Michigan Supreme Court to Hear Open Carry in Schools Case

  

Michigan law protects the right of people with carry permits to openly carry guns in schools. The law also preempts local government entities from creating local laws and regulations that violate the state laws.

People with carry permits are more law abiding than police officers. They make schools more safe, not less safe. Some school officials are perfectly willing to have law enforcement officers openly carry in schools, but not parents with carry permits. From foxonline.com:

“Obviously, we don’t believe that individuals should open carry in our school unless they are uniformed officers of law enforcement,” says Fletcher Spears III, Superintendent of Clio Public Schools. “But the bigger issue behind this is the ability of school districts to create their own rules within the law.”

Gun advocates say that goes against their rights and state laws.

“State law allows people to lawfully possess fire arms at schools, says Tom Lambert, President of Michigan Open Carry.

Michigan Open Carry is the group suing Clio Schools for their right to openly carry on school property. It’s an issue that’s been making its way through the court system for years.

“The truth is we’ve had open carry in our schools for a long time. In our case the trial court originally ruled in our favor. Until the court of appeals ruled against us, there were many schools in the state that allowed open carry.”

 Notice how Fletcher Spears III, starts his argument: "Obviously, we don't believe..." But it is far from obvious. This is called begging the question. A great many people do not believe it is "obvious" that people who are legally armed should be forbidden from carrying in schools, or that only "uniformed officers of law enforcement" should. Anyone can obtain a uniform. A uniform does not make the wearer more responsible or law abiding.

The question is, if schools officials are willing to have law enforcement officers openly carry in the schools, why are they against people with carry permits, who are at least as safe, openly carrying in schools?

It appears the purpose is not safety. The purpose appears to be indoctrination. If students see an example where ordinary citizens have the same rights as agents of the state, to protect themselves, they might get the idea the Second Amendment means something. "Gun free schools" have been one of the few successes of those who want a disarmed public. They have created the meme that guns do not belong in schools, when guns were fairly common in schools, until about 20 years ago.

Not surprisingly, mass shooting in schools started becoming more common after the federal laws banning guns in schools.

The law in Michigan is pretty clear. The legislature forbids local government entities from making their own gun laws. Public schools are local government entities. Unfortunately, we have seen courts make their own law, over and over.

We will know if the Michigan State Supreme Court will follow the law in a few days or weeks. State Supreme Courts generally act more rapidly than the U.S. Supreme Court.

 ©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

The Anti-Gun Plotline In ‘Lost In Space’ Is Forced And Ludicrous

The “Lost in Space” reboot just released on Netflix is actually very entertaining. There are some big changes from the original series, but the heart and intrigue of the stranded Robinson family is mostly intact — aside from Mom, Maureen Robinson (Molly Parker), consistently belittling her husband, John (Toby Stephens) for little apparent reason.

The rebooted Robinsons are a highly educated and trained family of five sent off to a space colony ahead of the impending destruction of Earth. Things go pear-shaped on the hull en route to colony planet, Alpha Centauri, and the family is forced to evacuate on their Jupiter 2 spacecraft. They crash land on an unknown but habitable planet, where they quickly realize they are not alone. Fellow survivors of the exploded hull, and other intelligent life are also on the planet.

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MA: Ban on Stun Guns Unconstituitonal

If a ban on stun guns is unconstitutional, then a ban on semi-automatic rifles and standard magazines is much more so, as they are much more common than stun guns. D.W.

BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts’ highest court ruled Tuesday that the state’s ban on civilian possession of stun guns violates the U.S. Constitution’s right to bear arms.

The decision is a reversal for the court, which reached an opposite conclusion in a different case in 2015. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, set aside that earlier ruling, saying the Massachusetts court failed to properly explain its decision.

The Supreme Judicial Court said it would leave the 2004 ban in place for 60 days to give the Legislature time to rewrite the law to regulate the ownership of stun guns, without banning them entirely.

“We conclude that the absolute prohibition against civilian possession of stun guns … is in violation of the Second Amendment, and we order that the count of the complaint charging the defendant with such possession be dismissed with prejudice,” the justices wrote.

