Luma 7-4

Luma 7-4 (01:41)

Condensed (00:19)

D.C Voting Rights Act Dead

Some folks may remember last summer's dust-up over this. There was a bill before Congress to get the District of Columbia a seat in the House. John Ensign tacked the Second Amendment Enforcement Act onto it, and it became something of a poison pill. Democrats were unable to excise his amendment, and if the District was to get a house seat, they'd have to comply with the Heller ruling.

Rather than risk abandoning the District's unconstitutional and disastrous regulations, Congress chose to simply drop the whole matter completely.

Well, history repeats itself, though rarely this quickly. This year's version quickly found the Ensign amendment attached to it, and again Congress chose not to decide.

Paul Helmke's response was to gloat, calling the whole thing a "Faustian bargain" and voicing his pleasure that the District would be sticking to its guns, even if it cost them something advocates of DC statehood consider to be a huge priority.

It all raises a difficult question, however. What if Congress had chosen to pass the bill, with the Ensign amendment? Would it have been worth the compromise?

Washington DC isn't a state, and as such, they don't qualify for representation. The Supreme Court ruled as such twice, in District of Columbia v. Murphy (1941) and District of Columbia v. Carter (1973). Article I and Section 2 of the 14th Amendment only mention the states as being entitled to send representatives to the House.

Clearly, there's a need to enforce Heller in some way. The District is doing their best to ignore the constitutional rights of its citizens, as well as the ruling of the Supreme Court.  But would we be playing a little too fast and loose with the Constitution if we supported the Voting Rights Act to further the cause of the 2nd Amendment?

That's not a rhetorical question.  Do the ends justify the means, and do we risk making some Faustian deals ourselves?

Crosstalk over I-94

There's an area around Lake Erie where several commercial radio stations share the same frequency.  On a clear night, you can hear straight across to Canada as the signals bleed together.   For some people, it makes for annoying interference.  For others, the result ends up being something far more interesting than the sum of its parts.

Crosstalk over I-94  (02:10)

Crosstalk over I-94

There's an area around Lake Erie where several commercial radio stations share the same frequency.  On a clear night, you can hear straight across to Canada as the signals bleed together.   For some people, it makes for annoying interference.  For others, the result ends up being something far more interesting than the sum of its parts.

Crosstalk over I-94  (02:10)

Sunday Info Dump #2

My order from El Paso Saddlery arrived Friday, and here's their Tom Threepersons holster for the 3" Model 65:





I was pleasantly surprised by their turnaround time: just over four weeks.

In other news, Leonard Embody, Cassidy Nicosia and Kurk Kirby have a new compatriot in David Walters.

Justice Stevens and the New Balance

It turns out that this will be Justice Stevens' last term on the Supreme Court.  Even if we see one liberal Justice replaced with another, the ideological balance of the Court is unlikely to change.

At least, on the surface.

One of Stevens' strengths was building across-the-aisle consensus among dissenting Justices.  He was often able to corral or curtail Justice Kennedy's traditional swing vote, but a younger Justice will not have the ability to do so.  As such, Kennedy's role on the Court is about to become much more important.

His vote with the majority in the Heller decision showed a willingness to accept the 2nd Amendment at face value, and without anyone to sway him away, I'd guess we can expect him to rule in our favor in subsequent challenges.

I'm sure the 2nd Amendment will be a significant issue in confirmation hearings.  How much of an issue, I'm not sure.  After all, McDonald v. Chicago will likely be settled law one way or another at that point.  Still, Tom Coburn's on the committee, so expect to see nominees put on the hot seat about the matter.

The real 800lb gorilla in the room will be the Citizens United decision.  This one created a rather large political divide, including a histrionic and inappropriate reprimand from the President during this year's State of the Union address.  There are still lingering questions of corporate personhood and free speech tied up in the issue.

Then there's the spectre of the midterm elections.  A number of Democratic senators, some on the Judiciary Committee, see their jobs on the chopping block.  They're already taking heat for their blind support of the Health Care Reform Bill, and rushing an ultra-liberal Justice through the process isn't going to gain them any clout among constituents who are already seething at what they see as a far-left agenda.

For these folks, the midterm slogans will be characterized by words like "bipartisanship" and "moderate."  Traditional controversial issues like abortion, terrorism and judicial "activism" will be front and center.  If they've got any sense of political self-preservation, they'll do their best to confirm the most inoffensive candidate possible.

Which would be a win on several levels.

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.