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Random notes: February 5, 2013.

Tuesday, February 5th, 2013

In Idaho’s graceful, striated-marble Capitol, home to one of the more ardent and adamant state legislatures in the nation in standing up for the Second Amendment, lawmakers from both parties say that a torrent of public passion, even panic, about new proposed federal gun rules is pushing in only one direction: toward more guns, not fewer.

Hurrah Idaho!

First, they came for the owners of modern sporting rifles, and I didn’t speak out because I hate guns and want everyone to live in peace and harmony. Then they came to shut down the raves…

A concert company featured in a Times report Sunday detailing the drug-related deaths of 14 people who attended raves denounced the story in an online statement and took to social media to urge fans to speak out.

More:

Many of the concerts were staged with the blessing of local governments hungry for the revenue they brought in.
James Penman, the San Bernardino city attorney, said economics should never be a justification for raves. He long has urged officials to disallow the events at the National Orange Show Events Center there. Coroners’ reports show that two people have fatally overdosed at National Orange Show raves.
“The city should have zero tolerance for any activity where drugs are an integral part,” Penman said. “A rave without drugs is like a rodeo without horses. They don’t happen.”

Yesterday’s update from the Bell trial: Craig Rhudy of the “L.A. County district attorney’s office’s public integrity division” is on the stand now. So far, he’s testified that “former council members drew most of their nearly $100,000 salaries from panels that seldom met.”

Rhudy has charts.

The chart for 2006, for instance, showed that out of 20 City Council meetings, the Solid Waste and Recycling Authority met just once; the Community Housing and Public Finance Authorities each met five times, and the Surplus Property Authority had four meetings.
All of the defendants, except [Luis] Artiga, who was appointed in 2008, were paid $12,857 for each authority served in 2006.

In 2007, the Finance Authority met once, while the Housing Authority met twice. “By 2009, in spite of the fact that the panels continued to meet only sporadically, the pay for serving on each had jumped to $18,368, according to Rhudy’s chart.” In 2010, the Housing Authority was the only one that had a meeting.

And why does this matter? “In total, the defendants drew more than $1.3 million of their salaries from the authorities in question, Rhudy confirmed.”

I missed noting this over the weekend, but the LAT also ran a story on the “mountain of lawsuits” Bell is dealing with.

Former city leaders are suing the city. Bell is suing the former leaders. The city is suing its former lawyers. A European bank is suing Bell.

And the SEC and IRS are both investigating Bell’s bond sales. Here’s a great story:

Bell’s biggest concern is a lawsuit filed by Dexia Credit Local, part of a European banking group, over the city’s default on $35 million in bonds. The case involves 25 acres of undeveloped land near the 710 Freeway that Bell bought from the federal government with plans to lease it to a railroad.
Dexia bought all the lease revenue bonds the city issued to pay for the deal, which came to more than twice the city’s annual budget.
The deal went bad when an environmental group sued, arguing the city had failed to conduct the required environmental review. The judge agreed. Unable to lease the property — now worth far less than the bonds — Bell had no income to pay back Dexia.

The Richard III story has been reported everywhere, but I want to throw in a link to the Richard III Society, another group that deserves your support. And if you haven’t read it, I commend to your attention Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Guns, History, Law, Sarcasm | Comments Closed

Today’s Austin quasi-gun show update.

Tuesday, February 5th, 2013

I have written previously about the activities of the Austin Public Safety Commission, an appointed “advisory body to the city council on all budgetary and policy matters concerning public safety, including matters related to the Austin Police Department, the Austin Fire Department, and the Austin/Travis County Emergency Medical Services Department.”

The Public Safety Commission, it should be noted, is different from the Greater Austin Crime Commission, which has engaged in gun buybacks in the past.

I call that point out because the Public Safety Commission issued a series of “recommendations” to the city council yesterday. As reported in the Statesman, APSC recommends:

