Justice Souter To Step Down

News reports tonight are stating that U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter plans to step down from the high court soon. This would give President Obama his first appointment to the Supreme Court.


Souter, appointed by President George H.W. Bush, has voted regularly with the liberal minority of the court, and was instrumental in the Kelo opinion that outraged Americans. The decision stated that governments can use eminent domain to seize property for economic development purposes, and not just for building off-ramps or expanding insfrastructure.


In the Heller decision in 2008, which affirmed what the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights affirmed (the individual right to possess a firearm), Souter sided with the minority opinion. The minority opinion argued that the majority's broad interpretation of the Second Amendment is inconsistent with the Framers' original intent. IMHO, Souter's minority opinion, penned by Justice Stevens, is inconsistent with the Framers' original intent. This is borne out by reading historical documents of the time.


Nevertheless, Souter has not been a friend of lawful firearms ownership. It pretty much goes without saying that the president's appointment will be of the same mindset.

Carter Got It Wrong; His Beef Is With The Constitution, Not the NRA

A couple of posts ago, I linked to an op-ed piece by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, where he lamented that the Obama administration isn't doing enough about gun control.

Personally, until they have a filibuster proof majority in the U.S. Senate, I don't think most anti gun liberals have the stones to go there right now. Plus there is swine flu and an economic disaster that is the U.S. economy that should take priority over everything else. But then, true need rarely dissuades an anti-gunner from pushing pell-mell ahead with some emergency based on emotion. Some have suggested they are waiting until just after 2010, when all seats in the U.S. House of Representaties are up for grabs. If the anti's keep a majority of seats, they might strike then.

Anyway, John Longenecker, whose columns I have to from time to time posted on TRL, makes an excellent point in a response piece he wrote for Examiner.com. In the New York Times column, Carter makes the spurious claim that it is the NRA is insisting that everyone own a gun.

Not so fast, Longenecker replies.

Says Longenecker, it is the U.S. Constitution, in particular the Bill of Rights, that provides that United States citizens be sovereign, rather than servants.

Read his entire piece by clicking here. It is definitely worth passing along.

Spector Switches Sides In U.S. Senate; Gives Dems Potential Fillibuster Proof Majority

Arlen Spector, a long-time republican senator from Pennsylvania today switched political parties and now will caucus with the democrats.


The move by the mostly pro-gun political liberal gives the anti-gun liberal majority in the U.S. Senate the potential for a filibuster proof majority. Spector has voted against most gun control regs in the past, but has largely been a social liberal, often infuriating people within his own party. He was one of the few to support President Obama's economic stimulus package, which has done little to lift the U.S. economy.


While the firearms and self defense community likely will continue to receive Mr. Spector's vote, it may be harder to filibuster draconian legislation that would infringe on the basic human right to self defense should anti-gun lawmakers decide to push something like that through.


The move, says, The Politico newspaper, puts Obama "one step closer to unfettered power in Washington DC." Spector reportedly had been in secret negotiations with Senate democrats for months on a possible move.

Jimmy Who?

Oh right, the president before Ronald Reagan. The one-term peanut farmer whose unremarkable presidency was followed by him trotting the globe as self-appointed ambassador regardin whatever he thought was important.

Today, Jimmy Carter thinks reinstituting the ban on competition rifles would be a good thing. And wants to know why, when we have an economic meltdown occurring, when swine flu has crossed our borders, when people continue to lose their homes due to the flip attitude of many Congressional leaders, why, he asks, isn't President Obama pushing a new ban?

Read about it in the New York Times.

BTW, just as he didn't know what he was doing when he blundered with North Korea during the Clinton administration, he doesn't know what he's talking about in this piece either. Its like he is writing from a Brady Campaign, Violence PolicyCenter or Legal Community Against Violence talking points fax. Read it for yourself and draw your own conclusions.

Quote Of The Day

“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.” — John Stuart Mill, 1800s liberal British philosopher

Pirates Surprised When Cruise Ship Crew Fights Back

Smoe passengers say it sounded like a "firefight," though many of them had never experienced anything like that before.

Six pirates off the coast of Somalia in the Indian Ocean, using a small speedboat. tried to attack a cruise liner carrying some 1,500 passengers. They didn't expect to receive small arms fire in return and be blown off their boat by cruise line crew members deft use of a water hose (normally used to fight fires).

Nicely done. Fighting back is what slows these attacks, much to the dispmay of both pirates and the "just give in" crowd.

Associated Press Tries To Define 'Assault Rifle'

The AP is trying to figure out why pro self defense advocates such as myself point out "errors of fact" when the news service uses the phrase "assault rifle" to describe incidents where a semi-auto competition rifle is used.

Check out the piece at Alphecca, where the AP essentially blames the BATF for the news services' confusion on the matter.

The reality is, if the editors and reporters would just learn something about the subject they love to cover with inflammatory language . . . well, people just might take them more seriously.

I Am Back

Sorry for the long absence. Issues close to home to priority. I may not be posting as often as usual to start out, but I will ramp up over time.

Thanks for your patience! I have enjoyed the comments and emails from TRL readers wondering what was up . . .