The Statute of Northampton of 1328 is the historic basis for current gun laws. In 1328 a “hand cannon or “hand gonne” was the state of the art hand weapon. In 2021 one AR can kill everyone in a courtroom in less than 1 minute.

Turkish Hand Cannon  CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

The Statute of Northampton of 1328 remains central to the current debate surrounding the limits and protections the Second Amendment provides to carry arms in public.[1] The Statute provided that “no man great nor small, of what condition soever he be, except the king’s servants in his presence…come before the King’s justices, or other of the King’s ministers doing their office, with force and arms, nor bring no force in affray of the peace, nor to go nor ride armed by night nor by day, in fairs, markets, nor in the presence of the justices or other ministers” (2 Edw. 3, c.3). Certain Second Amendment scholars hold that the Statute was “not interpreted literally” and was only enforced when weapons were carried with the intent to terrify or threaten or when dangerous and unusual weapons were carried.[2] While the Statute has been much studied, some key sources remain neglected, namely the reliance of Sir. Edward Coke on 13th Century English legal scholar Henry de Bracton in Coke’s interpretation of the Statute. Coke’s quotations from de Bracton, which have usually been ignored because they are written almost entirely in Latin, offer additional evidence that the Statute of Northampton was understood to be a broad-based prohibition on the carrying of arms.

MORE AT:

MORE AT:

DUKE CENTER FOR FIREARMS LAW

Observations Regarding the Interpretation and Legacy of the Statute of Northampton in Anglo-American Legal History

In 1328 the only hand carried firearm was a “gonne or handgonne.” A metal tube with a hole in one end to light with a wick.

The hand cannon (Chinese: 手銃 shŏuchòng, or 火銃 huŏchòng, French: escopette), also known as the gonne or handgonne, is the first true firearm and the successor of the fire lance.^[1] It is the oldest type of small arms as well as the most mechanically simple form of metal barrel firearms. Unlike matchlock firearms it requires direct manual external ignition through a touch hole without any form of firing mechanism. It may also be considered a forerunner of the handgun. The hand cannon was widely used in China from the 13th century onward and later throughout Eurasia in the 14th century. In 15th century Europe, the hand cannon evolved to become the matchlock arquebus, which became the first firearm to have a trigger.^[2]

60 MINUTES

The explosive force of AR-15 style rifles

Nov 4, 2018

From The Washington Post Courts and Law

At issue is New York’s requirement that a gun owner obtain a special license to carry by satisfying local authorities that the gun owner has “proper cause” for doing so. Seven other states — California, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island have similar laws.

The two people challenging the law — Robert Nash and Brandon Koch — have licenses to carry handguns for hunting and target practice. But New York authorities denied their requests for “unrestricted” licenses for self-defense because officials said they could not show a “special need for self-protection distinguishable from that of the general community.”

During the two-year period of 2018 and 2019, at least 65 percent of applicants in New York were approved for an “unrestricted” license, according to a state analysis of records submitted to the court.

The challengers — joined by the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, an NRA affiliate — want the justices to overturn a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit saying that the state’s regulations do not violate the Second Amendment and are consistent with the government’s interest in public safety and crime prevention.

At times, the dueling sides examine in their briefs the same founding-era statutes, court rulings and even 14th-century English law. Both quote the Statute of Northampton — the ancient law that prohibited people from traveling armed “by night nor by day” and in places where people were likely to gather such as “fairs” and “markets.”

But they have different interpretations and reach opposite conclusions.

Clement, the lawyer for the gun owners, says there is a broad right to carry in public for self-defense.

“When the founding generation enshrined that right in the Constitution, it understood the right to entitle the people to ‘have arms for their own defence’ and ‘use them for lawful purposes’ wherever the need should ‘occur,’ ” according Clement’s brief.

Founding father Patrick Henry went armed in town on his way to court in early America, the court filing states, and John Adams defended the right to go armed in Boston.

Even those assertions are being disputed by gun-control advocates in a new report titled “Historical Myth-Making and the Second Amendment: Founders and Firearms.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) says 700 years of history, “from the Middle Ages onward,” including “laws on both sides of the Atlantic broadly restricted the public carrying of firearms and other deadly weapons, particularly in populous places,” and that New York’s law is “less restrictive” than the measures in place before the founding era.

Striking down New York’s law, James said, would jeopardize firearm restrictions that other states and the federal government have in place at courthouses and airports, and in subways, houses of worship, bars and other settings.

New York’s position is backed by more than a dozen professors of English and American history who say limitations on carrying firearms in public are “of ancient vintage.” Saul Cornell, a Fordham University professor, said those challenging the law are wrong on the history. They fail to acknowledge, he said, the “staggering array” of gun laws enacted in the post-Civil War era, including permitting laws and bans on concealed carry.