  1. “banning the leasing of government-owned facilities to gun shows”.
  2. “vendors at such shows to conduct background screenings”. This doesn’t make a lot of sense: we’re going to ban gun shows on public property, but we’re going to require vendors to conduct background screenings at the gun shows we’ve banned? I don’t believe the city can require vendors to conduct background checks at gun shows on private property; I think this is superseded by state preemption law.
  3. “…enforcing a state law prohibiting the carrying of firearms — except by those with concealed hand gun permits — in public parks, public meetings of government bodies, non-firearm related events at schools, colleges or professional events and political rallies, parades and meetings.” Wow, that’s a daring recommendation, guys. Enforce existing law.
  4. Instruct the “Austin City Council, Travis County Commissioner’s Court and Austin Community College and Austin Independent School District boards of trustees” to “divest ownership in any companies that manufacture and sell assault weapons or high capacity magazines to the public”.
  5. “Direct the Austin Police Department and Travis County Sheriff’s Office to study gun buy-back programs and come back with recommendations.” Oh, boy, I hope they do. As you may have noted at the link above, the last gun buy-back turned into a gun show. If they have another buy-back, I’d love to take a shot at picking up some more nice older Smiths.
  6. “Collect data on guns used in crimes”. I’m not sure from the context of the Statesman article what this means. I was listening to KLBJ-AM briefly last night, and caught part of a story on the commission recommendations; apparently, what they’re looking for is information about where crime guns come from. Are they stolen, legally purchased, bought at gun shows, etc.?

It is perhaps also worth noting that former mayor Will Wynn and current mayor Lee Leffingwell are members of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and that Wynn is one of the members of that group who has been convicted of a criminal offense.

The more I hear out of these people, the better a recall election sounds.

Posted in Austin, Clippings, Guns, Law, Politics, Travis County | Comments Closed

Random notes: February 1, 2013.

Friday, February 1st, 2013

Nobody needs a high-capacity assault snowmobile. Actually, I’m not even sure the general public should be allowed snowmobiles; perhaps we need to limit those to the police and military, people who have had special snowmobile training.

This is intended to enrage you:

At the 11th hour of its deadline to do so, Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s administration on Thursday asked a judge to allow it to withdraw from a federal consent decree aimed at implementing sweeping reforms in the New Orleans Police Department.

The request is based on three factors:

  1. The consent decree “failed to disclose costs to fix Orleans Parish Prison until after the NOPD consent decree was executed”.
  2. Former prosecutor Sal Perricone and the NOLA.com comments scandal.
  3. There are questions about whether the consent decree’s provisions regulating secondary employment for police officers are compliant with federal labor law.

Previously. I am still unable to find an execution date for Antoinette Frank.

Over the past several weeks, dozens of other sheriffs from across the country have reacted with similar public opposition to Mr. Obama’s call for stiffer gun laws, releasing a deluge of letters, position papers and statements laying out their arguments in stark terms. Their jurisdictions largely include rural areas, and stand in sharp contrast to those of urban police chiefs, who have historically supported tougher gun regulations.

“C’est un Nagra. C’est suisse, et tres, tres precis.” (I’m surprised that quote, or the English translation, isn’t on the IMDB page for “Diva”.)

Heh. Heh. Heh.

Nine current and former Philadelphia Traffic Court judges were charged with conspiracy and fraud Thursday, capping a three-year FBI probe into what authorities said was rampant ticket-fixing and pervasive corruption on the bench.

The judges are being accused of pretty much what you’d expect: taking bribes to fix tickets.

According to the indictment, [Fortunato] Perri [one of the indicted judges – DB] got free landscaping and a patio for assisting one unnamed contractor with “dozens of Traffic Court citations.” He also is accused of accepting free auto services, towing, and a load of shrimp and crab cakes from Alfano, whose company, Century Motors, ran a towing service.

You know, I like shrimp. I like crab cakes. I wouldn’t go to prison for them, though.

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Guns, Law, Obits, Rage, Sarcasm, Schadenfreude, Sports | Comments Closed

Random notes: January 31, 2013.

Thursday, January 31st, 2013

Obit watch: Patty Andrews, the last surviving Andrews Sister. (NYT. A/V Club.)

If a publisher is reissuing a non-fiction book, do they have an obligation to go back and do fact checking? What if the facts have been called into question since the book was issued? What if the book is “38 Witnesses” by A.M. Rosenthal of the New York Times?

In the years since, however, as court records have been examined and witnesses reinterviewed, some facts of both the coverage and the book have been challenged on many fronts, including the element at the center of the indictment: 38 silent witnesses. Yet none of the weighty counter-evidence was acknowledged when Mr. Rosenthal’s book was reissued in digital form by Melville — raising questions of what, if any, obligation a publisher has to account for updated versions of events featured in nonfiction titles. Dennis Johnson, the publisher of Melville House, said he knew about the controversy but decided to stand behind Mr. Rosenthal’s account. “There are, notably, works of fraud where revising or withdrawing the book is possible or even recommended, but this is not one of those cases,” he said. “This is a matter of historical record. This is a reprint of reporting done for The New York Times by one the great journalists of the 20th century. We understand there are people taking issue with it, but this is not something we think needs to be corrected.”

