This is TTAG’s weekly roundup of legal and legislative news affecting guns, the gun business and gun owners’ rights. For a deeper dive into the topics discussed here, check out this week in gun rights at FPC.
Don’t Poke the Bear. Or Shoot it With a Paintball Gun. Really.
Despite being from a place called Rifle, Colorado; the U.S. Secretary of the Interior has advised America’s outdoorsmen to use non-lethal, nuisance-based tools to shoo off pesky grizzly bears.
I’m not joking. Secretary David Bernhardt confirmed the new U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service guidance which recommends using “paintballs, noise-making projectiles, and visual deterrents” against bears. The Service also suggests using stones or marbles by way of a slingshot, as though it were a big furry Goliath.
I’m no wildlife expert, but let’s consider the ballistics here. At about 300 feet per second (the usual maximum FPS for a paintball marker), a paintball’s impact energy is about 12.5 Joules. Compare that to your typical 10 millimeter round, which would hit our furry friend with 960 Joules’ worth of energy. The problem is that if you poke the bear and don’t spook it, all you’ve got left is a very pissed off bear.
21-Year-Old Killed, Girlfriend Wounded During Gun Confiscation Raid
At about 4:00 AM on Thursday morning, Montgomery County police were serving a “high risk” search warrant on Duncan Lemp, a 21-year-old Potomac, Maryland man, that ended in the police shooting and killing him.
That’s about all that’s clear right now, as the police said in a statement that Lemp “confronted” officers before being shot, while the Lemp family lawyer and eyewitnesses give a slightly different story, saying Lemp was asleep in bed with his girlfriend when police fired into his room, killing him and injuring his girlfriend.
We are working diligently to get more information on this matter. The situation is still developing, but it seems clear that weapons possession was at the heart of the matter. The police were responding to a “complaint from the public that Lemp, though prohibited, was in possession of firearms.”
There is, as of the time of this writing, no indication of any danger that was posed to officers. The simple possession of firearms was enough for these policemen to cut short a young life. And for what? To post pictures of his seized Tavor on their website?
Charges Dropped Against NJ Brinks Security Guard
Last week we talked about the armed security guard in New Jersey who was wrongfully arrested for having “hollow nose” ammunition in his carry gun. I’m happy to report that this week, the Union County Prosecutor’s Office dismissed the charges against him.
Still, that does little to resolve the fact he was suspended from his job ever since the charge. While I’m happy to see the charges dropped, I hope this serves as a wake-up call that arbitrary and irrational laws will be enforced against ordinary people.
Dude, Where’s My AR-14? And Other Malarkey From Creepy Uncle Joe
Picture this: a heated exchange happens on the factory floor after a worker starts asking questions about his rights. No, it wasn’t the prelude to a union strike – it was a working-class guy asking presidential candidate Joe Biden why he doesn’t respect his right to Keep and Bear Arms.
Biden, being a man of undeniable class, responded by telling him that he was “full of shit” and saying that he didn’t see why anybody needs an “AR-14” or “100 clip round magazine” (or something). Not only did he insult the man, but Biden also appeared to challenge the man to a fight. All of this because the man asked a question about his civil rights.
Joe has always been kind of trash when it comes to the Second Amendment, and he’s definitely not much of a criminal defense attorney. In 2013 he advised his wife Jill not to buy an AR-15 but to buy a shotgun instead, and if there was trouble, walk out onto the balcony and start shooting. Joe also implied that it was legally permissible to shoot someone through a closed front door. For the record, in Delaware and basically all 49 other states that would be, to put it plainly, illegal as hell.
During the exchange, Biden claimed NOT to be against the Second Amendment, but that arms such as the venerable AR-14, and machineguns, were illegal. Because clearly, if you imagine a law, the text of the Constitution is irrelevant. The fact is, of course, neither ARs nor machineguns are illegal. The whole concept is as fanciful as the AR-14 itself. Well, at least it was fanciful before this week. Now it’s a thing, and the worker himself was awarded one.
Some might think Joe is simply a moonbat disguised as a moderate. Or maybe he’s just lost a few marbles over the years (presumably shooting them at grizzly bears, or something).
NFL Player’s Unreasonable Arrest Draws Attention to Insane New York Gun Laws
Remember when we told you about travelers being arrested at airports for transporting their firearms? It’s happened again, but this time to New York Jets defensive end Quinnen Williams. When Williams arrived at La Guardia Airport last Thursday, he was arrested for possessing an “unlicensed handgun” in a checked bag at the Delta Airlines counter.
Although the gun was lawfully owned in his origin state (Alabama), Williams didn’t have a license to possess it in New York. Is this law ridiculous? Absolutely. It’s basically impossible for most people to lawfully have a firearm in New York City, despite it being difficulty or impossible to avoid visiting New York while traveling in the eastern part of the country.
Fortunately for Williams, the firearm wasn’t loaded because in New York, possession of an unlicensed, loaded firearm carries a three and a half year minimum sentence. Hopefully something good can come of this unnecessary arrest…public awareness of how New York and several other states infringe on the ability of private individuals to freely travel while bearing arms.
Matthew Larosiere is the Director of Legal Policy at the Firearms Policy Coalition.