A critical step in interpreting the Fourteenth Amendment’s protection of the privileges and immunities of national citizens and of life, liberty, and property is to understand the evils its Framers sought to remedy. Among the many evils those Framers sought to cure, the systematic violation of the freedmen’s constitutional right to keep and bear arms was prominent.

The evidence of such concern is extensive. While Congress was drafting and considering the proposed Fourteenth Amendment and two pieces of interim legislation -- the Freedmen’s Bureau Bill and the Civil Rights Bill -- it received considerable testimony and evidence regarding the disarming of freedmen by state and local governments and militias.

Steven M. Simpson
February 11, 2008
D.C. versus Heller
Brief for the Institute for Justice as Amicus Curiae in support of respondent.
[There is some really good stuff in this brief explaining the 14^th Amendment was initiated because the right to keep and bear arms was being infringed upon by the states. This is setting the stage for applying the 2^nd Amendment to the states and cities.--Joe]

The Second Amendment’s historical self-defense purpose should be used to define the scope of its protections. In our view, the Second Amendment protects the right to own firearms of a kind that are commonly used for self-defense by law-abiding individuals. We do not doubt that the government can outlaw private ownership of unusually destructive or exotic weapons. But private ownership of all handguns cannot be prohibited because handguns are the kind of weapon best suited for and most commonly owned for the purpose of self-defense.

Richard K. Willard
D.C. versus Heller
Brief Amicus Curiae Of The Heartland Institute in support of respondent.

Son James sent me this link--British government vows tougher knife laws. My response was, "Its not Great Britain. Its not mediocre Britain. Its pathetic Britain."

A small sample of the pathetically stupid:

Until now, warnings were given to most of those under the age of 18 found with knives. With the change, anyone 16 or over who carries a knife with a blade longer than 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) will be prosecuted. Those convicted face a penalty of up to four years in prison.

"Young people need to understand that carrying knives doesn't protect you, it does the opposite — it increases the danger for all of us, destroys young lives and ruins families," Brown said.

And a sample of the police state being implemented:

London's new mayor, Boris Johnson, has also vowed to crack down on knife crime. His proposals include airport-style metal-detecting arches at train and subway stations. London police recently began an aggressive new program to search anyone they wish for knives without having to justify their suspicions beforehand.

Nor may the government justify a ban on a particular firearm simply by claiming to allow the possession of others. While it is a dubious proposition that Petitioners allow individuals any firearms for private home use, the government’s compliance with the Constitution by allowing rifles would not permit the government to violate the Constitution by banning handguns--any more than the government could prohibit books because it permits newspapers and considers them an "adequate substitute."

Alan Gura
Robert A. Levy
Clark M. Neily III
February 24, 2008
RESPONDENT’S BRIEF
On Writ Of Certiorari To The United States Court Of Appeals For The District Of Columbia Circuit

It appears the Brady Bunch stopped by for a visit. They just saw the one post. It was such a mildly worded post though. There are other posts I wish the Brady Campaign people had read instead.

Even if they don't recognize it at first having their bigotry repeatedly pointed out will have an effect on their morale and dedication to their evil cause.

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I was invited to speak at the Boeing Rifle and Pistol Club tonight. This will be something like the fifth time. Tonight I will be talking about the NRA Convention and the Second Amendment Blogger Bash.

My notes for the presentation:

• Huge, fancy, gun show
• Nearly 70K people
• Media credentials for bloggers
• Second Amendment blogger bash
  • Bitch girls
  • Snowflakes in Hell
  • Say Uncle
  • Michael Bane
  • Smallest Minority
  • Books, Bikes, Boomsticks (broomsticks)
  • Squeaky Wheel Seeks Grease
  • Call me Ahab
  • Sharp as a Marble
  • Third Power (Days of our Trailer)
  • Traction Control 
  • The Ten Ring (Denise and Bill)
  • 40 in all

• Sessions
  • Legal
  • Activists
    • Its not the critic that counts
    • In their own words
    • They don't fear me they fear you--Chris Cox
    • You have the final say--Wayne LaPierre

• Blogger activities
  • Happy hour with Bane
  • Todd Jarrett
  • Publisher of Soldier of Fortune
  • Eyeblast.TV
  • Talk until dawn

• Celebrities
  • McCain
  • Mitt Romney
  • David Hardy
  • Ollie North
  • Ted Nugent
  • Cam Edwards
  • Glenn Beck
    • It comes down to Larry, Moe, Curly?
    • The Democrats sold their soul to Karl Marx.
    • We like lawyers, crooks and crack dealers better than Washington.
    • Before I pay over 10 for a gallon of gas I will drill through a polar bears head.  ----- I would feel bad but I would do it.