What is there to correct?

As early as 1984 The Daily News published an article pointing to flaws in the reporting. In 2004 The Times did its own summation of the critical research, showing that since Ms. Genovese crawled around to the back of the building after she was stabbed the first time (her assailant fled and returned) very few people would have seen anything.
The article quoted among others Charles E. Skoller, the former Queens assistant district attorney who helped prosecute the case and who also has written a book on it. “I don’t think 38 people witnessed it,” said Mr. Skoller, who had retired by the time of the interview. “I don’t know where that came from, the 38. I didn’t count 38. We only found half a dozen that saw what was going on, that we could use.” There were other mitigating factors as well; it was a cold night, and most people had their windows closed.

This 2009 NPR interview goes into more detail about the many problems with the popular narrative of the case.

This lead made me giggle:

George Ryan was released from a federal prison in the dark on Wednesday morning, and Illinois became a state with only one former governor behind bars.

Hey, as long as we’re talking about crooked governors:

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s approval rating has fallen sharply among New York voters since he pushed restrictive gun laws through the Legislature, a poll released on Wednesday said.

And lying politicians:

…it is also curious that the White House refuses to provide any documentary evidence that he actually used the shooting range at Camp David, since he claims he uses it “all the time,” or that a presidential friend has not come forward to confirm the president’s comments.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Guns, Law, Media, Music, Obits, Schadenfreude | Comments Closed

Random notes: January 30, 2013.

Wednesday, January 30th, 2013

Gun control works! Just ask Chicago!

And yet Chicago, a city with no civilian gun ranges and bans on both assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, finds itself laboring to stem a flood of gun violence that contributed to more than 500 homicides last year and at least 40 killings already in 2013, including a fatal shooting of a 15-year-old girl on Tuesday.

More:

Chicago officials say Illinois has no requirement, comparable to Chicago’s, that gun owners immediately report their lost or stolen weapons to deter straw buyers.

Uh, that’s not what a “straw buyer” is, Monica Davey. (Nor does Davey mention that “straw purchases” are also a violation of Federal law, though rarely prosecuted according to the WP. One wonders how much of a deterrent Chicago’s law is to people who are already violating federal law.)

(Likewise, purchasing guns in other states, bringing them across state lines, and selling them on the Chicago streets violates multiple existing federal laws. Davey ignores that fact as well.)

Edited to add: Just saw this, and found it appropriate.

 

And I said, “What about ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’?”
He said, “I can’t afford a million dollars,
and as I recall, you’ve got plenty of money.”
And I said, “Well, that’s one thing we have not.”

The Bell trial picked up again yesterday. Rebecca Valdez, the former city clerk who wasn’t actually the city clerk at first, is still on the stand.

Rebecca Valdez said that when she began working for the city, she learned the key to survival: Do whatever City Manager Robert Rizzo asked.
Valdez testified Tuesday that she was directed to sign unfamiliar documents, hand out incorrect salary information in response to a public records request from a resident and obtain signatures for doctored salary contracts.

The defense is attacking her credibility, “seeking to show that record-keeping in Bell was in disarray. Valdez testified that she signed minutes for meetings she didn’t attend, was appointed to the job in name only and sometimes made mistakes marking the times that meetings began and ended.”

And what’s this about her being the city clerk but not being the city clerk?

In 2004, then-City Clerk Theresa Diaz moved out of town, making her ineligible to hold the elected office. Valdez was given her title, but continued her job as an account clerk. Diaz continued to act as the record-keeper for the city, but Valdez testified that she was told to sign documents as the city clerk.

Also interesting:

The city clerk also testified that Victor Bello, one of the defendants, was banned from City Hall toward the end of his tenure, except to attend council meetings.
If Bello showed up, she was to tell the police chief and her supervisor. Twice a week, Valdez took Bello’s mail to his home, accompanied by code enforcement officers, she testified. Bello resigned from the council in 2008 but retained his six-figure salary after Rizzo named him assistant to the food bank coordinator.

Not “food bank coordinator”, but “assistant to the food bank coordinator”, and pulling in at least $100,000 a year. How do I get this job?

