Oklahoma House Republicans vote to expand a person’s right to self-defense with a firearm

House Republicans advanced a bill Thursday to extend the area where a person can defend themselves with a firearm, an expansion of the so-called “castle doctrine” that has been a top priority for pro-gun groups for years.

House Bill 2049 changed the definition of “dwelling” from a building or house to the edge of the property line, possibly justifying a person’s use of deadly force to protect themselves as long as they are on land they own or rent.

Also referred to as “stand your ground laws,” Oklahoma law does not require a person to leave a situation if they feel threatened. Instead, current law states someone has a right to stay and shoot a person who is threatening their safety, as long as they are in their home.

Rep. David Hardin, R-Stilwell, the bill’s author, said that the expectation of self-defense should include the entire property.

“This is a simple bill … on your property if you feel that your life is threatened you have a right to protect yourself,” Hardin said. “This bill was never intended where you could just walk out and shoot anybody on your property. But if that person confronts you with deadly force, then you would be allowed to use deadly force.”

The bill now heads to the state Senate for consideration.

Democrats, who voted against the bill, expressed concern that innocent encounters, possibly with trick-or-treaters or hikers mistakenly coming onto private property, could end in a shooting death.

Rep. Monroe Nichols, and other state House Democrats, gathered for a news conference on June 2, 2022, to call for gun control measures.
“Maybe I’ve been watching too much ‘Yellowstone,'” said Rep. Forrest Bennett, D-Oklahoma City, referring to the violent television show that centers on property rights disputes in Montana. “But can you understand that there is some concern that this definition really opens this up to the possibility of unsafe actions?”

Hardin disputed those claims, saying any shooting would still be investigated by law enforcement and a person would be held accountable if it were determined their life or safety was not at risk.

Pro-gun groups have lobbied for the bill, including the Oklahoma Second Amendment Association.

No, the wilting flower, necklace clutching, editors should man up

Justice Should Be Mindful of Words

Given the range of concerns over the recently passed Campus Self-Defense Act, Gov. Jim Justice could have chosen his words more carefully as he signed the bill.

Justice said West Virginia is sending “the message, ‘By God, if you wanna mess with us, we can mess back.’”

Yikes.

Such language does nothing to settle the nerves of officials on the campuses of state institutions of higher learning, who are understandably thinking about the challenges such a law will present. The last thing we need is the governor firing off a politicized yee-haw to encourage people to “mess back,” in dangerous situations.

National Rifle Association state director Art Thomm was more delicate in celebrating the law.

“The Campus Self-Defense Act recognizes the fact that danger doesn’t disappear just because you’ve stepped onto campus grounds,” he said. “Now, those who choose to exercise the right will have the ability to protect themselves, their classmates, and their loved ones should they need.”

That is the kind of language calculated to ease fears, rather than increase them.

It’s no secret Justice is ramping up his effort to appeal to West Virginians as he aims for his next political office. Perhaps he should be more mindful of his responsibility to be above such stunts as he leads and serves those people, now.

Federal Court Issues Flawed Decision Striking Down Missouri Gun Sanctuary Law
The ruling has significant shortcomings and may be overruled on appeal. The Biden Administration’s position in this litigation is wrong for much the same reasons as the Trump Administration was wrong to target immigration sanctuaries.

On Tuesday, federal district court Judge Brian Wimes issued an important ruling striking down Missouri’s Second Amendment Protection Act (SAPA). SAPA is a “gun sanctuary” law that restricts state and law-enforcement cooperation with efforts to enforce federal gun control laws.

Gun sanctuary laws enacted by red states are in large part modeled on immigration sanctuary laws enacted by numerous blue states and localities, in order to limit state cooperation with enforcement of federal immigration laws. During the Trump Administration, the federal government lost numerous lawsuits challenging the legality of immigration sanctuaries (I went over those cases in detail in a Texas Law Review article, and a piece for the Washington Post). Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and several red states have decided to imitate the blue states’ success. Courts—including both liberal and conservative judges—were right to rule in favor of immigration sanctuaries, and Judge Wimes should have applied the same principles in the gun context, as well.

