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Civil Rights

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Civil Rights

The Post-Bruen Landscape

First, some background because I haven’t written on this stuff in a while. A few weeks ago, the Supreme Court issued its ruling in NYSRPA v. Bruen. At issue was New York City’s restrictive and discriminatory system for issuing permits to carry a firearm.

The law in question was New York’s Sullivan Act, which I’ve written on before. It required a permit to carry a firearm outside the home, then set up an arbitrary, discretionary process under which minorities and union organizers were routinely denied. In fact, the original text singled out the Irish and used the phrase “swarthy immigrants.”

In the intervening decades, New York made it impossible for anyone but the rich and connected to get permits. A business owner in a bad neighborhood had no chance of being approved, but celebrities like Robert DeNiro and Bill Cosby certainly did. In one case, two members of Aerosmith were given permits in exchange for backstage passes even though they didn’t qualify at all.

Civil Rights Ordnance

Remington Settles

Remington Arms has reached a $73 million settlement with families who lost relatives in the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut. Their attorneys first brought this back in 2014 as a wrongful-death lawsuit.

Since then, Remington filed for bankruptcy twice. In 2020, it was broken up and the pieces were sold off to cover outstanding debt. Vista Outdoors bought the trademark, which they use to market ammunition.

My initial worry about this lawsuit was that it was an attempt to get around the PLCAA. Gun control advocates have been trying to do that through targeted litigation for quite some time.

But contrary to the headlines, Remington has not been found liable. That’s the whole point of a settlement like this. Chances are, Vista just wants to get out from under this cloud.

Civil Rights

The Trucker Protests

So the Ontario protests are over and the Ambassador Bridge is back open. I’m not sure what was accomplished, aside from causing a great deal of hardship to people who didn’t deserve it.

I’m a trucker. In short, my job is to move cargo. It isn’t to sit around burning fuel and annoying people. It certainly isn’t to keep other truckers from doing their jobs.

It’s not a job for everyone. Working conditions can be hard and the general public treats us like a nuisance. But that comes with the territory. I understand that the vaccine requirements for crossing the American/Canadian border are an issue, but those have been in place for over a year now. They’re not new, and plenty of other jobs have similar mandates.

If it’s such an existential crisis right now, maybe the aggrieved parties could contact their legislators or consider funding targeted lawsuits. These protests aren’t going to change policy.

Civil Rights

Build Back Better and Gun Control

There’s a great deal of hand-wringing about the idea that there are secret gun-control provisions in Biden’s spending bill. Gun Owners of America have been spamming social media outlets in an attempt to use this for fundraising. Problem is, it’s a complete lie.

The relevant language starts on page 65. It proposes $2.5 billion in spending over a ten-year period for the following:

(…) to support training, technical assistance, research, evaluation, and data collection on the strategies that are most effective at reducing community violence and ensuring public safety

Notice there is no mention of guns or any kind of gun regulation. If the language about “community violence” sounds familiar, that’s because it is. This is Operation Ceasefire finally being implemented on a national level, and that’s a good thing.

The program was initiated in Boston in the mid-1990s, and it exceeded its stated goals in reducing juvenile homicides. Police unions declared it the Boston Miracle, and it was implemented in several other major cities.

Civil Rights

Cognitive Dissonance

The Supreme Court will soon hear oral arguments in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, a case challenging New York’s arbitrary and corrupt permitting system for carrying handguns. In Heller v. DC and McDonald v. Chicago, they held that the 2nd Amendment protected the right to own firearms.

But those decisions only applied to keeping a gun in the home. The question of whether it protects the right to carry outside the home remains open, and lower courts have done everything in their power to say it doesn’t. That question is central to the arguments in Bruen.

Now Amnesty International has seen fit to submit an amicus brief [pdf] in the current case that is just strange.

It makes three arguments:

U.S. courts should interpret U.S. law, including the Constitution, as consistent with U.S. obligations under international law.

I’m not sure what international law is threatened here, and neither are they since they don’t cite any.