Ah, the Texas Highway Patrol Museum. You do remember the Texas Highway Patrol Museum, don’t you? Shut down by the Attorney General last year? Assets, including the building, being sold off?

Well, about that…

Lawyers for the Texas attorney general’s office said Monday that a “cloud of procedural impropriety” is casting a shadow over the pending sale of the former Texas Highway Patrol Museum, and they recommended that the building be put back on the market.

The “procedural impropriety” seems to be that the high bidder says her bid was ignored. Also, the real estate broker would make a larger commission if the other bidder got the property. There’s some technical aspects that make it unclear which bid is best; that’s why the AG recommended that the building be listed again.

(Hattip on this to Grits for Breakfast. If Ms. Wong winds up getting the building, and we’re all still here, I want to do a road trip to Rosario’s Café y Cantina.)

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Cops, Food, Guns, Law, Museums, Sarcasm, Theatre | 1 Comment »

Random notes: January 29, 2013.

Tuesday, January 29th, 2013

There’s a follow-up to last week’s story about the felon trying to sell guns at the gun show: he’s now been charged with theft.

At the time of seizure, neither firearms were listed as stolen, according to the arrest affidavit, but by Jan. 10, police determined the rifle matched the make, model and serial number of the rifle reported stolen from the truck Dec. 9, according to the affidavit.

Interesting. Very interesting indeed.

Setting aside for the moment the subject of this story, there’s a kind of interesting legal aspect to it. In Nevada, if you own a casino (or are a “key man” in a casino) you can still gamble anywhere execpt your own casino (for obvious reasons). In Atlantic City, though, you’re not allowed to gamble period; at your own casino or someone else’s, it doesn’t matter. I find it curious that there’s such a difference in the law. I’m sure Mr. Fertitta does, too.

Real ninjas have their own mobile devices.

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Guns, Law | Comments Closed

If I had a (non-functional) rocket launcher…

Sunday, January 27th, 2013

I’d make the Seattle Police Department pay. $100 for it. At the next gun buyback.

I’m amused at how often the “someone turned in a non-functional rocket launcher at a gun buyback” trope has been showing up in the mass media. At least this story mentions the non-functional aspect in the first sentence.

In the six months after Seattle’s 1992 gun buyback — the city’s only other such effort — the average number of firearms-related homicides increased. The mean number of firearms-related assaults in Seattle also increased, as did the mean number of robberies with guns. Even the mean number of accidental shooting deaths more than doubled, according to data in a government journal.

Because paying $100 for an empty fiberglass tube makes the public safer. Way to go, guys.

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Guns, Law, Media | Comments Closed

Gun control works!

Saturday, January 26th, 2013

Most of those killed in Port Said on Saturday died of bullet wounds, hospital officials said. It was unclear who shot first, but witnesses said some of the civilian protesters brought shotguns or homemade firearms [Emphasis added – DB] to attack the prison.

(Hattip: TJIC on the Twitter, though he didn’t draw the same conclusion I did.)

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Sarcasm | Comments Closed

Hot off the presses!

Saturday, January 26th, 2013

There were long lines and crowds at the gun show, according to the Statesman.

(Before today, I’ve never had to wait in line to get into a gun show, except maybe the one time I went with Borepatch and we had to wait for the doors to open. It took me about 40 minutes in line to get into the show; I got there around 10:30 AM. Two friends of mine got there later and reported the wait was much the same, even at 1 PM.)

Edited to add: Lawrence was there as well; here’s his report.

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Politics, Travis County | Comments Closed

Gun show watch.

Friday, January 25th, 2013

Austin’s Saxet show is this weekend. I plan to be there Saturday. Feel free to say “Hi” if you see me: I’ll be wearing my snazzy Gunwalker t-shirt.

In Houston, a company called High Caliber Gun & Knife Shows runs gun shows in the George R. Brown Convention Center. They’re also having a show this weekend. (You may remember High Caliber from High Caliber v. Houston, aka “the city of Houston got their ass whipped and had to pay High Caliber’s legal fees”.)

Gun shows have security, like pretty much any public gathering; rock concert, biker rally, gun show. Gun shows do not generally hire the Hells Angels to provide security; in Austin, Saxet uses APD officers (who I believe are off-duty, but in uniform). In Houston, High Caliber uses off-duty Houston police officers.

At least they did until this past week.

[Mary] Bean [co-owner of High Caliber – DB] said that off-duty Houston police officers who have provided security for her shows for many years were barred this week from performing their normal duties, such as tying patrons’ guns so they can’t be dry-fired, ensuring guns are unloaded, and walking the aisles, providing a presence at the show.

