Better Late Than Never

Although it's buried "under the fold" in the fine print:



"6:00 PM PST":



What took you guys so long, Mr. Savage and "Staff"? The rest of the world was spreading the news over eight hours ago...

Your absence was kinda conspicuous...

Statement of Brady President Paul Helmke on DC Circuit's Ruling

Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, issued the following statement:

"The 2-1 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Parker v. District of Columbia striking down the District of Columbia's handgun law is judicial activism at its worst...

Pathetic.

All the News that's Fit to Suppress

Google news search for "DC gun ban" at 3:36 pm PST:



Front page posted on The Los Angeles Times' website at 3:32 pm PST:



At the time of this posting, which is about two hours after I captured these screenshots, the Google news hits have gone up considerably, but there is still no mention of the DC Second Amendment ruling on either The Times' website or on their "National News" page as of 5:33 pm PST:



This is lying by omission, leaving one of the world's major metropolitan area in the dark about a significant legal development that conflicts with The Times' political agenda.

The editor deserves to be fired for this, and I'm sending the publisher and editor a link to this post, not because I think it will do any good, but just to register my utter contempt for these transparent propagandists masquerading as a news provider.

This is why one of my recurring themes here at WarOnGuns has always been to decry the concept of "authorized journalists." I consider the rankest blogger as credible and reliable a source for information as the shallow manipulators at The Times. Here's hoping their circulation continues to plummet, and they're relegated to the oblivion they have earned.

DRUDGE: DC Gun Ban Struck Down by Federal Appeals Court

SILBERMAN, Senior Circuit Judge: Appellants contest the district court’s dismissal of their complaint alleging that the District of Columbia’s gun control laws violate their Second Amendment rights. The court held that the Second Amendment (“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed”) does not bestow any rights on individuals except, perhaps, when an individual serves in an organized militia such as today’s National Guard. We reverse.

Particularly gratifying to see because of some of the attacks some of us have been subjected to:

We note that the Ninth Circuit has recently dealt with a Second Amendment claim by first extensively analyzing that provision, determining that it does not provide an individual right, and then, and only then, concluding that the plaintiff lacked standing to challenge a California statute restricting the possession, use, and transfer of assault weapons. See Silveira v. Lockyer, 312 F.3d 1052, 1066-67 & n.18 (9th Cir. 2003). We think such an approach is doctrinally quite unsound.

MORE:

• Washington, D.C. Circuit Court Strikes Down 30-Year Old D.C. Gun Ban
• Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down D.C. Handgun Ban (Update1)

We're the Only Ones with a Ticket to Ride Enough

A federal civil rights lawsuit says that a Saugerties cop gave traffic tickets to a teenage girl, then threatened to "make her life miserable" unless she had sex with him.

Wouldn't that be considered a moving violation?

[Via Declan]

[More from "The Only Ones" files...]

A Temporary Shelter

Information supplied by a firearms licensee as mandated by the National Firearms Act may not be used to obtain a warrant to search the dealer’s home and business premises, the Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled yesterday...

Briseno ruled that the evidence was illegally seized because 26 U.S.C. Sec. 5848 provides that information provided to the federal government in compliance with the NFA “may not be used, directly or indirectly, as evidence against [the person providing the information] in a criminal proceeding.”

But that's OK--treasonous fanatics who hate free human beings are working hard to change that--maybe they'll even use the word "loophole". Meanwhile, our supposed leaders tell us we need to "improve" the monster, instead of mustering with pitchforks, chasing it into a windmill and burning the damned thing down.

[Via 45superman]

Driving Down the Road to Tyranny

Gary May introduced himself as a special agent. The other man, John Egan, was introduced as his colleague. May gave the Wetzels his card, stating that he is the senior agent in the bureau of criminal investigations...

Wetzel uses recycled vegetable oil, which he picks up weekly from an organization that uses it for frying food at its dining facility.

"They told me I am required to have a license and am obligated to pay a motor fuel tax," David Wetzel recalled. "Mr. May also told me the tax would be retroactive."

Just great, isn't it? Nice old people try to do "the right thing" and do their part for their local environment, as well as innovatively find a way to live within their means, bothering no one and simply taking care of themselves. So naturally the state sends two badge-heavy goons to their door to threaten them, and continues to extort them under the threat of strong arm tactics that will ultimately result in their kidnapping (under felony charges!) if they don't obey, and worse if they actively defy and resist.

And the thing is, as long as enforcers May and Egan are using "the law" to justify their sick bullying, here's what it says about being a "special fuel supplier":

Any person other than a licensed distributor who transports special fuel into this state or receives special fuel transported to him from outside the state, and a person engaged in Illinois in the distribution of special fuel primarily by tank car or tank truck, or both, and who operates an Illinois bulk plant where he has active bulk storage capacity of not less than 30,000 gallons for special fuel.

Yeah, that sure sounds like the Wetzels and their '86 Volkswagen Golf, doesn't it?

This is a level of control over people's lives that Caesar could not have imagined in his wildest dreams. History rightfully remembers him as a dictator and tyrant.

What is wrong with us as a people, that we accept this subjugation in all things great and small as our lot in life? How can we accept this as the natural state of things, and deserve to survive?

[Via The Claire Files]

We're the Only Ones Defining Who's a Journalist Enough

But U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan says in a court filing that Wolf's resistance "is apparently fueled by his anointment as a journalistic martyr" and that he needs "to come to grips with the fact that he was simply a person with a video camera who happened to record some public events."

See, U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan thinks he and other government enforcers like him are "The Only Ones" with the authoritah to decide who gets to be an "authorized journalist," and he also thinks it's appropriate to publicly ridicule and menace those foolish souls who might challenge that assumption.

What's Ryan even doing there in the first place?

[F]ederal prosecutors took over the arson case from state authorities on grounds that San Francisco's police department receives funding from Washington.

Oh. Well OK then. Just so we know how the yoke got there.

Government sanctioned journalists--and the federal government at that. Yep, that pretty much dovetails with my understanding of what the Founding Fathers meant by a "free press." And let's not even get into what they must have meant by "federalism"...

They'll Figure Out a Way to Make it Our Fault

Violence along the U.S.-Mexico border is undergoing what U.S. law-enforcement authorities call "an unprecedented surge," some of it fueled by weapons and ammunition purchased or stolen in the United States.

They probably get them at the same gun shows all those terrorists get theirs at.

This Day in History: March 9

After successfully capturing British positions in Louisiana and Mississippi, Spanish General Bernardo de Galvez, commander of the Spanish forces in North America, turns his attention to the British-occupied city of Pensacola, Florida, on this day in 1781. General Galvez and a Spanish naval force of more than 40 ships and 3,500 men landed at Santa Rosa Island and begin a two-month siege of British occupying forces that becomes known as the Battle of Pensacola.