Civil Rights

Biden Falls Back on the Classics

We’re living in the late 1970s again. Inflation is on the rise, gasoline prices are spiking, and we’re seeing a dramatic rise in violent crime. We have a President who has no ideas worth bringing to the table, so he’s falling back on the old standby: gun control.

In remarks made today, he called for a reinstatement of the so-called “assault weapons” ban and crackdowns on gun dealers. Neither of these things will have an impact on violent crime, and the worst part is, he knows it.

His first claim is this:

For folks at home, here’s what you need to know: I’ve been at this a long time and there are things we know that work that reduce gun violence and violent crime, and things that we don’t know about. But things we know about: Background checks for purchasing a firearm are important; a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

Continued...

Civil Rights

H.R.1446: Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021

Democrats have thrown a few feeble pitches with gun-control legislation this session, but those were never expected to get far. This is the one they’ve actually been gearing up for. They’ll sell it as a “moderate” measure, and they’ll probably use the phrase common sense quite a bit.

It’s actually quite dangerous. This is the relevant language:

not fewer than 10 business days (meaning a day on which State offices are open) has elapsed since the licensee contacted the system, and the system has not notified the licensee that the receipt of a firearm by such other person would violate subsection (g) or (n) of this section, and the other person has submitted, electronically through a website established by the Attorney General or by first-class mail, a petition for review

Right now, if you try to buy a gun and your background check gets delayed, the government has 3 business days to review it.

Civil Rights

First Shot Across the Bow

On Sunday, the White House released a statement by President Biden calling for new gun-control laws. Predictably, he claims this will “end our epidemic of gun violence.” There is no such epidemic. Homicides with firearms are the lowest they’ve been since the early 1990s.

The actual proposal?

(…) requiring background checks on all gun sales, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and eliminating immunity for gun manufacturers who knowingly put weapons of war on our streets.

None of these measures has ever been shown to have any effect on homicide. None of these measures would have ameliorated the tragedy at Parkland, which he seeks to exploit here. In fact, he personally admitted that just a few years ago.

So, I’m confused. No, really. The thing is, this guy traditionally gets stuff done on gun control. He wrote the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which we know as the “assault weapons ban.”

Civil Rights

H.R.127 – Sabika Sheikh Firearm Licensing and Registration Act

So we have a new President, and he has a history with gun control. He was instrumental in the writing and passage of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban, and it’s safe to assume he’s going to bring his clout to bear on the issue.

As such, it’s understandable that people are worried, but we don’t need to go jumping at shadows. Case in point: Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee’s annual gun bill. It’s a grab-bag of bad ideas and ludicrous restrictions on lawful behavior.

It’s also doomed to failure. Notice the complete lack of cosponsors. Now go back to the same bill from the last session. No cosponsors there, either. It never even made it to committee. Jackson has a history of drafting preposterous gun bills to enhance her personal brand, but they never go anywhere.

Why? Because she’s just not a player on the issue. When it’s time for the Democrats to give a serious push on the issue, it’ll carry the endorsements of Schumer, Durbin, and Feinstein.

Civil Rights

It’s Biden Time

Let’s just call it at this point. Joe Biden is the next President. It doesn’t matter that only 98.4% of precincts in Nevada have reported in. It doesn’t matter that someone claims a couple hundred votes got misplaced somewhere. There’s no feasible path to 270 electoral votes for Donald Trump.

Do some yelling if it helps. Deep breath. In. Out. Now, jazz hands. All better? Good.

Now let’s look at what it all means. First, this wasn’t a landslide for Biden by any definition. It looks like six million more people voted for Trump than did so in 2016. He can’t dismiss that.

Second, Republicans are keeping control of the Senate. Despite the promises (and several hundred million dollars in spending), Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, and Susan Collins all held their seats without breaking a sweat.

Third, Democrats still control the House, but Republicans gained more seats than expected. That number will increase in the 2022 midterms.

Civil Rights

Hitler Again

There’s a claim thrown around with annoying regularity that German Jews could have stopped the Holocaust if only they were armed. Since the narrative involves Hitler and guns being banned, everyone seems to take it at face value. Problem is, it’s not true.

