Constitutional Law

Birdshot as self defense load

Posted on September 14, 2009
Video of the experiment.

Ruling protecting open carry

Posted on September 13, 2009
Story here. The district judge ruled as a matter of law (i.e., no need for it to go to a jury) the officers had violated the carrier's constitutional rights and that they had no qualified immunity (meaning the rights violated were clearly established at the time of violation -- qualified immunity protects against suit for damages where a right may have been violated, but it was not clearly established at the time).

Hit piece on GLock

Posted on September 12, 2009
In BusinessWeek. Not a terribly damaging piece, but they're obviously trying hard. When the only spicy allegations come from a guy who was convicted of embezzling from the company... Hat tip to about six people ...

Numchuck case up for cert. conference

Posted on September 11, 2009
The 2d Circuit case on numchucks, which refused to incorporate the 2A against States, has had its petition for cert. set for consideration at the Sept. 29 conference, the same day the Court votes on whether to take the Chicago cases. I can't see it being taken alone...

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Remembering back a few years

Posted on September 11, 2009
September 11, 2002. First anniversary. I'm in the DC area for a meeting, at the Key Bridge Marriott. It faces the Potomac, right where the river bends from generally north to generally northwest. Maybe a couple of miles north of National Airport and the Pentagon...

Media treats self defense case rather strangely

Posted on September 09, 2009
Howard Nemerov has the story. Four home invaders (three of them waving pistols) are engaged by a resident of the home. And the story winds up spun as the resident shot teens, schools summon grief counselors for friends of the thugs, and, horror of horrors, the Castle Doctrine may come into play.

A new cash for clunkers program!

Posted on September 09, 2009
Details here. SIG-SAUER offers $200 for a trade in handgun if you buy one of theirs.

Argument in Citizens United Case

Posted on September 09, 2009
ScotusBlog says the Court appears ready to strike down some precedent, ruling that allowed bans on corporate campaign contributions (and which thus gave rise to PACs as separate entities). One argument against those rulings is simply that a corporation may simply represent an effort by a large number of nonwealthy people to equal the electoral influence of one very wealthy one...

survival resources

Posted on September 09, 2009
The ultimate resource list. It's got a very impressive collection of firearm manuals!

The View from Ground Zero

Posted on September 08, 2009
Scott Bach has thoughts.

whatever happens, we have got / The Maxim gun, and they have not...

Posted on September 08, 2009
From a History of Kenya: "In January 1892 there is heavy gunfire between and among the four hills which form Kampala. On the top of one hill is the palace of the kabaka [native ruler]. On another the French have completed a Catholic cathedral of wooden poles and reeds...

Photoshopping news photos

Posted on September 08, 2009
A Philadelphia NBC news page is illustrated with one of the sloppiest Photoshop jobs I've ever seen. They wanted a shot of a muzzle loading cannon firing. So they took a shot of some re-enactors with a cannon, and spliced in a muzzle flash. 1) If they knew anything about cannons, they'd realize the tampion is still plugging the barrel as the gun supposedly fires...

Million plus guns sold in August

Posted on September 08, 2009
Figures here. To be precise, just over a million background checks, a rough measure (new sales may be higher than checks since a buyer can purchase multiple guns via one background check, and the dealer only has to run checks for buyers who don't have CCW permits, or new sales may be less than checks because a dealer has to run checks to sell used guns, too)...

California seizes some unusual firearms

Posted on September 04, 2009
Press release here. When raiding some bigtime cocaine buyers, the press release states, they seized - Bushmaster AK-47, model XM15E2S, .223 caliber; one of those Bushmaster AKs... - Misa, model AD-47, .762 x 39 caliber; and Another of those Military Impacted Schools Ass'n guns, and in 76 caliber! (Or maybe it was a Minnesota Institute of Sustainable Agriculture commemoratives)...

2A Symposium in Chicago

Posted on September 04, 2009
Set for Saturday, Sept. 12. Details here. It's at the Thorne Auditorium, 375 East Chicago Avenue, and will have Nelson Lund, Michael O'Shea, David Kopel and others.

