Legal

Reader Prompt: Search Warrant

A search warrant is a warrant signed by a judge or magistrate authorizing a law enforcement officer to conduct a search on a certain person, a specified place, or an automobile for criminal evidence.

A search warrant usually is the prerequisite of a search, which is designed to protect individuals’ reasonable expectation of privacy against unreasonable governmental physical trespass or other intrusion. The origin of this right is from the 4th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to protect people from unlawful government searches and seizures.

The Amendment reads: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrant shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Search warrant requirements

Probable cause: The officer should give reasonable information to support the possibility that the evidence of illegality will be found. Such information may come from the officer’ personal observations or that of an informant. If the warrant lacks accurate information as to what will be searched, the search is unlawful. See Groh v. Ramirez, 540 U.S. 551 (2004).
Search Warrant

IANAL, but isn’t the warrant intended to search ‘for specific things at specific locations’? If they came to my house looking for stolen bunnies off the easter farm but instead found a shit ton of perfectly legal arms, I would expect that I’d be left alone after that – presuming I don’t have a bunch of bunny skins hanging out back to dry. Why does this guy’s armory have to be put on blast?
b-zh

Often times the police are looking for evidence of a crime of significance. The bigger the crime the bigger the charges. This leads to an escalation process. The process of escalating a search warrant to cover what you are actually looking for.

Consider a search warrant to locate stolen property. The property you are looking for is a workbench taken from the local school.

Since the search warrant lists what the specifics are that the search are searching for it limits where they can search. The would not be allowed to look in your wife’s intimates drawer. There is no way a “desk” could fit in a drawer. They would be allowed to open closet doors to make sure the desk wasn’t in a large closet.

That doesn’t actually mean that it has to be logical. Our linen closet is not deep enough for a desk. If you look at the rooms around it and visualize the amount of space for that closet there is no way that it could hide a desk. But you could “hide a desk in a closet” so they warrant would allow the police to look in the closet. It would not allow them to look in containers in that closet.

Now say the police are executing a search for that desk and sitting on your coffee table in front of the sofa is a crack pipe that looks like it was used.

That cop now has new evidence in “plain view” of a potential crime. They still can’t go looking for the crack to go with that pipe. Or other drugs. They can only search where the warrant allows them.

At this point the cop contacts the Judge or magistrate and says “look, we were executing the search of this scums house looking for stolen property and we found drug paraphernalia along with a drug scale. We need a search warrant to extend to looking for drugs.”

The Judge or Magistrate issues the warrant and when that warrant is in hand the cops now can tear the house apart looking for “drugs”. They are no longer limited to searching place where a desk could be hidden, they are looking for places where drugs could be hidden.

If in the process of looking for drugs they find evidence of other illegal activities they can act on that evidence. So finding a “rape kit” could be used as evidence because during a search for drugs that kit, hidden in the back of a closet, under the floor, in a box could have held drugs. When it was opened to check for drugs the “rape kit” was in plain sight.

In the case listed the teacher was suspected of stealing from the local school. Some of the things he was suspected of stealing were tools belonging to the school. This could have meant things like table saws and milling machines but it could, and more likely was, small hand tools. For example a Fluke meter.

That would have given the cops the ability to check anywhere something the size of a Fluke multi-meter could be hidden. That would include anyplace large enough to hide a firearm.

Now that they are able to look in places that could hide firearms they find the dudes firearms. In New York state there are such things as “illegal guns” and “illegal magazines”. There doesn’t seem to be any laws requiring guns to be stored unloaded to the “loaded magazines” in the original article is not meaningful.

Regardless, if the cops found an AR-15 style weapon they would be allowed to determine if it was an “illegal gun” and the same with the magazines. Once a gun was determined to be “illegal” under NY law, the dude could be charged with violating gun regulations.

This case might end up in court and it might be that the defendant(dude in question) argues that the law making the guns and magazines “illegal” is unconstitutional and he might be able to get those charges dropped.

A number of lawyers tell you to not talk to the cops. You have to understand exactly how much you should say and then you need to know to shut up and keep your mouth shut. The cop is looking for you to give him the probable cause to do more.

Pulled from a number of advise articles: Why does a cop start his interaction with you at a traffic stop with “Do you know why I pulled you over?” If you tell answer him his job just got so much easier. If you reply with a polite “Why did you pull me over, Officer?” you haven’t admitted to anything.

