Don’t overlook the fact that those that are stealing stuff and making the excuse that it’s justified because of some perceived repression won’t hesitate to make the leap that it is alright to take your life for the very same reasons.
William Taylor @BillT
Tooted on August 17, 2020
[See also yesterday’s QOTD.—Joe]
Via daughter Kim:
Yup. Thomas Sowell is extremely toxic to socialists.
Dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen.
[Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings.]
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine
Almansor: A Tragedy (1823)
As translated in True Religion (2003) by Graham Ward, p. 142
[Note that he wrote this nearly 100 years before USSR was created and 110 years before Nazi Germany began burning books and shortly thereafter people.
There is a sound reason why the progression from burning books to burning people occurs. The reason for the book burning is to stop the spread of “dangerous” ideas. When the book burning fail the desired goal then the spread of those ideas “must” be stopped by the “burning” of the people who spread the ideas.
Black Lives Matter and Antifa have taken the first step. Respond appropriately.—Joe]
A “substantial burden” on the Second Amendment is viewed not through a policy prism but through the lens of a fundamental and enumerated constitutional right. We would be looking through the wrong end of a sight-glass if we asked whether the government permits the people to retain some of the core fundamental and enumerated right. Instead, Heller counsels us to look at whether the government regulation restricts the core fundamental right from the outset. In other words, we look to what a restriction takes away rather than what it leaves behind. Here, California’s law takes away a substantial swath of the core constitutional right of self-defense because it bans possession of half of all magazines in America today, even though they are common in guns used for self-defense. In short, a law that takes away a substantial portion of arms commonly used by citizens for self-defense imposes a substantial burden on the Second Amendment.
…
The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One’s right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press . . . and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections.
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
VIRGINIA DUNCAN; RICHARD LEWIS; PATRICK LOVETTE; DAVID MARGUGLIO; CHRISTOPHER WADDELL; CALIFORNIA RIFLE & PISTOL ASSOCIATION, INC., a California corporation, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. XAVIER BECERRA, in his official capacity as Attorney General of the State of California, Defendant-Appellant
August 14, 2020
[Excellent! I had not thought of this argument before.
This addresses the claim made by some (I exaggerated a bit to make the point) that as long as we have single shot 22 rifles available the Second Amendment is not infringed.—Joe]
I didn’t have the stomach to look at Biden’s website for his list of proposed infringements so I’m pleased that Ammo.com did the stomach churning work.
Commonality is determined largely by statistics. But a pure statistical inquiry may hide as much as it reveals. In the Second Amendment context, protected arms may not be numerically common by virtue of an unchallenged, unconstitutional regulation. Our colleagues in the Third and Seventh Circuits agree. See ANJRPC, 910 F.3d at 116 n.15 (common use alone “is not dispositive” because of an unconstitutional regulation restricting the quantity of protected arms in circulation); Friedman v. City of Highland Park, 784 F.3d 406, 409 (7th Cir. 2015) (“[I]t would be absurd to say that the reason why a particular weapon can be banned is that there is a statute banning it, so that it isn’t commonly owned. A law’s existence can’t be the source of its own constitutional validity.”). Thus, “[w]hile common use is an objective and largely statistical inquiry, typical possession requires us to look into both broad patterns of use and the subjective motives of gun owners.” New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Cuomo, 804 F.3d 242, 256 (2d Cir. 2015) (“NYSRPA”) (internal alterations and quotation marks omitted). As discussed earlier, nearly half of all magazines in the United States today hold more than ten rounds of ammunition. And the record shows that such magazines are overwhelmingly owned and used for lawful purposes. This is the antithesis of unusual. That LCMs are commonly used today for lawful purposes ends the inquiry into unusualness.
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
VIRGINIA DUNCAN; RICHARD LEWIS; PATRICK LOVETTE; DAVID MARGUGLIO; CHRISTOPHER WADDELL; CALIFORNIA RIFLE & PISTOL ASSOCIATION, INC., a California corporation, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. XAVIER BECERRA, in his official capacity as Attorney General of the State of California, Defendant-Appellant
August 14, 2020
[Emphasis added.
YES!
If upheld this eliminates the concern about machine guns being unprotected via Heller because they have been (essentially) banned since 1986 and hence can’t be considered “in common use”.—Joe]
The state of California argues that the district court erred by granting summary judgment for the Owners. We disagree with the government’s position, and we affirm. California Penal Code section 32310 severely burdens the core of the constitutional right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms. The statute is a poor means to accomplish the state’s interests and cannot survive strict scrutiny. But even if we applied intermediate scrutiny, the law would still fail.
