Harriet Miers packs a .45!

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Harriet Miers packs a .45!

Posted: 10/13/2005 1:35:43 PM EDT

Friom Mark Steyn:

For what it’s worth, my sense is that Harriet Miers will be, case by case, a more reliable vote against leftist judicial activism than her mercurial predecessor, Sandra Day O’Connor. Why do I say this? Well, she’s a strong supporter of the right to bear arms. The great Second Amendment expert Dave Kopel says you have to go back to Louis Brandeis 90 years ago to find a Supreme Court justice whose pre-nomination writings extol gun rights as fulsomely as Miss Miers. According to an old boyfriend, Judge Nathan Hecht of the Texas Supreme Court, she packs heat — a Smith & Wesson .45 — which I can say with certainty the other lady justice, the far-left Ruth Bader Ginsberg, never has.

www.marksteyn.com/index2.cfm?edit_id=21
I know most of you guys would prefer it if she packed a Colt, but it looks like she will be a great choice for our issue.

So STFU!

Posted: 10/13/2005 1:37:24 PM EDT

[#1]

I hope if she gets confirmed she buys herself a decent Kimber to celebrate...

Posted: 10/13/2005 1:37:38 PM EDT

[#2]

According to an old boyfriend, Judge Nathan Hecht of the Texas Supreme Court, she packs heat — a Smith & Wesson .45 — which I can say with certainty the other lady justice, the far-left Ruth Bader Ginsberg, never has.

Oh well there you have it. Concrete evidence.

Posted: 10/13/2005 1:37:42 PM EDT

[#3]

Wow! This fine senator from New York likes to shoot a TEC-9 at the range, and wears proper hearing protection to boot. He must really be a supporter of the 2nd Amendment, so STFU!

Posted: 10/13/2005 1:38:19 PM EDT

[#4]

Those of teh JMB cult will be truly conflicted.

Posted: 10/13/2005 1:41:30 PM EDT

[#5]

I hope she turns out to be a 2nd amendment supporter, but the other guys in here have a good point. With such a lack of a record only time will tell.

Posted: 10/13/2005 1:49:24 PM EDT

[#6]

Here is the text from David Kopel's blog mentioned in Mark Steyn's article:

Miers on the Right to Keep and Bear Arms: The New Republic's fine &c blog points to a 1992 article she wrote for the Texas Lawyer. In the article, she points to three infamous multiple homicides in Texas: the 1966 Texas Tower Shooting, in which a man climbed the clock tower at the University of Texas, and shot 14 people. (He was finally stopped when two policemen and a civilian rushed the building.) The second was the 1991 Killeen massacre, where a man entered a Luby's Cafeteria, and methodically slaughtered 23 unarmed people. (The incident played a major role in Texas rescinding its ban on carrying concealed handguns, and enacting a Shall Issue permit law.) The third incident in Miers' article had taken place recently; a man murdered two judges and two lawyers in a Fort Worth courthouse.

"How does a free society prevent" such crimes, she asked. She then explained:

The same liberties that ensure a free society make the innocent vulnerable to those who prevent rights and privileges and commit senseless and cruel acts. Those precious liberties include free speech, freedom to assemble, freedom of liberties, access to public places, the right to bear arms and freedom from constant surveillance. We are not willing to sacrifice these rights because of the acts of maniacs.
Miers, however, rejected the notion that "precious liberties", including "the right to bear arms," should be sacrificed in the name of crime prevention. Quite obviously, she was referring to the "right to bear arms" as an individual right.

It's technically possible that she was referring only to the Texas Constitutional arms right, which clearly is individual, rather than to the Second Amendment. However, the context of the quote does not seem so constricted, and even to describe the Texas right a precious liberty says a good deal about Ms. Miers' thinking.

She then explained the true solution to crime:

We will be successful in solving our massive crime problems only when we attack the root causes....

We all can be active in some way to address the social issues that foster criminal behavior, such as: lack of self-esteem or hope in some segments of our society, poverty, lack of health care (particularly mental health care), lack of education, and family dysfunction.

I agree, and have argued in the Barry Law Review that much-improved pre-school programs for at-risk boys would be far more effective, in the long run, at reducing violent crime than would gun control or even more draconian "conservative" federal criminal laws.

As far as I know, you have to go back to Louis Brandeis to find a Supreme Court nominee whose pre-nomination writing extolled the right of armed self-defense. (I'll fill in the details on him in a subsquent post.) And even Brandeis had not specicially mentioned "the right to bear arms" as one of the "precious liberties" that "We are not willing to sacrifice."

Many web writers have raised legitimate questions about Miers. In terms of the right to arms, however, Americans who love their precious liberties need not hope about the unknown, but need only expect her to be consistent with what she has already said.