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Swiss to Debate Restrictive Gun Laws in 2018

Switzerland has long been one of the safest and well governed countries in the world. Switzerland had historical few firearms restrictions and high rates of gun ownership. Until 1996, the firearms laws in Switzerland were entirely an affair of the local cantons. Gun laws in Switzerland were generally less restrictive than in the United States. Most firearms were not registered. It was easy to purchase handguns and automatic rifles. Cannon required an approximate $5 registration which could be obtained at the local police office. Cannon breech blocks were required to be stored separately from the cannon. Before 1998, pistols could be carried most places. Some cantons required an easily obtainable permit.

As the push for European Union gun control intensified, the high Swiss level of freedom to own guns was criticized.  The European Union pushed hard for more restrictions, to bring the Swiss laws in line with the highly restrictive laws in the European Union.

In 1999 the Swiss passed a referendum that imposed severe firearm restrictions by Swiss historical standards. Additional tightening of controls were imposed in 2007. Full auto firearms and cannon are now difficult to obtain. Semi-auto rifles of military caliber and semi-automatic pistols are required to be registered. 

It does not matter how low the crime rate is to those who wish to disarm populations. Even though the Swiss have world class low crime rates, those pushing for ever more restrictive rules use suicides and the rare gun crime to demand more restrictions. From thelocal.ch:

A new platform composed of left-wing politicians, police officers and psychiatrists is pushing for Switzerland to follow the European Union in tightening controls on guns.

Representatives of the Social Democratic Party (SP), the Swiss police officers association VSPB/FSFP and the Swiss federation of psychiatrists and psychotherapists FMPP joined forces on Thursday ahead of a debate on the issue in parliament, the Tribune de Genève reported.

The EU parliament approved a revised gun law last year designed to close security loopholes and introduce tighter controls on blank-firing and inadequately deactivated weapons like those used in the Paris terror attacks.

On March 2nd the Federal Council issued a message on a “pragmatic implementation” of the EU legislation in Switzerland in response to the terror attacks in Europe.

The use of fraudulent "studies" by the disarmament groups is not limited to the United States. In pushing for more restrictions on the Swiss, the use of militia weapons in a few suicides per year, is often cited as a reason to restrict all the Swiss.  In 2009, there were 241 deaths in Switzerland associated with a firearm.

About 85% of those were suicides. Of suicides committed with guns in Switzerland, about 9% are committed with a military weapon. That puts the number committed with a military weapon in 2009 at about 19.  Assisted suicide in Switzerland is legal. No reason need be given.  There were 300 assisted suicides in Switzerland in 2009.

Apparently, the problem with suicide, for those who wish to disarm the Swiss, is the use of a firearm.

In 2009 there were only 24 homicides with firearms in Switzerland, for a firearms homicide rate of an astonishing low .31 per 100,000. But firearms homicides is a misleading number. The number that should be compared is the overall homicide rate. In 2009 in Switzerland, it was .7 per 100,000.  In England and Wales the homicide rate for 2009 was 1.08.  In France, the homicide rate for 2009 was 1.3.

An obvious reasons for imposing restrictive gun laws on the Swiss is that Switzerland serves as a counterexample of a prosperous country with considerable freedom to have arms, and a very low crime rate. People in England and France might think their gun laws are too restrictive.

Statistics and death rates do not matter to those who want disarmed populations. The fact that people legally have arms *is* considered the problem, not crimes or suicides.

In Switzerland, if the federal government enacts a law, the Swiss people can call for a referendum to prevent it from going into effect. If a restrictive firearms law is passed, it will face a referendum.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch 

WV: Homeowner Shoots Suspect Home Invader

PUTNAM COUNTY, WV (WOWK) - According to the Putnam County Sheriff's Department, a homeowner shot a suspected home invader this afternoon.

