S&W Model 65

This 65-3 was produced in 1987.  Other notable events from that year include Gary Hart dropping out of the Presidential race, Sonny Bono running for the office of Mayor of Palm Springs, and Ronald Reagan delivering what was possibly his most important speech.  U2 released The Joshua Tree, and Rick Astley's song "Never Gonna Give You Up" reached #1 on both sides of the Atlantic, long before anybody with taste found it the least bit ironic.

The Model 65 was produced from 1972 until 2004.  It was the fixed-sight counterpart to the 66, and was carried by the Customs Service, as well as several state police agencies.

A common misconception is that the 65 was a stainless version of the Model 13.  This isn't entirely true, as the 13 was not introduced until 1974.  Prior to that, the blued counterpart to the 65 was the 10-6, which had been upgraded to .357.  While the 19 and 66 were referred to as the Combat Magnums, the 65 and 13 were never explicitly named.  Given their heritage, they could be referred to as the Military & Police Magnums.

Both the 13 and 65 share the distinction of being among the last standard-issue revolvers in law enforcement. There's some confusion as to which was the last issue revolver for the F.B.I.  As far as I can tell, it varied by field office and starting date, but agents were carrying both well into the 1980's.

Vibrational Dynamics for 500

Vibrational Dynamics for 500  (01:15)

Back to the D.C. Circuit

The Washington D.C. District Court has handed down its opinion in Heller v. D.C. [pdf]. Joshua Blackman has an analysis that renders any of mine redundant.

Following the Supreme Court decision in D.C. v. Heller, the District did its absolute best to comply with the Court's ruling as little as possible.  Though citizens were theoretically allowed to register handguns, the process involves jumping some pretty substantial hurdles.  Dick Heller brought suit on three points:

1. the District's registration scheme in general,


2. the ban on "assault weapons," and


3. restrictions on magazine capacity.

The District Court rejected strict scrutiny, finding that all three measures met with intermediate scrutiny.

The Call of Duty Effect

Anyone who's worked in a gun store knows that guy. He's in his early 20's and usually comes in with a couple of friends. They want to see specific guns:  the Deagle, the M4, the SCAR, anything in "fifty cal." Most of all, they'd love a chance to fondle the ever-elusive ACR.

Soldiers on leave? Procurement agents for law enforcement? Well-heeled NRA High-Power competitors? No.

These are the Call of Duty generation.

Once handing them the gun used to kill the terrorists in Level 7, you'll spend a good ten minutes reminding them with increasing sternness not to sweep other patrons with the muzzle. They'll usually pull out a cell-phone and take pictures of their friends posing with it. They'll tell you it's the most "badass" gun in the whole game, and how they totally own the noobs with it.

Goofy as they might be, I've never dealt with one whom I considered to be the least bit dangerous. Though there's a certain fetishism at work, they don't seem to idolize the weapon for its destructive potential. They simply think it's a neat artifact in and of itself.

Thus arises the question of overlap between shooters and gamers.

This Isn't Over

So here we are.  H.R. 3962 has passed in the House.  It looks likely to pass in the Senate unless the Republicans can kill it with amendments.  Should they fail, it'll become law this week.

I'm glad today's my day off.  I have to endure enough ignorant political prattle at work as it is, and I can only imagine the coarse level of discourse today.  By now, somebody's come up with another silly parody of the President's name, and they're going to hue and cry about the results, even though most of those doing so did absolutely nothing to stop it from happening.

In her speech preceding the vote, Speaker Pelosi said,

"Another Speaker, Tip O'Neill, once said, "all politics is local."  And I say to you tonight that when it comes to health care for all Americans, "all politics is personal."

Perhaps if Americans had taken that advice to heart, none of this would have happened.  Instead, many self-proclaimed conservatives, deciding that they already smelled doom, decided simply not to vote in the last election. I watched it happen among people I knew.  The other side mobilized; we wasted time and energy squabbling amongst ourselves.

That's why we lost in 2006, and again in 2008.  That's why we lost last night.

S&W 3" Model 10

This revolver was made when the TRS-80 was the pinnacle of computing technology.  Blade Runner was in theaters. Ingrid Bergman and John Belushi died, and Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands.