Madison’s very organization shows the right to arms was seen as an individual right and not as militia-related. Madison’s draft did not take the format with which we are today familiar, that of a numbered list of amendments following the Constitution. Rather, his draft designated where, within the Constitution, each provision was to be inserted.

For example, his provisions relating to the House of Representatives were to be inserted in Article I, Section 2. An unsuccessful proposal to forbid States to infringe the rights of conscience was to be inserted in Article I, Section 10, alongside its other "Restrictions Upon Powers of States." Provisions relating to jury trial, grand juries, and appeals were to be placed in Article III.

Thus, if Madison had seen the future Second Amendment as militia-related, he would have designated its place next to the Militia Clauses in Article I, Section 8.

Instead Madison grouped it with freedom of speech, press, assembly and other individual rights, and designated their place in Article I, Section 9, right after "No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed." Madison’s arrangement is compelling evidence that he did not view the right to arms as a guarantee relating to States and militias; its militia reference was explanation, not an operative part of its guarantee.

David T. Hardy
Brief of amicus curiae, Academics for the Second Amendment
[Sometime this month the Supreme Court will settle "the question". We know the correct answer. We've known it all along. We just had trouble convincing those bigots who didn't want to confront reality. Nearly everyone expects the court to deliver us an easily wielded "clue by four" on at least this one point. I just hope we have the wisdom to use it correctly and not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.--Joe]

I wrote this as a comment on thehighroad.org but figured it should have its own post.  Someone started a thread about NDs at gun shows (smells like an anti to me, akin to the standard MSM interview wherein the conservative guest is asked, "What's the dumbest thing you've ever done?")  Here's my response:

I used to exhibit at gun shows. I always felt as safe at a gun show as anywhere else.  Much safer than some places I've been.  NDs at shows were always something you heard about, but never witnessed, kind of like Sasquatch and space aliens.

If you ever find yourself afraid for your life, running into a gun show would be a good choice if available.

If you're worried about safety, don't drive to a gun show though-- you're vastly more likely to be injured or killed during the drive to and from the gun show than while you're there.  I suspect this would be true even if 3/4 of the people at the gun show were drunk and all the people on the roads that day were sober.

On that note; I go to my kid's school football games (you know where this is going, right?) and at each and every game there is an ambulance, complete with paramedic crew, on location all during the game.

Ever seen an ambulance and crew on standby at a gun show? How about at a shooting match, where people are, you know, actually loading and firing guns?

Me neither.

Do NDs happen? Yes. Very, very rarely. Usually, they result in no injuries or serious property damage. Do people get killed falling down in their own homes?  Yes, and it is a more common occurrence.

Carry on.

The view that the right of armed self defense was a first law of nature both preceded enactment of the Constitution, and continued to prevail in the decades following its enactment. Shortly before the Revolutionary war commenced, Blackstone confirmed that every Englishman had the right of "arms for their defence," which stemmed from "the natural right of resistance and self-preservation, when the sanctions of society and laws are found insufficient to restrain the violence of oppression."

Michael B. Minton
Brief of Pink Pistols and gays and lesbians for individual liberty as amici curiae in support of respondent.

I posted the other day about knife rights and mentioned that knives with blades longer than three inches were illegal in Atlanta.

Thanks to an email from Azreel I received these links: Yesterday Joshua was arrested in Atlanta for having a knife with a blade too long. The concealed pistol (with a permit) wasn't a problem. He could be trusted with that, but a knife? Nope. It's off to spend some quality time with the police for five or six hours. It turned out okay. After spending hundreds of dollars on an attorney the charges were dismissed today.

In addition to the postcard from Dave Barry I also received some other stuff today that thrilled me almost as much.

I received a couple of patches from Thirdpower. I'm going to put one on my Boomershoot coat and the other one on my cork board at work.

I received the explosives handler form Squeaky filled out a few days ago. It sure looks like we are going to have another gun nut playing with explosives next April. Cool!

Background material is here.

I returned to the Seattle area tonight and found the following postcard in my mail:

Dear Joe --

Many thanks for the toilet pieces. (I never thought I would write those words.)

Best,
Dave Barry

I wonder if I could auction off the remaining pieces on eBay...

I would have given a piece or two to Sue today if I had thought about. We were right there...

Sue showed up at my house right on time and we drove to Kendrick and had an early lunch. I think we spent more time in the restaurant that we did actually on site. But we did do some work at the restaurant where we had a nice table to look at paperwork.