According to Chief Deputy Eric Hayzlett, the shooting occurred around 12:45 PM on Monday, April 16th, 2018, on Thompson Road in the Culloden area.
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TX: Armed Homeowner/officer Shoots, Wounds, Intruder

Houston police Chief Art Acevedo said the man attempted to break into the home of a Houston police officer around 12:20 a.m. Monday. After he broke a glass door and attempted to unlock it, the officer opened fire, wounding him.

  More Here

PA: "Warning Shots" Work to Stop Dog Attack

The other man was taken to a local emergency room. Police said Charlie was rushed to a veterinarian with severe injuries.

Another neighbor shot at the ground, which scared the dogs off. Although it is illegal to discharge a firearm in Sharon, police said the man, who was not identified, will not be charged due to the situation, in which he fired directly into the ground to stop the pit bulls’ attack on the smaller dog and two people.

Miller said the dogs are considered aggressive and need to be quarantined. He ordered the owner to keep the dogs inside.
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Guyana: Alleged bicycle thief shot by unlicenced businessman in Alberttown

Based on information received, the 49-year-old businessman was awake in his home, around 03:10hrs, browsing the internet when he heard a noise and, upon peering through a window he, observed Singh in his yard walking towards the front gate and pushing a bicycle.

As such, the businessman reportedly told police that he collected his unlicenced 9mm pistol and discharged a round at Singh, hitting him once to the right leg.

Law enforcement ranks were then summoned.

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USnews.com: Police, Prosecutors Concerned with BB Gun look-alikes

Completely one sided article. It ignores the benefit of criminals using look-alike guns instead of real guns. It talks about the danger to criminals as if that is a bad thing.

Simons was charged with second-degree robbery and sentenced to 10 years in prison in mid-March, the maximum charge and sentence for someone using a weapon not classified as "dangerous" to commit a robbery.

Police say they frequently encounter the use of "toy" weapons like BB guns and pellet guns by criminals, especially as the resemblance between them and real firearms grows.

But police say they would support stronger deterrents in the law against using them like real weapons. The worry is twofold: First, that people are using them to commit crimes, and second, that a situation could arise where, in self-defense, a civilian or a police officer would use shoot someone displaying one.

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CA: Resident Fataly Shoots Intruder who Threatened Family

STOCKTON, Calif. (KCRA) —

A man who broke into a home in Stockton Saturday morning is dead after a resident shot him, the Stockton Police Department said.

Officers arrived at the home on South Monroe Street at 8:15 a.m., police said. The resident of the home shot a man who broke into his home and made threats to his family, police said. He was transported to a hospital but did not survive.
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Video/Audio of Silencerco Maxim 9 on new Video platform GunStreamer.com

Below is a link to a video/audio of the Silencerco Maxim 9 from the industry day at the range at the Shot Show in 2017.

Link to video

The video is on a new platform GunStreamer.com, to compete with Youtube. Youtube is actively demonitzing and marginalizing gun videos and gun writers.

This amounts to private censorship. It has become particularly bad since Youtube was acquired by Google. Google motto "Don't be Evil" seems particularly ironic.

The insurrection is going to have to find ways to get the message out against the forces of the empire/establishment. Google is clearly one of the prime movers in the Establishment/empire.

 ©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

Council of Great City Schools Pushes Anti-Second Amendment Resolution

The Council of Great City Schools has published a resolution calling for severe infringements on the Second Amendment.

The Council of Great City Schools (CGCS) is an organization of 70 urban public school systems, first formed in 1956.  It started with 10 large, urban schools and has grown with federal funding. As such, it is not surprising it pushes causes dear to those pushing for more and bigger government, more taxes, more spending, more federal funding. It's members are all funded by tax dollars.  Most of its teachers would be members of the far left National Education Association. When the CGCS says they wish to improve education, they are essentially saying: Give us more money. From cgcs.org:

The Council of the Great City Schools brings together 70 of nation’s largest urban public school systems in a coalition dedicated to the improvement of education for children in the inner cities. The Council and its member school districts work to help our schoolchildren meet the highest standards and become successful and productive members of society.

The Council keeps the nation’s lawmakers, the media, and the public informed about the progress and problems in big-city schools. The organization does this through legislation, communications, research, and technical assistance.

