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]

Promises to Keep

LeBron James Family Foundation launches I PROMISE Housing with 50 affordable apartment units in Akron [More]

I dunno… the Pre-Application seems to reinforce the institutionalized racism of overrepresentation in the criminal justice system…

Still, I wonder, seeing who hangs out at LeBron’s I PROMISE School, would it be bad form to start a pool on when the apartments will have their first shooting? I also wonder if the housing agreement will say anything about firearms…

Taiwan ‘Gun Control’ Means Civilian Training Too Little Too Late

While parallels to the situation in Ukraine are understandable enough to make with this new move to recruit civilians into the defense equation, the biggest similarity (and biggest mistake) is, both nations waited until the wolf was at the door to start the process. [More]

Once again, citizen disarmament is proving destructive to those who presume to hold a monopoly of violence.

Toy Story

The Commission is issuing this direct final rule to adopt the Department of Commerce rule for the marking of toy, look-alike, and imitation firearms, with non-substantive and conforming changes. The rule is effective June 26, 2023, unless CPSC receives a significant adverse comment by June 12, 2023. [More]

While focused on the ATF rules ball, don’t let this one roll by.

Because we know what the feds think of Airsoft.

[Via Jess]

The Irony is Lost

The state has been relying on “expert witnesses” who are attempting to prove that early firearms do not have the capacity of modern firearms. Why you need “expert” witnesses to prove this is hard to understand. But the notion that our constitution only protects things in existence 200 years ago is odd when the argument is taking place in a courtroom filled with computers and flat screen TV’s, fed by the internet, and protected by metal detectors. [More]

Add a Catch-22 on “ripeness” and you get a feel for what they’re up against.

Meanwhile, the Republicans continue to hold fast on denyng a quorum, so “Attaboys” to them.

Supermarket Sweep

Billionaire warns of eerie fate for NYC over its rampant crime wave [Watch]

I’d pay him more heed if his idea of a Republican to support wasn’t Mitt Romney, and if he hadn’t supported Carolyn B. Maloney, Charlie Rangel, and Jerrold Nadler, if he hadn’t put on a fundraiser in 2006 with Michael Bloomberg for Senator Joe Lieberman, and if he wasn’t a “longtime”, “loyal”, and “high-level Clinton donor.”

Sounds to me like when the tumbrels come, he’ll have earned his place.

[Via Jess]

Nothing In Garbage Out

OpenAI has been slapped with its first-ever defamation lawsuit after a ChatGPT “hallucination” generated a bogus embezzlement complaint against a Georgia radio host, according to a lawsuit. Mark Walters was shocked to learn ChatGPT created a false case that accused him of “defrauding and embezzling” funds from the Second Amendment Foundation… [More]

It sounded like it was hallucinating — or its programmers were — when I talked to it

‘White Women’ Prove Claim That ‘No One Wants to Take Your Guns’ is a Lie

And that’s what these stupid, sheltered white women have been swindled into believing they want – an executive order that “includes a total ban on all guns and a comprehensive, mandatory buyback program.” You don’t have to read any more of the proposal after that—you got the crux of it. [More]

Thanks to impatient radicals coming right out and saying it, no one can any longer deny that “common sense gun safety” is code for “Ban and confiscate all guns.” Well, they can, but they’ll demonstrably be lying.

Verified by MonsterInsights