Why?

Houston Police Officers Union president Ray Hunt said the officers were prevented from carrying out these duties because they violate department policies regarding off-duty jobs. The gun show’s rules are that people can’t bring a concealed handgun into the show, but state law allows patrons to do so. That makes the show’s decision a house rule, he said, and HPD policy prohibits its officers from enforcing house rules.

This whole “state law” versus “house rule” thing doesn’t pass the smell test with me. Texas state concealed carry law allows a business to ban the carrying of concealed handguns, if they post a sign to that effect at the entrance or entrances. The sign has to meet specific wording and legibility requirements; we in Texas colloquially refer to them as “30.06 signs” after the relevant section of Texas law.

I haven’t been to a High Caliber show in Houston, but the Saxet shows in Austin have 30.06 signs posted at the entrances; I assume High Caliber does as well, which to me puts things firmly into the “state law” versus “house rule” category.

“It’s not that they were suspended for any reason for danger to the public or danger to the officers. It was simply that they were being asked to enforce a rule that is not a law, and we can’t do that,” Hunt said. “When it’s brought to our attention that house rules are being enforced, we make sure that that policy is changed. If the officer can’t enforce house rules, why would the vendor want to pay them?”

I wonder if off-duty police officers enforce “rules” that are not “laws” in other venues? For example, do off-duty police officers confiscate cameras and recording devices at rock concerts?

According to the HouChron, High Caliber has managed to get security from the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, which doesn’t seem to have a problem with the whole “house rules” thing.

Quoth Union chief Hunt again:

“A police officer may not think they’re enforcing a house rule by checking a gun and tying it, but I can tell you — and I’m on the labor side — that I would not want an officer handling a large number of guns handed to them by citizens who may or may not have had adequate training on that gun,” he said. “I’m betting something was brought to someone’s attention.”

Sounds like “only ones syndrome” again, doesn’t it? Also makes me wonder: I don’t see any indication that any of the officers working security complained. I wonder if somebody – perhaps on the city council or in the mayor’s office – put some pressure on Union chief Hunt. I don’t have any evidence for that yet; this is purely speculative.

Posted in Clippings, Guns | 5 Comments »

Random notes: January 25, 2013.

Friday, January 25th, 2013

Today’s WP contains a sad and touching profile of Priscilla Lollar.

Priscilla Lollar was the mother of Richard Lollar. Richard Lollar and Jacinth Baker were the two men who were stabbed to death after the Super Bowl in 2000; this is the case in which Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis pled guilty to obstruction of justice.

…considering the District of Columbia’s ban on assault weapons, where did they get the guns and how did they get them in the building?

There are many reasons why wrongful convictions are bad. Obviously, innocent people do time in prison, time that can’t be given back to them. But also, if the wrong person is convicted, that means a murderer is still out in public, free to commit other crimes.

Today’s example of this comes from the NYT, with a followup on the Baithe Diop/Denise Raymond murder cases I mentioned yesterday.

The NYT goes into a little more background on the prosecution’s original theory of the case: Ms. Raymond’s former boyfriend was an alleged drug dealer, who was charged in the case with “conspiracy to commit murder”. The prosecution claimed that he and his drug dealing buddies were afraid Ms. Raymond was going to go to the police about their drug operation. Ms. Raymond was apparently being cultivated because, as a FedEx executive, the drug dealers figured she could help them get drugs through the FedEx system. (The boyfriend was acquitted: “testimony from two key witnesses was discredited by defense evidence”, and he died five years ago.)

The NYT article doesn’t make it clear why the prosecution believed the Diop and Raymond cases were tied together. According to the original NYT article on the reversals in the Diop conviction, the prosecution believed Diop’s killing “was part of an elaborate plot to distract the police from the intended crime: the theft of $50,000 worth of cocaine from a passenger in Mr. Diop’s car.” But it isn’t clear who that passenger was, or how Ms. Raymond’s murder was a part of this plot.

I was able to dig up the original “How To Solve a Murder” article on Google Books, and it doesn’t make things much more clear; if I understand the theory of the crime correctly, the cocaine heist was an inside job, and Ms. Raymond’s boyfriend was supposedly ordered to kill her “as some kind of twisted atonement” for making his bosses in the drug ring angry. In retrospect, the whole case seems to have had holes in it you could drive a cab through.

