Month: May 2011

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An Interesting Take On The Supreme Court Ordering The Release Of Prisoners

May 24, 2011 by

Josh Blackman in his blog by the same name has an interesting take on a Supreme Court case decided today. Brown v. Plata effectively orders the release of 46,000 prisoners in the State of California to comply with court-ordered limits on the number of prisoners held in the state’s prisons.

Josh tries to reconcile the votes of Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, and Sotomayor in Brown v. Plata with their votes on McDonald v. Chicago. He ends up with this:

Let’s walk through this. The Court today orders 46,000 dangerous prisoners be released into society. Let’s assume this results in an increase in violent crimes, as Justice Alito suggests (I think his causation/correlation analysis is flawed, but let’s put that aside for now). Society becomes more danger, with all these violent criminals running amok. Prisons, unable to house new prisoners, decrease the feasible number of prosecutions. Statistics are generated that show a steep increase in crime. Based on these findings, the state enacts new restrictive gun control laws to reduce violence.

You really must wonder if something this Machiavellian went through the liberal Justices’ minds when deciding this case. If it did, we are in big trouble as a republic and the presidential election of 2012 becomes even more critical.

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Why One Should Not Depend On Aging Rock Stars For The Facts

May 23, 2011 by 1 Comment

The Irish rock group U2 played a series of concerts last week in Mexico City. The band’s leader Bono made news when he said that most murders in Mexico are committed with automatic firearms smuggled in from the United States. From the band’s website:

‘I want you to send a message of love along the border to the good and the great people of the United States of America.’ announced Bono, during ‘Pride’ at the third show in Mexico tonight. ‘ I want you to send a message to people of conscience.

‘Ask them to answer the question. Why is it that all we hear on the news is how drugs are smuggled through Mexico to the United States ?

‘And we don’t hear about all the automatic weapons that are being smuggled into Mexico from the United States. Nine thousand registered arms dealers on the other side of the border. Nine thousand.

‘Most of the murders committed here are from weapons sold in the United States of America.

In the video embedded below (which I have also posted on YouTube), you can listen to the comments made by Bono and the change in lyrics he made to their song Pride (In the Name of Love).

Arthur Chrenkoff writing for Pajamas Media says Bono makes good music but uses bad numbers.

I can’t exactly blame you. You have probably heard the “statistic” that 90 percent of guns used to commit crimes in Mexico come from the United States from Hillary Clinton herself. Or Senator Dianne Feinstein. Or maybe even from William Hoover, assistant director for field operations at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. After all, if anyone knows, the ATF should, right?

The problem is, as with many other factoids which gain a life of their own and enter the general circulation through media and internet, this is simply not true.

Thanks to the NSSF, we have this graphic showing that for 2008 – the latest year for which figures are available – only 12% of firearms seized in Mexico came from the United States. Of course, with all the firearms that went to Mexico due to Project Gunwalker, the numbers could be higher in later years.

The bottom line is that we’d be a lot better off if rock stars, actors, and other assorted glitterati stuck to music or acting or just looking pretty and save us from having to hear their pronouncements about matters on which they know nothing.

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VPC Dances Over Tragedy

May 23, 2011 by 2 Comments

VPCinfo Violence Policy Cent
PA: Family annihilator shoots and kills wife, two daughters, self with .357 handgun. http://fb.me/ZT2NLwEV

The Violence Policy Center posted the above Tweet about 15 minutes ago. It would appear that Josh Sugarman, Kristen Rand, and their crew are trying to make up for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence’s suspension from Twitter by dancing in the blood of a family tragedy.

It involves a murder-suicide that happened sometime on Sunday in the Pittsburgh area. A man killed his wife and two young daughters and then himself. The family had recently moved to the rented house in Shaler Township 3-4 weeks ago.

Shaler Township Police Chief Jeff Gally said, “We have no indication as to what caused this tragedy.”

As Chief Gally says further in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the only people who know for sure are gone.

This is most certainly a tragedy. Why it happened we probably will never know for sure. The tool was a .357 revolver but it just as easily could have been a baseball bat, a kitchen knife, or even the bathtub in the master bedroom. However, if it had been any one of the later items, VPC would not have seen fit to Tweet about it. They are selective on the violence they wish to publicize. They certainly are not reticent in using inflammatory language when they refer to the murderer as the “family annihilator”.

H/T J. D. Berger

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SAF And CalGuns Sue California Over “Assault Weapons” Arrest

May 23, 2011 by

This was just released by the Second Amendment Foundation and the CalGuns Foundations:

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation and Calguns Foundation have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in California, seeking to have the state’s definition of so-called “assault weapons” declared unconstitutionally vague.

Joining SAF and Calguns in the lawsuit is Brendan John Richards, an Iraq combat veteran who served as a U.S. Marine, and whose arrest and six-day incarceration in the Sonoma County jail – and subsequent dismissal of all charges – was the catalyst for this legal action. Named as defendants are California Attorney General Kamala Harris, the California Department of Justice, the City of Rohnert Park and police officer Dean Becker.

Richards was jailed in May 2010 after Officer Becker, investigating a disturbance at a motel where Richards was staying, learned that Richards had two pistols and a rifle, all unloaded, in the trunk of his car. Becker, arrested Richards for unlawful possession of an assault weapon. However, in September of last year, the charges were dismissed by the Sonoma County District Attorney’s office, based on a report from the state Department of Justice that showed none of the guns met the state’s definition of an assault weapon.

