Snowflakes in Hell

It’s a real shame to see a new media source like Town Hall making some of the same, ignorant mistakes as the old media when it comes to gun laws. Terry Jeffery has done just that in his concern we’re selling guns and explosives to foreign terrorists. I have some good news for you Terry. Under federal law, it’s illegal for foreign nationals to purchase firearms, whether they are on the terror watch list or not. The only exception are those who are permanent residents living in the United States. And don’t act so shocked an explosives license was issued. Likely a case of mistaken identity, like if his company were called “Kennedy Demolition,” and his name was Ted. That’s right, Terry. You see, terrorists don’t exactly tend to have social security numbers, you know. It’s just a list of names. But you did you research on this beforehand, I’m sure.

With the approach of Hurricane Earl to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Governor Beverly Perdue has proclaimed a State of Emergency by executive order. Under North Carolina law, it is illegal to transport or possess a “deadly weapon” off one’s premises during states of emergency. No exception is made for recreational shooting, hunting, or for holding a concealed carry permit.

An examination of the executive order and the laws surrounding it can be found on my blog here.

Starting Saturday at 12 noon, many thousands of North Carolinians will likely be guilty of an act that is a Class 1 misdemeanor for that is the opening of dove season.  They will be possessing and transporting firearms to dove fields around the state during a declared state of emergency which violates G.S. 14-288-7. I sincerely doubt the State of Emergency will be lifted before then.

This time, Maxim Lott brings them up on Fox News. No new information here, it appears to be a rehash of the Korean Times article; except that Dennis Henigan brings some PSH to the discussion, and Chris Cox counters. Still no one directly involved willing to be quoted on the record.

A couple of things jump out at me based on this whole fiasco. First, The Obama administration denying Korea’s request to sell could be a PRO-gun move in that they could be saying “nope, you can’t sell them, you have to give them back.” (Could be. Not saying it is, or even that it’s likely. Bear with me). Secondly, there is no good that can come out of the administration’s official silence and buck-passing on this. It’s fired up the pro-gun side less than 90 days out from a make-or-break election for the White House; and if they do come in under the terms of the Lend-Lease (given back to the US, rather than sold directly), they have another stark choice; send them to Captain Crunch to appease the Bradies and PO the NRA, or give them to CMP (which will have the opposite result). Pick a side of the fence and stick with it, guys – straddling it just ends painfully when you slip… At any rate, this stealth gun-hating has consequences.

Seen at the Volokh Conspiracy – where Dave Kopel’s post gets a new world record by going from 0 to Godwin by the first comment. Which leads to the funniest thing I’ve seen all week on gun control “However, it is almost certain that Hitler wished that Americans didn’t have so many M1 Garands and Carbines. :)” (David Kopel)

Has anyone gotten the CMP on-record about these rifles?

(As a side note – I can’t own the Carbine – it be banned by name as an assault weapon in the state of New Jersey)

Of course, they could part of the cover-up.

Hawaii is one of the last states on my list of states that I have not visited. A visit I count as having spent more than a few hours in outside of an airport. Hawaii is definitely one of the more unique states. Most states have other states that are pretty similar culturally, economically, or geographically. I think it’s safe to say that Hawaii has no other state it shares a lot with.

That’s not to say Hawaii is not American. I’ve heard others try to tell me that Hawaii doesn’t feel like part of the United States; that it is somehow foreign. After being here a few days, I don’t share that impression. Hawaii feels like very much a part of the United States to me. They may be unique among states, and culturally very eclectic, but I think it’s uniquely American.

There’s evidence of an extensive military presence, both past and present here. That probably helps a bit in understanding what country you’re in, but I think what’s really American about Hawaii is it’s one of the most genuinely multicultural places I’ve ever visited. I don’t mean the politically correct view of that, so much as this is a place where there is a true melting pot. Everyone seems to be intermarrying and interbreeding with everyone else, such that I’m not sure you could even successfully classify the race of most people here. In Hawaiian culture, that just doesn’t seem to matter, which is the way things should be.

That’s reflected in the cuisine, which is quite worldly. You do have frequent use of tropical ingredients, which would be expected, and the Asian food here is excellent, even at the cheap places, but still quite a lot of fusion. We’ve been trying to eat at places frequented more by locals than by tourists, except for dinner last night, which we had at what was the Sydney Airport Bar in “Lost”. Down on Waikiki, and actually a pretty great bar.

Speaking of locals though, Hawaii is legitimately very cheesy. You’d tend to think Hawaiian shirts, Hula, “Aloha!” and “Mahalo!” stuff was put on for tourists, but they really seem to talk and dress like that. Residents seem to live the Hawaiian stereotypes, or at least some of them Hawaii is also one of the friendliest states I’ve visited. Everyone is nice. Service is great. Even away from the tourist haunts. Hawaiians seem to be genuinely happy people who want to help make other people happy. Philadelphia is an angry, gritty area. This is a happy place. Everyone is laid back. Spend a little time here, and you’ll see why.

