[Headline from DRJ]

The Hill:

Trump seems to backtrack on gun control, warns of ‘slippery slope’

President Trump said Tuesday that the United States already has “very strong background checks” for gun purchasers and that officials need to be wary of the prospect of a “slippery slope” where “everything gets taken away.”

Trump’s comments to reporters in the Oval Office provided more evidence that he is backtracking after initially expressing support for enhanced background checks following a pair of mass shootings that killed 31 people earlier this month.

His comments foretelling a “slippery slope” also closely mirrored the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) long-held argument that even modest gun control regulations would inevitably lead to more stringent ones.

Trump also repeated earlier comments that shooters have “mental problems” and he is having “meaningful” talks with Democrats on possible gun regulations.

Politics: The art of being all things to all people.

— DRJ

[Headlines from DRJ]

Trump in talks with key senators on gun control legislation:

Meetings between White House officials, Senate aides appear to signal the most substantive talks the Trump administration has had to date on gun control policy.

Trump Advisors Wary As President Considers Gun Control Proposals:

Campaign advisers asked White House officials for at least a week to gauge how various options—including background checks and taking no action—would fare among the president’s base of supporters before the administration decides on an official course of action, a person close to the White House said.

Who can save gun control opponents from Trump’s desire to reach across the aisle? Only Mitch McConnell.

(What happened to yesterday’s Trump who warned Republicans to never help Democrats?)

— DRJ

[Headlines from DRJ]

I fear we may see more of these stories for awhile:

After a six-hour search, authorities found a Paradise man, who was reportedly seen earlier in the afternoon carrying a rifle near the Paradise High School football field, in the walls of the high school gym late Wednesday night.

Wise County Sheriff Lane Akin said they found the man, Elvin Fox, 59, and a rifle, trapped in the walls near the locker room at 10 p.m.

Another local newspaper that did an excellent job reporting a story, and worth reading the whole thing. (Hint: Mental illness may be involved.)

Meanwhile, police are searching for a young Hispanic man who used an AR-15 to kill two people in a car on a Houston freeway:

It’s unclear what led to the shooting, but police said the incident began as an auto collision, as the suspect’s car struck the victims’ vehicle.

One man got out of the suspect’s vehicle and began firing at the victims’ car. A witness at the scene, who believed the shooter would target him, pulled out his personal pistol and began firing at the shooter, according to police. That’s when the shooter got back into his vehicle and fled.

Police do not know whether the shooting was drug related, or due to road rage. Traffic was backed up for hours, as police canvassed the scene searching for clues.

We may see more armed defenders, too.

UPDATE: Another story but this one involves bomb-making materials:

The Justice Department announced that Conor Climo, 23, was charged with one count of possession of an unregistered firearm, referring to the components for a bomb.

Prosecutors say Climo engaged in encrypted online conversations this year in which he allegedly used derogatory, racial, anti-Semitic and homophobic slurs.

He allegedly discussed attacking an area synagogue and surveilling a bar he believed to cater to the LGBT community, and also allegedly discussed making Molotov Cocktails and improvised explosive devices, prosecutors said.

— DRJ

[Headline from DRJ]

Yesterday afternoon: Police: Man with rifle, bulletproof vest arrested at Walmart store:

[Springfield Police Lt.] Lucas said the man showed up to the business with body armor and military-style clothing and then walked inside carrying a “tactical rifle” and another gun. 

As shoppers were panicking and fleeing the store, Lucas said the man was taking video on his phone and making comments to people while pushing a shopping cart. 

Lucas said the suspect then walked out of the store, where an off-duty firefighter held the suspect at gunpoint until police arrived moments later.

Today: Police ID man arrested with rifle at Springfield Walmart:

Dmitriy N. Andreychenko, 20, was booked into the jail on suspicion of first-degree making a terrorist threat.

Kudos to police that arrived in 3 minutes and especially to the armed off-duty firefighter who detained the departing young man. A bystander added her appreciation for the police and firefighter, and this:

Within seconds after she pulled into the lot, Belew said, police arrived.

Someone shouted at the man, “Why are you walking around in a tactical jacket carrying a rifle?” Belew said. “I did not hear what he said back.

“The guy told police he was keeping his phone on for his own safety,” she said.

“He did not seem surprised. He did not seem angry. He looked like he had accomplished whatever he wanted to accomplish.”

The local paper interviewed a Springfield defense lawyer and former prosecutor about the legal issues involved. Please click the links and help out the local newspaper. It did an excellent job covering this story.

Was this young man considering whether to shoot, making a political point about guns, seeking a little copycat fame, or does he have a cruel sense of humor?

