Category Archives: Law

"News Media", Culture, gun control, Law, Media, Political philosophy, Politics

Hippies Then and Now

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I was texting back and forth with a good friend of mine the other day when she mentioned a book she was reading. Hippie War, Battle for the Harrisonville Square, also on Amazon. Huh. As it turns out, one of the officers murdered was her cousin’s husband. Ah. Then she started telling me some of what was in the book, she said the “woke” of today is the “hippies” of yesterday. Really? Tell me more. Now somethings already made sense, like ecology and earth day. The left worships the creation and not the creator. But the more she shared, the more I thought “I want to read this book”. She said it was a fast read, not a real in depth book. It’s not in depth like a history, science or medical book, but the guy did do a lot of research. It also doesn’t hurt that he was a local boy at the time this happened, 1972. See a big city writer did a book on the topic in 1974 a couple of years after it happened. His deep investigation seemed to involved going out and drinking and smoking pot with the Hippies. The towns people meanwhile had more than their fill of the mainstream media. The incident drew attention nation wide and as far away as Paris, as in France. The media including papers from the nearest big city, which was Kansas City, in lockstep portrayed the peaceful little town as backwards, unenlightened, cows roaming the streets, etc. The big city writer was a member of the “New Journalism” trend. That means as long as the story ends up in the same place, you can make up conversations, add or remove people or events all to make the story “better”. So in other words, pretty much like all the media today, though back then few were doing it. But big city writer was one of them that did.

I’m giving you teacup versions of some of this, I don’t want to spoil the book, but tell enough for you to see the similarities.

So what did happen? In 1972 the hippie movement was in full swing, and little Harrisonville a mainly agricultural bedroom city of Kansas City had an infestation. I’m not going to cover a lot in case you want to read the book, but to give you and idea the hippies had basically made the square a nightmare to go visit or shop. The square was full of merchants at the time, clothing, drug stores, a sears store, hardware, jewelry, soda fountains, lawyers, pretty much everything. In the center of it is the courthouse built in 1844. It’s beautiful. The hippies would play frisbee in the streets not allowing traffic to flow on the series of one way streets, they would cat call and make lewd comments to women and girls shopping, they hassled the old men that liked to sit in the sun on the park benches and visit, they had sex in the bushes around or near the courthouse. In general, the merchants and everyone else was more than a little tired of them. Any attempts to get them to try to fit into polite society (be respectful of others) was met with things like “it’s my right to be in the street” (blocking traffic so that it backs up and people can’t make their doctors appointment) or something along those lines. This can be seen today in the number of conservative speakers that show up on a college campus to share a different view point than that of the college indoctrination team (professors). They are shouted down, prevented from speaking even if they were paid to be there, as the little vermin cry it’s their first amendment right to bang garbage can lids to prevent some one else from speaking. Basically the hippies regarded anything they wanted to do as their right to do it. They also opposed the Viet Nam war, and were totally on board with the green agenda. They may not have known much of anything, but they proclaimed it very loudly.

Law enforcement, well, since the hippies hated them they tried to make law enforcement officers miserable at every turn. Law enforcement hated them right back. Then you add in pressure from the community for them to do something, it wasn’t safe for decent folks any more. And it wasn’t. Law enforcement started trying to crack down, which the hippies hated. The merchants really hated the hippies at this point.

So what happened? A hippie named Bucket O’Chum “snapped”. He took his M-1 carbine and killed two police officers, one of them being my friend’s cousin-in-law. She said he was one of the nicest guys you’d ever want to meet. The other officer had only been on the job a month and was only working that day because another officer had wanted to switch shifts. After he put several rounds into both officers who had been standing and talking to 3 other men on the square, he headed up the road a short walk to the County jail, just a block or so away. On the way he shot a man getting out of his truck to drop off some dry cleaning. That man later died. The sheriff and his family lived at the front of the jail. They were sitting down to supper. The sheriff heard the shots, and went outside. He was shot in the should and leg for his efforts, he made it back inside his home and got his wife to safety. Bucket O’Chum was seen trying to open the door to the old age home located near the county jail. In a great mercy, I believe it was either that day, or the day before the old age home (as I believe it was called in the book) had decided to keep it’s exterior doors locked because of the trouble the hippies were causing on the square. So after he couldn’t get in there, he went to the jail. After shooting the sheriff and being denied the opportunity to kill innocent elderly citizens he proceed to what I would argue should have been his step #1. He put the gun in his mouth and killed himself. In the doorway of the old age home.

