1) All CA ammo restrictions, requirement for background checks before purchase, and importation restrictions, along with penalties for same, are hereby declared utterly unconstitutional, and permanently injuncted from further enforcement.
2) The permanent injunction on the merits of the complaint is not stayed pending appeal.
3) The request to Judge Benitez for such an injunction of the decision was categorically denied, as any case being "unlikely to prevail on the merits".
Fuck Sacramento, and their hatred for the 2nd Amendment, sideways, with a rusty chainsaw.
Worst case, CA will enjoy another "Freedom Week" until CA appeals to the 9th Circus. But until that's handed down, the injunction took effect immediately upon the issuance of this ruling, and even getting an appeal filed is going to take CA time.
That giant sucking sound is another one of CA's unconstitutional gun laws going down the drain, and ammunition flying to the Golden State at the speed of UPS trucks.
ATTENTION, In-State and Out-Of-State Ammunition Dealers: consider carefully whether you want to open the floodgates, as you should, or instead continue to fuck over CA buyers by a policy of enforcing an unconstitutional restriction decided to be such by a federal court ruling, and thoughtfully remembering all possible interpretations of "Dead To Us, Forever" and the magic shibboleth "Zumbo'ed". Don't fuck us, and we won't fuck you.
Huzzah! Dulce et decorum est.
All hail St. Benitez:
This guy is our favorite method of Rogering gun controllers.
"Californians have the constitutional right to acquire and use state-of-the-art
handguns to protect themselves. They should not be forced to settle for decade-old
models of handguns to ensure that they remain safe inside or outside the home. But
unfortunately, the UHA’s CLI, MDM, and microstamping requirements do exactly that.
Because enforcing those requirements implicates the plain text of the Second
Amendment, and the government fails to point to any well-established historical
analogues that are consistent with them, those requirements are unconstitutional and their
enforcement must be preliminarily enjoined. Accordingly, Plaintiffs’ motion for a
preliminary injunction is GRANTED."
The state has 14 days for appeals, after which this injunction is in full force.
If they go to the 9th Circus en banc, they'll lose again. If they do, SCOTUS won't even listen to further appeal.
The jackassical Califrutopia Handgun Roster is deader than canned tuna.
If you live elsewhere, and are contemplating a handgun purchase, you'd best move smartly.
The giant sucking sound is going to be the re-opening of 10% of the U.S. handgun market, and the avalanche of product returning to store shelves in the Land of the Banned. Expect firearms manufacturers' stocks to tick upward.
Gov. Moonbeam's jackassical successor, Nancy Baltimoron's nephew Gabbin' Nuisance, has been dragged, kicking and screaming while wetting his pants, into admitting that a strict scrutiny of Califrutopia's draconian firearms restrictions in accordance with Bruen will outright sh*tcan the lot, starting with "may issue" CCW permitting schemes (which actually mean "No way in hell!" in the most libtarded counties), then taking down the unconstitutional serial "assault" weapons bans enacted here since 1989, and then probably taking down the 10+ rd. mag cap ban.
All that will leave, once the rulings are dropped from Judge Saint of Benitez (graven on stone tablets!), will be to first dismantle the jackassical pistol "approved" list, which keeps 90% of all pistols manufactured worldwide unable to be sold inside the state, except to LEO Only Ones. And then the requirement to register ammunition purchases, which will similarly be unlikely to stand, as they demonstrably have had no impact except to make ammo for legal purchasers scarcer, and onerously harder to obtain. And they're on the menu too.
Gabbin was practically in tears at the Admission Of The Obvious press conference. So much for his presidential ambitions, in a country that's still not 70% Democommunist.
The day all that becomes a bad memory cannot come soon enough, and if those rulings proceed and fulfill all of Nuisance's worst fears, the rest of the country can have a drink, on Califrutopia.
With 10% of the country set to return, in the very near future, to being able to buy anydamnthing they want to at the gun stores again, I'd suggest going long on weapon-maker and ammunition-maker stocks. This is the best thing to happen to Califrutopia since plug-and-play AR-15 lowers and bullet buttons.
The OP doesn't source those numbers, but I have no reason to doubt them. I first saw official FBI stats that backed this up in about '89, in either National Review (When WFB still ran the joint) or American Spectator (I forget which), when they were both still actually conservative house organs rather than RINO rags.
They noted that without black crime stats, the American violent crime rate was lower than Luxembourg, and that if you also factored out Latino violent crime from the "white" numbers, the crime rate for the other 70% (then) of America was lower than Liechtenstein.
Which also tells you why everywhere south of Brownsville and the entire continent of Africa are permanently basically nothing but sh*thole countries always waiting for the next disaster headline.
The rate above is actually even lower than it looks. Realize that over half of those US gun deaths (at least for whites) are suicides, and that many whites shot by another are shot by latinos or blacks, not other whites, and without those deaths, the white death rate by guns functionally drops to numbers that barely even register on that graph.
We've had gun control in America that has worked flawlessly, every time it's tried, long before 1934: we call it PRISON.
The best way to keep guns out of the hands of bad people, is to fill their hands with cell bars instead.