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Law, Sports | Comments Closed

More people who deserve your support.

Thursday, January 24th, 2013

I’m not putting this under “endorsements” because, technically, it isn’t one. I haven’t used the products of this company yet.

But I’d like to suggest that Guntag Signature Seasonings deserves your support.

Here’s the story: Guntag makes a lot of their money exhibiting at various outdoor shows. One of the shows they exhibit at is the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show, which draws more than 200,000 people. This is a big event in terms of Guntag’s finances.

Well, this year, the people who run ESOS decided that they were going to ban modern sporting rifles from the show. This was a Bad Idea. Exhibitors, sponsors, and people who were doing promotional appearances all pulled out of the show. Smith and Wesson pulled out. Cabela’s pulled out. Ruger pulled out.

And Guntag pulled out, too.

We have made the costly decision to withdraw because it is the right thing to do. We are a young company that relies on this one venue to create our operating capital for the year; however we cannot support uninformed businesses caving to political pressures caused by broadly politicized events. We proudly support the 2nd Amendment in the capacity for which it was intended; the right of citizens to keep and bear arms. Our freedom to do so was not for hunting or competition shooting, but protection for law abiding citizens.

ESOS has now been postponed, but Guntag pulled out before the announcement was made. They took a stand on principle, even though it is going to hurt them.

I don’t have money to buy stuff from Guntag right now, but I can give them something to thank them for their stand. And that’s publicity here. If you’ve got the money, why not order up some seasonings from Guntag? I will if my finances ever improve; in the meantime, I’m willing to give them some free publicity, for whatever that may be worth.

Guntag guys: if you’re reading this and want some free ad space here, contact me. I’ll be happy to give it to you.

(Hattip on this: Borepatch gave me the idea for this post, and Shall Not Be Questioned has been all over the ESOS story like flies on a cow’s head at a Damien Hirst installation.)

Posted in Food, Guns | Comments Closed

Random notes: January 24, 2013.

Thursday, January 24th, 2013

Obit watch: Linda Riss Pugach. You may not have heard of her, but she was at the center of one of the most sensational crimes of the 1950s. Miss Riss was 22 years old and was dating a married lawyer, Burton Pugach. He kept promising to get a divorce, she kept pressing him, he got fed up and hired people to throw lye in her face. Miss Riss was blinded. Mr. Pugach was charged, convicted and spent 14 years in prison.

But wait, there’s more! Mr. Pugach’s wife divorced him while he was in prison. After he got out in 1974, he married Miss Riss, and they remained married until she died. There was a documentary about the case in 2007, “Crazy Love“, that featured interviews with both Mr. and Mrs. Pugach; I have not seen it, but it is apparently available from Amazon for instant viewing.

Oh, look! The lying sack of shit Joe Manchin is starting to feel the heat!

As a hunter with an A rating from the National Rifle Association, Mr. Manchin gave advocates for new weapons laws reason for optimism after he said last month that gun firepower and magazine capacity might need to be limited.
But now, Mr. Manchin, who affirmed his support for gun rights by running a campaign commercial in 2010 showing him firing a rifle into an environmental bill, says he is not so sure. One of his local offices has been picketed, and even some of his most thoughtful supporters are cautioning him that stronger background checks are about all the gun control they can stomach.

More:

After talking with the group for nearly two hours, Mr. Manchin left the meeting saying he was not at all comfortable with supporting the assault weapons ban favored by many of his colleagues in Congress.

And it isn’t just Manchin:

Of far greater concern are Democrats who are up for re-election in 2014. Those include senators like Max Baucus of Montana, who was awarded an A+ rating from the N.R.A. Mr. Baucus has worded his comments on the subject carefully, bracketing them with gun rights-friendly language, like saying the “culture of violence” needs to be seriously examined along with any changes to the law.
There is Senator Mark Begich of Alaska, who has said flatly that he would not support a new assault weapons ban, and Senator Mark Udall of Colorado, who initially came out in support of the ban but has been more circumspect recently, saying in an interview last week that he would want to see the language of any such legislation first.

Keep those cards and letters coming, folks. If you need help finding your senators and representatives, you’re welcome to email me.

Back in August, I noted the reversal of the murder convictions in the case of Baithe Diop. The other shoe in that case has dropped: three of the men, who had been convicted of murdering Denise Raymond and spent 17 years in prison, were released last night. Ms. Raymond was an executive with Federal Express: the prosecution’s original theory of the crime was that her murder and Mr. Diop’s were tied together. (The other two men in the case were convicted of Mr. Diop’s murder, and had their convictions overturned in August, but were not convicted in the Raymond murder.)