NRA v. Bondi Florida ban on 18-20 yo buying firearms

B.L.U.F. The Eleventh Circuit Court covering Florida had a three judge panel decided that 18-20 year olds couldn’t buy firearms. The opinion is a hot take.


Emotional Blackmail Works

The three judge panel’s opinion was written by Circuit Judge Rosenbaum. She starts the opinion with some emotional blackmail, telling us that young adults have been shooting people for a very long time using newspaper reports from the 1870’s. She is using this to get the following statements into the opinion:

These stories are ripped from the headlines—the Reconstruction Era headlines, that is. But they could have been taken from today’s news. Unfortunately, they illustrate a persistent societal problem. Even though 18-to-20-year-olds now account for less than 4% of the population, they are responsible for more than 15% of homicide and manslaughter arrests.
Opinion of the Court — NRA v. Bondi

Double emphasis added.

In Bruen quoting Heller the Supreme Court established that when talking about the history and tradition of firearm regulation that the date to look at is 1791, the ratification of the Second Amendment. The founding period extends, at the latest, to 1826 when the last of the founding fathers died. Laws from the Reconstruction Era can be used to reinforce those traditions but can not be used if not supported by a tradition dating back to 1791.

Age Bans are Legal If You Use Reconstruction Era Laws

Judge Rosenbaum wants to use Reconstruction Era laws to justify the current law.
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Catch all

I’m tired. We got our power back after around 30-36 hours. We did not suffer but we had to work a bit harder than normal.

I was responsible for clearing a 1/4 mile of driveway that had snow ranging from 30cm to nearly 90cm deep. The first pass was a pain because our snowblower is only good to about 70cm of depth. This means that you drive the blower into the snow, it shoots the snow off to the side and you let it start to climb. When it has climbed to about a 30degree angle you stop the drive wheels and pull the damn thing back

Then you do it again. It has no trouble with the ramp it left behind but shortly after that it will do the climb thing. Each pass gets you about 75cm of progress.

Once you get the first path done it is much easier. In my case I had a kid walk the path with a shovel and pull down a foot or two of snow. Then the blower throws that out of the drive. Relatively easy.

All in all I spent about 6 hours yesterday and today removing snow.

Duncan v. Bonta

You got to love the lie of omission. It won’t work with Judge Benitez but they still had to try. The state of California wrote a letter to Judge Benitez telling him of the decision in the 11th circuit court (Florida way) where the three judge panel found that Florida’s ban on 18-20yo owning a class of firearms is constitutional.

The decision was so egregious that the plaintiffs(good guys) didn’t even have to request an en banc hearing. At least one judge on the 11th circuit judge went “WTF?” and held the opinion pending a decision of the 11th Circuit court as a whole on whether to hear the case en banc to give an opinion.

The state just left out that part where it was found so egregious that the 11th circuit stayed their own opinion.

Koons v. Reynolds

Judge Bumb is not somebody you want to mess with. While the case was brought by plaintiffs(good guys) Koons et all against Reynolds in his official capacity for the state of NJ the Senate and the General Assembly wanted to get their arguments in as well.

They applied to become “Intervenors” which just means they want official recognition from the court to lawyer stuff such as give oral arguments. It isn’t clear to me when they were allowed to join as Intervenors but they are.

When Judge Bumb was threatened with with the state appealing to the Third Circuit court on March 8th if she doesn’t rule on the preliminary injunction in a timely basis she slapped them down and set the date for oral arguments for the March 17, 2023 at 10am.

There is this back and forth going on where the state wants more time to get the historical and traditional laws in front of the court while the court is telling them “The legislature said they had those laws at hand before the passed the law, what gives?” So the state wants to slow walk some parts and “get it done right now!” on the other hand. I think it depends on if they think they are going to have the law stayed or not.

Well the intervenors wrote to the Court telling her that one of the attorneys was in Florida and wouldn’t be back by the 17th and could they please attend virtually. A bit later the other lawyer for the intervenors wrote to the court asking for a ruling.

Judge Bumb gave them that ruling yesterday:

This matter comes before the Court upon the March 9 and 14, 2023, letters filed by Intervenor’s counsel requesting to present oral argument virtually (ECF Nos. 108 and 111). The request is denied. Any counsel presenting oral argument on Plaintiffs’ Motions for a Preliminary Injunction must appear in person. Counsel not participating in oral argument may observe the proceeding virtually. So Ordered by Chief Judge Renee Marie Bumb on 03/15/2023. (Costigan, Roberta) (Entered: 03/15/2023)
Docket Koons v Reynolds 1:2022 cv 07564

Koons v. Reynolds: NJ Kill Carry challenge

B.L.U.F. This case covers the challenge to the knee jerk response of NJ to the Bruen opinion. The NJ “Kill Carry” bill follows the lead of NY’s CCIA.


