After the murders at The Covenant School in Nashville, some politicians as well as the gun control industry have been calling for the state of Tennessee to enact a “red flag law”. Indeed, Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN) is threatening a special session of the Tennessee legislature to enact a “red flag law” that he insists is not that.
“To be clear, the Governor does not support red flag laws. His proposal is different from any law across the country – it would strengthen Tennessee’s existing law around the order of protection process for cases of domestic violence and enhance support for law enforcement, ensure due process, require the highest burden of proof, and boost mental health support,” said Press Secretary Jade Byers.
But what do the majority of Tennesseans want?
According to a recent poll by co/efficient done in conjunction with the Daily Wire, 84% of respondents said it was more important to remove the dangerous person than to remove the guns. In my opinion, this is a recognition that those individuals who are a danger to themselves or others will use other means – knives, cars, gasoline, etc. – if firearms are not available and they are allowed to remain at large.
In the poll, Tennessee voters dramatically retreat from their soft support of proposed Red Flag Laws and do not see this as the solution to their safety concerns when informed that Red Flag Laws merely take guns away from dangerous individuals but do nothing to prevent them from causing harm by some other means. Red Flag Law support erodes even further when informed that there are existing laws to take threatening individuals out of the community right now. Tennesseans largely support recently passed legislation that puts police officers in schools and believe enforcing the current laws on the books is an effective solution to keeping their families, communities, and state safe.
People are not stupid. They recognize when their emotions are being played by politicians, the media, and the gun control industry. Once they have a good grasp of the situation, they usually come to a reasonable conclusion.
Today, June 8th, is Thomas Paine Day by one calendar. It is also known as Freethinkers Day.Another puts both at January 29th. I’m not sure which is correct so I’m going with today as this is the first I’ve heard of it.
Paine didn’t come to America until late 1774 at the urging of Benjamin Franklin. He had recently been fired from his position as an excise officer in Sussex after writing a pamphlet that demanded higher pay for excise officers. Paine is most known in the United States for his pamphlet Common Sense as well as a series called The American Crisis (Kindle version is free on Amazon) It is said that Common Sense sold between 150,000 and 500,000 copies. Given the population of the 13 colonies is estimated to 2.5 million in 1776, that is astounding.
The latter was read to Washington’s dispirited troops at Valley Forge. I still find the first paragraph stirring.
THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: — ’Tis dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but “to* BIND us in all cases whatsoever,” and if being bound in that manner*, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious, for so unlimited a power can belong only to GOD.
Paine went back to England in 1787 and then to France somewhere around 1791-1792. He was an early supporter of the French Revolution and almost ended up becoming a victim of it like many of its supporters. He wrote another of his major works The Rights of Man in 1791. After being released from prison in France, he made his way back to the US and eventually died in New York City in 1809.
The first units ashore or on land have gotten most of the attention in the Battle of Normandy. They rightly deserve this attention as landing on a hostile beach or behind the beaches in the dark of night is a terrifying task. That said, this post will given attention to the follow-on units that arrived in June and July of 1944. Part of my reasoning is that they don’t get this attention and the other part is that my sister-in-law’s father who passed away in April at age 102 was a member of one of these units.
Early July saw both the 8th and 35th Infantry Divisions arrive in France. The 8th was soon in action helping to capture the cities of Brest and Rennes. As July progressed, three armored divisions, the 4th, 5th, and 6th, landed in France and were instrumental in closing the Falaise Gap. The final infantry division to participate in the Battle of Normandy was the 28th Infantry Division which arrived on July 22nd to join Operation Cobra.
Of particular interest to me is the 8th Infantry Division. Walter Driscoll, my sister-in-law’s father, was assigned to 3rd Platoon Mortar Squad, Co. A, 1st Battalion, 121st Regiment, 8th Infantry Division as a PFC. He passed away at the age of 102 on April 1st just short of his 103rd birthday. A native of Massachusetts, he was married for 58 years, raised three daughters (two of whom served as officers in the USAF Nurse Corps), had eight grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
Walter was wounded in action in Normandy and carried the shrapnel in his hand throughout the rest of his life. That shrapnel was recovered after his cremation by the funeral director and presented to the family. He tells the story of how he was wounded in the oral history video below. The French subtitles are due to this being a project of the World War II Veterans Memories located in Normandy.
