Story here. The charges were a big stretch, the plea (no contest to two misdemeanors) is a prosecution face-saving move. “We can’t afford to dismiss the charges, but offer him a misdemeanor and a fine that will be less than his legal costs.”
Continue Reading Man who bought the rifle for Rittenhouse pleads to misdemeanors

Justice Gorsuch incorrectly says “I believe” flu kills hundreds of thousands, correct number tens of thousands, and people go nuts. He’s displaying his ignorance, spreading disinformation, making false statements, etc.

Justice Sotomayor says Covid has put 100,000 children in the hospital, actual number 700-3,300, and nobody seems much concerned.
Continue Reading Supreme Court, Covid, and reactions

Here’s his article. I’d agree. We’ll probably see this ruling at the end of June, because the Court likes to hand down the most controversial rulings of each Term in its last few days, and to break and end the Term just before the 4th of July.
Continue Reading Steve Halbrook on NYSRPA case

A French cuirass recovered from the battlefield at Waterloo. They were meant to protect against pistol shots and saber slashes, not against a direct hit from artillery. The caption says the wearer was “wounded by a cannonball.” I doubt he was wounded for very long.
Continue Reading That had to hurt!

Article here.

Lead case: perp caught after burning a car with murder victim dead in the trunk. Perp and victim are known to have been involved in an unemployment fraud scheme. Perp was free on bond after gun charges filed. Perp asked mother to follow him to where he dumped the car and give him ride back. She asks no questions.

Perp is charged with a misdemeanor, concealing a body.

At the end is a list of other Chicago cases where a perp killed someone while charged with a gun offense but was released or charges were dropped. In…
Continue Reading Justice Chicago-style

Chicago sets an all-time record for homicides. In fact, it managed to have more homicides than 47 of the 50 States. And a suspect can be located in only about one case in ten (witnesses know that their lifespan will be short if they talk), the rate is likely to continue.
Continue Reading They're Number One– the case of Chicago

Story here. I do find this amusing, as fear of mass crime comes to the gated communities where crime was seen as a reaction to deprivation and self-defense was seen as uncivilized, if not outright racist.
Continue Reading Arms race in Beverly Hills

Interesting results. Firearms ownership 32% (probably understated: some gun owners don’t like to reveal that to strangers). One-third have used gun at least once in self-defense, amounting to 1.67 million defensive gun uses per year.

48% of gun owners own or have owned magazines that hold over ten rounds, and 30%, or over 24 million, own or have owned an AR-15 platform rifle.

Not good news for anti-gunners, at all. When tens of millions of Americans already own what you want to ban…. your cause is out there with the dinosaurs already.
Continue Reading 2021 National Firearms Survey

There are estimates that we have 8,000,000 first-time gun owners over the past couple of years. Nearly half those were women, according to other studies.

I’ve said it before–historically, we were a nation of gun owners. I found a newspaper article describing New York City in the 1890s, saying that let a rabid dog run around Times Square, and you’d see how many people were carrying guns. Another New York City article from the early 20th century gave tips on creating a DIY shoulder holster. That trait was repressed during the 1960s, when gun ownership became unfashionable (or, to…
Continue Reading Gun ownership rapidly rising

Story here, without much detail.
Continue Reading Glock, Smith and Wesson, sue NY

I am reminded (hate to date myself) I was in Washington, DC, at the bicentennial of the Constitution. A big event, Warren Burger (thankfully a former Chief Justice) chairing the Commission, and so on.

The bicentennial of the Bill of Rights … nothing.

Of course, DC is a company town, and the company is the Federal government. So the event that gave it power is a major celebration, the event that limited that power is best forgotten.
Continue Reading Bill of Rights day

Austin pays a price for “defund the police”. Murder nearly doubles, to an all-time high. This is called “bad luck,” as Heinlien says.
Continue Reading No surprise there….

I’ve seen it all now.
Continue Reading Reloading for accuracy … in .22 LR?