by I have got to go to either Knob Creek or this show! I have never fired anything full auto but one of these days…..
It really starts to get interesting at the :46 mark.
H/T SoldierSystems.net
Month: July 2010
Violence in Chicago – Why It Continues
The Chicago Sun-Times ran a very interesting investigative piece today. Entitled “Why they won’t stop shooting in Chicago”, it examines the aftermath of an April 2008 weekend in Chicago where 40 people were shot, seven fatally.
So what has happened to the shooters in the two years since that weekend? Nothing.
So far, not one accused shooter has been convicted of pulling the trigger during those deadly 59 hours from April 18-20 of that year, a Chicago Sun-Times investigation has found.
Only one suspected triggerman — a convicted armed robber caught with the AK-47 he allegedly used to blow away his boss — is in jail awaiting trial.
Six of the seven murders remain unsolved. In three other cases, the victims know who shot them but won’t testify against the shooter. They don’t want to get labeled a snitch or rat in the neighborhood.
Last year Chicago PD detectives cleared 18% of the outstanding non-fatal shootings from 2009. However, almost half were due to “exceptional” circumstances. Exceptional means that the victim won’t testify, the prosecutors don’t want to go to trial on the evidence, or, if luck would have it, the shooter is dead. This means that about 91% of the shooters during 2009 were never charged with a crime.
“The certainty of punishment is very, very low in Chicago, and that’s going to embolden people,” said defense attorney Thomas Needham, who was a top legal adviser to former police Supt. Terry Hillard. “It’s going to lead to less fear by the people who are going to consider shooting. That’s very alarming.”
Part of the problem is that the victims are not choir boys and may have criminal records themselves. Police and prosecutors acknowledge that this makes their case in court tougher. Also, as some privately told the reporters, the police and prosecutors work harder for innocent victims than for those that have been involved in past criminal activity.
While Mayor Daley continues to mouth off about the violence being due to guns, the reality is that most criminals know they can get away with shooting someone in Chicago. If victims won’t testify, police don’t investigate, and the State’s Attorney avoid prosecutions, the shooters walk. And as long as that continues to go on, the violence will continue. Only when their is certainty of punishment will it start to abate.
I suggest reading the whole article to get the victim’s full stories.
Stephens Media LLC, RightHaven LLC, and Bloggers
On Thursday of this week, Clayton Cramer, blogger, historian, software engineer, and gun rights activist, announced that one of his blogs, The Armed Citizen, was being sued by RightHaven LLC for copyright infringement. In response, he closed down that blog and his personal blog.
Sebastian at Snowflakes in Hell has covered this quite extensively. He has stories here, here, here,and here. Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit, has put up stories about it as well. Copyright lawyer Ron Coleman has an interesting analysis on his blog Likelihood of Confusion. In the comments section are a few comments from Clayton Cramer with more details on the case.
Wired Magazine has an extensive story about RightHaven LLC and their “business” plan. In an interview with RightHaven’s CEO, Steve Gibson, his business plan is to buy the copyrights to newspaper content and then turn around and sue bloggers for copyright infringement. The article says that,
Gibson’s vision is to monetize news content on the backend, by scouring the internet for infringing copies of his client’s articles, then suing and relying on the harsh penalties in the Copyright Act — up to $150,000 for a single infringement — to compel quick settlements. Since Righthaven’s formation in March, the company has filed at least 80 federal lawsuits against website operators and individual bloggers who’ve re-posted articles from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, his first client.
Now he’s talking expansion. The Review-Journal’s publisher, Stephens Media in Las Vegas, runs over 70 other newspapers in nine states, and Gibson says he already has an agreement to expand his practice to cover those properties. (Stephens Media declined comment, and referred inquiries to Gibson.) Hundreds of lawsuits, he says, are already in the works by year’s end. “We perceive there to be millions, if not billions, of infringements out there,” he says.
There were many interesting comments to this article in Wired. One was from a former employee who said, “I used to work for this guy. In my opinion he is a legal opportunist and a sociopath. And also in my opinion all the comments prior to mine are accurate descriptions of his moral character, or lack thereof.” Another comment was from an attorney which I found very interesting.
