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The Rittenhouse verdict and the twisting of natural law
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This is not the only attempt to frame what happened in Kenosha through the lens of natural law. As someone who thinks of himself as a natural-law lawyer, I find this troubling. These responses are just another example of how natural law and its expression in the Anglo-American legal tradition—common law—has been deformed by its adaptation to support White supremacy. |
Why the Self-Defense Argument Still Carries So Much Weight
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In the trial of George Zimmerman, where they tried to frame Trayvon Martin as this deadly threat who was threatening to kill this older, armed guy with a sidewalk. So similarly, they tried to introduce evidence of a Arbery’s past, such as mental health issues, encounters with law enforcement. And thankfully, the judge in the Georgia trial said that was inappropriate and inadmissible, so they were not allowed to bring all that information in. |
IL: Rittenhouse Verdict Puts Chrystul Kizer’s Case Back In The Spotlight
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Kizer is accused to shooting Randall P. Volar III in the head, setting his house on fire and stealing his car when she was 17 years old. Volar had previously been arrested for child sexual assault. It took months for the charges to be brought against Volar, even after police uncovered evidence of sexual abuse of at least a dozen of underaged Black girls.
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Kim pointed out that the difference between the cases of Kizer and Rittenhouse is that video played in court showed the “imminency of the danger” in Rittenhouse’s case, which he says, is missing in Kizer’s case. Prosecutors argue that Kizer went to Volar’s house with the intent to kill him. |
Below the Radar: Jaime’s Law Returns
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Some may point to this law as an example of the dangers inherent in the National Instant Background Check System (NICS), and it’s a fair point. That said, in 1993 the alternative was a permanent waiting period, with all the harms those cause. The real issue, though, is that Jaime’s Law will be the type of thing that will come in a post NYSRPA v. Bruen world.
They won’t come with gun bans, they will just come up with all sorts of bureaucratic hoops to jump through to exercise your Second Amendment rights. At the same time, corporate entities in the financial sector and Silicon Valley will enact their own forms of gun control. On the legislative front, we will see all sorts of other schemes to come after our rights. |
Rittenhouse voices regrets — but not about acting in self-defense
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“After what I have gone through, I don’t think it’s worth having to fight for your life if you are ever attacked,” he told Banfield.
Rittenhouse was unwavering, however, in stressing that he has no regrets about protecting himself.
“I don’t regret defending myself,” he said. “I regret making the decision to go there. But what I’m trying to say is, if I could go back, I would not have gone there. I would have stayed home, but we can’t change that. I went there to protect property, but I was attacked by violent people, which forced me to defend myself.” |
Georgia, Wisconsin trials focus on self-defense. Here are the laws in Kansas and Missouri
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Kansas and Missouri, like most other states, extend the “castle doctrine” of protecting one’s self and home into the public.
There is no duty to retreat from a confrontation if it occurs at home or any other place one is legally allowed to be, according to Missouri law.
In Missouri, an individual can use lethal force if they “reasonably believe” it is necessary to protect themselves or someone else from “death, serious physical injury, or any forcible felony.” Circumstances cited in the law include when someone is breaking into or trying to break into one’s home or car. |
TX: Texas Gun Store Holds 'Not Guilty' Sale Following Rittenhouse Verdict
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Texas gun store is holding a "not guilty" sale following the not guilty verdict reached last week in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial.
The Saddle River Range in Conroe recently sent out a text to customers announcing the sale, which began last Saturday and is set to last until Thanksgiving, according to KPRC-TV in Houston.
The Saddle River Range also announced the sale on Instagram, where it featured a picture of Rittenhouse holding a gun during the Kenosha, Wisconsin, protests in August 2020, following the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Rittenhouse was tried on multiple felony charges after fatally shooting two men and wounding another. |
Former President Donald Trump, Rittenhouse meet at Mar-a-Lago; teen 'was a fan'
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Former President Donald Trump said he was recently visited at his Palm Beach, Florida, resort by Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager who was acquitted last week on all charges after fatally shooting two people and wounding a third during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last summer.
"He called. He wanted to know if he could come over, say hello, because he was a fan," Trump said during an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity that aired Tuesday night. |
Your Default Assumption Should Be That Everything Corporate Media Says Is A Lie
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As far as corporate media are concerned, the massacre in Waukesha, Wis., on Sunday was a “Christmas parade crash.”
That’s how the attack that killed six people and injured more than 60 others is being described by ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Newsweek and others. Not an intentional attack, not a massacre allegedly committed by a violent career criminal already facing multiple felony charges, but merely a crash. The New York Times is calling it a “tragedy.” |
Rittenhouse Put Himself In Harm's Way, But That Doesn't Negate His Right To Self Defense
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In response to NAACP President Derrick Johnson's comment that the verdict is a warning shot for black Americans that "vigilante justice" is acceptable in the U.S. during a protest, he said: "I wouldn't call this vigilante justice, because this young man was defending himself. I also don't really get why many of my friends in the African-American community are so animated by this."
"I guess what Mr. Johnson is trying to say if he had been black, he would have been convicted. That's a stretch. We don't know that." |
Carol Anderson: The Second Amendment is anti-Black
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The constitutional right to a well regulated militia and to keep and bear arms does not apply equally to Black and white Americans — just as intended.