MORE AT:

Washington Post

In battle at Supreme Court over N.Y. gun law, a surprising split among conservatives

Ann E. Marimow5:00 a.m. EDT

The Chester County Republican Party has been linked to organized crime since criminal gangs went international during Prohibition. When the Mafia switched to much easier to run heroin law enforcement & political connections were already in place.

 As a small boy I looked forward to visiting Sante and Concetta Giunta Piscoglio at Christmas. There was a large Lionel Train layout in the basement.

Sante Piscoglio once lived in a 1920s style stone home overlooking Coatesville at the top of 13th Avenue. Sante ran Scotch Whisky from Canada to Chester County Common Pleas judges. 

He got 2 pops in the back of the head at 8th Avenue & Harmony Street. 

When the Mafia switched to much easier to run heroin law enforcement & political connections were already in place. 

 It’s universal. The war on people to profit on drugs. 

CIA in Vietnam ran H using U.S. Air Force, wealthy Philly Narcotics Detectives?, ChesCo DA Bill Lamb’s witness Daniel Joseph’s murdered while in witness security for fingering 2 PA State Police & ChesCo FBI selling heroin.

Watching “The Informer” on Amazon & remembering former Chester County DA Bill Lamb’s star witness Daniel Joseph who fingered 2 PA State Police for selling “French Connection heroin. Joseph was murdered while in federal protection.

***

“SIU operations include the infamous 2011 Allende massacre, in which an entire town was virtually wiped out by organized criminal groups operating under the eye of Mexican federal law enforcement and military units.”

"A trial date has been set in the high-profile prosecution of a former top-ranking Mexican federal police official once considered the United States’ leading ally in the war on drugs. Genaro García Luna, the former head of public security in Mexico who was arrested in 2019 on charges of cocaine trafficking, listened in from jail Wednesday as Judge Brian M. Cogan of the Eastern District of New York set a tentative October 24, 2022, date for the potentially historic trial.

Noting the complexity and sensitivity of the case, which would be roughly comparable to an FBI director accused of colluding with the mafia, Cogan set backup dates for early January 2023. Federal prosecutors have accused García Luna of accepting millions of dollars in bribes to allow Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera’s Sinaloa drug cartel to “operate with impunity in Mexico” for more than a decade, while at the same time working side by side with the most powerful officials in the U.S. national security and law enforcement apparatus. García Luna has denied the charges.

Given García Luna’s extensive U.S. government connections, his trial has the potential to peel back the secrecy surrounding drug war cooperation at the highest levels of the U.S. and Mexican governments and upend commonly held misperceptions of the Mexican drug war as simple two-sided struggle between drug traffickers and law enforcement alone."

MORE AT:

High-Stakes Prosecution of U.S.-Backed Mexican Drug War Commander Set for Trial

The development in Genaro García Luna’s case in New York comes amid rising concerns over DEA operations abroad.

Ryan Devereaux

October 27 2021, 6:44 p.m

***

When is the “War on Drugs” that’s murdering & killing thousands of people and that police & politicians profit from going to stop?

***

History of CIA Involvement in Drug Trafficking

“In my 30­year history in the Drug Enforcement Administration and related agencies, the major targets of my investigations almost invariably turned out to be working for the CIA.” — Dennis Dayle, former chief of an elite DEA enforcement unit.

The foregoing discussion should not be regarded as any kind of historical aberration inasmuch as the CIA has had a long and virtually continuous involvement with drug trafficking since the end of World War II.

1947 to 1951, France

CIA arms, money, and disinformation enabled Corsican criminal syndicates in Marseille to wrest control of labor unions from the Communist Party. The Corsicans gained political influence and control over the docks–ideal conditions for cementing a long-term partnership with mafia drug distributors, which turned Marseille into the postwar heroin capital of the Western world. Marseille’s first heroin laboratories were opened in 1951, only months after the Corsicans took over the waterfront.

Early 1950s, Southeast Asia

The Nationalist Chinese army, organized by the CIA to wage war against Communist China, became the opium baron of The Golden Triangle (parts of Burma, Thailand, and Laos), the world’s largest source of opium and heroin. Air America, the CIA’s principal proprietary airline, flew the drugs all over Southeast Asia.

1950s to early 1970s, Indochina

During U.S. military involvement in Laos and other parts of Indochina, Air America flew opium and heroin throughout the area. Many GI’s in Vietnam became addicts. A laboratory built at CIA headquarters in northern Laos was used to refine heroin. After a decade of American military intervention, Southeast Asia had become the source of 70 percent of the world’s illicit opium and the major supplier of raw materials for America’s booming heroin market.

