This is Why 18 U.S.C. § 922 Needs to be Amended

A couple of days ago in the little town of Orrville, Alabama, a man “waving a gun” walked into a Dollar General Store and forced a cashier and a customer into a break room.  Oddly enough, the force field generated by the posting of this sign

did not prevent Kevin McLaughlin from walking through the doorway, gun in hand.

The customer, one Marlo Ellis, was – in accordance with the sign – carrying his firearm concealed.  He turned, drew his weapon and shot McLaughlin once in the chest.  McLaughlin was DRT.

Alabama law does not require a permit for open carry, but does for concealed.  According to the story, the police are checking to ensure Ellis was properly permitted, though the DA stated that he didn’t believe any charges would be pressed, regardless.  HOWEVER, Ellis is currently out of jail on bond, facing charges of “rape in the second degree and enticing a child for immoral purposes, stemming from a 2013 investigation involving a girl under the age of 16.”  The DA stated in the story that Ellis was within his rights to have a CCW permit because he has not yet been convicted.

I don’t think so.

Question 11b on BATFE form 4473 (PDF) asks:

Are you under indictment or information in any court for a felony, or any other crime, for which the judge could imprison you for more than one year?

And the instructions for questions 11b through 11l state:

Generally, 18 U.S.C. § 922 prohibits the shipment, transportation, receipt, or possession in or affecting interstate commerce of a firearm by one who: has been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence; has been convicted of a felony, or any other crime, punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year (this does not include State misdemeanors punishable by imprisonment of two years or less); is a fugitive from justice; is an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, or narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance; has been adjudicated mentally defective or has been committed to a mental institution; has been discharged from the Armed Forces under dishonorable conditions; has renounced his or her U.S. citizenship; is an alien illegally in the United States or an alien admitted to the United States under a nonimmigrant visa; or is subject to certain restraining orders. Furthermore, section 922 prohibits the shipment, transportation, or receipt in or affecting interstate commerce of a firearm by one who is under indictment or information for a felony, or any other crime, punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.

Mr. Ellis is under indictment.  He is may be a “prohibited person” and can might be charged with possessing and carrying a weapon illegally.

A weapon which he used to, quite possibly, save several lives, including his own.

The local DA might not charge him, but a Federal prosecutor certainly could, and I wouldn’t put it past them.  The number of “crimes” that carry a possible sentence of “imprisonment for a term exceeding one year” is insane.  Just being under indictment for one negates your right to arms.  Crimes like “providing police with a false name” for instance.  Or walking out of a restaurant on a $25.01 tab.

Mario Ellis might very well be a child-raping scumbag who should be thrown under the jail – but until he goes to trial he should either be sitting in a cell or he should have all the rights of any other citizen.

UPDATE:  After carefully scrutinizing 18 U.S.C. § 922, I’m certain that it’s illegal for someone to SELL to a person known or believed to be under indictment, but I’m not so certain that it’s illegal for someone under indictment to possess.  I think it’s a gray area that Prosecutors might play in.  I have altered the post to reflect this.

Quote of the Day – Sultan Knish Edition

Daniel Greenfield, who blogs at Sultan Knish, is also a contributor at FrontPage Mag.  His most recent column No Country for Liberal Republicans is chock-full of QotD material.  Here’s my selection for today’s serving:

In the last two elections, the bloodthirsty neo-confederate party of hate served up a liberal Republican, currently championing Obama’s illegal alien amnesty, and a liberal Republican, currently being blamed  by Obama supporters for inspiring ObamaCare. Its fantasy candidate for the upcoming election had spent the last election hugging Obama, and then signed off on tuition for illegal aliens and banned gay conversion therapy, and was, until a few weeks ago, being praised as the ultimate good Republican; only to be subjected to the same ritual media humiliations as McCain and Romney.

The same media that insisted that the murder of four Americans in Benghazi was not a scandal and that the murder of Brian Terry in Operation Fast and Furious was not a scandal is bleating that a little traffic is a scandal.  Not a little traffic in assault rifles, as in Fast and Furious, but in the distance between cars.

By all means, do read the whole thing.

When Dealing with New Jersey Maryland, the Gun Owner Acts at His Peril

I have discussed this before, but in 1996 the New Jersey Superior Court declared a man a felon for possession of an “assault weapon” – a Marlin Model 60, tube-fed .22 rimfire rifle he had won as a prize in a “police combat match” in the late 1980’s.  He took his prize, put it into his gun safe with the tags still dangling from the trigger guard, and apparently never took it out again….

Until 1993 when apparently someone dropped a dime on him after New Jersey passed its draconian “assault weapons” ban that made a .22 rifle with a 17-round magazine capacity a prohibited weapon.  Mr. Pelleteri, a firearms instructor, fought the case all the way to the New Jersey Superior Court which found against him, stating this chilling phrase:

When dealing with guns, the citizen acts at his peril.
The GeekWithA.45 calls New Jersey a “dark and fascist state,” and I think with ample reason.  (Begin Edit) But New Jersey apparently isn’t content to oppress its residents ain’t got a patch on Maryland.  If you’re a visitor there, you’re at severe risk as well:

Gun owner unarmed, unwelcome in Maryland

John Filippidis, silver-haired family man, business owner, employer and taxpayer, is also licensed to carry a concealed firearm.

