Category Archives: Law

Beyond Judicial Incompetence

This is deliberate lies. Conflation, willfully mischaracterizing SCOTUS precedents.

Last week, I called out Beth Alcazar for accepting the victim disarmers’ große Lüge of conflating assault rifle with arbitrary “assault weapon.”

This is why. The Dishonorable Josephine L. Staton misapplied intermediate scrutiny in Rupp v. Becerra, a challenge to California’s “assault weapon” ban. This oath-breaking piece of… work ruled against the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgement, and granted Becerra’s.

The conflation lie shows up immediately.

Thus, in 1999, the AWCA was amended to allow legislators to define a new class of restricted weapons according to their features rather than by model. Under the 1999 amendments, a weapon was an “assault rifle” if it had “the capacity to accept a detachable magazine,” and any of the following features:

Right there, she falsely states that the law was about assault rifles, which leads her to claim…

Indeed, the Court concludes that semiautomatic rifles are virtually indistinguishable from M-16s.

Since the differences — receiver milling, bolt group, trigger group, and select-fire capability had been explained to the court, she is flat out lying. She rationalizes with something about which The Zelman Partisans have been warning you: rate of fire.

In enacting the now-defunct federal ban on assault rifles, Congress found that their rate of fire––300 to 500 rounds per minute–– makes semiautomatic rifles “virtually indistinguishable in practical effect from machineguns.

Again with the assault rifle conflation, and a deliberate mischaracterization of The Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act of 1994 which defined “assault weapons” as something distinctly different than assault rifles.

Then there is this:

In District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment confers an individual right to keep and bear arms.

Yet another outright lie. In HELLER, SCOTUS most carefully noted that the Second Amendment protects a preexisting right.

The Antifederalists feared that the Federal Government would disarm the people in order to disable this citizens’ militia, enabling a politicized standing army or a select militia to rule. The response was to deny Congress power to abridge the ancient right of individuals to keep and bear arms, so that the ideal of a citizens’ militia would be preserved.
Pp. 22–28.
(c) The Court’s interpretation is confirmed by analogous arms-bearing rights in state constitutions that preceded and immediately followed the Second Amendment. Pp. 28–30.
(d) The Second Amendment’s drafting history, while of dubious interpretive worth, reveals three state Second Amendment proposals that unequivocally referred to an individual right to bear arms.
Pp. 30–32.
(e) Interpretation of the Second Amendment by scholars, courts and legislators, from immediately after its ratification through the late 19th century also supports the Court’s conclusion.

Moving on to another lie…

Because the Court concludes that semiautomatic assault rifles are essentially indistinguishable from M-16s, which Heller noted could be banned pursuant to longstanding prohibitions on dangerous and usual weapons, the Court need not reach the question of whether semiautomatic rifles are excluded from the Second Amendment because they are not in common use for lawful purposes like self-defense.

“Not in common use…” Reality begs to differ. AR-pattern rifles are often used for self defense. And hunting. Not to mention various other shooting sports. What in the flaming heck does Staton think people are doing with more than 16 million AR- and AK-pattern firearms?

But now that the “Honorable” Judge Malfeasance has equated semi-automatic ARs to select-fire M-16s, another Supreme Court precedent comes into play: MILLER.

In Miller, SCOTUS found that — because no one showed up to counter the prosecution’s ridiculous claim that the military doesn’t use short-barrel shotguns — short-barrel shotguns could be regulated under the NFA. Weapons suitable for militia use could not be regulated.

Staton has just ruled that semi-automatic AR-15 are military weapons. Under MILLER, the possession of them by individuals (See HELLER) is most certainly protected by the Second Amendment.

Reading her ruling alternates between infuriating and mind-numbing.

A pistol grip increases a shooter’s ability to control the rifle and reload rapidly while firing multiple rounds.

I have no idea what a pistol grip on a rifle with a forward magazine well has to do with reloading, but I’m not a lobotomized federal judge.

