Security guards reported that a group of men had tried to get into a club but were denied entry, police say. As they were walking back to their pickup truck, the suspect reportedly walked up from Rankin and tried to rob them, police say.
Police say the suspect and one of the men in the group both shot at each other. The suspect and one of the men in the group were struck by the gunfire.
He said the car then accelerated forward, hitting the guard, causing him to land on the hood. The guard says he then fired a shot into the windshield. The driver made a sharp turn, throwing him off.
The vehicle traveled out of the lot and into the middle of Elm Street between 4th and 5th Avenue South. All three occupants got out and ran.
A 15-year-old suspect was located in a nearby alley with a gunshot wound. He was taken to Vanderbilt Pediatrics and is expected to recover.
The rule of law and due process applies to everyone, even people with long criminal histories. Even people who have bad reputations in dangerous, gang infested, drug dealing dystopias. In 2016, Saeve Evans was involved in a gunfight. A 16-year-old girl was killed. Saeve Evans legal defense was self defense.
Saeve Evans has had many interactions with DC police. There was the D.C. kidnapping and murder case. Saeve has prior felony convictions. The video says Saeve has "more bodies than I have toes".
Here is a youtubevideo about one of the recent incidents Saeve Evans was involved in. Saeve must have been released pending the appeal of the 2016 case, because the video incident happened on August 1, 2023.
Saeve Evans is still a citizen of the United States. He is protected by the Constitution.
On November 25, 2016, Saeve Evans was in a gunfight during which a 16-year-old girl was killed. During the gunfight, he was briefly caught on surveillance video with a gun in his hand. The defense argued Saeve Evans had fired the mini-Uzi in self-defense. Evans is a convicted felon who had been shot multiple times before this incident. Evans was about 30-years-old at the time. Saeve Evans surrendered to police on November 29. Evans demanded a jury trial. The jury found Evans not guilty of everything but the illegal possession of a gun.
DC law allows even violent felons to use guns for self defense, as an exception to their more general ban on possessing guns. The video shows Evans had the pistol in his possession for at least three seconds after the gunfight was over. The police were not able to prove Evans had the pistol in his possession before he could legitimately use self defense. The people on the other side of the gunfight were never identified. The judge ruled the three seconds were long enough to convict Evans of illegal gun possession.
Evans was convicted. Evans appealed to the DC Court of appeals. The opinion was rendered on November 16 of 2023. It was a split decision on basic self-defense rights. From courthousenews.com:
DEAHL, Associate Judge: The otherwise illegal possession of a firearm may be justified, so as not to be criminal, if the weapon is held in lawful self-defense. This case presents the question of when precisely that legal justification ends—whether it is the instant a person realizes the threat has subsided or if it instead extends to a period allowing the person to reasonably relinquish the weapon. The trial court instructed the jury, as the government now maintains, that the justification ends the moment the person appreciates that the threat animating the right to self-defense has subsided, so that they must effectively drop the gun in that instant or otherwise lose their justification defense. In appealing his conviction for unlawful possession of a firearm, Saeve Evans counters that the justification defense logically extends to a short period after the person realizes the threat has subsided, so that they have a reasonable opportunity to promptly dispossess themselves of the weapon. We agree with Evans and reverse his conviction for unlawful possession of a firearm.
Even convicted felons with long histories of interactions with the police have the right to defend themselves from those with homicidal intent. The DC jury was unclear how long would be acceptable for Evans to hold onto a firearm he had just used to defend his life. The judge in DC said no time at all. Two of three judges on the DC circuit said some time must be allowed for the defendant to reasonably disarm. In this hard case, two judges on the three judge panel came down in favor of self defense.
©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
Authorities learned that the father and son got into a fight, according to deputies.
Deputies say the son had knocked his father to the ground and began choking him. According to deputies, the son also had a knife in his hand during the time.
The father was able to grab a pistol and fired a shot into his son's stomach, deputies say.
According to deputies, investigators were not able to speak to the son since the incident happened due to his injuries and being under heavy sedation at the hospital.
BORGER, Texas (KVII) — A police chase ended when the victim shot the man who took her hostage.
Around 3:40 p.m. Friday, Borger police responded to a "disturbance" in the 1200 block of Indiana Street.
Before they arrived, the 911 caller said the suspect and victim had left the scene and that the female was possibly being held against her will.
The Rahimi case oral arguments have been heard by the Supreme Court. It was bumped to the head of the line by the Biden administration. At its core, the case is not about domestic violence. It is about whether fundamental rights, enumerated in the Bill of Rights, can be nullified by a judge in a civil hearing with almost no due process. No jury trial, no right to a lawyer, no criminal conviction. From the Fifth Circuit decision on the case:
Perhaps most importantly, the Government’s proffered interpretation lacks any true limiting principle. Under the Government’s reading, Congress could remove “unordinary” or “irresponsible” or “non-law abiding” people—however expediently defined—from the scope of the Second Amendment. Could speeders be stripped of their right to keep and bear arms? Political nonconformists? People who do not recycle or drive an electric vehicle? One easily gets the point: Neither Heller nor Bruen countenances such a malleable scope of the Second Amendment’s protections; to the contrary, the Supreme Court has made clear that “the Second Amendment right is exercised individually and belongs to all Americans,” Heller,554 U.S. at 581.Rahimi, while hardly a model citizen,is nonetheless part of the political community entitled to the Second Amendment’s guarantees, all other things equal.
The dominant media headlines ignore the crux of the case. In headline after headline, they claim the case is whether people who commit domestic violence can be disarmed. Nothing in the case challenges the power of the government to disarm people who are convicted of domestic violence. Rahimi was never convicted of domestic violence. Here are some of the gaslighting headlines:
From the BBC US & Canada:
Should domestic abusers have guns? US Supreme Court will decide in United States v Rahimi
From cbsnews.com:
From USA Today:
Supreme Court poised to support law banning domestic abusers from owning guns
From Time.com:
Supreme Court to Decide Whether Some Domestic Abusers Can Have Guns
From abcnews.go.com:
Supreme Court reviews federal ban on guns for domestic abusers
From the New York Times:
Supreme Court Seems Likely to Uphold Law Disarming Domestic Abusers
From National Public Radio:
Supreme Court to decide if gun bans for domestic abusers are constitutional
The above seven news outlets are some of the most influential major news outlets for the United States and the planet. Their headlines uniformly misstate the Rahimi case in a major way. They all indicate the case is about whether domestic abusers can be disarmed. The case is not about disarming domestic abusers. No one is challenging the federal law which calls for those convicted of domestic abuse to lose the ability to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
This law has nothing to do with those convicted of domestic violence. In the body of most of the articles, the law being challenged is clarified: the question is whether those accused of domestic violence, who are the subject of a court issued restraining order, can have their ability to exercise their Second Amendment rights taken away from them by a single judge without an adversarial hearing, without the right to a lawyer, without the right to a jury trial.
This is not allowed for the rest of the Bill of Rights. The Rahimi case is a good illustration of why this law is redundant and unconstitutional. Rahimi is accused of multiple felonies. He could easily have been arrested, held without bail, and prosecuted for domestic violence, and aggravated assault, public endangerment, and others felonies. He is accused of committing many of the felonies while he was under the domestic violence restraining order. He was not arrested for the felonies which he is accused of. He was arrested for possessing a firearm while under a restraining order.
