gun control
April 8, 2023 — Scott Johnson
One of the key offenses charged by the government in the January 6 cases is obstruction of an official proceeding in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2). It is the offense to which Jacob Chansley (a/k/a the QAnon Shaman) pleaded guilty in his deal with the prosecutors. I wrote about the case in “It had to be Q.” The federal statute provides a penalty of imprisonment up to 20 years
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April 2, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz means to get in on the gun control action with bills incorporating “extended background checks” and “red flag” provisions. Democrats control the political branches. What’s the problem? In the video below Walz aims his fire at Republicans in the Minnesota Senate, where Democrats hold a one-vote advantage. Some translation is required here. I take it from Walz’s rant that one or two Democrats haven’t yet fallen
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March 30, 2023 — Elizabeth Stauffer
One New Year’s Eve in the 1990s, I was seated on a train out of Manhattan when a huge man dressed as a woman took the facing seat directly across from me. Although he had caused quite a stir as he moved through the car, he seemed oblivious to the eye rolls from my fellow passengers. With his bare midriff, I remember thinking he must be cold given the freezing temperatures
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March 30, 2023 — John Hinderaker
In the wake of Audrey Hale’s murderous spree, we are hearing the familiar calls for more gun control legislation. Left unexplained is how adding one more to the hundreds of gun control statutes and regulations that already exist will magically stop murders (or some categories of murders) from taking place. As usual, the default left-wing policy is a ban on “assault weapons.” Never mind that such a ban was implemented
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March 30, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Do not get within spitting distance of Dem Rep. Jamaal Bowman when he is instructing the press (“ask them every day — what are they going to do about gun violence?”), expounding on the need for “gun control” (“Why the hell won’t you do anything to save America’s children?”), and condemning colleagues who who disagree with him (“they’re all cowards,” “they’re freaking cowards,” “they’re gutless,” etc.). You are highly likely
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March 29, 2023 — Scott Johnson
John noted President Biden’s apparent need for adult guidance when he hit the ground in Durham, North Carolina yesterday. Biden’s remarks on the ground in Durham were at least equally notable. The White House has posted the transcript here. Nick Arama has posted excerpts and accompanying video here at RedState. Biden omitted his usual tribute to chocolate chip ice cream and skipped to exploitation of the tragic murder of students
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March 28, 2023 — Scott Johnson
President Biden turned up in the briefing room with a few remarks about the devastating mass murder in Nashville yesterday. The White House has posted the transcript of Biden’s remarks here. Biden added remarks on the Nashville tragedy to his prepared text, but he found it an appropriate moment to perform his usual shtick. There was never anything remotely good about this shtick, but under the circumstances it was indecent.
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November 30, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Democrats think the perennial battle over gun control has now swung in their favor. They are vowing to enact new gun control measures, allegedly in response to recent high-profile mass shooting incidents. Of course, we already have hundreds of statutes and regulations on the books relating to firearms. When someone engages in a mass shooting (or any shooting) he violates multiple statutes of the most serious kind. An obvious question
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August 31, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The White House thinks they have struck gold with their attack on “MAGA Republicans” as “semi-fascist” and all the rest. President Biden’s minders in the daycare operation at the White House are wheeling him out for a primetime campaign speech addressing “the soul of the nation” tomorrow night. The speech is to take place outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia. I am following Politico’s story on the speech here. My working
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June 30, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The great Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has set off the lunatic left that powers the throbbing heart of the Democratic Party and its media adjunct. He has set the left off ever since his nomination to the Court by President Bush in 1991. I’m so old I recall Joe Biden’s idiotic performance as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in the confirmation hearing (and Biden’s descent from 1991 has
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June 27, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The day before the Supreme Court turned the world upside down and overruled Roe last week, it it held that the Second Amendment protects the right of law-abiding people to carry a gun outside the home for self-defense and that New York’s Sullivan law, which makes that virtually impossible for anyone but VIPs, was therefore unconstitutional. Justice Thomas wrote the opinion for the Court in New York State Rifle &
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June 26, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Justice Clarence Thomas’s moment has arrived. His majority opinion in Bruen (the gun rights case), and his concurrence in Dobbs, are drawing considerable attention, and rightly so. Among many other virtues, his opinions have managed the dual feat of laying out serious legal and constitutional arguments while trolling the left at the same time. This may be my favorite passage in his Bruen majority opinion: After all, the Second Amendment
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June 23, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Today the Supreme Court decided New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, a challenge to a New York State law that barred residents from obtaining a carry permit unless they could show “proper cause.” Proper cause, in turn, required the applicant to “demonstrate a special need for self-protection distinguishable from that of the general community.” Under the Court’s controlling precedents, Heller and McDonald, I think the New York
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June 22, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The Federalist has just posted David Harsanyi’s column on “The ‘do something’ gun control bill.” Harsanyi is the author of The First Freedom: A Ride Through America’s Enduring History With the Gun and someone whose opinion I respect. Here is a salient paragraph: [Republican bill sponsor Senator John] Cornyn spent more time bragging about the things he rejected than championing the useful ideas he brought to the bill, because it
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June 22, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The bipartisan Senate group released the text of the “gun bill” or “gun safety bill” or whatever it is just before the Senate voted to proceed on the bill without amendment last night. Taking a look at the text, I see that the bill may be cited as the “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.” The authors apparently don’t want us to know what it’s all about from the title of the
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June 18, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Stephen Hunter retired as the Pulitzer Prize-winning chief film critic of The Washington Post in 2008 and is the author of the Bob Lee Swagger novels. His most recent is Targeted, published earlier this year. Inspired by recent events, he sent us this column. * * * * * Possibly you’re old enough to remember the great massacre spree of 1964? Classrooms shot up, strip malls decimated, scout troops blown
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June 12, 2022 — John Hinderaker
A bipartisan group of senators have announced an agreement on gun legislation. I am not sure whether their deal has been reduced to legislative language, and I don’t know whether it will get through the Senate, or whether Democrats in the House will vote for it. (If I were a Democrat, I would think that the deal is extremely weak, and its main effect may be to take gun control
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