As with much propaganda, the resolution from the CGCS contains a mixture of truisms, falsehoods, and logical fallacies. My hope was that an educational organization would check facts. It is not hard to do with easy access to the Internet. But the CGCS resolution is not about truth, facts, or logic. It is about pushing a Progressive policy agenda. Here are a few of the gems from the Resolution, and a critique. Quotes from the resolution are indented.From cgcs.org:

WHEREAS, too many of our young people are shot and killed on the streets of our major cities almost every day;

Many would consider this a truism, but it is not. It has underlying assumptions that are far from universally accepted. How many is too many? Is one too many? If one of the young people is shot to prevent them from murdering a younger child, a senior citizen, or from raping a child, is that one too many?  The assumption does nothing to differentiate useful and justified shootings from those that are illegitimate.

WHEREAS, Americans are 25 times more likely to be killed with a gun than people in other developed countries;

This assumption is crafted with a careful caveat. It only includes a few countries in the world, undefined as "developed countries".  No reason is given for that differentiation. You could as easily consider "New World Countries" or "English speaking Countries".  A VOX  definition includes Qatar, Barbados, and Cyprus as "developed countries", while excluding Brazil, Jamaica, and Panama. The deception is completed by using the logical fallacy of irrelevancy. Only people killed with guns are counted. But guns can protect as well as kill; someone killed because they do not have a gun is just as dead as someone killed with a gun. Any statistic that relies on "gun deaths" or "gun violence" is relying on the logical fallacy of irrelevancy. It is the total unjustified homicides that matter, not just "gun homicides".

WHEREAS, Americans make up about 4.4 percent of the world’s population but own some 42 percent of the world’s guns;

Another example of the irrelevancy argument. Americans are some of the richest people on the planet. Rich people have guns, unless prevented from having them by their rulers. The richest people in nearly every country have guns and/or armed security.

WHEREAS, assault weapons have no place in society and other types of guns are too easily obtained;

Simply an assumption, an opinion that some people have and others do not. Guns were more easily obtained 50 years ago, and "assault weapons" (an ill-defined term of legalese, varying from state to state) have been available for a hundred years and more. During that period, the crime rate fell and rose. The primary reason for more mass murder today seems to be the desire of national media to create celebrities out of mass murderers that use guns.

WHEREAS, teachers are not trained law enforcement officers, and should not be asked or incentivized to keep weapons accessible in their classrooms;

More irrelevancy. About 20% of teachers are willing and able to safely carry defensive firearms and protect the children in their care. They should be allowed to do so.

WHEREAS, there is no reason based on any viable research to suggest that adding guns into a school setting or arming teachers would prevent these acts of violence;

There are only hundreds of years of practical experience, several real world examples, and the failure of the Federal Gun Free School Zone laws to contradict this assumption. Mass shootings deaths in schools increased by about 440 percent since the federal laws were passed.

There are several more questionable WHEARAS statements, and then a large number of resolution statements that are just as irrational, based on false assumptions, irrelevancy, and simple error.  I will include one of the resolution statement to show how ignorant these urban educators are about guns, and crimes either committed with or prevented by the ownership of guns. From the CGCS.org resolution:

NOW, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Council of the Great City Schools calls on the Congress of the United States to ban the sale, purchase, possession, and use of assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition cartridges, except those needed by the military and law
enforcement;

What are a large-capacity ammunition cartridges? Might I assume they are cartridges of calibers greater than 20 mm? The authors clearly do not understand the minimal facts about guns.  Such things are easily available with only a little effort. How can we trust such ignorant people to craft legislation that has any relevancy to any issue dealing with firearms? The answer is, of course, that we cannot. It would be like asking a person who knows nothing of mathematics or engineering to design a jet airplane.  Not only would it be silly, it would be irresponsible.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

Gun Control Logical Fallacy: Ignoring Lives Saved

A person who dies because they did not have a gun is just as dead as a person who is murdered with a gun. In practice, overall unjustified homicides tend to rise a bit when gun are banned or restricted.