Remember that the next time someone starts sobbing about how unfair it is that Latonkwaneeto or Chuy are still doing almost 50% of their time before getting a shot at parole, after their seven-body crime wave was pled down to concurrent sentences for improper discharge of a firearm within city limits, and littering.
No points for guessing what open-floodgate illegal immigration and no-bail no-prosecution for less than mass murder D.A.s are doing to violent crime and murder stats, but people will start to clue in when every city from Maine to Maui is just like Chicongo, Philthydelphia, San Franshitsco, or the District of Criminals. The only real check on that now is 40+ states with must-issue open- or Constitutional-carry laws.
Committees of Vigilance didn't spring up for no reason the last time, and it won't be for nothing when they return, either.
When a volcano, pent up since 1934 and earlier, finally blows, the volcanic sh*tstorm blows flaming hunks of rocks and lava for miles, and frequently for days.
Thus with the landmark decision last week in NYSRPA v. NYFSDouchebags.
Multiple Circus Court rulings,particularly from the long-rogue Ninth Circus, have been vacated by SCOTUS and remanded back for a re-think in light of the Court's recent ruling.
IOW, "Nice try. But NO. Fix this crap ASAP, or pull your pants down for a harsher lesson involving welts."
Which means multiple parties suing against multiple carry, magazine cap, and AWB bans are going to spread federal Judge Benitez' favorable rulings on a kaiser roll, and hand them back to the Ninth Circus, to let them enjoy the sh*t sandwich of choking them down, after finding them consistent with Thomas' SCOTUS dicta in every respect.
And thus mag and AWB bans will go the way of the dodo and the passenger pigeon, and the rights of citizens in 9 western states will return to the hoplophilic equilibrium enjoyed by most of the rest of the country.
Oh, and FTR, we've (and I'm not speaking editorially, either) kept careful note hereabouts of companies who were our hard-times friends during the rough patch, from 1989 to last Thursday, and also those who instead left skidmarks, cock-a-doodle-dooed, and shat on us from a great height, when they didn't have to do so. Trust me when I tell you the marketplace retribution against the fucktards responsible is going to be biblical, from the 10% of the gun owners in America just in Califrutopia. More than a couple of companies are going to be Zumbo'ed here, in perpetuity. ZFG, and no excuses accepted.
RELATED: Deninger on SCOTUS handing the EPA a serving of their own @$$es off the same menu, for gross legislative overreach. This could be bigger than Dobbs overturning Roe.
Go back and read the part of the last post where I wrote the following:
Spare me your butthurt.
1) Movies are the dominant culture medium in America, and by America. On my side of that argument are nearly 53,000 MPAA-registered productions, just since the Hays Code. (India makes more than the U.S. year in and year out, but no one sees them outside of India. US movies go literally everywhere, by vast contrast.) Game over on that point.
2) Of those 53,00 or so, it's 99:1 if you're reading this, you've seen The Terminator (1984), Heat (1995), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Ronin (1998) , and/or Blackhawk Down (2001), if not all five. But in case you lived in a cave the last 30 years, some excerpts from each:
Shot in Tunisia, France, Ireland, and downtown L.A.
Now, the salient point: How many people were accidentally killed in those shootout scenes, with a combined round count in the thousands to tens or hundreds of thousands?
Literally the very first (of 44, so far) Industry-Wide Safety Bulletins whose rules are, quite literally, written in blood.
Rigorous adherence to which, on all five productions, resulted in exactly no deaths whatsoever, despite using enough live arms, full-auto capable, to take over pretty much any country in South America or Africa, in any given year since 1900.
Let me underline that: the death toll from firearms at the US Capitol demonstration on January 6th (one person, Ashli Babbitt) was higher than the death toll of those five movies, combined. In fact, that panty raid had a higher body count by firearms than every movie made by Hollywood starting right afterThe Crow in 1993, until Thursday on the set of Rust up to 1PM, NM local time. Twenty-eight years of no deaths from firearms fuck-ups, in point of fact, on any movie or TV show.
(To whatever Hollywood industry anti-gun jackhole suggested banning all live firearms because of one death in that time - and some halfwit did, already - take those facts, and pound that dumbass idea right up your tailpipe with a shovel, good and hard. "Live guns" aren't the problem. Dumbass actors and slipshod productions are, every single time. Maybe require a minimum IQ to get a SAG card? Say 85 or so? Now you're onto something. Imagine John Lennon singing "Imagine no dumbass actors; it's easy if you try...")
Now, the "spare me your butthurt" part of that?
Weapons safety on set is not the job of actors, except to a very minor (almost negligible) degree. On purpose. The proof of the wisdom of that is the safety record you just read.
"Foul!" cries the peanut gallery. "The Four Rules!"
"Fuck off, dipshits!", sez I. The entire point of acting involves considered and deliberately breaking the Four Rules.
Pay attention now:
Difficult as it is for some people's minds to grasp, "on a production set" is the one place in the universe where you should know that pointing a gun at someone, and pulling the trigger, will not result in any harm or destruction coming to them, or anyone else, ever, contrary to all rules of safe firearms handling elsewhere.