1973 to 1980, Australia

The Nugan Hand Bank of Sydney was a CIA bank in all but name. Among its officers were a network of U.S. generals, admirals, and CIA men–including former CIA Director William Colby, who was also one of its lawyers. With branches in Saudi Arabia, Europe, Southeast Asia, South America, and the U.S., Nugan Hand Bank financed drug trafficking, money laundering, and international arms dealing. In 1980, amidst several mysterious deaths, the bank collapsed, $50 million in debt.

1970s and 1980s, Panama

For more than a decade, Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega was a highly paid CIA asset and collaborator, despite knowledge by U.S. drug authorities as early as 1971 that the general was heavily involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. Noriega facilitated “guns-for-drugs” flights for the contras, providing protection and pilots, safe havens for drug cartel officials, and discreet banking facilities. U.S. officials, including then-CIA Director William Webster and several DEA officers, sent Noriega letters of praise for efforts to thwart drug trafficking (albeit only against competitors of his Medellín cartel patrons). The U.S. government only turned against Noriega, invading Panama in December 1989 and kidnapping the general, once they discovered he was providing intelligence and services to the Cubans and Sandinistas. Ironically, drug trafficking through Panama increased after the U.S. invasion.

1980s, Central America

The San Jose Mercury News series documents just one thread of the interwoven operations linking the CIA, the contras, and the cocaine cartels. Obsessed with overthrowing the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua, Reagan administration officials tolerated drug trafficking as long as the traffickers gave support to the contras. In 1989, the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations (the Kerry committee) concluded a three-year investigation by stating: “There was substantial evidence of drug smuggling through the war zones on the part of individual contras, contra suppliers, contra pilots, mercenaries who worked with the contras, and contra supporters throughout the region. . . . U.S. officials involved in Central America failed to address the drug issue for fear of jeopardizing the war efforts against Nicaragua. . . . In each case, one or another agency of the U.S. government had information regarding the involvement either while it was occurring, or immediately thereafter. . . . Senior U.S. policy makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution to the contras’ funding problems.”

In Costa Rica, which served as the “Southern Front” for the contras (Honduras being the Northern Front), there were several CIA-contra networks involved in drug trafficking. In addition to those servicing the Meneses-Blandon operation (detailed by the Mercury News) and Noriega’s operation, there was CIA operative John Hull, whose farms along Costa Rica’s border with Nicaragua were the main staging area for the contras. Hull and other CIA-connected contra supporters and pilots teamed up with George Morales, a major Miami-based Colombian drug trafficker who later admitted to giving $3 million in cash and several planes to contra leaders. In 1989, after the Costa Rica government indicted Hull for drug trafficking, a DEA-hired plane clandestinely and illegally flew the CIA operative to Miami, via Haiti. The U.S. repeatedly thwarted Costa Rican efforts to extradite Hull to Costa Rica to stand trial.

Another Costa Rican-based drug ring involved a group of Cuban Americans whom the CIA had hired as military trainers for the contras. Many had long been involved with the CIA and drug trafficking. They used contra planes and a Costa Rican-based shrimp company, which laundered money for the CIA, to channel cocaine to the U.S.

Costa Rica was not the only route. Guatemala, whose military intelligence service–closely associated with the CIA–harbored many drug traffickers, according to the DEA, was another way station along the cocaine highway. Additionally, the Medellín cartel’s Miami accountant, Ramon Milian Rodriguez, testified that he funneled nearly $10 million to Nicaraguan contras through long-time CIA operative Felix Rodriguez, who was based at Ilopango Air Force Base in El Salvador.>

The contras provided both protection and infrastructure (planes, pilots, airstrips, warehouses, front companies, and banks) to these CIA-linked drug networks. At least four transport companies under investigation for drug trafficking received U.S. government contracts to carry nonlethal supplies to the contras. Southern Air Transport, “formerly” CIA-owned and later under Pentagon contract, was involved in the drug running as well. Cocaine-laden planes flew to Florida, Texas, Louisiana, and other locations, including several military bases. Designated as “Contra Craft,” these shipments were not to be inspected. When some authority wasn’t apprised and made an arrest, powerful strings were pulled to result in dropping the case, acquittal, reduced sentence, or deportation.

Mid-1980s to early 1990s, Haiti

While working to keep key Haitian military and political leaders in power, the CIA turned a blind eye to their clients’ drug trafficking. In 1986, the Agency added some more names to its payroll by creating a new Haitian organization, the National Intelligence Service (SIN). SIN’s mandate included countering the cocaine trade, though SIN officers themselves engaged in trafficking, a trade aided and abetted by some Haitian military and political leaders.