On 2022-12-22 a suite was filed in the district court of New Jersey challenging the bills put into effect after Bruen and after New York’s CCIA. It uses almost the same methods to make it almost impossible for the public to legally carry a firearm.

Using the standard places at random are “sensitive places” where a legal gun owner could be charged and found guilty just for walking on the wrong side of the road with a firearm. To understand just how bad New Jersey firearms law is consider this New Jersey law:

Dum-dum or body armor penetrating bullets. (1) Any person, other than a law enforcement officer or persons engaged in activities pursuant to subsection f. of N.J.S.2C:39-6, who knowingly has in his possession any hollow nose or dum-dum bullet, or (2) any person, other than a collector of firearms or ammunition as curios or relics as defined in Title 18, United States Code, section 921 (a) (13) and has in his possession a valid Collector of Curios and Relics License issued by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, who knowingly has in his possession any body armor breaching or penetrating ammunition, which means: (a) ammunition primarily designed for use in a handgun, and (b) which is comprised of a bullet whose core or jacket, if the jacket is thicker than.025 of an inch, is made of tungsten carbide, or hard bronze, or other material which is harder than a rating of 72 or greater on the Rockwell B. Hardness Scale, and (c) is therefore capable of breaching or penetrating body armor, is guilty of a crime of the fourth degree. For purposes of this section, a collector may possess not more than three examples of each distinctive variation of the ammunition described above. A distinctive variation includes a different head stamp, composition, design, or color.
https://law.justia.com/codes/new-jersey/2009/title-2c/2c-39/2c-39-3

If you read through the court cases it means that you are not allowed to use JHP rounds in your carry weapon. Yep, you aren’t allowed to use personal defense rounds but the cops are. Those rounds are designed for multiple purposes, one of which is to stop over penetration.

The question

Do subparts 12, 15, 17 and 24 of section 7(a) and subpart 1 of section 7(b) of A4769/S3214 violates the right to bear arms secured by the Second and Fourteenth Amendments?

  1. a publicly owned or leased library or museum; …
  2. a bar or restaurant where alcohol is served, and any other site or facility where alcohol is sold for consumption on the premises; …
  3. a privately or publicly owned and operated entertainment facility within this State, including but not limited to a theater, stadium, museum, arena, racetrack or other place where performances, concerts, exhibits, games or contests are held; … [and]
  4. private property, including but not limited to residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, institutional or undeveloped property, unless the owner has provided express consent or has posted a sign indicating that it is permissible to carry on the premises a concealed handgun with a valid and lawfully issued permit under N.J.S.2C:58-4, provided that nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to affect the authority to keep or carry a firearm established under subsection e. of N.J.S.2C:39-6[.]

KOONS v. REYNOLDS — Complaint

and;

  1. A person, other than a person lawfully carrying a firearm within the authorized scope of an exemption set forth in subsection a., c., or l. of N.J.S.2C:39-6, who is otherwise authorized under the law to carry or transport a firearm shall not do so while in a vehicle in New Jersey, unless the handgun is unloaded and contained in a closed and securely fastened case, gunbox, or locked unloaded in the trunk of the vehicle…

Id.

In short they are asking if the sensitive places limits and carry in a vehicle are constitutional. Unfortunately this is limiting and the law was likely written with severability in mind so that if one part is ruled unconstitutional the rest of the law will stand.

The Arguments

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Arguments: Still not an “arm”

B.L.U.F. The last article was suppose to include this but turned into taxes aren’t infringements. I’m going to try and stay on topic with the state’s arguments about why certain things are not arms.


Bullets are not arms

This has been debunked so many times it isn’t even worth addressing. The Supreme Court has ruled that ammunition is considered “arms” under the meaning of the Second Amendment. Any ban of ammunition is an infringement and under Bruen triggers “history and tradition”.

Magazines are not arms

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Arguments: It isn’t within the scope of the Second Amendment

B.L.U.F. In the last post I described the leftist argument that Nuclear Weapons are outside of the scope of the Second Amendment. I submit that they are within the scope of the Second Amendment but that the Supreme Court’s current opinions put them outside the Scope.

This article covers the state attempting to claim that certain arms are not within the scope of the Second Amendment.