Otherwise, Hollywood would just use real bullets all the time, hire homicidal maniacs for lead actors, and fill out the rest of the cast with condemned prison inmates in their last starring roles. And movies would be called "non-fiction".
Anyone who cannot grasp that obvious truth is going to have their ass handed to them by the realities which proceed from that situation, and it will seem to them like Opposite World, whereupon their eyes will cross, then glaze over, smoke will issue from their ears, and vague seizure-like activity of the whole body may afterwards be noted.
Case in point:
Okay, actually 25 cases in point, if he'd updated it for the latest films. Total bodycount for all those scenes: zero. Yawn. Over nearly sixty years.
(Total number of people, anywhere, ever, who've whinged that Sean Connery/George Lazenby/Roger Moore/Pierce Brosnan/Daniel Craig "broke the Four Rules" by pointing right at the camera (and the camera operator[s], DP, director, and any number of other crew persons) in all that time: zero, in the history of the Internet, or in print before that.)
Look, I've wanted to spoof that exact opening shot, and have bodies dropping like flies while the camera wobbles and people start running and screaming, spurting blood everywhere, but the comedy in that is because that's never happened, not even once, on that set. Or damned near on any other, for decades. And add in the other 100 takes of those title openers they did, and the count - dead and wounded - is exactly the same.
In fact, AFAIK, the body count of dead people from firearm screw-ups on production sets could be counted on your thumbs (until Alec Baldwin got into the act this week):
1) Brandon Lee catching a wad in the gut on The Crow in 1993;
2) John Eric Hexum cancelling his show Cover Up (and himself) in 1984;
3) Director of Photography Halyna Hutchins getting capped Thursday by Alec Baldwin.
That's. It.
In fact, for the cherry on the cake, peruse this:
Let's grant the nonsensical premise of everyone screaming "Baldwin on a rope!" because "Who would ever shoot a prop gun at a person on a movie set?"
We join the case as the defense calls Alec Baldwin to the stand, after showing the two video clips to the jury.
Mr. Baldwin, what is your occupation?
I'm an actor, sir.
For how long have you been working as an actor?
Forty-one years, sir. Since 1980.
And that movie was made in...?
1989.
So, tell us, Mr. Baldwin, how dangerous were those scenes?
Not very.
"Not very" dangerous? How can that be? There was gunfire, three people carrying weapons, bullets hitting and ricocheting off the hull of a nuclear submarine. That sounds extremely dangerous.
As I mentioned, sir, I'm an actor. That was a movie.
Can you please explain what difference that makes to the jury, sir?
Of course. First of all, there was no nuclear submarine, those are all miniatures in a swimming pool tank. We were on a sound stage in Hollywood a couple miles from downtown Los Angeles. The guns were real, but they were loaded with blanks. Nothing comes out of them. They're loaded, there's a bright flash, but no projectiles issue outwards. It's all make-believe. Sean Connery isn't a Russian submarine captain, I'm not a CIA agent pretending to be a US Navy officer, and the man playing the cook wasn't a Russian KGB agent. The sparks that fly are shot off by a special effects man with a paintball gun shooting pellets that make a spark on anything they hit, even grass or hay bales. It's all for the camera.
So you're saying nothing we saw was real?
Oh, no, just the opposite. It was all "real", but it wasn't what was being portrayed. I was really there, the cook was really there, Mr. Connery was really there. The blanks were fired, with the guns pointing at each other, they made loud "bangs", there were flashes, brass cases were ejected. The sweat on my face was real, but it was sprayed there just before each take by a makeup person. The clothes were real, the walls were real. But they were just painted luan, with blinking lights, to make it look like the missile deck on a Russian submarine, rather than a big empty soundstage on a movie lot.
I see. And how many times did you shoot that scene?
Well, I'd have to look at the production notes, but my best recollection from thirty-two years ago is that we shot the scenes about four times apiece, and we filmed Mr. Connery getting shot, and the cook getting killed twice.
Wait! So Sean Connery was "shot" two times, and the cook was shot two times, over and over?
Yes sir.
And each time, the props and weapons people would do what?
They reloaded the weapons, checked them in between takes, got them all ready, and then just before we were ready, they handed them to each actor.
I see. And how many times did you fire your weapon? And how many times did you and Mr. Connery get shot at?
Well, I got shot at probably 50-70 times on the various takes, and I shot the cook at least ten times, maybe fifteen or so. On one take I fired until the gun was empty, so maybe 100 shots fired, for that one scene.
And how long did that take?
Most of the afternoon.
Why so long? And why so many shots for just a few takes?
Well, we had to shoot everything from both perspectives, ours and the cook's; and we had to move along, plus reloading the guns, re-applying my sweat, and I had a lot of movement the camera had to cover, from in front of me looking at me, and over my shoulder towards the other guy.
And yet no one was hurt, despite all of you shooting off all those guns?
No sir. That's how it works. They tell us we're ready to go, and we can blast away. And then break for lunch.
So everyone is okay now?
Well, Mr. Connery passed away from natural causes last October, 30 years after the movie, and the guy who played the KGB agent/cookhas been acting pretty consistently ever since, so apparently shooting him 10-15 times hasn't hurt his acting career. And until this incident, I've done alright myself.