In the aftermath, the media descended. Hard to believe isn’t it? That the media can descend any lower than they already are? /snark font

As I’ve said, the media was horribly unfair. The town clammed up, the hippies didn’t. The media has leaned left for years and this occasion was no different. The law enforcement felt like their hands were tied as they were being blamed for the whole mess. So they treaded lightly. And the hippies were there in full bloom. Continuing to hassle citizens, block roads etc after the 3 day curfew ended. And then, then an amazing thing happened. The people had enough. On a Friday night about 150 farmers, townsmen, merchants and just every day citizens met on the square that night. The patrolled the square and the hippies that decided to proclaim loudly they had a right to be there and act however they wanted were politely invited to leave. With an ax handle if need be. Hippies cruising the square in their cars were told to go away. Responses of “its my right to be here” got the driver a butt kicking. And I’m guessing some of those old farm boys know how to do that just fine. The citizens patrol lasted 3 nights, and then it was over. There was much soul searching which I won’t go into, a wonderful letter was written by a WWII veteran named John Leach about “Who’s Fault”, and it was good. He brought the parents of the hooligans into focus, and the fact these kids didn’t work. Yes, they lived at home off their parents. Some in their 20s.

Here’s an aerial photo of the path Bucket O’Chum took if you want to see how close together things are located.

So lets look at some of the ideology involved. The following are mostly quotes from the book, in italics. My comments aren’t.

I think it was within a week of the murders that the city leaders tried to have a meeting with the hippies. They tried to explain to the hippies why and which of their actions were the problems.

The city representatives spoke about the hippies’ vulgar language, urinating in the bushes, sex in cars, and blocking access to businesses on the square. The aldermen suggested that hippies should congregate somewhere other than the square. The notion that they should leave the square did not sit well with the hippies. Edwin Allen protested, “That’s being discriminatory! If we want to be there, we have a God-Given right.” Allen also claimed that anyone complaining about the hippies being bad for business was being, “discriminatory.” Alderman Hacker told the hippies, “If all of you were working you might have time to relate these experiences that are troublesome and not right. Why don’t you have a job?”

Shortly after the shooting, F. Russell Millin, chairman of the Missouri Law Enforcement Assistance Council, (the LEAC), reached out to Chief Davis and a couple of other aldermen and asked if they wanted his group to come to town and help calm things down with the hippies.

The “help” they sent was a psychologist and a doctor of economics and social studies.

Dr. Jan Roosa (who spoke to the hippies using “far out” or “out of sight”, typical hippie jargon of the time) His partner and good friend Dr. Frank “Gene” Wagner

Wagner, an academic liberal sporting longer hair, had led the first anti-war march in Kansas City nine years before.

Oh goodie, an absolutely neutral pair to carry on the negotiations!

They sure missed something. Their “outsider,” a professor of some reputation from UMKC,quoted Mao Tse Tung as one of the wisest men in history. He used one of Chairman Mao’s sayings as a guideline to achieve the desired goals of the community. After the meeting, Wagner was said to have held court outside the building, preaching to all who would listen regarding the criminality of the Vietnam war, the benefits of communism, and the ridiculousness of Christianity. To say that these views did not go over well with the audience would be an understatement.

By the end of the doctors time, even they were beginning to realize the hippies didn’t want to find solutions, they wanted to pitch a hissy fit and have everything go their way. The more things change…

I’m really beginning to dislike hippies. Generally, the talk centers around their wants, their rights, what’s wrong with the town, and what a bum rap their getting…They are so sure that only they have the right answer (to everything.) In many ways they are much more conservative than many of the adult members of the community.

Still not so much on the neutral I think.

The hippies gave a list of suggestions to the doctors for the community leaders to enact.

Hippie Demands

1.Openness with respect to black—white relations

2.A commitment to the peace movement

3.A knowledge of ecology and the problems of pollution

4.Recognition of the social-economic-political challenges that were taking place in the larger society

5.A reasonable explanation of our reason or “purpose” in being involved in the communities’ affairs.

Seriously? This is what the hippies think will fix things?

Suggestions

Jobs without restrictions regarding hairstyle and mode of dress. The community should come to realize that they stereotype all long-haired youth as revolutionaries, indigent and lazy when such is not the case.

Businesses, particularly those on the square should realize that it is not the presence of the “long hairs” on the square that is effecting [sic] business as much as it is changes in the economic structure of the community.

Training and screening of police. Insistence that the police get to know the “long hairs” and not apply a double standard toward them with respect to enforcement of the law, relative to other members of the community.

Schools should overcome the traditional approach to teaching and adopt courses which are more relevant to the age. One quotation by a member of the group was “how can they say that Columbus discovered America when he was met at the beach by Indians.” They requested the introduction of courses on ecology, law, justice, communication …[unreadable] … and economics into the school curriculum. They were quite interested in the techniques whereby a group negotiates for changes in the community.

They requested that the police not be armed with riot guns and that they refrain from making threatening comments to the “long hairs.” They commented that one of the police sergeants had threatened them with a “shoot-out” on the square.

So basically it doesn’t matter what the employer wants in an employee, the hippies will dress, behave and stink as they choose. And give them jobs anyway. Because that’s how the world works to the left. I notice they beat Lori Lightweight and Alvin Bragg in demanding police be disarmed. They wanted law enforcement’s hands tied down to the ineffective level. Much like you see antifa and blm attack peaceful conservative rally goers these days and the police don’t intervene.

The the doctors met with the community leaders.

