NY Daily News:

CBS Seattle:

A U.S. Navy sailor from Washington State is currently serving on a submarine thousands of miles away in the Pacific Ocean, but a judge has ordered him into an impossible custody scenario: Appear in a Michigan courtroom Monday or risk losing custody of his 6-year-old daughter.

Navy submariner Matthew Hindes was given permanent custody of his daughter Kaylee in 2010, after she was reportedly removed from the home of his ex-wife, Angela, by child protective services. But now a judge has ordered him to appear in court Monday, or risk losing his daughter to his ex-wife in addition to a bench warrant being issued for his arrest, ABC News reports.

Hindes’ lawyers argue he should be protected by the Service Members Civil Relief Act, which states courts in custody cases may “grant a stay of proceedings for a minimum period of 90 days to defendants serving their country.”

But the Michigan judge hearing the case, circuit court judge Margaret Noe, disagrees, stating: “If the child is not in the care and custody of the father, the child should be in the care and custody of the mother.”

The judge reiterated that regardless of Hindes’ assignment under the Pacific Ocean, he will appear in court or face contempt of court.

Let’s not get too wrapped around the axle on whether the judge made the right call on custody of the child.  For all we know the sailor is a chump and the wife should have custody.  That’s entirely beside the point I want to make.  The real problem comes with her declaration that the U.S. Navy stop their ship, perform an emergency egress of one of their sailors, get him to court, and suspend their own requirements that he be at his post, thus ignoring the fact that he would be UA if he appeared before her.

All of this is to appease her whims.  Why does all of this matter to us?  Because it’s emblematic of the behavior of judges and the entire prosecutorial system today.  If this hag gets away with her abuse, then she may as well haul innocent people into court and demand that they throw salt over their left shoulder while they howl at the moon on Thursday at midnight, give her $100 for her next pair of high heels, and then turn in all of their guns to be destroyed.

And worse still, while the effete, pampered, self-important ruling class makes up the rules as they go, they turn to the goober squad to enforce those judgments.  And like good goobers, the LEOs always oblige – you know – because of the “rule of law.”  We wouldn’t want anarchy to break out or anything like that.

I have to appear in court soon for jury duty.  I didn’t realize until someone told me that if they don’t happen to have the people they need when they need them for a case, Sheriffs (at least in my neck of the woods) reserve the right, under the authority of judges, to go to local shopping malls, apprehend people, in cuffs if necessary, and haul them into court for jury.  It doesn’t matter if the person they haul in happens to be buying medication for their spouse who has just had surgery.  If Ricky, who bought an ounce of marijuana, needs to be incarcerated that night and they can’t find jurors, your spouse has to wait.  Your ass belongs to the state, because we wouldn’t want Ricky to wait until next Monday to have his time in court.  Because as you know, we wouldn’t want anarchy to break out or anything.

This kind of abuse in the prosecutorial system will continue until men of strong heart throw the bastards out, by force if necessary.

Mike Vanderboegh:

So if you wish to stay free, prepare to resist, defy, evade and smuggle. The Founders did. The enemies of liberty will certainly never be convinced by anything less.

Make sure to catch Mike’s recent speech in Big Spring, Texas.  He has some praise for your favorite President.

David Codrea:

So Abramski has become law, meaning it has been transformed into stare decisisüber alles, and it can become the basis for more bad rulings across the country. To stop that from happening, gun owners who are sitting on the sidelines must join the fight for gun rights, or the decision’s arcane language and legal parrying involving milk and iPhones will devolve further into how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

Yea, and I fear it will become the basis for much more than bad rulings.  I’m afraid that this will empower the federal Leviathan to become even more intrusive with regulations that take on the force of law.

Kurt Hofmann:

Every mass shooting is immediately followed by clamorous calls for more restrictive gun laws. These days, it’s primarily calls for “universal background checks.” One little problem–every one of the guns used in every one of the recent mass shootings was bought with the buyer having passed such a check. Sandy Hook Elementary, Isla Vista, Phoenix, Ft. Hood (twice), Aurora movie theater, Virginia Tech–each and every one of those guns was sold without any fabricated “loopholes.”

A prominent anti-gunner says they have a “messaging problem.”  They have more than a messaging problem.  They have lies and they don’t have the guns.  We have both truth and guns on our side.

I published Colt: The Gunmaker Who Can’t Shoot Straight, and thought that would be the end of it.  Today Janes published this.

