Gun Control Laws And Opposition
- Thread starter GURPS
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NYC Man Convicted Over Gunsmithing Hobby After Judge Says 2nd Amendment 'Doesn't Exist in This Courtroom'
Varghese described how Taylor became fascinated by weapon science during the COVID-19 lockdowns, which inspired him to take up his gunsmithing hobby. “He ended up building, I believe it was eight pistols and five rifles or six rifles, AR-style rifles, and then eight or nine Glock pistols that he built,” Varghese said.
In an interview prior to his conviction, Taylor told RedState:
From the beginning of Taylor’s trial, it was evident that the court would be biased against the defendant, according to Varghese, who explained that two judges presided over his case before the current official, Judge Abena Darkeh, took over.
The judge disrupted Varghese’s opening statement multiple times as he tried to set the stage for Taylor’s defense. Even further, she admonished the defense to refrain from mentioning the Second Amendment during the trial. Varghese told RedState:
Varghese said he had filed the appropriate paperwork to “preserve these arguments for appeal” but that the judge "rejected these arguments, and she went out of her way to limit me.”
During the trial, the prosecution attempted to paint Taylor as a dangerous individual who was building dangerous firearms in his basement. In this vein, the prosecution objected to allowing Taylor’s family in the courtroom to show support, nor did they allow his upstairs neighbor, who knew about Tayor’s hobby, to testify on his behalf. Varghese described the prosecutor’s opening statement:
When Varghese countered this narrative during his opening statement, the judge interrupted him again. “There’s no crime here, there’s no allegation of violence,” Varghese recounted, saying, “I got up and said, ‘You’re going to learn what Dexter is, who he is. You’re going to learn that he never fired these guns.’”
The judge interrupted again and asked the lawyers to come to her chambers for the second time.
Varghese explained that he believed the only chance of having the case go in his client’s favor was through jury nullification, which occurs when members of a jury believe a defendant violated a law, but decide against prosecuting them because they disagree with the law itself, or other reasons.
Judge Darkeh attempted to shut this argument down and led the jury to believe they would face consequences if they did not vote to convict Taylor. In reality, this is not the case. Jury nullification is not illegal, according to Varghese.
He added: “She basically said, ‘You must vote guilty’ without saying ‘you must vote guilty.’”
He characterized Judge Darkeh as “the most aggressive prosecutor in the room.”
Tennessee’s woke liberals cried harder yesterday as conservatives received some more good news. The Tennessean covered it in a story headlined, “Tennessee House passes bill allowing armed teachers, sending measure to the governor.”
Yesterday, Tennessee’s super-majority House Republicans passed legislation permitting some trained teachers and school staff to carry handguns. The bill was passed despite the desperate wailing of Democrats, mushy-skulled students, and anti-gun activists.
As the Tennessean understated things, “the House floor fell into chaos.” The cops had to clear the gallery.
Tennessee Representative Justin Jones (D-52) posted a short video giving a taste of the drama on the Tennessee House floor yesterday (2:20). Jones, a woke activist democrat, called removing anti-gun protestors ‘fascist,’ although it wasn’t perfectly clear that Rep. Jones understands what the word ‘fascist’ means, despite receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Fisk University.
I blame Fisk for the mixup. Jones should at least ask for a partial refund.
Obviously (or, it should be obvious), the new law includes multiple redundant layers of safety protections, like criminal and mental background checks, 40 hours of weapons training, and prior school permission before teachers can carry guns into school. It also protects teachers who do complete all those requirements, so they can’t be doxxed and harassed by woke brownshirts, and so bad guys can’t figure out how many teachers at a particular school might be armed.
The Tennessean didn’t quote anybody who supported the bill, so you know its reporting was totally fair.
Believe it or not, about half the states now let teachers carry concealed weapons on campus, with varying degrees of rules and requirements. I bet you could guess which half of the states.
More conservative progress. Viva la counter-revolution! And local, local, local.
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Hopefully, none of those armed will leave the weapon in the crapper like Capitol Police sometimes do.