Regarding adjustable stocks…

Further, the shorter the rifle, the easier it is to conceal

Apparently she chooses to ignore statutory limits on the “concealability of rifles, since the minimum length of a non-NFA rifle is 26 inches.

Finally, flash suppressors reduce the flash emitted upon firing and aid a shooter in low-light conditions while also concealing his or her position, especially at night

Flash hiders don’t hide the flash from others. They don’t “conceal” the shooter’s position.

As discussed throughout, that the rifles are more accurate and easier to control is precisely why California has chosen to ban them.

Then ban sights and rifling, since they make all firearms more accurate. Legalize full-auto — nay, make full-auto mandatory, since, as this dishonest scum notes:

automatic fire “is inherently less accurate than semiautomatic fire.”

Clearly California, and Staton, wants firearms to be as inaccurate as possible, for the sake of public safety.

For the foregoing reasons LIES, MISCHARACTERIZATIONS, MISINTERPRETATIONS, AND ARBITRARY DECLARATIONS the Court GRANTS the Attorney General’s Motion for Summary Judgment and DENIES Plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Judgment.

Fixed it for you.

For this ruling alone, Staton should be impeached. Then indicted, tried, convicted, and sentenced for malfeasance in office.

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“Registered”

Back in May, I noticed something odd in a Hillsborough County (FL) Sheriffs Office press release about a man arrested for shooting his girlfriend. I mean odd beyond the guy using a loaded gun for foreplay (pro-tip: don’t do that).

“involving his registered hand gun.” While most people realize that very few states have any sort of firearms registration — and Florida is not one of them — Florida takes it a little farther with FS 790.335.

(2) Prohibitions.–No state governmental agency or local government, special district, or other political subdivision or official, agent, or employee of such state or other governmental entity or any other person, public or private, shall knowingly and willfully keep or cause to be kept any list, record, or registry of privately owned firearms or any list, record, or registry of the owners of those firearms.

(4) Penalties.–

(a) Any person who, or entity that, violates a provision of this section commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.

In Florida, creating a firearm registry is a third degree felony good for five years in prison. So why did HCSO claim the perp’s gun was “registered”?

It took a month and a half, with multiple emails to HCSO and the Florida Attorney General’s office, but I got an answer.

Hello Carl,
That was an error on our part. It was meant to imply that the man involved had a legally purchased gun, since media was inquiring if it was stolen or not.
We realize that there is not a gun registry. Here is a link to the updated article:

https://www.hcso.tampa.fl.us/About-HCSO/Press-Releases/Releases/2019/May/19-239.aspx

Thank you,

Crystal Clark
Chief Communications Officer
Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office
Email: cmclark@hcso.tampa.fl.us
Office: 813-247-8094

Given that only nine (ten, sort of) states have any form of firearm registration, and Florida has a statute making the creation of a registry a felony, why in the world would it even occur to them to use “registered” to imply “lawfully owned” or simply “his”?

It will likely take another six weeks to get that answer.

[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]

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Haters

You know, it seems more and more often I hear the left justify their criminal behavior as “fighting hate”, “fighting evil” “fighting fascism” or another one I hear from time to time, “Trump is so evil”. No, I don’t believe President Trump is evil, misguided and screws up? Yep. But I notice those that claim he is “evil” usually do so because he is denying them something they want such as illegal immigrants voting, or on welfare, or how about just coming here illegally, un-vetted and we have no idea who they are, what diseases they have or what their character is.

Recently a conservative journalist was attacked in the city of Portland Oregon. A shame and disgrace, Portland used to be a very beautiful city. I very much enjoyed my trips there when I was younger. But Portland has become a liberal haven, like Berkeley. And like Berkeley, antifa flourishes. What is antifa like?

I’m reading a book right now called Women Heroes of WWII.

He instituted the Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth), a state-run program for all children ages 10–18. The Hitler Youth program was geared to make Germany’s children proud, militant Nazis. They engaged in warlike games, killed small animals (to become insensitive to suffering and death), sang songs about German streets running with Jewish blood, and were encouraged toward fanatical, personal devotion to Hitler, a devotion that was to take precedence over their relationships with their parents. (Children were encouraged to turn in their own parents to the Gestapo if they heard them say anything against the Führer.)