1980s to early 1990s, Afghanistan

CIA-supported Moujahedeen rebels engaged heavily in drug trafficking while fighting the Soviet-supported government, which had plans to reform Afghan society. The Agency’s principal client was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, one of the leading drug lords and the biggest heroin refiner, who was also the largest recipient of CIA military support. CIA-supplied trucks and mules that had carried arms into Afghanistan were used to transport opium to laboratories along the Afghan-Pakistan border. The output provided up to one-half of the heroin used annually in the United States and three-quarters of that used in Western Europe. U.S. officials admitted in 1990 that they had failed to investigate or take action against the drug operation because of a desire not to offend their Pakistani and Afghan allies. In 1993, an official of the DEA dubbed Afghanistan the new Colombia of the drug world."

MORE AT:

Institute for Policy Studies

The CIA, Contras, Gangs, and Crack

Based on a year-long investigation, reporter Gary Webb wrote that during the 1980s the CIA helped finance its covert war against Nicaragua's leftist government through sales of cut-rate cocaine to South Central L.A. drug dealer, Ricky Ross.

December 5, 2018

Obama put wheels on fundraising small dollar amounts with social media. Bernie & AOC made small dollar donations fly. “Sen. Kyrsten Sinema Is the Dying Scream of the Corporate Democratic Party”

VIDEO BELOW

"Kyrsten Sinema might be on the young side for a senator — less than half the age of some of her colleagues — but she represents the Democratic Party’s past. Think of her and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., as the dead hands reaching out of the grave, grabbing at the party as it tries to move on from them. They might have managed to claw back spending on the Build Back Better Act, but the reality that their time has passed is clear. And the way you can measure this most directly is in terms of dollars.

For Sinema in particular, her approach to the negotiations — to push against social spending and tax hikes on the rich and corporations — has cost her badly in the polls at home and hasn’t had much of an upside when it comes to campaign cash. Her model of politics is outdated, though it has been the dominant form for most of her life."

MORE AT:

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema Is the Dying Scream of the Corporate Democratic Party

Sinema’s subservience to big moneyed interests is a holdover from an era of politics that is fading noisily into the past.

Ryan Grim

October 22 2021, 12:35 p.m.

rising THE HILL

Max Boot "The Republican Party is on the authoritarian side of a democratic vs. authoritarian divide" “To prevent a successful coup in 2024, it is imperative to elect Democrats at every level of government in 2021 and 2022 "

VIDEO BELOW

Washington Post Columnist Max Boot was once a conservative Republican who worked for Marco Rubio.

“To prevent a successful coup in 2024, it is imperative to elect Democrats at every level of government in 2021 and 2022 — to state legislatures and governorships, as well as the House and Senate. Democrats should break a Senate filibuster to pass voting rights legislation that would help ensure free elections. But even if that doesn’t happen and Republicans rig the rules, small-D democrats can still prevail by turning out en masse to vote for Big-D Democrats.”

MORE AT:

Washington Post

Opinion: I’m no Democrat — but I’m voting exclusively for Democrats to save our democracy

Max Boot

***

Amanpour & Co

 "The Republican Party is on the authoritarian side of a democratic vs. authoritarian divide. Max Boot says he is a “single issue voter.” That single issue is protecting democracy. “In practice that means voting for Democrats."

“Can you imagine what would happen in 2024 if Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress and they control many of the state legislatures. And once again you see a result where Donald Trump loses the popular vote by a large margin but he’s close in the electoral college vote. Under those circumstances can you have any degree of confidence that Republicans would actually recognize a Democratic victory? I’m very, very concerned that under those circumstances Republicans would actually carry out the kind of coup attempt that failed in January of this year. And so, to avoid that horrible scenario which would be the death knell for our democracy I think it’s imperative to vote for Democrats right now. And I don’t care if you disagree with the Democrats on  some issues… In my view the size of the “Build Back Better Bill” is less important than whether you continue to be a democracy.”

“Going back even decades Republicans have shown increasing contempt for the truth… I think there’s just been a general and growing contempt for democratic norms within the Republican Party and a growing receptivity to extremism conspiracy theories to racism nativism xenophobia. Donald Trump came along and turbocharged all of those trends. 

I think it’s accurate to say prior to Trump the Republican Party had a substantial extremist minority. Right now however the extremists are the ones who are in control of the entire party and there’s been a shameful abrogation of responsibility on the part of elites people like Senator McConnell who know better but refuse to stand up for what they believe is right. 

