Hallelujah!

 

Today, June 23rd, 2022, Justice Clarence Thomas, born on this day in 1948, delivered the majority opinion in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, striking at the beating heart of New York's flagrantly unconstitutional Sullivan Act.

The Sullivan Act, passed in 1911, establishes strict gun control within New York State with particular application within New York City.  It guarantees that obtaining a personal firearm is going to be a long and costly bureaucratic nightmare.  Beyond that, obtaining permission to actually carry that firearm on your person is nearly impossible.  A few years back, I posed the question "How many concealed-carry permits are there in New York City?"  The answer I derived was '2,291'.  In a city of 8.8 million people, that is statistically zero.

Two New York residents who had 'possession' permits for their pistols (valid only at their home or business) wanted to carry those firearms concealed on their persons and were denied because, in keeping with the Sullivan Act, they were unable to demonstrate to the examiner that they had a need to be armed beyond simple self-defense.  Five other states (you can almost guess who they are, can't you?) impose similar or identical restrictions.  The New York State Rifle and Pistol Association funded the several lawsuits resulting from that denial, culminating at the Supreme Court as New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.

Justice Thomas has several times in the past castigated his fellow justices for turning away 2nd amendment cases that were similar to Bruen, and it appears his complaining has finally borne fruit.  The 6-3 decision gave Thomas the pen since the 2nd amendment seemed to have been his pet project.  Finally, he has the ability to author a strong defense of the 2nd's original meaning.  The 135 page decision will take some effort, no doubt, but given Thomas' erudition, it will be worth every minute.

Thank you, Justice Thomas.  We have been waiting so long for this.  Happy birthday.

 

Update:  I have managed to actually read the official opinion (footnotes omitted) and there is something else in there that I didn't realize originally: NYSRPA v Bruen also explicitly instructs lower courts that when dealing with 2A issues strict scrutiny is the applicable level of judicial review.  That means that any new or existing law, when it appears before a lower court, the state must now make a compelling case that the law at issue is both compliant with the Constitution and necessary for the public safety.  When challenged, NYS will have to defend its $445 fee for doing a background check beyond that done (for free) by the federal government.  Good luck with that.  They will have to defend the overly intrusive 32 page questionnaire each applicant is required to complete.  Good luck with that, too.  Basically, the entire Sullivan Act is now at risk of being gutted like a perch.

 

Uvalde, TX

 

Well, it's happened again.  A mentally-deranged teenager has shot up another school, this time an elementary school in Uvalde, TX.  There seem to have been several warning signs that were handled, not surprisingly, inadequately by the authorities, nineteen 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-graders are dead along with two of their teachers and the shooter who was killed by a Border Patrol officer.  Thoughts and prayers, &c.

Texas, it turns out, allows school districts the option of letting their teachers be armed on the job.  This school district chose not to allow their teachers to be armed.  As a result, the 18-year-old shooter had no opposition after barricading himself in a classroom full of potential victims.

How long are we going to put up with this?  How long are we going to put up with ivory tower academics who are more concerned with the negative P.R. associated with teachers who are ready and willing to defend themselves and their charges?  How long are we going to be bullied by a gun-phobic bloc of teachers who threaten to quit and make a scene if any of their colleagues are permitted to pack heat in their classrooms?

How many dead children are we willing to put up with until we implement a real solution?

 

The Four Laws

 

News media are reporting that actor Alec Baldwin yesterday fired a 'prop gun' on the set of the movie 'Rust' (now filming) killing a crew member and injuring another.  Reporters are calling this 'an accidental shooting'.

Let's be clear about one thing — if we are clear about nothing else:  there is no such thing as 'an accidental shooting'.  There are 'intentional shootings' and there are 'negligent shootings'.  There are no other categories into which to place any shooting.

What makes this ironic is that Alec Baldwin is rabidly anti-gun.  He is said to be deeply distressed over the so-called 'accident'.  Unfortunately, this is a perfect example of the principle that those who are anti-gun rarely-to-never know anything at all about guns.  What a shame, then, that with but a very little serious investigation on Baldwin's part, he might have positioned himself to avoid killing his co-worker, but the anti-gun crowd are ignorant and they like it that way.  They don't want to know anything about guns.  Guns are yukky.  Who needs to know anything beyond that?