Throughout their description of the meeting, the writers of the report continually reference how they intellectually bested the mayor and City Council members by using certain mental techniques, as well as never falling into “traps” that the council members would try to lure them. Traps such as agreeing that if the hippies just followed certain rules the situation would improve.

Yeah, the doctors are completely neutral…insert face palm here.

Here’s the list of things the community leaders wanted. Anything different from today? Just like today parents and many community leaders in sane cities don’t want CRT or gender grooming taught in schools, in 1972 community leaders had things they thought the hippies should do, or not as the case may be.

Show regard for other members of the community and not harass them regarding their conservative way of life. “You drive a car, and these damn hippies tell you your [sic] polluting the air.”

Not make opportunities for themselves by the use of threats to other members of the community.

Talk to the members of the council or members of the school board not to the young people of the town if the “street people” wished to bring about changes in the town. The mayor stated that he was an easy man to talk to and that the young adults had failed to avail themselves of his office.

The young adults should develop a self-respect, having done this, the responsible citizens would be willing to give them a chance … [unreadable] …not insist upon “starting at the top.” At least one member insisted that under no circumstances would he be willing to offer a job to the “gang on the square.” He viewed such a move as a sell-out. Others however said that they would provide some of the group with jobs.

Meet the norms of the jobs as defined by the employer; quite a few of the council members insisted that while they did not object to long hair, their customers did and as a result, it was impossible to provide them with jobs if they insisted upon dressing like a “bunch of hippies”.

Stop blocking traffic in the square, conduct themselves in an orderly fashion, not molest the young girls, and not block the steps to the courthouse.

There is nothing unreasonable in there.

When discussing the citizen’s vigilance committee:

The committee’s intention was not to seriously injure anyone. They simply wanted to make sure the hippies, particularly the 10 – 20 “hard core” leaders, were removed from the Harrisonville Square. Leach would later admit, “We realize that this wasn’t exactly the American way of doing things. But it was the last resort. We’d tried everything else, and it hadn’t worked.”

Summarizing the actions of the Vigilance Committee later, Sheriff Bill Gough said:

… the people had enough and put an end to it. There was a gathering of citizens – about 150 of them. They broke up the hanging around on the square. They did some harassing of their own. But I saw no violence. It’s been pretty peaceful since the people made their point. When people get enough of anything, they put an end to it. They’ve (the hippies) scattered. Some are still here but they don’t gather at the courthouse anymore.

I bolded a couple of things, not the author. And this is one of my points. When people have had enough, they figure something out. They communicate with each other, they gather information and they find a way. That’s why there is such an effort to shut down free speech. That’s why the covid lock downs were so important to them, to sever normal community relationships or weaken the bonds. Strong communities come together, then they work together.

Soon after the shootings and later in time, many of those involved were asked a version of that same question. Some local authorities seemed to believe that if something had been done more quickly, the situation would not have escalated to the point that it did. Sheriff Gough said, “My personal opinion is that it never would have happened if we hadn’t let it go so far.” G.M. Allen voiced a similar sentiment when asked how the city would handle a comparable situation in the future, answered “We might not let it go so long before trying to put it down. Most people had the idea that if we ignored it, it would go away.”

Both Sheriff Gough and G.M. Allen admitted that authorities should have acted earlier to quell the undesirable actions by the hippies on the square. In any situation of authority, it is always easier to stop behaviors when they first appear as opposed to trying to stop them after the violator has been allowed the freedom to take these actions for a longer period of time.

I heard a snippet of a podcast, listed below the 2:18 section on burn out. Yes, the evil that is in our country has gone on for a very long time. Demoncrats have been interfering in elections for years, the CIA, ATF and FIB are corrupt and anti-American.

Everyone knew before the elections Joe Biden was taking money from China, and Hunter’s laptop really was a thing. The swamp runs deep and wide. Yes, it’s gone on too long. I blame the media for this as there was only a few people telling the truth and Tucker Carlson was one of the most fearless. So FOX in an effort to out-do Inbev (they bought Anheuser-Busch, makers of the beer formerly known as Bud Light) decided to crash their own network and can Tucker. Most popular show on cable news, ever. But regardless of the mainstream media, we still have U.S. We have each other. And we, we can speak the truth. From today’s Daily Dose,

Chutzpah!

The first thing you must know before anything else applies: Truth demands chutzpah.

If what you are doing is the right thing to do, there will be others who will ridicule, taunt and attempt in every way to intimidate you. That is the way the world works.

If you can’t handle it, if you can’t ignore them as you would ignore flies on a camping trip, don’t imagine you can take a single step forward.

Only once you’ve passed the chutzpah test, only then can you begin to grow.

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Courts, duty, Law, shooting

Yet Another Interesting Baldwin/Rust Shooting Development

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You may recall that I’ve been wondering how a live round ever made it onto the Rust set.

One thing that always bothered me was presence of live rounds on site at all. Where did they come from? Who brought them? How did at least one end up in the gun?

We may have a better idea of who that was, now. Armorer Gutierrez-Reed had tried suggesting the company that supplied blanks had mixed the live rounds in with the right stuff. The forensic examination of components strongly suggested otherwise. Then there was the report that she had retrieved the gun after the shooting, before the police arrived, and removed the spent case. That’s odd,and sounds rather like tampering with evidence.