How can you take a gun and point it right at someone, and deliberately shoot it at somebody all afternoon, and no one gets hurt?
It's Hollywood, sir, THAT'S WHAT WE DO.
And then one of the jury members says "Duh!", and the deliberations last about two seconds, and they find Baldwin not guilty on all counts.
Then the entire jury looks over at the prosecutor and says
My point in all this is that unlike "reality", Hollywood is making film fantasy, and they're friggin' jet-fuel geniuses at that, unlike you, or any 500 or 5000 dipshits you know personally.
If you cannot grasp that difference between actual reality, and realistic fantasy, I have some other shocking news for you: the castaways aren't really on an island 200 miles southwest of Hawaii, Sheldon Cooper didn't win a Nobel Prize, Steve Rogers can't stop bullets with his vibranium shield, Wakanda isn't real, and you can't go off a cliff and run in place in midair with an anvil on your back for several seconds before gravity kicks in.
When all that sinks in, try not to get dizzy and throw up on the carpet.
What you think you know about how this goes, or should go, is quite simply wrong.
The rules don't apply, and you don't want them to, unless you're a moron.
Do you want an assclown like John Eric Hexum ("Just blanks, see? BLAM!") in the safety loop on determining whether a gun is safely loaded with blanks?? HELL NO!
Do you want well-known public assholes like Tom Sizemore (amazingly in three of the five referenced clips, above) or frothing moonbats like Robert DeNiro in any sort of position of responsibility for deciding what constitutes safe firearms handling and use?? FUCK NO YOU DON'T!!!
The director and the 1st Assistant Director are responsible for blocking the shot and safety on set.
The prop master (and any weapons handler[s]) are responsible for making sure weapons are loaded properly, safe to operate, and taking custody of them before, after and between takes, and in all respects where firearms are concerned.
The Grip department and Special FX are responsible to make sure there are shields and screens erected to protect crew, bystanders, and actors from inadvertent harm from wadding, muzzle flash, and anything else.
How does that system work out, in actual practice, versus the one in your head that's used nowhere, on any set, ever?
One dead person in 28 years, over 25,000 movies since 1993. Your local shooting range doesn't have that kind of safety record, in all likelihood. Three dead in the entire industry in half a century, AFAIK.
And with overwhelming likelihood that either the actor, or more likely the amateur hack propmaster, or both, broke the guidelines in Safety Bulletin No. 1 about ten different ways, to a metaphysical certainty.
So look, the fact that he was holding a loaded movie weapon, and pulled the trigger on it, does not ipso facto make known blowhard boob Alec Baldwin guilty of anything but being there, prima facie.
IF it turns out Baldwin was horsing around between takes, that's different.
IF this was a case of pointing a weapon with blanks at someone else too close, he's culpable.
IF someone loaded a live round into the gun, they deserve to go to prison, and probably will.
But trying to pretend there weren't any ten other people, far more circumspect (or at least supposed to be, both morally and legally) is fun, but jackassical in real life. Which is what we're talking about.
I repeat what I also said yesterday:
Alec Baldwin is now the Ted Kennedy of firearms safety: he's killed more people with his gun than most of you will ever kill with your entire collection, whether that's one gun, or one hundred, even if they're all misnamed "assault" weapons, which are no such thing.
That takes all the anti-gun gas out of him, and probably ends his career. Boo frickin' hoo. Sweetest revenge would be Trump getting back into office in 2024, and Baldwin a washed-up has-been unable to even get a gig on SNL.
If he performed some additional jackassery that leads to him getting charged, well and good.
But ixnay on the yapping about how this shoulda/coulda/woulda gone if only we used your imaginary rules. Hollywood does a better job on firearms fuck-ups than the Capitol Police, since EVER. So unless you have some wee understanding of set operations, and who's responsible for what, please, for the good of all concerned, STFU.
Hate Baldwin for being an @$$hole if you must. But stop trying to pin something on him that in all likelihood, wasn't his direct fault.
Wanna dish on him for being a cheapskate producer of a schlock production using non-union amateur propmasters? Go on ahead. Hollywood will, I assure you.
As for the rest? Spare me your butthurt, until and unless something more damning than your predilection comes to light. If that happens, they'll be plenty of time to pile onto Quickdraw McJackass, and we promise, we'll be riding on that posse too. Until then, salve your buttcheeks, and get over it.
And if it doesn't turn out that way? Chill the fuck out, and enjoy the fact that besides pulling the trigger on a homicide, morally and legally culpable or not, Baldwin probably just shot his career in the heart as well.
Learn to take "Yes!!" for an answer from Fate.
Otherwise, apply the recommended balm, fill out the form below, and file it:
To whom this set of observations applies, spare me your butthurt.
1) Of course they use guns (albeit heavily modified) on movie sets. Since ever. File under "Duh!"
2) Some propmaster dun fucked up, massively, and should shortly be charged for manslaughter and aggravated battery via gross negligence. There should NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER be live rounds on the main set, let alone anywhere near prop weapons.