Most of the gun-control laws in Germany came from the Weimar Republic and its attempts to comply with the Treaty of Versailles. In January 1919, the Reichstag enacted legislation requiring the surrender of nearly all guns to the government. They passed the Law on the Disarmament of the People the following year. In 1928 they passed the Law on Firearms and Ammunition, which allowed for some civilian firearms ownership but imposed a strict registration scheme.

Bear in mind, all these measures passed before Adolph Hitler was in any position of authority. In 1938, the Law on Firearms and Ammunition was actually loosened quite a bit. Permits were only required for handguns and handgun ammunition.

Civil Rights

Impeachment

The Senate has refused to hear witnesses in the impeachment trial of President Trump. It’s not the cover-up Pelosi and Schiff are claiming. They brought the articles to the Senate (with no small amount of ridiculous grade-school theater) under the assertion that they had an unassailable case, backed by compelling evidence.

Apparently, they don’t. Well, that’s their problem. Let’s run through the whole 2016 narrative, shall we?

Donald Trump personally worked with Vladimir Putin to sway the election! We have evidence, but we won’t show you just yet. Well, OK. We don’t have evidence.
Here’s a fake report from the “intelligence community.” That’s evidence, right? No? OK.
Let’s talk about Stormy Daniels. She…what? Russia? That was last week.
OK. OK. We’ve got it. There’s this thing called the Emoluments Clause. We’ll use some big words to confuse people, and…oh for $%&* sake.
Two scoops of iced cream. TWO SCOOPS, people!
So, that Russia thing?

Continued...

Civil Rights

Gun Control: the Current Situation

Gun control advocates have long been coy about their actual agenda. They’ve given the public platitudes about “compromise” and “reasonable regulation,” and they’ve taken pains to assure us that “nobody’s coming for your guns.” Then Beto O’Rourke went and spilled the beans on live television. He wasn’t jumping the gun. He was just dumb enough to say it out loud.

In doing so, he conveniently left the door open for Joe Biden to step in with his own plan, which he’s claiming to be moderate in comparison. It’s not. Under the Biden scheme, anyone owning an “assault weapon” will have two choices: sell it back to the government or register it.

I’m not clear how I can sell something back to the government when they never owned it in the first place. I can guarantee that any such “buyback” will only offer a fraction of most weapons’ value, which raises certain 5th Amendment concerns.

Civil Rights

Jeremy Kettler v. United States

We have another gun case headed to the Supreme Court. It’s a viable challenge to New York’s transport ban, brought by a credible plaintiff, and supported by competent litigators.

But that’s not the one in the news. Instead, we have faux outrage that SCOTUS won’t hear Kettler v. United States, a case in which one idiot sold illegal silencers to another idiot, got busted, and wants to waste everyone’s time and money appealing his conviction. The lawsuit was brought by everyone’s favorite incompetents at Gun Owners of America (GOA), and I’m thankful the court chose not to hear it.

Let’s rewind. A few years ago, several states passed “Firearms Freedom Acts,” laws which claimed to exempt their citizens from federal gun regulations. Kansas passed their version in 2013. From a theoretical standpoint, these laws set up an interesting debate between federal and state power to regulate firearms, and they might provide a challenge to the overbroad application of the Commerce Clause.

Civil Rights

Backlash, finally.

This is very interesting. Less than 48 hours after the shooting at the Highlands Ranch STEM school, a surrogate group for the Brady Campaign organized a “vigil” for the victims.

Of course, the Brady Campaign doesn’t do things like this out of the goodness of their hearts, and the whole thing was a clumsy attempt at politicizing the tragedy. That’s nothing new, but what is new is the fact that many of the students stormed out, specifically citing their dismay at the event. Their sentiments are echoed by parents and even the families of the victims.

Even more interesting is that this isn’t just being covered by right-wing blogs. The mainstream press has picked up on it. Hopefully, this is the moment things break and people start calling out the gun-control movement for its predatory and morbid tactics.