“California’s law allows possession of a variety of firearms that do not meet the state’s assault weapons definition, which we believe is unconstitutionally vague,” noted SAF Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb. “Mr. Richards was jailed for almost a week, when he had broken no law because a police officer had a conflicting view and the District Attorney’s office believed him.”

“California attempts to make a distinction among firearms where no natural one exists,” noted Calguns Executive Director Gene Hoffman. “The generic definition of so-called ‘assault weapons’ was simply an attempt to prohibit possession of guns that look scary.”

Plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Don Kilmer of San Jose and Jason A. Davis of Mission Viejo. Kilmer said the case is indicative of the way things have become in California.

“Now that the right to keep arms has correctly been recognized as fundamental and applicable to California,” Kilmer said, “gun owners can’t be faced with the practice of ‘arrest them first and let the courts sort it out’ for exercising constitutional rights. That is just how things are done in our country.”

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Another Update On NC Range Protection Bill

May 23, 2011 by

The NC Senate Judiciary II Committee held hearings on SB 560 – the Sport Shooting Range Protection bill this past Thursday. Grass Roots North Carolina reports on a weakening amendment that was proposed at the committee hearing.

On Thursday, SB 560, “Sport Shooting Range Protection” passed out of the Senate Judiciary II Committee thanks largely to the efforts of sponsor Sen. Andrew Brock (R- Davie, Rowan, GRNC ****) and committee chairman Sen. Buck Newton (R- Nash, Wilson, ****), both of whom deserve an immediate e-mail of thanks.

SB 560 is intended to close loopholes in our existing range protection law by extending the existing “grandfather” protection against noise and environmental complaints to ranges forced to relocate due to rezoning, annexation, condemnation or development.

A SMALL DARK CLOUD

After complaints that a range relocating to a different county might supersede existing ordinances, committee members of both parties, unfortunately, offered an amendment under which ranges which relocate to different counties may only do so if they meet the requirements of the new county. GRNC will work to remove the restriction. It should be noted that Sen. Newton argued vehemently against the amendment as just another anti-gun action.

The problem with this amendment is that many of the ranges that are feeling the impact from urban encroachment are in the larger urban counties of North Carolina. Twenty years ago, it would have been easy to drive 10 miles from city center within the same county and be surrounded by rural land suitable for a shooting range. Those days are gone. Now if a range is in a Mecklenburg (Charlotte) or a Wake County (Raleigh), the only way to escape suburbia is to move to a Union or Johnston County respectively. Even now, those counties are becoming the home of commuters seeking lower costs who are bringing with them the restrictions and regulations of the city.

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Overshadowed By Events

May 22, 2011 by

The Chicago Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives issued a press release on Thursday which detailed what they termed as their “mid-year significant adjudications”.

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Chicago Field Division Special Agent in Charge Andrew Traver released a list of the top investigations undertaken during the first half of fiscal year 2011. The Chicago Field Division encompasses the entire State of Illinois.

“Chicago ATF has been very successful in obtaining significant judicial outcomes so far this year for a range of criminal defendants that represent the results of using the full spectrum of ATF’s arsenal of investigative techniques from the basic felon in possession of a firearm case to the very sophisticated RICO conspiracy gang prosecution,” said Traver. “Of course, the majority of these outstanding criminal prosecutions were only made possible through the dedicated cooperative efforts of our federal, state and local law enforcement partners, and we’re only getting started.”

Another way of looking at this release is that it is Andrew Traver’s way of saying “I’m still here guys!” given how he and his nomination to be head of ATF have been overshadowed by the unfolding revelations of Project Gunwalker. As to the events described in the release being significant, let’s just say that a full third of the “significant adjudications” involved a felon in possession of a firearm.

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May Is Zombie Awareness Month

May 21, 2011 by

Where have I been? I didn’t even know that it was Zombie Awareness Month. The things you find out on the Interwebs!

I know the CDC just issued an advisory on how to handle a zombie apocalypse but they never mentioned anything about firearms. Must be why I missed the announcement of the Zombie Awareness Month.

So in honor of Zombie Awareness Month, I present Pitbull Daycare and their cover of REM’s “The End of the World As We Know It”.

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In Honor Of The Rapture Non-Event

May 21, 2011 by 3 Comments

6 a.m. came and went and we are all still here. I didn’t feel the Earth move. Oh, well.

However, the Rapture non-event needs something to celebrate it. I saw this on Facebook and thought it would do just fine – even if it is from 30 years ago. The lyrics of the first stanza are:

Toe to toe
Dancing very close
Barely breathing
Almost comatose
Wall to wall
People hypnotised
And they’re stepping lightly
Hang each night in Rapture

And here is Debbie Harry of Blondie singing Rapture.

H/T Andy Langlois

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Credit Cards Versus Debit Cards

May 21, 2011 by

Having been the victim of identity theft in the past, some of the tips this video gives make sense to me. I really like the part about using a debit card as a credit card with a signature. By doing this, you aren’t creating more debt but still are preventing scammers from getting your PIN number.

Regarding PIN numbers, do not use your birthdate! That should be obvious but bears repeating. Pick a number that is non sequential that you will remember. My favorite for married men is your wedding anniversary. It is a safer number plus it helps you remember your wedding anniversary so you don’t get caught forgetting it by She Who Must Be Obeyed.