THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS

The 30^th November is a day celebrating life.

Leopold II

Peter Leopold Joseph Anton Joachim Pius Gotthard, a.k.a. Leopold II, was Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary and Bohemia from 1790 to 1792, Archduke of Austria Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1765 to 1790. He was a son of Emperor Francis I and his wife, Empress Maria Theresa. Leopold was a moderate proponent of enlightened absolutism..

On 30 November 1786, after having de facto blocked capital executions (the last was in 1769), Leopold promulgated the reform of the penal code that abolished the death penalty and ordered the destruction of all the instruments for capital execution in his land. Torture was also banned. In 2000 Tuscany's regional authorities instituted an annual holiday on 30 November to commemorate the event. The event is also commemorated on this day by 300 cities around the world celebrating the Cities for Life Day.

There is however, a fly in the ointment.

The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act is an Act of the United States Congress that, for the first time, instituted federal background checks on firearm purchasers in the United States.

It was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on 30 November, 1993, and went into effect on February 28, 1994.  The Brady Act requires that background checks be conducted on individuals before a firearm may be purchased from a federally licensed dealer, manufacturer or importer - unless an exception applies. If there are no additional state restrictions, a firearm may be transferred to an individual upon approval by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) maintained by the FBI. In some states, proof of a previous background check can be used to bypass the NICS check. For example, a state-issued concealed carry permit usually includes a background check equivalent to the one required by the Act. Other alternatives to the NICS check include state-issued handgun purchase permits or mandatory state or local background checks.

Section 922(g) of the Brady Act prohibits certain persons from shipping or transporting any firearm in interstate or foreign commerce, or receiving any firearm which has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce, or possessing any firearm in or affecting commerce. These prohibitions apply to any person who:

1. Has been convicted in any court of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year;

2. Is a fugitive from justice;

3. Is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance;

4. Has been adjudicated as a mental defective or committed to a mental institution;

5. Is an alien illegally or unlawfully in the United States;

6. Has been discharged from the Armed Forces under dishonourable conditions;

7. Having been a citizen of the United States, has renounced U.S. citizenship;

8. Is subject to a court order that restrains the person from harassing, stalking, or threatening an intimate partner or child of such intimate partner, or;

9. Has been convicted in any court of a misdemeanour crime of domestic violence.

10.   Has a record of being a felon

Section 922(n) of the Act makes it unlawful for any person who is under indictment for a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year to ship or transport any firearm in interstate or foreign commerce, or receive any firearm which has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce.

Currently, 92% of Brady background checks through NICS are completed while the FBI is still on the phone with the gun dealer. In rare cases, a gun purchaser may have to wait for up to three business days if the NICS system fails to positively approve or deny his/her application to purchase a firearm. If a denial is not issued within those three days, the transfer may be completed at that time.

Firearm transfers by unlicensed private sellers that are "not engaged in the business" of dealing firearms are not subject to the Brady Act, but may be covered under other federal, state, and local restrictions.

From 1994 through 2008, 1.8 million attempted firearm purchases were blocked by the Brady background check system. For checks done by the FBI in 2008, felons accounted for 56 per cent of denials and fugitives from justice accounted for 13 per cent of denials. In April 2009, the FBI announced it had completed its 100 millionth NICS approval since its inception 10 years before.

Prosecution and conviction of violators of the Brady Act, however, is extremely rare. During the first 17 months of the Act, only 7 individuals were convicted. In the first year of the Act, 250 cases were referred for prosecution and 217 of them were rejected.

You will note the highlighted in bold sections of the above text.  Most of it is done over the phone and the FBI has approved effectively 10 million purchases of guns per year over the last 10 years.

An example of ineffectual legislation or non-performance writing.

FOR THE SAFETY OF THE SHIP

Two hundred and thirty years ago today, on the 29^th November 1871, an incident at sea caused a bit of a stir in the English courts. The incident occurred on a British ship called the Zong, out of Liverpool. A Mr. James Gregson and colleagues of a Liverpool mercantile firm owned the ship. The incident resulted in a court case brought as a civil action by the ships owners seeking compensation from the insurers for ‘lost cargo’.

The ship had taken on more slaves/cargo than it could safely transport when it sailed from Africa en route to Jamaica on 6 September 1781. By 29 November, this overcrowding, together with malnutrition and disease, had killed seven of the crew and approximately sixty enslaved Africans. With the journey prolonged by contrary winds and inept navigation, Captain Luke Collingwood had an increasing number of the dead and dying in his cargo hold. If he delivered them and they died onshore the Liverpool ship-owners would have no redress; but if they died at sea they were covered by the ship's insurance. As, in law, the slaves would be considered cargo, the "jettison clause" covered their loss at £30 a head.