The members of antifa certainly fit that description! My Mom and I were talking the other night and she was telling me a statistic she thought she had heard about the percentage of people that want socialism vs the people that don’t, and want capitalism. And in their public educatio indoctrination centers skools they learn what is “social justice” and “victimhood” 300 level classes in this are available at most universities, along with BDS and anti-Zionism against the one Jewish state in the world, which is in no way of course, antisemitic. In addition to physically attacking their victims, they strive for fear, intimidation and humiliation. Again, familiar.

But adults can have differences of opinions, they can discuss ideas. Very spirited discussions can result between two adults that argues their points, theories and ideas.

Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.

Brainstorming is a beautiful thing. Antifa doesn’t brainstorm. I’m not sure they really think, they seem more like violently programed robots. They are absolutely indoctrinated to hate. How else can you scream “Love trumps hate” as you try to beat another living being?

Some of this just seems so familiar, it’s like a memory ringing in the back of my mind.

I’m seeing a pattern. Conservatives, especially in this time of Trump have been de-humanized to the point that the liberal tolerant left feels perfectly justified in physically attacking them. Women alone, old men, doesn’t matter. They function as a feral pack, they seem to single out one person and go after them. Because of they have different ideas than that of the left and that is no longer permitted. Stores are boycotted, careers are ruined, jobs are lost. All because someone expressed an opinion that the left doesn’t allow them to express or believe. Which goes with the pattern, it’s why Russia and Germany had to lock up and isolate leaders of the opposition, be they teacher, doctors, sailors, soldiers or the neighborhood grocer.

Banned knitters

And just like the days of old,

How the NYT Missed the Story of the Holocaust While It Was Happening

the media covers it up.

Antifa sympathisers are ‘whitewashing’ violence: Andy Ngo

You notice this report came from outside the U.S.

Also like the days of old, those in authority are telling the police to “stand down” and not protect the Trump supporters. Whether it was Berkeley, the lady in San Jose when the police blocked the door and wouldn’t let her in as antifa surrounded her or the attack on Andy Ngo which occurred right in front of a police station. The authorities are not doing the “serve and protect” thing. Well, not if you’re a conservative anyway.

Portland’s mayor has turned his city over to Antifa thugs

Portland mayor breaks silence on Antifa violence, and gets scorched by police union rep

Have you noticed another similarity between the cities where antifa seems to be flourishing? Yeah, I thought you probably had. They all have strict gun control. While that will affect conservatives who tend to be law abiding, it does not affect antifa who show up armed with crowbars and bats. And while the liberal talking heads aka #FakeNews tend to belittle the milkshake thing, the “milkshakes” often have quick drying concrete which makes them capable of blunt force trauma as well as chemical acid burns.

The point of the all this intimidation is something gun owners have seen for a long time. The media tells us some massive percentage of the people support further restricting our Second Amendment rights. And while we know it’s crap, many others, the Fudds out there will believe it. Especially if there is a collaborating story from the VNRA. With the stifling of free speech, and the ability to safely assemble at a political rally the tolerant, progressive anti-fascist fascists are ensuring only one opinion, theirs, is safe to express or will be heard.

And while some say “Love Trumps Hate”, I say love may well trump hate, but these days love and a AR-15 are a way better way to go.

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FakeCheck.org

I hate it when FactCheck.org shows up in my news searches. Because this is fairly typical of the lying SOBs.

A False Claim About H.R. 8 and a ‘Firearms Registry’
A viral meme falsely accuses five House Republicans of voting with Democrats to create a “firearms registry.” The bill in question specifically prohibits “the establishment, directly or indirectly, of a national firearms registry.”

The headline is certainly right: Angelo Fichera is making a false claim. A classic strawman argument. I’m not aware of anyone claiming that HR 8 would create a firearms registry. We correctly note that it would enable the creation of such.

For Angelo and his fellow short-bus riders, I’ll explain.