We parked at the road and walked in rather than drive the government car across the hay field. I opened the place up, showed her around. She took some pictures, I explained some nuances in my record keeping to her. She said it all looked fine and we drove back to Moscow. She said she was happy to finally be able to visit the Taj Mahal it was nice to see how much I had improved things since the last time she visited (about six years ago I think).

We spent more time talking about kids, spouses, grade school teachers, people at work, her ex-husband, my old job at PNNL, and books than we did about ATF and Boomershoot stuff. She said she wants to attend Boomershoot sometime. She asked if we blew up anything interesting recently, like pumpkins maybe? She already knew about the pumpkins. It's actually in my file. They think it's fine and kind of a fun thing to talk about. I told her about blowing up the toilet this year and we did a laptop computer once. She asked how far the pieces of the toilet went. I told her we found pieces a 100 yards away but that we were a minimum of 375 yards away.

She told me that my file had a few notes in it about "concerned calls" from the ATF in the Seattle office. Apparently someone will hear about Boomershoot and the Seattle people will contact the Spokane ATF office to "check up on things". The Spokane people will have to tell them that I'm one of the good guys with a license and everything is in order and they aren't worried about me. That hasn't happened for a while and she thinks maybe they have the Seattle people educated now.

She told stories of explosive magazines built high into the side of mountains where when the snow melts in the spring things get very wet (not acceptable as per ATF regulations). And having to open up box after box of blasting caps to verify the contents because they had so many partial boxes. Another story that was interesting was about confiscating cigarettes that had not had the tax paid on them--a barn stacked FULL of them. It took two semi-trucks to haul them all away and the ATF people had to inventory and put evidence tags on everything. A real pain. My take on that is that someone was being so stupid they deserved to get caught. If you are going to get involved in the black market for a product you want to keep the minimum quantity of product on hand at any one time. There were all kinds of clues in the story that made it clear these people were just stupid. They made a LOT of money but were too stupid to hold on to it.

The only thing that was a downer was that she confirmed what I already suspected about the renewal. They don't have a special form for renewal like the Orange Book section 555.46 says. I have to fill out the original application complete with fingerprints and picture just like an original application. The only thing that is different is that I pay the $100 renewal fee instead of the $200 original application fee. She started to sort of apologize for it saying she it didn't make a lot of sense but I cut her off and said something like, "It doesn't have to make sense. It just the way it is and I have to do it. I understand and I'll comply. I'm just a little annoyed because I'm pretty sure my fingerprints haven't changed recently."

All in all it was a very pleasant drive and an enjoyable time talking. Assuming I don't goof off too long and get the renewal form back in time there will be Boomershoot 2009.

While the AAP Brief purports to defend the interests of children, in fact the gun is the best protector for the weak and vulnerable in society, as it removes any advantage held by a stronger aggressor. Victims who resist crime with a gun are only half as likely to be injured as those who put up no defense, and one fourth as likely to be injured as those resisting by other means. For centuries, the gun has been a family’s best defense against criminal attack, and the Second Amendment enshrines that essential safeguard in the Constitution. It is worth observing that "about half of all American homes contain a gun" and thus "burglars tend to avoid all occupied American homes."

Andrew L. Schlafly
February 7, 2008
Brief for amicus curiae association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Inc. in support of Respondent.
http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/documents/07-290bsacAAPS.pdf

I"ve been saying they think of us as "gun n***ers". More evidence via Ry at the Seattle Times from Times deputy business editor Rami Grunbaum:

Pawn X-Change, which expects revenues of $38 million this year, seeks to separate itself from the stereotype of the dingy and disreputable pawnshop. Power tools, guitars, TV and electronics — but no firearms — are carefully arrayed around a well-lit store staffed by cordial employees wearing company shirts.

What if the article, making the point about avoiding the dingy and disreputable sterotypes, said none of the pawnshop employees were Jews? Think about that Mr. Grunbaum.

Treat them as the bigots they are.

The Brady Campaign supports the total ban on handguns and required disassembly or trigger locks on long guns in D.C. They insist they just want reasonable restrictions on firearms. They are a moderate group.

I suppose you could make that case. Especially since others want to ban the manufacture of toy guns:

She plans to go to Sacramento and lobby the Legislature for new gun control laws, including a ban on the manufacture of toy guns.

There is no such thing as a slippery slope. Move along, nothing to see here...

Tomorrow ATF inspector Sue will show up at my house and we will go for a little ride into the country. My ATF type 20 license to manufacture high explosives is up for renewal and they need to inspect my storage facility before they renew it.

As I was going through my closet this morning I wondered what I should wear tomorrow. I considered my Boomershoot t-shirt with this image:

But that's a little tame. I wanted something a little more edgy for the occasion.