“The insurer takes upon him the risk of the loss, capture, and death of slaves, or any other unavoidable accident to them: but natural death is always understood to be excepted: by natural death is meant, not only when it happens by disease or sickness, but also when the captive destroys himself through despair, which often happens: but when slaves are killed, or thrown into the sea in order to quell an insurrection on their part, then the insurers must answer”

Collingwood called his officers and proposed that the sick should be thrown overboard. Although the First Mate James Kelsall initially disagreed, the plan was agreed, and so, over three days in the mid Atlantic Ocean, 133 sick slaves went over the side: 54 on 29 November, 42 on 30 November and 26 on 1 December. Another ten, in a display of defiance at the inhumanity of the slavers, threw themselves overboard and, in the words of a contemporary account, "leaping into the sea, felt a momentary triumph in the embrace of death." Later, it was claimed that the slaves had been jettisoned because it was required "for the safety of the ship" as the ship did not have enough water to keep them alive for the rest of the voyage. This claim was later disproved as the ship had 420 gallons of water left when it arrived in Jamaica on 22 December.

The ship's owners filed their insurance claim, but the insurers disputed it, backed by the evidence of the first mate. In this first court case, even with the first mate's testimony – the ship had plenty of water, Jamaica was near – the court found for Collingwood and the owners.

Lord Mansfield

The insurers appealed. The court case was presided over by Lord Chief Justice Lord Mansfield. The Solicitor General for England and Wales, John Lee notoriously declared that "the case was the same as if horses had been thrown overboard" but Lord Mansfield ruled that the ship-owners could not claim insurance on the slaves because the lack of sufficient water demonstrated that the cargo had been badly managed.

No officers or crew were charged or prosecuted for the deliberate killing of 133 slaves. Lee declared that a master could drown slaves without "a surmise of impropriety". He stated:

John Lee

“What is this claim that human people have been thrown overboard? This is a case of chattels or goods. Blacks are goods and property; it is madness to accuse these well-serving honourable men of murder. They acted out of necessity and in the most appropriate manner for the cause. The late Captain Collingwood acted in the interest of his ship to protect the safety of his crew. To question the judgement of an experienced well-travelled captain held in the highest regard is one of folly, especially when talking of slaves. The case is the same as if wood had been thrown overboard”.

No amount of performance writing can express feelings about this. One is left wordless.

The Slave Ship, J.M.W. Turner’s representation of the massacre

NULLIUS IN VERBA

The 28^th November a rather busy day for stuff. On the 28th November 1660, a group of 12 scientists, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins and Sir Robert Moray, met at Gresham College and announced the formation of a "College for the Promoting of Physico-Mathematical Experimental Learning", which would meet weekly to discuss science and run experiments. This later became known as the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge. Now known simply as the Royal Society.

Wren

Boyle

Moray

Wilkins

The Society was initially an extension of the "Invisible College", with the founders intending it to be a place of research and discussion. The Society today acts as a scientific advisor to the British government, receiving a parliamentary grant-in-aid. The Society acts as the UK's Academy of Sciences, and funds research fellowships and scientific start-up companies. The Society’s motto is Nullius in verba – Take nobody’s word for it.

The Treaty of Hopewell is any of three different treaties signed at Hopewell Plantation. The plantation was owned by Andrew Pickens, and was located on the Seneca River in northwestern South Carolina. The treaties were signed between the Confederation Congress of the United States of America and the Chjerokee (1785),Choctaw and Chickasaw (1786) peoples. The historic site of the 'Treaty Oak', where the signings took place, is on Old Cherry Road inPickens County, South Carolina. There is an historical marker placed near the bridge crossing Lake Hartwell, and a trail through the forest that allows access to the monument. The actual Treaty Oak is no longer alive.

Hawkins

On 28^th November, 1785, the first Treaty of Hopewell was signed between the U.S. representative Benjamin Hawkins and the Cherokee Indians. The treaty laid out a western boundary for white settlement. The treaty gave rise to the sardonic Cherokee phrase of Talking Leaves, since they claimed that when the treaties no longer suited the Americans, they would blow away like talking leaves. Every treaty between the succeeding United States governments and the Native American tribes would be blown away like leaves. One could say Nullius in verba.

A description of the boundary is found on Article 4 of the accord: The boundary allotted to the Cherokees for their hunting grounds, between the said Indians and the citizens of the United States, within the limits of the United States of America, is, and shall be the following, viz. Beginning at the mouth of Duck river, on the Tennessee; thence running north-east to the ridge dividing the waters running into Cumberland from those running into the Tennessee; thence east-wardly along the said ridge to a north-east line to be run, which shall strike the river Cumberland forty miles above Nashville; thence along the said line to the river; thence up the said river to the ford where the Kentucky road crosses the river; thence to Campbell's line, near Cumberland gap; thence to the mouth of Claud's creek on Holstein; thence to the Chimney-top mountain; thence to Camp-creek, near the mouth of Big Limestone, on Nolichuckey; thence a southerly course six miles to a mountain; thence south to the North-Carolina line; thence to the South-Carolina Indian boundary, and along the same south-west over the top of the Oconee mountain till it shall strike Tugaloo river; thence a direct line to the top of the Currohee mountain; thence to the head of the south fork of Oconee river

Mind you, not a bad place to be.