The Goat Pen

hedge wrote:Do you have a picture of yourself on the 10 speed brandishing the 190?

hedge wrote:I mentioned that Logan bought a black powder rifle recently, 50 caliber. We took it out to a field the other weekend and shot it, that thing sounded like a cannon...

How A Plea Reversal From Michael Flynn Could Uncover More Federal Corruption

On Friday, Judge Emmet Sullivan issued an order in United States v. Flynn that, while widely unnoticed, reveals something fascinating: A motion by Michael Flynn to withdraw his guilty plea based on government misconduct is likely in the works.

One of Sullivan’s first orders of business was to enter a standing order, on December 12, 2017, directing “the government to produce to defendant in a timely manner – including during plea negotiations – any evidence in its possession that is favorable to defendant and material either to defendant’s guilt or punishment.”

With a protective order in place, Flynn’s attorneys should start receiving the required disclosures from the special counsel’s office. There is cause to believe the FISA court was connected to the criminal charge filed against Flynn because Contreras, who recused less than a week after accepting Flynn’s guilty plea, “is one of just three FISA court judges who sits in the District of Columbia, where it is likely the Trump-Russia FISA warrants were sought.”

Remember, the special counsel charged Flynn with lying to FBI agents on January 24. While the charge did not identify the FBI agents involved, we know that Peter Strzok conducted the January interview that eventually led to the criminal case against Flynn. Strzok formed a part of Mueller’s team until he was removed following the discovery of hostile text messages concerning Trump, including a planned “insurance policy” should Trump win the White House.

Mueller must now provide Flynn all exculpatory evidence: Significantly, if the information is favorable to Flynn but the special counsel’s office believes it is immaterial, government attorneys must nonetheless provide the evidence to Sullivan to allow him to make the call. In other words, Mueller’s team cannot unilaterally decide what evidence matters...

Sullivan enters identical standing orders as a matter of course in all of his criminal cases, as he explained in a 2016 Cardozo Law Review article: “Following the Stevens case, I have issued a standing Brady Order for each criminal case on my docket... The Stevens case, of course, is the government’s corrupt prosecution of the late senator Ted Stevens—an investigation and prosecution which, as Sullivan put it, “were permeated by the systematic concealment of significant exculpatory evidence. . . .”

In his revised standing order issued on Friday, Sullivan dropped a lengthy footnote, detailing the case law and setting forth his position that, if material exculpatory evidence is withheld during plea negotiations, a defendant is entitled to withdraw his guilty plea.

Flynn’s attorneys now know what to do should Mueller’s team disclose such evidence. After the spanking Sullivan gave the prosecutors in the Stevens case, Mueller is on notice as well.

http://thefederalist.com/2018/02/19/mic ... orruption/

hedge wrote:"Talk about low tech - I think they are so much off the radar that a kid can mail order one without going thru an FFL - although I'm sure they are pretty strict about buying the black powder."

No restrictions on felons buying them either, which is why Logan got it. And now they have the "powder" in a pre-made little lozenges, so you can load them up in like 10 seconds. Same with the .45 pistol he bought...

hedge wrote:You can load up 6 rounds in the pistol. Can't understand the reasoning behind it that if felons aren't supposed to own firearms, these don't count...

Professor Tiger wrote:Sorry. I meant to say, "YUGE."

According to this article, 3% of Americans own half the guns.

Let's do some quick math. (That's not my strong subject, so please feel free to correct me if my math is incorrect.)

According to the US Census Bureau, there were approximately 326,971,407 people in America on January 1, 2018.
https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-r ... -2018.html

3% of that number would be 9,809,142. Right?

According to the Congressional Research Service, as reported by NPR, there are approximately 300 million guns in America. https://www.npr.org/2016/01/05/46201746 ... he-numbers.

So if you divide 300 million guns by 9,809,142 (3% of the US population) you get 30.5, correct? So, hedge, are you saying that the average gun owner owns 30.5 guns? If so, that is preposterous.

eCat wrote:I'd like to know what has changed with kids that makes them want to shoot up a school

No one over the age of 40 ever had this as a part of their lives.

Prior to 1985, you could even buy full auto machine guns - so guns laws, even though some people think otherwise have become stricter.

I'm not even going to try to suggest what that is with an educated guess but there are some factors.

Young kids laugh at the idea of violent first person shooter video games, but those weren't around until the early to mid 90's which is the start of school shootings

Also a good portion of these kids are on the spectrum and/or receiving drugs for some mental disorder - again - it wasn't until the mid 80's that there was a push to socialize these kids with general population. Now its expected that these special needs kids are mixed in with the standard students which has to bring on some anxiety.

Divorce was rampant in my generation - half the kids in my redneck bumpkin school had parents that were divorced, although I will say that a huge majority of them still had a strong male in their life.

School shootings predate social media so I don't think that is an issue - although I can see how social media can expedite the process.

I really don't know but I think we as a country should invest some time trying to figure it out. Its not easy access to guns. When I was a kid you could buy a semi-auo at J.C. Penney (I bought a Winchester 190 there, along with a 10 speed bicycle), Sears had their own brand of gun - J.C. Higgins, and before that it was Ted Williams, Kmart had a gun section and even sold hand guns, plus there were at least 3 other places that are now defunct - Uncle Lees, Howards and Woolco that sold hunting rifles and ammo.


Something has changed that makes this permissible in the mind of a psychopath where it once was never entertained.