Judge Wimes correctly recognizes that “Missouri cannot be compelled to assist in the enforcement of federal regulations within the state.” Longstanding Supreme Court precedent holds that the federal government cannot “commandeer” state officials to help enforce federal law. That precedent played a key role in the Trump Administration’s defeats in various immigration sanctuary cases, most notably in the California “sanctuary state” case, which is closely analogous to the Missouri gun litigation. Judge Wimes could have saved himself a lot of time and effort by simply applying the same logic here.

Instead, the court concludes that SAPA violates the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution (which mandates that constitutionally authorized federal law is supreme over state law) because the Missouri law goes beyond merely refusing to help the feds and actually “regulate[s] federal law enforcement” and  “interfere[s] with its operations.” But, in reality, SAPA does no such thing. Its provisions merely impose constraints on state and local officials. To the extent that may not be true, Judge Wimes should have struck down applications of the law to federal officials, while leaving intact the constraints it imposes on state ones.

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Dunning resident shoots suspected home burglar; reported burglaries up 54 percent in 16th District in 2023

A Dunning homeowner shot a suspected burglar in his left forearm at about 1:20 a.m. Sunday, March 5, inside the owner’s house in the 3600 block of North Newcastle Avenue, according to 16th (Jefferson Park) District police.

The resident reported that he was awakened by his dog barking and that he then called out his son’s name and when no one responded, he retrieved his gun and went to search his home, according to police.

He also told police that when he went to check the basement, his dog ran in front of him and made a distressing sound and that he then saw a man in the basement holding a dark object, police said. He told officers that he instructed the man not to move and fired one shot after the man allegedly began moving toward him, police said.

The basement lights reportedly were off during the interaction, police said.

The man, who was transported in serious condition to Lutheran General Hospital, reportedly told officers that “she told me” the side door would be open, police said. There were no signs of forced entry on the home’s side door, and it may have been left unlocked, police said.

The suspect, who was identified by police as Jeremy Tyler Polfliet, age 27, of the 3600 block of Esquire Lane, Georgia, was charged with residential burglary, police said.

The homeowner has an Illinois firearms owner identification card, police said.

The incident marks the second time this year in the 16th District that a resident shot a suspected home intruder. The other occurred on Monday, Jan. 30, when an 80-year-old man shot the intruder in his chest.

 

Something like Harry Reid’s ‘mishaps’?

McConnell Being Treated for Concussion After Fall

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is being treated for a concussion after his fall at a hotel in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night, his spokesman said.

McConnell, 81, is expected to remain in the hospital “for a few days” as he receives treatment for injuries sustained by his fall. The Kentucky Senator was attending an evening dinner for the Senate Leadership Fund, a political action committee aligned with him, when he tripped and fell, his office said. The dinner was at the Waldorf Astoria Washington DC, formerly the Trump International Hotel, Washington, D.C.

“Leader McConnell tripped at a dinner event Wednesday evening and has been admitted to the hospital and is being treated for a concussion. He is expected to remain in the hospital for a few days of observation and treatment,” said David Popp, McConnell’s communications director, in an update on Thursday.

March 10

241 BC – The Romans sink the Carthaginian fleet around the Aegates Islands, off the western coast of the island of Sicily, bringing the First Punic War to an end.

1496 – On the island of Hispaniola, the city of Santo Domingo, the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the Americas, is founded by Christopher Columbus before he departs for Spain, returning from his 2nd voyage of exploration

1535 – Tomás de Berlanga, the fourth Bishop of Panama, discovers the Galápagos Islands on a voyage to Peru.

1629 – Claiming he was entitled to do this under the Royal Prerogative, Charles I Stuart King of England dissolves Parliament, beginning the period known as the Personal Rule or as the Eleven Years’ Tyranny, the first step that led to the English Civil War, and the execution of the King under rule of Oliver Cromwell.

1831 – The French Foreign Legion is created by King Louis Philippe of France from the foreign regiments of the Kingdom.

1848 – The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is ratified by the United States Senate, ending the Mexican–American War.

