Here is the latest on the legal front.  No changes in our case in the Seventh Circuit.

*** The Fight Over Ammo Mags Capacity Limits - Heats Up.  The Golden State’s ban on magazines that hold more than ten rounds of ammunition violates the Second Amendment.

U. S. District Court for the Southern District of California Judge Robert Benitez struck down the Golden State’s ban on magazines with a capacity greater than 10 rounds in Duncan v. Bonta, on Friday. He found the restriction on so-called high-capacity magazines failed the test for determining the constitutionality created by the Supreme Court last year.  The reversal won’t take immediate effect and California Attorney General Rob Bonta immediately filed a notice appeal and an emergency motion for a stay of Judge Benitez’s order – meaning the ban will likely stay in effect while the case remains pending.

“This case is about a California state law that makes it a crime to keep and bear common firearm magazines typically possessed for lawful purposes,” Judge Benitez wrote in Duncan v. Bonta. “Based on the text, history, and tradition of the Second Amendment, this law is clearly unconstitutional.”  

The ruling pushed the fight over ammo magazines back up the federal courts on a path that likely ends at the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). It is the first of the four cases the High Court granted, vacated, and remanded in the wake of its New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen decision to reach a verdict on reconsideration. That means SCOTUS is watching the case closely and is now one step closer to garnering the High Court’s final decision.  

“There is no American tradition of limiting ammunition capacity,” Judge Benitez wrote in his decision. “There have been, and there will be, times where many more than 10 rounds are needed to stop attackers. Yet, under this statute, the State says, ‘too bad.’”  

Even before the U.S. Constitution was ratified, and the Second Amendment was added with the other Bill of Rights, 18th Century dictionaries defined “arms” – as in, the right to keep and bear arms – as “any musket and bayonet; saber, holster pistols, carbine; and any array of side arms… and any accoutrements necessary for their operation.’”  In fact, in colonial America many jurisdictions required citizens 18 years old and beyond to have a minimum of 20 rounds of ammunition available at all times.  There was no limit on the maximum you could have.

The Founding Fathers understood ammunition was arguably the most necessary accoutrement for the successful operation of an arm and that included repeating arms that gun controllers love to leave out of their arguments that “the Second Amendment was written at a time of muskets.” This includes repeating firearms that were common – yes, expensive, but common – at the time as well, including a long list of repeating arms of that day. The judge is not wrong. In fact, it is quite the opposite.

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*** The Illinois legislature Veto session schedule.  Our state legislature returns for veto session October 24. That is in 19 days. Petition filing begins in 53 days. The March primary is in 166 days and the November general election is in 397 days. Tick tock.

*** Civilian Marksmanship M1 Garands and M1911s are available now.  This is great news for all our gun collectors out there. As of October 2023, they have approximately 5,000 M1 Garands from the Government of Turkey, 10,000 surplus M1911s from the Army, and a significant quantity of surplus ammunition from the Army.  These models have been in short supply.  Make a point to get them while you can!  
 

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TIME IS RUNNING OUT….

The Illinois State Rifle Association is offering a special sale on Life and other upgraded memberships.  Please check your mail and take advantage of this offer.   Upgrades must be postmarked by Oct. 16.  If you did not receive it in the mail, please call the office at (815) 635-3198.  We can easily upgrade your membership on the phone. 

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Tidbits

*** October 5, 1775 –   George Washington informs Congress of espionage 

General George Washington writes to the president of the Continental Congress, John Hancock, to inform him that a letter had been intercepted from Dr. Benjamin Church, Surgeon General of the Continental Army, to Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Gage, British Commander in Chief for North America. Washington described how a coded letter to a British officer, Major Crane, came into Washington’s possession by a convoluted route from “a Woman who was kept by Doctor Church.”  

The woman Washington interrogated was the mistress of Dr. Benjamin Church. In July 1775, Washington had named Church the first surgeon general of the Continental Army, only to find out three months later that he had been spying for the British since 1772.