Those who push for disarmed populations use a logical fallacy when arguing for gun restrictions and gun bans. They only count people who are killed with guns, and ignore people who are killed because they were unarmed or disarmed.

This logical fallacy is called an irrelevancy argument. Whenever you see a chart or graph or statistic that uses the terms "gun homicide", "gun deaths", "gun suicides" or "gun violence". The people using it are promoting a logical fallacy.

Used in research, these terms are a blatant case of confirmation bias in data selection. When people only look at negatives involving guns, they eliminate cases where guns are used to save lives.

What counts are not "gun homicides", but all unjustified homicides.  If the unjustified homicide level rises when gun restrictions are put in place, the stated purpose of the gun restrictions has not been achieved. The gun restriction cost lives instead of saving them. If the homicide level remains the same, all the expense, disruption of individual lives, industry, personal hardship, and loss of freedom has been inflicted for no gain. The restrictions have resulted in a net loss.

In practice, gun bans and gun restrictions have only small effects on homicide rates. In the United States, John Lott and others have shown small, but measurable reductions in murder and violent crimes when more people carry guns legally. Historically, strict gun control made little difference to murder rates in Europe. Joyce Lee Malcomb has shown that murder rates in England and Wales were lower before strict gun control was put in place. In much of the rest of Europe, the homicide rates are pretty flat over the period when gun restrictions were instituted.

In Jamaica, the murder rate soared when a firearms ban was instituted in the 1960s.

Brazil has one of the highest murder rates in the world while having some of the strictest gun restrictions, and a very low number of guns per capita. Most of the murders in Brazil are committed with illegally possessed and often, illegally manufactured guns. The American Virgin Islands have some of the highest murder rates in the world, and some of the heaviest restrictions on gun ownership.  Only a small number of illegal guns are needed for murderers to create a high murder rate with firearms. This is one of the principal weaknesses of attempting to ban firearms. The demand for firearms to be used in crimes is easily met with firearms made at home, in small shops, diverted from the police and military, or smuggled in.

In the United States, where there are about 420 million guns for 330 million people, guns are commonly used to save lives, defend people from attack, and to stop crimes. In a study commissioned by President Obama, done through the Center for Disease Control, it was recognized that guns are used for defensive purposes more often than criminally.

From the CDC study: 

Defensive Use of Guns

Defensive use of guns by crime victims is a common occurrence, although the exact number remains disputed (Cook and Ludwig, 1996; Kleck, 2001a). Almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million (Kleck, 2001a), in the context of about 300,000 violent crimes involving firearms in 2008 (BJS, 2010). On the other hand, some scholars point to a radically lower estimate of only 108,000 annual defensive uses based on the National Crime Victimization Survey (Cook et al., 1997). The variation in these numbers remains a controversy in the field. The estimate of 3 million defensive uses per year is based on an extrapolation from a small number of responses taken from more than 19 national surveys. The former estimate of 108,000 is difficult to interpret because respondents were not asked specifically about defensive gun use.

Unsurprisingly, justifiable homicides were found to increase in states with "stand your ground" laws, while overall homicide rates dropped. From John Lott:

My research looked at all states that have enacted Stand Your Ground between 1977 and 2012, either through legislation or through court decisions. I consistently found subsequent drops in murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault rates. On average, murder rates fell by about 1.5 percent annually during the first 10 years that the law was in effect.

This is precisely what is predicted when more people use guns to save lives.

Guns are tools. They can be used to save lives as well as be used to take them. Most people who defend themselves with a gun never have to fire a shot. The mere presence of the gun is enough to stop their attacker. Those incidents are seldom recorded by police, reported in the media, or counted in official statistics.  This shows a basic asymmetry about guns. Guns are more easily used to defend against  attack than to murder. Most murderers do not wish to endanger their own lives. Defenders lives are already in danger. Firearms level the playing field.

Those who use the logical fallacy of an irrelevancy argument do not want you to consider the lives lost because people do not have guns. That is why they push the propaganda memes of "gun violence", "gun homicide", "gun crime", and never mention the lives lost because people did not have guns, or because they were disarmed.