The Brady Campaign was once known as Handgun Control Inc. By the late 1980’s, it became apparent that the general public wasn’t interested in banning handguns, so everybody switched to the “assault weapons” meme.

Civil Rights

The Bump Stock Ban

I’m going to give you the short version up front. That bump stock you bought a few months ago? It’s now the most dangerous thing you could possibly own. It’s classified as a machine gun, you have 90 days to get rid of it, and there’s no way to make it legal.

You have two options. The first is to destroy it. I suggest having a witness present to make a video recording. The second is to turn it over to law enforcement. Have a witness present and get a written receipt as well as the name and number of the official to whom you surrendered it.

There’s no third option. Since these are essentially post-1986 machine guns, there’s no way to register them. If you want to play games and hold onto it, remember that 82 people burned to death at Waco on the mere suspicion of that.

The deadline is March 21st.

Civil Rights

It’s a Supreme Court Appointment, Not the End of the World.

So, you might have heard Justice Kennedy is retiring. The news was hard to miss, given the gnashing of teeth on the left and the gleeful anticipation on the right. For the most part, this isn’t really much to worry about, and the people claiming it’s the end of the Republic are being petty and disingenuous.

Let’s all take a deep breath here. In. Out. In. Hold it. Out. Now jazz hands. OK. Let’s talk this through like grown-ups.

This should come as a surprise to absolutely nobody. Kennedy has been making noises about retirement for at least three years. The idea that this blindsided the DNC leadership means that they’ve hidden their heads in the sand under the impression he’d wait out Trump’s first term. That was beyond stupid. The fact they’re unprepared for this means they’re still laboring under the same smug complacency that has bled the party dry at the state level over the last decade, and the same one that led them to nominate an awful, untrusted Presidential candidate who couldn’t beat Donald J.

Civil Rights

Here We Go Again

17 children are dead because the state failed to protect them. This isn’t about “assault weapons,” the NRA, or Donald Trump. This situation is a grim litany of apathy, ineptitude, and ultimately cowardice.

The FBI was explicitly warned. They never acted. The Broward County Sheriff’s department was called to the shooter’s home 39 times but never saw fit to take action. The deputy charged with protecting the school hid from the shooter. The first officers to respond to the scene chose not to intervene.

So, we should launch immediate and urgent inquiries into this situation, right? Wrong. Instead, we’re told by politicians and the media that the solution is to ban the tools the shooter used. That’s how little sense we make as a society.

It’s a morbid bit of irony that Sheriff Scott Israel, whose department investigated the shooter’s home more than 3 dozen times and whose deputies showed cowardice throughout the shooting, is leading the charge to advocate for gun control.

Civil Rights

The One about the CDC and Guns

One of the canards we keep hearing from gun-control advocates is that the CDC is somehow banned from doing research on gun violence, and that this is a contributing factor to the problem. President Obama used it, Secretary Clinton used it, and the media has latched on to it since Newtown.

The problem is, it’s an absolute lie. The CDC can do all the studies they want. However, if they want to do advocacy, they don’t get federal funding to do so.

Their crusade against guns (particularly handguns) started in the 1970’s, but things reached a head in 1993 with the publication of Arthur Kellerman’s “Gun ownership as a risk factor for homicide in the home” study, which despite being easily and soundly debunked, was published and repeated like crazy among the media and gun-control advocates. Any time you hear “you’re X times more likely to get shot if you own a gun,” it’s a reference to this study.

Civil Rights

But they’re not coming for your guns…

Another mass shooting, another opportunity to politicians ignore the root causes and just exploit it for pet legislation. Here’s the rundown of what has been proposed on the federal level so far.

HR 3998: the Protect America Act of 2017. What an inspiring name! This one claims its purpose is to deny firearms sales to “known or suspected terrorists.” So, if you’re on a vague, unconstitutional list with no notification or due process, you can be denied the right to own a gun. This has nothing to do with the Las Vegas shooter.