HR 8 would expand preemptively-prove-your-innocence (PPYI) checks to virtually all firearms transactions. It does that by requiring private parties go to a federally licensed dealer (FFL) so that the dealer can process the transaction in exactly the same way that his own transactions are done: boundbook entry, 4473, NICS, fees.

The 4473 is the potential problem, because it’s forever. Even when and if an FFL goes out of business, the stack of 4473s goes to the ATF to be filed.

Fichera knows that, but blows it off, because everyone knows the ATF is forbidden to enter those into a searchable database. Of course, that law got passed specifically because the ATF was caught doing exactly that. And they still do mass photocopying of 4473s during license inspections.

Let’s pretend that HR 8 passes the Senate, too, and Trump signs it. As a result, Trump properly loses the 2020 election to a Democrat who will stab us in the chest, not the back. So at least we can see “them” coming and dodge.

Then they pass another bill repealing the databasing restriction. The ATF issues a Request for Purchase for several thousand document scanners with character recognition, along with thousand of temp hires to hit every FFL in the country for copies of those conveniently collected 4473.

Database.

We had a Dem presidential candidate designated gun control stalking horse, whose main campaign promise was to confiscate every semi-auto firearm in civiilan hands. To do that, the government needs to know who has what and where. If they didn’t know that before, they’ve surely learned from New Zealand’s embarrassing ban attempt.

Universal PPYI, with 4473s is the perfect setup. And the government is well aware of it. Since NICS began, pro-rights people have advocated different systems that would allow background checks, while preventing the creation of a permanent record subject to ATF collection. BIDS: Blind Identification Database System is one of the better suggestions (assuming our rights are going to be violated at all). BIDS still has weaknesses, but those can be fixed.

Legislators and bureaucrats have actively resisted all attempts at switching to a recordless system. Go ahead; tell me I’m paranoid for thinking they want those permanent records.

I wonder how Fichera would like his favored right — the First Amendment — regulated in the same way.

Imagine some congresscritter doesn’t like being ridiculed, and files a bill “prevent verbal violence” by requiring everyone who purchases a computer or smart phone to pass a background check. The transaction would be logged on an FCC form 7734, and will include things like purchaser’s race, and the device’s serial number and MAC. Bill makes it into law, because only someone who wants to verbally abuse children could object.

Then someone else insults Rep. Wilson‘s intelligence (properly, the lack thereof). So she files a bill to collate those 7734s into a searchable database; all the better to track down that mean person.

No doubt Mr. Fichera will be just fine with preemptively proving his own innocence before exercising his First Amendment rights online, and being forced to pay for it. Of course, if he smokes marijuana, or has a felony conviction, or even some misdemeanors, he won’t be allowed to buy that phone. And if he has one, someone may “red flag” him because maybe he’ll slander someone or write a article based on his own… li… oh. Wait.

No First Amendment for Fichera.

Of course, once the Dems are on a roll, they could ban high capacity batteries because no one needs to talk for more than half an hour. And there would be an 8 day cooling off period before you could take possession of your phone or computer, lest some hack writer draft an ill-conceived strawman column on the spur of the moment. Writer licensing (that’s been proposed before).

How about safe storage laws for computers and phones so little children can’t get their hands on them and hook up with an Internet predator? And that’s all the more reason to register devices and owners, right? S0 you can use the MAC to track pedophiles… or annoying journalists who insist on covering embarrassing government screwups.

Heck, maybe they’d even ban those fully automated smart phones suitable only for military communications. Or swapping kiddie porn. Do that for the children.

That, FactCheck and Fichera, is why we object to “universal background checks.” It would enable all that.

[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]

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So you didn’t want to die on “bump stock hill”

For better than a year and a half, The Zelman Partisans have been trying to warn gun owners that the bump-fire stock ban was a bigger deal than just that. In late May, we warned that lawyers were taking notice and making this argument in public.

Now they’re arguing in Nevada state court that all semi-automatic firearms are “easily convertible” to machineguns and therefore are machineguns.