He’d rather he didn’t feel the need, “but things aren’t like they used to be. The break-ins, the burglaries, all the crime. And I carry cash a lot of the time. I’m constantly going to the bank.

“I wanted to be able to defend my family, my household and the ground I’m standing on. But I’m not looking for any trouble.”

Filippidis keeps his gun — a palm-sized Kel-Tec .38 semiautomatic (layers of editorial fact-checkers – Ed.), barely larger than a smartphone in a protective case — in one of two places, always: in the right-hand pocket of his jeans, or in the safe at home.

“There are kids in the house,” Filippidis says, “and I don’t think they’d ever bother with it, but I don’t want to take any chances.”

He’s not looking for any trouble, after all.

Trouble, in fact, was the last thing on his mind a few weeks back as the Filippidises packed for Christmas and a family wedding in Woodridge, N.J., so he left the pistol locked in the safe. The state of Florida might have codified his Second Amendment rights, but he knew he’d be passing through states where recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions affirming the rights of individuals to keep and bear arms have been met by hostile legislatures and local officials.

“I know the laws and I know the rules,” Filippidis says. There are, after all, ways gun owners can travel legally with firearms through hostile states. “But I just think it’s a better idea to leave it home.”

So there the Filippidises were on New Year’s Eve eve, southbound on Interstate 95 — John; wife Kally (his Gulf High sweetheart); the 17-year-old twins Nasia and Yianni; and 13-year-old Gina in their 2012 Ford Expedition — just barely out of the Fort McHenry Tunnel into Maryland, blissfully unarmed and minding their own business when they noticed they were being bird-dogged by an unmarked patrol car. It flanked them a while, then pulled ahead of them, then fell in behind them.

“Ten minutes he’s behind us,” John says. “We weren’t speeding. In fact, lots of other cars were whizzing past.”

“You know you have a police car behind you, you don’t speed, right?” Kally adds.

Says John, “We keep wondering, is he going to do something?”

Finally the patrol car’s emergency lights come on, and it’s almost a relief. Whatever was going on, they’d be able to get it over with now. The officer — from the Transportation Authority Police, as it turns out, Maryland’s version of the New York-New Jersey Port Authority — strolls up, does the license and registration bit, and returns to his car.

According to Kally and John (but not MTAP, which, pending investigation, could not comment), what happened next went like this:

Ten minutes later he’s back, and he wants John out of the Expedition. Retreating to the space between the SUV and the unmarked car, the officer orders John to hook his thumbs behind his back and spread his feet. “You own a gun,” the officer says. “Where is it?”

“At home in my safe,” John answers.

“Don’t move,” says the officer.

Read the whole thing. Check your blood pressure afterwards. I think a little B-positive spurted from my eyes.

“Dark and fascist” might be a little generous there, Geek, (but I bet you’re glad you didn’t relocate to Maryland).

(Screwed up the post – I plead fatigue.  It’s been a rough week.)

Another Box-Office Loser

So Harvey Weinstein has announced that he’s going to make a new film, starring Meryl Streep:

Mr. Weinstein then revealed his secret project about the gun rights group. “I shouldn’t say this, but I’ll tell it to you, Howard,” he said. “I’m going to make a movie with Meryl Streep, and we’re going to take this head-on. And they’re going to wish they weren’t alive after I’m done with them.”

“This” and “them” being “guns” and “the NRA.”

Perhaps Mr. Weinstein should read Brian Anse Patrick’s The National Rifle Association and the Media: The Motivating Force of Negative Coverage.

Nah. Let him waste other people’s money.

UPDATE:  Saw this over at Bubba’s:

Doesn’t Fit The Narrative™

Yesterday I stumbled across this story at BusinessInsider.com, CONFIRMED: The DEA Struck A Deal With Mexico’s Most Notorious Drug Cartel:

An investigation by El Universal found that between the years 2000 and 2012, the U.S. government had an arrangement with Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel that allowed the organization to smuggle billions of dollars of drugs while Sinaloa provided information on rival cartels.

Sinaloa, led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, supplies 80% of the drugs entering the Chicago area and has a presence in cities across the U.S.

There have long been allegations that Guzman, considered to be “the world’s most powerful drug trafficker,” coordinates with American authorities.

Read the whole thing, but there is this disclaimer at the bottom:

This post has caused many to interpret that the U.S. government is actively supporting Sinaloa. That has not been established, despite claims by Zambada-Niebla’s lawyer and Stratfor’s source. What El Universal’s investigation and the newly published court documents reveal is that there was a strong correlation between 2005 and 2009 regarding the rise of the Sinaloa cartel and the DEA’s relatively regular contact with a top Sinaloa lawyer.

This story reminded me of the El Paso Times report from July of 2011 that U.S. military weapons (the real thing, not semi-autos from border gun shops) were being smuggled to the Zetas cartel through Texas and New Mexico – Zetas may be smuggling weapons:

The brutally violent Zetas drug organization may be smuggling military-grade weapons through El Paso and Columbus, N.M., to feed its ongoing battles against other cartels and to possibly disrupt the 2012 elections in Mexico.