I just ran across this tidbit, which — if true — may explain a lot.

The New York Post reports that police gathered text messages from Reed that indicated she had attempted to use live ammunition on the set of her previous film.

Did she bring them again, for the Rust filming? And was she trying to conceal evidence of what she’d done? I suppose we’ll see when her trial starts.

This may be part of the new forensic evidence that the prosecutors cited when dropping charges against Baldwin for now. I still think the actor completely failed to exercise “due caution and circumspection,” but if Gutierrez-Reed herself knowingly brought the live rounds onto the set, and loaded one into the gun, a lot more of the culpability for the resulting death and injury shifts her way. Not all, but some.

 

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Law, Media

Baldwin’s Gun Was Modified?

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This claim comes via the not-so-reliable LA Times.

‘Rust’ prosecutors drop charges against Alec Baldwin after questions over gun misfire
The development came after prosecutors received new information in the case — that Baldwin’s prop gun had been modified before being delivered to the low-budget western in October 2021, according to three people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to comment.

The replica of the vintage weapon — a Colt .45 revolver — had been modified , increasing the odds that the gun might have misfired, as Baldwin has said, according to the sources.

Methinks someone neglected to read the FBI forensic report on the testing of the gun. Here’s is the relevant portion (page 6).

TL;DR: They tried to force it to fire without pulling the trigger by pounding on the hammer with a mallet 1) with the hammer down, 2) at quarter cock, 3) at half cock, and 4) at full cock. The only detonation occurred in the full cock position…

…when they pounded the hammer so hard that the sear sheered.

Prior to the breakage, the gun operated properly and would not fire.

Accidental Discharge Testing

Hammer at rest (de-cocked on a loaded chamber)
With the hammer at rest on a loaded chamber, Item 2 detonated a primer without a pull of the trigger when the hammer was struck directly. With a revolver of this design, when the hammer is at rest on a loaded chamber, the firing pin sits directly on the primer of the cartridge. When force is applied to the hammer, such as striking or dropping, it can fire the cartridge without a pull of the trigger. This is consistent with normal operation for a single-action revolver of this design.

Hammer at ¼ and ½ cock positions
With the hammer in the ¼ and ½ cock positions, Item 2 could not be made to fire without a pull of the trigger. When enough pressure was applied to the trigger, each of these safety positions were overcome and the hammer fell. This is consistent with normal operation for a single-action revolver of this design.

With the hammer in the ¼ cock position, pressure was applied to the trigger and the hammer fell, however the firing pin did not have enough force to detonate the primer and resulted in light firing pin strikes.

With the hammer in the ½ cock position, pressure was applied to the trigger and the hammer fell, however the cylinder could not be properly aligned to the bore, the firing pin struck the outer headstamp area and did not detonate the primer.

Hammer at full cock position

With the hammer in the full cock position, Item 2 could not be made to fire without a pull of the trigger while the working internal components were intact and functional. During this testing, portions of the trigger sear and cylinder stop fractured while the hammer was struck. The fracture of these internal components allowed the hammer to fall and the firing pin and detonated the primer. This was the only successful discharge during this testing and it was attributed to the fracture of internal components, not the failure of the firearm or safety mechanisms.

This claim that the gun was modified makes me wonder if they got the gun back from the FBI, noticed that now it can misfire, but overlooked the FBI statement that they broke the sear themselves, which most definitely had been working properly pre-mallet-pounding.

I’d like to know who these unnamed sources are, and just what their “familiarity” is. Designated defense teams leakers, perhaps?

 

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Culture, gun control, Humor, Law

Gun Control Schadenfreude

I don’t normally turn to Vice for news, but this is too good to skip.

The Washington state legislature passed an “assault weapons ban,” HB 1240. It seems to be fairly bog standard as these things go: cosmetic characteristics that they swear “are not “merely cosmetic”,” and doesn’t actually ban any existing firearm. Just future sales and transfers. But…

Ah, schadenfreude! Vice, for once, is freaking out over a gun control law, because the Washington lefties…

Washington Is Banning Assault Rifles and Left-Wing Gun Owners Are Scared
But some Washington residents told VICE News that they’re worried the ban creates a situation where “traditional” gun owners—white, male conservatives—are sitting on an arsenal of high-powered weapons, which emerging demographics of gun owners, like LGBTQ people, leftists and minorities, no longer have access to.

Suck it up, buttercups. You wanted it, you got it. You should have thought things through.

“This is also the worst time to unilaterally disarm a population of left-minded individuals,” George said. “These next five or 10 years might decide the fate of America, and when the music stops and the next January 6 happens and we’re all scrambling to find a chair, I’m worried that the fascists will be the ones with all the guns.”

I can’t stop chuckling.

But who are the fascists, George? The evil right-wingers who just want to be left alone, or the folks who wanted government control over an entire class of firearms, and the population?

