Right Side of the Rainbow

Ignorance about handguns

Do people know that the word handgun is not inconsistent with the word semiautomatic? Or that most of the handguns Americans own are semiautomatics? Reports like this one make me wonder.

True, all handguns aren’t semiautomatics. Some are revolvers. But many people seem to think that semiautomatic means Uzi or AK-47. It doesn’t.

I own four handguns, including two Glocks. All are semiautomatics. Except for the sights, which I replaced with ones that illuminate in the dark, my Glocks are standard issue sidearms that you’ll find in any gun store in the country. They’re the sort of gun that Americans ordinarily keep for self-defense.

Appeals court rules for pro-life group

A federal appeals court says an anti-abortion group may display near public schools images of aborted fetuses: “The government cannot silence messages simply because they cause discomfort, fear or even anger.”

A case in need of judicial activism

I believe in judicial restraint. I believe, as Justice Scalia wrote, that a “text should not be construed strictly, and it should not be construed leniently; it should be construed reasonably, to contain all that it fairly means.” I believe that when judges substitute their policy preferences for the commands of the law, they exceed their authority and undermine our democracy. I believe jurists should exercise judgment, and not will.

But now and again, a perfectly constitutional statute shocks the conscience. And when it does, the judge should abandon his role as umpire and take up a bat.

Teen decapitated by roller coaster

The sign said the area was not only restricted, but also dangerous. Unfortunately, the boy ignored the sign.

NRA files suit on behalf of gay plaintiff

Glock Model 30

The National Rifle Association filed suit Friday to overturn San Francisco’s ban on handguns in public housing. The NRA filed the suit on behalf of a gay plaintiff, a resident of the Valencia Gardens housing project, who says he keeps a gun to protect himself from “sexual orientation hate crimes.”

All gays and lesbians should have a gun; the law can’t protect us, or anyone else, from violence. If you have occasion to report a hate crime, you’ve already been victimized. If you’d rather not be victimized, you need a weapon and the training to use it. I recommend a .45 caliber Glock. The one you see here is mine. (And yes, I have a license to carry it.)

Court hacks away at “campaign finance reform”

In the hullabaloo over the Supreme Court’s decision in Heller, you might not have noticed that the justices also struck a blow Thursday for the First Amendment. By a 5-4 vote, the court invalidated the “millionaire’s amendment” to the McCain-Feingold Act. The amendment insulated members of Congress from electoral challenge.

Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito was snarky: “The Constitution … confers upon voters, not Congress, the power to choose the Members of the House of Representatives …”

Court invalidates handgun ban

Woot-hoot! And in this case, unlike others, the Constitution’s text and history provide a basis for the court’s decision.

High court bars death penalty for child rapists

The declining standards of decency that mark the devolution of a decaying justice are now on display.

Andy McCarthy wonders why the court doesn’t just come out with it:

Wouldn’t it be refreshingly honest if activist justices just bluntly [told] us: “We don’t like the death penalty and we can stop it because there are five of us.” Sure, it would be tyrannical, but at least it would be accurate, and not nearly as nauseating as what passes for reasoning in these cases.

Don’t capture terrorists; kill them

Habeas corpus is Latin for “you have the body.” So give ’em the body:

But it is my belief that our conventional military and special-operations efforts should emphasize killing terrorists on the battlefield or in their lairs — conditions where it is entirely legal to do so. Taking these murderers prisoner should be an accident, not a goal.

Once a terrorist raises his hands in surrender, we must honor the pertinent conventions. But effective military and intelligence operations shouldn’t give him the chance to wave a white rag.

“If you vote against him because he’s green, you might as well be voting against him because he’s black”

Barack Obama is trying to bamboozle you: “… note how Obama conflates the entirely legitimate concern over his inexperience with prejudice against his race or ‘funny name.’”

When judges become generals

With its decision in Boumediene the Supreme Court took a huge risk. What becomes of the judiciary’s institutional legitimacy if a court releases the next Osama bin Laden?

The judiciary is not competent to make judgments about who is or is not an enemy combatant or, more generally, a threat to the U.S. The imposition of the civilian criminal justice model on decisions regarding potentially hostile aliens raises a host of questions which the Court does not even attempt to answer in Boumediene.

“Every drug should be legal”

John Stossel calls for legalizing drugs — all of them.

Is gay marriage good for America?

Jonathan Rauch makes the case.

Israel readies bombing run against Iran

Because our government has taken no meaningful action to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb — jabbering is not meaningful action — we must conclude that it is the de facto policy of our government to permit Iran to acquire a nuclear bomb.

Happily, that is not the policy of the Israeli government.

Racial shakedown artist gets his comeuppance

The feds have mounted an ass.