Gun Thread (2-9-2014)

Nope, NYT, It's Not a "Stand-Your-Ground" Case

Our friend Andrew Branca is covering the Florida "loud music" murder trial of Michael Dunn at his blog, with crossposts at Legal Insurrection, and he's live-tweeting it when court is in session.

The gist of the case is that 4 men in an SUV were confronted outside a convenience store in Florida and asked to turn down the volume of their sound system. Words were exchanged and defendant Dunn wound up pumping nine rounds of 9mm into the SUV, including 3 that went into the rear quarter panel and window as it was fleeing the scene. One of the first 3 shots killed one of the passengers.

Defendant Dunn has claimed self-defense and says the victim was armed and that the passengers in the SUV must've gotten rid of their gun in all the confusion, which is why no gun was found on them.

The New York Times, of course, can't resist calling this case a trial of Florida's self-defense laws and "Stand Your Ground".

*sigh*

As Branca reminds us:

... Stand-Your-Ground deals only with the issue of retreat in the context of lawful self-defense. It does not authorize any greater degree of force, nor does it allow you to use force under any lesser degree of threat. You must still meet every other qualification for lawful self-defense—innocence, imminence, proportionality, and reasonableness. If you are the aggressor in the fight, for example, you don’t qualify for self-defense in the first place, and Stand-Your-Ground has no application. In particular, Stand-Your-Ground in no way authorizes a “shoot first, ask questions later” approach to self-defense, despite what so many political activists have claimed.

From Branca's reporting, it seems pretty doubtful that Dunn has a valid self-defense claim at all. But that doesn't stop the NYT from propagandizing against self-defense laws anyway.

Related: The owner's manual for your concealed carry permit - The Law of Self Defense

Buffalo: Known For Its Sweet, Delicious Irony

More than a dozen cop cars, the SWAT team, K9 units and the Erie County Sheriff’s Air One helicopter swarmed Harvey Austin Elementary School in Buffalo on Thursday after reports of a man with a gun near the school or on the grounds. Dwayne Ferguson, head of the Buffalo chapter of MAD DADS, was taken into custody.

Why is this schadenfreudelicious, you ask?

News 4 interviewed Ferguson in March of 2013 at a rally in support of the NY SAFE Act. At the time, Ferguson stated the law did not go far enough.

“Our kids are not buying assault weapons, they’re buying pistols and they’re buying them right out of community stores and back here in the school. So this is serious. It needs to go further than what it is,” he said.

Guns for me but not for thee, eh Mr. Ferguson? Have fun in the legal system you advocated for.

(via an unnamed moron on the tip line)

Gun Of The Week

(answer below)

Marksmanship Award

Gun Of The Week - Answer

That's the Smith & Wesson Model 76 SMG in 9mm. It's a knockoff of the Scandi Carl Gustav (a/k/a "Swedish K").

Wikipedia explains it thusly:

During the Vietnam War, the US Navy SEALs used the Carl Gustav m/45 SMG extensively. One of the gun's qualities which appealed to the Navy was that the M/45 can fire almost immediately out of the water (over the beach). It also saw use by CIA operatives and advisers. In US service it was largely known as the "Swedish-K" or "K-Rifle".[3] The US Navy was so impressed by the m/45 that when Sweden embargoed the export of weapons to the USA in 1966, Smith & Wesson was given the task of producing a copy. This was designated the Smith & Wesson M76. However, by the time when the M76 was ready for combat deployment, the US Navy had ended most SEAL missions in Asia.

I have an uncle who served on a PBR (Patrol Boat, River - think Apocalypse Now) in Vietnam and carried a Swedish K on that duty. He loved the thing ... still talks about it to this day.

Second Amendment applies to carrying guns in cars

From the Volokh Conspiracy at the newly-Libertarian Washington Post comes this reporting on a case in Ohio:

The view that the Second Amendment protects some sort of right to carry guns outside the home remains the minority view among post-Heller appellate courts, but it’s a substantial minority, and this decision adds to that minority.

Read the whole thing. Despite the unfavorable landscape Volokh notes above, the trend is running in our favor.

(via CBD)

Tips

If there are topics you're interested in seeing in the gun thread, please send them to AoSHQGunThread at gmail. You can also send them to me on Twitter at @AndyM1911.

Defend the Second Amendment. Join: The National Rifle Association * Gun Owners of America * The National Shooting Sports Foundation * Your state's second amendment org.

Celebrate America's firearms heritage: participate in Project Appleseed.

posted by Andy at 12:00 PM

| Access Comments