 

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gun control, gun grabbers, Law, Politics, Rights, Terrorism, Violence-Enabling Victim Disarmers

So Much For Workplace Violence

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Based on the majority of snooze stories, I was chalking up the Louisville bank shooting to workplace violence. Multiple reports had it that he had been, or was about to be, fired. Not so much, apparently.

While the Feeble Bureau of Intimidation is all fired up over right-wing domestic extremists and infiltrating conservative Catholic churches, things like lefty women thinking they’re men and shooting schools get missed.

Or lefty gun control activists shooting up banks.

EXCLUSIVE: Motive for massacre: Louisville bank shooter [Whale Chum]* wrote chilling 13-page manifesto laying out his THREE reasons for killing spree: To prove how easy it is to buy a gun, highlight America’s mental health crisis…and kill himself
Louisville bank shooter [Bucket O’Chum]* wrote a chilling manifesto before slaughtering five senior executives at the branch where he worked, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.

[Some asshole] made three key points in the manifesto, which is in the hands of the police: he wanted to kill himself, he wanted to prove how easy it was to buy a gun in Kentucky and he wanted to highlight a mental health crisis in America.

Hmm. On the one hand, he seemingly thought that there’s some much “gun violence” that guns must be further restricted. On the other hand, apparently there wasn’t enough gun violence, so he had to stage some himself.

What the SOB really was… was a terrorist. No different than a psycho suicide bomber.

(A)involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State;
(B)appear to be intended—
(i)to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii)to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or

Good riddance.

Victim disarmers will probably — secretly — consider him a martyr. The Daily Mail report seems to; given the way they use his case to illustrate why he was “right” and Kentucky gun laws are dangerously lax. Why if you aren’t a known criminal, and haven’t been ruled mentally ill, or use illegal drugs, or any of the other restrictions on gun possession, and if you’re old enough… why, you can go to a gun store, undergo a background check (to confirm all the above) and by a gun.

* I won’t give him the post mortem fame he wanted by using his name, unless it’s necessary for research. Clearly, the Daily Mail doesn’t agree; they give his name 33 times in just that one report.

 

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Constitution, Courts, gun control, Law, SCOTUS

Hanson v. DC: “Large Capacity” Magazine Ban

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I’ve only been up for a couple of hours (as I begin typing), and the news is already full of stupidity that I’ll need to address. I’ll lead off with a case challenging Washington, DC’s “large capacity” magazine ban, Hanson v. DC. The judge, one Rudolph Contreras, denied a preliminary injunction against the ban. His… reasoning is… remarkable. Or something; I’m trying to be somewhat polite.

A weapon may have some useful purposes in both civilian and military contexts, but if it is most useful in military service, it is not protected by the Second Amendment.
[…]
[Large capacity magazines] are not covered by the [2A] because they are most useful in military service.

Oddly, Contreras cites HELLER in making that point. I can’t find that argument in HELLER, which was largely about whether non- military weapons could be regulated, and how, but there is this.

It may be objected that if weapons that are most useful in military service—M–16 rifles and the like—may be banned, then the Second Amendment right is completely detached from the prefatory clause. But as we have said, the conception of the militia at the time of the Second Amendment’s ratification was the body of all citizens capable of military service, who would bring the sorts of lawful weapons that they possessed at home to militia duty. It may well be true today that a militia, to be as effective as militias in the 18th century, would require sophisticated arms that are highly unusual in society at large.

Rather the opposite of Contreras’ weasel-wording, eh? Indeed, HELLER even cites the earlier MILLER, which establishes that militarily-useful arms are protected by the Second Amendment.

In the absence of any evidence tending to show that possession or use of a ‘shotgun having a barrel of less than eighteen inches in length’ at this time has some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia, we cannot say that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear such an instrument.

Having chucked decades of SCOTUS precedent already, Contreras proceeds to demonstrate an amazing lack of judicial awareness of current events and Supreme Court decisions. Now that he’s established in his own deluded mind that standard capacity magazines are not 2A-protected, he addresses whether this particular restriction of such magazines is permissable.

WARNING: If you’re drinking, swallow before proceeding, for the protection of your screen.

Under this “two-step approach,” a court must “ask first whether a particular provision impinges upon a right protected by the Second Amendment; if it does, then . . . go on to determine whether the provision passes muster under the appropriate level of constitutional scrutiny.

Umm… BRUEN, moron. (All right; “somewhat polite” is off the table after all.) Associate Justice Thomas spent a fair amount of ink taking lower courts to task for continuing to use the two-step approach.

The Court rejects that two-part approach as having one step too many. Step one is broad y consistent with Heller, which demands a test rooted in the Second Amendment’s text, as informed by history. But Heller and McDonald do not support a second step that applies means-end scrutiny in the Second Amendment context. Heller’s methodology centered on constitutional text and history. It did not invoke any means-end test such as strict or intermediate scrutiny, and it expressly rejected any interest-balancing inquiry akin to intermediate scrutiny.</b
[…]
To justify its regulation, the government may not simply posit that the regulation promotes an important interest.
[…]
The government must then justify its regulation by demonstrating that it is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.