1876 – Alexander Graham Bell makes the first successful test of a telephone, speaking; “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.” to his assistant Thomas Watson, in the next room

1891 – Almon Strowger patents the Strowger switch, the first telephone circuit switching device.

1922 – Mahatma Gandhi is arrested in India, tried for sedition, and sentenced to 6 years in prison, but serves only 2 years before being released.

1933 – A 6.4 magnitude earthquake on the Newport–Inglewood Fault, offshore southern California, hits the Greater Los Angeles Area, leaving 120 people dead and millions of dollars in property damage.

1959 – Fearing an abduction attempt by China, thousands of Tibetans begin a revolt against Chinese intervention and surround the Dalai Lama’s palace in Lhasa to prevent his arrest.

1969 – In Memphis, Tennessee, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr.

1970 – U.S. Army Captain Ernest Medina is charged by the U.S. military with committing war crimes at My Lai village in Vietnam.

1977 – Astronomers discover rings around Uranus.

2019 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a Boeing 737 MAX, crashes near near the town of Bishoftu, Ethiopia, six minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 people aboard. This 2nd crash, determined to be due to a fault in the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, leads to all 737 MAX aircraft being grounded worldwide until the computer control system malfunctions are finally repaired and tests completed in December 2020

2020 – The World Health Organization officially announces the COVID-19 viral outbreak as a pandemic.

Okay, so who’s gonna be number three?

Robert Blake, actor acquitted in wife’s killing, dies at 89

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Robert Blake, the Emmy award-winning performer who went from acclaim for his acting to notoriety when he was tried and acquitted in the killing of his wife, died Thursday at age 89.

A statement released on behalf of his niece, Noreen Austin, said Blake died from heart disease, surrounded by family at home in Los Angeles.

Blake, star of the 1970s TV show, “Baretta,” had once hoped for a comeback, but he never recovered from the long ordeal which began with the shooting death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, outside a Studio City restaurant on May 4, 2001. The story of their strange marriage, the child it produced and its violent end was a Hollywood tragedy played out in court.

Once hailed as among the finest actors of his generation, Blake became better known as the center of a real-life murder trial, a story more bizarre than any in which he acted. Many remembered him not as the rugged, dark-haired star of “Baretta,” but as a spectral, white-haired murder defendant.

Useless law that won’t stop anything.

Bill to help stop minors from accessing firearms heads to NM governor
The bill was named after Bennie Hargove, a middle school student whose classmate fatally shot him in 2021 using his father’s gun

Gun safety legislation is on its way to the governor’s desk for a signature.

Bennie’s Bill, which would make it a crime for allowing a firearm to be accessible to a minor, passed with concurrence through the House by a vote of 34-28 on Wednesday evening.

The bill was named after Bennie Hargove, a middle school student whose classmate fatally shot him in 2021 using his father’s gun.

This bill would make it a misdemeanor for anyone to negligently have a firearm be accessible to a minor, and a fourth-degree felony if the minor who uses the gun significantly harms another person or themself.

There’s a list of exceptions, including if the gun was kept in a locked container, securely stored or in an inaccessible location; if a firearm was used in self-defense; or in the case of an illegal entry on someone’s property.

A Senate amendment included in the bill that passed from Sen. Steven Neville (R-Aztec) last week added an exception that would allow a minor to use a firearm for hunting, recreationally or any other lawful purpose.

Rep. Stefani Lord (R-Sandia Park) asked repeated questions about the extent and technicalities of this clause.

Rep. Pamelya Herndon (D-Albuquerque), the bill’s sponsor, went back and forth with her colleague about the amendment before she said Neville could better explain the proposal.

However, Sen. Neville wasn’t present at the House floor meeting.

“I’m actually trying to get honest answers so when I go home and explain this, I want to make sure that none of our parents are committing a crime,” Lord said. “I don’t want that to happen.”

Lord asked if she should just wait for Neville to come to the House floor. In response, House Speaker Javier Martinez (D-Albuquerque) told someone to call Neville.

Martinez recommended that Lord continue with her questions and reminded the representatives that the bill still has to be signed by the governor and will take several months to even become law.

“We’ve got plenty of time to get a one-pager from the senator as to the technical aspects of this amendment,” Martinez said.