Parents of Las Vegas massacre victim sue gun makers and dealers: “These are weapons of war”
As the Parsons later learned, the shooter had used a dozen different rifles, each modified to simulate a machine gun with automatic fire. That allowed him to fire more than a bullet a second.

Machine guns have been banned since 1986. But the lawsuit the couple filed last night claims a gun that’s easily modifiable to fire automatically is a machine gun, and is therefore “flatly illegal” under federal and state law.

This challenge to the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act hinges on the bump-fire ban. PLCA doesn’t protect manufacturers when they’ve broken the law, and this argument is that they’ve been unlawfully marketing post-1986 (thanks, VNRA) “easily converted” machineguns to civilians.

If you want to derail this suit, and avoid the otherwise inevitable unpleasantness of an attempted semi-auto ban, you need to support the groups fighting the bump-fire stock (or even rubber bands) ban:

Firearms Policy Coalition and Gun Owners of America Are leading the charge in federal court.

Donate to Firearms Policy Coalition (and enter to win a SIG P320)

Donate to GOA

Please note that I am not recommending any donations to the National Rifle Association. They got us into this mess. And, to date, I can find no indication that they’ve diverted a penny of LaPierre’s wardrobe-and-busty-intern budget to a ban challenge; I’ve not found so much as an amicus brief in someone else’s case.

[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]

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“Political Expediency, Not Statutory Ambiguity”

The Firearms Policy Coalition and Cato Institute have filed an amicus brief in Gun Owners of America v. Barr, the GOA’s bump-fire stock case in the 6th Circuit.

Read it. It’s only 17 pages in full, and the brief proper is just 11 pages (the remainder being the standard legal paperwork administrivia).

Yes, read it; but I’m going to distill the basic message for you anyway.

The ATF’s Interpretative Reversal Is Based on Political Expediency, Not Statutory Ambiguity
[…]
What prompted this reversal? The proposed rulemaking reveals that the impetus for this change in position was not an organic review of agency policy. Instead, the change was triggered by public outrage following the October 2017 mass killing in Las Vegas, which likely involved a bump-stock-type device:
[…]
The ATF admits that the rulemaking was commenced “in response” to outside political pressure.
[…]
On February 28, 2018, the president hosted a meeting with members of Congress to discuss school and community safety. […] President Trump interjected that there was no need for legislation because he would deal with bump stocks through executive action:

And I’m going to write that out. Because we can do that with an executive order. I’m going to write the bump stock; essentially, write it out. So you won’t have to worry about bump stock.”
[…]
Reportedly, Justice Department officials told Senate Judiciary Committee staff that the government “would not be able to take [bump stocks] off shelves without new legislation from Congress.”

Likewise, the ATF director told police chiefs that his agency “did not currently have
the regulatory power to control sales of bump stocks.”

While the Department stated that “no final determination had been made,” President Trump boasted that the “legal papers” to prohibit bump stocks were almost completed. […] [B]efore the rulemaking was announced, President Trump tweeted: “Obama Administration legalized bump stocks. BAD IDEA. As I promised, today the Department of Justice will issue the rule banning BUMP STOCKS with a mandated comment period. We will BAN all devices that turn legal weapons into illegal machine guns.”

Right there, they document that the decision had been made, regardless of the actual rulemaking process or facts, and that it deliberately bypassed legislation. We knew that, of course, but they collated and documented it in incriminating detail.

This is now a test of the court itself, not just ATF or DOJ. Taking the longer view, because I anticipate the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals blowing this off, it is a test of the Supreme Court.

If the ban is upheld, despite flawed regulatory practices (which didn’t really matter, as the process was a Potemkin show to pretend they weren’t actually banning by political fiat), and the grossly improper bypassing of Congress, there is no law.

By and large, honest gun owners try to live by the Constitution and the rule of law. We’ve put up with much over the decades because it was framed as “law,” and we thought we, too, had the courts and law to make our case for freedom. The politicians, bureaucrats, and especially the courts must consider the ramifications of making that impossible.