A great many people get their news from headlines, and never read the articles.
The law in question is a powerful example of how to undermine the Constitution and the rule of law. Undermining the Constitution and the rule of law is what the dominant media are cheering for in this case. If your Second Amendment rights can be taken away with a mere accusation, by a judge who faces no consequences for his actions, the entire Bill of Rights is at risk.
©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
ISSAQUAH, Wash. — Investigators say a man was breaking into his ex-girlfriend's house Friday morning when she shot and killed him.
The shooting happened at 10:25 a.m. at an apartment complex near 2900 NW Steelrake Place in Issaquah.
Police said there was an argument between a 56-year-old man and employees that turned into a fistfight outside of the business.
Soon after the physical altercation, authorities said the man sped away in his vehicle and struck an employee.
Two employees, who have licenses to carry, pulled out their firearms and shot at the vehicle, hitting the man in the arm.
Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America by Gary Kleck, 1991, 511 pages, published by Aldine De Gruter, New York. Softcover published by Routledge in 2017. Copies of Point Blank are available at ABEbooks and at Amazon.com. Used hardcover copies are the least expensive at about $13.
This correspondent has had Point Blank on my reference shelf for about three decades. It is a valuable resource for all people interested in firearms statistics and legislation. Gary Kleck's book has large amounts of data which is difficult to find with an Internet search. The book was published when the Internet was in its infancy. He has tables listing firearms manufacture, imports and exports from 1946 to 1987. Those tables are one of many hard to find sources of information which are in the book.
Dr. Kleck recieved the Michael Hindelang award, for Outstanding Book, from the American Society of Criminology in 1993, shortly after Point Blank was published. He is one of the most respected professors studying criminology in the United States. Kleck is a self described liberal. He changed his opinions about what legal restrictions on gun use would be effective because of his academic research.
Here is an example of the objective writing in Point Blank, page 14:
Proponents argue that these weapons are only useful for committing crimes, and sometimes even imply they are never used for any legitimate purposes. (Fields 1979; Shields 1981). Because the guns have no legitimate purposes, it is argued, there can be no valid objection to outlawing them.
The logical problem with this position is that whatever technical attributes guns have that make them suitable for committing crimes necessarily also make them useful for a variety of lawful applications. This issue is discussed at length in Chapter 3.
Point Blank is in three parts. The first part details gun control issues, and details information about who owns guns in the United States and how many guns there are in the United States. This may be the most dated portion of the book, but is valuable for historical reasons.
The second part of the book explains what effect guns have in the United States. This includes Dr. Kleck's research on the number of times guns are used for self defense in the United States.
The third part of the book deals with types of policies which are in effect to regulate guns, and what effect those policies might be having. Kleck is skeptical of most regulations.
Dr. Kleck is not a Second Amendment advocate. Dr. Kleck advocates universal background checks. He does not consider the implications for the Second Amendment.
I would like to see Dr. Kleck produce an updated version of Point Blank. It has been over three decades since the data was collected for Point Blank. The FBI has changed their online data access. The FBI website makes specific data much harder to find than it was just four years ago. Part of this is the elimination of the FBI Uniform Crime Reports. It is good to have a hard copy of the data easily available. Online data can easily be changed or eliminated with a few keystrokes.
Dr. Kleck is now the David J. Bordua Professor/Professor Emeritus at the College of Criminology & Criminal Justice at Florida State University.
A Port Orange homeowner fatally shot an intruder trying to force their way into a residence early Thursday morning, according to police.
Port Orange Police stated officers responded at 12:05 a.m. Thursday to the 5900 block of Pelham Drive in reference to a burglary to an occupied dwelling, the release stated.
A Boise man tried to rob a home early Thursday morning, only to be thwarted by an armed homeowner who told him to leave before the would-be burglar barricaded himself in the house, according to police. Surveillance video captured a 22-year-old man walking up to a home in the 6000 block of West Cassia Street, opening the door and going inside after 2 a.m. Thursday, a Boise Police Department news release said. The owner of the home confronted him at gunpoint and ordered him to leave, according to police, but the intruder refused and fled to the house’s furnace room, barricading himself inside.
Image courtesy Dean Weingarten, small portion of guns turned in, Phoenix, May, 2013
In San Antonio, Texas, at the Alamodome parking lot, a gun "buyback" is planned from noon to 5 p.m. "Buyback" is an Orwellian term designed to give the impression all guns come from the government. You can not "buy back" what you never owned. A more correct term would be gun turn-in, because the guns are turned in to the police to be destroyed. A flurry of the gun turn-in/"buyback" events have been scheduled recently for Dallas, El Paso, and San Antonio in Texas, and for three cities in New Mexico. Much of the money for these events come from the dollars created by the Biden administration. $100,000 of the funds for the San Antonio event are "rollover funds", funds which were not spent in the last budget. The event in San Antonio is planned to be "semi-anonymous". From ksat.com:
SAN ANTONIO
– A North Side councilman hopes to make a dent in San Antonio’s gun violence through a “voluntary weapons exchange,” where people can trade their guns for H.E.B. gift cards with “no questions asked.”Councilman John Courage is organizing the Nov. 19 event through his District 9 council office, using funds from his district budget and donations.
People can bring as many as 20 unloaded weapons to the Alamodome parking lot that Sunday afternoon and, depending on the condition and type of firearm, receive between $50 and $300 worth of gift cards per weapon.
“Just drive in,” Courage said. “No one’s going to ask your name. No one’s going to ask where you got the weapon. No one’s going to ask where you live. Simple as that.”
The event is semi-anonymous because police will first check to see if the firearm was stolen. If it was stolen, it will be returned to the legitimate owner. The person turning the gun in will be questioned. If not stolen, the police will determine what catagory the firearm belongs in, and will issue appropriate gift cards. Few guns at these events are listed as stolen.
Gift cards will vary from $50 to $300 on the following scale. From Ken5.com:
So far, $126,000 dollars have been pledged to the event. This correspondent expects police overtime would be paid out of that money. Say 12 officers at 6 hours each, at $100 per hour. Printing 2,600 T-shirts cost about $10,000. Add another $10,000 for "non-profit" "overhead" expenses. It still leaves $100,000 for gift cards. Assume the average gift card for a gun is $150, or about 670 guns. I expect that many to be turned in within about 3-4 hours. The Houston event last year purchased 850 guns in 4 hours. The event will likely run out of gift cards. When they do, this correspondent predicts there will be numerous people in line wanting to get rid of the old .22 rifle, shotgun, military surplus bolt gun or pistol they inherited. Many good deals may turn up for $100.
San Antonio Councilman Courage says, if they prevent one death, it will be worth it. The latest, greatest study on the events show it may cause more than one death. The officers doing the overtime, the T-shirt provider, and the non-profits all have money transferred to them, so they will do just fine.
Councilman Courage acknowledges the crime rate will not be lowered. Ann Helmke, the city's "faith liaison" admits the major purpose of the event is propaganda. She calls it education. From sanantonioreport.com:
The gun exchange and memorial will serve to educate the community while making a statement, said Rev. Ann Helmke, the city’s faith liaison.