Even if the J. Geils Band and Survivor aren't with us any more, Smith & Wesson still is.

The Model 10 has been around in one form or another for over a century.  Until this year, it has enjoyed an unbroken production run, the longest of any firearm in existence.  That's not hard to understand, as the .38 Hand Ejector is a reliable, accurate and powerful platform.  All modern double-action revolvers can trace their lineage to it.

Reaping the Whirlwind

Leonard Embody has received notice that this Tennessee Handgun Carry Permit is being revoked.  If you don't know this guy's background, I've written on it here.

This was his response to the media:

"I'm a private person," Embody said. "I didn't want to be in the spotlight. I didn't want my name in the news reports."

...which would be why he has gone to great lengths to bait law-enforcement with his antics, posting the results to every internet forum and blog he could find.  His last stunt was to walk down the streets of Belle Meade in an orange reflective vest, carrying an 1851 Navy in his right hand.

Apparently, this didn't go as well as he'd hoped.  In response to this incident, the Belle Meade police department made the recommendation to the Tennessee Department of Safety that Mr. Embody's permit be revoked.  The text of their letter reads, in part,

This request is not made lightly and based on the increasingly unsafe methods of displaying and/or carrying a firearm by Leonard Stanni Embody over the past 24 months.

Leonard Stanni Embody has show by his actions that he is repeatedly engaging in behavior while carrying or displaying a firearm that compromises the safety of the general public, responding law enforcement officers, and his own.

Leonard Stanni Embody did carry the weapon in an unsafe manner, in an unsafe location and in an unsafe condition.  Tennessee Code Annotated 39-17-1352 (a) (3) states that any actions by the permit holder that poses [sic] a material likelihood of risk or harm to the public will be grounds to suspend or revoke a handgun permit.

Recent incidents that have been well documented and published by Leonard Stanni Embody clearly show that his actions clearly are for his own benefit and do not represent the actions of a responsible citizen wishing to safely carry a handgun for legitimate purposes. [emphasis mine]

This whole situation begs a very sticky ethical question.  Is it right that, in the absence of any criminal wrongdoing, Mr. Embody's permit is being revoked?

Donuts Don't Wear Alligator Shoes

New rule: if you're irresponsible enough to forget your weapon and leave it at the range, we're going to use it to stage goofy pictures.  I really wanted to do a parody of the final frame of Black Dynamite, but asking employees to curl up around my legs could constitute grounds for a lawsuit in some quarters.

If you haven't seen the movie, you should.  Heck, if Sandra Bullock can get an Oscar for whatever it is she did, Michael Jai White deserves one for pulling off lines like this with a straight face:

Doctor Wu, your knack for biological scientific transmogrification is only matched by your zest for Kung-Fu treachery!

I've been using that one all week, regardless of context.  I get odd looks sometimes.

The gun is a Kel-Tec PLR-16.  It was left in a faux Pelican case with a bunch of spare magazines and several hundred rounds of Wolf ammunition. Given the demographic of people who buy guns like this in lieu of decent ones, I'd assume that there was a DVD of Boondock Saints in the case at some point as well.  Unfortunately, we did not recover that.

Of course, nobody ever leaves guns laying about that we'd actually want to shoot.  Such is life.

Starbucks in the Crosshairs

I've had an on-again-off-again relationship with Starbucks for as long as I can remember.  Their prepared drinks are spendy, but as a guy who grinds his own, I've found their Cafe Verona to be very versatile, and the Ethiopian Sidamo balances nicely with steamed milk.

I'd never really considered their policy on guns.  Heck, it's a coffee shop.  It's frequented by pseudo-intellectuals whose offspring are white kids with dreadlocks.  Despite the lack of any signage stating so, I'd always assumed they wouldn't be too fond of guns.

Therefore, it came as something of a pleasant surprise to find out that they're not caving to pressure from the Brady Campaign to ban guns from their stores.

I may have to spend more money there.

Watering the Tree of Liberty

Judge Frank Easterbrook took the stand today in the case against Hal Turner.

Turner really wanted to be Glenn Beck, but all he ever amounted to was a guy with a small cancelled radio show and a website he used to convey his views about white supremacy.  He was a Holocaust denier who acted for a time as an informant for the FBI against his own kind.