Dr. Church faced an army court martial on October 4, 1775. Charged with treason, he was convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. After becoming ill while incarcerated, Dr. Church was then exiled to the West Indies. The ship in which he traveled is believed to have been lost at sea.

Shortly after the conviction of Dr. Church, on November 7, 1775, the Continental Congress added a mandate for the death penalty as punishment for acts of espionage to the “articles of war.”
 

*** October 5, 1813 –   Shawnee Chief Tecumseh defeated 

During the War of 1812, a combined British and Native American force is defeated by General William Harrison’s American army at the Battle of the Thames in Ontario, Canada. The leader of the Native forces was Tecumseh, the Shawnee chief who organized intertribal resistance to the encroachment of white settlers on Native lands. He was killed in the fighting.

*** October 5, 2011 –   Apple co-founder dies 

Steve Jobs, the visionary co-founder of Apple Inc., which revolutionized the computer, music and mobile communications industries with such devices as the Macintosh, iPod, iPhone and iPad, dies at age 56 of complications from pancreatic cancer.

Born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, California, Jobs was adopted as a baby by Paul Jobs, a Silicon Valley machinist, and his wife Clara. He attended a liberal arts school in Portland, Oregon, for a single semester before dropping out. He later worked briefly for pioneering video game maker Atari in California.  In 1976, Jobs and his computer engineer friend Stephen Wozniak founded Apple Computer in Jobs’ parents’ garage in Los Altos, California.

Despite a series of medical issues, Jobs continued to lead Apple until August 24, 2011, when he stepped down as the company’s chief executive. Six weeks later, he passed away at his Palo Alto, California, home. Many think Jobs was the greatest business executive of our era, the one most certain to be remembered a century from now.  

*** October 5, 1892 –   The infamous Dalton Gang

The Dalton Gang attempted the daring daylight robbery of two banks in their old hometown of Coffeyville, KS at the same time.  But if the gang members believed the sheer audacity of their plan would bring them success, they were sadly mistaken. 

The quick- acting townspeople ran for their guns and quickly surrounded the two banks. When the Dalton brothers walked out of the bank, a hail of bullets greeted them.  When the gun battle was over, the people of Coffeyville had destroyed the Dalton Gang, killing every member except for Emmett Dalton. But their victory was not without a price: the Dalton’s took four townspeople to their graves with them.  The townspeople were exercising their Second Amendment rights and rose up to defend themselves, wiping out nearly the entire gang.

*** October 6, 1866 –   The first U.S. train robbery

Brothers John and Simeon Reno stage the first train robbery in American history, making off with $13,000 from an Ohio and Mississippi railroad train in Jackson County, Indiana.

Previous train robberies had all been on stationary trains, sitting in depots or freight yards. The Reno brothers’ contribution to criminal history was to stop a moving train in a sparsely populated region.   Their new method of robbing trains quickly became very popular in the West.  

With the western economy booming, trains often carried large amounts of cash and precious minerals and made tempting targets.  Some criminal gangs, like Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch, found that robbing trains was so easy and lucrative that for a time they made it their criminal specialty.

The railroad owners, however, were not about to sit back and let Cassidy or any other bandit freely pillage their trains.  Some railroads, such as the Union Pacific, even began adding special box cars designed to carry guards and their horses. These men could not only protect the train’s valuables but could also quickly mount their horses and chase down the fleeing bandits. As a result, by the late 19th century, train robbery was becoming an increasingly difficult—and dangerous—profession. 

*** October 6, 1926 –   Legendary Babe Ruth sets World Series record

New York Yankee slugger Babe Ruth hits a record three homers against the St. Louis Cardinals in the fourth game of the World Series. Despite Ruth’s unprecedented performance, they lost the championship in the seventh game. In 1928, in the fourth game of another Yanks-Cards World Series, Ruth tied his own record, knocking three more pitches out of the same park.

Yankee Reggie Jackson became only the second player to hit three homers in a single Series game on October 18, 1977.

