Articles by Herschel Smith

This decision by a federal district judge justifies a magazine capacity ban in D.C.  In it he plays word games, kicks the can down the road, ignores the very real issue of multi-man home invasions, ignores the very real involvement of the second amendment in the militia and amelioration of tyranny, misapplies Heller, and uses historical analogues that are too late to be useful (from the 1800s).

This federal district judge in Illinois seems not to like magazine capacity bans very much and himself makes arguments against them in the very case he is presiding.

Prediction: there will be split in the district courts, and in the appeals courts.  So-called “assault weapon” bans (which are simply bans against semiautomatic firearms) and magazine capacity bans will end up at the supreme court because of the splits.

UPDATE: Zelman Partisans observes the following.

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?

Via Ken.  Yes.  As I said, the ruling plays word games.  I suspect those word games will come to an abrupt end at the supreme court.

Epoch Times.

Texas secretly gives its citizens’ incomes to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Documents show this has led to at least one person being monitored by the feds without a warrant through the federal gun background check system. The Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) told The Epoch Times that it has written contracts with ATF  for “sharing income information” for criminal investigations. The revelation may lead to oversight by the legislature.

Texas state Rep. Briscoe Cain, a Republican, is “deeply troubled” about this coordination with the state’s unemployment agency and federal government.

“My office will be looking into whether the Texas Workforce Commission is assisting the ATF in the Biden Administration’s mission to violate the constitutional rights of law-abiding Texans,” Cain told The Epoch Times after reviewing the emails obtained by Gun Owners of America (GOA) as part of its ongoing FOIA lawsuit.

This is the third part in an exclusive Epoch Times series on the ATF giving information on innocent suspects to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for daily monitoring through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). The FBI uses NICS as a database of people who are prohibited from possessing or buying guns.

In one of the documents, an ATF agent emailed the FBI that a person suspected of straw purchasing or firearms trafficking needed to be put into the gun background check database. The agent wrote that “per TWC,” the man’s “reported wage earnings with the State of Texas do not appear to supply the financial means to afford the firearms purchased.”

Isn’t that nice?  The FedGov is making decisions on what you have the money to purchase based on income level.  Here is the kicker.

A spokeswoman for TWC said in a statement: “Federal and State law provides a path for sharing income information with a federal governmental agency if the federal agency can establish a purpose that is permissible under law and enters into a written agreement which sets forth legal requirements regarding allowable use and protection of the information.” She also said a warrant to release salary information is not required by law.

They’ve been caught and they’re proud of their cooperation with the FedGov.  Proud of it.

The road to disempowering the FedGov starts right there in your own city, county and state.  I don’t want to hear another word about how big Texas is, how they are a 2A sanctuary, and how they respect gun rights, until they clean house and get rid of the controllers in their own midst.  Next up should be passing state laws against this sort of thing, with heavy penalties for violation (such as prison time).

Oh, and where is the governor in this?  Someone near him should ask him if he supports the actions of his employees in cooperating with unconstitutional infringements of the second amendment.

Source.

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Nebraska’s permitless concealed carry bill will be heading to Gov. Jim Pillen’s desk.

On Wednesday, state senators voted 33-14 to pass Legislative Bill 77, which would allow Nebraskans to carry a concealed handgun without a permit.

State Sen. Tom Brewer, who introduced the bill, says the measure guarantees the right to bear arms in Nebraska.

“What we do in this body sometimes is trying to follow through with the will of the people and give them the rights that they have in the Constitution,” Brewer said. “And sometimes we go out of the way and twist those rights and keep people from having them, and I think (the concealed carry permit) is a case of that.”

In previous legislative sessions, Brewer has made the bill a top priority.

Early on in the final reading, State Sen. Jane Raybould filed a motion to place the measure back into the Judiciary Committee.  That motion failed 5-40.

“This bill is not ready for us to pass or approve,” she said. “There is way too much at stake.”

Opponents of the bill, including Lincoln Police Chief Teresa Ewins, have said the proposed law could put lives at risk.

“You have heard from law enforcement and the chiefs of police on how insistent they are to keep concealed carry permits in place for the protection of their officers and communities, and how important it is to kill this bill,” Raybould said.

Lincoln Police released a statement after the vote:

“The chief is disappointed in the legislature’s decision because the most important factor in making these decisions should be public safety and the men and women who serve our community.”

