Law School Conservative

By: Carlos S. Ramirez

I’ve been wanting to write this for a while, but haven’t been able to find a sourced article for background, so here I go, unsourced.

Last week, after I posted about how the VA Tech shooter purchased his weapons legally, a reader e-mailed me and pointed out that Cho had lied about his mental health status on his application. Technically, that isn’t true, VA only requires you to admit to involuntary commitment, which a judge did not find necessary in Cho’s case.

However pro-gun I am, I do believe that mentally ill individuals with a propensity for violence (not saying someone with an eating disorder or a minor sleep or movement disorder shouldn’t own a gun) should be restricted from purchasing firearms. This is not to say that I believe that states should require a psych exam before anyone buys a gun. However, I do believe that persons who have been deemed dangerous by a therapist should be reported to the state, and that the state should place that information on the person’s NICS (National Instant Check System) file until such a time where that person is no longer a danger to themselves or others.

This is something that if I recall correctly, Congress tried to do when they enacted the Brady Bill, however the ACLU raised hell, claiming a violation of privacy rights of mentally ill individuals. This is the same ACLU that now has done nothing to stand up for gun owners in PA, who are facing a proposal that will require them to be fingerprinted and registered every year, and subject to random visits by police (restrictions more appropriate to sex offenders than law abiding gun owners).

Frankly, the moment someone becomes a danger to themselves or others, the last thing I care about is their privacy. Had Cho’s mental health record been placed in his state police file, NICS would have denied him a purchase, he would have been flagged, and possibly detered from engaging in murder. Meanwhile, the perfectly sane, law abiding citizens who purchased a handgun before and after Cho would have had no problem completing their legal purchase.

Thanks ACLU, for letting the rights of a psychopath get in the way of the safety of the rest of us.

By: Carlos S. Ramirez

CNN reports that the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office will drop all charges against three Duke University Lacrosse players accused of sexual misconduct.

This case has become a case study on prosecutorial misconduct. I am glad that Mike Nifong will face the NC bar, and can lose his law license. There is no excuse for this or any prosecutor to hide potentially exculpatory evidence from a defendant. There is also no other prosecutor in the planet who would proceed with an accusation of this type when the complaining witness has changed her story too many times to count.

By: Carlos S. Ramirez

Ed Rendell went on a rant yesterday.

Apparently, big Ed thinks that if we impose term limits on PA legislators, they will pass gun control restrictions that will only affect those of us who care enough to follow the law.

Anyone who believes that limiting the number of handgun purchases per person per month will stop crime is way wrong. For information to our readers, anyone who purchases multiple handguns in a 30 day period already has to file a supplemental form with the ATF, which includes the serial numbers, makes and models of the weapons.

Adding a new restriction at the state level will have absolutely no effect, other than making street weapons more expensive, and giving criminals more reason to commit crime to get them, that is.