You Know That "No Weapons " Sign On The Courthouse Door?

They mean it when they put that sign up. They really mean it. It's not a polite suggestion.

The Detroit Free Press: Pontiac woman arrested after trying to bring stun gun to court

You need a Concealed Pistol License CPL to even carry a stun gun (Taser-type) in Michigan. The article isn't clear if this even was a legal stun gun device, but it is clear she lacked a CPL so could not have been legally carrying it in any case.

Now, even if she had CPL, which she did not, that still wouldn't let her carry it into the court. You would think the no weapons sign and metal detectors, not to mention the court officers at the door, would have tipped her off that she really shouldn't try to bring it into court.

Some people really can't pick up on very obvious clues not to do something felony-stupid.

33 Killed In Mass Murder, No Firearm Involved

In a land with pretty much perfect gun control, Japan, evil people still can come up with ways to kill a lot of people.

In this case a whole lot of people, with a higher death count than Parkland or Newtown.

The Detroit News: Man screaming ‘You die!’ kills 33 at anime studio

A man screaming “You die!” burst into an animation studio in Kyoto, doused it with a flammable liquid and set it on fire Thursday, killing 33 people in an attack that shocked anime fans across Japan and beyond.

Like the 1990 Happy Land club mass murder by gasoline in the US which killed 87 people, flammable liquids are very easy for murderous criminals to obtain and use.

When You Come At the King, You Best Not Miss

The Democrats just had a rather embarrassing swing and a miss today.

The Detroit Free Press: Democratic-controlled House kills articles of impeachment against Trump

The impeachment attempt, done apparently against Pelosi's wishes, based on the rationale that Orange Man Bad, He Hurts Widdle People's Feewings, went down in flames in the Democrat controlled House 332-95. Such flames in fact that it seems mighty difficult to retrieve the resolution itself from the House's website (it comes up page not found), and the vote is not listed on the front page of the House's website that lists activity that took place today. Perhaps they're a tad embarrased they even brought it up.

The Four Donkeywomen of the Derpocalypse voted for the impeachment resolution. Interestingly and likely mindful of his upcoming contested race, Rep and former Republican Justin Amash, who had called for Trump's impeachment did not vote for this futile gesture. Nor did most Democrats for that matter who knew it was baseless and not a hill to even fight on, making it much sound and fury, signifying nothing. Without any impeachable offenses behind it, the resolution was doomed to fail and just one more example of the Democrat party being unable to not act like crazy spoiled children chasing a shiny bauble.

The crazy progressive wing of the Democrats just took a shot at the President, and they missed, which will likely cost them with voters that aren't pat of their progressive crazy fan base.

Some Legal Considerations For After A Self-Defense Incident

I'm currently representing a client in a self-defense case where he succeeded in defending himself in an incident but is now being charged by the prosecutor with felonious assault with a firearm, a 4-year felony. He did not discharge his firearm during the incident.

Without discussing the case further, as it is pending, and while it is a self-defense case, it has some "he said - he said" and conflicting witness accounts with grey areas that certainly let the prosecutor bring charges.

So Here's some Important Things to keep in mind in a self-defense incident:

1. Expect To Be Arrested.
You may have done it right, but the police and prosecutor may not agree or not even care to know at the time. My client had been arrested on the weekend, after the incident, and got to spend a night in jail as there was no judge available for Sunday arraignments. He did get a phone call, and he used it to contact me which was good. He also cooperated completely with the police and jail staff during his arrest and jail stay. This is important - don't do anything to increase any charges against you or make a court reluctant to grant you bail by acting out when under arrest. Instead, continue to behave as a law-abiding citizen at all times. Yes, it sucks, don't make it worse.

2. Have Bail Money.
At the arraignment, I was able to get the judge to see my client's perspective concerning the incident and presented an outline of the evidence to set the stage for it being a self-defense case. This was good and the judge actually told my client to thank me as based on the prosecutor's urging and the public defender, who I replaced at the arraignment, he was going to set bail at $50,000 (which my client did not have). But instead, based on my lawyering, he set it at a $2,000 / 10% down bond, meaning my client had to come up with $200 to get out of jail.
In short I did a nice job.

The problem was, my client didn't have $200 on him, nor did his family member who came to pick him up. This led to some interesting moments but it got worked out. Make sure whoever is coming to pick you up has money available for bail. Instead of buying your umpteenth firearm, have some money set aside in an envelope that your family member or trusted friend can get to for these ugly occasions. While item 3 below may help with bond, it can take time to get that arranged, so having cash easily available beats sitting in jail waiting to get bailed out. Trust me, you don't want to stay in jail any longer than you have to.