3) It's not the actor's job to ensure safety of prop weapons used on set, it's the propmaster and the weapon's handler's job. Weapons are supposed to be double-checked on loading to prevent this sort of cock-up.
4) It's likely that when Baldwin was shooting, he was, almost certainly exactly per rehearsals and blocking, aiming at the camera. Which is where the director of photography and director sit, 90% of the time. And in real life, there's no way to tell you've fired a real bullet rather than a blank after the first shot, until bodies hit the ground. Blood doesn't explode from people's chests, they just crumple. Be glad it was a western, and not a gangster film. He could have taken out a swath of people, instead of just the two he hit.
{We add in amendment, that if, instead, Baldwin was waving the gun around off-camera, and pulling the trigger, or some other form of jackassery, he should be charged and convicted like any other perp. We find that unlikely in the circumstances, but not entirely impossible. See #6, below. We look forward to a definitive explanation as this story develops.}
5) Andrea Widburg's witless commentary about gun safety at American Thinkerregarding this incident only proves she's a cinematic idiot, who should STFU when she's in over her head. But she won't. Firearms Safety is literally the first and second topics in the official industry-wide safety bible. It's lifted directly from NRA guidelines, and then amplified. So by definition, when something like this happens, rules written in blood were obviously and flagrantly violated. I say it again: STFU Andrea; you're abusing the internet privilege to be an uninformed jackass with a keyboard.
6) I said for 20+ years in motion picture production, going back to the beginning of this blog, that even allowing for "only using blanks", it borders on professional incompetence for any propmaster to ever hand an actor any weapon not made of rubber. Because they're idiots. Like 99.9999% of them, by actual observation. (FFS, John Wayne even shot Ward Bond in the face on a bird hunting foray IRL. That should tell you something.) Triply so around weaponry of all types, or anything even sharp.
7) The takeaway isn't that @$$hole Baldwin will not be charged; he bears exactly no culpability nor intent for the crime AFAWK. That's as it should be. Don't be stupid about this. And if time changes that, we look forward to Baldwin getting what he deserves.
8) What you should be focusing on, is that despite that reality, you can now claim, FOREVER, that exactly like Ted Kennedy's car, Alec Baldwin has killed more people with guns than your/my/anyone's collection of misnamed "assault" weapons have, ever.
9) He'll NEVER be able to escape that legacy, not even when he dies, and he's going to hear it 1000 times a day until that happy occasion. It's going to be on bumper stickers, lapel buttons, memes, and a gajillion other things, for all time. He's just taken himself out of the anti-gun speaker's pool forever!
10) If that reality, and not the imaginary injustice of not charging him with the killing that likely wasn't his fault, doesn't warm your heart, you're simply a lunatic.
Learn to take "YES!" for an answer from the Fates.
And just to doubly piss you off a little more, this is one of the reasons that motion picture productions that have fled SoCal to non-union states always have these sorts of fuck-ups. When productions go off the reservation and hire unprofessional non-union fuck-ups for a cut rate, they get what they pay for. In this case, a dead DP, a wounded director, and an actor who will, to a metaphysical certainty, be justifiably scarred for life. Not to mention metric fucktons of bad publicity for the event.
Baldwin's a victim of both a cheap-ass production (he's one of the producers, btw: Own Goal Achievement - Unlocked), and a total fuck-up homicidal weapons master.
And karma is a cast-iron bitch.
QED
(And rest assured, Gentle Readers, while we are giving Baldwin the benefit of the doubt at this point, if it turns out, against likelihood, that @$$hole Baldwin was, in fact, totally and jackassically responsible, we will revise and amend our judgement of him the moment his homicidal culpability becomes apparent, and add to the clamor for his prosecution and conviction. We would hope, at that point, for the entire judicial machinery of the state of New Mexico to fall on him, from a great height. We're certain, when the whole truth comes out, he'll get what's coming to him. He's only done, to best recollection, three things right in Hollywood: played a great ghost in Beetlejuice; absolutely nailed Jack Ryan in Hunt For Red October; and warmed our heart when he fell into the bear pit in the climactic scene of The Edge. We still haven't forgiven him for taking Kim Basinger off the market at the time.)
Double bonus: I think we've seen the last SNL Baldwin-Trump skit forever. With any luck, Baldwin just retired permanently from everything.
Imagine that: We got it right, 5 hours before they did, and we didn't have to talk to anyone there. Almost like we might know WTF we're talking about where such on-set shenanigans are concerned.
Getting upset with them for that is like blaming dogs for peeing on fire hydrants, or being surprised when scorpions sting frogs. Stringing them up by the neck for who they are, on the other hand, is always in-bounds, if it comes to that. They'd best remember that 24/7/365, because the remedial lesson is called Life's Exit Interview.
Thus we ought always to remember Glenda's sage advice:
Americans knew the truth of this ruling before it was delivered. It was only a surprise to the America-hating Leftards.
Which is another reason the 2020 election had to be stolen: with just two more appointments, the Ninth Circus would have flipped to majority conservative judges, and the entire Western US returned to constitutional law and justice from days of yore.
To be sure, the Empire will strike back, but the fundamental truth remains.
