The Illogical “In Common Use” Legal Standard

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The Supreme Court’s District of Columbia v. Heller decision in 2008 was a landmark case. While it did confirm our right to keep and bear arms, it stopped short of overturning the plethora of bad laws that it should have. In this essay, I will demonstrate that the logic that the court applied in Heller was significantly flawed. In Heller, while addressing the 1939 Miller v. United States decision, the Supreme Court applied the standard of “the sorts of weapons protected were those ‘in common use at the time.’”

Some background: Jack Miller and Frank Layton were small-time crooks that had been convicted of illegal possession of a short-barreled shotgun–which had effectively been banned by the National Firearms Act of 1934. (NFA-’34.) The case was heard with Miller in absentia — he was still in prison on a string of charges. The illogical Miller decision revolved around the fact that in 1937, militias did not issue shotguns with barrels measuring less than 18 inches, so, therefore, Mr. Miller’s constitutional rights were not infringed by the National Firearms Act of 1934. That was a specious argument.  Instead of addressing the constitutional issue squarely, they deflected off into “in common use” semantics.  The Miller decision was bad law, and more recently the Supreme Court has compounded the Miller decision’s error, by echoing it in the Heller ruling.

Heller’s “in common use” test has been debated by legal scholars for the past 12 years. A piece authored by Nicholas J. Johnson published in Harvard Law and Policy Review is fairly typical. But both the Supreme Court and later analysts have overlooked a key logical flaw in this standard.  The flaw is this: The “In Common Use” standard ignores the potential common use by the citizenry that failed to develop because of previously-enacted unconstitutional laws or edicts. Looking retrospectively, the restraint on commerce created by gun laws is incalculable.  For instance, consider how many machineguns or submachineguns would now be “in common use”, if it were not for the onerous federal tax that congress established in 1934, or the ban on new manufacture (for private sale) with the Hughes Amendment, in 1986? It is impossible to quantify, but it is safe to assume that there would now be millions of machineguns now circulating in private hands if it were not for those two laws. Simply stated: They never achieved “common use” because congress unconstitutionally taxed and banned them!
Continue reading“The Illogical “In Common Use” Legal Standard”

SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. We also mention companies of interest to preppers and survivalists that are located in the American Redoubt region. Today, we focus on Smithsonian’s Aerial America television series, parts of which recently became available on YouTube. (See the Idaho and Montana sections.)

Idaho

Aerial America: Idaho (Full Episode)

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10 Cheapest Idaho Town to Buy a Home.

JWR’s Comment: Apparently this video was produced by someone who has never been north of Caldwell. There are plenty of towns in North Central and North Idaho with a median home price below $110,000. But you won’t find that pricing in the larger towns and cities.

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Reader A.K. spotted this: Lawsuit seeks to halt construction of central Idaho trail

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Idaho “Celebrates” California Forbidding Travel To Idaho Over Law Against Boys Playing Girls Sports

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt”

Preparedness Notes for Monday — June 29, 2020

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On June 29th, 1941, the Germans invaded and occupied Lvov, in eastern Galicia, in Ukraine, slaughtering thousands of people. Russia followed a scorched earth policy as Germany invaded just as they had during Napoleon’s invasion. The burned, destroyed, flooded, dismantled and removed anything and everything in territory that they were forced to give up. As the Germans moved in, the Soviets proceeded to murder 3,000 Ukrainian political prisoners. It was so bad that the Germans were actually seen as liberators by the local population. Sadly, within days, they were forced to endure the horrors of the Nazi regime as some 2.5 million Ukrainians were shipped to Germany as slave laborers and the Ukrainian Jews were subjected to the same vicious racial policies as in Poland. Over 600,000 were murdered. Even the Ukrainian nationalists participated in the bloodshed by scapegoating Jews for “Bolshevism” and killing them in the streets.

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Today, another review by our Field Gear Editor, Pat Cascio.