HT urbanleftbehind.

UPDATE 8/10/2019: Armed man at Walmart says he was testing right to bear arms.

— DRJ

[Headline from DRJ]

McConnell says Senate will consider gun background check, because Trump:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday he wants Congress to consider legislation to expand federal background checks and other gun violence measures when lawmakers return in the fall.

The Republican leader told a Kentucky radio station that President Donald Trump called him Thursday morning and they talked about several ideas. The president, he said, is “anxious to get an outcome and so am I.”

Republicans have resisted expanding background checks, but face enormous pressure to do something in the aftermath of the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, over the weekend that killed 31 people.

–DRJ

[Guest post by Aaron Worthing]

From a game called Medal of Honor, to real life heroes, DRJ directs us to some of the testimony in the Ft. Hood shooting case where we see some of the heroism that emerged that day.  I dare say that at least some of these acts might qualify for a medal of honor.  The money quote:

Amid the carnage described Friday were moments of heroism. Spc. Logan Burnett said he saw Capt. John Gaffaney try to attack Hasan with a chair before he was shot and killed. Burnett said he also tried to throw a folding table at Hasan, but was shot in the hip before he could throw it. Burnett was shot another two times as he crawled to safety.

CW2 Christopher Royal testified that he saw Hasan chase another soldier, Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford, out of the building and shoot him before going back inside. Royal said that Hasan left the building again shortly after and began shooting at him, hitting him in the back. Royal said he saw Hasan move toward a crowded theater hosting a graduation ceremony.

“I ran to try to get there before he got there,” he said. Royal was able to tell soldiers at the theater to lock up the building.

There is plenty more coverage of the trial, here.  But the depressing thing in reading all of that is it also makes it clear how unnecessary these deaths were.  Reading of these soldiers having to hide behind locked doors, having to resort to throwing chairs in the hope of stopping him, it reminds you of an absolutely insane fact: this military base was a gun-free zone.  It illustrates exactly how easily this whole thing would have been stopped if only everyone was allowed to carry a gun.  And no, I am not the first person to notice.

From the missed warning signs to this gun-free idiocy, it is clear that our military bureaucracy failed those soldiers in Ft. Hood, not only failing to protect them but positively impairing their ability to protect themselves.  Their heroism is an indictment on that bureaucracy.

[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]

[Guest post by DRJ]

Politico reports “the conservative Netroots are abuzz over the possibility” the NRA may endorse Harry Reid:

“The conservative Netroots are abuzz over the possibility that the NRA may endorse Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). This would be the second major slight by the NRA for political conservatives — the gun group also just negotiated a big exemption on a campaign finance bill loathed by the right.”

This strikes me as a PR and political miscalculation but bloated organizations, like arrogant people, can easily become drunk with a little success.

— DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

Following the Supreme Court decision in McDonald, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley announced plans to issue strict new handgun laws:

“The measure, which draws from ordinances across the country, would ban gun shops in Chicago and prohibit gun owners from stepping outside their homes, even onto their porches or garages, with a handgun.”

Technically, it seems Daley has refused to give up on trying to keep legal guns out of lawful users’ hands.

— DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

CBS News reports on Day 2 of the Elena Kagan hearings regarding Senator Grassley’s questions about the Second Amendment. Kagan pointed out the McDonald decision was “based so much on history” and stated the Court has decided gun ownership is a fundamental right that is “good precedent going forward.”

All case law is precedent but that won’t stop the Court from changing it if the Justices think it’s wrong. That’s especially true here, where Kagan characterizes the decision as “based so much on history” — presumably as opposed to the law. Kagan reinforces the idea that the decision isn’t based on law when she adds the italicized qualifier: “The [McDonald] case is based so much on history, which I’ve never had the occasion to look at.”

Kagan is a lawyer, a law professor and a former Law School Dean. If she’s never looked at the history of gun rights and the Second Amendment, it’s either because she has no interest in the subject or it’s because she thinks history is not required to decide a Second Amendment legal question. I think the latter is more likely.

Thus, this may be what Kagan is really saying: A judge is not required to know about history to decide a legal question, and a legal decision based on history instead of law can be wrong.

— DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

In McDonald vs City of Chicago (opinion here; oral argument transcript here), the U.S. Supreme Court today extended the Heller 2nd Amendment protections to states but allowed some restrictions on gun ownership. Chicago’s Mayor Daley plans to find the limit of those restrictions.

After Heller, will this 5-4 decision end the 2nd Amendment debate or is it just beginning? It’s clearly just beginning at the state and local levels, where governments will be asked to craft standards that satisfy the courts and citizens.

— DRJ