But the single mother who faces attackers that are stronger and larger, the 82-year-old who who faces a home invader, the homeowner who faces a criminal gang, could all have been killed if they were not armed.  The examples above were the lucky and prudent ones who were armed. The unarmed victims who would be alive if they had a gun are not mentioned in news reports. Mass murders stopped by armed citizens are downplayed by the media.

The media does not keep a list of instances that "Should have been a defensive gun use".  Lives lost because the victim did not have a gun are just as important as murders committed with a gun.


©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

South Africa: 70-Year-Old Woman Wounded, 1 Intruder Killed, 1 Wounded

“She was in a critical condition and required urgent attention from advanced life support paramedics before she was transported to an area hospital,” said Jamieson.

“One man, an alleged intruder, had been shot and killed and was declared dead at the scene. Another had been wounded, and was also treated by medics at the residence. He was taken to hospital under police guard.”

It is alleged that the men had entered the elderly woman’s home and there was an exchange of gunfire.
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AZ: Woman with Gun Beats Man with Hatchet

TUCSON, Ariz. - A woman shot a hatchet-wielding would-be robber when he confronted her in a parking lot Friday night, police said.

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Everybody’s Lying About the Link Between Gun Ownership and Homicide

Pretty clear portrayal, but needs to acknowledge irrelevancy of "gun homicide" vs. total homicide.

There is no clear correlation whatsoever between gun ownership rate and gun homicide rate. Not within the USA. Not regionally. Not internationally. Not among peaceful societies. Not among violent ones. Gun ownership doesn’t make us safer. It doesn’t make us less safe. The correlation simply isn’t there. It is blatantly not-there. It is so tremendously not-there that the “not-there-ness” of it alone should be a huge news story.

And anyone with access to the internet and a basic knowledge of Microsoft Excel can check for themselves. Here’s how you do it.

First, go to the Wikipedia page on firearm death rates in the United States. If you don’t like referencing Wikipedia, then instead go to this study from the journal Injury Prevention, which was widely sourced by media on both the left and right after it came out, based on a survey of 4000 respondents. Then go to this table published by the FBI, detailing overall homicide rates, as well as gun homicide rates, by state. Copy and paste the data into Excel, and plot one versus the other on a scatter diagram. Alternately, do the whole thing on the back of a napkin. It’s not hard. Here’s what you get:

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Lord Zuckerberg? Lord Farquaad?

Are You Exempt from Pistol Registration in Michigan?

Michigan is one of the few states that require people who buy handguns to register them. The law is ineffective in solving crimes. There is only one case known, in over 90 years of the law's existence, that may have been solved because of pistol registration in Michigan.

 

 Link to video

The primary purpose of the legislation, enacted in 1927, is believed t have been to keep black people form legally owning pistols. The law is an artifact of racial discrimination that serves no useful purpose.  The law that requires the pistol license and registration is MCL 28.422, Section 2. (1). Section 2. (1) of MCL 28.422 states:

(1) Except as otherwise provided in this act, a person shall not purchase, carry, possess, or transport a pistol in this state without first having obtained a license for the pistol as prescribed in this section.

There are several exemptions from the requirement for a pistol license.
From  MCL 28.432:

28.432 Inapplicability of MCL 28.422; amendatory act as “Janet Kukuk act”.

Sec. 12.

(1) Section 2 does not apply to any of the following:

(a) A police or correctional agency of the United States or of this state or any subdivision of this state.

(b) The United States army, air force, navy, or marine corps.

(c) An organization authorized by law to purchase or receive weapons from the United States or from this state.

(d) The national guard, armed forces reserves, or other duly authorized military organization.

(e) A member of an entity or organization described in subdivisions (a) through (d) for a pistol while engaged in the course of his or her duties with that entity or while going to or returning from those duties.

(f) A United States citizen holding a license to carry a pistol concealed upon his or her person issued by another state.

(g) The regular and ordinary possession and transportation of a pistol as merchandise by an authorized agent of a person licensed to manufacture firearms or a licensed dealer.