HELLER rejected two-step government interest scrutiny.

MCDONALD rejected two-step government interest scrutiny.

BRUEN rejected two-step government interest scrutiny, and bitch-slapped lower courts for continuing to use it in direct defiance of the Supreme Court.

At this point, I wouldn’t blame Clarence Thomas if he is looking for a 2X4 and Contreras’ home address.

 

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Courts, Law, shooting

Baldwin Shooting Development

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You may have heard that charges are going to be dropped against Alec Baldwin, in the killing of Halyna Hutchins.

Alec Baldwin to Skate as Prosecutors Drop Criminal Charges in Fatal ‘Rust’ Shooting: Reports
Recently appointed special prosecutors Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis are expected file papers shortly to dismiss the involuntary manslaughter claims against Alec Baldwin without prejudice, according to multiple reports, with Deadline first reporting the news on Thursday.

I think it may be a little premature for Baldwin to relax.

1. The report is that the charges will be dropped without prejudice, meaning the charges can be resurrected. Right there, Baldwin is not in the clear yet.

2. The charges against armorer Gutierrez-Reed are apparently not going to be dropped.

3. Assistant director Hall has already been convicted and sentenced for his role.

Something is still up.

Pure speculation: The special prosecutors may have uncovered more evidence, and are considering a different set of charges.

One thing that always bothered me was presence of live rounds on site at all. Where did they come from? Who brought them? How did at least one end up in the gun?

And why?

Gutierrez-Reed’s theory that the blank supplier must have mixed live rounds in her order wasn’t supported by the forensic evidence. The ammunition components were reportedly not a match with the supplier’s components. And it begs the question of why the armorer would have loaded even blanks for a rehearsal that didn’t wasn’t supposed to involve shooting.

Then there’s theory that someone proposed to me in a private conversation: What if someone deliberately loaded live ammo to set up Baldwin, knowing that his lack of firearm safety might nearly guarantee an unfortunate incident?

“Without prejudice.” Maybe some of those questions are being asked. Maybe even answered.

 

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Yes, it is sad, and also the MSM stinks

I heard about a shooting in Clay County Missouri. Apparently a 16 year old went to pick up his siblings and went to the wrong address, street instead of terrace.

Stories vary, but the things that are the same are the homeowner was a 84 year old man who had gone to bed for the night. He heard someone ring his doorbell, and he got up to answer the door. It after 2200 at night, so he took his firearm.

Now this part differs. The homeowner said he opened the door to see a 6 foot tall black male trying to open his exterior storm door. Ralph Yarl the boy that was shot, says he didn’t try to open the door.

The homeowner fired two shots through the door, hitting once in the head, once in the arm. The boy then ran off and went to three different houses before someone called 9-1-1. Which I believe the homeowner had already called. He told the police it was the last thing he wanted to do but he was scared because of the boy’s size and his age.

Apparently for some reason the Clay County prosecutor has decided that constitutes a racial component. Unless the racial component was the homeowner saying “Don’t come around here”. But Zachary Thompson the “Prosecutor”, has decided that is racial. In another report the prosecutor says no words were exchanged.

Meanwhile neighbors also thought something was off.

A witness said they heard an unknown vehicle pull into the driveway of Lester’s address. The witness “thought it was odd for their elderly neighbor to have a visitor this late at night,” according to the statement.

So, late night visitors are not a normal occurrence at the 84 year old homeowners house.

All this is very sad. The boy seems to be recovering, last I saw, he spent a day or so in the hospital and is now recovering at home. None of the following is to say it’s not tragic. It is. A 16 year old was shot and an 84 year old may spend the rest of his life in prison, if the media doesn’t kill him first.

The media totally sucks. All of them.

#FakeNews narrative

They’ve given out the 85 year old’s name, photograph and address. Yes, in some reports the homeowner is 85. His house has now been vandalized.

Every news story you see about this, the main focus is white man shot black teen for ringing the wrong doorbell. If it had been a 85 year old black man would that make him less shot? If it had been a 6 foot 16 year old white boy, would that make him less shot? But race is the whole thing the media and Hollyweird types are focusing on. Meanwhile Channel 9 news is taking this opportunity to say the Castle Doctrine needs to be re-visited. No, it doesn’t. Although I have no faith in the justice system, I’m hoping in this case it will be better.

Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised the media is making this all about race. I’m not sure if it was Yuri Besmenov that said the communists couldn’t really get a toe hold in America using class, because (at the time) America had a vibrant middle class of any race. Therefore they went with race to create the divisions in our society that they need.

The media is happily playing along. But then the family has hired Benjamin Crump, the race baiting attorney of other national cases.

Yarl’s family has retained nationally renowned civil rights and personal injury attorneys Ben Crump and Lee Merritt in this case.

Crump is perhaps best known for handling cases in the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and more.