Let’s tax guns out of circulation!

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Argument: It is not an “arm” under the Second Amendment?

B.L.U.F. An analysis/opinion of the State’s attempt to move certain arms out from the protection of the Second Amendment.


This is a long running argument from the anti-gun rights people. The gist is always of the “this modern thing didn’t exist in 1791 so it isn’t covered by the second amendment.” These same people are saying this on phones, computers, The Internet, which the firmly believe are covered under the first Amendment, even though those things would not have been known at the time of the founding.

The question is legitimate, so lets take it to an extreme.

Are Nuclear Weapons Protected Arms Under the Second Amendment?

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Rupp v. Bonta — Part 3 – Revised

This article is a revision of Rupp v. Bonta — Part 3 – UPDATED

I got Duncan v. Bonta mixed up with Rupp v. Bonta and wrote about magazine bans in this case when in fact this case is about semi-auto rifle bans.

You can follow the link to read the original. The only changes made were the announcement at the top. Hopefully this is a little easier to read and has fewer errors in it.

B.L.U.F. Final article analyzing the Rupp v. Bonta case currently before Judge Josephine L. Staton, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. If this case is appealed, it will go up to the Ninth Circuit court, again.


Status of Case

This case was opened, argued in district court, the district court found for the defendants under intermediate scrutiny, the case was then appealed to the Ninth Circuit. The Appellants(good guys) asked that the case be held pending the outcome of Duncan v. Bonta before the en banc Ninth Circuit court. The Ninth Circuit court then told the parties that they felt this case would be impacted by NYSR&PA v. Bruen and “requested” either of the parties to submit a letter asking the case be held pending Bruen. Both parties responded and the case was held until Bruen was decided.

On 2022-06-28 the Ninth Circuit court vacated and remanded the case back to the district. Judge J Bumatay dissenting: For over a decade, our court has improperly interest-balanced our way around the Second Amendment. The Supreme Court has had enough of it. With a clear legal standard now in hand, we should have ordered supplemental briefing to further this case along. … Order Vacating and Remanding P.2 Internal citations omitted.

The case is expected to be heard some time after 2023-05-26. This is not set in stone. The date might move due to other reasons or either party might coincide.

The state is going to have to run a serious calculus on whether to appeal this case. If the district court rules for the plaintiffs then the “assault weapon” ban for the state of California, as currently written into law, is over but the opinion would have no real weight outside of California.

The state could then pass a different “assault weapon” ban and that ban would have to be challenged. This could go on for an extend period of time. As those cases were heard in district courts, those courts that were anti-gun would cite back to this case and then rule the same way.

If the state thinks the Ninth Circuit will rule for them, they know that the plaintiffs will appeal to the Supreme Court and if the Supreme Court grants cert. they will lose and all “assault weapon” bans around the country are gone. If the Supreme Court does not grant cert. then the California “assault weapons” ban will stay in place and the opinion of the Ninth Circuit court regarding the constitutionality of “assault weapon” bans will apply to 15 different districts across 11 states and territories.

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Why are they arguing outside of Bruen

B.L.U.F. A thought exercise in why the state is producing so many opinions that don’t seem to matter within the bounds of the Bruen opinion. Maybe it is because they are attacking a particular clause in Bruen


There is a classic scene in most cowboy and Indian movies where the new person is with the more experienced person and spots an Indian. The new guy points him out and the grizzled old dude says something like:

If you see him, he wants you to see him. If there is one there are a hundred

The point being that it wasn’t an accident. The Indian wanted to be seen in order to accomplish some strategic or tactical goal.

Much of combat is attempting to get your enemy to misinterpret your actions. If your troops start moving back from the front line and the enemy doesn’t believe that it is because they are pushing you back, they are going to expect a trap. If on the other hand your troops hold as long as they can before retreating, pulling the enemy into ambush, the enemy is more likely to believe they forced the retreat.

As much as we like to call the gun infringers names, like “moron” or “idiot” or “Col. USMC(Ret.) Tucker Stupid”, these are not stupid people. If you believe for one moment that AG Rob Bonta or his people are stupid then you are in for a rude awakening.

These people don’t play to lose unless it is to their advantage.

So if they are presenting huge amounts of what I have called emotional blackmail and items outside of the bounds set forth under Bruen there must be a reason.

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Trying to understand liars

I wasn’t going to write about this but I was trying to understand citations and what was going on.