UPDATE: Just to clarify a few points: 1. It's possible that some nominee in-between Brandeis and Miers said something nice about the right to arms or self-defense, prior to his or her nomination. As elective candidates, Black, Warren, or O'Connor might be especially likely to have done so. It's just that, among the pro-RKBA community, there are no well-known quotes from them, as there are from Brandeis and Miers. 2. Everybody makes typos, but I agree that the quantity of errors in Miers' short article is troubling. 3. Clearly there were other potential nominees--including Pryor, Brown, and Jones--who have a more established record on the right to arms, and whose record on that issue is clearly part of a coherent judicial philosophy. 4. Given Miers' hero-worship of Bush, it is fair to wonder how often--if ever--she would rule against a position argued by Bush's Solicitor General. The current Bush policy is to defend all federal guns laws (including the D.C. handgun prohibition)--not by denying that the Second Amendment is an individual right, but by arguing that the civil plaintiffs do not have standing to challenge the law unless they are actually criminally prosecuted. That said, Miers is still very likely an improvement over O'Connor, who in United States v. Staples (1994)joined Justice O'Connor's concurrence regarding "the 'widespread lawful gun ownership' Congress and the States have allowed to persist in this country" and "the notable lack of comprehensive regulation." (emphasis added).

Posted: 10/13/2005 1:50:28 PM EDT

[#7]

Quoted:
www.ocshooters.com/Gen/politics/img/upchuckshooting.jpg

Wow! This fine senator from New York likes to shoot a TEC-9 at the range, and wears proper hearing protection to boot. He must really be a supporter of the 2nd Amendment, so STFU!

I don't think Chucky has written articles extolling the RKBA.

Posted: 10/13/2005 2:22:44 PM EDT

[#8]

Well then, can everybody get off this lady's ass??

Posted: 10/13/2005 2:26:56 PM EDT

[#9]

Quoted:
www.ocshooters.com/Gen/politics/img/upchuckshooting.jpg

Wow! This fine senator from New York likes to shoot a TEC-9 at the range, and wears proper hearing protection to boot. He must really be a supporter of the 2nd Amendment, so STFU!

Yeh, that's a real good analogy.

Posted: 10/13/2005 2:26:56 PM EDT

[#10]

Diane Feinstein carried/carrys a gun as well, but she does'nt want anyone else to have that ability, packing heat doesn't prove anything about support for the 2nd for the masses.

Posted: 10/13/2005 2:28:16 PM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:
Diane Feinstein carried/carrys a gun as well, but she does'nt want anyone else to have that ability, packing heat doesn't prove anything about support for the 2nd for the masses.

Why don't you read all the posts? Her view on the 2nd seems to be quite clear.

Posted: 10/13/2005 2:38:18 PM EDT

[#12]

Packing and or owning a gun dosen't mean shit. They can still be a asshole.

Posted: 10/13/2005 2:49:54 PM EDT

[#13]

Quoted:
Friom Mark Steyn:
For what it’s worth, my sense is that Harriet Miers will be, case by case, a more reliable vote against leftist judicial activism than her mercurial predecessor, Sandra Day O’Connor. Why do I say this? Well, she’s a strong supporter of the right to bear arms. The great Second Amendment expert Dave Kopel says you have to go back to Louis Brandeis 90 years ago to find a Supreme Court justice whose pre-nomination writings extol gun rights as fulsomely as Miss Miers. According to an old boyfriend, Judge Nathan Hecht of the Texas Supreme Court, she packs heat — a Smith & Wesson .45 — which I can say with certainty the other lady justice, the far-left Ruth Bader Ginsberg, never has.

www.marksteyn.com/index2.cfm?edit_id=21
I know most of you guys would prefer it if she packed a Colt, but it looks like she will be a great choice for our issue.

So STFU!

Uh, newsflash, Feinstein packs a snub .357. Rosie Odonut hires armed security to protect her, and that a-hole antigun columnist from Washington shot a kid in his hot tub with an illegal handgun. Hypocrasy is common in this area.

This is no litmus test.

Posted: 10/13/2005 2:50:02 PM EDT

[#14]

Actually there is no proof that she ever carried the .45 and it has been confirmed that she does NOT have a permit to carry. There is only evidence that someone gave her a .45. That's pretty weak in my book as Feinstein admits to previously carrying a firearm and we know how pro-gun she is.

Posted: 10/13/2005 2:57:17 PM EDT

[#15]

Anyone catch Bill Maher calling her "the cleaning lady" on HBO the other night?

Posted: 10/13/2005 3:00:17 PM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Diane Feinstein carried/carrys a gun as well, but she does'nt want anyone else to have that ability, packing heat doesn't prove anything about support for the 2nd for the masses.

Why don't you read all the posts? Her view on the 2nd seems to be quite clear.

The important word is seems...

Posted: 10/13/2005 3:30:26 PM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:
Quoted:
www.ocshooters.com/Gen/politics/img/upchuckshooting.jpg

Wow! This fine senator from New York likes to shoot a TEC-9 at the range, and wears proper hearing protection to boot. He must really be a supporter of the 2nd Amendment, so STFU!

Yeh, that's a real good analogy.