Go ahead and pass that bill, congressweasels. Let's find out if you get tired of counting my bullets before I get tired of helping you count them. I like my odds.
Federal District Court Judge Roger Benitez didn't just throw out this unconstitutional travesty, he kicked it out so hard the state's attorney's ass didn't hit ground until it cleared the curb outside the courthouse:
"The experiment has been tried. The casualties have been counted.
California’s new ammunition background check law misfires and the Second Amendment rights of California citizens have been gravely injured.
In this action, Plaintiffs seek a preliminary injunction enjoining California’s onerous and convoluted new laws requiring ammunition purchase background checks and
implementing ammunition anti-importation laws. For the reasons that follow, the
motion for preliminary injunction is granted.
The purported state interest to be achieved by these new laws is keeping ammunition out of the hands of prohibited Californians. These new laws are constitutionally defective for several reasons.
First, criminals, tyrants, and terrorists don’t do background checks. The background check experiment defies common sense while unduly and severely burdening the Second Amendment rights
of every responsible, gun-owning citizen desiring to lawfully buy ammunition.
Second, the implementing regulations systematically prohibit or deter an untold number of law-abiding California citizen-residents from undergoing the required
background checks.
Third, in the seven months since implementation, the standard background check rejected citizen-residents who are not prohibited persons approximately 16.4 % of the time.
Fourth, the ammunition anti-importation laws directly violate the federal dormant Commerce Clause."
OUCH! Somebody get a multitrauma dressing for counsel for the State of CA; his ass seems to be bleeding, and about 10 pound lighter.
RTWT (pdf). And I mean RTWT. You haven't seen anything this good come down from a judicial ruling since Judge Silberman issued the DC Circuit opinion in Heller v. D.C.
FYI: Federal District Judge Benitez was an American originally born as a citizen of Bautista's Cuba, in Havana in 1950, and likely brought here as a child by his parents to escape Castro's communism. Huzzah.
He was appointed to the federal bench in 2004, by Dubbya. (Keep telling yourselves "elections don't matter", and let us know how that works out for ya.)
Also, nota bene, no Gun Woodstocks were necessary to overthrow the overreach of the tyrants sitting in the state capitol of Excremento, Califrutopia.
Being an injunction, the law is thus moot and dead unless and until the state obtains a favorable ruling from a higher court. IOW, it's dead until re-animated.
Bonus{edit}: Once it's finalized, it becomes federal precedent. Stare decisis, bitchez.
CA shelves not already cleaned out, suddenly cleared of ammunition in 3, 2,...
The only enemies your guns have are rust and politicians.
Now that Virginia is on statewide home lockdown orders, let's tally up the successes from that big Gun Woodstock rally back when Kung Flu wasn't a thing, shall we?
• Senate Bill 70 and House Bill 2, which establish universal background checks in Virginia
• Senate Bill 240 and House Bill 674, which establish an Extreme Risk Protective Order, allowing authorities to temporarily take guns away from people deemed to be dangerous to themselves or others
• Senate Bill 69 and House Bill 812, which reinstate Virginia’s one-handgun-a-month law
• House Bill 9, which requires gun owners to report their lost or stolen firearms to law enforcement within 48 hours or face a civil penalty.
• House Bill 1083, which toughens the penalty for leaving a loaded, unsecured firearm in a reckless manner that endangers a child
[Gov. Blackface Babykiller] proposed amendments for other bills without signing them into law, including:
• Senate Bill 35 and House Bill 421, which give local governments more authority to ban guns in public spaces, like public buildings, parks, recreation centers, and during permitted events
--- The governor requested amendments clarifying the exemption included in the bill for institutions of higher education
• Senate Bill 479 and House Bill 1004, which bar people with protective orders against them from possessing firearms and require them to turn over their guns within 24 hours
--- The governor requested amendments recommended by the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance to allow judges to hold the person in contempt of court if they fail to comply
Bummer. Say, that's quite a box score, though! VA went from Zero to Califrutopia, in one swell foop. Gov. BB seems to be quakin' in his boots. "We stopped the AWB!" doesn't have quite the same ring to it now, does it? Sure is a good thing the jet-fuel geniuses behind that January rally spent that whole month planning that shindig, instead of spending time (that they don't have now - thanks, Kung Flu!) to organize militias at the county level to actually oppose any such nonsense. Surgical mask and gloves optional, but strongly recommended.
Maybe in two or three more months - if we're all really lucky with the pandemic and all - somebody might look into doing that this time around, as something that has a much better chance of actually working, and focuses on the acknowledged strengths available at the local level in 95% of the state, before the dumbass Gun Woodstock sucked all the oxygen out of the party.
Or, you could hold another rally. Maybe next time, masks at the capitol will be mandatory, instead of banned. (As long as they're N95s.)
That will show your legislature who's the boss, and it'll be just the thing to calm the Normies down right on the heels of a pandemic, and the outset of a monster economic recession/Depression: seeing a bunch of jaspers waving rifles around outside the state capitol. It's sure to sway average folks to that side of the argument, you betcha.
Just look how well it worked on the legislature.
Better luck next time around with Plan B. Maybe act like time wasn't infinite, this time.