Remington 1911 R1 Enhanced, by Pat Cascio

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Its always fun to test 1911 handguns — at least its fun for me. I never tire of them, and I can’t begin to count how many different gun makers are producing 1911s these days, or the number of models being made. Today, we’re looking at the Remington 1911 R1 Enhanced variant. (You may recall that I already reviewed the R1 “Carry” variant, back in 2018.)

As many readers may know, Remington-UMC produced a few M1911 pistols in .45 ACP during World War I, and Remington Rand–best known for its typewriters–produced an even larger quantity of M1911A1 pistols, during World War II.  There were several other makers of 1911s during WW2 as well. Even the Singer Sewing Machine company was making 1911s. Colt was the major supplier of 1911s during both world wars, but they couldn’t keep up with demand, thus other companies stepped in to help supply our military. But for many year after WWII, Remington didn’t produce any 1911s. They were primarily known as a riflemaker.

The current crop of 1911s that Remington Arms is producing is an outgrowth of their purchase of Para Ordnance. Para started out producing wide-body 1911 frames only – it was quite the thing, back around 1990. Many people bought the frames, and purchased slides to go on them, so that they had a 13+1 round 1911 in .45 ACP. And at some point, Para started producing complete 1911s. It was touch and go for a while, as there were many problems with the guns not functioning as designed. Para-Ordnance had been located in Canada. The company was sold. The tooling was moved to South Carolina, and the company became Para-Ord USA. Most of the employees didn’t make that move. And, once again, there were problems with completed guns not functioning all the time. Eventually, the bugs were worked out.

Enter Remington Arms. They purchased Para-Ord, lock, stock ‘n barrel, and again moved it, this time down to Alabama. Once again, only some of the Para employees made the move from South Carolina to Alabama. Then, for several years, Remington did not produce any Para 1911s. They eventually did produce some that were rollmarked with both the Para-Ord and Hunstville, Alabama, but it wasn’t very many. But at some point soon after, Remington decided to stop producing 1911s under the Para-Ord name. So if you have one of those interim guns that is marked both Para-Ord and Hunstville, Alabama, then it is worth some money.Continue reading“Remington 1911 R1 Enhanced, by Pat Cascio”

Recipe of the Week: Indian Style Baked Tomatoes

The following recipe is from The New Butterick Cook Book, by Flora Rose, co-head of the School of Home Economics at Cornell University. It was published in 1924. A professional scan of that 724-page out-of-copyright book will be one of the bonus items in the next edition of the waterproof SurvivalBlog Archive USB stick. This 15th Anniversary Edition USB stick should be available for sale in the third week of January, 2021.

Since tomatoes are starting to ripen for SurvivalBlog readers in most North American climate zones, I thought  that this recipe would be apropos:

Indian Style Baked Tomatoes
Ingredients
  • 6 tomatoes
  • 3 tablespoons rice
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 slice bread
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • 2 hard-cooked egg-yolks
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/8 teaspoon minced garlic clove
  • 1 teaspoon chopped celery
  • A little chopped parsley
  • Thyme (amount to suit your taste)
  • 1/2 teaspoon curry-powder
Directions
  1. Cut the tops from the tomatoes [set aside] and remove the pulp. [ Also set that aside, as if you were readying a pumpkin for carving.]
  2. Wash the rice carefully, put in a saucepan with one-half cup salted boiling water, and the tomato pulp
  3. Cook the rice and tomato pulp until the rice is soft.
  4. Add the butter, the bread soaked in the milk, the mashed egg-yolk and seasonings. Stir this mixture well.
  5. Stuff the tomato shells with this mixture.
  6. Now replace the tomato tops and place the stuffed tomatoes in a baking-dish.
  7. Bake in a moderate oven [325 F.] until the tomatoes are soft. (About twenty minutes).

Note: The curry-powder gives an unusual flavor to the tomatoes, but may be omitted.

SERVING

These can be served as a side dish. They are great to serve alongside any pasta.