It turns out that Turner was just a bit miffed at Easterbrook's decision in NRA v. Chicago last June, and his reaction was quite intemperate:

Let me be the first to say this plainly: These judges deserve to be killed. Their blood will replenish the tree of liberty. A small price to pay to assure freedom for millions.

He then provided the home addresses of 7th Circuit Judges Frank Easterbrook, Richard Posner and William Bauer to his readers.

Does this constitute an actual threat or conspiracy? That's up to the jury, but it certainly wasn't wise in any case.  I, for one, am certainly sick of hearing the phrase "watering the tree of liberty" thrown around so casually.

Turner could face up to ten years in prison. Let's hope he has to watch reruns of Space 1999 the whole time.

For Justice Breyer

Justice Breyer came up with this concept during oral arguments today, and it was too fruity to pass up.

Still, I take from what you are saying that -- let's make up an imaginary importance of ordered liberty chart, and we give it to James Madison and the other framers.  And he would say insofar as that right to bear arms is important for the purpose of maintaining the militia, it's high on the ordered liberty chart.  Insofar as the right to bear arms is there to shoot burglars, it's low on the ordered liberty chart.

He's obviously going to be writing a dissent in McDonald (he still hasn't gotten over Heller), and he'll need all the help he can get, so I figured I'd run with his idea and cobble together a handy visual aid.

McDonald v Chicago: Oral Arguments

Long story short, with the exception of Breyer, there appears to be no significant opposition to incorporation through Due Process.  With the exception of Ginsburg, the Court showed no interest in revisiting the Privileges or Immunities clause.

So, it's a win, but only for the 2nd Amendment. Although Slaughterhouse and Cruikshank stand for the time being, incorporation here will whittle away at them, as it did in Gitlow and Benton.

The transcript [pdf] is up here. Josh Blackman was there, and has his commentary here.

I was saddened to see how quickly Scalia and Roberts dismissed the idea of overturning Slaughterhouse. I'd worried that Scalia would be opposed to revisiting Privileges or Immunities, and I was sadly proven right.

Regarding selective incorporation, a doctrine he's been wary of in the past, Scalia said, "As much as I think it's wrong, even I have acquiesced in it."

Breyer's "imaginary importance of ordered liberty chart" is truly a surreal idea. He tried to get a few digs in at the Heller majority but failed. He did his best to waste some of Gura's time with irrelevancies.

Autechre: Oversteps

As usual, I never know what to expect from a new Autechre record.  The fact that the Designers Republic was back on board for artwork should have been something of a clue.

This is certainly the most consistent and approachable that they've been in years.  The record is restrained and focused, and there's a real emphasis on melody.  They've jettisoned the hyper-abstraction and claustrophobic mixing of Untilted, and the disjointed chaos of Quaristice has been reined in.  What's left is an album that doesn't convey the need to prove anything.

It's all the more satisfying for that.

This is a patient record with a unified character.  There's a sense of space and breathing room that's quite welcome.  The atmosphere is reminiscent of Envane's quieter moments and several tracks lack percussion entirely.

Before everyone starts screaming, "OMG ambient record!  They remade Amber FTW," bear in mind that this is a more mature animal.  It's learned a few things since then, and its teeth are a bit sharper than they were fifteen years ago.

McDonald v. Chicago: the 11th Hour

Oral arguments are tomorrow morning at 10:00 EST.  Check for transcripts after lunch.

Though they did so in Heller, the Court has chosen not to allow a recording of the proceedings.  I'd have hoped that, with Souter gone, the Court would consider broadcasting, but that appears not to be the case.

Though the Justices' minds are likely made up at this point, the tenor and nature of their questions may give us an idea where they lean.  It should be fun to see Chicago counsel dissemble while trying to pretend Heller didn't mean what it said.

They're obviously nervous.  Mayor Daley has stooped to trotting out Blair Holt's parents to cry on cue for the cameras, and we have this missive from Dennis A. Henigan, in which he cites the same tired, discredited statistics he's been using for years.  It's a sad last wave before drowning, but the text and history of the 14th Amendment are squarely on our side.