March 9

1500 – Following Vasco da Gama’s route around Africa, the fleet of Pedro Álvares Cabral leaves Lisbon for the Indies. Sailing farther west into the Atlantic Ocean than planned, the fleet makes landfall on what is now the country of Brazil on the South American continent and Cabral claims it for Portugal since the land lies within boundaries granted to the Portuguese Crown in the Treaty of Tordesillas

1776 – The Wealth of Nations by Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith is published.

1841 – In the case of United States v. The Amistad, the Supreme Court rules that captive Africans who had seized control of the ship carrying them had been taken into slavery illegally.

1842 – The first documented discovery of gold in California occurs at Rancho San Francisco, six years before the California Gold Rush.

1847 – During the Mexican–American War, the first large scale amphibious assault in U.S. military history is launched to besiege the city of Veracruz.

1862 – During the war between the states, the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia fight to a draw in the Battle of Hampton Roads, the first battle between two ironclad warships.

1916 – Pancho Villa leads 500 Mexican raiders in an attack on U.S. 13th Cavalry Regiment troop garrisoning the border town of Columbus, New Mexico, killing 40 people, including 15 U.S. civilians, before being driven back across the border after suffering 183 casualties with 7 captured.

1945 – During World War II, 334 B29 bombers of the U.S. Army Air Forces carry out Operation Meetinghouse, the first full scale firebombing of Tokyo, destroying most of the capital and killing over 100,000 Japanese, the single deadliest bombing raid of any theater in the war.

1957 – A 8.6 magnitude earthquake hits the Aleutian Islands, causing over $5 million in damage from ground movement and tsunami, but with no deaths or reported injuries.

1959 – The Barbie doll debuts at the American International Toy Fair in New York.

1960 – Dr. Belding Hibbard Scribner implants for the first time a vascular shunt he invented, into a patient, which allows the patient to receive hemodialysis on a regular basis.

1967 – Trans World Airlines Flight 553, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9, enroute from Pittsburgh to Dayton, crashes in a field in Concord Township, Ohio following a mid air collision with a Beechcraft Baron, killing all 25 passengers and crew aboard the jet and the sole pilot of the Beechcraft.

1977 –  Armed Hanafi moslem terrorists seize 3 buildings in Washington, D.C., murdering 1 hostage and wounding 2 more, including a policeman who later dies, and holding 149 people hostage for 3 days until finally surrendering.

1997 –  Rap artist Christopher George Latore Wallace -The Notorious B.I.G. –  is murdered in Los Angeles after attending the Soul Train Music Awards.

2011 – Space Shuttle Discovery completes its final mission, STS-133, landing at Kennedy Space Center, having spent a cumulative total of nearly a full year in space

Bruen’s “chaos” is a much-needed correction

Ahead of four decisions on California gun laws that are expected to soon be released by U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez, the Los Angeles Times is advancing the narrative that the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision is sowing “chaos” in the courts. But as we discuss on today’s Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co, upending the untenable status quo is a good thing, particular given how the judiciary has abused “interest balancing” tests to regularly uphold infringements on a fundamental right.

Reporter Kevin Rector’s coverage of how the courts have dealt with the Supreme Court’s edict that those interest balancing tests are inappropriate is clearly slanted; not only in the front-page story itself, but he promoted his piece on social media.

Yes, SCOTUS has rejected the interest-balancing tests that many lower courts adopted after the Heller decision in 2008, but as Justice Clarence Thomas made clear in Bruen, that was never the appropriate test when it comes to gun control laws”

Since Heller and McDonald, the Courts of Appeals have developed a “two-step” framework for analyzing Second Amendment challenges that combines history with means-end scrutiny. The Court rejects that two-part approach as having one step too many. Step one is broadly consistent with Heller, which demands a test rooted in the Second Amendment’s text, as informed by history. But Heller and McDonald do not support a second step that applies means-end scrutiny in the Second Amendment context. Heller’s methodology centered on constitutional text and history. It did not invoke any means-end test such as strict or intermediate scrutiny, and it expressly rejected any interest-balancing inquiry akin to intermediate scrutiny.