HR 3999: the “bump stock” bill. This would outlaw “bump fire” stocks, as well as “any part or combination of parts that is designed and functions to increase the rate of fire of a semiautomatic rifle but does not convert the semiautomatic rifle into a machinegun.” That language is vague enough to include any replacement trigger, even one that simply makes a hunting rifle more accurate or a pistol easier to shoot for someone with weak hands.

Civil Rights

Not Really Katrina

As Hurricane Irma approaches the Virgin Islands, Governor Kenneth Mapp has issued an order allowing the National Guard to confiscate lawfully owned firearms from citizens if deemed necessary.

Many people are drawing parallels between this and the situation in New Orleans in 2005, when Mayor Ray Nagin signed a similar order. The NRA brought litigation then, and Congress responded by outlawing any such future confiscations.

So, it seems Mapp’s order would be illegal, right? Not exactly.

As an unincorporated territory, Virgin Islands are governed under the provisions of the Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands. The US Constitution, which limits the authority of the federal government, doesn’t really apply there. It’s something of a gray area. The USVI proposed their own constitution in 2007, but nothing came of it.

This, along with the Insular Cases as precedent, will cause real problems for 2nd (or 5th) Amendment claims. It stinks, but this is the situation.

Civil Rights

It Looks Like Private FFL’s Are a Thing Again

Once upon a time, you could order a gun through the Sears catalog and have it mailed to your door. Contrary to much of the political rhetoric you may have heard, that’s no longer the case. In fact, it hasn’t been since 1968, when the Gun Control Act mandated the requirement for a Federal Firearms License (FFL) to transfer firearms. Essentially, one had to acquire the license to “deal” in firearms, and the licensee would act as a gatekeeper between manufacturers and the general public.

Many collectors acquired the license and used it to transfer firearms to friends and other collectors. That was, until Josh Sugarmann of the Violence Policy Center decided he didn’t like that. Among several of his odious initiatives, he successfully badgered the Clinton administration into wiping out non-profit, or “kitchen table,” FFL’s in the 1990’s. Since then, common wisdom was that the ATF would not issue a Type 1 FFL to anybody who was not “engaged in the business” of selling firearms for a profit.

Civil Rights

Do Let’s Shut Up

I’m sick of the manufactured outrage this election. The American public was fully aware what kind of people both Presidential candidates were when we nominated them. We have only ourselves to blame.

Let’s be honest and stop with the fist-waving and name-calling. We relinquished that right with an enthusiasm and abandon that should trigger nothing but shame in retrospect.

Donald Trump is, for lack of a more articulate adjective, an asshole. He’s the spoiled rich kid, the bully, the fraternity jock who hopes a comely cheerleader will get drunk enough not to remember who took advantage of her in the morning. The evidence of his disdain for nonwhite elites is apparent to anyone who knows how to use Google, and it always has been.

Those who voted for him in the primaries should have known this. The only explanation is that we’re truly desperate or that we chose to disregard that in favor of bumper-sticker slogans.

Civil Rights

The Democrats don’t care about gun violence

Oh, sure, they pretend to. They make sure the media sees their crocodile tears following every public shooting. They do their little sit-ins for measures that gut due process, and they push selective gun bans that do nothing about the underlying madness that grips our society.

But when it comes to initiatives that actually reduce violence, they clam up. Case in point: current Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Tim Kaine. As Mayor of Richmond, he backed a program that actually reduced gun violence, and now he’s taking flak for it.

That’s not Alanis Morissette irony; it’s the real thing. Democrats don’t really care about inner-city violence, which represents the vast majority of firearms-related homicides in this country. They care about symbolic gestures that score them political points.

Among other things, Project Exile was notable for receiving the support of both the NRA and the Brady Campaign (then known as Handgun Control, Inc.).

Civil Rights

Black Lives Matter: We All Deserve Better

This group has been a problem since its inception. It is a leaderless, anarchical mess. Their juvenile shock tactics have dismayed established civil rights leaders, and their constant drumbeat of hostility towards law enforcement has now inspired outright murder.

That’s it. We need to be done with them as a country.

