American Gun Ownership Highest In 18 Years

[Malthus]

Texas hunters hoot each other, each thinking they were being attacked by immigrants,

Redneck ... owls? 

[HVC]

Texas hunters hoot each other, each thinking they were being attacked by immigrants,

Redneck ... owls? 

Little know fact, long horns were actually named after the horned owl

[jimmy olsen]

Looks like this will be going to the Supreme Court

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/02/21/appeals_court_holds_second_amendment_doesn_t_protect_assault_weapons.html

Appeals Court Rules that Second Amendment Doesn't Protect Right to Assault Weapons

By Mark Joseph Stern

On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled that the Second Amendment doesn't protect assault weapons—an extraordinary decision keenly attuned to the brutal havoc these firearms can wreak. Issued by the court sitting en banc, Tuesday's decision reversed a previous ruling in which a panel of judges had struck down Maryland's ban on assault weapons and detachable large capacity magazines. Today's ruling is a remarkable victory for gun safety advocates and a serious setback for gun proponents who believe the Second Amendment exempts weapons of war from regulation.

In 2013, Maryland passed a law barring the sale, possession, transfer, or purchase of what it dubbed "assault weapons," including AR-15s, AK-47s, and semiautomatic rifles. It also banned copies of these firearms and large capacity magazines. Gun advocates sued, alleging that the law violated their right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment. A district court rejected their claims, but a panel of judges from the 4th Circuit reversed that rejection, holding that the Maryland law infringed on gun owners' Second Amendment rights—and that gun regulations must be subject to the extremely demanding "strict scrutiny" standard. The full court voted to vacate that decision and rehear the case, and Tuesday's decision marks a vigorous rejection of that extreme stance.

The majority opinion opens with a disturbing account of several recent mass shootings enabled by the kind of assault weapons that Maryland seeks to ban. In Newtown, Aurora, San Bernardino, Orlando, Binghamton, Tucson, Virginia Tech, and Fort Hood, mass shooters used either military-style rifles or high-capacity magazines, significantly increasing the ultimate death tolls. Newtown, in particular, compelled Maryland to ban these weapons. The state recognized that the Supreme Court's decision in D.C. v. Heller protects citizens' right to keep handguns in the home. But it argued that the firearms it had proscribed constituted "dangerous and unusual weapons," which the Heller court said could be outlawed. Indeed, Maryland pointed out, the Heller court explicitly declares that especially dangerous weapons "that are most useful in military service—M-16 rifles and the like—may be banned."


A majority of the 4th Circuit agreed with Maryland, holding that the weapons it forbade were sufficiently similar to M-16 rifles to fall outside the ambit of the Second Amendment.


"Whatever their other potential," the court wrote, these weapons "are unquestionably most useful in military service. That is, the banned assault weapons are designed to kill or disable the enemy on the battlefield." One of the banned guns can empty a 30-round magazine in two seconds; another includes a grenade launcher.


"The next effect of these military combat features," the majority concluded, "is a capability for lethality—more wounds, more serious, in more victims—far beyond that of other firearms in general, including other semiautomatic guns." Likewise, the banned large-capacity magazines "are particularly designed and most suitable for military and law enforcement applications"—specifically, to "enable a shooter to hit multiple human targets very rapidly." It is a weapon of war, not the tool of self-defense envisioned by the Heller court.

Although the majority held that these weapons fell outside the scope of the Second Amendment altogether, it also noted, as an "alternative basis," that even if the amendment applied, the Maryland law would still be constitutional. Since the law does not "effectively disarm individuals or substantially affect their ability to defend themselves," it would only be subject to intermediate scrutiny if the Second Amendment applied. And the law meets that level of scrutiny because it is "reasonably adapted to a substantial governmental interest." Maryland, the majority explained, has a more than substantial interest in preventing its residents from being slaughtered by assault weapons. And the law reasonably targets those weapons that inflict the most violence in the shortest period of time.

The most striking part of Tuesday's decision is a concurrence written by Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, a Reagan appointee. Wilkinson joined the majority opinion, but he wrote separately to express his discomfort with the gun lobby's strategy of using the courts to increase access to dangerous firearms:

As Heller recognized, there is a balance to be struck here. While courts exist to protect individual rights, we are not the instruments of anyone's political agenda, we are not empowered to court mass consequences we cannot predict, and we are not impaneled to add indefinitely to the growing list of subjects on which the states of our Union and the citizens of our country no longer have any meaningful say.

