Constitutional Law

Obama Campaign continues to try to cut off NRA ads

Posted on September 26, 2008
Here's the latest: a page where members can mass email TV station management. I went up on it, gave a fictitious name, address and email, and sent the stations an email thanking and encouraging them. One of the webpages (you go thru three to send the mail) has the following: "Time and again, Barack has defended citizens? Constitutional right to bear arms, as well as the rights of sportsmen and hunters...

FFL found innocent of straw man charges

Posted on September 26, 2008
Story here. The story, at least, doesn't suggest there was reason to suspect the dealer, but when ATF caught a felon in possession (and with drugs) they let him walk in exchange for trying to set the dealer up. The jury didn't buy it.

Threats to Missourians who dare to oppose Obama

Posted on September 26, 2008
Video here. Gist is that an "Obama Truth Squad" (using that title) is being organized, specifically composed of prosecutors and sheriffs, to respond immediately to any ads or "statements" that might violate Missouri ethics laws. I can see nothing wrong with a squad that rebuts the other side or lays out its version of the truth...

PA court throws out Philadelphia's challenge

Posted on September 26, 2008
Story here. I figured it was just some politicos' publicity stunt anyway -- a city sues the State over its pre-emption laws. The PA Court of Appeals held that, under those laws, Philiadelphia's one-gun-a-month and its "assault weapon" ordinances were invalid.

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FoxNews on NRA "Fact Check"

Posted on September 26, 2008
Story here. I'm not holding my breath on the rest of the media picking it up. Hat tip to reader Jack Anderson....

Obama spokesman gets grilled on Fox over NRA ads

Posted on September 25, 2008
Breitbart video here. The interviewer eats the Obama spokesman for lunch. Hat tip to reader Jim Kindred...

Chicago antigunners trying to win friends and influence people

Posted on September 25, 2008
If they can't get their way, they'll block access to State buildings until Mommy Gives In. Somebody oughta write the Curia about "Father" Pfleger. I think Benedict would take a dim view of such things, even if the guy's bishop apparently doesn't (unless he touts a presidential candidate, which can put the tax exemption at issue).

NFA: NFRTR challenged

Posted on September 25, 2008
News release here. Background: the National Firearms Act of 1934 requires tax payment, and thus registration, of full autos, short barreled firearms, etc. In any NFA prosecution, the government must prove the gun is unregistered and that the tax wasn't paid on the transfer to the current possessor...

NY case against traveller dismissed

Posted on September 25, 2008
Story here. It doesn't name the person, but I know of several arrests at NYC area airport where someone, for example, missed a connection or had a flight cancelled, had firearms in properly checked baggage, but had to retrieve them and check them in again, and were arrested under the NY gun laws...

CCW permit revoked for legal open carry

Posted on September 25, 2008
Soccer mom in Pennsylvania has a CCW permit, but open carries to soccer games -- as is legal, permit or no. The other moms say this makes them "uncomfortable," and the sheriff revokes her CCW permit. Hat tip to Eric Schultz and Mark Noble (who's a candidate for US Congress in Ohio-15).

Obama campaign tries to get stations to refuse NRA ads

Posted on September 25, 2008
Story here, with links to the campaign's letter and NRA's response. The letter is pretty thin, not much more than (1) the Washington Post denies what NRA argues, so it must be a pack of lies and (2) the ads say Obama "supports" things ... OK, he *supported* them in the past, but it's not on his webpage at this moment...

"Fact checking" sites

Posted on September 25, 2008
An interesting article from NPR. Basically, most people prefer the sites that are clearly partisan to those which purport to be nonpartisan. I suppose there would be two things driving this. (1) We all like to hear our views reinforced. (2) You're probably more likely to approximate the truth by reading avowedly partisan views of both sides...

Senate blocks rollback of DC gun regulations

Posted on September 25, 2008
Story here.

Gun blog gun got here!

Posted on September 24, 2008
It got here today! Click on the thumbnail for a larger image. It is SO sweet! Basically, a custom edition of the Para USA LDA TAC-5. The TAC-5 is a 1911 with a LIGHT double-action trigger (feels to be about 5-7 lb), ramped barrel (reported to feed lead semiwadcutters), full-length guide rod, enamel brown finish (no worries about fingerprints causing rust), loaded chamber indicator, and a greatly beefed up extractor (the extractor being the 1911's only weak point)...