Still have more of Oahu to see, then over to the Big Island, where hopefully I can find some lava to poke with a stick. It’s a highly scientific way of dealing with newly encountered phenomena. If I get to poke some lava, I’ll definitely be taking some Aloha back with me.

Marty and Gila Hayes run the Shooting Academy of Seattle. Marty is also the founder of the Armed Citizens’ Legal Defense Network which provides help to those involved in a self-defense shooting.

In conjunction with this organization, they publish an e-journal which gives details of self-defense shootings and the legal aftermath. The September 2010 issue is about the case of Larry Hickey of Tucson, AZ.

Mr. Hickey was involved in a self-defense shooting when he was attacked by three neighbors in his own driveway. Due to sloppy police work, he ended up being charged with aggravated assault and spent 71 days in jail. His case ended in a hung jury the first time it was tried and an acquittal the second time around. Without the expert testimony of Massad Ayoob in the second trial, who knows what would have happened.

This was recommended to me by Gail Pepin who is part of the group putting on the ProArms Podcast. She thought it should be required reading for anyone with a CCW. Just because you are in the right doesn’t mean it will be easy to clear your name in case of a self-defense shooting.

No doubt this will be blamed on the Tea Party movement.

Robots made by General Atomics are patrolling the border of the US. Now, do I get a luxury vacation in orbit, or do I get to hide in a hole from Skynet’s minions?

If you don’t have CNN on next to you; here’s what’s happening at Discovery Channel HQ. Short of it – One James Lee allegedly stormed into the lobby of Discovery Channel HQ with metallic canisters strapped to him and waving a handgun around. (Link to a live blog – most recent at top)

His brand of nuttiness seems to be “environmentalism”; claiming that the channel that brings you Whale Wars needs to “stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants.”

Another “bitter clinger”, apparently.

(Also, side note: Sebastian, no Whale Wars category?)

UPDATE: Shot to death per AP via Yahoo. Bomb did detonate, no other injuries.

It’s a shame I was too busy traveling to offer the prediction that the Brady folk would react to NRA refusal to endorse Harry Reid by trying to argue the Democrats can’t be good enough for NRA and that they have nothing to gain by supporting the Second Amendment. Because that’s exactly the argument Dennis Henigan is making.

I can’t remember the last time the California legislature actually voted down a new gun control law, but that appears to have happened. Are the gun control groups losing their juice even in the California Legislature? I’m sure even in California, politicians have more to gain than they have to lose by voting down stuff like this.

One of the places I can be found arguing on a forum is the NJ Gun Forums, which is a pretty handy resource for shooting in the Garden State. One of the things I found there was this handy google maps mashup showing the location of our hidden rebel bases guns stores and ranges across New Jersey.

Admittedly, he’s probably no fan of President Obama (given his ties to the Clinton’s), but his take on Obama’s problems versus President Clinton’s at about the same time is highly interesting. President Clinton returned to the center after ’94; can President Obama do the same if he loses a friendly Congress in ’10?

(Edit: I should have looked closer – while Dick Morris was a member of the Clinton White House team, he’s currently referring to Republicans as “we” in other posts.)

The Arizona Republic thinks it’s a good thing that the EPA rejected the lead ammo ban petition, not because it’s based on flimsy evidence, or presents serious constitutional problems, but because the Obama Admionistration just doesn’t need a fight with the NRA right now.

Whatever gets it done. Obviously Obama’s people agree, or they wouldn’t so quickly have killed the petition.

The most interesting posters started appearing on certain bus stops throughout San Francisco this morning. Mind you, the San Francisco MTA has a policy against ads that “appear to promote the use of firearms.”

The posters were a joint effort of the Second Amendment Foundation and the CalGuns Foundation. More here and here. A clearer picture of the poster can be found here. The poster is an adaption of an earlier poster by Oleg Volk.

When I saw the headline for this article (Midway considers stronger gun laws) I thought we would get the normal blather from the “reasonable restrictions” crowd. When I read it, however, it looks more like what I would consider “time, place, manner” restrictions that would criminalize not an object or a person, but a (potentially) dangerous behavior. The people interviewed for the story classify this as “gun control”. Would you support this kind of “gun control”?

According to a story in Wired, Righthaven LLC has expanded their copyright trolling operation to another newspaper chain. The WEHCO Media chain of newspapers has been added to the target list for Righthaven’s trolls.

WEHCO Media is headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas and co-owns Northwest Arkansas Newspapers LLC with Stephens Media. WEHCO owns the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette which is the largest newspaper in the state and the 43rd largest by circulation in the U.S.