Of course the police are against it.  Blood will run in the streets.  Except it never happens.  Someone ought to tell these idiots to put up or shut up, proving that blood will run in the streets based on other constitutional carry states.  And notice that she puts the alleged safety of officers above constitutionally guaranteed rights.  Of course she does.

Nebraska is already an open carry state, so they did this the right way.  Florida is too scared of falling support for tourism to let that one go.  The “only ones” are the only ones who can carry openly.

Watch the entire video.  Furtive movement.  That’s their excuse for arresting and throwing a man in prison for a year after they had let him go.

This is the stuff of school yard bullies, whether they bullied little boys and girls, or got bullied, they learned it without learning that you don’t do that.

They’re learning this somewhere – probably in police academy, or perhaps from the public prosecutors.  A furtive movement is reasonable excuse for beating someone up, or illegally detaining them, or throwing them in prison.

This is the same category as the cops in NM who shot an innocent homeowner dead after going to the wrong house.

An experienced investigator in officer-involved shootings who viewed the footage said he understands why Mr Dotson would have a gun ready after getting a knock unexpectedly late at night.

However, the officers believed they were going into a domestic violence situation and they are taught domestic violence calls are among the most dangerous, said Edward Obayashi, who is also deputy sheriff and policy advisor for the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office in California.

He said officers on domestic violence calls can find themselves facing people “hell-bent” on killing officers or being killed by officers themselves.

“I’m not saying this is the situation here,” Mr Obayashi said.

“But the officers definitely — based on their training and experience nationwide — are taught this. As soon as they saw the gun, instinctively that’s exactly what went through their mind.”

They’re a gang, and the gang leaders are teaching them all the wrong things.  I’ll say it again.  My son did room clearing in Fallujah for seven months, and never shot any innocent people.  It’s possible to be a man, not to be so timid and scared, and to do this the right way.  Unleashing cops who have been trained to be unaccountable monsters has ruined their reputation.  And properly so.

Don’t talk to cops.  Don’t open the door for them.  Get away from them as soon as possible.  “You’re never in more danger than when the police are around.”  Calling cops to a scene only makes it more dangerous by orders of magnitude.

Harrison Kass writing at 19FortyFive.

And when there’s a problem, sticking with the status quo is unlikely to solve the problem. Something needs to give. And while second amendment enthusiasts will argue that the solution to gun violence is more guns, I don’t find that argument compelling. And while liberals believe the solution to gun violence would be to get rid of all guns, that’s just simply never going to happen.

Banning assault rifles and high-capacity magazines seems like a reasonable accommodation to make. Sure, it would impede people’s recreation. And no, it wouldn’t do anything for the assault weapons and high-capacity magazines already in circulation.

But a ban would reduce the number of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in circulation increasingly over time (the longer the ban is in effect), and resultantly, over time, that would continue to reduce the likelihood of assault weapon/high-capacity mags use in a deadly shooting.

When there’s a problem, approaching its solution from the right world and life view is critical.  His world and life view is vapid and empty.  It has no solutions for anything.  Notice the lack of ideas, the desperation, the general malaise and the complete impotence to effect anything good.

The solution to wickedness is the justification freely offered by the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ.  What Harrison proposes is to remove weapons from the hands of the very people who would be left unprotected against tyranny by the government.

How much damage could that do?  At least 170 million people dead at the hands of governments in the twentieth century alone according to Dave Kopel.  Stephen Halbrook also has some stern words for the controllers.

If Harrison doesn’t have any faith in God and His Holy Word, he certainly has it in mankind, evil as it is.  It must be an awful thing to have so much faith in something so wicked, deceitful and tumultuous as the heart of man.

By the way, 19FortyFive feigns militaria and other related articles and posts, but it’s a very liberal publication.  They no more care about you and your right to live peaceably and protected from your government and other criminals than they care about God’s laws.  They are not so dissimilar to CNAS with its globalist ideas, and Harrison is not so dissimilar to Andrew Exum with his support for controlling and overbearing government.  So it’s not surprising that Harrison wants some solution, any solution, to a problem he and his ilk cannot even begin to address, i.e., evil.  That they even try would be amusing if it wasn’t so sad and pathetic.

Source.

