt: A bunch of citizens stood around bearing
their weapons, openly. They are allowed to do so in Arizona, as this
is a "permissive open-carry state." So are ten others… Arthur
Frommer's an interesting guy too. In 1957, he published Europe on 5
Dollars a Day. (Not sure what the price is up to now.) And here is
what he said on his blog, about the protest of Broughton and his
brethren. He said he was "shocked beyond measure" at what he saw, or
read about. "For myself, without yet suggesting that others follow me
in an open boycott, I will not personally travel in a state where
civilians carry loaded weapons onto the sidewalks and as a means of
political protest. I not only believe such practices are a threat to
the future of our democracy, but I am firmly convinced that they would
also endanger my own personal safety there." As I note in my NR piece,
Frommer is a big-time booster of travel to Cuba. That state is ruled
by an absolute dictatorship. On the plus side, for Frommer, ordinary
citizens aren't allowed to carry guns. For sure…
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZTVmOGNkY2RkYzlkNWUwNDcxM2M3OWQxNzQwMTE5NWU=
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says that
everyone can opt out of having an electronic health record included in
the federally mandated national electronic-health-record system
created by the stimulus law enacted in February… But individual
Americans can opt to never have an EHR entered in the system,
according to Dr. David Blumenthal, who is overseeing the development
of the system as HHS's national coordinator for health-care
information technology. "We want to make it clear that no one will
ever have to use an electronic health record, if they don't want to,
and that when you do have electronic health records, they'll have
every conceivable privacy protection that is compatible with a useful
health care system," Blumenthal told CNSNews.com during a telephone
news conference last Tuesday on EHRs with Secretary of Health and
Human Services Kathleen Sebelius… (And I have a very nice oceanfront
condo in Tucson available at a very reasonable probe. It is precisely
this nationalization of medical records that poses such a great threat
to firearm ownership. While HHS can claim that we can opt out under
the February law, that option may not remain if ObamaCare passes.)