[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]

 

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“Gun Violence” Solutions Solicited

Using FBI UCR, DOJ data, and CDC WISQARS:

Identify:

  • Primary firearms-related homicide perpetrator and victim demographics
  • Types of weapons most commonly used
  • Sources of weapons used

Craft solution(s) to “gun violence”:

  • Any law proposed must withstand strict constitutional scrutiny
  • Any law proposed must be consistent with PRINTZ, MILLER, LAMONT, HELLER, MCDONALD, and CAETANO.
  • Define objective metrics by which success or failure of any proposal can be measured.
  • All proposals must be technologically feasible.
  • Define the enforcement mechanism of any proposal, including specifics on dealing with noncompliance.
  • Specify if the suggester will or will not participate personally in active enforcement operations (i.e.- be a member of a raid team or other action in which s/he directly interacts with the target of the enforcement action).

[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]

 

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AWB ’94: A reminder of how “effective” it was

Senatorial scumbags Chris Murphy and Dianne Feinstein are still riding their “assault weapon” ban hobbyhorse. In fact, they’re pushing several of the usual rights-violations, but I want to focus on this one just now.

Act to Break the Cycle of Gun Deaths
Outlawing these weapons, an action supported by 60 percent of Americans, will bring down the number of mass shootings and reduce the number of casualties, just as it did when the ban first passed in 1994.

Just how effective was the ’94 “assault weapon” ban? Let’s ask the experts paid by the Department of Justice to check that.

Updated Assessment of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban: Impacts on Gun Markets and Gun Violence, 1994-2003
“AWs were used in only a small fraction of gun crimes prior to the ban: about 2% according to most studies and no more than 8%.”
[…]
“Following implementation of the ban, the share of gun crimes involving AWs declined by 17% to 72% across the localities examined for this study”

A 17% to 72% drop sounds good, right? Not so fast.

That’s a 17-72% drop of the 2%-8% of crimes that involved “assault weapons” as defined in the law.

If so-called “assault weapons were 2% pre-ban, then the drop during the ban was to 1.66% – 0.56%.

If AW usage was as high as 8% pre-ban, then the drop was to 6.64% – 2.24%

In other words, “assault weapons” were and are used so rarely that the change is actually lost in the statistical noise. An alleged “improvement” that is meaningless. A “gain” at great cost in rights. What do I mean?

Let’s say you own a house, and you want to make it more energy efficient by adding expensive insulation (=the infringement of 2A rights) to reduce heat loss in the winter (=firearms deaths). Currently, you’re losing 2% to 8% of your power bill to lost heat. You pay a contractor to insulate your attic (=AWB ’94), at a cost of $5130.00 – $6120.00 (just for example); call it $5,625.

Pre-insulation, you were paying $150/month for power, and wasting 2%-8% of that: $3 to $12.

Post-insulation, you save 17%-72% of that wasted energy: $0.51 to $8.64 per month.

If the numbers are at the low end of savings, you’ll pay for that five grand of insulation in energy savings in a mere 11,029 months. 919 years.

More optimistically, with the high end, you pay off the insulation in 651 months. 54 years.

That’s what gypsy insulators Murphy and Feinstein are trying to “sell” you: Just give up your rights, and we’ll promise you a an improvement you’ll never notice.

You’ll never notice the “improvement” because — statistically speaking — you’re unlikely to be the victim, or have a family member victimized, unless you or they are gangbangers… who aren’t going to give up their weapons anyway.

Go knock on some more gullible neighbor’s door; I’m not buying your scam.

[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]

 

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Signing On The Dotted Line

Last weekend was Shavuot. In the diaspora it is a two day holiday. I admit it is an emotional holiday for me. I love Shavuot.

The holiday of Shavuot is the day on which we celebrate the great revelation of the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, more than 3,300 years ago. You stood at the foot of the mountain, as did your grandparents and great-grandparents before them. The souls of all Jews, from all times, came together to hear the Ten Commandments from G‑d Himself.

What was involved?