A list of their newspaper holdings and a brief history of the company can be found on No Lawyers – Only Guns and Money.

Or was handed it… At any rate, he appears to have done the honorable thing and fallen on it.

On the other hand, that article has been … revised … since I first saw it. The initial version I saw included no mention of the contractors, and had a summation paragraph that stated that the reason the application was in flux at a late date is that Schundler cut a deal with the NJEA that Christie disavowed, having instructed Schundler beforehand that there would be no deal.

High Bridge Arms is fighting for their right to reopen the only gun store in San Francisco. Temporarily closed after 50 years in business, Steve Alcairo is having to fight the North Bernal Alliance and three other neighborhood groups in an effort to reopen. Many in that group feel “a laundry or a wine and cheese shop” would be better.

A couple of Danes are planning to visit the High Frontier using a rocket, catamaran launch platform, and submarine, all of their own design, funded by donations and sponsorship. Wonder if they’ll remember to bring the stamps with them this time?

H/T Tam

The judge ruled on August 19th that Steven Hopler may retain the firearms currently in his possession and did not revoke his FID card, as long as the firearms are securely stored and Mr. Hopler completes a firearm safety course and undergoes an alcohol evaluation. Mr. Hopler was not granted his request to have the prosecutor’s office return the other firearms that are in that office’s possession, though he may re-open his petition after completion of the court-ordered training and evaluations.

The original NY Times article from 1994states that Mr. Hopler is “totally blind”. In addition, it states:

Mr. Hopler’s appeal to State Superior Court resulted in a ruling in his favor. But Judge Reginald Stanton, sitting in Morristown, added some stipulations: Mr. Hopler cannot load the weapons, shoot them or even leave home with them. And he must make sure that the guns are secured when they are not on display

So it would appear that Mr. Hopler may have been in violation of the original judge’s order.

I would like to suggest the following amendment to the US constitution:

No person shall be convicted of a felonious crime or subject to lengthy term of imprisonment or loss of civil rights, or ruinous fine, or a sentence of death, save that either:
1)The intent of the accused to knowingly commit the specific alleged crime be proven beyond a reasonable doubt in open court
OR
2)The felonious actions of the accused be proven beyond a reasonable doubt in open court to have resulted in actual bodily injury, actual physical harm, or death, to another person

The goal here is to require intent for non-injurious crimes; no more strict liability.

(Edited to add the italicized words – the accused must have either meant to commit a crime or the injury must have been serious enough to merit a felony indictment. Please pass the BATFE and Sen Lautenberg some Kleenex)

There has been some Shenanigans happening in the case of Ezell v. Chicago. Ezell is the case that challenges Chicago’s prohibition on shooting ranges on both First and Second Amendment grounds.

Alan Gura is the attorney in this case, and I’m fortunate to have seem seen some of the transcripts from this case so far. In short, here’s what’s going on. Everyone was playing nice with each other until Chicago filed a Motion to Reassign for Relatedness, suggesting that Ezell is close enough to Benson (NRA funded case) they ought to be heard by the same judge. Gura perceived this as a delaying tactic, and retaliated by filing for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO), asking the court to stop the city from enforcing the range ban until the preliminary injunction is ruled on. The standard for this would seem to be irreparable harm.

Short of it is that the judge denied to TRO, using an intermediate scrutiny standard. I should note that from the transcripts, he denied without prejudice, which means the plaintiff is still free to raise the argument that strict scrutiny ought to be the standard later in the case. The judge seems to have an open mind, and a desire to take the issue seriously, which is why I would imagine Chicago would like to get this case reassigned.

I would be bad if Ezell were eventually consolidated with Benson. They are very different cases, Ezell is narrow, and the other very broad. I don’t think it would be wise to put all our eggs in one very broad basket, with lots of issues for the Court to consider.

If you think this post is about “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and lesbians in the U.S. Army, you would be wrong.

Actually, the powers that be at PEO Soldier, the Army unit tasked with uniforms and other personal gear for soldiers, have just noticed that women have curves. From a story on new female-specific uniforms in the KitUp blog on Military.com:

As the Army wrestles with the frontline demand for OCP uniforms, the service has just announced plans for a female-only version of their ACUs.

This from the official release: “Changes being evaluated in PEO’s re-designed uniform include 13 sizes in both the jacket and trousers, an elastic waistband, a more spacious hip area, a shortened crotch length, a more tailored jacket, and re-positioned rank and name tapes.”

“Women have so many different shapes and sizes, we’re as not as ‘straight’ as men are,” said Maj. Sequana Robinson, assistant product manager for uniforms at PEO Soldier, who is currently testing one of the female-only ACUs.