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
VIRGINIA DUNCAN; RICHARD LEWIS; PATRICK LOVETTE; DAVID MARGUGLIO; CHRISTOPHER WADDELL; CALIFORNIA RIFLE & PISTOL ASSOCIATION, INC., a California corporation, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. XAVIER BECERRA, in his official capacity as Attorney General of the State of California, Defendant-Appellant
August 14, 2020
[Great news out of the ninth circuit. The case is about the constitutionally of bans on normal capacity magazines. This is the second time this case has been decided in our favor. See also these posts about the first time.
This lawsuit was supported by FPC and SAF who I (and my employer) have been donating thousands of dollars to each year. This is a partial return on my investment.
Almost for certain there will be a motion for en banc rehearing. “And as the Hawaii open carry case demonstrates, CTA is perfectly willing to sit on such requests for, quite literally, years.”—Joe]
One can be displeased by the fact that Americans enjoy a unique right to self-preservation, but to deny the Second Amendment and falsely claim the right to keep and bear arms as “so-called” is intellectually dishonest. Law-abiding gun owners have every right to arm themselves. Thankfully, the Founding Fathers added no provisions in the Bill of Rights protecting the timid from never encountering things that make them uncomfortable or that offend delicate sensibilities.
Norwood Paladin
August 11, 2020
Gun rights aren’t ‘so-called’
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
Again, No, We DO NOT need federal troops in Chicago. Period. Full stop. I’m sure the president will have his way with this incident, but I’m calling upon him to do the things we do need. We need common sense gun control.
Lori Lightfoot
Chicago Mayor
August 10, 2020
Lori Lightfoot Says Chicago Needs “Common Sense Gun Control” — NO Federal Troops
[Mass looting, with no guns involved, which the police are unable to stop and the Mayor says the solution is gun control.
The lies are now so nonsensical that they are losing their credibility with people.—Joe]
Vasily Blokhin. Soviet executioner at Katyn. His count of 7,000 shot in 28 days remains the most organized and protracted mass murder by a single individual on record. Somewhere in Portland, his successor rises.
GOFORBROKE231 @goforbroke231
Tweeted on August 7, 2020
[The conclusion is plausible. It’s the communist way.
I wish Portland law enforcement (this includes the prosecutors and judges) would do their jobs.and put the terrorists away for a decade or so. The more they let the problem fester the more blood that will ultimately be shed. The weak government response is so eerily like the government response to the Nazi brown shirts in the 1930s.
As a side note, just think about those numbers. 7,000 people murdered in 28 days. Assuming eight hours per day that’s more than one person every two minutes.
Be prepared to respond appropriately.—Joe]
Fortunately, for the gun rights movement, the strength of the NRA is not only in its leadership but in its members. Its members will not abandon the fight to protect Second Amendment rights.
Alan Gottlieb
August 6, 2020
Is New York’s Attack on the NRA Meant To Punish the Gun Rights Cause for Executive Malfeasance?
[It’s even possible that if the New York AG succeeds what comes back in place of the NRA will be a stronger and more effective fighter for gun owner rights than the NRA.
As hostile as it sometimes is to gun owners I know long time gun rights advocates have told me there were times the ATF was vulnerable enough to be abolished. But the good guys preferred they be kept in a weakened and relatively ineffective state than have the existing laws enforced by a strong and well regarded agency like the FBI (this was nearly 20 years ago).
If the NRA is taken down our side will have recourses that would have gone to the NRA and the memory of a martyr killed by our enemies.
Perhaps the anti-gun people should be careful what they wish for.—Joe]
I’ve never heard of a case where an attorney general’s tried to dissolve a first amendment – and in this case First and Second Amendment protected political organization – that is a bridge too far constitutionally.
If she is selectively prosecuting and selectively investigating the NRA because she disagrees with its politics, that’s wrong,
…
I believe in the Second Amendment, but I also believe in reasonable gun control. But I would defend the NRA’s right advocate its position without being subject to selective investigation and prosecution if it turns out that the attorney general is looking into this organization because she disagrees with its politics.
Alan Dershowitz
August 5, 2020
Alan Dershowitz to Newsmax TV: NRA Move Political Prosecution
[I’ve known about the NRA’s wasteful use of money since 1997 and have put the vast majority of my 2nd Amendment dollars elsewhere. But I’m with Dershowitz. I strongly suspect New York Attorney General Letitia James is attacking the NRA for political reasons.She openly says this:
Strong gun laws in NY haven’t been enough to stop the gun violence that rips communities of color apart every day. Today, I’m announcing my plans as Attorney General to stop gun violence & take on the NRA, gun manufacturers, retailers & banks that fund these weapons of death
I would like to see NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre out but that can be done without destroying the NRA.—Joe]
If you inch towards suggesting that people who do something other than monogamy might not be miserable or that they might have some advantages, they were just so hostile to that. I found that really fascinating.
Terri Conley
August 4, 2020
How One Psychologist Upended Everything We Know About Women, Sex, & Monogamy
[As well as being fascinating I think making people uncomfortable with clear factual data is great fun! I love doing it with the stupidity of gun laws as well as human psychology.—Joe]
I believe that more Black people would be alive if they were armed. So when I hear ‘unarmed Black man,’ I’m sad because there should be no such thing.
