One Form of Gun Defense
Tonight I went through a rather exhausting but very rewarding Krav Maga session. After practicing more combatives (kicks, punches, and elbow hits; here are a few videos), going over ground fighting and getting up and away quickly and with minimal exposure (all in full body armor, which adds some weight), we focused the last half on gun defenses, i.e., how to disarm someone who is threatening you with a gun. Practice your form and practice being really fast, because it’s got to be done before he knows what’s hit him.
Coincidentally, the District of Columbia government has responded to our lawsuit to vindicate the Second Amendment rights of residents of the District. (Here is the District government’s motion to dismiss our suit and here is our response, to which the District responded today.) As a key lawyer in the case, Alan Gura, put it in his email to me today, “It’s all up to the court now.”
Tom,
I just don’t get the idea that a citizen has to prove some special fear of prosecution in order to challenge any law in court. Or, of course, actually break the law. Isn’t the first thing the prosecutor in such a case going to say to the jury be “Your role is simply to determine if the law was broken, not if the law is ‘right'”? So you’d have to want to be convicted so you can challenge the law on appeal. The whole time spending time behind bars or otherwise limited in motion.
If the court rules that you don’t have standing, what does it take to challenge the law? Has anyone ever been prosecuted under this law? From the sounds of it, probably not.
So what purpose does the law serve? The only one I can think of is to scare law-abiding citizens in to obeying a law that criminals AND LAW ENFORCEMENT ignore.
“Selective enforcement” is the knothole through which all kinds of ugly practices flow. If every speeder were pulled over and ticketed, we wouldn’t need statistical studies that show one group of people is singled out by some police officers.
I hope the court allows your challenge of the law. I’ve got to say the closer I get to our justice system the less justice I see in it…