“In its basic sense, it’s a protest,” Helmke said. “The memorial is so that the community can see the magnitude of the impact.”
In Texas, private purchases are legal and are not infringed by government requirements. Private buyers who show up at these events send their own message. The message from private buyers is: Guns are Valuable. We pay cash. The message from private buyers neutralizes the Guns are Bad, Turn them in message.
This is the reason gun turn in events are rare in most states. In most states the Second Amendment ability to buy guns, privately, for cash, has not been infringed on. Texas is in the majority with most states. Most gun turn in events happen in states where private purchases are outlawed.
If readers attend the San Antonio event, take lots of pictures, so AmmoLand readers can see what was turned in and what was purchased by private buyers.
©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
According to Howard, two men were sitting in a parked vehicle at the complex when another man approached them and fired shots.
One of the men inside the car was hurt, and the other reportedly returned fire, hitting the suspect. Howard said everyone then fled the scene.
The person initially struck was found at a nearby gas station on Maine and Murworth with multiple gunshot wounds and was transported to the hospital in critical condition.
The man accused of starting the altercation crashed out at Kirby and South Braeswood and is expected to survive after suffering a single gunshot wound.
Police said the shooting occurred around 6:30 p.m. Monday during an altercation in the pedestrian tunnel between Gonzales and another local man.
After the other man shot Gonzales in the face with a pistol, Gonzales fled the scene, police said. The other man called 911 to report the incident and cooperated with the responding officers, police said.
Image of American black bear by Dean Weingarten, American brown/grizzly bear by Troy Nemitz; Image of Asian Black Bear from wikimedia license 4.0; Wikimedia Ussuri Brown bear 2008 CC 2.0
From 2007 to present (2023) there have been more fatal bear attacks in Japan than in the United States. It is possible there have been more total bear attacks in Japan than in the United States, but records of total attacks are not as clear. Through the end of October of 2023, there were 180 bear attacks were a person was injured in Japan. There is no central registry of bear attacks in the United States. Fatal bear attacks are well documented in the media. From JapanNews:
Tokyo, Nov. 1 (Jiji Press)—The number of people attacked by bears in Japan between April and October totaled 180, already a record high on a fiscal year basis since the statistics started in fiscal 2006, the Environment Ministry said in a preliminary report Wednesday.
The previous record high was 158 marked in fiscal 2020.
The ministry is calling for maximum vigilance until the bears go into hibernation, due to the poor acorn crop mainly in the Tohoku northeastern Japan region.
Five people have been killed in attacks by bears so far in fiscal 2023, which started in April.
While there is no central registry of all bear attacks in the United States, fatal bear attacks are well recorded in the media. Different web sites keep track of fatal bear attacks in North America. The location of each attack is noted. The number of fatal bear attacks in the United States can be determined. The number of fatal bear attacks in the United States for 2023, as of November 14, was four. Two people were killed by a polar bear, one person was killed by a black bear, and one person was killed by a brown bear. The number of fatalities in 2023 was one more for Japan than the United States. One year does not tell the story. Reports online show Japanese fatal bear attacks from 2007. Japan started keeping records in 2006. The total number of fatal bear attacks 2007 - 2023 in Japan is 37 or 38. Two of those are from bears which were captured. From May of 2018 eenews.net:
At least 522 people were attacked by bears from 2012 to 2017, with a dozen fatalities, according to Japan’s Ministry of the Environment. Over the past decade, the ministry said, there have been 880 bear attacks and 24 human fatalities.
One fatality in Japan, discovered in 2018, appeared to be a fatal bear attack. While likely, the investigation was not complete when the article was written. No fatal attacks were recorded in Japan in 2019. Thirteen fatal attacks were recorded in 2020-2023.
Over the 16 year period from 2007 - 2023, inclusive, there were 37 or 38 people killed by bears in Japan depending on the results of the investigation of the body discovered in June of 2018. The total number of fatal bear attacks in the United States 2007 - 2023 is 33, three of which were from captured bears. The result is astounding, considering the populations of bears and people and the land area of the two countries.
Japan's human population is about 125 million and shrinking. The United States human population is about 331 million and rising. Japan has an estimated 45,000 Asian black bears (some estimates are as low as 15,000). The United States has a North American black bear population of from 339,000 to 465,000 or about ten times as many as Japan. Asian and American black bears are distinct species, but closely related. Japan has a brown bear population of about 12,000 on the northern Island of Hokkiado. The United States has a brown/grizzly bear population of about 35,000, with over 30,000 of them in Alaska. All the brown/grizzly bears are very closely related, with minor differences. They are generally considered one species with subspecies. The United States has about three times the number of brown bears as exist in Japan. The United States has a couple of thousand polar bears. Japan has no wild population of polar bears. The area of Japan is slightly less than the area of the State of Montana, about 146,000 square miles. The area of the United States is about 3,806,000 square miles, or about 26 times the area of Japan. Over half of Japan is heavily forested mountains.
Analysis:
Bear populations in both Japan and the United States have been on the rise in the last few decades. Human populations in Japan have started to fall. Human populations in the United States continue to rise. Bear attacks have dramatically increased during the last five decades as increased protections for bears were introduced in the middle 1970's for the USA and the 1990's for Japan. In Japan, the increase in bear attacks has been attributed to decreased human populations. In the United States, the increase in bear attacks has been attributed to increased human populations. An obvious difference between Japan and the United States is Japan has one of the lowest number of privately owned firearms per capita in the world, while the United States has the highest number of privately owned firearms per capita in the world. In the United States, problem bears are likely to be killed early in their career.
©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
Both police and a business representative for an industrial cannabis facility on the 300 block of Encinal Street were put on alert when burglars tripped a security alarm at the site prior to 4:30 a.m., Santa Cruz Police Deputy Chief Jon Bush said. The business representative, however, arrived at the facility ahead of officers, catching at least two thieves leaving the site. The representative apparently attempted to apprehend the thieves by ramming his car into one of two believed fleeing vehicles, according to Bush.
“At some point, shots are exchanged between the victim and the suspect, and vice versa, is our understanding,” Bush said. “The suspects ultimately ended up fleeing. They’re still outstanding.”
He says Palmore was picking up an order at about 7:45 p.m. According to workers at Papa Johns, he was mad at the staff for some reason. They described him as 'possibly intoxicated.' Sullins says after Palmore walked out the door, he threw a pizza box toward the father, who was preparing to walk inside to order a pizza. The father asked Palmore what he was doing. According to witnesses, Palmore pulled out a nine-millimeter pistol from his pocket and pointed it at the father. Sullins says the son was getting out of the passenger side of the truck, saw Palmore pull the gun and point it at the father, and pulled out his handgun from a holster and fired four to six shots at Palmore. Palmore was struck in the head and died at the scene, in front of the father's pickup truck. Sullins says it appears Palmore didn't fire any shots.
A witness said the North man contacted him for a ride. He arrived at the home and waited in the car.
The witness said the North man was arguing with a female. The North man then tried to go through a front window of the house, the witness said.
The witness reported hearing a loud noise that sounded like a gunshot.
The witness got out of the car to help. He said the North man walked off the porch of the residence and collapsed.