There are not many of these veterans still alive and that Walter made it to 102 was remarkable in and of itself. We should be grateful that a number of their stories have been captured either in video or audio format. Without that, the human element would be lost and our knowledge of these events would be confined to the history books.
It is hard for me to believe it has been almost 80 years since Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy to begin their march towards Germany. As I was born a little less than 13 years after the landing, it was still fresh in the minds of many. Today, not so much. Most of the veterans of that day have now passed away.
Some of the most enduring scenes from that day were pictures taken by famous photographer Robert Capa on Omaha Beach. Most of his photos were lost due to errors in processing.
From PetaPixel
Actually, it turns out that much of that story was a myth. It laid the blame on a novice film processor who overheated the negatives in a drying box to the point that the emulsion melted. All that was left were the 11 frames above.
In retrospect, I cannot understand how so many people in the field, working photographers among them, accepted uncritically the unlikely, unprecedented story, concocted by Morris, of Capa’s 35mm Kodak Super-XX film emulsion melting in a film-drying cabinet on the night of June 7, 1944.
Anyone familiar with analog photographic materials and normal darkroom practice worldwide must consider this fabulation incredible on its face. Coil heaters in wooden film-drying cabinets circa 1944 did not ever produce high levels of heat; black & white film emulsions of that time did not melt even after brief exposure to high heat; and the doors of film-drying cabinets are normally kept closed, not open, since the primary function of such cabinets is to prevent dust from adhering to the sticky emulsion of wet film.
No one with darkroom experience could have come up with this notion; only someone entirely ignorant of photographic materials and processes — like Morris — could have imagined it. Embarrassingly, none of that set my own alarm bells ringing until I started to fact-check the article by Baughman that initiated this project, close to fifty years after I first read that fable in Capa’s memoir.
The PetaPixel article by A. D. Coleman is rather long but well worth the read. It is meticulously researched and documented. Myth has its place but documenting the reality of what really happened is more important.
I learned a new term this week. It is “corner-crossing hunters”. It does not involve hunters waiting for the light to change so they can cross the street when the light changes. Rather, it seems to be a distinctly Western US issue whereby hunters cross from one piece of public land to another piece of public land at the adjoining corners.
Look at the checkerboard pictured below. Now imagine all the red spaces are public land and all the black spaces are private land. As a historical result of how the United States granted lands out West to the railroads to encourage their development of the trans-continental railroads, much of the land ownership looks exactly like this. It is not a trivial amount of land as the government granted property in a 40 mile wide swath along the railroad. The result is that if you wish to avoid trespassing on private land you must do so at the corners. While this seems simple to me as a born and bred Easterner, things are never as they seem.
The issue of corner-crossing was brought to a head as a result of a lawsuit seeking $7 million in damages brought by Iron Bar Holdings LLC (aka Elk Mountain Ranch) against four hunters from Missouri. The hunters had hunted public land in 2020 and 2021 adjoining the Carbon County, Wyoming ranch. They had crossed at the corners. The owner of the ranch had argued the hunters trespassed by invading the airspace above his property. He filed complaints for criminal trespass against the hunters with the Wyoming Department of Game and Fish as well as the local sheriff. After their 2021 hunt, the local prosecutor did bring charges but all four hunters were acquitted in a jury trial of criminal trespass.
In 2022, the rancher filed a civil complaint in Wyoming state court that was moved to Federal court. The rancher was seeking as noted above $7 million in damages. Thanks to a fundraising campaign by Wyoming Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, the four hunters – Zach Smith, Bradley Cape, Phillip Yeomans, and John Slowensky – were represented in court. The group also filed an amicus brief with the court.