What Rector (and the vast majority of the sources he spoke to) object to is the fact that the Court’s explicit instructions to discard those interest-balancing tests in favor of a text, history, and tradition test puts laws like California’s ban on so-called assault weapons on shaky legal ground. No longer can the courts decide that even though a particular gun control law intrudes on the Second Amendment rights of citizens, it’s okay because the government has an interest in promoting public safety. Now those laws must be justified through the historical record; something that is going to be difficult given that the gun control movement is a fairly modern creation.

“This new ‘history and tradition’ test that the Supreme Court established last June is wreaking havoc on America’s gun laws,” said Adam Winkler, a UCLA law professor who focuses on 2nd Amendment law. “Instead of having a reasonable debate over whether a ban on assault weapons is good policy or not, we have to debate whether a ban on assault weapons has historical antecedents.”

With all due respect to Winkler, the courts aren’t the right venue for a “reasonable debate” on the policy of a gun ban. Legislators can and will continue to debate banning “assault weapons”, but it’s up to the judiciary to determine if those laws are constitutionally sound. And as much as the law professor complains that Bruen is wreaking havoc on gun laws, I’d argue that when appellate courts like the Ninth Circuit refuse to ever find a gun control law unconstitutional the judiciary is wreaking havoc on a fundamental civil right.

The Bruen decision will not lead to every gun control law being overturned, as disappointing as that might be for Second Amendment advocates. Heck, the Court said that “shall issue” concealed carry regimes are presumptively constitutional, and the justices pointed to places like schools, legislative assemblies, and polling places as locations that could likely be labeled “sensitive places” without much legal trouble. But the Court’s opinion should also take an “assault weapons” ban and many other modern inventions of the gun control lobby off the table, at least if judges are willing to abide by what SCOTUS had to say.

As we’ve seen in places like Oregon, though, some judges are still finding new and creative ways to uphold gun control laws by stretching the boundaries of an historical analogue beyond credulity. Bruen may have put the lower courts on notice, but as valuable a course correction on Second Amendment jurisprudence as it might be, it can’t and won’t be the last word for the Court on our right to keep and bear arms.

BLUF
On the last day of the Constitutional Conventional, Benjamin Franklin was asked by a woman outside Independence Hall what kind of government had been framed by the Philadelphia Convention. His response—“A republic, if you can keep it”—summed up perfectly the challenge given to every generation of Americans since the founding era.

Tragically, it now seems clear that we did not keep what the founders gave us. But that’s on us, not them.

The Laissez-Faire Constitution.

In 1787, America’s founding fathers created the world’s first laissez-faire constitution or what I call a constitution of liberty.

The idea of a laissez-faire constitution may strike you as odd. We typically associate the term “laissez-faire” with economics, and, more specifically, with capitalism.

What, then, do I mean by these terms? What is a laissez-faire constitution or a constitution of liberty? And what’s the relationship between a laissez-faire constitution and laissez-faire capitalism?

To answer these questions, let us define our terms. Laissez-faire translated from its most common eighteenth-century French usage literally means “let it be,” “let it go,” or “leave it alone.” In the Anglo-American world, the phrase is more commonly translated as “hands off.”

But ask yourself this question: whose hands are we talking about, and who are they to be kept off? In other words, who is to let things alone, and who is to be left alone?

The answer to the first question is government, and the answer to the second is the individuals who compose civil society. Laissez-faire, then, means that government is to keep its hands off the people and leave them free to pursue their material and spiritual values.

This means that laissez-faire capitalism should be viewed less as an economic system and more as a political system. We should speak less about laissez-faire capitalism and more about laissez-faire government, although the two are clearly related. In fact, laissez-faire capitalism rightly understood means laissez-faire government.

The sole purpose of laissez-faire government is to protect the individual’s rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness of all citizens. A laissez-faire government is one that maintains a framework of laws that prohibits predatory force and fraud and refrains from intervening in the operation of markets, which means it must not regulate or subsidize market processes (e.g., division of labor, prices, competition, and profit).