On Saturday, 18 November, the city of Houston will host a gun turn in event. The event will be held at Westchase Park and Ride, 11050 Harwin Drive, Houston, from 8 a.m. to Noon. No questions will be asked of people turning in guns for gift cards. The event is funded with American Rescue Plan money, part of the 1.6 trillion dollar Biden administration spending which is driving inflation.
Houston has already had several of these gun turn-in events, labeled with the Orwellian term "buyback". As Houston did not own these firearms previously, they cannot buy them back.
In a previous Houston event, on July 30, 2022, an activist turned in a box full of 3D printed crude, singleshot pistols, and walked away with a significant chunk of change. The upcoming event on November 18 will not pay for "ghost guns".
The Biden administration claims "ghost guns" are excessively dangerous. In a brief to the Supreme Court, the Biden administration makes this claim:
Ghost guns can be made from kits and parts that are available online to anyone with a credit card and that allow anyone with basic tools and rudimentary skills (or access to Internet video tutorials) to assemble a fully functional firearm in as little as twenty minutes. Some manufacturers of those kits and parts assert that they are not “firearms” regulated by federal law, and thus can be sold without serial numbers, transfer records, or background checks. Those features of ghost guns make them uniquely attractive to criminals and others who are legally prohibited from buying firearms.
The problem with accepting "ghost guns" at the gun turn-in scheduled for Houston is that "ghost guns" quickly transfer gift cards from the event to people who are willing to spend a few dollars on making "ghost guns". Accepting "ghost guns" undercuts the propaganda value of the event. Not accepting "ghost guns" undercuts "ghost gun" propaganda.
In previous Houston gun turn-in events, numbers of private buyers have found some excellent deals for good guns. When the event is only offering $100 for working rifles or shotguns, a nice old double barrel might be picked up for $120. Maybe someone will have grandpa's old Browning Auto-5 for a $150. A $175 might bag Smith & Wesson model 10 in good condition. At the gun turn-in at Dallas, one participant procured a minty Colt, pre-ban SP-1, a desirable collector item worth $2,000 to $3,000 for $400.
These events, even well funded events such as in Houston, usually run out of gift cards before the event is scheduled to end. Private buyers often make very good deals after the gift cards run out. Private purchase of firearms is legal in most states, as it is in Texas. The right to purchase firearms without getting government permission first, is a basic part of the Second Amendment.
The Heller decision mentioned regulation of commercial sale of firearms might be accepted under the Second Amendment. This implies private sales of firearms should not be regulated. The private sale of firearms acts as a check against the creation of a firearms registry. The only serious purpose of a firearms registry is to facilitate confiscation of private arms, whether wholesale or piecemeal.
Academic studies have found gun turn-in events do not reduce homicides or suicides. They may do some harm with a slight uptick in gun crimes following these events.
Lines for these events start early. Those who come first are the most likely to obtain gift cards before they run out. This offers an opportunity to private purchasers to talk to people in line to see what they have.
There are certain to be private purchasers at the Houston turn-in event. This correspondent expects to publish a report after the event has ended.
©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
INSIDE APT ... A 35-YEAR-OLD BLACK MALE WAS SHOT MULTIPLE TIMES IN UPPER TORSO MALE WAS TRANSPORTED BY POLICE TO TEMPLE HOSPITAL AND PLACED IN STABLE BUT CRITICAL CONDITION ... CI-5 ON LOCATION .. SCENE HELD ... NO ARREST MADE ... A WEAPON RECOVERED ... Motive: self-defense
“I’m like the eye watch out here, always out here, I don’t know you, I’m watchin’ you, you know?” Kerrigan said.
She came outside to smoke a cigarette around midnight and saw the crime unfold.
“This guy came down the road, barefoot, looking behind him like somebody’s after him, and he veered right, went to try her doorknob, couldn’t get in that way, pulled the screen down, just stated busting out the glass, and crawled through the window, and I called 911,” Kerrigan said, adding that she thought the man was “wacked out on something.”
Then Kerrigan heard a gunshot. The woman had confronted the intruder inside her home.
Sources confirm the teens were shot during an attempted armed robbery that had occurred minutes beforehand and about one mile from Johns Hopkins Hospital, on North Patterson Park Avenue, and may be connected to up to three crimes that occurred in the southeastern district.
Over the police scanner you can hear officers piecing together the string of crimes that had happened within just one hour.
As expected in last month's article, gun sales have jumped up in October. According to the figures released in the FBI National Instant background Check System (NICS), gun sales were about 1.33 million, roughly a nine percent increase over the gun sales figures for October 2022. 1.33 million gun sales makes October 2023 the third highest October for guns sales. Checks done in the NICS system in October 2023 were about 2.26 million, making October 2023, the sixth highest number of checks done in October since the first October in the system was recorded in 1999.
The number of gun sales and NICS checks are not a 1 to 1 ratio. Many more NICS checks are done than firearm sales. NICS checks are done for gun permits and for other purposes. One NICS check can be used to sell more than one gun. People with qualifying permits in 25 states can use their permit to purchase guns without going through additional NICS checks. The number of NICS checks done per gun sold varies above and below about two NICS checks for each gun sold.
An increase in gun sales was predicted for October because of the Hamas raid into Israel where there were over 1,400 Israeli deaths, many, if not most, of them non-combatants. In response, Israel is modifying its strict gun control policies.
Before 1900, it was understood tribal warfare was indiscriminate. The idea of "rules of warfare" is fairly recent, with Saint Augustine providing some commentary, and Saint Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century developing a robust theory of "just war". For both sides to agree to rules of war, there has to be some similarity of culture in the opposing sides.
In most of history, no such rules of warfare existed. The Hamas raid exposed the world to the brutal reality: those who have weapons and the will to use them can only be effectively opposed by others with weapons and the will to use them. The same lesson is being shown in the conflict with Ukraine and Russia. The surge of antipathy toward Jews in the world and the United States has resulted in many Jews realizing the need to have weapons in order to protect themselves. This is part of a trend which has accelerated as the world has become more chaotic and less predictable.
In the United States most residents are still relatively free to acquire weapons. Firearm sales have been over 1 million a month for over four years. The number of privately owned firearms in the United States has roughly doubled since 1996. The number of privately owned guns is approaching 500 million, with a population of 330 million, or over 1.5 guns per each resident of the United States. The primary stated purpose for owning firearms in the United States is for the protection of self and others.
Including the October sales brings the total gun sales for 2023 to 12.01 million. Correcting for sales of firearms already part of the private stock leaves us with 10.4 million private firearms added in 2023. The estimate of the private stock at the end of 2022 was 490 million firearms. As of October, the United States has about 500 million privately owned firearms, or a privately owned firearms stock of half a billion. If all people capable of bear arms were integrated into local and state militias, this would be a formidable force.
No other nation on Earth comes close.
©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
GREELEY, Colo. — A home invasion suspect who allegedly shot a resident of a Greeley home during an attempted break-in was shot himself and is now facing charges, according to the Greeley Police Department.
The call about the shooting went out around 2:30 Friday morning. One person was taken away from the scene in an ambulance. Police said they believe this started as a break-in and someone inside the home shot the person trying to break in.
Police say everyone involved knows each other, and this was not random. Officers are working to determine the relationship between the people involved.