And FFS, once you're not on lockdowns and stay-at-homes any more
Stop playing in the street.
Nothing you want is won there.
You'd have thought a decade and more of total hippie failures would've taught people at least that much about it.
I don't talk a lot about guns, or gun control, here (97/2602 posts = 3.7%), because there are a lot of other blogs that do that , and do it better, with more expertise and precision, and have done so for longer than we've been blogging. That's fine with me. I've only got enough interests to keep me busy for three or four lifetimes as it is, most days. It comes up sometimes, and I'll get into it for a bit, but it's not all I'm interested in. But apparently, because I'm not in the tank for every bit of raging jackassery vaguely related to the 2A that comes down the pike, I have defaulted and fallen short of the mark in my 2A-loving credentials.
This, even though, IMHO, given that Lexington and Concord were over cannon as much as muskets and powder, I think at a minimum, the 2A protects us to own crew-served weaponry without any reservation whatsoever, and probably, if we're intellectually honest about it, anything in the DoD inventory, 1775-five seconds ago. Yes, anything. "If I can't be trusted with it, neither can you. And vice versa." The "letters of marque and reprisal" clause in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution took it for granted that anyone with a ship should be able to purchase, mount, and use naval weaponry. (Tell me, by the by, what Somalian piracy would amount to - besides shark chum - if Carnival Cruise Lines and Maersk Shipping had CIWS aboard, mounted four-to-a-ship? Or a couple of 5-inch DP guns? Beuller? Ferris Beuller...?)
But specifically, I'm apparently too soft on 2A rights for some jackholes, because I refuse to brook the stupidity and futility that was Gun Woodstock in Richmond last January. So be it. You want to do stupid things, be prepared to win stupid prizes. But don't expect me to join your parade, nor cheer it from the sidelines. It is a modern-day Children's Crusade, except not as well thought out as the original, and you deserve all of what comes afterwards. Enjoy your new anti-gun laws in response. Maybe you should hold another rally...?
I point it out for the historically inclined to elucidate all the marches and sit-ins the colonists did at the MA governor's mansion in 1775 to secure their right to be armed, by way of counter-example.
I'll be over here, waiting for that forthcoming report.
In the meantime, there remains the question of what to do when the Minions of Evil decide that "just following orders" has trumped "preserve and defend the Constitution of the United States", because having their daily bread and butter made that second bit optional.
I repeat, for the record, my answer is
Shoot the motherfuckers in the face.
I wanted that enlarged and bolded, lest there be any confusion.
That's my default answer, so long as I retain the physical and mental capability to do so.
And then, go after those who sent them. Continue until you run out of targets, or ammo.
Or life's breath.
Should they go about their mission with more wit than with Randy Weaver or David Koresh, and get the drop on me a la John Dillinger, if given the option to fight it out in court, I'll do what I must in that venue.
But unless I see 47 muzzles already in my face, and I have no other options in resisting an unconstitutional assault on my person, I'll do what I can.
Because I know, from history itself, and 100,000,000 corpses last century alone, that when the government disarms its people, what follows is never very good for them, and I prefer to take my chances with my boots on.
Because I'd rather do that than face Solzhenitsyn's Lament, every day in some prison sh*thole or Amerikan gulag.
It will be a Last Resort. I'll hate that it's necessary. I won't like it.
But I'll do it. No fear. No hesitation. No regrets.
It cuts against the grain. Because when they're enforcing just laws in a just manner, the police are doing Good. I am neither a copsucker nor a knee-jerk cop-hater, and my record in calling out the douchebadges when they royally screw the pooch is beyond reproach. But there's still quite a lot of them doing God's work all the time. (In Chicongo, not so much. But I digress.) If I were a bank robber, a rapist, or a murderer, caught red-handed, that would include shooting me in the face.
But when the only alleged "crime" is that some shrieking nancypants got the hebejeebees because I own a gun (or ten, or fifty, or whatever I'm up to these days), and anyone - president, congress weasels, governor, district attorney, hysterical mother, or some black-robed fuckwit too stupid to get into a STEM program - thinks that gives them the a priori right to circumvent Natural Law, the Constitution, and due process in one fell swoop, and send Officer Jackboots And His Merry Men to come take them, without any bill of indictment, witnesses, defense, or any other shred of due process in common law going back to Magna Carta, you'd better send your minions in their serious Kevlar underpants, with their insurance paid up and their wills up to date, and leave the married men at home. Because at that point, the range is now hot in both directions, I shoot Expert, and that red range flag means "No quarter given, nor expected."
Maestro, cue up the Deguello.
You won't be swooping in and taking my guns today, and then getting donuts afterwards. But I'll play that music for you before we die. On an endless loop.
You may get to take the property of my estate after you kill me, but I'll do my damnedest to take a lot of you and your fellow jackbooted motherfuckers with me. Because at that point, that's all you are.
Don't worry about talking me out. Ain't gonna happen.
If I only manage to wound a couple in the first attempt, don't worry about falling back, and asking me for a minute or three to collect your wounded. I'll shoot the sumbitches in the head, to save you the trouble. Then we can pick up where you left off.