Colt Defense have unveiled their new CK901 assault rifle, chambered in the Russian 7.62 x 39 mm cartridge, at Eurosatory 2014 in Paris.

Speaking to IHS Jane’s , a Colt Defense representative stated that the CK901 has been ordered by the Yemeni Republican Guard to replace their existing AK-47s.

According to Colt Defense representatives, the CK901 was designed for military customers in countries that use the AK-47, or AK-47-based rifles, and therefore still utilise, manufacture or possess large stockpiles of 7.62 x 39 mm ammunition.

The distinctive feature of CK901 is that it can be fed from all types of standard and non-standard AK-47 pattern magazines. Colt has thoroughly tested the rifle on all available steel or polymer magazines to assure reliable feeding of cartridges, the company stated. The company also offers the weapon with a US-made 30 round magazine manufactured by US Palm.

The CK901 is a gas-operated rifle based on the existing Colt Modular CM901 multicalibre (5.56 or 7.62 mm NATO) weapon family debuted in 2010.

The firearm uses the direct impingement gas principle with a rotary bolt locking mechanism. The weapon is equipped with a monolithic upper receiver, fitted with an upper and lower M1913 Picatinny rail and side rail attachment points.

I don’t like the 7.62 X 39 mm cartridge, but that’s a matter of personal choice.  Frankly, if I were going to choose such a caliber for this type of weapon, it would be a 300 Blackout.  In the mean time, I’m quite happy with my Rock River Arms AR-15, 5.56 mm.  I’ll follow Eugene Stoner rather than Kalashnikov, and if I get another Stoner-style rifle, it’ll be a .308.

But even if you do like the cartridge, Colt has almost run itself out of business by sucking at the teet of government contracts, so much so that they lost all respect for QA in their product line, and jettisoned most products except what they were providing to the government.  When is the last time you saw a Colt Python for sale at a reasonable price?  As for that matter, have you forgiven Colt for dropping the manufacture of double action revolvers?

So if they can’t have the U.S. government contract for M4s, apparently they’ll go chase the foreign government market.  How sad.

Kurt Hofmann:

In other words, her use of the term “automatic,” rather than “semi-automatic” was intentional, and intentionally misleading.

That’s exactly what I thought when I heard her words.  Don’t think for a minute what one author wrote, that this was a “gaffe.”  If you do you’re not giving Hillary enough credit for obfuscation of the ignorant masses.

David Codrea:

Wait a minute: The AG making it known not to shoot innocent citizens for exercising their lawful rights requires a vote by politicians? What if they vote that it’s OK? And Ohio cops need “special training” beyond telling them not to?

There are some idiotic, violent cops in North Carolina too.  I’ve known some folks who had LEOs draw their weapons on them because of open carry, when North Carolina is a traditional open carry state.  Losing the mandate of heaven, I think it’s called.  They become nothing more than gang members with badges.  They certainly aren’t heroes, and their actions don’t constitute examples for young children as they might have 50 years ago.

In other news, we learn that criminals aren’t afraid of our guns, and so we shouldn’t have them, I guess.  That’s fine with me.  I don’t have guns to make people afraid.  I have them to shoot people who assault me.

Here is one for Mike Vanderboegh, who loves the M1A and M14 platform.  Exploring the humble beginnings of the M1 rifle.

Finally, some strange things with guns.  And more strange things.  I don’t want to do either of these strange things.

General Petraeus:

General David Petraeus, the former CIA director and head of the international forces in Afghanistan (ISAF), has today said that the United States is suffering deeply because of partisanship, and said that the country needs immigration reform.

Gen. Petraeus was speaking on the “After America, What?” panel at the Centre for Policy Studies’ Margaret Thatcher Liberty Conference at the Guildhall in the City of London.

“After America comes North America,” he said, discussing how Canada, the United States and Mexico are set to be a formidable force together, “notwithstanding Mexico’s rule of law issues”.

We’ve discussed it many times before.  The alleged need for immigrants pertains to the desires of corporations to have low paid workers.  It doesn’t enrich you or me, it enriches the rich (heads of corporations, boards of directors, and so on).

Here’s how it works.  It helps the corporate bottom line by forcing the middle class to pick up the tab for medical care, which burden happens largely on the backs of nurses in emergency rooms (my daughter is a nurse in an ER), with medical insurance premiums escalating in order to pay for the service.  Food stamps (so called SNAP) also factor into the calculus, as well as driver’s insurance (for uninsured motorists coverage).