Carol Anderson lays out the evidence in her book, The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America. “The Second Amendment was really a bribe to the South to not undercut the Constitution,” said Anderson, chair of African American Studies at Emory University. |
VA: Roanoke man faces federal charges after acquittal of murder in state court
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Federal charges like the ones Glenn faces are unusual when there has already been a verdict in state court on the same set of facts, Kavanaugh said.
Chris Kowalczuk, a Roanoke attorney who represented Glenn in state court, said he had not seen such an action in 27 years of practicing criminal law.
“It is highly unusual for the United States to come behind a verdict of not guilty by jury in the commonwealth,” he said.
Approval by U.S. Justice Department officials in Washington, D.C., was required. |
Support for gun control hits a seven-year low
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Only 52% of people think those laws should be stricter than they are now, which is the lowest Gallup has recorded since 2014. While that number seems high, it’s worth remembering that general support for gun control fades when specific measures are introduced and debated. Vague promises of gun control always poll far better than when they are put into legislation.
And that 52% is a steep drop from previous gun control polling. In 1990, Gallup found that 78% of people supported stricter gun control. In 2018, the same year as the Parkland shooting, Gallup found that 67% supported stricter gun control. Since then, support from independents has dropped from 64% in 2019 to 45% now. |
The NRA could be winning its long game even as it appears to be in dire straits
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No observer of contemporary gun politics could fail to notice a jarring disconnect between the two very different trajectories of the gun rights movement today.
On the one hand, more states are allowing Americans to carry weapons in public without permits, and the gun-rights movement could be on the verge of a major Supreme Court victory. On the other, the National Rifle Association, which advocates on behalf of gun owners, faces an existential crisis that’s mostly due to the NRA’s own missteps. |
Wendell Pierce Says He Lives Abroad Because U.S. Has Normalized Violence
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“The Wire” and “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan” star no longer resides in the U.S. because the nation has normalized violence and hate.
“I’m home in America for the month of November. I have lived abroad for 4 of the last 5 years. Sadly, what I’ll be thankful for this holiday is leaving the US for a more peaceful life. The violence in America has been normalized. Violent crime, political violence, open carry laws,” the New Orleans native tweeted Sunday night. |
FL: Florida sheriff: Grandpa’s shooting may be ‘stand your ground’ case
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The pair had been engaged in an argument over the phone before the meeting because McCullar wanted to take the boy to Tennessee, Johnson said.
Detectives have viewed security camera footage that shows McCullar and his wife driving into the parking lot at the Shell gas station, the sheriff said.
“Video evidence supports the fact that as soon as they pulled in … Mr. Dye approached the car in a very aggressive manner, yanked the door open and an altercation occurred,” Johnson said. “At that time, Mr. McCullar shot Mr. Dye, and Mr. Dye expired on scene.”
The sheriff said McCullar was aiding Dye when deputies arrived at the scene. |
IL: Ex-DuPage Democratic official apologizes for Waukesha tweet
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Mary Lemanski, the former Democratic Party of DuPage County social media director, apologized for her comments on Twitter that caused backlash across the social media platform and cost Lemanski her job Monday.
Lemanski drew the attention of various media outlets and pundits after posting a series of tweets linking Kyle Rittenhouse to the driver of an SUV that sped through barricades and struck dancers, musicians and others during a Waukesha, Wisconsin, Christmas parade.
“It was probably just self-defense #Wisconsin #KyleRittenhouse,” Lemanski tweeted about the tragedy that left five dead and 40 injured.
Lemanski also tweeted she believes that karma “came around quick on the citizens of Wisconsin.” |
The Rittenhouse Verdict Showcased the Left's Aversion to Self-Defense
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Back to the idea of a militia, a subject that has been and continues to be debated among legal scholars. The Second Amendment presumes that individuals are the first line of defense against government tyranny and lawlessness. The police can’t be everywhere and during recent riots in major cities, they were sometimes nowhere. Videos of looters in San Francisco and other cities where district attorneys seemingly refuse to prosecute cases involving thefts of items priced under a certain amount, plus the release of criminals, some of whom go on to commit new crimes, suggest the lawless are increasingly calling “the shots.” |
IL: That Gun Tax the IL Supreme Court Shot Down Was Reinstated
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Cook County, Illinois, tried to impose a gun tax. Yes, that's routine policymaking for a deep blue state. They hate the Second Amendment. They hate people who own guns. They think law-abiding citizens are the enemy. It's ass-backward, but that's the left. In October, this tax was rightfully shot down as unconstitutional by the Illinois Supreme Court for being too burdensome and an infringement on the right to own firearms. |
Control of the Narrative
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I recall the scene outside the U.S. Supreme Court building on the bright morning in 2008 when the Court was poised to hear D.C. v. Heller. This case resulted in a 5-4 decision in which the Court affirmed the Second Amendment does, indeed, protect an individual right.
I watched as a handful of anti-Second Amendment activists were herded by a few TV talking heads into a tight group for the cameras. Shown this way, this small group of anti-freedom activists could be made to look like they were a small part of a large demonstration of people there to demand the high court rule the Second Amendment into meaninglessness. |
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| "Judges ought to remember that their office is jus dicere, and not jus dare; to interpret law, and not to make law, or give law." --Francis Bacon, From "The Essays of Counsels, Civil and Moral" |
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