B.L.U.F.
The babblings of a not lawyer about just how good a weekend order from the Ninth Circuit was for The People.
(1500 words)

There is a name that should be familiar to us, but which is not, Federal Judge Jack Weinstein. He sat on the Eastern District of New York district court from 1967 until 2020.

Why is he important? He was the federal judge that oversaw a number of mass tort cases. The one of interest to us, in the Second Amendment community, is the cases involving Diethylstilbestrol, or DES.

DES was prescribed to pregnant woman to reduce the risk of complications from 1940 through the early 1970s.

It turned out that it caused significant medical complications.

Of course, being America, once it was determined that there was an injury and that somebody might be at fault, lawsuits were filed.

But here is the thing, every pharmaceutical company made DES. Each of the pills was the same. It was almost impossible to tell the manufacture of a DES pill.

More than that, most people just don’t know. When I look at my medication bottles, there is no indication of who manufactured that particular lot of pills. I can go to my pharmacist and find out. On the other hand, I would have a difficult time finding out who manufactured the pills I took when I lived in Maryland. I’m not even sure what pharmacy I used, at that time.

This is where Judge Weinstein comes in. His name was pulled as the judge to hear the first suit filed in the eastern district of New York. From the start, it looked like he was sympathetic to the plaintiffs, the people suing. More suits were opened in the Eastern District.

Instead of a judge being drawn at random, the plaintiffs would request that their case be handled by Judge Weinstein. For judicial expectancy, these requests were granted. This is normally a good thing. This is what happened in California when Judge Benitez was the judge to hear so many Second Amendment challenges.

The defendants stood up in court and said, “Hey, it wasn’t me, and they can’t prove it was me. Dismiss me from the suit.”.

This is because no plaintiff could point to any particular defendant and prove that the defendant in question was the company that manufactured the pills that the defendant took. Since there was no way of figuring out which defendant was responsible for which plaintiff, it looked like the cases would be dismissed.

Judge Weinstein reviewed this and came up with a plan. His plan was a type of joint responsibility. He reasoned that for any particular year, each defendant held a particular market share. Company A held 50%, company B held 25%, company C held 15%, and D, E, and F held the remaining 10%. His ruling was that each company was responsible for a portion of the fine based on their market share.

Thus, for every $100 award, company A paid $50, company B paid $25 and so on.

But how did this intersect with the Second Amendment?

It turns out that Judge Weinstein was a rabid anti-gun person. There wasn’t a thing about guns he approved of, unless it was protecting his sorry arse.

The anti-gunners were not winning in the courts in ways to completely ban guns, but they reasoned that they could “get rid of guns” if there were no more sellers or manufacturers of guns. To this end, they started suing gun manufacturers and sellers.

And they filed in the Eastern District of New York. And they requested that the cases be assigned to Judge Weinstein because these gun suits were just like the lawsuits filed in the DES cases. Judge Weinstein gleefully accepted these cases.

Even if the defendants (good guys), won the suits, the costs of litigation were so high it drove smaller companies out of business.

This ended with Congress passing several bills to stop it, the current version is the PLCAA.

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Dan Roberts is an old friend, a Second Amendment defender, a shooter and a single father of two.  I know it was hard for him to write and ask for help, he is a proud man just like any of us, but pride must bend a knee when it comes to the welfare of children.

I believe it is going to mortify him that I post his letter here, but I do not believe I can make a better case myself.

You can help him with whatever you can spare (I know it is January and the expenses from last month ain’t a joke) but truthfully, anything you can send them will be a great help.  At least my traditional measure of the price of one box of 9mm Winchester White Box ($25) if you can muster it.

He has CashApp (Pay $DERoberts73 on Cash App) and a GiveSendGo page.  I beg you to help my dear friend and his family.

And if the young lady seems familiar to you, it is because she is Shyanne Roberts and you have either seen her competing or know about her growing up in the action shooting circles.

And to my fellow Gun Bloggers, please give us a hand sharing this fundraiser with your readers.

And thank you all for your help.

The National Park Service is planning to remodel Welcome Park in Pennsylvania.

We need your input on Welcome Park rehabilitation! More info at: https://t.co/owkb3jxBIV pic.twitter.com/nh092m4S5W

— IndependenceNPS ?? (@INDEPENDENCENHP) January 5, 2024

The Park Service describes their plan this way:

The National Park Service proposes to rehabilitate Welcome Park to provide a more welcoming, accurate, and inclusive experience for visitors. Welcome Park was designed by the internationally acclaimed design firm Venturi & Scott Brown Associates. The park is located on the site of William Penn’s home, the Slate Roof House, and is named for the ship, Welcome, which transported Penn to Philadelphia. The design and construction of Welcome Park was funded by the Independence Historical Trust and was completed in 1982.

The proposed rehabilitation of Welcome Park includes expanded interpretation of the Native American history of Philadelphia and was developed in consultation with representatives of the indigenous nations of the Haudenosaunee, the Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe of Indians, the Shawnee Tribe, and the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. The reimagined Welcome Park maintains certain aspects of the original design such as the street grid, the rivers and the east wall while adding a new planted buffer on three sides, and a ceremonial gathering space with circular benches. The Penn statue and Slate Roof house model will be removed and not reinstalled. In a separate and future effort, new exhibit panels will be installed on the south site wall to replace the Penn timeline.

Let’s recap:

The statue of William Penn will be removed from the park that is on the grounds of William Penn’s house, in the state named for William Penn.