3. Concealed Carry Insurance Is Highly Recommended.
Good lawyers are not cheap, bail money isn't cheap, potential expert witnesses aren't cheap. The judicial process in a felony charge situation is not cheap. Having Concealed Carry Insurance is a darn good idea. I can say that the client has USCCA insurance and the USCAA is really stepping up and providing coverage for him which is vital. I have no experience as an attorney with other insurance programs for CPL holders, but based on my interactions with USCCA in this and prior incidents for clients, I can say their personnel, including their legal staff, are extremely responsive, on the ball, and do step in to get their member help. USCCA does get a retainer to the representing attorney, fast. Unless you have $5k-10k lying around just for a retainer for a felony case, you will want insurance, and an insurance program that pays up front.

4. Please be the one to call (or have someone on your side call) the police immediately and report the incident.
While no lawyer wants you making voluminous off-the-cuff statements where you may unknowingly be implicating yourself, any time you draw your firearm to protect yourself you're in a race to the phone. Not contacting the police immediately afterwards is very much not helpful. It is sufficient to state in the call that you were attacked; the attacker went that-away; you used a firearm to protect yourself; and you will happily stay where you are and wait for the police to arrive so you can report the incident (assuming that's safe to do, otherwise state you will drive or otherwise go direct to the police station); and yes, you do want to press charges if they catch the attacker.

Drawing your gun and preventing the attack is only the first stage in the encounter, winning the race to the phone is the next stage. Yes, bad guys do lie, call the police, and claim they're the victim and demand charges against you. It happens in real life.

5. Expect Not To Be Allowed To Own Firearms While The Case is Pending.
Most release terms for felony charges will include no alcohol, no drugs, and no possession of firearms. It's not a bad idea to have someone you can trust be ready to take possession of your firearms in such a situation.

In short, unless your self-defense incident was absolutely crystal clear, your protecting yourself and prevailing in the face of a violent attack is just the beginning.

Last Night's Meeting With Good Friends

Some people you can not see in person for years, just online, but meet up with them and the conversation flows and its like you've never been apart. Some people are like that.

I had a good meetup with Keads and Nancy yesterday when they visited Michigan to tour the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village.

They had a great time visiting one of this Country's finest museums, and I was able to meet up with them afterwards for dinner at the Dearborn Inn.

Keads even brought be a gift which is otherwise unobtainable in Michigan:

Yuengling is not distributed in Michigan, so getting any of it is always a treat.

Thankfully, I had planned ahead knowing he was coming, and on my last trip to Canada had gone to duty free to buy a case of his favorite libation (in bottles, not cans mind you), which is similarly very hard to find this side of the border.

I had a darn good dinner with both of them, the fine southern gentleman and southern lady that they are.

39 Warning Shots Are Kinda Excessive And Dangerously Ineffective

Breitbart: Father Fires 39 Shots to Fend off Naked Suspect Claiming to Be ‘the Devil’

A female home invader claiming to be the devil (naked, of course), breaks into a family's home and attacks them.

Father of the house fires shots in her direction to get her to leave, which only annoys her, leading to her attacking him.

He fires a total of 39 shots to no effect, eventually throwing furniture at her and she's not stopped until the man's son nails her with a wrench to the neck.

Note that the report is that

the father and the alleged intruder were both injured during the altercation but none of the injuries were from the gunshots

39 shots fired, zero hits. If they were warnign shots, they were impressively ineffective in warning off anything.

Either he needs some remedial marksmanship training, and/or some legal retraining to know that warning shots, especially 39 warning shots, really aren't.

Tasers Aren't 100% Effective

Especially when they are used against large drunken football players, as can be seen in the video in the attached story.

The Detroit News: TMZ releases video of ex-MSU star Malik McDowell in scuffle with police

The scene: Lathrup Village north of Detroit.

In short, a rather drunk and rather large Detroiter is pulled over, exits his vehicle, refuses to comply with an officer, goes into the convenience store where he's pulled over, keeps refusing to comply, and then sparks fly.

Sparks from repeated tasings that can be heard in the video don't seem to affect this guy at all.

Finally multiple other officers arrive and get him properly arrested as the original officer on the scene definitely had his hands full.

The drunken fellow gets charged with assault and resisting arrest, and operating while intoxicated, and also has some outstanding charges for receiving and concealing stolen property.

P30SK At 1,750 Rounds

Finally got out to the range with the P30SK. I met up with a friend at an indoor range in Utica, Close Quarters Tactical, trying it out for the first time. Decent range, nice staff, no issues at all.

I shot 200 rounds of Remington 115 grain 9mm brown box through it

No failures of any sort.

Since it was an indoor range, and this batch of 9mm seems to be rather full powered, being marked for military and police training, we saw a healthy amount of muzzle flash, including muzzle doughnuts heading out of the P30SK's short barrel.

Yes, lots of muzzle flash.

It was also markedly loud, which was interesting. A shooter in a neighboring lane was wondering if I was shooting a 357 Sig. Nope, just 115gr 9mm.

No failures or any malfunctions of any sort, and no issues accuracy wise even after 1,750 rounds through with no cleaning or additional lubrication.

