Held: New York’s proper-cause requirement violates the Fourteenth Amendment by preventing law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in public for self-defense. Pp. 8–63.

(1) Since Heller and McDonald, the Courts of Appeals have developed a “two-step” framework for analyzing Second Amendment challenges that combines history with means-end scrutiny. The Court rejects that two-part approach as having one step too many. Step one is broadly consistent with Heller, which demands a test rooted in the Second Amendment’s text, as informed by history. But Heller and McDonald do not support a second step that applies means-end scrutiny in the Second Amendment context. Heller’s methodology centered on constitutional text and history. It did not invoke any means-end test such as strict or intermediate scrutiny, and it expressly rejected any interest-balancing inquiry akin to intermediate scrutiny. Pp. 9–15.

It is undisputed that petitioners Koch and Nash—two ordinary, law-abiding, adult citizens—are part of “the people” whom the Second Amendment protects. See Heller, 554 U. S., at 580. And no party disputes that handguns are weapons “in common use” today for
self-defense. See id., at 627. The Court has little difficulty concluding also that the plain text of the Second Amendment protects Koch’s and Nash’s proposed course of conduct—carrying handguns publicly for self-defense. Nothing in the Second Amendment’s text draws a home/public distinction with respect to the right to keep and bear arms, and the definition of “bear” naturally encompasses public carry. Moreover, the Second Amendment guarantees an “individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation,” id., at 592, and confrontation can surely take place outside the home. Pp. 23–24.

This is all from the opinion PDF warning written by Thomas.

It is a relatively easy read. Go read it, enjoy the win

Update-1

On page 70 of the opinion is Justice Alito’s concurring opinion.

His opinion directly attacks the use of polls, statistics, number of shootings, mass shootings and everything else that is outside the context of the question.

“Much of the dissent seems designed to obscure the specific question that the Court has decided…”

In light of what we have actually held, it is hard to see what legitimate purpose can possibly be served by most of the dissent’s lengthy introductory section. See post, at 1–8 (opinion of BREYER, J.). Why, for example, does the dissent think it is relevant to recount the mass shootings that have occurred in recent years? Post, at 4–5. Does the dissent think that laws like New York’s prevent or deter such atrocities? Will a person bent on carrying out a mass shooting be stopped if he knows that it is illegal to carry a handgun outside the home? And how does the dissent account for the fact that one of the mass shootings near the top of its list took place in Buffalo? The New York law at issue in this case obviously did not stop that perpetrator.

Like that dissent in Heller, the real thrust of today’s dissent is that guns are bad and that States and local jurisdictions should be free to restrict them essentially as they see fit.3 That argument was rejected in Heller, and while the dissent protests that it is not rearguing Heller, it proceeds to do just that. See post, at 25–28.

The dissent is painful to read. It starts, as Alito states, with all sorts of fear mongering. After that Breyer goes off about the court not having any discovery or evidence to support the opinion. Even though in oral arguments New York made statements that directly show that the law is infringing.

What the dissent comes down to, in my opinion, is that the states are more democratic and thus the states should be able to pass what ever laws they want in regards to firearms.

Last, I’ve called my Senator’s offices and left messages with staffers saying this opinion has dropped. That it requires the 2nd be applied with strict scrutiny and thus in order for my Senator to uphold their oath to the Constitution they must vote NO on “The Bipartisan Safer Communities act”. Left the same message with my Representatives office and accidently left it with my state Senator’s office.

I did say I had my congress critters on speed dial. Click on the wrong one when trying to contact my US Representative’s office.

The U.S. Supreme Court announced that it would be issuing opinions on Friday of this week. Normally they issue opinions on Tuesday and Thursday. It is very unusual to have them issue opinions on a Friday.

There are two very big cases we are waiting to hear on. The first is Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the opinion that will affect abortion.

The other is New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc vs Bruen, the opinion on whether the State’s denial of petitioners’ application for concealed-carry licenses for self-defense violated the Second Amendment.

The media has been pushing shootings into the headlines for months now as this case was discussed within SCOTUS. As seems always to be the case, as soon as good legislation sees the light of day in congress and is making progress we start reading about more and more shootings and suddenly we can’t talk about gun rights because of the blood of the children.

Every single time.

In the house I’ve been talking about how there are more and more articles talking about mass shootings. Mass shootings that disappear just a day or so later. Often when it turns out that it was a protected class shooting at another protected class. In the same way the weekly drum of members of protected classes in Chicago killing each other goes on and on and on without every breaking into the national news cycle.