Steve Gibson, according to another Las Vegas attorney, has been “working on” developing Righthaven for years. Why? As I understand it from those who practice in intellectual property because there’s an automatic attorney’s fee provision in the copyright statutes. So, Steve Gibson has become a “douchebag” and a pariah and a bottom feeder and a stain on the profession, but he will also become very wealthy for doing very little. There’s lots of other professions that should be culled because their members take care of themselves and their pocket books at the expense of the greater community. For what it’s worth, I also understand from intellectual property attorneys in Las Vegas that Steve Gibson was a total “douchebag” well before he concocted Righthaven. So, if you want to stop these “nuisance” law suits (and that is truly what they are), and keep the likes of Steve Gibson from lining their wallets, petition your federal delegation to update the copyright statutes to: 1) mandate a “take down” letter before any lawsuit can be filed, with penalties attached to plaintiffs who file before doing so; and 2) delete the automatic entitlement to attorney’s fees. In the meantime, quit cutting and pasting and you will prevent Steve Gibson from earning additional money to get rid of that second chin.
Now that we know who is RightHaven LLC and their business model, just who is Stephens Media LLC? According to Wikipedia, the company started in Ft. Smith, Arkansas as Donrey Media Group. Upon the death in 1993 of its founder Donald Reynolds, Donrey was sold to the Stephens family of Arkansas. The Stephens are best known for their privately held investment bank and wealth manager, Stephens, Inc. In terms of wealth, the Stephens family is ranked second in Arkansas only to the Walton clan. Not only are the Stephens wealthy, they are well connected to both Democrats and Republicans. They had connections to both Bill Clinton and the Bush family. Now that is connected.
The newspapers owned by Stephens Media LLC are listed below by state. As the Wired article notes, many of these papers will be using the “services” of RightHaven LLC. As for me, I plan to never link to any of these papers. The only paper they own in North Carolina just happens to be the newspaper from the town where I was born. The only regret that I have is that I will be missing out on some of the columns by Vin Suprynowicz. Oh, well,
Arkansas
- Booneville Democrat – Booneville, AR
- Cabot Star-Herald – Cabot, AR
- Cabot Weekly
- Carlisle Independent – Carlisle, AR
- Charleston Express – Charleston, AR
- Fayetteville Free Weekly – Fayetteville, AR
- Greenwood Democrat – Greenwood, AR
- Hot Springs Village Voice – Hot Springs Village, AR
- Jacksonville Patriot – Jacksonville, AR
- Lonoke Democrat – Lonoke, AR
- Morning News of Northwest Arkansas – Springdale, AR
- Paris Express – Paris, AR
- Pine Bluff Commercial – Pine Bluff, AR
- The Market Place
- The White Hall Progress
- Press Argus Courier – Van Buren, AR
- Alma Journal
- Sherwood Voice – Sherwood, AR
- Southwest Times Record – Fort Smith, AR
- The Maumelle Monitor – Maumelle, AR
- The Times – North Little Rock, AR
- Van Buren County Democrat – Clinton AR
- Washington County Newspapers
- The Lincoln Leader
- The Prairie Grove Enterprise
- The Farmington Post
Hawaii
- 808 Classifieds – Hilo, HI
- Big Island Weekly – Hilo, HI
- Hawaii Tribune-Herald – Hilo, HI
- North Hawaii News – Waimea, HI
- West Hawaii Today – Kailua-Kona, HI
- North Hawaii News
- Big Island, HI
- Westside Weekly
Missouri
- McDonald County Newspapers
- The Anderson Graphic The Goodman News-Dispatch
- The McDonald County News-Gazette
- The McDonald County Press
- The Southwest City Republic
- El Tiempo
Nevada
- Ely Times – Ely, NV
- Eureka Sentinel – Eureka, NV
- Las Vegas Review-Journal – Las Vegas, NV
- View Neighborhood Newspapers
- El Tiempo
- Las Vegas CityLife
- Las Vegas Business Press
- Rebel Nation
- New Homes Guide
- Luxury Las Vegas
- Southern Nevada Home And Garden Magazine
- Nifty Nickel
- Neighborhood Shopper
- Jobs Today Weekly
- Pahrump Valley Times – Pahrump, NV
- Tonopah Times-Bonanza – Tonopah, NV
North Carolina
- Courier-Tribune – Asheboro, NC
Oklahoma
- Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise – Bartlesville, OK
- Pawhuska Journal-Capital – Pawhuska, OK
Tennessee
- The Daily Herald – Columbia, TN
- The Advertiser News Of Spring Hill And Thompson’s Station
- Franklin Life
- Brentwood Life
Texas
- Anna-Melissa Tribune – Anna, TX
- Herald Democrat – Sherman, TX
- Grayson County Shopper
- Lake Texoma Life – Van Alstyne, TX
- Prosper Press – Prosper, TX
- Van Alstyne Leader – Van Alstyne, TX
Washington
- The Daily World – Aberdeen, WA
- The North Coast News
- The South Beach Bulletin
- East County News
- The Montesano Vidette – Montesano, WA
UPDATE: I found this article today about RightHaven suing someone for using material from the Las Vegas Review-Journal in which the article was based on his own research. Jeez!
Copyright enforcement outfit Righthaven has filed some questionable lawsuits in the past, but really outdid itself in a case against Anthony Curtis, publisher of the Las Vegas Advisor.
That lawsuit, one of several filed on Friday, alleges that Curtis infringed copyright by reposting an article from the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Problem is, that article was itself based on an annual survey conducted by Curtis of ticket prices for entertainment shows.
Washington Times Editorial: UN Threatens 1st and 2nd Amendments
Today’s Washington Times features an editorial about the UN’s Arms Trade Treaty. They call it a threat to both the First and Second Amendments of our Constitution. Of course, they are right. The editorial follows on the heels of a report released by the Heritage Foundation on the UN and “arms control”.
Theodore Bromund, one of the authors of the Heritage Foundation’s report, is quoted as saying that he thinks micro-stamping will be included, that there will be some sort of gun registration and licensing system, that this licensing system will cover both guns and ammo, and that there may even be restrictions on trade between private individuals.
The Washington Times takes a dim view of the whole thing as well as the role of the Obama Administration in it.
Any U.N. Arms Trade Treaty will undermine freedom around the world. The right to bear arms is an individual’s protection against oppression anywhere. It took herculean efforts by George W. Bush’s administration to thwart this U.N. power grab a few years ago. Unfortunately, we now have a left-wing White House working to make this dangerous treaty a reality.
A New Song and Video from Steve Lee
As a follow-up to his YouTube hit “I Like Guns”, Aussie singer Steve Lee has released “I’ll Give Up My Gun”. I love the refrain line – I’ll give up my gun when the ocean runs dry. Good on ya, mate!
H/T to the Firearm Blog
Guess Donations Are Down for Brady
I got this in my email today addressed to my mother – who has been dead for two years. I guess when donations are down you’ll do just about anything to stay afloat.
What a bunch of losers!
Hearing Date Set in Benson et al v. Chicago et al
September 1st has been set as the hearing date for Benson et al v. Chicago et al. This is the case supported by the NRA that challenges the new Chicago gun laws enacted after the McDonald case struck down the City of Chicago’s handgun ban.
Judge Ronald Guzman is the US District Court judge assigned to the case. He was appointed to the bench by Bill Clinton in 1999. He doesn’t get high marks from those that have rated him on the website The Robing Room. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being awful and 10 being excellent, he rates a 3.4.
Civil litigators in particular don’t seem to like him. From the comments:
He’s got to look for a job he really likes. He’s almost always late, is lazy, unreasonable, procrastinates and doesn’t care. He makes short-shrift of cases and looks for the easy way out–not very analytical. Has a very unlikeable and unpleasant attitude in court. – 2010
Agree with other comments. Judge Guzman is unlikeable and doesn’t always seem to catch on quickly. If you hate lawyers, why be a judge? – 2008
Judge Guzman is perpetually late to court and always in a grumpy mood. That said, he doesn’t seem to have any noticeable bias towards either side, because he equally despises them both. – 2006
I hope this isn’t a bad sign for Benson.