Internal goings on at ATF

Posted on September 04, 2009
Reported by Clean Up ATF." Always found it amusing the way many assume that the government is rational, objective, and unselfish in ways the rest of the US is not. Fact is you've got the same humans doing each job, and nobody should be surprised that many agencies work on promote your buddy, steer business toward your buddy, get rid of critics and whistleblowers, build your empire and the public be damned...

Major First Amendment case coming up

Posted on September 04, 2009
On Sept. 9 the Supreme Court hears Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. That it may be a major decision is suggested by the fact that after first briefing and argument, the Supreme Court ordered a second briefing and argument, and by the argument being held before the Court formally begins its new Term in October...

Shotgun slugs vs. rifle projectiles

Posted on September 02, 2009
Some interesting ballistics. The calculation is that if each is discharged parallel to the ground, with the projectile ricocheting upon first impact, the shotgun slug will actually travel farther than the rifle bullet. I do have some doubts... as the study notes, on a ricochet the projectile is generally flying end over end, and thus has high wind resistance...

Self defense figures by race

Posted on August 31, 2009
Howard Nemerov has some charts and statistics on justifiable homicide, race, and right to carry laws. Basically: in RTC States, blacks are on the giving end of nearly 50% of self-defense homicides (i.e., justifiable), and in non RTC States the percentage drops by nearly half...

NC Supreme Ct holds old nonviolent felony no bar to gun rights

Posted on August 29, 2009
Opinion in pdf here, courtesy of reader Carl in Chicago. It's under discussion at the Volokh Conspiracy and by Instapundit. The latter makes a good point about "felony inflation." E.g., if the felony theft level is pegged to $500 (as I believe it was in Arizona's 1977 criminal code reform) ...

The courtroom equivalent of "the dog ate my homework. Five times."

Posted on August 29, 2009
An interesting court transcript, from the Friesen prosecution. The prosecutor is trying to dodge and weave on why certain important documents were not disclosed to the defense, despite a court order, and neither the judge nor the defense attorney is giving him an inch of slack...

CCW permitees vs. nonpermittees crime rates

Posted on August 28, 2009
Howard Nemerov runs the figures for Texas. Depending upon your standard (all convictions, violent offense convictions, homicide convictions, etc.) the only question is how much better the permit holders come off. For most measures, their rates are 1/9 to 1/10 those of nonpermittees.

How fast things can go bad ...

Posted on August 28, 2009
An officer's squad car camera shows how fast things can go bad. He tasers the guy, the guy shrugs it off (report is that one of the electrodes missed) and is on top of him before he can react. The guy was 6'8", strong, and something of a mental case, so the officer was lucky to be saved by a passing off duty LEO.

Ollie North autographing books at NRA Firearms Museum

Posted on August 28, 2009
Wash Post story here. Sounds like he sold 400 of his book on heroes of the war on radical islam, which is very, very good.

Thoughts re Ted Kennedy

Posted on August 28, 2009
Some thoughts on his legacy, if perhaps a legacy he did not intend.

More carry permits in Sacramento County?

Posted on August 27, 2009
Story here. Hat tip to Dan Gifford....

A good idea

Posted on August 27, 2009
Take a Vet to Lunch.

Commemoratives for sale

Posted on August 27, 2009
Crime, Guns and Videotape is selling a pair of commemorative .357s. Price is out of my ballpark, but the engraving is quite nice.

Case in Greensboro NC

Posted on August 27, 2009
Article here. There have been a lot of burglaries in the neighborhood, two teens come up to house to break in, leave when owner makes noise. Owner then steps out and fires shots in the air, and police cite him for discharging a firearm inside city limits...

Paranoia on the rise

Posted on August 26, 2009
"Hate on the Rise in United States." "This next generation of hate incorporates elements of the militias, gun advocates, ?nativists? opposed to immigration, tax protesters, and ?birthers,? who have questioned the place of birth and citizenship of President Obama...

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