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Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? In this weekly recipe column we place emphasis on recipes that use long term storage foods, recipes for wild game, dutch oven and slow cooker recipes, and any that use home garden produce. If you have any favorite recipes, then please send them via e-mail. Thanks!

Economics & Investing For Preppers

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Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. Most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at the prospects for both a Dollar collapse and a global economic collapse. (See the Economy & Finance section and the Forex & Cryptos section.)

Precious Metals:

Commerzbank: Gold-price declines still used as ‘buying opportunities’

o  o  o

Craig Hemke: Waiting on COMEX Silver

Economy & Finance:

IMF says global economic collapse caused by coronavirus will be even worse than feared. This article’s opening lines:

“The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday painted a bleak portrait of the global economy, saying the coronavirus pandemic has caused more widespread damage than expected and will be followed by a sluggish recovery.

The global economy will shrink this year by 4.9%, worse than the 3% decline predicted in April, the IMF said.

No major economy is escaping the pandemic. The U.S. economy, the world’s largest, is expected to shrink this year by 8%. Countries that use the single European currency are headed for a decline of more than 10% while Japanese output will fall by 5.8%, the IMF said.”

o  o  o

At Zero Hedge: As Yields Approach The Zero Bound – There Is Nowhere To Hide

o  o  o

Egon: The Can is Too Big For The Fed & ECB to Kick

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At WND: U.S. banks suddenly ‘swimming in money’

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

Preparedness Notes for Sunday — June 28, 2020

June 28th, 1703 was the birthday of John Wesley, who died 2 March 1791.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 89 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  4. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  5. An assortment of products along with a one hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $150 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 89 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Review: Coast FX350, HX5, and FX228 – Part 2, by The Novice

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(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the review)

Opening the Second Box

The second product box was the Coast 100 Year Anniversary Gift Box. This box was less substantial than one containing the FX350, but it was still nothing to sneeze at. A flashlight and a knife were nested in a multi-layered cardboard cutout along with a brochure outlining the 100 year history of the Coast company, along with a couple of packs of rust preventative silica gel.

The flashlight is a special 100-year anniversary version of the HX5 flashlight. It is rated at 130 lumens and 3.75 hours of battery life with the included AA Duracell Coppertop battery. It has a zoom focus lens, and a clever two-way clip that I will talk more about later. The switch is on the bottom cap, and the switch protector has a tiny hole where a lanyard can be inserted (not included).

I initially assigned the HX5 as my “dresser flashlight” for the testing period. The dresser flashlight illuminates my steps when I get up in the middle of the night so that I don’t trip over anything in the dark. Gentlemen of a certain age may know something about getting up in the middle of the night.

I really like AA battery-powered flashlights for a couple of reasons. One reason is that I have a virtually unlimited supply of partly used AA batteries. Why? The cordless microphones at our church are powered by AA batteries. At the point when the batteries are partly discharged and too unreliable to power a microphone for an entire service, they are usually still strong enough to power an LED flashlight for a respectable period of time. The church’s Tech Team is only too happy to send these batteries home with me rather than throwing them in the trash. The second reason that I like AA powered flashlights is that I have a good supply of Eneloop rechargable AA batteries, which also work quite well in most LED flashlights. Both of these types of batteries worked well in the HX5.

The knife in the 100 Year Anniversary Gift Box is a FX228. As the name indicates, it is a frame locking knife with a blade a little over two inches long. It has a black metal frame with some nice engraving set off by brass screws. Although it has a frame lock rather than a liner lock, the frame on this little knife is not much thicker than the liner on many larger knives. The blade has a nail nick for opening, and comes out of the box usefully sharp.Continue reading“Review: Coast FX350, HX5, and FX228 – Part 2, by The Novice”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

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SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “JWR”. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. Today, we look at High Honeybee Summer Losses