BANG!  You're dead.

Alec Baldwin should be deeply distressed that his intentional ignorance has now resulted in a negligent homicide.

Preliminary investigation suggests that something, perhaps a bullet from a prior use, was still lodged in the barrel and when a blank cartridge was fired from the gun, it provided enough pressure to dislodge the (old) bullet.  As with so many other such incidents, it wasn't just a single error that caused tragedy;  it was several points of failure, any one of which, with but a little care, would have prevented a needless death.

There are four 'laws' of gun safety — often attributed to Col. Jeff Cooper — that, if followed religiously, will completely eliminate death-due-to-negligence:

1. Treat every gun as if it is loaded.
2. Never point a gun at anything you aren't ready to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until you have decided to shoot.
4. Know what is behind your target, because you will miss.

These all seem, on brief reflection, to be so intuitive that no one should have to be taught them, yet multiple failures yesterday took another innocent life.  Some crew member picked up that gun to give it to Baldwin, but they didn't check to see if the action was clear, as you would for any gun you suspected was loaded.  Alec Baldwin didn't check, either.  Baldwin then pointed the gun in an unsafe direction, put his finger on the trigger, and fired.

This wasn't 'an accident'.  This was a crime.

 

Murder By Negligence

 

There is no such thing as an 'accidental discharge' of a firearm.  There are only intentional discharges and negligent discharges.

A St.Louis police officer was killed yesterday (Jan 24, 2019) when another police officer 'mishandled' his firearm.  The more correct phraseology is 'died as a result of a negligent discharge'.

There are rules* for the safe handling of firearms.  If you follow these rules, you will never accidentally kill someone:

1. Every gun is loaded.  "I didn't know the gun was loaded" can never be an excuse.
2. Never point a gun at anything you aren't ready to destroy.  Old Man Thompson, he of 'Thompson submachine gun' fame, considered it a firing offense for an employee to point a barrel blank at someone.  A barrel blank is a piece of pipe that will soon become part of a firearm, and most people would not consider it 'dangerous'.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until you have decided to shoot.  If your finger is not on the trigger, most modern firearms will not fire.  If a modern firearm "just goes off", it was because somebody "just" had hir finger in the right place.
4. Know what is behind your target, because you will miss.  This seems so intuitive that it shouldn't even have to be said: nobody hits the bullseye with every shot, Hollywood special effects to the contrary notwithstanding.

One or both of the two other police officers who were on the scene when it happened violated at least three of these.  Where were they trained?  Who trained them?  Were they ever taught that their guns were not toys?  What sort of psych evaluation was done before giving them a badge?

Sadly, none of these questions matter, because this incident is not a one-off.  Cops regularly shoot other cops, innocent bystanders, the people they're supposed to be helping, and dogs — especially dogs.  The police, in fact, are beginning to look like the last people you want to call for help in any situation.  At the very least, these officers, having lethally demonstrated exactly how poorly trained they were and are, should be permanently disarmed.  If that means a felony conviction for negligent homicide, I'm okay with that.

It may, in fact, be time to disarm all police.  (What!!  Are you serious??)  Yes, I'm serious.  Today's police are not like the police of yesteryear.  Remember when they were called 'peace officers'?  That's so 20th-century!  Now they're 'law enforcement officers'.  Their charge is no longer 'keeping the peace' but rather 'enforcing the law'.  That's why your local PD has an MRAP (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicle in their arsenal.  You don't need an MRAP to pour oil on troubled waters.

And their A-#1 top priority?  'Going home safely at the end of their shift.'  You may not make it home safely at the end of their shift, but you aren't their A-#1 priority.  Isn't it time for the people who pay the bill to become, once again, the beneficiaries of police work rather than its target?

 

* - These rules are generally attributed to Col. Jeff Cooper, but they can be derived from first principles by anyone with half a brain.