Phil Jordan, a former director of the DEA’s El Paso Intelligence Center and a former CIA operative, said the Zetas have shipped large amounts of weapons through the El Paso area.

A federal law enforcement agency in El Paso said it has no information about the allegations that the Zetas are smuggling weapons through El Paso.

“They are purchasing weapons in the Dallas area and are flying them to El Paso, and then they are taking them across the border into Juárez,” said Jordan, a law enforcement consultant and former DEA official who still has contacts in the law enforcement community.

Robert “Tosh” Plumlee, a former CIA contract pilot, supported Jordan’s allegations and said the Zetas allegedly also purchased property in the Columbus-Palomas border region to stash weapons and other contraband.

He said purchasing property and setting up a weapons-smuggling network suggests that the Zetas were establishing a staging area for their operations.

DEA Special Agent Diana Apodaca, spokeswoman for El Paso’s DEA office, said the agency did not have any information about the Zetas allegedly operating in this border region.

No one from the Border Patrol or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives returned calls Tuesday for comment.

Earlier this month, Plumlee had a debriefing with the Border Patrol in Las Cruces about the intelligence he gathered when he accompanied the U.S. military’s Task Force 7 along the border. The military, which assists civilian law enforcement in counter-drug operations, was looking into allegations of gun smuggling along the border.

“The military task force became concerned that its information about arms smuggling was being compromised,” Plumlee said. “From the intel, it appears that a company was set up in Mexico to purchase weapons through the U.S. Direct Commercial Sales program, and that the company may have had a direct link to the Zetas.”

Under the Direct Commercial Sales program, the U.S. State Department regulates and licenses businesses to sell weapons and defense services and training for export. Last year, according to U.S. statistics, the program was used to provide Mexico $416.5 million worth of weapons and equipment, including military-grade weaponry.

The program is different from the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program, which operates on a government-to-government basis.

Plumlee said military-grade weapons were found in a Juárez warehouse two years ago, and some of them were moved later to a ranch elsewhere in Juárez. Arms stash houses have also been reported in places across the border from Columbus and Antelope Wells, N.M.

“They’ve found anti-aircraft weapons and hand grenades from the Vietnam War era,” Plumlee said. Other weapons found include grenade launchers, assault rifles, handguns and military gear including night-vision goggles and body armor.

Do read the whole thing.

Two things about this struck me:  One, it would appear that the Department of Justice is working with one cartel and the State Department is (or was) working with a different cartel.  Two, neither of these stories has any traction with the major media.  UPI picked up the El Paso Times story, but I found no other major media references to it in Google.  The new Business Insider piece?  Crickets.

I guess Bridgeghazi is more important.

UPDATE:  I contacted the reporter from the El Paso Times piece, Diana Washington Valdez, with the question “I was curious as to whether there was any follow-on to this story?”  Her response:

No, because neither ATF or DEA will provide any more information. All they keep saying is that the investigation is ongoing. (I think the investigation is long over.)

This is my shocked face….

An Obamacare Photo-essay

While you’re waiting, here’s a short photo-essay I started a while ago, and never posted. Part of Instapundit‘s “peeling an onion of fail” meme:

Political Promises photo Political_promises.jpg

 photo perfect-disguise-100.jpg

 photo suppository.jpg

 photo Obamacare_Ramirez.jpg

 photo big-hole.gif

Cluebat photo cluebat.jpg

 photo government-1.jpg

 photo thestupiditburns.jpg

 photo cadeuceus2.jpg

 photo UnexpectedlyObamaMotto.jpg

 photo Obamacare-1.jpg

 photo obamahearse.jpg

 photo peggy.jpg

 photo 5359_389192574530618_1648073679_n.png

 photo obamawait_thumb.gif

Feel free to link to anything you think I should add in the comments.  I’ll see what I can do.  Must be a graphic.

FAIL!

The first rule of blogging is “post something every day.” 

Yeah, right.

I’ve been really busy with work and some extracurricular activities and haven’t had much of an urge to put pixel to flatscreen recently, so sorry about that.  I’m even sorrier to admit that things don’t look to improve much in the near future, either, so once again the free ice cream machine is on the fritz.

Things will resume when they resume.  Not making any promises at this point.

Happy Freakin’ New Year – Bumped

I’m going to keep this at the top of the page for awhile.  Scroll down for any new content.

Reader (and prolific commenter) Grumpy Old Fart left this comment on the latest Moment of Zen post on Christmas day.  I am remiss in not seeing it earlier:

On December 1st, my mother’s house burned to the ground, with all my worldly goods in it (I had been living there for the last several years taking care of her while she was fighting cancer). On December 8th, a week later almost to the minute, she passed away at the age of 82.
Thanks, I have been badly needing a moment of Zen.

I think he may be badly needing some other stuff, too.

Let us know, GOF.  We’re here for you.

UPDATE:  There’s a Facebook page and a link to a donations page.  GOF, set yourself up a PayPal account, and I’ll link to it, too.  And get me a ship-to address.