On May 26th, Chief US District Court Judge Scott Skavdahl granted the motion to dismiss filed by the defendants for most of the claims against them. All that remained was whether or not a marked waypoint on the OnX hunting app indicated one of the hunters had trespassed. That was later dismissed as the plaintiff withdrew its last remaining claim.
Skavdahl observed that with respect to the corner crossing issue “[t]here is no evidence the hunters made physical contact with [Eshelman’s] private land or caused any damage to plaintiff’s private property,” either in 2020 or 2021. The judge also agreed with Eshelman that he generally owns the airspace above his property and is entitled to use it.
But even property rights come with limitations and restrictions, Skavdahl wrote.
“History, federal case law, federal statutory law, and recent Wyoming legislation demonstrate corner crossing in the manner done by Defendants in this case is just such a restriction on Plaintiff’s property rights,” he wrote. “[D]efendants, ‘in common with other persons [have] the right to the benefit of the public domain,’ which necessarily requires some limitation on the adjoining private landowner’s right of exclusion within the checkerboard pattern of land ownership.”
One of the prevailing cases that assisted Judge Skavdahl in his ruling dated back to 1914 and involved a sheepherder moving his sheep from one piece of public land to another. Obviously, a flock of sheep take up more of the “airspace” above private property than does a hunter jumping or swing across at the corner. That ruling recognized the “exceptional conditions” created by the checkerboard of land ownership and that provision must be made to allow one to cross from one piece of public land to another. The judge went back even further to the Unlawful Inclosures Act of 1885 and found the rancher blocking one corner using steel posts and locked chains violated that act (see photo below).
It should be noted that the hunters went over and beyond in 2021 to avoid trespass. In the photo below taken from a court exhibit, the hunters used a self-made steel ladder to enable them to step across at the corners. This was especially true of the one corner that the rancher had created an impediment.
I strongly believe in private property rights. However, in this case I do think that Judge Skavdahl got it right considering the checkerboard nature of many of these public landholdings.
The Second Amendment Foundation and Chris Cox’s Capital 6 Advisors announced they will be working together on several projects. The announcement was made yesterday on the SAF website.
“We’re bringing Cap6 aboard in an advisory capacity on a number of different projects,” said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “SAF has been the nation’s leading force in the Second Amendment litigation world. As we look towards the future, I am humbled and excited to have another major influence in the Second Amendment sphere, along with his talented team, available as a resource to help me implement my ideas and shape SAF’s trajectory for the next 50 years.
“We are excited to work with Adam Kraut and the team at SAF,” said Cap6 President Chris Cox. “The Second Amendment faces unprecedented attacks and America’s law-abiding gun owners deserve real and transparent leadership. I’m proud to deploy my decades of experience advancing the cause of freedom alongside a team I respect and trust. SAF’s best days are ahead of it and law-abiding gun owners everywhere depend on it.”
I think this will be a fruitful partnership. Chris Cox brings his Washington based contacts and his 25 years with NRA-ILA to the table while the SAF brings their superior 2A litigation experience. The mix of the political strategy with the legal strategy should prove to be a winning combination. It is time to take pro-2A lawfare to the anti’s just as they have been trying to do to us lately.
Progress NC Action is one group that dumped on Rep. Tricia Cotham (R-Mecklenburg) for being in the hospital on the day the override vote on SB 41 was taken. It was so nasty and so virulent when combined with the grief she endured from other “progressives” that she switched parties and became a Republican. That gave the GOP the supermajority in the NC House of Representatives.
If you really want to know what they think of the gun culture and those who support an enumerated right, just look at this Tweet.
First, I want to wish a happy 11th blogoversary to Prof. David Yamane who started his great Gun Culture 2.0 blog 11 years ago today. It is one of those must read blogs in the gun culture.