Pictured below are a dozen of the firearms purchased by private buyers at the Dallas event on October 21, 2023.
Private buyers at the Dallas gun turn-in event, also known by the Orwellian term "buyback", were able to purchase numerous firearms at bargain prices. The gift cards ran out in the first hour and first ten vehicles in line. Before then prices tended to be a bit higher than the value of gift cards offered. After the cards ran out, prices tended to drop. There were about a dozen private buyers at the event. Some purchased items other than guns. One person purchased an 870 shotgun barrel. Another hauled off several hundred rounds of ammunition for very little or nothing. It appeared to this correspondent the private purchasers all purchased more than one firearm. One purchased at least a dozen firearms.
One of the best deals of the event was the purchase of a minty pre-ban Colt SP-1 (AR-15). In the picture , it does not have a magazine. This correspondent has learned a magazine came with it. The magazine was a classic 20 round mag loaded with 5.56 period ammunition stamped 1982.
Another great deal was this S&W classic and minty looking model 36. Handguns predominated, as only $100 worth of gift cards were offered for handguns.
Below is a WWII era Enfield revolver in .38/200 (same case as .38 S&W) not .38 Special. The three other pistols were ignored. The Enfield was purchased for $60, because the owner said it was jammed and could not be unloaded. As this correspondent is familiar with the type, he was able to unload it for the purchaser. It was very stiff with over-applications of oil without cleaning.
This private buyer was happy with his Browning designed pump shotgun. The model 520 Stevens was also made as the Ranger Model 30 for Sears, the Western Field Model 30 for Wards, the Riverside Arms Model 520 and the J.C. Higgins 102.25. They are all the same design. The shotgun has an interesting takedown mechanism. The level of machining would cost thousands today. Some parts are getting difficult to find. The Stevens 620 has a slightly different profile, but is the same internally.
This Taurus model 85 was purchased. I recall the price was $100. They are good, serviceable revolvers. It was in excellent condition.
The Marlin Model 60 below is the desirable variant with the longer barrel and magazine to match. The magazine holds 18 rounds. This version of the model 60 was defined as an "assault weapon" in New Jersey for several years.
Enfield no. 4 MK I rifles with complete original wood are getting hard to come by. The improvised sling is not original.
This Taurus PT 92 AFS-D variant did not have a magazine. The price was $100. Serial numbers are blotted out for privacy.
High Standard derringers are no longer produced. They have always had a following and command good prices today.
The classic Colt revolver is in the less common .32-20 caliber. It is missing the end cap for the ejector rod and has had the barrel cut down and a non-standard sight installed.
After all the cards were handed out and the event closed down, this near-new Hi Point 9mm came in. It was purchased for $20. In this correspondent's experience, they may be clunky, but they work.
The last gun brought in and purchased, as far as this correspondent knows, was this Browning .380 model 10/71. The large sights and thumb rest were added to the originally sleek design to allow for importation after the 1968 Gun Control Act.
This sample is far from complete. It gives an idea of what was available at the Dallas gun turn-in event on October 21, in 2023.
©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
Police said that around 4:25 a.m., suspects were attempting to break into a homeowner's shed in the 4200 block of Lynhurst Road. One of the suspects showed a gun.
However, according to police, the homeowner fired his gun and shot two suspects.
University of Virginia
Campus carry exists when students can legally carry guns on university and college campus premises. The practice quickly becomes a non-issue, according to police chief James Terry of Marshall University in West Virginia. West Virginia is scheduled to join eleven other states where carry on campus by permit holders has been restored as a matter of law. West Virginia is scheduled to implement campus carry on July 1, 2024. From dominionpost.com:
Marshall University Police Chief James Terry said the Action Learning Team is comprised of a cross section of all campus stakeholders and meets every two weeks on the issue. Terry said because the law is something new, they started by talking to people from campuses that have campus carry in place. The coverage determined the law was a concern on campus and was diminished a short time after becoming law.
“They talked to every school that has campus carry in effect right now, and they identified no issues, and they also said within six months to a year it’s a non-issue,” Terry said. “Now, we’ll see if that’s the
case in West Virginia.”
With the restoration of the right to bear arms in most of the United States, many states have removed infringements on the right to carry arms on college and university campus grounds, or recognized the infringements were not legal. The states which have removed infringements, or ruled them to be illegal occurred in the following order:
Utah 2006, Colorado 2010 Oregon 2011 Wisconsin 2011 Mississippi 2012 Idaho 2014 Tennessee 2016, Arkansas 2017, Georgia 2017, Kansas 2017, and Texas 2017.
Those eleven states represent about 457 institutions of higher learning and approximately four million students, for between 4 and 17 years worth of experience where the ability to carry handguns on campus has been restored. During that time, there hasn't been a single case of a violent crime committed by a concealed permit holder on campus, which appears in the literature. People have searched for such incidents. The literature indicates removing obstacles to the carry of firearms at universities has no measurable effect. Students for Concealed Carry shows no deaths, assaults, or suicides had been associated with campus carry as of 2018.
One of the earliest restrictions on being armed in America was a ban on students at the University of Virginia, from having weapons on campus in 1824. Students were also forbidden to have sticks, wine or spirits, servants, horses, or dogs, or to use tobacco. The restriction did not apply to the public or staff of the school. The university did not start classes until 1825. The rule makers seem to have been more concerned with students spending time on non-academic subjects when they could have been studying. The University of Virginia was an outlier.
Universities in America have tended to be slightly hostile to armed citizens, or to armed people in general. Most universities were created based on Christian foundations. There have often been tensions between
those with skill at arms academics who focus on textual subjects.
Over the last 50 years, the Left has infiltrated and taken over the administration of most American universities. Most of the hostility to campus carry appears to be ideological and emotional. College administrators do not want campus carry because they do not want campus carry. Phrases are used, such as: I would not feel safe. I would be worried. There is no proof it will make us safer.
The implicit argument of authoritarians is: everything which is not allowed is forbidden.
The American legal philosophy is: Everything not forbidden is allowed.
All of the hand-wringing and pleas to emotion are forgotten six months to a year after campus carry is implemented.
©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
THE BRONX, N.Y. (PIX11) — A smoke shop employee was arrested Thursday after he allegedly shot a man who was attempting to rob the store, police said.
Fares Alhazmi, 26, was charged with criminal possession of a firearm in connection with the Bronx shooting, police said.
Louisiana is likely to pass a Constituional Carry bill and enact it to law in 2024. The particulars of the bill are unknown.
The 56th Governor of Louisiana is John Bel Edwards. Edwards vetoed a Constitutional Carry bill in June of 2021.
The next governor of of Louisiana was elected on October 14, 2023. Louisiana has an unusual primary election, where all candidates are on the ballot. If one candidate obtains more than 50% of the vote in the primary, they are elected governor. On October 14, Jeff Landry (R) won the primary with 51.6% of the vote. Landry is expected to take office on January 8, 2024.
A constitutional or permitless carry bill was passed overwhelmingly in 2021. The vote was 72 to 28 in the House. A similar bill in the Senate passed 27 to 11. There were enough votes to override a veto, but the Louisiana Governor is very powerful. Governor John Bel Edwards had enough clout to veto the bill and make it stick.