Bateman et al v. Perdue et al – Meet the Attorneys
The City of King filed a motion of an extension today which was granted. They were the last of the defendants to request and be granted an extension. They will have until August 17th to respond to the complaint. Governor Perdue and Secretary Young have until August 15th and Stokes County has until August 12th for their response.
With the filing by the City of King, we now know all the legal players in this contest.
Plaintiffs
Alan Gura needs no introduction after winning both the Heller case and the McDonald case. He will be appearing as a pro hac vice attorney. This means he is appearing with the permission of the court as he is not licensed in North Carolina.
Kearns Davis, a partner in the law firm of Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey and Leonard is the lead North Carolina attorney for the plaintiffs. Brooks, Pierce is a mid-size law firm with offices in both Greensboro and Raleigh, NC. He is a 1995 graduate of the University of North Carolina Law School where he was the managing editor of the law review. He has been listed in “The Best Lawyers in America” for 2010 and is listed as a “North Carolina Super Lawyer”.
Davis is being assisted by Andrew Tripp of Brooks, Pierce. Tripp is a 2004 graduate of Duke Law where he was managing editor of the Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law. After graduation, he served as a clerk for District Court Judge Terrence Boyle of the Eastern District of North Carolina. Interestingly enough, Alan Gura served as a clerk for Judge Boyle a few years earlier.
Defendants
Mark Davis, Special Deputy Attorney General for the State of North Carolina, will be representing Bev Perdue and Reuben Young as they have been sued in their roles as Governor and Secretary of the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety respectively. According to Martindale-Hubbell, Davis is a 1991 graduate of the University of North Carolina Law School. Davis serves in the Special Litigation Section of the NC Department of Justice. A quick Google search seems to indicate he handles many Federal and appellate level cases for the Attorney Generals office.
Representing Stokes County are Henry Jones, Jr. and Lori Jones of the law firm Jordan, Price, Wall, Gray, Jones, and Carlton in Raleigh. Mr. Jones is a 1978 graduate of the University of Richmond Law School. Among his past activities was serving as Chairman of the Wake County Democratic Party from 1987 through 1991. He is AV Peer Review rated by the Martindale-Hubbell.
Lori Jones is an associate in Jordan, Price and is a 2004 graduate of the University of North Carolina Law School. According to the Jordan Price web site, her practice focuses on general civil litigation matters. All the filings submitted by Stokes County have been signed by her to date.
Finally, Kevin Williams of Bell, Davis, and Pitt in Winston-Salem represents the City of King. Williams is a 1998 graduate of Wake Forest University Law School where he made law review. He is listed in “Best Lawyers in America” for 2010 under Commercial Litigation. He is also listed as a “Rising Star” in the North Carolina Super Lawyers.
So there you have it. By mid-August we should start seeing the responses from the defendants and will get some idea of how hard they plan to fight.
I’m a Lumberjack and I’m OK
Naval Special Warfare Group 2 has a procurement solicitation out there for Filson Double Tin Bibbs, Filson Tin Cloth Field Jackets, and Filson forest green wool liners.
The Kitup blog of Military.com has the story here.
Checking the Filson website, the Double Tin Bibs retail for $206, the Tin Cloth Field Jacket for $295, and the liners for $120. While expensive, it is tough enough to stand up to the wear and tear of lumberjacks….or Navy SEALS.
As they say on the Filson website, “Might As Well Have the Best”. I think that can be said for both the equipment and the men in the Special Operations community.
State Ammunition et al v. Lindley et al – Another California Gun Case
State Ammunition, a California-based on-line ammo retailer, is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit brought in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California seeking to overturn AB 962. This law, officially the Anti-Gang Neighborhood Protection Act of 2009 bans the sale of “handgun ammunition” in other than face-to-face transaction starting February 1, 2011. CRPA/NRA Legal Action Project is fighting this law in state court. This makes sure that the two cases cannot be consolidated.