For about a half second I considered this one from JPFO (they no longer sell it so I'm saving mine for special occasions):

Elian's story can be found here and occurred during those dark days while Janet Reno (The Butcher of Waco) was still in power.

I decided that shirt was a little too over the top even for me when meeting with someone from the ATF--in particular a meeting with Sue. Sue is very nice, I had lunch with her a few years ago and then we had a nice talk as we drove out to the Boomershoot site. She was helpful with getting my explosives storage facility into compliance with the government regulations. A couple years later I saw something posted on a website that could have been a threat toward her. I sent an email to her with the link and although Sue never responded alternate sources indicated I was the first one to tell her about it and everyone took it serious enough to put extra effort into her safety.

I decided it would be very rude and completely uncalled for me to wear the above shirt.

So... what shirt to wear tomorrow. I finally decided on Celebrate Diversity:

I'll let you know how it goes after I drive back to my bunker in the Seattle area tomorrow night.

Sebastian's and Kevin's posts reminded me of an alternate history. A sample:

How would today's America be different if politician's feared citizens,rather than citizen's fearing their government?

Imagine, if you will, the Land of the Free, Home of the Brave. Where individual rights meant something, and every citizen believed they had the right, nay, the duty, to stand up to any and all aggressors, foreign and domestic. You know, just like the Constitution says.

...

Government only does a few things. Doesn't take much. Most folks just pay the bill once a year. Never amounts to more than a few hundred dollars. Just as it should be. Hell, most folks get resentful at that much. Makes sense, I guess, given we founded the damn country over a tax on tea.

Since then, government on this side of the pond hasn't seen much sense in pissing off the people. Sure, some try now and then. There's always some petty jerk who thinks he can tell someone else what to do. But they never last. Sure, folks put up with them for a while, just like you do with a rash or a runny nose.

But after a little while folks get tired of the whining and crying the petty jerks make when people won't do what he figures they ought to. The petty ones get a little too uppity, and someone smacks him down. Sometimes, it takes only a little slap across the face to bring the petty jerks to their senses.

Sometimes, someone like old Carl grabs the rifle off the wall, slaps a full mag in, and says, "Time to teach these bastards a lesson."

Damn, if that doesn't work every time.

I like alternate histories. It's fun stuff. I especially like some of the stories from Harry Turtledove. But that's all fantasy stuff for recreation. When you get serious then I like what Henry Ford had to say:

I don't know much about history, and I wouldn't give a nickel for all the history in the world.  History is more or less bunk.  It is tradition.  We want to live in the present, and the only history that is worth a tinkers damn is the history we make today.

        Henry Ford

You can connect the dots for yourself.

Citing Miller for a proposition for which Miller does not stand, Petitioners make Miller falsely appear to establish a rule that it in fact does not, rendering the Second Amendment peculiar by defining "the people" to mean governmental entities. It is therefore critical that Second Amendment precedent be analyzed in a reasoned and rightful manner, and applied accordingly without any preconceptions.

Renee L. Giachino
February 11, 2008
Brief of amicus curiae Center for Individual Freedom in support of respondent in D.C. versus Heller.
[Sometime this month the Supreme Court is expected to announce it's decision in this historic case. Until that announcement the QOTD will be from various briefs in the case.--Joe]

The First Amendment is about how we govern ourselves -- not about how we titillate ourselves sexually.

Robert Bork
An interview on ABC's This Week, June 25, 1989
[I was reminded of this by Sebastian's post Talk About a Dodged Bullet.--Joe]

The other day Jed said, "I’d like to raid Joe’s quotations database."

I just got around to extracting the politics related stuff. There is lots of personal stuff in the master collection that some people would rather I didn't make public. The politics related things are here. It includes things that aren't really quotes such as political jokes. And because I have traded collections with other people some of the stuff does not necessarily represent my political leanings.

It's very simple. The authorities have no way of controlling criminals. So they control the law abiding 'cause we are an easy target.

You Tube
England Gun Ban Update @ 2:14 into the video.
[Via Uncle. There is lots of other good stuff in that video. Show this video to anyone that claims the U.K. gun ban is some sort of ideal the U.S. should strive for.--Joe]

Under Civil Rights groups they support they list Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. I'm almost surprised the don't list the KKK too. I'm certain one could make a better case that the KKK supports civil rights (of whites) more than the Brady Bunch supports civil rights for anyone. The Brady Bunch is like the KKK in a lot of ways.

Gun control? We need bullet control! I think every bullet should cost 5,000 dollars. Because if a bullet cost five thousand dollar, we wouldn't have any innocent bystander.

Chris Rock
[I love sick humor.--Joe]