The second blogoversary I wish to acknowledge is my own. I had forgotten about it until I saw David’s post. I started this blog on Blogger on May 20, 2010 making this blog 13 years old. I have since moved to WordPress thanks to a scare I got in 2019 when I suddenly got canceled by Google for a supposed violation of their terms of service. Fortunately, that was resolved in my favor, I was able to rescue my old posts, and I moved on.
Looking back at that first post, I can now say things that I couldn’t at the time. I spent a bit over 25 years working as a financial advisor for a firm that specialized in group retirement for the non-profit and governmental sectors. I did hold the Certified Financial Planner™ designation for 20 years until I voluntarily relinquished it at the end of April given I had retired. When I was told that I had to declare the blog as an “outside business activity” after many years of just muddling along, I had to go back and change some earlier posts due to demands from our compliance department. Go figure.
I sadly recognize that the golden age of blogging is probably over. Many of the great gun bloggers of that era such as Sebastian and Say Uncle have moved on with their lives. I owe a great debt to both of them as their links to me drove a ton of traffic my way. Others such as Weerd, Alan, Breda, and JayG have moved on to podcasting. JayG, like Tom McHale at American Handgunner, moved on to be an editor of an actual magazine. In Jay’s case, it was as Executive Editor of Shooting Illustrated. Fortunately, some of the great bloggers of the era such as Tam, Miggy, Old NFO, David Codrea, and Kevin Baker are still at it. Indeed, Kevin hit his 20th blogoversary less than 10 days ago!
While Instagram and YouTube “influencers” get the traffic now, I plan to stick with blogging as my primary activity with co-hosting on the Polite Society Podcast as the side gig. I don’t see any reason to change as I am still enjoying this. Besides, we need citizen journalists as it is called by David Codrea.
As I said on Monday, the gloves have come off and the powers that be at the NRA have created an implacable enemy in former 1st VP Willes Lee. Now that he is free from the constraints of being both an officer and a member of the Special Litigation Committee, Lee is feeling no remorse about starting to air dirty laundry.
Yesterday, he posted this on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter:
1/2 Radio silence. Two years into NRA Relocation Committee, NO committee meeting. We are far down the road (no pun) of move/HQ sale without Committee, nor Board, nor even Executive Committee knowledge. We especially need input from staff who must carry out the move. This single issue has a devastating effect on staff, simply because we won’t talk with them. Our ‘staff’ lead, who doesn’t work for NRA & handles this as an extra duty to a full-time job, has repeatedly asked for an NRA staff lead contact. With no committee meeting & repeating the failed Bankruptcy secrecy fiasco, I resigned from this committee to focus on speaking/meeting/outreach/advancement which LaPierre increasingly asked me to conduct (well, now no one does it) while he is sidelined by legal and travel considerations. (2/2 soon)
2/2 Scary? Not one NRA HQ building sale/relocation question during the Indy NRA Board meeting. For 2 years, no Board nor Relocation Committee member demanded even an initial meeting (staff does) . We need to get serious.
Wayne LaPierre announced to employees in late March the plan to explore the sale of the NRA headquarters building in Fairfax. As I said at the time, the real estate market is soft with interest rates rising and there are many newer alternatives in the northern Virginia area. While the NRA-ILA still does maintain offices within the District of Columbia, being near the seat of power does have its advantages.
I tend to agree with Lee that a move such as this requires staff input. Many of their most experienced and valued staff members will not want to move to presumably Texas. They have kids in school, family ties to NoVa, and houses. While some of the work could be done remotely, some cannot. That they have not reached out to staff is unforgiveable.
I am reading Lee’s posts as saying by inference that the whole move is being run by Bill Brewer who lives in Texas and Wayne is just along for the ride. Brewer must be really pissed about these posts by Lee.
Good.
These posts and the ones from Monday are just the tip of the iceberg. Lee has been posting other stuff that must be rattling cages in Fairfax, Dallas, and other locations. His Twitter is here, his Instagram is here, and his Facebook page is here. Read for yourself.
UPDATE: The blog NRA In Danger has even more of Lee’s posts arranged in chronological order with some commentary. It is worth a look.
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