*** October 7, 1949 –   East Germany created

Less than five months after Great Britain, the United States and France, established the Federal Republic of Germany in West Germany, the Democratic Republic of Germany (East Germany) is proclaimed within the Soviet occupation zone. Criticized by the West as an un-autonomous Soviet creation, Wilhelm Pieck named East Germany’s first president, with Otto Grotewohl as prime minister. Berlin, the former German capital, remained divided between West and East German authorities, even though it was situated deep within the communist Democratic Republic of Germany. 

After half a million people gathered in a mass protest, the Berlin Wall was torn down on November 19, 1989.  East Germany ceased to exist in 1990, when its land and people were absorbed into the democratic Federal Republic of Germany.

*** October 7, 2001 –   U.S. led attach on Afghanistan begins

A United States led coalition begins attacks on Taliban-controlled Afghanistan with an intense bombing campaign by American and British forces. Logistical support was provided by other nations including France, Germany, Australia, and Canada. The invasion of Afghanistan was the opening salvo in the United States “war on terror” and a response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. The conflict in Afghanistan would span two decades and become the longest war in U.S. history.  

Dubbed “Operation Enduring Freedom” in U.S. military parlance, the invasion of Afghanistan was intended to target terrorist Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda organization, as well as the extreme Taliban government that had ruled most of the country since 1996 and supported and protected al-Qaeda.  After 20 grueling long years, United States Armed Forces completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan on 30 August 2021, marking the end of the 2001–2021 war.

*** October 8, 1871 –   The great Chicago & Peshtigo fires

The most devastating fire in United States history burns in Peshtigo, Wisconsin. Some 1,200 people lost their lives, and 2 billion trees were consumed by flames. Despite the massive scale of the blaze, it was overshadowed by the Great Chicago Fire, which began later that night about 250 miles away.

The Chicago fire starts by sparks of flame in the Chicago barn of Patrick and Catherine O’Leary, igniting a two-day blaze that kills between 200 and 300 people, destroys 17,450 buildings, leaves 100,000 homeless and causes an estimated $200 million (in 1871 dollars; roughly $4 billion in 2021 dollars) in damages. 

Legend has it that a cow kicked over a lantern in the O’Leary barn and started the fire, but other theories hold that humans or even a comet may have been responsible for the event that left four square miles of the Windy City, including its business district, in ruins. Dry weather and an abundance of wooden buildings, streets and sidewalks made Chicago vulnerable to fire. 

The Chicago City Council exonerated Mrs. O’Leary and her cow, In 1997. She turned into a recluse after the fire and died in 1895.

*** October 9, 1940 –   Famous cathedral bombed by Germans

During a heavy nighttime air raid on London by the German Luftwaffe, the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral was pierced by a Nazi bomb.  It was one of the few occasions that the 17th-century cathedral suffered significant damages during Germany’s ceaseless bombing raids on London in the fall of 1940.

Despite the damage caused on that night, the cathedral survived the Blitz mostly intact. In 1944, St. Paul’s bells rang out to celebrate the liberation of Paris, and in 1945 services marking the end of the war in Europe, attended by 35,000 people.

*** October 10, 1845 –   U.S. Naval Academy opens

The United States Naval Academy opens in Annapolis, Maryland with 50 midshipmen students and seven professors. Known as the Naval School until 1850. Midshipmen were required to study at the academy for four years and to train aboard ships each summer – the basic format that remains in effect until this day.

*** October 11, 1793 –   Yellow fever outbreak in Philadelphia

The most devastating epidemic of colonial times strikes Philadelphia.  The death toll reached 100 on this day in 1793.  By the time it ended, 5,000 people had died.

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At the Range
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The Illinois State Rifle Association

is the home of marksmanship in Illinois.

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 STILL TIME TO REGISTER!

ISRA Black Powder State Championship

October 15 @ 7:00 am - 3:00 pm

Black Powder rifles with iron open sights; flintlock-rifles or smooth bore. Open to public. Registration at 7:30am. Adults: $20, Juniors under age18 – $15. Walk-ins welcome: $25, Juniors $20.  CONTACT: Thomas Fahrenbach at tef1@att.net, or Tom Spurlock at tom.spurlock@outlook.com