Tom Lambert, President of Michigan Open Carry ably demonstrates that under (f), you do not need a Michigan Pistol License. The Michigan Pistol License is separate and different from the Michigan Concealed Pistol License.

People are seldom prosecuted for not having their pistol registered in Michigan. I cannot remember the last case.

If you do not wish to have your pistol registered in Michigan, and you have a concealed carry permit from another state, simply do not turn in the forms for registration in Michigan.

 (f) A United States citizen holding a license to carry a pistol concealed upon his or her person issued by another state.

According to the above, you are exempted from the law.


©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

Followup TX: Gabriel Chavez Shooting of Carlos Marquez found Jusified by Jury in Three Hours

Gabriel Chavez was found not guilty Wednesday by a jury in the shooting death of Carlos Marquez, 46, at about 1:40 a.m. Nov. 21, 2014, during an argument outside of Chavez's home in the 400 block of Duran Place in the Lower Valley.

The jury deliberated for more than three hours before reaching a verdict.

“All our testimony in the trial was that my client was a very peaceful man,” said Chavez’s lawyer, Justin Underwood. “He was a pastor at a church. In the past, the deceased (Marquez) had extorted money by violence and threats to at least two other elderly individuals on the same street.”

He added, “Our ability to develop what happened that night and the history of the violence on part of the deceased showed pretty clearly that it was self-defense.”
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Trump Era NICS Backround Check hit new All time Record for March

The March number of National Instant background Criminal Checks hit an all time record.  The 2018 numbers in the chart are from the second year of the Trump Presidency.

The number of checks in March, 2018 was 2,767,699. That is 245,000 more than in 2016, the previous all time record for of 2,523,265.  The number of checks for the first quarter of 2018 is 7,131,422. That is 6% higher than the first quarter of 2017.

It is obvious that the all out push for bans on rifles, accessories such as detachable magazines and trick stocks, has re-ignited the concerns of those who refuse to be disarmed.

It is not an unreasonable concern, considering Justice Stevens called for a repeal of the Second Amendment. President Trump has only been able to appoint one Supreme Court Justice. One or two more originalist and textualists justices are necessary to secure the Second Amendment.

Legislators and most of the Media and Democrats are calling for banning the sale of the most popular rifle in the United States, the AR-15.  President Trump seemed to falter, then regained his support for the Second Amendment.

NICS checks are related to the number of guns added to the private stock in the United States, but are not the same for a number of reasons. Many NICS checks are done for previously owned guns. Those numbers do not add to the private stock. More NICS checks are done for carry permits. Kentucky does a NICS check on every carry permit holder in the state, every month. More than one gun can be purchased on one NICS check. Many carry permit holders are not required to undergo a NICS check to purchase a firearm.

Because of all these factors, the number of firearms added to the private stock in the U.S. for each NICS check varies. The average, over 20 years, is about .6 firearms added for each NICS check.

A good approximation of the number of guns added to the private stock in the United States in March, 2018, would be 1.7 million.

The number of privately owned guns in the United States is about 420 million. The number will probably reach 430 million by the end of 2018.  Most estimates of private gun ownership in the United States stop at about 2006, before the Obama administration. Over 100 million guns have been sold or imported into the United States since that time.

The estimate of 420 million privately owned guns in the United States was made using the techniques pioneered by  Newton and Zimring, which includes the calculation of the 1945 number of modern guns added to the stock from 1899 to 1945.  Firearms manufactured before 1899 were not included.

From 1945 to 1987, the data was taken from "Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America" by Gary Kleck, Table 2.1.   The methodology used by Kleck was applied to  the figures obtained from the ATF for later years.  The number shown is the cumulative addition of domestic manufacture plus imports minus exports.

This does not count guns shipped to the U.S. military.  While attrition of guns from wear and destruction is not accounted for, it is assumed that illegal importation, the sale of millions of surplus firearms from the U.S. military, and guns made non-comercially in small shops and at home, make up for those loses.

The numbers added to the private stock for 2017 and 2018 were estimated from the NICS numbers.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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