Laissez-faire capitalism is properly seen, then, as a political system that separates economy and State, where property is privately owned, contracts are upheld as inviolable, and individuals are free to produce, trade, and compete. As a result, individuals must be left free from government coercion to create, acquire, possess, use, trade, and dispose of their property, and they must be free to form contracts for the exchange of ideas, goods, and services.

A laissez-faire government does not and will not direct private enterprise toward ends desired by government officials. Instead, a properly constructed government for a free society provides a minimal structure of rights-protecting laws, the purpose of which is to expand spheres of individual freedom and action. James Wilson made the point this way in his Lectures on Law:

By some politicians, society has been considered as only the scaffolding of government; very improperly, in my judgment. In the just order of things, government is the scaffolding of society: and if society could be built and kept entire without government, the scaffolding might be thrown down, without the least inconvenience or cause of regret.

Government rightly understood, then, exists for the sake of civil society and not the other way ‘round. A laissez-faire government is one that provides the scaffolding necessary to keep civil society civil.

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New Mexico: Waiting Period and Firearms Industry Lawsuit Bills on Deck Again in Senate Committee on Wednesday!

House Bill 101 (Semi-Auto Ban & Magazine Limit Bill NOT on House Judiciary Committee Agenda for Wednesday)

On Wednesday, March 8, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold public hearings on two extreme measures that target law-abiding citizens and the firearms industry:

Senate Bill 427 by Sen. Joseph Cervantes (D-Las Cruces), imposes a 14-day waiting period on all firearm purchases, with an exception for concealed handgun licensees. Like House Bill 100, this measure will add nothing to the existing FBI background check process and will only delay your ability to exercise your Second Amendment right to defend yourself, your family and your property. This would make for the longest firearms purchase waiting period in the entire country!  For more information on this proposal, click here.

Senate Bill 428 by Sen. Joseph Cervantes (D-Las Cruces) creates a hostile climate for lawful firearm-related industries and transactions by facilitating an increasing amount of litigation and claims, with vastly increased liability exposure and civil penalties, for even minor suspected violations of the terms of an FFL or the law as the basis for Unfair Trade Practices Act proceedings. For more information on this bill, click here. This legislation was significantly amended in committee; we will report back to you on the impact these changes have on the bill and what action items need to be taken on the measure.

* Make plans to attend the committee hearing via zoom or in-person. The committee will meet at 1:30pm or upon adjournment of the Senate in Room 321 of the Roundhouse.  For public participation and to register for Zoom send an email to SJC.Zoom@nmlegis.gov. Include the bill number, that you’re an opponent and if you will be attending in person or via zoom. To attend meeting via Zoom click the following link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81502543362.
Meeting ID: 815 0254 3362
Zoom Call: 1-253-205-0468.

Kentucky: Campus Self-Defense Goes to House Floor

Today, the House Veterans, Military Affairs, and Public Protection voted 16-3 to pass House Bill 542 with a committee substitute, to ensure that law-abiding adults are not stripped of their right to self-defense when they cross an arbitrary boundary onto a college campus. It now goes to the House floor for further consideration. Please contact your state representative and ask them to SUPPORT HB 542.

House Bill 542 PHS 1 prohibits colleges, universities, and post-secondary education facilities from restricting Second Amendment rights. Current state law does not prohibit law-abiding adults from carrying defensive firearms on campus, but institution policy may lead to expulsion or termination of employment. Adults who are officially licensed to carry a firearm for self-defense should not be prevented from doing so just because they seek higher education.

Again, please contact your state representative and ask them to SUPPORT HB 542.

The actual mass shooting statistics for 2023

Lots of politicians, talking heads and mainstream media outlets are running around saying that there have already been 40 or more mass shootings already this year. The problem is that is a complete fabrication, and they know it.

They are getting those numbers from two sources.
https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/re…
https://massshootingtracker.site/

Those two sites count all sorts of incidents as mass shootings, and as it would seem in a few cases, make up incidents with sources that don’t support their claims.

But how many mass shootings have there been this year?

Two. Yes only 2.

And both were in CA where they have all the desired gun control laws that they claim will prevent these incidents.

But why the HUGE discrepancy? Watch and find out.