His family also started a GoFundMe page. $2,523,790 raised of $2,500,000 goal

The whole thing is sad, for everyone involved. But the media is bound and determined to make this another city burned to the ground. Since every article that showed up in my web search listed the race of the people involved, that’s the story. Not something tragic happened, and it is tragic for both, but a chance to foment another riot. And those news stations in Kansas City that are playing along better think twice, because the riots in other cities didn’t always exempt buildings just because you were on their side.

I was texting with my buddy in Nicaragua earlier today. I had sent him the photos from the “news media” along with some thoughts. I told him I see what is happening, our readers see what is happening, I don’t want to be only a voice of doom and gloom. Tomorrow is Yom HaShoah, I know G-d is in control of everything. But Yom HaShoah reminds me that sometimes really bad things do happen, and they don’t make sense to me. They do him, but not to me. He said why don’t you share the meditation from today? It’s perfect.

Today is the 11th day of the Omer. We choose what we let in through our gates. Maybe not our country’s, but our own.

Day 11 of Counting the Omer
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Bump-Fire, Constitution, gun control, Law, Politics, Rights, SCOTUS, Sellouts and traitors

Trump Vows To Do More

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Trump spoke at the NRA’s annual meeting.

Reminding gun owners what he did for the protection of the Second Amendment and pledging to do much more, former President Donald Trump closed the National Rifle Association’s main event Friday with a stemwinder that brought the crowd to its feet.

What he did for 2A protection? Lessee…

He did roll back a bizarre interpretation of 3D printer files as munitions (something that report falsely characterizes as “banning 3D-printed guns”). And he reversed the VA’s blatantly unconstitutional and illegal reporting of people to NICS. I’ll give him those.

On the other hand, he also signed Fix NICS, prompting states to arbitrarily convert more people into prohibited persons and felons.

And there was that Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals appointee who thinks, “the Second Amendment has no application to state laws.” What could possibly go wrong?

Even more damaging, he magically turned inert pieces plastic into machineguns, by executive fiat. That did more damage to 2A-protected rights than any Dim president had managed in decades. Estimates vary, but turned tens to hundreds of thousands of people into unindicted felons. And more than a few indicted and convicted.

Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Kinda cool. Well, Trump did used to be a Dimocrat.

He established the precedent that federal bureaucrats are free to redefine words at will, without enabling legislation, to call any damned thing they want “machineguns.” And the ATF immediately ran with it; they live for this… excrement.

The Rare Breed Triggers FRT-15 trigger group, which requires the trigger be pulled for each round fired, suddenly became a “machinegun,” by using the exact same “logic” of “operation of operation of the trigger” really meaning “volitional movement of the finger. Oops; more newly-minted felons.

On a roll with redefining words, they came for pictures. Yep, thanks to Trump’s precedent, the ATF decided that line drawings of unassembled pieces of lightning links really are machineguns. A couple of folks are on trial for that even now, including a guy who let people run ads for the Auto Keycard, but never even sold them himself.

The Trump precedential damage continued with braced pistols becoming short-barrel rifles, after they specifically were not. But at least they gave you the options of begging permission to pay for the privilege of keeping them, or self-incriminating and hoping they’d make an exception for you. More felons.

And he’s “pledging to do much more?” While didn’t act on them before, Trump has supported no-due process red flag orders, raising the age to buy any firearm to 21, and an “assault weapon” ban. Is that the “more” he’s promising? If the Dims were paying attention, they’d nominate Trump themselves over Xiden.

On the bright side, Trump’s Supreme Court picks might… might eventually repair the damage he did to the Second Amendment. But his actions will still cost us millions of dollars in legal expenses, endless man hours, and hard work — not to mention the harm done to plaintiffs and improperly charged defendants — to get the Court to reverse him. (And note that the brilliant BRUEN decision was not written by a Trump appointee.)

If it were just his SCOTUS picks, economic work, and the incredible Abraham Accords, I’d be happy to see Trump elected again. But the man has zero impulse control on Second Amendment issues; he can demonstrably be panicked into rash action by any high profile incident.

And we have to live with his impulses.

 

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When Rights are Privileges

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As you may, or not know, the United Nations has claimed there is no human right to self-defense.

Does a woman have a human right to resist rape or murder? Do people have a human right to resist tyranny? The United Nations Human Rights Council has said no – that international law recognizes no human right of self-defense. To the contrary, the Human Rights Council declares that very severe gun control – more restrictive than even the laws of New York City – is a human right.

Unless of course, one is a member of the U.N.

“Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defence shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and security.”

I would maintain that this is because the U.N. thinks they are G-d. G-d has a different command.

“If someone rises to kill you, rise up to kill him first.” This one is an under 8 minute video.

Psalms 144:1

1 Praise be to the L-RD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.

As well as we are commanded to look out for the weaker or helpless.

Psalms 82:4

4 Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

So, what has set me off on this? An incident that happened in formerly red state Texas. And maybe Texas is still a red state, Austin however, is not. If Texas had any sense they would expel Austin.