It’s hard to write that because I’m well aware of the sources of their anger. The unconscionable killings of Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, and countless other black men by law enforcement are unacceptable. The disproportionate prosecution, ridiculous mandatory sentences, and deficient legal representation black men receive in our justice system is a travesty, and it is utterly unAmerican.

Of course, to hear representatives of Black Lives Matter tell it, I don’t get to have an opinion because I’m white. That’s preposterous and dishonest. I don’t need to be abused by a rogue police officer to tell that there are elements of our system that are terribly broken and in need of reform.

Civil Rights

Hollis, Again

Less than two years ago, a guy named Jay Hollis brought a case to the Texas District Court challenging several aspects of the 1934 National Firearms Act and 1968 Gun Control Act. Long story short, he wanted to build a machine gun for personal use, and the ATF said no. He then filed a rambling, poorly argued case, despite knowing that his actions were illegal before he began this whole endeavor.

I predicted then that it would fail on the District level. I was correct. I predicted he would appeal to the 5th Circuit, where he would also lose. I was correct on that as well.

Well, yay for me, I guess.

He needs to put a stop to this right now, before he causes us all serious harm.

If this case goes to the Supreme Court, Justice Breyer owns it. He’ll have Sotomayor, Kagan, and Ginsburg in his corner. Without Scalia to act as a counterweight, Kennedy will swing to the other side.

Civil Rights

Lies, More Lies, and the Liars Who Tell Them

This has been a tough week for gun-control advocates. We had the worst mass shooting in American history, and they just couldn’t seem to exploit it. They had a cute filibuster in the Senate, and they got the vote they wanted. Problem is, it didn’t go the way they wanted.

The plain fact is, the general public doesn’t consider gun control a pressing issue. We all grieve at the horrors of Newtown, Aurora, and Orlando, but gun-control advocates would have us believe they grieve even more. The rest of us just don’t feel it as much as they do, and anyone who suggests their hasty “solutions” might be defective gets labeled as stupid, bigoted, or lacking in conscience.

And let me tell you, nobody has more conscience than a bunch of progressives craving attention. So, this week, John Lewis decided to stage a sit-in on the floor of the House of Representatives.

Civil Rights

The Sanders Con

Bernie Sanders has made history, but not in the way the media tells it. In short, he’s committed what may be the largest and most brazen piece of fraud in, well, ever. He managed to raise $208 million, and he did so by convincing a huge number of gullible children that politics is a retail transaction.

They actually believed his promises of a $15 minimum wage, single-payer healthcare, and free college education. They deserve to be parted from their money.

Let’s start with the minimum wage thing. It’s not going to happen. The last time it was raised was in 2009. Even that was the product of a very contentious process that had begun in earnest two years earlier. Despite having an unassailable majority in Congress, Democrats still had to shoehorn it into the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act.

And that was only to get it to $7.25/hour.

Civil Rights

Even the Libertarians Are a Sideshow

If I were to sum up my personal politics, I hew most closely to the Libertarian platform. The problem is, they can’t put forth a candidate worthy (or likely) to be elected dog catcher.

Gary Johnson is this year’s nominee for President, same as 2012. Failing to secure the Republican nomination, he went to the Libertarian ticket as a consolation prize. Johnson isn’t bad; he’s just uninspiring. Still, he has more mainstream name recognition than anyone else in the party, so they might as well nominate him in 2016.

The big problem is his pick for Vice President. William Weld was governor of Massachusetts for two terms in the 1990’s. During his tenure, he supported very strict gun-control measures and government seizure of private property under eminent domain. Both of those positions run absolutely counter to Libertarian ideology.

Weld claims to have dialed back on some of those positions, but when pressed on his support for gun control, he gave Jake Tapper a response I find far less than convincing.

Civil Rights

Low Energy, Totally Uninspired

At this point, I can’t see the math working out any other way. Donald Trump is going to be the Republican nominee for President this fall.

That scares the living bejeezus out of me. It should frighten any reasonable person. Apparently, “reasonable person” excludes a large portion of the American electorate.