DHS: How to Decon N95 Masks with an Instant Pot

Reader N.S. sent the link to a video with some useful decontamination info for your PPE: Multicooker Decontamination of N95 Respirators

High Honeybee Summer Losses

Another from Reader C.B.: US beekeepers reported lower winter losses but abnormally high summer losses. This article’s opening paragraph:
“Beekeepers across the United States lost 43.7% of their managed honey bee colonies from April 2019 to April 2020, according to preliminary results of the 14th annual nationwide survey conducted by the nonprofit Bee Informed Partnership (BIP). These losses mark the second highest loss rate the survey has recorded since it began in 2006 (4.7 percentage points higher than the average annual loss rate of 39.0%). The survey results highlight the cyclical nature of honey bee colony turnover. Although the high loss rate was driven by the highest summer losses ever reported by the survey, winter losses were markedly lower than in most years. As researchers learn more about what drives these cycles of loss, this year emphasizes the importance of the summer for beekeeper losses.”

Could Doomsday Bunkers Become the New Normal?

A recent article in The New York Times quotes my #1 Son, who operates SurvivalRealty. It is titled: Could Doomsday Bunkers Become the New Normal?

An Oregon County’s Racist Mask Rule — Now Rescinded

Another from D.S.V., in The New York Post: Oregon county issues face mask order that exempts non-white people. Update: After public outcry, this order was rescinded, a few days later.

Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him.

And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.

And he spake this parable unto them, saying,

What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?

And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.

I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it?

And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.

Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.” – Luke 15 1-10 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Saturday — June 27, 2020

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June 27th is the birthday of economist Dr. Ravi Batra. (Born 1943.)

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 89 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  4. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  5. An assortment of products along with a one hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $150 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 89 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Review: Coast FX350, HX5, and FX228 – Part 1, by The Novice

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The State where I live does not allow concealed carry of a sheath knife unless you are hunting. Since even a simple thing like putting on a jacket may inadvertently “conceal” your knife, it is usually the better part of wisdom if not valor to avoid carrying a sheath knife at all unless you are involved in outdoor pursuits.

Since the laws involving folding knives are much less stringent, and since knives are such handy tools, I usually carry a folder. For several decades, a Victorinox MiniChamp has been my constant companion.

A couple of years ago, a friend complicated things by giving me an inexpensive TG Raptor knife. I carried it for a while to express my appreciation, and discovered that it often came in handy. In many instances the larger blade of the Raptor was more useful than the smaller blade of the MiniChamp.

One problem with the TG Raptor is that it looks aggressive enough to attract some attention. I started receiving questions about it. In the interests of lowering my profile, I decided to look for something a little less conspicuous.

I eventually settled on the Outdoor Edge Onyx EDC. It has replaceable blades, is easy to keep sharp, and did not attract any attention. I has been my primary every day carry (EDC) knife for about a year. But the thinness of replaceable blade made me a little uneasy. I was concerned that it might fail under heavy use. So I kept my eye out for something more substantial.Continue reading“Review: Coast FX350, HX5, and FX228 – Part 1, by The Novice”

Editors’ Prepping Progress

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To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug out bag fine-tuning, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year. Note that as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in the Comments. Let’s keep busy and be ready!

Jim Reports:

I had a very quiet week helping an elderly relative, so I’ll be leaving most of this week’s Editors’ Prepping Progress column up to my lovely wife, Avalanche Lily.

Other than some gardening work and exercising (mainly bicycling) on most mornings, I didn’t do much that was preparedness-related. But I did succeed in finding eight antique guns for my inventory at Elk Creek Company. These include: A couple of very early Marlin pump action 12 gauge shotguns, a .38 S&W top-break revolver, two Stevens top break .22 single-shot pistols, another 1895-dated Swedish Mauser sporter, a Colt Model 1878 Double Action Frontier revolver in .44-40, and a Winchester Model 1890 pump action rifle chambered in .22 Short.  I should have all of those listed by the third week of July.

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”