Wilkinson also criticized the dissenting judges, as well as the plaintiffs in this case, for attempting to take gun regulation out of democratic sphere almost entirely. His panegyric to judicial restraint with regard to Second Amendment interpretation is quite moving:

Disenfranchising the American people on this life and death subject would be the gravest and most serious of steps. It is their community, not ours. It is their safety, not ours. It is their lives, not ours. To say in the wake of so many mass shootings in so many localities across this country that the people themselves are now to be rendered newly powerless, that all they can do is stand by and watch as federal courts design their destiny—this would deliver a body blow to democracy as we have known it since the very founding of this nation.

In urging us to strike this legislation, appellants would impair the ability of government to act prophylactically. More and more under appellants' view, preventive statutory action is to be judicially forbidden and we must bide our time until another tragedy is inflicted or irretrievable human damage has once more been done. Leaving the question of assault weapons bans to legislative competence preserves the latitude that representative governments enjoy in responding to changes in facts on the ground. Constitutionalizing this critical issue will place it in a freeze frame which only the Supreme Court itself could alter. The choice is ultimately one of flexibility versus rigidity, and beyond that, of whether conduct that has visited such communal bereavement across America will be left to the communal processes of democracy for resolution.

Both Wilkinson's concurrence and the majority decision are refreshing in their fact-based analysis and grounding in real-world experience. Pro-gun judges often discuss the Second Amendment as an abstract, intellectual font of liberty. But after the Newtown shooting, Maryland legislators did not see liberty in assault weapons, they saw carnage. In response, the legislature strived to keep those weapons out of the state for fear of further bloodshed. The 4th Circuit was correct to let Maryland's law stand and resist attempts to remove gun control from the democratic process altogether.

[CountDeMoney]

https://www.facebook.com/BaltimoreCityPolice/photos/a.277239856955.154351.58771761955/10154185854496956/?type=3&theater

Just sit back, and enjoy the comments.

[Berkut]

WIlkinson is my new favoritist judge in the world.

[11B4V]

https://www.facebook.com/BaltimoreCityPolice/photos/a.277239856955.154351.58771761955/10154185854496956/?type=3&theater

Just sit back, and enjoy the comments.

Gangster and Civil War reenactor

[viper37]

https://www.facebook.com/BaltimoreCityPolice/photos/a.277239856955.154351.58771761955/10154185854496956/?type=3&theater

Just sit back, and enjoy the comments.

" If it pleases the court, we will ensure we safeguard this firearm and ensure the safety of all in the village of Lord Baltimore.

Whilst this young lad possessed this weapon illegally, his punishment shall not include that of public stoning nor shaming.

He therefore shall be recommended as a candidate for reenactment just up the road in Gettysburg."

[Tonitrus]

3 home invaders killed at Oklahoma residence, authorities say
Philip Gast-Profile-Image
By Phil Gast, CNN
Updated 10:34 PM ET, Tue March 28, 2017

(CNN)Three teenagers dressed in black and wearing masks and gloves were killed by a resident when they broke into a home, Oklahoma authorities said Monday.

A fourth suspect, the alleged getaway driver, now faces first-degree murder counts in their deaths, authorities said.
The 23-year-old son of the homeowner fired the fatal shots from a AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, officials said. One suspect had a knife, and another carried brass knuckles.
"Preliminary investigation looks like it's self-defense," said Wagoner County Sheriff's Deputy Nick Mahoney, cautioning the investigation was continuing into the midday home invasion.
The shooter voluntarily spoke with investigators. Neither he nor his father was hurt.
The deceased suspects were 16, 17 and 19 years old, the sheriff's office said.

A 21-year-old woman, who Mahoney said may have been a getaway driver, turned herself into Broken Arrow police shortly after the shooting.
Elizabeth Rodriguez was arrested on three counts of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree burglary and one count of second-degree burglary, Chief Deputy Les Young said. She is in the Wagoner County jail.
Rodriguez went to police in Broken Arrow, a Tulsa suburb, and told them she was involved, he said.
Oklahoma state law says that first-degree murder occurs if "any other person takes the life of a human being during ... first degree burglary." Another condition is if a person causes the death of another person with "malice aforethought."