Governor elect Jeff Landry said, before the October election, he would see Constitutional Carry passed while he is in office. Representative Danny McCormick has made Constitutional Carry his signature issue. In his 2023 race, he raffled off a Sig P365 9mm pistol as part of his campaign. From shreveporttimes.com:
His said his bill would "restore Second Amendment rights in Louisiana."
"There's nothing more unjust than to make citizens pay for a right they already have," McCormick repeated this week.
McCormick said he has raffled off guns in the past, each time raising thousands of dollars.
The tickets are $10 for a $699.99 Sig P365 Macro pistol that is advertised as "what a concealed carry pistol should be."
Supporters of McCormick's legislation refer to it as "constitutional carry" because they believe the Second Amendment already grants that right.
"With your help we will make Constitutional Carry the Law in 2024," McCormick said in his email to supporters.
The time frame for passage of Constitutional Carry in Louisiana is uncertain. It is likely Representative McCormick will file his bill early. Most of the Louisiana legislature is already on record as having voted for Constitutional Carry. A Constitutional or permitless carry bill may pass quickly. Permitless carry is now the law in 27 states, including the three states bordering Louisiana. With over half of the United States having permitless carry, the number of candidate states to pass permitless, or Constitutional Carry is starting to dwindle. In addition to Louisiana, forseeable candidates include: Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada.
Washington State, Oregon, Colorado, New Mexico, Minnesota and Virginia are possible, but will require significant, but plausible political changes.
Hawaii, California, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island will be much harder. Reforms in those states are more likely because of Supreme Court decisions.
Analysis:
This correspondent expects the Louisiana legislature to pass a Constitutional Carry (permitless) bill in early 2024. Over 3/4 of the representatives and senators in Louisiana are already on record as voting for a form of Constitutional Carry. Governor elect Landry has said he will sign a Constitutional Carry (permitless) bill. Early passage of a bill would show the new governor as keeping his promise, and remove the subject from contention early in his term.
©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
The owner of the house told 7News said that the victim was his tenant. He said the man was drinking with another man when things suddenly escalated.
The deceased, the owner said, shot the other man first and then the other man grabbed a gun and returned fire.
The victim succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced deceased at the scene by MDFR. The second victim, a handyman who worked for the deceased victim, was found with a gunshot wound to the torso; he was transported to HCA Florida Aventura Hospital in critical condition. As of 8 a.m., the surviving victim was in stable condition.
Long guns turned in by individual at Dallas event October 2023
On Saturday, November 4, 2023, New Mexico held three simultaneous gun turn-in events, also known by the Orwellian term "buyback". Items cannot be "boughtback" if they were never owned by the entity purchasing them. The events were decided on by executive order from Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. It is unclear where the money for the gun turn-in event came from. A query to the New Mexico State police has remained unanswered. Several cities are using money created by the Biden administration in the American Rescue Plan for gun turn-in events "buybacks". Elpaso has dedicated $300,000 for such events. The New Mexico events handed out about $73,200 in gift cards on November 4.
Many people were disappointed with the gun turn-in events, waiting in long lines, with the gift card running out in the first hour or two. At the Albuqurque event, from krqe.com:
Participants tell News 13 that the line to get into the event was like a parking lot. “You sit in your car for an hour and a half you know for 200 dollars for one pistol, {laughs}, and you burn a lot of gas while you’re waiting too,” Ledbetter said.
State Police told gun owners they could still leave their weapons even though the money had run out. “I wasn’t going to do that and nobody else was either. Cause everybody was heading for the gate and leaving,” Morgan said.
Some tell News 13 the event should have been planned better. “The governor sponsored this thing…It didn’t go smooth. They said it was. It was just a fiasco,” Morgan said.
In Las Cruces, a participant posted on Craigslist to report on their disappointment. From Las Cruces Craigslist:
Poor planning on the part of our state police at this event. Dozens of people lined up before the event even started at 8:00 AM and the event was over before 9;00 AM. The event was scheduled to run until 2:00 PM. I was about 20th in line when I arrived at 7:45 AM but the line never even moved until they started telling folks that the event was over. They said that they ran out of funds. Organized by our joke of an organization: New Mexico State Police.
The New Mexico State Police entered a press release on Facebook:
People anonymously handed in unwanted firearms and received Visa gift cards in return. Buybacks were intended to prevent unwanted or unneeded weapons from causing harm or being used to commit acts of violence.
A total number of 439 firearms were collected from the event. 279 firearms were bought back from the three locations. Albuquerque collected 56 handguns and 54 rifles. Las Cruces collected 31 handguns and 56 rifles. Espanola collected 19 handguns and 63 rifles. After all gift cards from the three locations were distributed, 160 more unwanted firearms were handed in.
The total number of handguns collected from the three locations was 179, and the number of rifles collected from the three locations was 260.
Out of 439 firearms collected, 2 stolen firearms were recovered.
When the numbers from the press release are added up, there were 106 handguns and 173 long guns turned in for gift cards. The amount of those gift cards comes to $73,100, one card different than the 732 reported by krqe.com. The 160 firearms which were reported turned in after the gift cards ran out would have consisted of 73 handguns and 87 long guns. While the report only says "rifles" it is not reasonable to believe no shotguns were turned in.
No private buyers were reported at the events. This is not surprising, because the Grisham administration managed to outlaw most private sales in 2019. The ban has been widely ignored in most counties in New Mexico. Ban on private sales in New Mexico:
In the first year since that law went into effect on July 1, 2019, court records show that no one was charged with violating the law. “We spent a lot of time, a lot of resources and a lot of money trying to enact this law that’s done absolutely nothing,” said Cibola County Sheriff Tony Mace.
As the president of the New Mexico Sheriffs’ Association, Sheriff Mace has been an outspoken opponent of the legislation since lawmakers proposed it in the Roundhouse. Still, when she signed it into law, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham seemed confident that even sheriffs who opposed it would get on board.
“They will enforce this law,” she said. “They will do their job and duty.” However, one year later, Sheriff Mace still told KRQE News 13, “We’re not enforcing it.”
At a highly visible event, such as a gun turn-in, run by the State Police, private buyers were not willing to risk arrest. Of the 439 firearms collected during the three events, only two were found to have been reported as stolen. From koat.com:
Police check each firearm that's turned in just in case they are stolen. Overall, Vargas said the event was a success with all locations running out of gift cards before 10 a.m. and collecting almost 440 firearms total, two of which were stolen.
The vast majority of firearms turned in at these events are not found to have been stolen. In a recent Madison, Wisconsin event, no stolen firearms were found among the 483 turned in. In the enormous gun turn-in event in Phoenix, in 2013, four guns were found to have been stolen out of almost 2,000. Guns found to have been stolen at these events are less than 1/2 of one percent. Prosecution for possession of a gun which the purchaser did not know was stolen almost never happens.
©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
MIDTOWN, Manhattan (WABC) -- A 43-year-old man has been charged after he allegedly opened fire when a homeless panhandler threatened to mug a woman at a Midtown subway station on Tuesday night.
The incident was reported at the 49th Street subway station, on Seventh Avenue, just after 9 p.m.
The panhandler was holding open an emergency gate when he told the 40-year-old woman he would steal her purse if she didn't hand over her money.
The gunman ordered the would be mugger to "leave her alone" and then fired a couple warning shots, thwarting the robbery attempt.