Maj Toure
Founder Black Guns Matter
July 28, 2020
Black gun ownership rises after pandemic and protests
[From the same article:
Phillip Smith, the president of the National African American Gun Association, told Politico he’s getting 2,000 membership requests per day – what used to be the annual numbers. There are now 90,000 members on the organization’s Facebook page.
This could change the voting demographics. Do these seem like people who are going to vote for someone who says things like:
The idea that we don’t have elimination of assault type weapons, magazines that can hold multiple bullets bullets in them, is absolutely mindless. It is no violation of the Second Amendment. It’s just a bow to the special interests, the gun manufacturers, the NRA.
It’s gotta stop.
It’s Biden that just has to be stopped. The dramatic increase in first time gun purchasers, and, in particular, the increased ownership by black Americans will decrease the likelihood that he will win the election.
We live in historic times.—Joe]
While I got a chuckle out of this it’s quite misleading. There is a big difference between the gun owner protests which leave the streets cleaner than when they arrived with the most “violent” exchanges are spirited legal briefs compared to the riots, looting, and destruction of the Marxists of the last few weeks.
They can’t honestly believe we would be on their side. You almost have to start looking at elderly nun demographics to find a group of people more law abiding than people who have concealed carry licenses.
The only thing that I know of which we have in common is the skill set and tools to quickly create a lot of damage. It’s just that no one has flipped our switch yet with a valid target. There are a number of scenarios where the rioting Marxist change that. But in all the futures I see the police will give the gun owners a slight nod and turn back to engage the remaining commies.
From Silencer Shop:
One question that has always been a mainstay in our most-questions-asked category is whether a specific silencer will fit a specific gun. With threading looking similar, and acronyms being thrown around like hot tamales, we understand your plight. As the suppressor industry grows, it seems thread pitch options have too.
While some thread pitches are more popular than others due to military use or it being made common by specific firearm manufacturers, the last thing you want to happen is to finally get your suppressor in and realize that it doesn’t match up with your host firearm’s threading.
The list that we are providing you is to serve as a reference for quickly locating how your barrel may be threaded. Remember that factory barrel threadings and after market threadings aren’t always the same.
Details, which are kept up to date, are here.
It’s time for me to renew my Arizona concealed weapons permit (so I can carry in Nevada). While looking for the renewal application I found this:
Chart
last updated: 07/19/2020
| ACTIVE | SUSPENDED | REVOKED | |
|---|---|---|---|
| PERMITS | 360666 | 4834 | 1259 |
| PERMITS | 19-20 | 21-29 | 30-39 | 40-49 | 50-59 | 60-69 | 70-79 | 80+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASIAN | 0 | 147 | 412 | 548 | 498 | 273 | 95 | 8 |
| BLACK | 0 | 186 | 492 | 651 | 562 | 333 | 105 | 9 |
| INDIAN | 0 | 97 | 194 | 225 | 266 | 188 | 90 | 14 |
| UNKNOWN | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| WHITE | 4 | 4270 | 8979 | 11539 | 18469 | 21471 | 12639 | 1698 |
| FEMALE TOTAL | 4 | 4700 | 10077 | 12963 | 19795 | 22265 | 12930 | 1729 |
| PERMITS | 19-20 | 21-29 | 30-39 | 40-49 | 50-59 | 60-69 | 70-79 | 80+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASIAN | 3 | 777 | 1926 | 2595 | 1974 | 1176 | 429 | 79 |
| BLACK | 5 | 903 | 1888 | 2415 | 2399 | 1650 | 754 | 133 |
| INDIAN | 1 | 251 | 520 | 522 | 544 | 506 | 326 | 90 |
| UNKNOWN | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| WHITE | 32 | 15051 | 31188 | 39480 | 52869 | 62273 | 52958 | 13343 |
| MALE TOTAL | 41 | 16982 | 35522 | 45012 | 57786 | 65605 | 54468 | 13645 |
Notice the peak age category for both female and male?
I would not have guessed that would be the case.
Democrats want to eliminate the electoral college, the Senate, the 1st amendment, the 2nd amendment for sure, and the rest of the constitution, our borders, citizenship, carbon based fuels, cars, cows.
And the first step in their scheme is to eliminate Trump.
We better fight like hell or those of us who aren’t shot during the disarmament or who don’t starve when fuel and food are eliminated are going to be slaves.
Rawhide Wraith@olddustyghost
Tooted on September 28, 2019
[There’s far too much truth in this.—Joe]
I had read this earlier in the day but it didn’t occur to me to reinforce it with a link from my own blog until it was suggested via email from John H.
No In-Person GRPC But You Can Still Support The Second Amendment Foundation
