Update in re Angel

Dear Friends of Angel,

Angel had his day in court today. His attorney and the prosecutors had worked out an agreement, which the judge accepted. Here are the results.

The judge overseeing the case ordered the police to give Angel's guns back, but he must register the handguns in compliance with Michigan law (euphemistically called a "safety inspection", but it is clearly registration, a law adopted in the 20s to keep guns out of the hands of Blacks). The only charges on the table were four misdemeanor counts of failure to present a handgun for a safety inspection. The theoried charge discussed in the media and on the Net about "menacing" and threats was not advanced by prosecutors, because there was no substance to the theoried charge. Police and prosecutors figured this out after looking at the facts and evidence.

Angel will be on non-reporting probation on the failure to register charges for a year and a half. Angel will have on his record forever four misdemeanor violations of failure to present his handguns for "safety inspection". Angel must perform three days of community service, which will hold him in Michigan for almost a month (because they are court-scheduled days).

I've been saying for too long now that the attorneys have insisted on silence from anyone having inside information about this situation, because release of such information could very well have torpedoed the deal Angel's attorney had worked out with the prosecutors. Frankly, the prosecutors were not anxious to go to trial on this case, and Angel is too clearly a clean and good guy to be able to spin him as some dangerous nut case.

Now is probably time for me to confess a bit of an ulterior motive in all of this. Angel plans to move to Montana where can live under what legal scholar Dave Kopel calls the freest gun laws in the World (see Dave's Foreword to my book, Gun Laws of Montana), where he can go Prairie Dog hunting with my son Ty and myself, and where he will undertake the needful task of recruiting scads of members for MSSA. According to the plan, recruiting membership for MSSA will be Angel's vocation for the indefinite future. I suspect you may be hearing a pitch from Angel (an MSSA Member since 2003) to join MSSA (hey, a lot of our members don't live in Montana).

So, stay tuned for more info about how this all happened to Angel. In the meantime, if you haven't donated to Angel's legal defense, but wish to do so, there is information about this at:

http://www.marbut.com/angel

There IS a deficit of about $10,000 to pay the legal expenses incurred so far.

Thanks loads to all of you for your tolerance of the imposed silence, for your now-justified faith in Angel, for your support letters, and for your donations to Angel's legal defense.

Gary Marbut, president
Montana Shooting Sports Association
http://www.mtssa.org
author, Gun Laws of Montana
http://www.mtpublish.com

Dial 911 and Die

Woman dies after son calls 911; dispatchers think it's a prank...An investigation is underway in Detroit after a six-year-old boy called 911 to get help for his mom, and the operator acted as if it were a joke...Detroit police are investigating and say they are not sure about what, if any, disciplinary will be taken against the 911 operator.

Naturally.

And, as is typical with out Watchdog Press, we know the names of the citizens involved, but not of the outrageously negligent government employee.

[Via Xavier Thoughts]

The Parasite Preservation Act

The mayor of Miramichi, N.B., says there is a way of saving 200 high-paying federal jobs if the government scraps the federal gun registry.

The mayor, John MacKay, said people working there could begin manufacturing identity cards that may soon be required under new security measures imposed by the United States at border crossings.

God forbid anyone lose their seat on the gravy train.

Permitting the Right: Dueling Machiavellis

Since Machiavelli has been introduced as a source to justify asking and paying the government for permission to bear arms, I thought I'd follow up with another of his quotes:

To be disarmed is to be contemptible.

How many of you would petition the government for a license to not be contemptible?

Stu Loser

"This bill has nothing to do with the Second Amendment," said Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser, "and everything to do with the dangers [that] illegal guns pose to our police officers and citizens."

So, Stu, when you were a kid, did you know you wanted to grow up to be an apologist for tyranny, or is that something you found an aptitude for as you grew older?