It isn’t that there is no cost for low paid workers.  It’s that the cost is borne by the middle class as welfare to corporations and the wealthy.  The GOP is connected at the hip to such interests in terms of money, while the Democrats are connected in terms of future voters.  With such powerful interests at stake, it should be obvious why the Southern border is a sieve and illegals are left in the country unmolested.

But Petraeus is at least honest, admitting what many of the politicians don’t want to confess.  They see America more as an idea, or an endless checkbook, rather than a place with people and borders.  The idea they cherish is one of wealth propagation among the elite (for the GOP), or power in perpetuity (for the Democrats).  The idea of the constitution has long ago lost its appeal.

Petraeus advocates “immigration reform,” but he refers to North America as America’s replacement, almost as if it’s a foregone conclusion rather something he needs to advocate.  But such a thing will bring about the end of the middle class as we know it.

With trillions of dollars in unfunded liabilities, a behemoth socialized medical system (with millions of new immigrants added to the rolls), and a fiat money system which existence relies on the printing presses, the system cannot go on for much longer.

North America.  Increasingly it will take on the face of gang members.  Welcome your newest neighbor – affiliates of MS13.  They think you owe them a living.  Said one of them.

‘You’re going to let me go, just like you let my mother go, just like you let my sister go. You’re going to let me go as well, and the government’s going to take care of us

Prepare.

CBS Miami:

A police officer mistakenly fired his rifle Wednesday morning while in court in front of the judge.

A Miami-Dade Police Officer, according to police, was demonstrating a scenario to a judge on the 30^th floor of the Lawson E. Thomas Court House around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.

After demonstrating, police say the officer mistakenly fired one shot from his police issued rifle, an AR-15.

The bullet hit the floor and there were no injuries.

Hey folks, forget what I’ve said about trigger discipline.  Remember that cops are highly trained, and are the only ones who can be trusted to own and use weapons.

The Supreme Court has decided the Abramski case with a 5-4 vote.  The reaction thus far has been fairly muted, but the implications of the decision are potentially far reaching.  Kagan, writing for the majority, spends a significant amount of painful time [painful for those of us who have filled it out many times] in the nuts and bolts of Form 4473 and what she believes must have been the intent of Congress when they crafted the Gun Control Act of 1968.  Scalia wrote a spirited dissent, and anticipating the objections, Kagan writes:

But Abramski and the dissent draw the wrong conclu­sion from their observations about resales and gifts. Yes, Congress decided to regulate dealers’ sales, while leaving the secondary market for guns largely untouched. As we noted in Huddleston, Congress chose to make the dealer the “principal agent of federal enforcement” in “restricting [criminals’] access to firearms.” 415 U. S., at 824. And yes, that choice (like pretty much everything Congress does) was surely a result of compromise. But no, straw arrangements are not a part of the secondary market, separate and apart from the dealer’s sale. In claiming as much, Abramski merely repeats his mistaken assumption that the “person” who acquires a gun from a dealer in a case like this one is the straw, rather than the individual who has made a prior arrangement to pay for, take pos­session of, own, and use that part of the dealer’s stock. For all the reasons we have already given, that is not a plausible construction of a statute mandating that the dealer identify and run a background check on the person to whom it is (really, not fictitiously) selling a gun. See supra, at 9–15. The individual who sends a straw to a gun store to buy a firearm is transacting with the dealer, in every way but the most formal; and that distinguishes such a person from one who buys a gun, or receives a gun as a gift, from a private party.⁹ The line Congress drew between those who acquire guns from dealers and those who get them as gifts or on the secondary market, we suspect, reflects a host of things, including administrative simplicity and a view about where the most problematic firearm transactions—like criminal organizations’ bulk gun purchases—typically occur. But whatever the reason, the scarcity of controls in the secondary market provides no reason to gut the robust measures Congress enacted at the point of sale.

If it seems that Kagan is making the judgment of a legislator here, you are not mistaken, and it isn’t a mistake that she spends so much time in her decision on the federal code.

Via David Codrea, attorney Joshua Prince says of the decision:

There is NO law enacted by the Congress regarding straw purchasers! This was made up in whole cloth by the ATF! This is a FAR worse decision than anyone is comprehending. NOW, administrative agencies can enact criminal laws, which have NOT been enacted by the Congress!

David Workman also weighs in at Examiner:

Nelson Lund, a constitutional scholar and Second Amendment expert at George Mason School of Law, had this to say: “Five members of the Supreme Court have decided to make it a federal crime for a lawful gun owner to buy a firearm for another lawful gun owner. No federal statute says any such thing. The Justices are once again legislating from the bench, which violates the Constitution, and enacting a retroactive criminal law, which is even worse.” His comment came via e-mail.