Perhaps one of the most moral founding fathers on American history. A quaker who was anti-slavery and set of a colony explicitly on the principle of religious freedom.

Go to this site here and tell the NPS not to remove Penn’s statue.

The date of submission is January 8 – January 20.

And share this information far and wide.

On December 20, 2023, District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney of the Southern District of California granted the plaintiffs (good guys) motion for a preliminary injunction.

This enjoined (stopped) the state of California from enforcing California Senate Bill 2. This was the “every place is sensitive, no guns allowed” bill.

Quoting Judge Carney, . SB2’s coverage is sweeping, repugnant to the Second Amendment, and openly defiant of the Supreme Court. Reno May v. Robert Bonta, 8:23-cv-01696, (C.D. Cal. Dec 20, 2023) ECF No. 45.

Of course, the state started whining like a little baby when their infringement was slapped down. They went running to the Ninth Circuit to get an emergency stay.

The only surprise in this was that it took the state two whole days to file for the emergency stay.

While waiting for the emergency administrative panel to give their order, The People of California, lucky enough to have a CCW, could carry in all the places they use to be able to carry.

On December 30, 2023, Judges Johnnie B. RAWLINSON, Jay S. BYBEE, and Andrew D. HURWITZ granted the stay. This meant that on January 1st, 2024, The People of California could no longer carry. It was impossible, or nearly so, to carry with a CCW without violating a sensitive place restriction.

We do not know whether this was a three to zero ruling or a two to one ruling.

There were no more filings after the December 30th order. But the plaintiffs must have been working hard, behind the scenes. How do we know that? Because yesterday afternoon, the 6th of January, the stay was dissolved. At least one judge on the Ninth Circuit had the gonads to stand up for The People.

All the filings have been forwarded to the merits panel.

The case is going to be heard on the merits? Wow?

What is even more amazing is that it will be heard in April. To put this in perspective:

Punch it Chewy!

First the headline:

Dear God! The Florida Department of Education is tearing down FREEEEEDOM!!!!!!

Then the introduction:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A Florida school system has banned two books that were published by an author based in Nashville.

Ann Patchett, owner of Parnassus Books in West Nashville, took to social media on Thursday, Jan. 4 to announce that two of her books were banned by the Orange County School System in Florida.

In the Facebook post, Patchett revealed that her novels “Bel Canto” and “Patron Saint of Liars” were the ones that were banned.

Nashville, TN author reacts to books being banned by Florida school system (wkrn.com)

Wait, now it is “A Florida school system”? Only one? A bit of lie misdirection there Bubba.

And then we see which school system did the deed: Orange County, the House of the Mouse, Los Angeles of the Everglades.

No! You are lying! The Most Progressive County of Florida wouldn’t dare to ban books just because… then again we find out that it is the top county in the Sunshine State for book bans: 673.

We know that in Orange County, the money flows from Disney Corp out and they have not been happy with what Governor DeSantis did to them. So, I will speculate that the leadership of the Orange County School System decided to apply a bit of Malicious Compliance and make news to make the Mouse Overlord happy.

Via The Tennessee Star.

A total of 1,203 guns were stolen from vehicles in Nashville last year, according to the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD).

Last year’s total is a 13.5 percent decrease from 2022 when 1,392 firearms were taken from vehicles, MNPD notes, adding that the most recent data is “still a shocking number.”

The total is in…1,203 guns were stolen from vehicles in Nashville during calendar year 2023. That’s a 13.5% decrease from 2022, but still a shocking number. Among your New Year’s resolutions, please make securing valuables, ESPECIALLY GUNS, a top priority. pic.twitter.com/EQsSwGBvZT

— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) January 3, 2024

189 guns less than the year before. But we are still talking an average of 3 gun per day stolen from vehicles.

We need to get those numbers way down.

We will keep harping bout this because it simply does not make sense that people think a box with glass sides is the same as a gun safe.

As he should have for a while now. He became toxic and an example of believing the myth created around you. He Tony Montana himself.

That being said, he was not the hidden Anti-Gun evil fuck many on our side ended up saying he was. Greedy bastard? agree, but he stood alone facing hate and ridicule many a times when the rest of the leaders of other pro-gun groups never had the balls to do so.

I know YouTube used to have the video of this confrontation, but I can’t find it. About the only thing is an article from WaPo about LaPierre taking CNN head on and calling them a liars for this infamous video trying to prevent the AWB to sunset.

LAPIERRE: Kyra, let me say this to start: I’m glad you ran the story because apparently the only difference between The New York Times and CNN is that when a reporter for The New York Times fakes a story, he’s fired, and at CNN he’s not.
Your bureau chief, John Zarrella, deliberately faked the story yesterday and intending to show that the performance characteristics of banned firearms on the list are somehow different from the performance characteristics of firearms not on the banned list. He was — he was implying that these were machine guns or fully automatic guns. That’s not true.
PHILLIPS: Mr. LaPierre, I have to stop you there. No one fakes stories at CNN, and John Zarrella definitely did not fake a story at CNN. You’re very off base. I’m going to let you say your opinion, and let’s have a conversation, but don’t accuse our reporter of faking any stories, sir.

CNN responds to NRA attack – The Washington Post

Can the NRA be saved? No idea and what remains of the leadership cannot be trusted until the one question is explained with full details:

Who leaked the internal NRA financial documents to Michael Bloomberg and The Trace?

It seems after this many years, nobody wants to answer that. Hell, even Epstein’s Lists are out, but we can’t figure out who went fully to the enemy side.

So, with LaPierre gone only half the job of cleaning the NRA is done.