Category: courts

How Do You Get From Here to There?

“We have already recognized in Heller at least one way in which the Second Amendment’s historically fixed meaning applies to new circumstances. Its reference to arms does not apply only to those arms in existence in the 18th Century… just as the First Amendment protects modern forms of communications and the Fourth Amendment applies to modern forms of search, the Second Amendment extends prima facie to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding. Thus even though the Second Amendment’s definition of arms is fixed according to the historical understanding that that general definition covers modern…modern instruments that facilitate armed self-defense. [Watch]

Exactly right. What I’m having trouble connecting the dots on is this:

What is that burden that the government has to bear? The government has to come forth to prove that the arms that they want to ban are not in common use.

Ignoring the first 13 words and focusing exclusively on self-defense leaves the door open to saying post-’86 machine guns are not in common use. It also means that new technological developments that the government reserves for itself will never be.

That is what I’d like to see Mr. Smith elaborate on. I believe he’s one of the few who could.

As an aside, I think the first Republican presidential candidate who promised to nominate him if any Supreme Court openings happen would gain a huge advantage with gun owners.

[Via Stephen I]

Time for a Change

Yesterday, the state presented an “expert” witness who hilariously claimed that it takes 5 seconds or more to change a magazine. This false and absurd statement was made in an effort to convince the court that low capacity magazines will protect people in mass shootings by giving them time to run away. [More]

A moron presenting himself as an expert testifying that an abomination bent on slaughter would nonetheless obey magazine restrictions did not result in his being laughed out of the courtroom? Who is this guy?

One for the Gipper

A federal judge on Tuesday rejected a request to block a new Washington state law banning the sale of certain semi-automatic rifles…[More]

Thanks, Ronald Reagan!

Your legacy lives on.

[Via Jess]

Related UPDATE

The dolt actually said they “allow a shooter to fire as fast as they can pull the trigger, unlike previous guns.”

[Via WiscoDave]

An Age-Old Question

Attorneys representing the Second Amendment Foundation and its partners in a federal lawsuit challenging the prohibition of handgun sales to young adults have filed a reply to the federal government’s arguments supporting the ban. The case is known as Reese v. ATF. [More]

What must the grabbers think of those they think old enough to vote Democrat?

A ‘Tragic Accident’

Shannon Brandt pled guilty to manslaughter after Cayler Ellingson was killed when he was hit by Brandt’s vehicle in September 2022. The guilty plea comes just weeks after the charges were reduced from murder to manslaughter. [More]

Now imagine the sentence is Brandt were the “Republican extremist” and his victim had been [insert preferred woke category here].

[Via Michael G]

Not Now

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a request to block state and local laws barring the sale of assault-style weapons in Illinois while a group of challenges to those laws continues in the lower courts. There were no dissents publicly recorded from the unsigned order, nor did the justices provide any explanation for their decision. [More]

I’m going to resist reading more into this for now.

[Via Jess]

At This Point, They’re Just F***ing With Us

Illegal immigrants get court dates scheduled for years in the future, allowed to stay in US in the meantime – Many migrants don’t have to appear in court for up to five years [More]

Give it another year and the wait time will double. Not that people whose first act in this country was to break its laws plan on showing up.

The politicians, officials, business interests, and string-pullers behind this state of affairs seem pretty unconcerned about personal repercussions, don’t they?

So do our “gun rights leaders”…

Sounds Like Retaliation to Me

COURT DOCS: ATF staffer admits to passing confidential records to gun rights groups [More]

This is what happens when the ones who want to do the right thing don’t get whistleblower protection, and why Mike and I were so adamant about not trusting Holder’s DOJ but instead pressed Senate Judiciary and House Oversight to do the right thing, even if only for political reasons of their own.

It’s why I’m going to Oversight again on the Secret Service/Hunter Biden allegations. This time, on my own and with no insiders to bring in, I’m afraid it’s proving even more of an uphill battle.

So which “gun rights group” was it he was feeding information to? If it were me, I’d be out there banging pots and pans and defending him. Let’s hope someone can assure us he’s not being left hanging out there to dry.

Shock and Awe Lawfare

The recommendation for Rhodes is the longest thus far for any person charged in connection with the Capitol attack, reflecting what prosecutors see as his role in a key organizing figure for members of the far-right militia — even as Rhodes was never alleged to have entered the Capitol building itself on Jan. 6. [More]

So he not only never went in, they have no direct orders he issued to any specific person. The seditious conspiracy here is by the persecutors.

This is an act of judicial terrorism with a chilling, wider goal in mind. What else would you call “the deliberate creation of a sense of fear, usually by the use or threat of use of symbolic acts of physical violence, to influence the political behavior of a given target group”?

I guess the jurors were impressionable and manipulable enough to embrace the hysteria. It also raises a question I’ve had for some time for those whose liberty advocacy efforts center on Fully Informed Juries: Even though “text, history, and tradition” known to the Founders is on your side, your message is limited by those who control the media, and by prevailing legal establishment interests, to the echo chambers of the political fringes.

The arrogant f*** (from Portland, OR) who wrote that actually cites a law review article that compares telling free citizens about their nullification rights to telling children not to stick beans up their noses (“most of them would not have thought about it had it not been suggested”) and wrings his hands over how difficult the First Amendment makes full suppression.

And potentially sympathetic politicians, mindful of what the Swamp and the media would do to them, have little incentive to touch it.

So why not force wider discussion and open the eyes of more by creating ballot measures in states that allow it? Just the act of collecting signatures will raise awareness “outside the choir” (and I qualify the use of that term), and the fact that something is gaining steam, and maybe even getting on the ballot, will call attention to a freedom safeguard the would-be rulers desperately want to keep citizens from learning about.

We might stick beans up our noses.

An Attack on One is an Attack on All

Gun Group’s Financial Dealings With Founder Spark State Investigation [More]

And now, the rest of the story… and I include this link because I want you to read it.

This “investigation” is a pretty naked lawfare/smear attempt to go ad hominem on someone at the forefront of effective Second Amendment legal defense cases to try and derail and harm them. It’s also meant to cause divisions and suspicions within the “gun community” over finances and relationships with other Gottlieb holdings for marketing, rent, and other services, which have never been a secret. SAF/CCRKBA tax filings are available to anyone on Guidestar, and before calling shenanigans, document what those would cost the SAF/CCRKBA nonprofits if they were provided by someone else.

For an impartial third-party opinion, Charity Navigator doesn’t have a dog in this fight. Let’s see what they have to say:

“Good – This charity’s score is 77%, earning it a Three-Star rating. If this organization aligns with your passions and values, you can give with confidence.”

I wonder if it will come out if anyone from out of state, including groups, politicians, and federal agencies, is a silent partner in this.

This isn’t just a knee-jerk reaction on my part. I’ve had some differences with Alan over the years, including some ongoing ones, and am on good terms with people who admire him and with people who can’t stand him, but what’s happening to him here is pure filth by evil interests that want you and me disarmed.

UPDATE

I hope my speculation on silent partners is followed up on because this revelation shows the relationships are baked in.

A Good First Step

Delaware County judge blocks Columbus gun ordinance enforcement [More]

But there are still miles to go, this is not the only road to travel, and municipal governments have virtually unlimited tax plunder to throw at this, while rights defenders need to scrape for nickels.

If you’re an Ohio gun owner, are you helping with the load, either financially or through activism?

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