On the morning of October 31, on the Japanese Island of Hokkaido, a man with a knife fought off a brown bear as it attacked his two companions. It seems likely the attack was prompted because the bear was defending the food cache it had made of the body of a hiker it had killed on October 29. From mainichi.jp:
SAPPORO -- A man fought off a brown bear using a knife after he and two others were attacked by the animal while climbing Mount Daisengen in a Hokkaido town on the morning of Oct. 31.
Two men in their 40s suffered minor injuries including scratches on their sides and necks, as well as bites on the legs inflicted by the 1.7-meter-tall bear, but all three descended the mountain under their own power.
According to the Hokkaido Prefectural Government's brown bear countermeasures office, the three men all reside in Hokkaido. The last person walking in a single file line was attacked by the animal at around 9:30 a.m. -- some 2 1/2 hours after the three left the trailhead. Another person drove off the bear but two sustained injuries.
When the authorities investigated the site of the attack on the three hikers, they were surprised to find two bodies. They found a brown bear carcass near by, and the body of Kanato Yanaike, a 22-year-old man. From mainchi.jp:
Hokkaido Prefectural Police's Matsumae Police Station announced on Nov. 4 that DNA analysis confirmed the body is of Kanato Yanaike, 22, who had gone missing while on a mountain climbing trip. The cause of death was hemorrhagic shock. A brown bear carcass was found near the body, and the police are investigating on the assumption that he was attacked by the bear.
According to the police station, Yanaike had told an acquaintance that he was going mountain climbing on Oct. 29, and his car was found left at the starting point of a trail on the 1,072-meter-high mountain. The location where the body was discovered is close to the site where three other men were attacked by a brown bear on Oct. 31, leaving two of them injured. The men resisted the attack with a knife and chased the brown bear away. Authorities including Hokkaido police are investigating the latest case as a possible series of attacks by the same bear.
While it is possible there were two bears, one killed by the other, it is unlikely. Brown bears (essentially the same as our grizzly/brown bears) have been killed by humans with knives before. The journalists in Japan were not interested in the model of the knife. It was called a hunting knife, so it probably has a fixed blade. Bear attacks are at record levels in Japan. Most of them are done by the Asiatic black bear, a close relative of the North American black bear. From asahi.com:
At least 177 people have been attacked by bears nationwide this year as of Oct. 31, the highest number since record-keeping started in 2006, according to figures from prefectural governments compiled by The Asahi Shimbun.
The previous record was 158 in 2020.
Humans have been attacked by bears in 18 prefectures this year. Akita reported the largest number of victims, 61, followed by 41 in Iwate, 13 in Fukushima and 11 in Aomori.
Two people were killed in Iwate, and one each in Hokkaido, Toyama and Nagano.
Image of Asian Black Bear from wikimedia commons license 4.0
The Japanese population is declining. Most Japanese prefer to live in urban areas. More and more of rural villages face declining populations and abandoned farms. From ucanews.com;
The increasing number of bear attacks in Japan is a direct consequence of depopulation. As rural villages gradually vanish from the map bears are moving into these abandoned areas. Their return to what was once their native habitat is a stark reminder of nature's power to reclaim abandoned spaces.
This isn't merely wildlife resurgence. It's a matter of public safety. As humans retreat and villages disappear, the bear population takes over, bringing these majestic but potentially dangerous creatures into closer proximity to people.
Dr. Mariko Abe of the Nature Conservatin Society of Japan disagrees. from scmp.com:
People need to find ways to coexist with bears and other wild animals, said Dr Mariko Abe of The Nature Conservation Society of Japan.
“Human habitation is spreading further into rural areas, which is the natural environment of these animals, so confrontations are inevitable,” she said. “I do not agree with bears that enter suburban districts being killed, although I know that many places do try to capture them and release them in more remote areas.
According to the Guardian, a Japanese bear expert believes the asiatic black bear population has tripled since 2012, from 15,000 to 44,000. The Hokkaido brown bear population has doubled since 1990, to about 12,000 today.
©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
“Then they kind of go their separate ways and about a half an hour after Unterio shows up with a gun and shoots (the man) in the face and the shoulder,” Treadway said. “Right after he does that... a concerned citizen shoots back trying to protect (the man) and hits Jolly about five times. She shoots him five times.”
He said Jolly is in critical but stable condition in Charlotte.
The other man suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Treadway said Jolly has been determined to be the aggressor and warrants have been obtained for felony assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, firearm by a felon and assault by pointing a gun.
Much has been made of an 1824 University of Virginia ban on the keeping of weapons on campus by students. The resolution was passed on October 4, 1824, about five months before classes were started at the University. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, both former presidents and elder statesmen, were members of the board and attending when the resolutions were passed. The portions of the resolutions concerning weapons are contained in this excerpt, with the weapons passages in bold:
No Student shall admit any disturbing noises in his room, or make them any where within the precincts the University, or fire a gun or pistol within the same, on pain of such minor sentence as the faculty shall decree or approve. but the proper use of musical instruments, shall be freely allowed in their rooms, and in that appropriated for instruction of music.
Riotous, disorderly, intemperate or indecent conduct of any student within the precincts shall be punished by interdiction of a residence within the precincts; and repetitions of such offences, by expulsion from the University.
Fighting with weapons which may inflict death, or a challenge to such fight, given or accepted, shall be punished by instant expulsion from the University, not remissible by the Faculty; and it shall be the duty of the Proctor to give information thereof to the civil magistrate, that the parties may be dealt with according to law.Offences cognisable by the laws of the land shall be left to the cognisance of the civil magistrate, if claimed by him, or otherwise to the judgment of the Faculty: all others to that of the Faculty. and such of these as are not specially designated in the enactments of the Visitors may be subjected by the Faculty to any of the minor punishments permitted by these enactments.
Sentences of expulsion from the University (except in the case of challenge or combat with arms) shall not be final until approved by the board of Visitors or, when they are not in session, by a majority of them, separately consulted. but residence within the precincts, and attendance on the schools may be suspended in the mean time.
No Student shall, within the precincts of the University, introduce, keep or use any spirituous or vinous liquors, keep or use weapons or arms of any kind, or gunpowder, keep a servant, horse or dog, appear in school with a stick, or any weapon, nor, while in school, be covered without permission of the Professor, nor use tobacco by smoking or chewing, on pain of any of the minor punishments at the discretion of the Faculty, or of the board of Censors, approved by the Faculty.
Military instruction was required for three hours on each Saturday, with arms provided by the University.
Several things about the ban on all weapons at the University of Virginia are clear. The ban only applied to students. It did not apply to staff or to the public. The ban only applied on campus. The ban did not have any criminal penalties. It was a rule of the University, with penalties only enforceable because the students had voluntarily entered into a voluntary association, that of students at the University.
People who attempt to justify modern bans on firearms at schools or universities often cite the University of Virginia rule as a historical precedent. It is a poor precedent because:
Voluntary associations can make their own rules. If a person does not like the rules, they can leave the association. Students can read the rules before they enter a university. Laws are to apply to everyone.
