The surprisingly reinvigorated Second Amendment

Next week this blog turns 18 (!).  That's a milestone that makes you think back on the journey.

This journey began in the lead up to the release by the US Supreme Court of the Heller v. District of Columbia opinion - in other words, this blog pre-dates Heller.  Looking back on the last 18 years here, things are really different for the Second Amendment.

It's all well and good to have a Constitution that's written down in black and white, but that doesn't help much if the Legislatures ignore it and the Courts refuse to strike down infringing laws.  That has changed, and while there are still pieces of broken Gun Control on the floor needing to be swept up, the change is profound.  Let's take a quick recap on that and then talk about what it means.

Heller v. D.C. (2008) stated as the plain law of the land that Second Amendment rights apply to individuals, not just to State Militias.  It kind of seems ridiculous to actually have to write this today, but that was the "accepted" legal understanding prior to Heller.

McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010) held that Heller applied not just to the District of Columbia, but to all the States (via the 14th Amendment).

New York Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022) was the hammer blow.  It established that the meaning of the Second Amendment as it was understood at the time was what it really meant, and that gun control laws had to demonstrate that the laws are consistent with that.  This flipped the switch - no longer would citizens have to demonstrate that they have a right, but the government has to demonstrate that they don't.  

This is what has left all those broken pieces of Gun Control cluttering up the floor.  Sure, they still need to be swept up, but look where things are now:

1. Gun permitting is not dead, but it's coughing up blood.  "Shall Issue" permitting is the law of the land - governments have to prove that you shouldn't be allowed to carry rather than you justify why do need to.
2. Most States were "Shall Issue" in 1990.  None are today.  In fact, half the States don't require you to have any permit at all to carry a firearm. 
3. "Assault Weapons" Bans are the last refuge of the desperate.  Liberal Legislatures that pass these today know for certain that they will be struck down.  Increasingly, the Courts are imposing restraining orders preventing the laws from going into force while they are being litigates.
4. The National Firearms Act of 1934 is a pale shadow of its former self.  Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" (which was anything but) repealed the tax on suppressors.  The Tax Code is really the main way for the Fed.Gov to impose the law here; no tax, no law.

So what does all this mean?  The biggest advancement in Second Amendment rights has been the normalization of the idea of firearms.  The biased media has a really hard time today in painting us as a fringe community. 

Heck, SCOTUS just ruled that the Fed.Gov cannot prevent firearms purchases by people who smoke pot.  The ruling was unanimous.  Conservative Alito and liberal Kagan co-authored a concurring opinion.  It's cats and dogs living together.

This has even been absorbed by the lower courts - the District and Circuit Courts of Appeals.  It's great if SCOTUS makes a ruling, but if the lower courts don't enforce it then it doesn't carry much weight.  We saw a fair amount of this during the years after Heller.  Now we don't.  Sure, there will always be the rogue District Judge who allows a plainly infringing gun control law, but these are getting struck down on appeal.

We're no longer the weirdos, the weirdos are on the other side.  The Class War against gun owners is pretty much over.

That's one heck of a change in 18 years.

 

Science is not magic

Divemedic has a must-read post about what science is and is not.  Quite frankly, it is a brital - and much needed - takedown of "Trust the Science".  I won't excerpt any of it because you need to read the whole thing, but he includes example after example of "Settled Science" which resulted in horrifying tragedy.  Some of these won the Nobel Prize in Medicine, for crying out loud.

Yes, he also talks about COVID without belaboring it.

However, in his excellent discussion about science as a process, he does not (much) delve into what happens to that process when it gets corrupted by moneyed interests.  ClimateGate was perhaps the gold standard of that, explained spectacularly by Dr. Richard Muller from UC Berkeley's Earth Sciences Department.

There are two things to point out here: Dr. Muller is not one of those beastly Science Deniers like your humble host, be is a professional climate scientist and the driving force behind a climate database that is less corrupt than the others - the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature series.

The second thing to point out is the guy at the center of the ClimateGate scandal - and the scientist who Muller will no longer read papers published by him - was one of the Lead Authors of the IPCC Assessment Reports.  These are supposedly the gold standard science, and it is entirely corrupt.

Scientist Hal Lewis explained why the establishment keeps doing this in his spectacular resignation from the American Physical Society (basically the professional association of Sheldon Coopers):

I do feel the need to add one note, and this is conjecture, since it is always risky to discuss other people’s motives. This scheming at APS HQ is so bizarre that there cannot be a simple explanation for it. Some have held that the physicists of today are not as smart as they used to be, but I don’t think that is an issue. I think it is the money, exactly what Eisenhower warned about a half-century ago. There are indeed trillions of dollars involved, to say nothing of the fame and glory (and frequent trips to exotic islands) that go with being a member of the club. Your own Physics Department (of which you are chairman) would lose millions a year if the global warming bubble burst. When Penn State absolved Mike Mann of wrongdoing, and the University of East Anglia did the same for Phil Jones, they cannot have been unaware of the financial penalty for doing otherwise.

Emphasis from me. 

There is a reason that I have post tags for junk science and climate bullshit. There's a reason that there are dozens or hundreds of posts tagged with those.  The science was bought and paid for, just like Divemedic's nutrition science example.

It's ironic that what is finally killing Global Warming is the manic push for AI datacenters.  The big money is on to chasing a better graft.

Go and read. 

Dad Joke CCCLXVI - Dad Joke, Mom Joke

Dad Joke: If a cow doesn't produce milk, is it a Milk Dud?  

Mom Joke (Courtesy of The Queen Of The World): No, it's just lactose-free.

Seen around the house

Deuce, our Grand-dog.  10 weeks old, so he's still a baby.  We're going to do some training.

I'm not a fan of his name.  I have half a mind to call him Duce (like Mussolini).

Summer is boating season

May as well have a really cool boat: 

 

Most boats are a carefully considered compromise designed to cover as many bases as possible: floating holiday home, party island, offshore cruiser – jack of all trades, as the saying has it, master of none.

Safehaven Marine’s Barracuda SV11 eschews all those compromises, becoming the jack of a single trade, master of one. Its single dedicated purpose is to conquer rough water and transport its crew safely, regardless of conditions.

...

There are no hot tubs, no teak deck option, no rise and fall TV. But there is a rise and fall gyro stabilised machine gun platform that emerges from the foredeck, controlled from the wheelhouse. Bulletproofing and a gun rack for the AK47s are also on the menu, should its customer base require it. 

Oh, and it's a stealth boat. 

Boston, amirite?

It seems like this is something being pushed by the Boston.Gov:

I'm afraid I don't even understand what they're talking about.  Does this mean dudes in dresses learning about periods, or the other way around?  Quite frankly, the terminology may be intentionally confusing.  Just shut up and nod your head, right?

Oooooh kaaaay.

I am SO glad I got out of there. Didn't even get cut up too badly going over the wire at the border ...

Radney Foster - Angel Flight (Radio Tower Remix)

This weekend is Memorial Day, the traditional BBQ kickoff to summer.  But on these shores, it's the day to remember the fallen from past - and current - wars.  The day was originally called Decoration Day, the date was at the very beginning of summer so that wild flowers would be available everywhere for families to decorate the graves of their fallen loved ones.

Many had no graves to decorate, as their loved one had an anonymous foreign grave for their final rest.  Today the Texas Air National Guard (and others) bring the fallen home on "Angel Flights".  This weekend, remember them.  Both the quick and the dead.

Congrats to OldNFO

Blogging 19 (!) years.