Mary Jo Kopechne's murderer has stroke (or seizure)

Sympathy goes out to his family, but none to him.

Burglaries up 21%...thank God for the Second Amendment!

Oh wait, burglaries are up 21% in Washington, DC, where the Second Amendment doesn't apply:

Criminals are jimmying locks, kicking in front doors, breaking through roof hatches and skylights, and sometimes even sawing security bars off windows to get into houses and businesses, police said. They are hauling off computers, flat-screen televisions, jewelry, digital media players and other items, which they then sell.

Police data show that 922 burglaries were reported in the city in the first quarter of the year, compared with 761 in the same span last year. The biggest increases have been reported on Capitol Hill and in neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River, including Congress Heights.

The neighborhoods mentioned in the final paragraph are in the SE quadrant of DC, which is plagued by violence and extremely high unemployment. Approximately 1/3 of the homicides in DC took place in one neighborhood in this quadrant alone.

This is also the section of DC that has the highest African-American population. So this city, whose voters are 90% Democrat, continues to claim that it stands up for civil rights and minorities while keeping a gun ban in place that does nothing to deter robberies. The best way to stand up for people who have next to nothing is to first allow them to protect the things they do own and their own livelihoods. That's a change^tm that would give people hope^tm.

Plan on dancing on the steps of Jefferson's Memorial to celebrate his birth?

Well don't. You'll get arrested.

Only in Metro DC would they even consider pressing charges...

...but that's Prince George's County, MD for you.

*SUPREME COURT BACKS GUN RIGHTS!*

This is good news, and has the potential to help the GOP in 2008. But conservatives (especially the few left inside DC) should be cautious:

Governments have a right to regulate those firearms, a majority of justices seemed to agree. But there was less apparent agreement on the case they were arguing: whether Washington's ban on handguns goes too far.

However, Chief Justice John Roberts, one of the best things to happen in the Bush presidency, and Justice Antonin Scalia openly mocked the District's trigger lock provision in today's hearings:

"When you hear somebody crawling in your bedroom window, you can run to your gun, unlock it, load it and then fire?" Justice Antonin Scalia said.

Roberts, who has two young children, suggested at one point that trigger locks might be reasonable.

"There is always a risk that the children will get up and grab the firearm and use it for some purpose other than what the Second Amendment was designed to protect," he said.

On the other hand, he, too, wondered about the practical effect of removing a lock in an emergency. "So then you turn on the lamp, you pick up your reading glasses," Roberts said to laughter.

Anyone want to take a bet on how long it will take The Deciders to ask Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama where they stand on this case?

Sen. John McCain on DC v. Heller

Sen. John McCain's campaign today released this statement on the DC gun rights case I spoke of earlier:

ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain today issued the following statement on District of Columbia v. Heller:

"Today, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on District of Columbia v. Heller, a landmark case for all Americans who believe as I do that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms. I am proud to have joined in an amicus brief to the Court calling for a ruling in keeping with the clear intent of our Founding Fathers, which ensures the Second Amendment rights of the residents of District of Columbia are reaffirmed."

Sens. Clinton and Obama, by their absence on the pro-freedom amicus brief, both support the DC gun ban.

UPDATE: Courtesy of SCOTUSblog, here is their live-blogging and final analysis.

Everything You Need to Know about Tomorrow's DC Gun Ban Case

This is an interview with Reason Magazine Senior Editor Brian Doherty, who is currently writing a book on the District of Columbia v. Heller case, which will begin hearings in the Supreme Court tomorrow. Its just under five minutes long and pretty informative.

the dc gun ban: or, why any sane person stays out of anacostia after dark...

next tuesday the supreme court will begin hearing oral arguments in the dc gun rights case. i'm hoping to get a job in dc soon, and this has been one of the things that has concerned me about moving inside the city: i like living in places where law-abiding people have guns as well as the criminals.

reason magazine senior editor jacob sullum gives an overview of one of the strictest gun bans in the nation:

D.C. requires that all firearms in the home, including rifles and shotguns, be kept "unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock or similar device." That "safe storage" requirement makes it pretty hard to use any gun for self-defense, except maybe as a club. It makes D.C.'s gun laws look extreme even compared to those of other cities that ban handguns. If D.C.-style gun control does not violate the Second Amendment, it's hard to imagine what sort of gun control would.

the disctrict is apparently now using some strange legal meandering to misrepresent their own law:

Although three of the original plaintiffs in the D.C. gun ban case said they wanted to keep functional long guns in their homes, the District did not claim they already were allowed to do so. Instead it dismissed the very idea of armed self-defense as self-evidently absurd. "It cannot be seriously contended that the Second Amendment, even if applicable, guarantees private persons a right of ownership or possession of firearms on the basis of an asserted need to resort to self-help," D.C.'s lawyers told U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan.

But when the plaintiffs appealed Sullivan's dismissal of their complaint, the District suddenly began to suggest there might be exceptions to the "safe storage" requirement that are not mentioned in the statute. "The [D.C.] Council appears to have recognized that on rare occasions, in the event of a true emergency when necessary for self-defense, a gun could be unlocked," it said.

needless to say, i will (hopefully) be weighing in on this issues as the verdict is rendered next tuesday.

if you're in dc tomorrow...

reason magazine is hosting a free event from 6:30pm - 8:30pm wednesday at their dc offices. rep. jeff flake (r-az) will be speaking on trade normalization with cuba.

more event and rsvp information at the link.