The N.C.A.A. said it uncovered evidence that its investigators contracted with a criminal defense lawyer for the booster at the center of the Miami case to obtain information they should not have been able to access. The N.C.A.A. had been examining allegations that the booster, Nevin Shapiro, gave hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, as well as other benefits, to dozens of Miami athletes.

Wow. When the NCAA president is calling the conduct of his own people “shocking” and “stunning”, yeah, there’s a problem.

As I have stated before, I Am Not A Lawyer. So perhaps there is a gap in my understanding. Let me see if someone can clarify it for me: on what authority does a judge order someone to stay out of an entire city?

[State Rep. Matt] Krause, one of the chamber’s more conservative freshmen, filed House Bill 627 to prevent federal gun regulations — such as expanded background checks and limits on magazine sizes, now under debate in Washington — from being enforced in Texas when a firearm is manufactured, sold and used within the state’s boundaries. If a gun never leaves Texas, it cannot be subject to federal interstate commerce laws, the bill says.

The Statesman suggests this bill may be unconstitutional. To which I say:

  1. Tenth Amendment, mofos!
  2. Oh, when we’re talking about guns, it’s unconstitutional and bad law. But when we’re talking about marijuana, all of the sudden, it’s okay for the states to have “medical marijuana” and “legalized marijuana”.

Can’t have it both ways, people.

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Law, Obits, Sports | 1 Comment »

Your gun show loophole in action.

Thursday, January 24th, 2013

Back in December, a man walked into an Austin gun show.

He was with three other guys, was carrying a rifle and a shotgun, and

A police officer working security at the show said in the affidavit that the man carrying the shotgun “acted nervous” and did not know much about the shotgun.

The man sold the shotgun to a dealer for $575. Apparently, after the sale took place, the dealer asked the APD officers running security to run “a serial check that showed that the gun did not belong to Benitez or any of the accompanying men, the affidavit stated“.

So that’s kind of interesting: it doesn’t say explicitly that the gun was stolen and showed up on a hot sheet, but that they were somehow able to check the serial number and determine ownership. Texas does not have any kind of registration or licensing for simple possession of a shotgun or rifle, so I’m not clear on what “a serial check” would have done unless the gun was on the hot sheet.

(I’m also wondering what kind of shotgun this was, if a dealer at the gun show paid $575 for it.)

The gentleman’s stories changed several times: his grandfather owned it, his father owned it, he bought it from someone in the neighborhood for $130.

One of the men that was with Benitez at Saxet said that he found the rifle at a Marble Falls house he was working on and took it, according to the affidavit.

The police confiscated both the rifle and shotgun, and made the gentleman give the dealer back his money.

He is currently charged with “unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon” but not, apparently, theft, and is being held on $20,000 bail.

Sure seems to me like the current system worked. So much for that “gun show loophole”.

Posted in Clippings, Guns | 1 Comment »

Strange definitions.

Monday, January 21st, 2013

New York state has very strict gun laws.

One of those laws imposes a mandatory prison sentence of three and a half years on anyone caught carrying a loaded illegal gun.

How’s that working for them?

In 2011, the latest year for which sentencing statistics are available, fewer than half the defendants who had been arrested for illegal possession of a loaded gun in New York City received a state prison sentence, according to an analysis of criminal justice statistics by the mayor’s office.

You don’t say. Tell us more.

In the Bronx, as few as 31 percent were imprisoned. In Brooklyn the rate was 41 percent; in Staten Island it was 47 percent; in Manhattan it was 68 percent; and in Queens it was 76 percent.

Now, let’s be fair about this:

…the law can sometimes trap travelers who bring licensed guns into the state. Critics of strict mandatory sentencing caution that allowances must be made for unwitting violations.

The NYT gives two specific examples of cases in which Bronx prosecutors did not seek the mandatory sentence: “a state prison guard who was not authorized to carry a firearm only because he had failed to submit the required paperwork” (only ones syndrome, anyone?) and “a Pennsylvania school bus driver who was traveling to his sister-in-law’s wake in New York”.

I’m all for prosecutorial discretion, but in more than 50% of cases? This is obviously some strange definition of the word “mandatory” I was previously unaware of.

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Law | Comments Closed

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