Moses ascended Mount Sinai, and G‑d spoke to him the following words (Exodus 19:3-6): “So shall you say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel. You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and [how] I bore you on eagles’ wings, and I brought you to Me. And now, if you obey Me and keep My covenant, you shall be to Me a treasure out of all peoples, for Mine is the entire earth. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of princes and a holy nation.”

Moses returned from Sinai and called for the elders of the people and put all these words of G‑d before them. Unanimously, with one voice and one mind, the people answered: Naaseh Venishma – “Everything G‑d has said, we will do.” Thus they accepted the Torah outright, with all its precepts, not even asking for a detailed enumeration of the obligations and duties it involved

So last Sunday, June 9, I went to my synagogue to hear the Ten Commandments and reaffirm the covenant with G‑d and His Torah. There are actually 613 commandments, like little holy bread crumbs helping you find your way to G-d. But within the 10, they contain kernels from which the others come.

Number 6 is the one that seems to confuse people. It does not say “Thou shalt not kill”. It says “You shall not murder”. Which is a very different kettle of fish.

I also note it does not say that “You shall not murder by a so-called assault weapon” “You shall not murder using a adequate capacity magazine” “You shall not murder using a shoulder thingy that goes up” “You shall not murder using a ghost gun” “You shall not murder if you are in a citizen registry” “You shall not murder if your ammunition is registered” “You shall not murder if you are taxed so high you can’t afford to defend your family” “You shall not murder with a knife” “You shall not murder with an ax” “You shall not murder with a screwdriver” “You shall not murder with a rope” “You shall not murder with a car” “You shall not murder by drowning” “You shall not murder by poison” “You shall not murder with a chain” “You shall not murder with your hands”.

Just a very simple “You shall not murder”.

And yet, our politicians have put who knows how many gun control laws on the books that only law-abiding citizens will obey in the first place. Criminals are not the least affected by laws, the more the merrier for them.

We can live by G-d’s law or die by man’s I heard a Rabbi say.

So, for your information, here’s a handy clip out guide to the current crop of aspiring tyrants running as the Demoncratic candidates for President of the United States. Where I didn’t come up with a snazzy nickname for one of the aspiring tyrants, feel free to suggest one. Anything in italics is just my comments.

Aspiring Tyrant Citizen Control Scheme
Joe “Sniffy” Biden Obligatory Universal background checks

National Database

Obligatory “Assault weapons” ban

High (adequate) capacity magazine ban

Opposes protecting school children

Cory “Spartacus” Booker Universal background checks

Ban on “assault weapons” & Bump Stocks

Prohibition of standard-capacity magazines

Establish a federal registry of guns

Federal registry of gun owners

You have to apply to Washington for permission,reapply every five years Inform the executive branch of each weapon you own in your home

Use of the error ridden terrorist watch list to prohibit gun ownership.

Allow lawsuits against gun manufacturers.

“Red flag” gun confiscation

Bernie Sanders the millionaire communist A nationwide ban on assault weapons

Expanded background checks

Ban on “high capacity magazine over ten rounds.”

A “common sense proposal on guns that will have the support, not of everybody, but a significant majority of American people.”

“We need strong sensible gun control, and I will support it,”

“I support what President Obama is doing in terms of trying to close the gun show loopholes.”

Mostly vague

Elizabeth “Fauxcahontas” Warren Obligatory “Assault Weapons” ban

Obligatory “Universal background check”

Mostly vague

Kamala Harris Vows to use executive action on “Day 1”

Reminiscent of Valerie Jarrett’s statement obama would be “ready to rule from Day 1”

Direct the ATF “to promulgate a regulation” that makes it so that “if you sell five or more guns for profit a year, you will be considered a ‘dealer’ and required to perform background checks.”

Ban Semi-automatic firearms

Direct the ATF “to promulgate a regulation” that makes it so that “if you sell five or more guns for profit a year, you will be considered a ‘dealer’ and required to perform background checks.”

Require universal background checks

Ban high-capacity ammunition clips

Make gun trafficking a federal crime (no mention if this applies to the ATF as well)

Prohibit those convicted of a federal hate crime from buying firearms.