Let’s be clear: Donald Trump doesn’t care about you. He only cares about himself. This is all a game to him, and one in which the most uncouth bully wins through sheer force of will.

The obvious retort is, “well, that’s politics as usual.” It’s not untrue, but this guy claims to represent a repudiation of politics as usual. Right. If anything, he represents an amplified version of it, filtered through the worst kind of populism I’ve seen since, well…

I’m going full Godwin here. It’s the worst kind of populism since Hitler. There. I’ve done it, and I’m not sorry.

Civil Rights

Is the Gun Industry Really Free of Liability?

Over the last couple of years, the Democrats have decided that gun control is no longer a toxic political issue. In fact, they seem to consider it a vital imperative, and support for new restrictions has become something of a litmus test. Presidential candidates Clinton and Sanders have both been strident in calls for new legislation.

One of their primary targets is the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. The claim is that the PLCAA exempts manufacturers and retailers from any sort of liability for their actions. As Clinton put it,

So far as I know, the gun industry and gun sellers are the only business in America that is totally free of liability for their behavior. Nobody else is given that immunity. And that just illustrates the extremism that has taken over this debate.

This isn’t just wrong; it’s an utter lie.

During the late years of the Clinton administration, the Mayors of Chicago and Bridgeport decided to sue gun manufacturers for the damage inflicted by the criminal misuse of their products.

Civil Rights

Executive Power and Gun Control

The President has announced that he’s seeking to enact new controls without the cooperation or consent of Congress. I understand how this could be worrying on the surface.

The thing is, he really can’t do that. I’ve written about this before. Whatever murky construct they may be, executive orders can’t be used to enact or alter laws. The chief executive doesn’t have that power, and for very good reason.

It’s unsettling that this President has repeatedly and publicly stated a desire to bypass our system of checks and balances. Regarding economic relief in 2011, he said,

We can’t wait for Congress to do its job. So where they won’t act, I will. We’re going to look every single day to figure out what we can do without Congress.

Statements like that should be chilling to anyone, regardless of political affiliation.

With that said, we haven’t seen the actual orders yet. The main one rumored will redefine or tighten the definition of a “dealer” in firearms.

Civil Rights

One Way Around the Legislature

State Attorney General Herring has announced that he’s cancelling reciprocity agreements with 25 states. Those agreements allow permitted nonresidents to carry concealed firearms in Virginia. The justification is that those 25 states have more “lax” gun laws than Virginia and that the measure will keep dangerous criminals from bringing guns into the Commonwealth.

Right. Because dangerous criminals go through the trouble to get carry permits. Essentially, he’s punishing the people who’ve done nothing wrong, which is pretty much the central tenet of the gun-control approach.

Worse yet, he doesn’t need the approval of the legislature to do this. It just takes a pen stroke. Hopefully, state lawmakers will intervene, but that remains to be seen.

It’s not a novel strategy. The President himself has threatened to bypass Congress in a similar fashion, though his legal authority to do so is questionable at best. On one hand, the reluctance of lawmakers (who represent the wishes of their constituents) shows that the public doesn’t support gun control.

Civil Rights

Due Process and “Terror”

The gun-control lobby is attempting to use the San Bernardino shooting for political fodder. The problem is that the incident occurred in California, a state they consider to be a model laboratory for gun restrictions.

They’ve chosen to sidestep that issue, and they’re proposing a new solution: bar anyone on a terrorist watchlist from owning firearms. If we don’t look too closely, it seems sensible. It also makes for good soundbites about security.

In practice, it’s a terrible idea, and it’s something that should offend anyone interested in civil liberties.

Consider the “no fly” list. One has no way of knowing whether they’re on it until they try to board a plane. If they are, it’s nearly impossible to find out why they’re on it. Aside from a feeble DHS program, there’s no way to redress the situation. Even that venue places the burden of proof on the accused.

It also bears mentioning that neither Farook or Malik were on the list.

Civil Rights

An Alternative to Gun Control

In the wake of this week’s mass shooting, we’re going to hear calls for more background checks. This, despite the fact the shooter underwent and passed several background checks when he purchased his guns. This, despite the fact that Oregon passed more strict background check legislation only a couple of months ago.