In his dissent, Scalia notes that there is evolving history in how the ATF has applied and enforced the Gun Control Act.

After Congress passed the Act in 1968, ATF’s initial position was that the Act did not prohibit the sale of a gun to an eligible buyer acting on behalf of a third party (even an ineligible one). See Hearings Before the Subcommittee To Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 94th Cong., 1st Sess., pt. 1, 118 (1975). A few years later, ATF modified its position and asserted that the Act did not “prohibit a dealer from making a sale to a person who is actually purchasing the firearm for another person” unless the other person was “prohibited from receiving or possessing a firearm,” in which case the dealer could be guilty of “unlawfully aiding the prohibited person’s own violation.” ATF, Industry Circular 79–10 (1979), in (Your Guide To) Federal Firearms Regulation 1988–89 (1988), p. 78. The agency appears not to have adopted its current position until the early 1990’s.

Then Scalia offers up this zinger.

In the majority’s view, if the bureaucrats responsible for creating Form 4473 decided to ask about the buyer’s favorite color, a false response would be a federal crime.

He has put his finger on a core problem with this decision [and other such rule-making inside the beltway].  As I’ve noted before:

Laws are passed by the Senate and Congress.  But after laws pass, thousands of lawyers inside the beltway go to work writing regulations based on those laws, or not, using the law as a pretext for further regulation that Congress didn’t specifically intend.  At times, Congress has even had to pass laws undoing regulations because the regulations don’t meet the intent of the law, and yet the executive branch won’t stop enforcing that regulation (or class of regulations).

Regulation is passed merely by entering them into the federal register, allowing a waiting time for public comments (which are nothing but a chance afforded to the authors of the regulations to ignore them or write sarcastic rebuttals), and then after the waiting period, it takes on the force of law including prosecution, fines and imprisonment for failure to follow them.

This happens every day, all over the nation, and in the DOT, NRC, EPA, DOJ, ATF, DHS, and other departments and agencies that the reader cannot even name and didn’t know existed.  Any law giving the executive branch the authority to further regulate firearms will be an opportunity for abuse, overreach and exploitation.

I’ve seen it in my own line of work.  Regulations take on the force of law after comments responding to entries in the Federal Register are summarily ignored by the agency doing the regulating.  It makes little sense to respond with comments when the regulator’s mind is made up.  These regulations frequently far surpass the law in breadth, scope, depth and magnitude.

One such example on Form 4473 might be the following.  My own son was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps, but knew of one poor soul who became inebriated the eve of his discharge and was caught for DUI on base.  This Marine was dishonorably discharged.  According to the wording on Form 4473, he will never be able to legally purchase a gun even if a judge agrees with him because the USMC won’t revisit its discharge and thus he won’t be able to answer – truthfully – on Form 4473 about discharge from a branch of the service.

[I don’t mean here to exonerate the ridiculous GCA for its requirement that gun transfers across state lines go through an FFL.  I have gifted a firearm to one of my sons this way, and in order to fulfill this part of the law (he couldn’t legally carry it with him on the airline even by following TSA regulations since he didn’t own it), we had to pay the exorbitant cost of shipping the gun air express to an FFL and then a transfer fee in his home state.  It had the effect of escalating the cost of the whole affair, and I’m convinced that this was part of the intended effect by Congress.]

To me, this kind of regulation seems onerous compared to what Congress wrote, but it is latitude given (and taken) by the federal regulators.  If there is a problem with legislating from the bench, there is even a worse problem with regulating by the executive branch from inside the beltway.  The problem will continue (and grow) as long as the public abides the abuse.

Kurt Hofmann:

That means, of course, that there is no vitriol too foul, to his way of thinking, to fling at groups like Open Carry Texas, for their campaign of openly carrying rifles and shotguns into places like restaurants and retail stores (although he may not have made the comparison between such activists and child rapist/murderers–yet). Of rather greater concern than the vitriol, though, is Malloy’s stated intention to try to get open carry activists shot and killed. Ah–another “non-violence” advocate.

It’s yet another installment on the logical inconsistency of the gun control movement, like claims that guns don’t save lives or that they create more danger than they abate – which they cannot truly believe because they never advocate taking guns away from the police.