If these opinions drop on Friday, keep your head on a swivel because it is likely to get very nasty out there. Even in my small town we’ll have a bunch of people on the town square holding up their signs telling me how horrible it is. Just west of here it will be even worse as that town is a liberal cesspool with every left wing activist from a 100 miles protesting.

I don’t expect violence around here, but I’m not going to go anywhere where there might be violence and I will have my head on a swivel. The truck is getting an extra can as well, just in case.

H/T To Divemedic’s blog

Boy, two, fatally shoots his four-year-old sister in Pennsylvania gas station after being left on their own by their father as he paid for gas

A four-year-old girl was fatally shot by her two-year-brother at a gas station after he found a gun in the car while her dad paid for fuel.

The children, who were not identified by police, were inside a car at the Eagle Save Mart in Chester, Pennsylvania, about 11am on Tuesday when the two-year-old found the gun.

While handling the legally-owned weapon, he accidentally shot his sister. 

The children’s father and another guardian were reportedly inside the store paying at the time of the shooting. The father reportedly ran outside when he heard the gunshot and rushed his little girl to the Crozer-Chester Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

Police said the gun was legally owned, but they are still trying to figure out how the boy came in possession of it.

This is a heartbreaking tragedy.

Deaths like this are entirely preventable.

It’s very simple, if your gun is not on your body lock it the fuck up.

I have in my house no less than four gun safes.

Two big Ft Knox in my basement gun room anchored to the slab.

A Cannon 14 gun in my bedroom closet anchored to the joists.

A biometric Liberty pistol box anchored to wall studs by the bed.

In each of my three cars I have a Liberty gun box on a steel cable through the driver’s seat frame.

If my CCW pistol is not on me (when I’m at work for example) it’s locked in that in the car and I have the key in my pocket.

I have two kids, an eight-year-old and a four-year-old.

I own guns to protect my family.

The worst thing I can imagine is one of my kids accidentally getting killed by one of my guns so I separate my children from my guns by a layer of steel sheet or plate and a Every and a key, combination, or fingerprint lock.

I can access any of my guns as fast as I can unlock my cellphone to make a call, but my kids cannot.

Readers of this blog know that you will be hard pressed to find someone more pro-gun than myself.

But that doesn’t mean I believe in abdicating responsibility.  Quite the opposite.  Because I am so pro-gun I am so pro-responsability.

If you own guns and have kids or have family with kids that come to visit, lock up your guns.

There are plenty of options out there for lock boxes and safes, pick one and use it.

So how can you tell high gas prices are sparking yet another round of performative outrage from Republicans? pic.twitter.com/oPTQ9qd7l7

— SFDB (@sfdb) June 23, 2022

See, the complaints over gas prices affecting average American vacations is bullshit because more people are still traveling.

I guarantee you’re going to hear that same shit from the White House.

But what they won’t talk about is how that travel changed.

Did people go as far?

Did they spend less money when the got to where they were going?

Did they stay as long?

We’re going to “hit the road” for the 4th of July weekend.

We’re going to my mom’s house so the kids can play with grandma.  We don’t plan on going to any amusement parks, restaurants, get souvenirs, or do much else but hang out either my mom.

I have a buddy, his plans are roughly the same.

He’s going to “hit the road” to his parents’ then his brother will “hit the road” to his house.

It’s not vacation in the traditional sense, it’s visiting family and staying at a relatives house for a few days.

More Americans will “hit the road” but will do a lot less on the road than they used to.

But they won’t tell you that part.

https://videos.gunfreezone.net/videos/watch/58357f93-119c-4e10-92e4-abab4961e452

Playing patty cakes with the back of the head of a killer is not going to do anything but increase his body count at your expense.

How many videos have we seen of criminals resisting arrest and taking an unholy number of cops to subdue them including the use of Less Lethal? And suddenly a Mass Murderer is going to call it quits because a soy boy may execute a tackle from behind and give him a scalp massage?

They were not being silly, but I guess they were the first to understand that the bucolic life in the U.S. was gone and the Age of Aquarius was not about Peace and Love but the beginning of Evil and Death.

Organization is important. I’m disorganized. I can find it in my computer but outside of that I need HELP.

So I try and organize. My shop has pictures on the peg board to remind people (me) where things go when they return it to the peg board and to allow me to know that something is missing. There are things that have their place and they just live there. (3/4 inch combination wrench hangs off a bolt on the side of the mill. Two others are on the peg board.)

I’m sad to report that not all my firearms have their place. They live in safe places but not all of them have a home yet.

My reloading bench is only 3×3 so enough room for reloading but not for mess. I tried to fix this with open top bins that hang off the wall. That worked well when I had the space. Now that rack is in a different room and the new reloading room is still more disorganized.