Background checks don’t stop these tragedies. With the exception of Newtown, every mass shooter in the last two decades has purchased his weapons at retail and passed a check. The lack of a deterrent effect is obvious. Any other social policy that has failed this utterly would have been abandoned by now.

Of course, whenever I point this out, it’s implied that I’m somehow obligated to provide a solution. Well, OK. Here’s one that might actually help.

In 2013, Dan Roberts conducted a study on mass shooters. Every single one of them had been on Selective Serotonin Re-Uptake Inhibitors.

Civil Rights

Trigger Warnings

I went to high school in a somewhat rural area. Local politics were steered by religion and conservatism. Therefore, it should have come as little surprise that our library’s copy of Catcher in the Rye had been subjected to extensive redaction by some busybody. In fact, entire paragraphs of the book had been blotted out with magic marker. The school librarian wasn’t the least bit surprised or disturbed when I pointed this out to her.

I used to assume that book banning was the province of the Right. That’s no longer the case. Liberalism has bred its own version, and it’s just as reprehensible. In essence, the belief is that people should be sheltered from anything they find unsettling or even distasteful.

Case in point: the whole concept of trigger warnings. The original idea was that victims of trauma shouldn’t be confronted with statements or imagery that might provoke or aggravate emotional shock.

Civil Rights

Crocodile Tears

There’s a sad-sack story being circulated by gun-control advocates about Lonnie and Sandy Phillips. In essence, the claim is that they’re being bankrupted by an evil gun retailer who knowingly armed the Aurora movie theater shooter.

The truth is something altogether different.

The lawsuit itself [pdf] was an attempt to hold online dealers culpable because they sold ammunition without a background check. There is no law in Colorado, or on the federal level, mandating such a practice.

Notice the “should have known” clauses:

Defendants in this case knew, should have known, or knew that it was substantially certain, that in his state of mental instability Holmes would present a danger to society if he were allowed to possess dangerous materiel. Nonetheless, Defendants negligently supplied and entrusted him with the materiel he used to launch his assault.

As an experienced ammunition seller, The Sportsman’s Guide should have known or knew that it was substantially certain that ammunition should not be supplied to persons who may pose a foreseeable risk of harm, including persons with dangerous mental illnesses such as Holmes.

Continued...

Civil Rights

Enough!

I get it: Donald Trump is rich. He managed daddy’s real-estate business with some degree of competence, and it made a great deal of money. Good for him. That doesn’t qualify him to be the President of the United States.

He has yet to articulate a single coherent policy position. He says he’ll “build a wall” and “make Mexico pay for it.” OK. How is he going to get that done? He won’t say. He claims he’s going to “make America great again.” What steps does that entail? No clue.

He claims to have learned about foreign policy by watching generals on television. Let that one sink in for a moment.

If he thinks Megyn Kelly’s question to him in that silly Fox debate was tough and unfair, wait until he has to deal with someone like Putin, Rouhani, or Lukashenko. He has yet to face a real bully.

He spends all of his time chanting calculated and vague slogans, and he treats every speaking engagement like he’s doing a standup comedy routine.

Civil Rights

Here Comes Biden

It’s been reasonable to suspect he’ll run for the Presidency, and that now appears to be confirmed. He’s run twice before. This time, he’s been Vice President for 8 years.

If he does, Clinton is done. Biden doesn’t have any major scandals or suspicion to overcome. He’s been in politics for nearly four decades, and everybody knows him. He’s got the lock on New England and he’ll sweep the labor unions. He’s safe, charismatic, and connected. He doesn’t even really have to campaign for it.

Clinton will fall by the wayside. Bernie Sanders isn’t going to happen. The party is going to nominate Biden in the primaries.

We can make all the jokes we want about Biden’s gaffes. The fact is, this guy gets stuff done on gun control. He wrote the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which we know as the “assault weapons ban.” Though the Act had a whole slew of provisions, Biden made it clear that it was about “guns, guns, guns.”