Fifi! And Friends

The Commemorative Air Force's B-29 Superfortress came to Oakland County International Airport this week.

I managed to go see her today, along with the CAF's Stearman and a T-6 Texan that came for the event.

This was not a mere static display. They flew!

First the T-6 Texan took to the skies, taking off from Runway 9R.

She passed above Fifi on the way:

Then wheels going up, she headed off for the tour.

The Stearman was next:

Then the Grand Dame of the show taxi'd

Then Fifi was told to line up and wait on Runway 9R to start her two outboard engines and do the run up.

Then clearance to take off:

Fifi was purchased from the Air Force in 1971 and transferred to the Commemorative (then Confederate) Air Force and restored to flying condition. The restoration then took three years. She's one of only two flying B-29s.

So she took off this morning and at 8:16 am, directly over Detroit's City hall she opened her bomb bay does and serious urban renewal took place. Just kidding. Although, much of Detroit still looks worse than if it had been bombed, just saying.

Fifi took people on flights yesterday and today and she'll be wrapping up her visit here.

An awesome visit by some mighty historic aircraft.

Legal Phrasing Questions Abound

Legal Phrasing Question: How does one tactfully asks an opposing attorney on a contract deal:
"Who pissed in your Cheerios this morning?"

Normally the guy comes across as a reasonable and friendly guy getting a transaction done, which is as it should be, this morning not so much.

Here's the thing, he drafted the purchase agreement, which stated 60 days for due diligence and a closing 30 days after that.

Simple to read, simple to do, we agreed to it, no problems, and my client as seller has done their part.

He recently asked for an extension of both dates and my client agreed to extend the closing but not the due diligence date, mainly because the buyer is already occupying the building and has for years, and thus knows all about the building, so any diligence has been more than due and has really been done before he exercised an option to buy it and we don't want this going on forever.

Opposing counsel is rather testy by that response and claims we're being technical and that since the deal is based on an option the numbers and dates in the purchase agreement shouldn't matter. He follows up that he didn't even really need to ask to ignore the dates.

I point out that's not how a contract works, and it is his own document and his own numbers, and we're giving him an extension on the closing date, so what's the real problem?

He then threatens that since we're taking a "hard line" (by following his own document) he's going to get "technical" as well.

Ok then. My bet is they're looking for an excuse to get out of the deal. We'll see where he goes technically from here.

Happy Independence Day!

243 Years Ago, the Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence that the thirteen colonies were no longer subject to Britain but were united independent states.

Since then, while our country hasn't always lived up to the promise of the Declaration, nor been perfect, we've done pretty darn well, and America remains the greatest country on earth and, for all its faults, an example to the rest of the world.

Happy Independence Day!

The Woke Eat Their Own, Expensively

Progressives must always keep the wheels of progress moving, even if that means eating their own.

The New York Times: San Francisco Will Spend $600,000 to Erase History

The best part? They're spending $600,000 to destroy a mural painted by a communist back in the day as a critique of America as an evil, slave ownin', Indian killin' colonial country, but that critique is too "triggering" for the delicate progressive sensibilities of today:

Victor Arnautoff, the Russian immigrant who made the paintings in question, was perhaps the most important muralist in the Bay Area during the Depression. Thanks to President Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration, he had the opportunity to make some enduring public artworks. Among them is “City Life” in Coit Tower, in which the artist painted himself standing in front of a newspaper rack conspicuously missing the mainstream San Francisco Chronicle and packed with publications like The Daily Worker.

Arnautoff, who had assisted Diego Rivera in Mexico, was a committed Communist. “‘Art for art’s sake’ or art as perfume have never appealed to me,” he said in 1935. “The artist is a critic of society.”

This is why his freshly banned work, “Life of Washington,” does not show the clichéd image of our first president kneeling in prayer at Valley Forge. Instead, the 13-panel, 1,600-square-foot mural, which was painted in 1936 in the just-built George Washington High School, depicts his slaves picking cotton in the fields of Mount Vernon and a group of colonizers walking past the corpse of a Native American.

A Communist mural designed to denigrate America, ironically paid for by American taxpayers, is now too triggering for the left to endure.

Just like the Taliban, for the progressives left this can't just be covered up, this affront to the modern day progressive religion must be utterly destroyed:

Mark Sanchez, the school board’s vice president, later told me that simply concealing the murals wasn’t an option because it would “allow for the possibility of them being uncovered in the future.” Destroying them was worth it regardless of the cost, he argued at the hearing, saying, “This is reparations.”

That $600,000 could have gone a long way for the School Board to use for educating students, but instead, the proggy left must waste it by destroying an anti-American mural while claiming the destruction of admittedly crappy commie art, previously paid for at taxpayer expense of course, with the destruction paid for at taxpayer expense, is somehow an act of "reparations".

Happy Canada Day!

It's been a very long day at the office and court, so I'm finally getting to some rec time to make this blog post.

Happy Canada Day, Eh!