American Defense Enterprises

SCOTus Blog has the write up here.  20 months, to the day, after the Supreme Court decided in Heller v DC that the Second Amendment is an individual right rather than a collective right, arguments will be heard in McDonald v Chicago.

At issue:  does the Fourteenth Amendment provision of “incorporation” apply to states like it does for the  1st, 4th and other amendments.

Here is a copypasta from my post back in October:

Here is the short summary:  The Heller v DC ruling answered the question “is the right to bear arms” an individual or a collective freedom — it is an individual freedom.  So, as far as the Federal Government is concerned, it cannot pass laws that restrict an individual’s right.  But here is the catch:  The Constitution and the Bill of Rights were written and applied to the Federal Government, not the states.   So, in the past, a state could have passed a law that restricted freedom of the press, but, the Federal government could not. — Washington DC is governed by the Federal Government so Heller v DC is the law of DC.

I said that “in the past” a state could pass such laws.  That changed with the 14th Amendment.  As part of the interpretation of  “XIV” is the idea of “incorporation” of certain laws against the states.  Over time, a very clear mandate has come down, for example, that the 1st and 4th Amendment very much apply to state laws, so, these days a state cannot pass a law that violates either of these amendments.

Chicago has a law that says you cannot own a handgun.  The question in McDonald v Chicago is whether the 14th Amendment provides for the incorporation of the 2nd Amendment against the states much like it does the 1st and the 4th.  The answer seems fairly obvious — why would only some amendments be affected and not others? But, it turns out that legally it is a phenomenally complicated matter involving different specific rights provided for by the 14th Amendment and how those rights get applied to state laws — is it a due process issue?  is it a  “privileges and immunities” issue?  What are the history of those issues, etc. etc. etc.   Ug!

Either way… It will probably be an interesting hour..

(from fox news)

Story from EFF here.  Congratulations, under your changemore of the same president, we have been guaranteed the continuation of spying on Americans and the ability of the government to completely abrogate your civil rights just by suggesting you may be a terrorist.

**No, I do not believe that either Bush nor Obama is as bad as Hitler.  Not even close.  I am just pointing out that we were promised change and one thing that seemed to offend Americans was the erosion of civil liberties that occurred under Bush’s watch — enough that posters such as this were made… I am just pointing out, civil liberties haven’t gotten better yet.

The chance to live free and to make our own success are things we are losing (quite possibly have lost).  It seems a strong president with a will to change these things is what we need to reverse these paths — If we have that, it hasn’t been demonstrated yet .  Sadly, the legislature is too obsequious to special interests to ever make a change for the common good just because it is for the common good…

The first f-ing week in March is on its way to officially becoming “Cuss Free Week“.  Yesterday morning the State Assembly, who should be working on the gigantic budget deficit, passed the bill which is now on its way to the State Senate.  Sit tight and don’t get your panties in a wad quite yet.  There is no enforcement element to the bill so you can still keep swearing like a sailor for the time being.  Hopefully someone in this state challenges this bill on the grounds that it interferes with free speech.  A$$h013$!

I can just imagine the marketing campaign for bullet proof breast implants.

Bulletproof Boobs … Now with Kevlar! … well, not quite.

You might remember the shooting at a Simi Valley dental office on July 1 of lost year.  A man upset about an impending divorce shot and killed his soon to be ex-wife and wounded three others including Lydia Carranza.  It seems that Carranza’s artificially well endowed chest may have saved her life.  The bullet apparently hit her size D saline implant and fragmented allowing only pieces of the bullet to enter her body and saved her life.

An LAPD firearms instructor told the Times it’s possible the implant interrupted the velocity of the bullet.

“I don’t want to say a boob job is the equivalent of a bulletproof vest,” Scott Reitz told the Times. “So don’t go getting breast enhancements as a means to deflect a possible incoming bullet.”

An NRA certified instructor who was giving a CCW class to three students in Orlando, Florida accidentally shot a student in the foot.  The bullet first went though a table before hitting the student in the foot.  Thankfully the student in doing well, but the NRA, who prohibits ammunition during these classes, said they had no problem revoking the certification of an instructor who is breaking the rules.  Unfortunately the accident also prompted the church that was serving as a venue for the class will not be hosting any more similar events.

Remember basic firearms safety rules people and accidents like this will not happen.

1. All guns are always loaded.
2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target.
4. Be sure of your target and what is beyond it.

Thanks Col. Cooper!

We talked about this guy earlier…  Rod Tuason threatened to kill people that expressed their 2nd Amendment rights by open carrying in a comment he made on Facebook.

Remarkably(ha!), there has been a very strong backlash in the Facebook community…. Fox has a nice story on that here.

Below is a screen capture of his comments from Kevin Thomason’s blog.

An interesting case, or lack thereof, occurred yesterday when the L.A. district attorneys office decided that there was not enough evidence to prosecute a SWAT officer.  The officer in question, Walter S. Jordan, was fired nearly three years ago for weapons violations and workers compensations fraud.  A search warrant was executed at his residence after his firing and …

“two suspect weapons were found, the senior law enforcement sources said, but explained state laws governing police officers’ possession of the particular types of guns were murky.

L.A. County prosecutors decided to drop the matter after researching the outcomes of similar cases involving police.”

The Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs is apparently not please with this outcome.

The laws for LEO possession of firearms are different from everyone else, but when everyone else fails to comply with the laws they get prosecuted.  It is shameful enough that the law sets different standards for different classes of citizens, but to also have different standards of enforcement?

Eric Leonard of KFI is currently following the story on his blog.

You may recall a recent shooting in a Richmond, CA church.  Three men entered the church and paced up and down the aisles with hooded sweatshirts on looking for two church going young men.  Upon finding the two men they fired several shots that wounded the two men and left several bullet holes in the church interior.

In response to the shooting City Councilman Nat Bates stated “he will try to restore a long-abandoned local ordinance allowing police to randomly search vehicles for weapons and contraband. Had it still been in place, he said, the men might have thought twice about carrying a gun.”

It is amazing that people would respond to having their safety violated by further violating their rights protected under the 4th Amendment.

Arizona’s Senate voted to approve legislation that allows for every adult to carry a concealed weapon.  Sen. Russell Pearce drafted bill SB 1102 because he believes that laws that prevent law-abiding citizens from carrying concealed weapons are ignored by criminals.  He has a point.  It seems kind of silly for someone who is going to rob and kill to say “hey, carrying a concealed weapon is against the law.”

We’ll keep you updated on how this progresses.

Per CNN (thanks Slashdot), DHS has lost something like 243 guns.  75% of them because the officers did not secure the weapon — you know, front seat of an unlocked car, etc.

“Im sure it will be fine — Ill only be in 7-11 for a moment….”