About as good as the thread author's conclusion that owning a firearm automatically ensures one is a supporter of the RKBA.

Posted: 10/13/2005 3:47:14 PM EDT

[#18]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
www.ocshooters.com/Gen/politics/img/upchuckshooting.jpg

Wow! This fine senator from New York likes to shoot a TEC-9 at the range, and wears proper hearing protection to boot. He must really be a supporter of the 2nd Amendment, so STFU!

Yeh, that's a real good analogy.

About as good as the thread author's conclusion that owning a firearm automatically ensures one is a supporter of the RKBA.

Well, if you would bother to read all the posts, her views are explained.

Posted: 10/13/2005 3:48:46 PM EDT

[#19]

BFD. Feinstein packs too.

Posted: 10/13/2005 3:58:22 PM EDT

[#20]

Quoted:
www.ocshooters.com/Gen/politics/img/upchuckshooting.jpg

Wow! This ~~fine~~ fag cocksucker senator from New York likes to shoot a TEC-9 at the range, and wears proper hearing protection to boot. He must really be a supporter of the 2nd Amendment, so STFU!

Fixed it for ya!

Posted: 10/13/2005 4:10:35 PM EDT

[#21]

Quoted:
Quoted:
www.ocshooters.com/Gen/politics/img/upchuckshooting.jpg

Wow! This ~~fine~~ fag cocksucker senator from New York likes to shoot a TEC-9 at the range, and wears proper hearing protection to boot. He must really be a supporter of the 2nd Amendment, so STFU!

Hey! it is degrading to fag cocksuckers to count Schumer in as one of them!

Fixed it for ya!

Hey! it is degrading to fag cocksuckers to count Schumer in as one of them.....Besides, I think he is more of a bestial felcher.

Posted: 10/13/2005 4:21:20 PM EDT

[#22]

I sick of hearing about this. People need to STFU until the hearings. After that, feel free to bloviate.

Posted: 10/13/2005 4:31:20 PM EDT

[#23]

Quoted:
Anyone catch Bill Maher calling her "the cleaning lady" on HBO the other night?

-10,000 You watch that asshat?

Posted: 10/13/2005 9:28:32 PM EDT

[#24]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Anyone catch Bill Maher calling her "the cleaning lady" on HBO the other night?

-10,000 You watch that asshat?

Know your enemy! I usually don't watch him but I made an exception the other night because someone posted here that Ben Affleck of all people gave a well spoken defense of the so called "Shoot First" law that was passed in FL. Oh yeah and Ann Coulter was on that night too.

Posted: 10/14/2005 4:37:03 AM EDT

[#25]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Anyone catch Bill Maher calling her "the cleaning lady" on HBO the other night?

-10,000 You watch that asshat?

Know your enemy! I usually don't watch him but I made an exception the other night because someone posted here that Ben Affleck of all people gave a well spoken defense of the so called "Shoot First" law that was passed in FL. Oh yeah and Ann Coulter was on that night too.

+10,001 for Ann Coulter.... you're up 1 now

Posted: 10/14/2005 4:38:35 AM EDT

[#26]

Harriet Miers packs a .45!

So do I. Can I be a judge too?

Posted: 10/14/2005 4:44:00 AM EDT

[#27]

... I'm favorably hopeful that Harriet Miers will be a good, Conservative SCOTUS. The liberals hate her (mostly because she's a * appointee, but nevertheless).

... Although she's no Bork, she certainly isn't a Ginsberg clone either.

Posted: 10/14/2005 4:50:25 AM EDT

[#28]

Quoted:
... I'm favorably hopeful that Harriet Miers will be a good, Conservative SCOTUS. The liberals hate her (mostly because she's a * appointee, but nevertheless).

... Although she's no Bork, she certainly isn't a Ginsberg clone either.

I agree with your opinion, but that doesn't make me feel better about the way in which she was selected, and the judges who were passed over for that selection. That said (and to get the thread back on track), I think we can say with all certainty that the Smith and Wesson she first carried was bought in their "pre-sellout" days.

Posted: 10/14/2005 4:52:28 AM EDT

[#29]

Of course she does, she is a Texan.

Posted: 10/14/2005 5:02:31 AM EDT

[#30]

Quoted:
Quoted:
... I'm favorably hopeful that Harriet Miers will be a good, Conservative SCOTUS. The liberals hate her (mostly because she's a * appointee, but nevertheless).

... Although she's no Bork, she certainly isn't a Ginsberg clone either.

I agree with your opinion, but that doesn't make me feel better about the way in which she was selected, and the judges who were passed over for that selection.

... I understand. But being the eternal optimist, have also been witness to situations in life where someone that wasn't churned out of the regular clique ended up being a fresh set of eyes that helped an organization grow. It's possible. Think JD Hayworth; no one in Arizona had any faith in a junior Congressman that was previously a TV weatherman - He's turned out to be quite the pro-RKBA AZ favorite.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Harriet Miers packs a .45!

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