NRA ads churning up a battle

Posted on September 24, 2008
NRA is running anti-Obama TV ads, and FactCheck.org claims that they're false. Gist of the article seems to be: NRA says Obama is antigun, Obama's campaign denies it, therefore NRA must be lying. Duh.... It's being picked up by pro-Obama blogs under titles such as "Fact checkers find that National Rifle Association is spreading flat-out lies"...

A great obituary

Posted on September 24, 2008
Right here. Hat tip to Bernie Oliver. UPDATE: via reader J. Norman Heath comes this obit. One gathers that the survivors had their differences with the deceased.

Blackhawk holsters

Posted on September 24, 2008
Here's the Gun Blogger .45 housed in a Blackhawk Serpa holster; click on the thumbnail for a bigger image. Their holsters were quite interesting. Made of carbon fiber, if I remember. One model has a detent holding the gun; this one had both detent and a finger lever, engaged by the trigger finger, and which holds the front of the trigger guard...

Science deals with deer hunting camo

Posted on September 24, 2008
Article at the NY Times Blog. Which probably explains most of the comments.

Field & Stream interviews the candidates

Posted on September 23, 2008
Right here. Obama: Chuckle. His explanation of his "clinging to guns and faith" remark: "What they do expect is at the very least they can preserve those traditions that have been so important to them, like hunting, like their faith. That ends up being the focus of their attention [rather than economic issues]...

Thoughts on the media

Posted on September 23, 2008
I've been doing some 14th Amendment research, reading newspapers of 1866-68. One thing is striking: they actually reported news then. The change has been so gradual that we can't see it (I've seen the alternative my entire life). But back then the New York Times would report, say: A concise summary of what happened to the 14th Amendment that day in Congress...

New Korwin/Kopel book bout

Posted on September 23, 2008
"The Heller Case: Gun Rights Affirmed.". I've got a chapter in it. It's selling at a pre-release discount for at least a few more days (I think it's printed and en route to him).

Obama's not much of a speaker

Posted on September 23, 2008
Gad, here's some YouTube video of him when his teleprompter broke down. I've heard comment that he's good reading a teleprompter and helpless otherwise, but this is pitiful. He must not have done courtroom work, is all I can say.

Gun Rights Policy Conference this weekend

Posted on September 22, 2008
Here are the details. It's being held in Phoenix, and speakers include Bob Barr, Alan Gura, David Kopel, Alan Korwin, David E. Young, and your humble servant. David Young will be bringing his latest book, and I'll be bringing my documentary, for a bit of marketing...

New Orleans residents buying guns

Posted on September 22, 2008
Just as in Florida, hurricanes boost gun sales, as people realize they may just be on their own for a time. Hat tip to reader Rich, who notes the reporter does need to learn a little about the subject. "First-time gun owners, Robertson said, should bypass automatic weapons and purchase a single shot revolver instead...

Legal thoughts on the Palm Pistol

Posted on September 22, 2008
The inventor of the Palm Pistol has added, not only the ATF approval letter, but Steve Halbrook's letter to ATF, which goes into much more legal detail. (It's all one pdf file, Steve's letter follows that of the ATF). The key argument appears to be that a "pistol" has a "grip" (whereas 19th century palm pistols did not) that is at an angle to the bore (which cane guns, etc...

Not AGAIN!

Posted on September 21, 2008
Understand, this is a Virginia (African-American) who has a CCW permit but likes to open carry. In the past he's picked up his girlfriend, who works at a bank, and the Norfolk police have given him lots of trouble, as in publicly frisking him, handcuffing him, putting him in a squadcar, etc...

CCW licenses up in Florida

Posted on September 21, 2008
Now one in 35 residents has one. An official notes applications surge in the aftermath of hurricanes. And its crime rate and violent crime rate is falling. What? How can that be?

Monks with guns?

Posted on September 19, 2008
In Burma, the Buddhist monks are the value of arms against a despotic government. When they get down to Old Nuns with guns ... that's a prospect that would have had Stalin begging for mercy.... Reader Trap Tee emails with word that it's already happened, in Kosovo: Kosovo's nuns take up arms Independent, The (London), Aug 23, 1998 by Paul Wood SISTER Anastasija, calm and serene during most of our conversation, became animated on the subject of the weaponry held at the Orthodox convent of Devic in central Kosovo...

AHSA tries to defend itself

Posted on September 19, 2008
A puff piece in the

Fed. district court rules for FFL

Posted on September 18, 2008
Story here. The court turned down the usual rationale for license revocation, that a continuing series of errors proves the required "willfulness." I always thought that shaky. To log a firearm out to a customer requires 43 entries, if we count the 4473 and the bound book...

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