David Codrea:

It’s part of a long-standing and not particularly successful attempt by the “progressives” to chill dissent by making gun owners fear to speak out lest they be tarred with the brush of extremist. Perversely, those who want them to feel that way have been known to come up with extremist advocacy positions like ‘Isn’t it time we started rounding up promoters of hate before they kill?”

David and Mike have already been painted with that brush.  So have I.  Care to join the club?  And speaking of extremist, Mike explains just what he really believes.

It is for this reason that the collectivists — the domestic enemies of the Founders’ Republic — are made somewhat angered, if not deranged, by the Gadsden flag. Its sentiment is plain — it cannot be polluted or corrupted or co-opted. They must therefore do their best to demonize it, to discredit it, to profane it, and to lie about those who fly it. We have seen that very clearly in their reaction to the Miller meth-head murderers’ misuse of the Gadsden flag in their Nevada rampage. The flag is itself “anti-government” they proclaim and proof that the Millers represent the rest of us “anti-government types.”

Now I don’t know about you, but I’m not “anti-government,” although the Southern Poverty Law Center has been calling me that for two decades now. I am in fact pro-government of the kind the Founders would recognize. I am pro small government, safe government — a government of limited powers — a government that supports the rule of law AND OPERATES WITHIN IT.

It’s important to distinguish between advocates of constitutional government and anarchy, the brush our opponents would choose for us.

And finally, Mike asks the question, has the Department of Homeland Security become America’s standing army?  Yes.  Next question.

ABC News:

The video, set to sweetly lilting religious hymns, is chilling. Islamic militants are shown knocking on the door of a Sunni police major in the dead of night in an Iraqi city. When he answers, they blindfold and cuff him. Then they carve off his head with a knife in his own bedroom.

The 61-minute video was recently posted online by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an al-Qaida splinter group of Sunni extremists. The intent was to terrorize Sunnis in Iraq’s army and police forces and deepen their already low morale.

CNS News:

While hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are affected by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s takeover of key cities including the Ninawa (Nineveh) provincial capital, Mosul, minority Christians – some of whom trace their origins to the earliest years of Christianity – are among those with the most to lose.

In previous years, Christians fleeting violence in Baghdad or elsewhere in the south often headed for the Mosul area. The Nineveh Plain formed the historic homeland of Assyrians, an ancient non-Arab ethnic group in Iraq. Main Christian denominations include Chaldean Catholic, Assyrian, Syrian Orthodox, Armenian and evangelicals.

Syria was another key destination for Christians who were able to leave Iraq, but the civil war there made life even riskier across the border than at home, prompting some to return.

For many Christians in the Mosul area now, the autonomous Kurdish region to the north-east may offer the best short-term hope – if they are able to cross over. Chaldean archbishop Amel Nona told the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) he believed all Mosul’s Christians had left the city, and spoke of efforts to find emergency accommodation in ancient Christian villages in the Nineveh Plain.

As the jihadists swept into Mosul this week, they reportedly looted and torched churches, raised their black “there is no god but Allah” flags and started demanding that women wear the Islamic veil.

The Assyrian International News Agency identified two of the targeted churches as the Chaldean Church of the Holy Spirit, and an Armenian church under construction, which it said was bombed.

Barnabas Fund, an aid agency that supports minority Christians in Islamic countries, said the attacks on churches were “a clear statement from ISIS that they are no longer welcome in Mosul.”

“It is feared that this latest exodus could be the final death knell for the Christians of Iraq,” said Barnabas international director Patrick Sookdheo.

World Net Daily:

About 200 Americans under contract with the Department of Defense at Balad Air Force Base in Iraq are trapped by the al-Qaida-inspired jihadists who have seized control of two cities and are now threatening Baghdad, according to WND sources.

The sources, private contractors who have recently returned to the U.S. from Iraq, said Friday their former colleagues effectively have been abandoned by the U.S. military and are fighting for their lives against an army of jihadists surrounding the base who belong to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.

The U.S. contractors are at Balad to help the Pentagon prepare the facilities for the delivery of the F-16 aircraft the Obama administration has agreed to provide the Iraqi government.

The surrounded Americans said they currently are under ISIS fire from small arms, AK47s, and rocket propelled grenades, or RPGs.

The contractors so far have been able to hold the base, but those on the scene reported it was only a matter of time before the ISIS terrorists succeeded in breaking through the perimeter. The sources confirmed the contractors were still under siege, despite an Associated Press report Thursday, citing U.S. officials, that three planeloads of Americans were being evacuated from Balad.