June 8, 2018 Newsletter by Jeff Pittman
Litigation
The Mississippi State Supreme Court (MSSC) has ruled that judges in the 14th Chancery District (NE MS) were wrong (duh) to ban people with enhanced concealed-carry licenses from taking guns into courthouses (not courtrooms). The local judges had filed an administrative order banning firearms within 200 feet of a courtroom door. Judges in other districts have pulled similar stunts. The MSSC said that the 14th District judges overstepped their authority because the Mississippi Constitution specifies that only the Legislature “may regulate or forbid carrying concealed weapons.” Well, duh again. The Court also said the judges did not have the “inherent power” to dictate security beyond their courtrooms. It’s a good read:
“The chancellors may have good and noble intentions, and their concerns are well-founded. However, their personal fears and opinions do not trump, and cannot negate, constitutional guarantees. The ultimate outcome of today’s issue is reserved for the Legislature, not to be commandeered by unilateral local judicial proclamations. Courts must give more than lip service to the rule of law; they must insist upon its lawful application. Judges cannot allow their sense of superior knowledge, perceptions, or understandings to justify open defiance of the very laws that they are called upon to uphold. Indeed, we have held repeatedly that courts are guardians of the Constitution, not guardians of the courthouse. Without question, the orders defy existing law and seek to exercise a power that plainly is reserved for the other branches of government. The orders contain no authority to suggest otherwise. The law of Mississippi is clear: enhanced-carry licensees are permitted to possess a firearm in courthouses. No matter how well-intentioned, judges are without the power to limit enhanced concealed-carry licensees’ right to carry a firearm beyond courtrooms in the State of Mississippi.”
Writing in dissenting opinion, Justice Dawn Beam, a former chancery judge, said “the majority’s holding today that judges are without authority to control the security outside their courtrooms renders a sad day for justice in Mississippi.” Justice Beam, who is apparently a fascist who has never read the Mississippi Constitution, will have to run for re-election in 2024, I believe.
Five men, who live in Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi and Texas, have filed a lawsuit in the Washington, D.C. US District Court, against the FBI and US Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The plaintiffs claim they were incorrectly denied permission to purchase a firearm by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System but the FBI hasn’t processed appeals since 2015, effectively making it impossible to lawfully purchase a gun, denying their Second (and Fifth — JP) Amendment rights.
http://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/c601ae_bb4922c5176e4f3f804abac40e53e010.pdf
Sig Sauer has been sued by some police officers after they were injured when their Sig P320 pistols allegedly went off when dropped or jarred.
The City of Orlando and 31 of its police officers have been sued in US District Court over their [lack of] response to Pulse nightclub massacre that left 49 dead. City’s gonna win this one, unless they settle.
Survivors and families of victims of the 2015 attack on Paris’ Bataclan concert hall have filed a legal complaint to find out why soldiers stationed nearby were ordered not to intervene when Islamic State gunmen stormed the venue. The complaint alleges that there were eight soldiers standing nearby who were ordered not to use their weapons or even help administer first aid to victims. The attack on the Bataclan and other venues killed 130 people and injured hundreds.
Florida Updates
Broward County Sheriff’s Deputies not only fooled around outside the Parkland high school during the February massacre, but also SIX times refused to allow two Rescue Task Force teams made up of three paramedics and three or four policemen to enter rooms already found to be safe, according to an incident report released by the Coral Springs-Parkland Fire Department. One report indicated that “By the time the whole building was deemed safe for them to enter, there was no need — everyone had already been brought out by police or was dead.”
We also learned this week that two unarmed “security monitors” (remember the commercial? see video below) knew the attacker was there and up to something before the shooting started. But they basically just hid and talked to each other on their radios.
And disgraced former Broward County Deputy Scott Peterson keeps on digging.
LEO Certification
Did you know that the Dept. of Homeland Security now provides training to “certify” LEOs in “active shooter response?” Not having seen the curriculum or training, it’s hard to comment, but considering the “advice” that DHS and other LE agencies give the general public about defending against these massacrists, I am pretty unimpressed with the idea of such a federal “certification” for LEOs.
Enemies
The bodyguard of Chicago’s gun-grabbing violent Catholic “Father” Michael “Snuffy” Pfleger has been arrested on a gun charge. You can’t make this up. (Pfleger once publicly named and threatened to “snuff out” a gun store-owner.) Susan Thomas, a spokesliar for the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, wrote in an email that “Fr. Pfleger does not have armed security and to our knowledge, neither does any other priest.” Right.
More Chicago Catholic gun control.
Effective July 29, Citi will no longer cover firearm or ammunition purchases under its credit card purchase protection program or its “90 Day Return Protection” for its credit card users.
Et tu, Richard? NRA-affiliated Illinois State Rifle Association executive director Richard Pearson said on Fox News recently (while arguing against a proposed local semiautomatic firearms and big magazine ban) that gun control prevents mass shootings:
“Illinois is a little bit different than every other state because every gun owner in the state that has a [FOID] card goes through a background check every night of the year. So if you have looked at the history of Illinois, we don’t have any of those or very few of those [mass shootings] in our history. And so, we are much more tightly regulated than the other states anyway.”
But then there is Chicago (which is in Illinois, by the way), the utopia of US gun-control laws, which just reported that 1,071 people had been shot and 202 people had been killed there as of June 4. The report did not make it clear whether all of the 202 deceased were shot.
