It's About Time

Supreme Court Strikes Down D.C. Gun Ban, Upholds Individual Right to Keep and Bear Arms

"Writing for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia said that an individual right to bear arms is supported by "the historical narrative" both before and after the Second Amendment was adopted."

Some are saying that one of the unanswered questions is whether this ruling incorporates the 2nd Amenedment against the states. Some claim it did not, but other analysis indicates it rather clearly does. My reading leans toward the later.

The question now is what effect this will have on now unconstitutional gun control rules and regulations in various cities and states, and when. Here are the Massachusetts laws that I think could and should be affected and invalidated by this ruling:

1. Assault Weapon Ban (C.140: S. 131M):
   
2. "Consumer Protection"-based Handgun Ban (C.140: S. 123)
3. Discretionary and Restrictive Licensing (C.140: S. 131)
4. Mandatory Locks for Sales (C.140: S. 123)
5. Mandatory Storage (C.140: S. 131L)
6. Transportation Restrictions (C.269: S. 12D, C.140: S. 131C (a), (b), C.140: S. 121, C.269: S. 10 (m), , C. 140: S. 131C)*

Bottom line is that this ruling should lead to nationwide "shall-issue" or "no license required" policies, the abolishment of locked storage and transportation laws, and repeal of all AWBs and other bans of specific types of non-NFA firearms. We shall see if and how long this takes. I suspect some places, like Massachusetts, will take further legal action to bring this ruling into force.

The last question is "How could 4 justices dissent?!?" Clearly gun control is a matter of ideology bordering on religion for them, not law. Sad.

Go to SCOTUSBlog for more discussion and analysis.

*MGL references from www.goal.org

Obamaservations

"Obama is a post-turtle" from New England Republican.
Good one!

"Me, Anti-Semitic, How can you say that?" via Oraculations.
Do as I say, not as I do.

"The Latest Attacks and Abuse of Power by the Obama Camp" and "What Really Happened at the NPC" from Larry Sinclair's blog.

Be afraid, be very afraid

Commute Rants

Why do some short school bus drivers drive as if they are the passengers (i.e. 40 mph in a 50 mph zone)?
rain + wipers = headlights
Stay right except to pass. Doesn't matter if you're a SUV soccer mom on your cell phone, construction laborer in a beat up F150, Fung Wah wannabe driving an overloaded E-Series, mid-life crisis in a black mustang, or hung-over pot-head in a faded Escort. Lead, follow or get out of the way.

Political This and That

Sorry it has been a while since I posted. Work and life have been quite busy. Here are a number of events and things that have caught my eye in the last week or so:

Obama Quits His Church After Months of Criticism

Not surprising: He is a politician. Obama-rama originally joind the church for political reasons so when the downside exceeds the upside of course he's going to drop it like a hot potato.

Bishop says collapse of Christianity is wrecking British society - and Islam is filling the void

Now there is a priest who understands what is going on and knows to speak the truth. Read and heed.

And finally here's this week's home-town helping of zero-tolerance irrationality:

Souvenir rifle shell gets 4th-grader suspended

This story has grown some real legs; Boston news radio, NRA-ILA, MA Gun Owners Action League, just do a quick google and you'll find it all over the in-tar-web. There also continue to be follow-up articles.

This happened in the town I live in and it first broke on a community bulletin board site that I participate in. What disturbs me is that school department is doing spin control big-time (read the GOAL article referenced above) by claiming that there is more to this than just the shell casing. Some have gone so far as to say that the casing had nothing to do with his suspension. He may have received a longer suspension for arguing, but the mother has said she was told that her son was suspended for having the casing and that is what I'm going with.

All this can be traced back to the overturned 1990 Gun-Free School Zones Act and the resulting 1994 version that was signed into law by the philandering husband of a current presidential candidate coupled with the idiocy of MA laws that equate brass casings to ammunition. It's hard to blame the school department completely, these stupid laws drive them to have a policy, but it doesn't have to be "zero tolerance" and to then throw the student under the bus when the heat gets turned up is unforgivable.