In July 2020, during the summer of riots for a man that overdosed on drugs, had a criminal record including pointing a gun at a pregnant woman’s stomach, a BLM/Antifa rioter decided it would be a great idea to point a loaded rifle at a soldier who was working as a ride share driver. Apparently BLM/Antifa scum thought he would be the only one armed. He guessed wrong. Sgt. Daniel Perry was armed. When his car was surrounded after he had dropped his passenger off, and aforementioned BLM/Antifa rioter pointed his rifle at Sgt. Perry, Sgt. Perry shot him. This seems sensible to me.

This will be the last sensible thing in this saga for some time.

The Travis county jury found Sgt. Perry guilty of murder. Unbelievable. But wait, there’s more.

Detective In Daniel Perry Self-Defense Case Says Soros-Backed Prosecutor Told Him To “Remove Exculpatory Information”

Fugitt said, “It became clear to me that the District Attorney’s office did not want to present evidence to the grand jury that would be exculpatory to Daniel Perry and/or show the witnesses statements obtained by the family of Garrett Foster and/or their attorneys were inconsistent with prior interviews such witnesses gave the police and/or the video of the incident in question.

And now we’re at the point where the adults are going to have to intercede.

Texas AG Paxton Slams Soros-Backed DA After Jury Finds Army Sergeant Guilty of Murder For Fatally Shooting Armed BLM-Antifa Protester in Self-Defense

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton slammed Soros-backed Travis County DA Jose Garza after a jury convicted a Texas soldier of murder for shooting a BLM-Antifa terrorist in self-defense.

A Texas soldier was found guilty of murder on Friday after Soros-backed District Attorney Jose Garza sought murder charges for an act of self defense during the 2020 George Floyd riots.

Texas AG Ken Paxton slammed the Soros prosecutor after Governor Abbott refused appear on Tucker Carlson’s show to speak on the case.

Apparently the State of Texas no longer recognizes the right of self-defense. @GregAbbott_TX is welcome to come on and discuss. pic.twitter.com/A7o5MvZTVy

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) April 8, 2023

Texas Governor Seeks to Pardon Army Sergeant Convicted of Killing Gun-Wielding Protester

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he is seeking to pardon the U.S. Army sergeant who was convicted of shooting dead a man wielding a gun at him during a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020.

Abbott announced on April 8 that he will pardon Sgt. Daniel Perry, 37, who was working for Uber in Austin at the time, as soon as a request from the state’s parole board “hits my desk.”

“I am working as swiftly as Texas law allows regarding the pardon of Sgt. Perry,” Abbott wrote on Twitter.

I would say our criminal justice system is well and truly jacked up. But what should we expect when you have people that actually vote for a communist that says he wants to send unarmed social workers out to crime scenes. Yep, that’s what Chiraq chose to replace Beetlejuice in Chicago, whom they wanted rid of due to the spiraling crime rates. Frying pan, meet fire.

There is a heck of a disconnect between the brain of a leftist and reality. Of course, if they used voting machines for the elections, who knows.

Chicago Mayor-Elect Brandon Johnson (D) told CBS News on Thursday his plan to tackle the city’s crime problem: Send more social workers to crime scenes.

Johnson, a staunch progressive, pointed to instances where police killed black men as evidence to say more police officers are not the solution.

While this is away from the topic of self-defense, it does I think give a clue to the mindset of the politicians on the left.

IT NEVER ENDS: Biden Regime Set to Unleash Scheme to Wipe Out Gasoline-Powered Cars

The Biden regime is determined to force Americans to swallow their radical “climate change” agenda by any means necessary.

FOX News revealed that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will announce the most restrictive standards in American history on gas-powered cars. The regulations will specifically target tailpipe emissions.

Under this plan, all Americans will likely be forced to buy electric vehicles, which is exactly what Biden wants.

Did this go through Congress? Senate? House? Hellloooo, did ya’ll vote for this? You’re our elected representatives, you answer to U.S. Did you sign off on this? Or did a tyrant just hijack your job in another blatant attempt to help China and limit the freedom of movement of American Citizens? The EPA, I don’t remember voting for them.

This is where I’m going with this, yes, there is a Second Amendment. However, if the Soros purchased D.A.s just ignore it (for some, not the protected class of course) and go ahead a prosecute even in a clear case of self-defense, does it matter? No ammo or guns were banned, it’s just if you defend yourself they will try to bankrupt you, or put you in jail for defending your life. If you’re not one of the BLM/Antifa rioters, or a repeat offender criminal, those they do catch and release.

Sometimes I read threads on Quora, there are discussion thread on all kinds of things. You might be reading a thread on a TV show, and the next thread under it is a question posted about “what would happen if I decided to take a gun away from someone I saw carrying” “Is there any reason I and some friends shouldn’t follow someone into a bathroom we know is carrying a gun and take it away from them”. “When will gun owners admit their right to have their weapons of death should not interfere with my right to feel safe”.

It is absolutely appalling to me the number of people that think they have the right to forcibly take private property from someone they don’t know, they aren’t doing anything wrong, and these moonbats think they are well within their rights to attack someone and steal from them. Thank you colleges, universities and MSM aka #FakeNews. If anything ever was a argument for concealed carry, it’s this sort of thing.

There is NO common ground to be found with these people. None.

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