The New York Times issued a new social media policy last October that lists one of its key points as, “In social media posts, our journalists (sic) must not express partisan opinions, promote political views, endorse candidates, make offensive comments or do anything else that undercuts The Times’s (sic) journalistic reputation.” What a load.
Hate group The Southern Poverty Law Center is helping Facebook, Amazon, Google and Twitter determine what other organizations are “hate groups.” I guess it takes one to know one.
What the other side thinks.
Here’s a song for Mr. Obama: “We Don’t Call 911.”
Math
- Long Read of the Week: The Mathematics of Countering Tyranny by JAMES WESLEY RAWLES [American Digest]
Old vs. Young Cops. This doesn’t just apply to police work.
Appendix Carry
Con.
Pro.
I will note that every carry style involves compromises. In this case, it seems that the compromise basically boils down to either (a) pointing a loaded and possibly cocked weapon more or less directly at parts of your body which, if shot, are pretty likely to result in your death, or (b) presumably giving up some additional degree of comfort, convenience, and/or concealability. I choose “b.” I’d prefer to live with a bit of discomfort than to die or to live with a LOT of discomfort.
Safety
A 9-year-old Greenville, MS, boy died Wednesday after being accidentally shot by his 8-year-old brother with a pellet gun in their home.
Air guns are NOT toys and are deadly. Never allow young or irresponsible children (or “adults”) unsupervised access to them. Lock them up with the other guns.
The Only Ones
Off-duty FBI agent Chase Bishop, 29, dropped his gun out of its holster while he was break dancing at the Mile High Spirits Distillery and Tasting Bar in Denver around 12:45 a.m. last Saturday. That didn’t hurt anyone. But when the “Only One” picked it up, he pulled the trigger and shot another bar patron in the leg, causing a relatively minor injury. Denver PD HOMICIDE is investigating. Homicide? We don’t know why. (We have word that Rangemaster’s Tom and Lynn Givens were just up at the FBI Academy in Quantico, VA, in April, training the FBI firearms instructors how to teach their 15,000 agents. Better late than never, I suppose.)
You may have heard something about a shooting at the Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon in San Diego. Turns out that apparently a woman was arrested for shooting an airgun (apparently without hitting anyone), and an unidentified police officer was injured when he shot himself in the foot.
Broward County, FL (again) Sheriff’s bailiff Franklin Joseph Pinter, reported to be a civilian employee, has been accused of threatening behavior toward courthouse colleagues and was temporarily relieved of duty and his 67 firearms were taken by law enforcement under a risk protection order (RPO), pending a June 11 hearing to determine whether a final risk protection order should be issued. No word on why the suspension is temporary.
An unidentified Indian River County, Florida Sheriff’s Deputy “accidentally” shot himself in the hand while he was at a high school for a training session. A spokesman said the deputy was trying to clear his weapon when it discharged and struck him between his ring and middle fingers. No school students were on campus at the time. Not sure why they’re training with live weapons at a high school. I’m guessing the deputy needs a bit more training.
Police impersonators in Flint, MI have been fooling the public, firefighters, and the real cops for three years.
Signs
Life Imitates Art
Remember in the movie, “It Could Happen To You,” when the Charlie the cop, played by Nicolas Cage, took down a store robber by hitting him with a thrown can of food? Here, it really happens (you might say he got beaned):
NICS Checks
In May 2018, the FBI processed 2,002,992 (unadjusted) queries through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), which is more than any previous May in the system’s history with May 2017 holding the previous record at 1,942,677. This does not necessarily mean that actual gun sales are up.
My Retirement
There are only 21 days left until my retirement after 34.5 years of employment as an engineer with the State of Mississippi. Wish me well.
Products
Remember the old Juenke bullet concentricity evaluating machine? You can still get them, as a kit, but they’re pricey. You have to be an electrical engineer or equivalent to build it, they say. Don’t ask me — I’m a civil engineer.
A buddy recommended Pistol Wear concealment holsters, and said they’re comfortable and conceal well, even under only a T-shirt. Check ’em out.
Lowe’s home improvement stores carry Mossy Oak Break Up camo OSB (“plywood”) boards made by Georgia-Pacific which they claim are great for building deer stands and such. But they come with only a 90-day limited warranty for vertical applications, aren’t intended for use in floors, and are “not intended for permanent exterior exposure.” I wonder where they think we’re erecting interior deer stands?
Product
1911 card holder. Awesome.
Quotes
“The single most dangerous thing any of us do with pistols, by far, is place them into holsters! ‘Holstering’ is the one place where the vast majority of UDs happen!” — John Farnam
“I don’t agree with the NRA about a ‘good guy with a gun’ and I don’t want Hope to be the wild, wild West. Not in my wildest imagination did I ever think we’d be living in a time like this. But what (redacted SC church killer’s name) did was a seminal moment. And I’m not the kind of guy who you shoot at me and I won’t shoot at you back.” – Rev. Joseph Washington in These Black Churches Are Considering Arming Their Congregations [via vice.com], who apparently DOES agree with the NRA
“I once met a poor unfortunate sot in an urban ER who had absorbed a full dozen of these zippy little rounds [.22 LR] and yet remained a fairly engaging conversationalist.” — Will Dabbs, MD
Retirement can be good Jeff.
Thank you for your 2nd Amendment contributions.
Henry Blake
Hoping you won’t retire from 2Anews, but wish you well.