Repeal the Protection of Commerce in Arms Act

Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke Obligatory Universal background checks for gun sales

Obligatory weapons ban

“Red-flag” gun confiscation laws

Close the boyfriend loophole, the Charleston loophole, the gun show loophole, the online loophole<<gibberish

Fully invest in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and research into gun violence<<taxpayer fraud

Pete Buttigieg Obligatory Universal background checks for gun sales

Obligatory weapons ban

National gun-licensing system

Eric “Duke Nukem” Swalwell Gun Confiscation

Drop nuclear weapons on American Citizens

You know, on Shavuot, we reaffirm our dedication to G-d and living according to his Torah commandments. I would suggest that to be a candidate for the office of President, the candidates of all parties need to reaffirm their dedication to our Constitution and the Bill of Rights. All of them, every single one. Including the Second Amendment.

But then, see my comment above about criminals and laws. The laws don’t apply to them, right?

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[UPDATE] If you’re shopping for a gun law attorney, keep looking.

See update below.


If this lawyer lost any gun cases, his clients may have grounds for appeal due to ineffective counsel. I just hope he didn’t convince a client to cop a plea to unlawful possession of paper weights.

It started with this news report.

Indiana teen built ‘ghost gun’ from online parts
In February a 17-year-old boy in Evansville, Indiana, went onto the website of Columbia-based firearms manufacturer MidwayUSA and spent $235.37 on parts making up 80 percent of a Glock 17 pistol.

It’s the usual Ooooh! Scary ghost guns BS. Pretty clearly the reporter doesn’t know the difference between an unfinished 80% receiver and a finished-but-unequipped one.It didn’t help that he went to Columbia, MO attorney Stephen Wyse for info.

Under federal law, long-gun unfinished receivers are classified as firearms, said Columbia attorney Steve Wyse. Handgun unfinished receivers are not classified as firearms under federal law, Wyse said.

That’s bad enough, but when I took to Twitter to point out the error things only got worse. Wyse replied.

I actually said that unfinished receivers to machine guns are considered firearms under federal law. The feds consider an AR-15 to be a machine gun

AR-15s are semiautomatic, not machineguns, unless unlawfully modified. And whether intended for a machinegun or not, an unfinished (80% or less) receiver is not considered a firearm; it’s a receiver-shaped paperweight. Compare the two:

An 80% lower.

A paper weight until it’s further milled. It could be milled to be an AR lower, or — assuming you’re properly licensed and doing it for mil/police, and not for civilian use (thanks, VNRA — it could be milled to take an M-16 trigger group. For now, it’s an inert chunk of metal.

A finished AR lower.

This, being by ruling of the ATF is a firearm. Note the lawfully required markings, including serial number.

But Wyse had to double down on the AR-15 = machinegun line.

The federal govt. defines a AR-15 receiver as a “machine gun”. Not my definition and not within my power to change

He’s l… being less than truthful, or he doesn’t understand the difference between an AR-15 (semiautomatic firearm) and the the M-16/M-4 family of assault rifles (select-fire). According to his bio, he’s a Democrat, so it could go either way. Ditto for his possible… confusion over 80% and finished lowers.

It’s a shame reporter Philip Joens didn’t go to an “expert” who actually knows what he’s talking about and/or is honest.

I hope Wyse hasn’t convinced a client to cop a plea for possession of an AR-15 semiauto “machinegun” or 80% lower. As I started, such a client would certainly seem to have grounds for appeal, and should get an opinion from a knowledgeable attorney.

Update, 5/29/2019, 5PM: Mr. Wyse has anticipated the “semi-auto problem” about which The Zelman Partisans have been warning since October 5, 2017. Wyse argues that bump-fire stocks make semiautomatic rifles “easily convertible” to machineguns under the recent BSTD rule.

While the bump-stock-type device rule was finalized (and is being challenged in federal courts), there has been no ruling actually establishing the “semi-auto = machinegun” equivalency. I don’t see any Advance Notice of Proposed Rule-making or NPRM for such a rule.

Yet.

[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]

 

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