And if I manage to get away afterwards, I'll hunt you down, to the last man. I'll consider your families and homes fair game. If I catch you eating a sandwich or taking a crap, same-same. And everybody you work with. Ditto for your boss, your boss's boss, and his boss's boss. And their families, and their homes. There will be no such thing as collateral damage, and no innocent bystanders. Because when you come to my door, that's how you decided to call the tune.
Sauce for this goose is good for you ganders as well. Until I run out of ammo, targets, or life's breath. Hand to God on that.
Once you break the social contract, the divorce is permanent as far as it concerns me. There will be no reconciliation possible, nor wanted. You'll be dead to me, until I can make you so.
But I'm not going there lightly. You can back off anytime. (Before you ever start would be advisable.) I'm among the most law-abiding persons you'll ever meet. I try to avoiding being guilty of even parking tickets or overdue library books. And will continue to do so all the days of my life.
Unless you set the law aside.
Which is what red flag laws and gun bans are. You can follow procedure in passing them, but they're still moot, illegal, and unenforcable. As you'll find out at the threshold.
At that point, the new "No Law" rule is the only one I'll be observing, from here on out.
I may get one of you. Or two. Or ten. Or maybe none.
But it won't be for lack of diligent application.
And if, somehow, against your own interests, you can kill me, but hesitate, you'd better.
If I live, I won't go out crying like a bitch because you caught me, but because I didn't kill all of you. That will continue until the day I'm executed, and Hannibal Lechter has nothing on how I'll feel and act while incarcerated. Unless I'm a quadraplegic like Hasan after Ft. Hood. Depend on that. And if that, my last breath will be to spit in your face.
Now, go home and think about your wife and kids. Your friends, family, and hobbies. Everything you hold dear.
That's what you're risking for me, and for you, when you decide a paycheck trumps the Constitution.
Your guns are loaded, and you face that every day, when going after actual criminals.
I get that.
My guns are loaded for them, for the same reason.
So think long and hard about whether today is a good day to die, for treating me like a criminal, when we both know I'm not.
Doing that is the day you decide to become a criminal.
And you'll answer for it, both here, and hereafter.
The war may well end, someday, and either my side or yours will win.
But you won't live to see it, if I have anything to say about it.
So, do you really want to make all kinds of enemies out of the last people in the country who think what you do is something worth having?
Or do you want to sign up with the Sheriff of Nottingham against the people of Sherwood, for keeps, and for real?
This exam will be graded pass-fail, and you only get to take it one time.
Choose wisely.
Don't die like a bitch, enforcing unjust laws for corrupt elected crooks, for a paycheck.
Gun owners nationwide, with 600,000,000-1,000,000,000 weapons and 2,000,000,000,000-plus rounds of ammunition for them, and 95% of them better shooters than your best people are on their best day, are hanging on to see your decision, every day.
Here I stand; I can do no other.
That doesn't make me any kind of badass, nor is it intended to, in any way.
But I won't be a serf for so much as a second.
And I favor my odds to think there are quite a few other hardy souls out there who feel exactly the same way.
No better friends, no worse enemies.
"I'm pleading with you with tears in my eyes: if you fuck with me, I'll kill you all."
Bet on it. Yuuuugely.
And remember, you can't spend that paltry paycheck when you're dead.
To Ofcr. Jackboots' Bosses: You aren't the only ones who can make lists.
This isn't a rant. It's a holy promise.
{And To Whomever It May Concern: I hope we've answered where I fall on the Second Amendment once and for all. Pound the too-soft-on-the-2A bilgewater right back up your tailpipe with a flat shovel. Or if you'd like, I'll help you out with that.}
Not counting the news outlets or websites along the full range of accuracy and veracity, I follow multiple actual individuals' handwritten blogs. (Bot news aggregators don't thrill me.) Looking them over, many are current serving or former military and a couple are some variation of high-speed low-drag elite forces ninjas. Or just funny as all. Because life without humor is just despair. So in other words, the same folks I trusted in the military not to wet the bed, sh*t themselves, or otherwise run around like headless Nancys, are the same folks I trust on the interwebz, for demonstrating pretty much the same trustworthiness and circumspectly responsible behavior. Color me shocked.
Comments are fully moderated, due to idiots and trolls. Grown up discussion here will appear just as soon as I have the time to push it through. ANONYMOUS UNSIGNED COMMENTS WILL BE AUTO-DELETED WITHOUT MERCY, and the url added to the spam filter, or mercilessly mocked at the bloghost's sole discretion. If you're too chickensh*t to come up with an alias for online purposes, you're not tall enough for this blog. Pick a name, and stick with it, and you're good. Get cute, and you're wasting your time and my electrons, and your masterpiece will never see the light of day. No warning shots will be fired. If you can't maintain decorum and polite behavior, I won't toy with you, I'll squash you. If one of your comments disappears, YOU f**ked up. If all of them do, it's time for you to go. Disagree with the points made, on the merits, and you're good. Go after me personally, or other commenters, and your comment will never see daylight here. My tolerance for skirting the line is at absolute zero, and will remain there. Don't f**k up.
