• There was a small snow storm up here this week. Everything is back to normal.

    Later today there is going to be oral arguments in Koons v. Reynolds. Finding the transcripts has proven difficult and listening to oral arguments drives me bonkers.

    We are waiting on a number of cases as well. There is the case down in the Eleventh Circuit Court where the three judge panel decided that Bruen be damned, they were going to find laws justifying today’s infringements. There are the CCIA cases in New York that will be heard by the Second Circuit court soon.

    All in all there are a lot of moving parts.

    One of our readers asked “Why do you spend all this time on legal cases?” to paraphrase. I had to think on that a bit.

    Just before I headed off to University I was thinking about buying a gun. I didn’t really have the money but I was thinking about it. I really wanted to buy an M-16. They weren’t that expensive and they were cool.

    At University I spent my money on music (CD Collection) and stereo equipment, books and education. I collected knives but couldn’t justify buying a gun because I couldn’t carry it. Heck, most of the knives I carried on campus were illegal but…

    I graduated, had a kid, thought about that M-16 and suddenly that was gone. In the blink of an eye the cost of an M-16 went through the window with the Hughes Amendment. For those that don’t know, the Hughes Amendment was a poison pill added to the Firearm Owners Protection Act. The FOPA was designed to reign in the ATF and to allow citizens to transport weapons through gun unfriendly states without being harassed or charged.

    The Hughes Amendment closed the NFA list to new machine guns.

    In that blink of an eye my options changed. I slowly started to see and understand how stupid gun control laws were. When my mentor died his father took ownership of his AR-15. I had to explain to him that he had to unload all the magazines to meet Maryland law regarding “unloaded firearms”

    Before my mentor died we had testified in the state legislature against gun infringements. We found that our rights were being eroded.

    When I started writing for GFZ I was finding articles and writing opinion pieces based on what those articles said. I tried to find primary sources but most of the time they were missing. As I wrote more I got better at finding the references and reading the references.

    At this point I have an acceptable grasp of how to get case documents, not always, but most of the time.

    My goal when I write about these cases is for you to see how the fight is fought in court. How the state twists things to get the infringements they want. I also want you to be able to get to the primary sources quickly and easily. That’s why I attempt to cite everything I quote.

    I hope my efforts are successful.

    One of my biggest thrills on the blog to date was when some lawyer group liked one of my legal analysis articles. I wish that they would fire off an email or start commenting in general. I’d love to have actual lawyer feedback on some of the things I’ve written, I have no real feedback if I’m getting this stuff “right”.

    Question of the week, if you are interested in gun rights, how did you get there?

            

  • Most of the time I can get internet service via my cell carrier. The only real controlling issue is coverage. Which is getting better, slowly, but it is getting better.

    Last fall we lost power to the house when some idiot took out the power lines just down the street. While the house was without power we still had internet to our phones. We didn’t lose outside communications and if there was an issue I could have used my phone as a modem to get my main computer back on the net to do work by just using the genset.

    I could also use my laptop (Chromebook running Linux) and not needed the genset.

    When the entire town is without power everybody is attempting to get online via the cell carriers and there just isn’t enough capacity for that. This means that while my phone would get push notifications attempting to do anything else while the town was awake wasn’t really happening.

    Regardless, because my business is support I needed to be available. Even with no power. Even with no internet. So my phone was on the entire time. If I had gotten an emergency alert from a client or server I would have been able to move to a place where I did have internet in order to do my work. No big deal.

    But having my phone on and actively attempting to do things means that I was burning power. Which brings me to these gizmos.

    This is a battery with two type-A USB ports for charging other devices, like your phone. It has a third port to allow you to charge from other power sources, like a car or house. The added extra is those solar panels. It is just a little larger than my cell phone in its otterbox and about 3 times as thick. There are four solar panels when it unfolds and in our Northern Climate it takes about 8 hours of direct sun to charge.

    I get three charges for my phone from this. If you need to be able to charge your devices this might be useful to you.

            

  • 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
            

  • We’ve been without power here for almost 24 hours when you read this, unless power is restored over night.  Not a problem fur is.

    The wood stove is doing a fine job of keeping the house warm. Wife is unhappy because she’s cold but everybody else is in short sleeves.

    Last night we had homemade pasta that I made with some fancy chicken dish. Only requirement was it had to cook on top of the stove. My lady solved lack of oven by using a Dutch oven.

    Hopefully I’ll have power and post later today.

            

  • 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

    (more…)

            

  • Back at the dawn of time, when I was at University, it was a very long walk from my dorm to central campus and a still longer walk back at the end of the day. Over a mile. At the time, a standard day was about five miles of walking. It got better once I got a bicycle but that didn’t happen till my Sophomore year.

    This was back before Walkmen. There were transistor radios but I didn’t have one.

    So I sang songs in my head as I walked the paths of campus.

    I had to sing it a little faster but it was still good for a fair distence.

    Recently I discovered this song. It explains why the poor dude was betrayed by his lover.

            

  • 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

    (more…)

            

  • Update

    There are three methods for people that are not members of GunFreeZone to give feedback on normal articles.

    1. They can create a WordPress.org account and click the “like” button on a post. This attaches their wordpress avatar and name to the like.
    2. They can click the thumbs up button on a comment. This is completely anonymous.
    3. They can click the thumbs down button on a comment. This is completely anonymous.

    I hope this clears up any confusion I created.

    Original

    I have noticed and a couple of readers have noticed that there are more thumbs down on the blog than theirthere use to be. This leads me and some of our readers to wonder Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

    I’ll start with Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity You can replace “stupidity” with all sorts of other words but the gist stays the same.

    First, when you use the like button at the bottom of a post you need to have a WordPress.org account and your handle and avatar are attached to that. So for example I notice when “OldNFO” likes my post. He made a decision not to become a paying member at the blog but continues to read and continues to give feedback whichwhat he can.

    Thank you for still being a read OldNFO. Makes me feel good. There are a couple of other regular “Likers” of the same sort. Thank you to all of our readers.

    So next we look at those thumbs up and thumbs down buttons. In the past people used them as an acknowledgement tool. You post a comment and I post a reply and instead of posting a reply to my reply you just click the “Likey” thumbs up button.

    If you don’t agree but not enough you just leave it be. No thumbs up, no thumbs down.

    If you disagree you will likely reply and a conversation takes place.

    We almost never used the thumbs down button. As was observed.

    Today there are many more people that read but don’t comment. So when they disagree with you they can’t reply, instead they give it a thumbs down.

    So at first flush, I think that the increase in thumbs down is a direct result in us trying to monetize the blog.

    Unfortunately, the thumbs up/thumbs down buttons are completely anonymous. There is code to make sure that they can’t be mass mashed but that is it.

    So for the time being let’s just see where it takes us. Maybe we figure out something to let people do a one time comment or something like that. All it takes is a small bit of code… (That’s an inside joke for developers/coders)

            

  • 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!

    (more…)

            

  • 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?

    (more…)