A virtually identical lawsuit was filed by the plaintiffs in early June and then was voluntarily dismissed on July 16th. Of course, on June 28th, the U.S. Supreme Court found for Otis McDonald and the Second Amendment was applied to the states through incorporation. The new complaint has added the Second Amendment as one of the grounds for the complaint.
The other plaintiffs in this case are Jim Otten who owns a Minnesota-based on-line ammo retailer named a1ammo.com and Major Jim Russell, USMC (Ret)., a California resident, who is a disabled veteran. Major Russell is active in the Paralyzed Veterans of America as their Director of Shooting Sports.
What makes this case unique when compared to the rest of the post-McDonald litigation is that it makes the Commerce Clause the centerpiece of the complaint. While it does include the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the 14th Amendment and the Second Amendment as part of the basis for the lawsuit, the complaint devotes most of its arguments to the Commerce Clause and AB 962’s interference with interstate commerce.
The lawsuit first attacks the definition of “handgun ammunition” as being impermissably vague. The law defines it as:
“Handgun ammunition” means ammunition principally for use in pistols, revolvers, and other firearms capable of being concealed upon the person, as defined in subdivision (a) of Section 12001, notwithstanding that the ammunition may also be used in some rifles.
There are many calibers of ammunition that can be used in both handguns and rifles. For example, the ubiquitous .22LR rimfire can be used in both the Ruger 10/22 carbine and the Ruger MkIII pistol. Likewise, you have many common rifle cartridges that can be used in the Thompson/Center Contender pistol. As the complaint notes,
it forces individuals and businesses to guess what is meant by “handgun ammunition.” As a result, people engaging in constitutionally protected activity (interstate commerce), selling and buying constitutionally protected products (firearms and ammunition), are placed in the precarious position of not knowing whether or not the legal product they are buying is considered by someone somewhere buried deep in the bureaucracy of the State of California to be “handgun” ammunition or “rifle” ammunition.
Other provisions of AB 962 requires vendors to make sure that their employees are allowed under the law to sell ammunition and to make sure the recipient of the ammunition is allowed by law to buy. The former requires employers to know whether certain employees are ineligible to sell the ammo while not being authorized by law to conduct criminal background checks. As to the latter, there is no Brady Law forcing a NICS check of ammo purchasers. Furthermore, since the law forbids the sale to gang members, the vendor has no way know if the buyer is or is not a member of a criminal street gang. Unless one is immersed in the gang culture or is a law enforcement officer specializing in gangs, I would venture to say it is hard to tell a wannabe gang member from an up and coming rapper. Or vice-versa.
The meat of the argument against AB 962 is that it interferes with interstate commerce. By requiring a face-to-face transaction, California vendor and manufacturers cannot ship their product out of state. Conversely, out of state sellers and manufacturers cannot ship their handgun ammunition to buyers in California. It goes on to state that,
In addition to a ban on handgun ammunition sales in all but “face to face” transactions, AB962 includes an irrational, preempted definition of “ammunition” so expansive that out-of-state vendors will be unable to determine what is or isn’t legal and what actions are or are not criminal. As a result, out-of-state vendors will simply refuse to sell or ship to California residents. Likewise, the criminalization of the sale of ammunition to an ever-expanding impossible-to-ascertain list of prohibited purchasers will cumulatively interfere with and regulate channels of interstate commerce.
With regard to violations of the Second Amendment, the suit says,
AB962 further discriminates against individuals on the basis of whether or not they are employees of the government, exempting “Authorized law enforcement representatives of cities, counties, cities and counties, or state and federal governments for exclusive use by those government agencies” and “peace officers” from its provisions. The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution expresses fundamental and individual rights that cannot be reserved only to government employees. These rights are guaranteed to every citizen. To denying these rights to all but government employees, AB962 violates the Second Amendment. This disparate treatment is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The entire complaint can be seen here.
I am not a lawyer (nor do I play one on television!) but I do think this complaint does make a strong prima facie case that AB 962 interferes with interstate commerce.