One thing that did work for some organization was ammo cans. I had the 30Cal can full of 30-06. I had the 30Cal full of 5.56 in clips and, wait, why is that 30cal can full of soldering and electronic shit. Well this can is full of, What? It’s the first aid kit mom packed for me 40+ years ago when I headed off to collage? GRRRR.

Labels! That’s the answer.

The issue is what to label and the size of the cans/boxes. I have a big chest in the reloading room but it is always covered with “stuff” so I can’t get into it.

I finally fell on the answer, sort of by accident. Products from MTM Molded Products.

So here is a review of the products I’ve purchase of theirs.

Ammo Boxes

These are my go to for range ammo. I use different product for long term storage.

They come in different sizes depending on the caliber/size of the round. They they work well for what they are. They are compact. The only real issue is that they are noisy. They rattle in the box which may or may not be an issue for you. They come in different colors, clear like the above or solid. Most of my pistol caliber are solid black.

If you are looking for something to carry reloads to the range, yeah, use these.

They also make them for rifle calibers:

Ammo Cans

These are plastic ammo cans and this is where things start to get interesting. While the external size of these plastic can’s don’t match that of the metal cans, the insides do. These I love.

It is important to note that they make these cans in non standard sizes as well. So you can buy an ammo can that exactly fits their ammo boxes. You can get a can that holds 700 rounds of 45ACP in 7 of there ammo boxes:

I have one of these for 45ACP as the price was right on Amazon.

They have versions that hold magazines instead of their boxes. For example a can that holds 16 1911 sized mags or
another that holds 15 AR-15 mags or another that holds Glock type mags.

And this brings us to the first real issue with MTM products. Their ammo cans are not standardized. So it is possible to buy an ammo can for your 5.56 mags that is just perfect, but while the size of the box looks like their 50cal can, it isn’t. Not a big deal for loose cans, but it becomes more interesting in the tray and crate side of things.

All of these are lighter than their metal counter parts and I’ve not had a single can break on me. Not that I’m particularly hard on my ammo cans. I have no problem using them instead of metal cans. They are sealed with an O-ring which keeps dust, dirt, and water out. It is airtight as well but I wouldn’t expect them, or any ammo can, to handle being submerged at any serious depth.

Ammo Trays

And this is why I decided to use MTM products for organizing my reloading and shooting gear. Their Ammo Trays.

I’ve talked to the people at MTM and from their website they will sell you just the tray part, but they don’t consider that to be a standalone product. They expect to sell the trays with a full compliment of ammo cans.

They have trays for all of their ammo cans but not all of their specialty cans. Which is why I mentioned that the 5.56 magazine can isn’t the same size as the 50 cal can. They look close but they are not the same. It is unclear to me if they would fit. Because of this I’ve not purchased any of the magazine holding ammo cans.

Besides trays for their plastic ammo cans they make trays for metal 30 cal and metal 50 cal cans.

I have multiples of these. I have a 30 cal tray that has my low count rifle ammo. Each can is labeled with the caliber. As an example, I don’t have 1000+ rounds of 303 British. So the 303 british in this can holds all the loaded rounds of 303 in boxes as well as all of my prepared brass and my cleaned but unprocessed 303 brass.

This tray lives near the top of the stack but it is just a few seconds to move a tray and expose the tray I want. At some point I’ll build some shelves for the trays but it isn’t required.

And again, this is where there is a downside. Each tray is dsized for the ammo cans it holds. Thus the 30 cal tray doesn’t stack perfectly on the 50 cal tray even though there are only 3 50 cal cans and 4 30 cal cans. And the trays for metal cans are just a little smaller than the trays for plastic cans so they don’t stack perfectly.

They do stack, but don’t expect to build a stack 10 deep with a small on the bottom and bunch of bigs on top.

These trays are very sturdy. I’ve had no problems shelping them with full cans around the house as I had to move things.

Ammo Crates

But not all things are small enough to fit into an ammo can. Even a big 50 cal can. And MTM came up with an answer for that as well.

Their ammo crates.

They have two lines, the ACR -18 and the ACR -72. The footprint for all the -18s are the same and the footprint for the -72 are the same. So if you want them to stack you just need to pick the right series.

They are big enough to put all the parts of a reloading press in, or a bunch of reloading tools. They have great handles so they are easy to move around and again they stack. The sizes aren’t an exact match to the trays but you can stack them within reason.

If you are interested you can see their entire product line at: MTM Case-Gard but most of their product line is available on Amazon for a bit cheaper.