In the Constitutional challenge to the federal Gun Free School Zone Act in Montana, the Assistant United States Attorney, Thomas K. Godfrey claims the University of Virginia ban on weapons possession by students is a precedent. From the brief:
1824. The University of Virginia Board of Visitors—whose six members included Thomas Jefferson and James Madison—resolved that: “No Student shall, within the precincts of the University, ... keep or use weapons or arms of any kind, or gunpowder[.]” UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA BOARD OF VISITORS MINUTES, at 6-7 (Oct. 1824).
Bans on students possessing weapons within the precincts of the University are not a precedent for bans on everyone possessing firearms outside of a school.
©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
A Vallejo resident shot and killed a man who allegedly tried to break into his house Monday morning.
The shooting happened at about 9:40 a.m. near Georgia and Monterey streets.
NBC Bay Area tried to speak with the resident, but he didn't want to talk about what happened.
Kleine tells 6 News ONeal came to the house of a woman with whom he has a child threatening to shoot her new boyfriend and bust out his car windows. Investigators said he entered the home with his gun out; the boyfriend took out his gun and they apparently fired simultaneously. The shot fired at ONeal killed him.
In the USA v Metcalf case in Montana, the Gun Free School Zone Act (GFSZA) has a challenge in federal court. it is full-fledged game on! The case was covered early and in depth by AmmoLand. It seems such a slam-dunk for the Second Amendment, a major question was: would the United States Attorney for Montana see the case as a loser, and rather than risk a major Second Amendment win, simply dismiss the case?
AmmoLand was one of the first to cover the USA v Metcalf case. AmmoLand coverage has been far better than any other outlet. Russel A. Hart is the Assistant Federal Defender in the Billings Branch Office. He is representing Gabriel Metcalf. He filed a motion to dismiss the indictment against Gabriel Metcalf, then filed the brief in support of the motion to dismiss. The Brief was filed on October 10, 2023.
The USA filed their response on October 24. They are proceeding with the GFSZA case.
The defense of Gabriel Metcalf is premised on two major points. First is the defense established under Montana law, which creates an exemption from the GRSZA in Montana, for all who can legally own firearms. From the brief by Hart:
Montana has (1) verified that any individual who is not prohibited under the laws of Montana or who has not been convicted ofa violent felony crime is qualified to receive a license to carry a firearm within a school zone, (2) enacted legislation granting such a license to all verified individuals, (3) explicitly stated that this license applies for purposes of “the federal Gun-Free School Zones Act”, and (4) enacted separate legislation that goes farther than §922(q) could under its Commerce Clause authority, prohibiting the possession of any type of“weapon”, including a firearm,but only within the school building itself.
If Mr. Metcalf stepped from his property onto the public sidewalks while carrying a firearm as the Government alleges, he was licensed to do by the State of Montana at the time, the prohibition of §922(q)(2)(A) does not apply to him, and the Indictment must be dismissed.
As expected, Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) Godfrey claims the Montana law is not sufficient. From the brief by Godfrey:
The Montana law that Metcalf relies upon, Mont. Code Ann. § 45-8-360, includes express qualifications for a person to be “considered to be individually licensed” for purposes of the exceptions to the Gun-Free School Zones Act: excluding individuals (1) convicted of a violent, felony crime,” or (2) otherwise not “able to own or to possess a firearm under the Montana constitution.” The statute, however, does not require that law enforcement authorities of the state verify that the individual meets those qualifications before obtaining a license. Because the Montana provision does not meet the federal requirements for the exemption to apply, Metcalf’s firearm possession was not exempted.
Next is the basic Second Amendment defense under Heller and Bruen. The GFSZA is unconstitutional on its face. From the brief by Hart:
When it comes to firearms carried for purposes of self-defense outside the home,922(q) contains an identical ban to the one flatly struck down in Heller when applied to firearms stored inside the home.In Bruen,the Court ruled that regulations concerning firearms carried outside the home must be held to the Heller standard while unequivocally rejecting the application of any “means-end”scrutiny to justify the regulation. Bruen, at 2129. The ban prohibiting possession of a functional firearm within 1,000 feet of a school’s “grounds” in §922(q)(2)(A) prevents a citizen from using it for self-defense if confrontation happens outside their home. On its face,§922(q) is impossible to square with the Second Amendment in the post-means-end scrutiny era of Heller and Bruen.
AUSA Godfrey claims the Second Amendment does not apply for two reasons. He claims schools are exempted from the Second Amendment. He claims there is historical evidence bans on firearms existed on public universities when the Second Amendment was ratified, and there were late 19th century regulations on firearms near schools. Here are two relevant excerpts:
His claim under the Second Amendment fails for two reasons, either of which is sufficient to deny relief. First, the Second Amendment does not protect Metcalf’s “course of conduct.” Bruen, 142 S. Ct. at 2134. The Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear that the government may prohibit “the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings.”
The Founding generation heavily regulated firearms on the campus of public universities. And starting in the latter half of the 19th century, some States heavily regulated firearms in and near schools. In some ways the restrictions were narrower than Section 922(q)(2). But in other ways they were broader, and there was no apparent dispute about their constitutionality. Further, under Bruen, a modern-day restriction need not be a “dead ringer for historical precursors.” Id. at 2133. It need only be “relevantly similar” to the precursors in “how” and “why” it burdens the “right to armed self-defense.” Id. at 2132-2133. Section 922(q)(2) passes that test.
The Metcalf case is an excellent test case. Gabriel Metcalf has a clean record. He lives across the street from the school in question. He had valid reasons to carry a firearm for purposes of defense of self and his mother.
While Federal Defender Hart is doing a high quality job in the legal defense of Gabriel Metcalf in the GFSZA case, the burdens on the Metcalf family are considerable. The City of Billings found a three year old warrant about a confrontation where Gabriel was defending his mother. On the initial appearance before a local judge, Gabriel was required to wear an ankle GPS monitor, at a cost of about $300 a month. The local public defender is no Russel Hart. From Gabriel's mother, contact before the court, a few days ago, consisted of a couple of minutes. No attempt was made to ask for removal of the GPS monitor. The attitude of the public defender verged on hostile.
The family needs funds to hire an attorney, preferably one who is not dependent on the "good old boy" network inside of Billings for their subsistence. Vivian Metcalf has set up a GiveSendGo account, the YoungMetcalfHomeDefenseFund.
Analysis:
The advantage the Biden administration, represented by AUSA Godfrey, has is the case falls under the jurisdiction of the Ninth Circuit. If Metcalf prevails in Montana, the case will be appealed to the Ninth Circuit.
The case is clear cut. There is no historical record for banning guns simply because they are within a thousand feet of a school. The university bans near the time of the ratification of the Bill of Rights were for private institutions. They only applied to students. They only applied to actual school grounds. The single law from late in the 19th century did not ban guns near schools. It banned shooting guns near schools. The Montana law gives a clear exception, to the GFSZA, but there is some question about whether it is sufficient under the GFSZA.
Gabriel is out of jail, without bond for the GFSZA charge. The City of Billings charge is for a misdemeanor assault charge, about three years old, which seems questionable to this correspondent. It seems likely the GPS ankle bracelet requirement could be revoked, if Gabriel receives the benefit of vigorous counsel. The local case may be dismissed if appropriate discovery and full airing of evidence is conducted before a judge.
©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
Posts
All Comments