The footnote is:

Kleck Rebuttal Report, ¶¶7,11 and Deposition of Gary Kleck in Oregon Firearms Federation, Inc., et al., v. Brown, et al., taken on January 25, 2023, 20:22-21:3.
Supplemental Sur-Rebuttal Expert Report of Lucy P. Allen in Support of Defendant

What do the “¶¶” mean? I know that “¶” means paragraph. Found out it means “paragraphs”. Since I miss read the footnote I read that Lucy was linking to paragraphs 7 through 46. That is the entire rebuttal. What was she actually referring to?

Here is the paragraph that had me scratching my head:

Dr. Kleck criticizes the focus of the Allen Report because he claims that the number and impact of public mass shootings in the Allen Report is “trivially tiny” and that the “legislative intent” behind California’s weapons bans is unrelated to these public mass shootings. 6 First, contrary to Dr. Kleck’s assertion, it is my understanding that California passed its first assault weapon ban, the Roberti-Roos Assault Weapons Control Act of 1989, in response to a public mass shooting – the public mass shooting in Stockton, CA. Second, Dr. Kleck’s claim that public mass shootings are “trivially tiny” is based on his claim that “less than 1% of all U.S. murder victims are killed in any kind of mass shooting,” and that public mass shootings are “even tinier.” Dr. Kleck’s implication that the only impact of mass shootings is based on the number of victims killed is misguided. To claim, for example, that the only impact in the Newtown, CT mass shooting was on the 27 children and adults killed ignores the greater impact that mass shootings have had on American society. For example, according to the Department of Education, 98% of public schools in the U.S. now have drills and procedures regarding active shooters. Moreover, the very source cited by Dr. Kleck to support his claim that the list of mass shootings in the Allen Report is “trivially tiny” also states that “[m]ass shootings are arguably one of the worst manifestations of gun violence” and that “the national dialogue on gun violence has been focused on mass public shootings.”
Id. ¶ 8

Hmmm, that sounds pretty bad trivially tiny, we’ll come back to that.

She then goes on to move the goalposts. When we talk about the victims of a shooting, we are always talking about those that were shot or injured at the event. More limiting than that is that we normally exclude those that were injured or shot by friendlies.

This will get twisted a bit by different number crunchers, for example when they include the shoot in the list of victims because he was shot dead by a good guy with a gun, but in general we talk about those that were shot by the shooter, not those shot by the cops.

Lucy wants to use the impact of the mass shooting rather than victims. The impact of the cowards of Uvalidi is huge. It reverberated throughout the world. Children were murdered by some asshole while law enforcement cowarded in the hallways.

It had a huge impact, no doubt about it.

Let’s turn to what Dr. Kleck actually said though before we judge him to harshly for downplaying such horrific incidents.

Allen claims that there is substantial benefit to banning LCMs because a large share of mass shooting involve the use of LCMs (defined herein as magazines holding more than 10 rounds). She is only able to sustain this claim by limiting her analysis to a trivially tiny and unrepresentative subset of mass shootings, public mass shootings. She claims she did this because “it is my understanding that the state of California is concerned about public mass shootings and enacted the challenged laws, in part, to address the problem of public mass shootings” (p. 4). Her “understanding” is both subjective and unsupported by any evidence pertaining to legislative intent behind enactment of California’s ban on LCMs and assault weapons (AWs). Indeed, defense expert Louis Klarevas’ description of California’s legislative intent (Klarevas 2023, p. 23) indicates that concern about mass shootings was not limited to those occurring in public places. The fact that the State of California is concerned about public mass shootings does not mean it is not concerned with all the other shootings that do not fall into this narrow category. Further, Allen’s own statement concedes that California’s assault weapons ban (AWB) was enacted only “in part” to address these kinds of shootings and thus must have also been based on concerns about other kinds of gun violence. Thus, her proffered explanation does not justify her narrow focus. It will be shown later that the narrowness of her focus produces some highly misleading results.
Kleck Rebuttal Report – ¶7

Dr. Kleck isn’t claiming that mass shootings are trivial in anyway. He is stating that Lucy limited her analysis to public mass shootings for some reason. And that the number of public mass shootings compared to all mass shootings is a trivial number.

Dr. Kleck is using language in a very studious and specific manner. He has pulled emotion out of it. He is telling the court what the numbers are and then giving his opinion of what those numbers mean.

Lucy uses the standard 2 and 3 word quote trick. Pulling such small quotes out of context that you can’t tell what the actual meaning was.

And interesting find.