Shortly before 12:30 p.m. Monday, the suspects broke through a door in the back of the home outside Broken Arrow. The young man, who was there with his father, encountered them.
"There was a short exchange of words, then gunfire happened," Mahoney told reporters.
Two of the suspects were in the kitchen; the other was found on the driveway. The suspects' names were not released. Young said Tuesday afternoon that medical officials are working to confirm their identities.
Mahoney said it did not appear the residents and intruders knew each other.
The homeowner's family is saddened that their son had to take three lives, Mahoney said.
Young told reporters that there is a witness, but he wouldn't say whether the person was in the house or outside. The person "gave some information," Young said.
Authorities said the neighborhood has a low crime rate, but resident Leon Simmons told CNN affiliate KTUL-TV in Tulsa there have been a few burglaries in the past six months.

[The Brain]

KTUL-TV

[Zanza]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/04/01/without-obama-once-booming-gun-industry-poised-to-shrink.html

Without Obama, once-booming gun industry poised to shrink

President Trump's election appears to be negatively affecting gun sales in the U.S. and the bubble appears to be bursting despite a staunch advocate for gun rights in the White House and Republicans ruling Congress.

"President Obama was the best gun salesman the world has ever seen," Karl Sorken, a production manager at Battle Rifle Co. in Houston. Sorken is an Army veteran and self-described liberal who voted for Obama and notes the change for the industry under Trump is a topic of conversation in the shop.

Fears of government limits on guns -- some real, some perceived -- led to a surge in demand during Obama's tenure and manufacturers leapt to keep up. Over the decade ending in 2015, the number of U.S. companies licensed to make firearms jumped 362 percent.

"The trends really almost since Election Day or election night have been that gun sales have slacked off," said Robert Spitzer, political science department chairman at State University of New York at Cortland. "When you take away Barack Obama and you give the Republicans control of both houses of Congress, which is extremely friendly to the gun lobby, then the political pressure subsides. And that surely is at least a key part of the explanation for the drop-off in sales."

The Washington Post reported that the FBI conducted about 500,000 fewer background checks in December 2016 then in 2015. Gun sales this year have reportedly dropped about 17 percent. [...]

[CountDeMoney]

Hilarious...Mouthbreathers go apeshit over Obama, but the guy demolishing the budget to jack up domestic law enforcement to Stasi levels doesn't bother them at all.  They must honestly believe being white is going to matter.

[11B4V]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/04/01/without-obama-once-booming-gun-industry-poised-to-shrink.html

Without Obama, once-booming gun industry poised to shrink

President Trump's election appears to be negatively affecting gun sales in the U.S. and the bubble appears to be bursting despite a staunch advocate for gun rights in the White House and Republicans ruling Congress.

"President Obama was the best gun salesman the world has ever seen," Karl Sorken, a production manager at Battle Rifle Co. in Houston. Sorken is an Army veteran and self-described liberal who voted for Obama and notes the change for the industry under Trump is a topic of conversation in the shop.

Fears of government limits on guns -- some real, some perceived -- led to a surge in demand during Obama's tenure and manufacturers leapt to keep up. Over the decade ending in 2015, the number of U.S. companies licensed to make firearms jumped 362 percent.

"The trends really almost since Election Day or election night have been that gun sales have slacked off," said Robert Spitzer, political science department chairman at State University of New York at Cortland. "When you take away Barack Obama and you give the Republicans control of both houses of Congress, which is extremely friendly to the gun lobby, then the political pressure subsides. And that surely is at least a key part of the explanation for the drop-off in sales."

The Washington Post reported that the FBI conducted about 500,000 fewer background checks in December 2016 then in 2015. Gun sales this year have reportedly dropped about 17 percent. [...]

Eh it will drive prices down to where it should have been. Particularly on the secondary online markets.

[Ed Anger]

I still get a chuckle when I think of the dudes buying AR's for 3K back in the day.

[11B4V]

I still get a chuckle when I think of the dudes buying AR's for 3K back in the day.

Fucking loopy. The gun ranges are overrun with those shitheads.

[Ed Anger]

I still get a chuckle when I think of the dudes buying AR's for 3K back in the day.

Fucking loopy. The gun ranges are overrun with those shitheads.

Only ones worse are the Spetnaz groupies with Ak-74's.