Cage spoke to Nicholas Hoult, his co-star in the upcoming film titled “Renfield,” as he told the tale of his bug-eating experience.

“Oh yeah, I ate it twice, because the director did it just to prank me,” Cage said, according to Yahoo. He then gave Hoult some advice about eating bugs on the set of their new film, since his character eats insects to gain superhuman powers. “If you could get rid of your fear, your phobia of eating insects you could solve world starvation,” he said, according to Yahoo.

Cage continued to detail the potential perks that come with eating bugs.

“High protein, no fat, excellent nutrients, abundance — they’re everywhere,” he said. “I mean, why not? But nope. Not gonna happen,” Cage said.

Hunger is caused by theft, laziness, and lack of obedience to God’s laws.  Eating bugs won’t solve any problems.  It will create more.

But at least you know that all of Hollywood is controlled by the WEF and Klaus Schwab.  There is nothing in it for Nicholas Cage to promote bug-eating except for acceptance and money.  To him, that’s reason enough.

Do you recall this near execution by the Cherokee SWAT team?  So the solution to all of this, according to the tribal council, is to remove body cams.  After all, NC law (where Roy Cooper is the Gooborner) states that video can only be released to the public by court order.

The ordinance was submitted by Neadeau (police chief), and states “It is not feasible nor in the public interest to subject recordings made by body-worn and in-car cameras to the EBCI’s [Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian’s] public records law…”

A more blatant and obvious lie cannot be imagined.  Consider the assertion: it’s not in the public interest to be able to hold the police accountable for unwarranted raids or public executions.

I’m willing to bet we’ve all had them.  I had one in my life, thankfully at the range with the rifle pointed down range.  It’s silly and juvenile that some folks are giving Erik a hard time for making this a teachable moment.  Go put as many rounds down range as he does in a year and then come back to me and talk about it.

Source.

“A big problem with gun owners is they say, ‘Well, you know, what these people wanna do sounds reasonable, but it’s a slippery slope. How do I know what will be limited?’ And I argue that we outta just put it all up for referendums, let people vote on it,” Clinton said, citing some of the pro-choice successes seen in Michigan and elsewhere after the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. “Then neighbors have to talk to neighbors, they have to treat each other like people.”

Says the man who left a trail of bodies a mile long on his way to the largest drug dealer in Arkansas, and in the end the presidency.

So here is the interpretation of the words of the master manipulator.  Let’s get boobs to do our bidding for us.  I can manipulate them into doing virtually anything.  After they’ve forced weapons out of the hands of the troublemakers, then we won’t have to manipulate people any more.  We can just force them to do what we want – after all, we’ll be the only ones with the guns.

No thanks.  Try again.  That doesn’t work for me because it doesn’t work for God.  I follow Him, not flim-flam artists like you.

If he does what Washington Gun Law suspects he’s going to do, i.e., drop his decision the day of the signing of the AWB in Washington, then the good folks in the state of Washington, if there are any left, will immediately take the ban to federal court.  With the Heller “in common use” test, they will surely win – or otherwise, have an unconstitutional decision to appeal to the Ninth circuit.

As it is, if Judge Benetiz made his ruling before the Washington bill becomes law, the ninth circuit could just leave this along, let it apply to California, and then the folks in Washington are on their on.  Or, they could take the Benitez ruling up, make an unconstitutional decision, and then get slapped down by the supreme court.

If Benitez waits until the bill gets signed into law, he is sending a message to the folks in Washington.  Take it to court.  That way, when some progressive judge turns it away, the ninth circuit has split district court rulings to contend with and must take the cases to reconcile them.  They have to find that the AWB is unconstitutional under Heller, or else they get slapped down by the supreme court.

There is also the optics to consider – a Benitez ruling on the very day the controllers announce a new AWB in one of the most progressive states in the nation, all in the ninth cicruit.

There is no leaving this in the states – this will get dealt with one way or the other.  And remember boys and girls, if the AR-15 is such bad jiu jiu to the controllers, make sure you keep yours.  The best way to do that is to have one (or more) to begin with.

Judge Benitez is a master-level, or even galaxy-level, troller.  And quite a good judge too. And notice the drama with which this is all playing out. I find it both amusing and interesting. Then again, I don’t live in the People’s Republic of California where this all must be taken more seriously.