“Tucker Carlson is the number one cable show reaching millions of viewers every night and when he’s not propagating the “great replacement” conspiracy theory beloved of white supremacists he is undermining vaccines and so he is really doing great damage to the American body politic and to American health. I mean he is endangering people… He has become a demagogue and truly a menace to America.

WATCH VIDEO:

This is not the time for the Democratic Party’s usual milquetoast capitulation to the Republicans. It’s 1933 Deja Vu, with a difference. Nazis are in our federal, state & local governments. Germany is the country resisting the Nazis.

 “Three days after Hatewatch reached out to Russia Insider editor Charles Bausman for a comment on this story, someone took both Lancaster Patriot and oc.binaria.ru offline. Local news outlet Lancaster Online reported on Sept. 26 that Lancaster Patriot was edited by Trey Garrison, a 51-year-old Holocaust-mocking Twitter troll who for years embodied the online persona “Spectre,” while podcasting for the white nationalist organization The Right Stuff.

Garrison, who once worked as a journalist in the Dallas area, lives in Lancaster now too, based upon the material published on his website and Lancaster Online’s reporting. Hatewatch is unaware of any ties Garrison had to Pennsylvania before moving near Bausman.

Hatewatch’s finding marks the fourth website linking the U.S.-based white nationalist members of The Right Stuff to Russia Insider. Like some of the other websites Hatewatch previously reported as having this connection, Lancaster Patriot focused on sensational, negative attention on antiracist protesters and hyped the subject of civil unrest. Lancaster Patriot stands out from the network of other Russia Insider-affiliated websites because it focuses acutely on a swing state considered to be of vital importance in deciding the outcome of the 2020 election. In addition to targeting antiracist protests, Lancaster Patriot also focused on the effort to undo local restrictions put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, sometimes with a conspiratorial tone.”

Lancaster Patriot, a partisan, reactionary Pennsylvania politics blog that first surfaced in April, is mirrored online by a Russian website with the domain oc.binaria.ru, which is affiliated with creators of the pro-Kremlin propaganda website Russia Insider."

MORE AT:

Southern Poverty Law Center

Far-Right Pennsylvania Politics Blog Was Mirrored by Obscure Russian Website

October 07, 2020

Michael Edison Hayden

“The AfD now finds itself once again a pariah within the halls of power, as Germany’s other parties in parliament refuse to partner with a faction linked to far-right extremism. Their place in German politics is “not a danger for democracy,” Hajo Funke, a German academic who focuses on right-wing extremism, told my colleagues. “They will remain completely isolated.”

But that doesn’t tell the whole story. Both of Germany’s two traditional political mainstays — the center-left Social Democrats and center-right Christian Democrats — won less than 30 percent of the vote. The AfD can gain a stronger foothold in a context of deepening fragmentation in German politics. In the states that once comprised Communist-ruled East Germany, the AfD is solidifying its position as a major regional force. It is particularly popular among younger cohorts of voters, and the party could be in a position to dominate in future state elections in Saxony and Thuringia.

“I’m confident that sooner or later there is no way without the AfD,” Tino Chrupalla, one of the AfD’s co-leaders, told reporters last month. “It will certainly start on the state level.”

MORE AT:

Washington Post

How Germany’s far-right gained, even as it lost

Ishaan Tharoor

October 19, 2021 at 12:01 a.m. EDT

Patriot Front Nazis invade Philadelphia. Philly residents chase them away. 

The Nazi Patriot Front ran away from the people of Philadelphia. Philly Police tell them not to come back. 

Penske Truck Rental is taking legal action against them.

Billionaires, are you ready to be fleeced by Doug Mastriano? Will Republican candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania Doug Mastriano's "fleece" (bribe) providers get a gold plated AR-15 engraved with Mastriano’s signature?"

"Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon spoke at a recent event hosted by the church. Pennsylvania state senator and “Stop the Steal” organizer Doug Mastriano was also recently billed as a special guest at another church event."

MORE AT:

 Gun Church That Worships With AR-15s Bought a 40-Acre Compound in Texas for Its ‘Patriots’

The Rod of Iron Ministries has become more militant since leader Hyung Jin “Sean” Moon attended the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

By Tess Owen

May 27, 2021, 12:17pm

"Running for statewide elected office in Pennsylvania is as expensive as it is exhausting. Would-be candidates commonly seek money pledges from major backers before jumping into a race.

State Sen. Doug Mastriano is doing that for the 2022 Republican primary for governor. He’s waiting on a financial sign. From God.

The Franklin County senator and his wife, Rebecca “Rebbie” Mastriano, spoke last week at Time Ministries Church in Bedford County.

It was a standard event for Mastriano, pushing debunked claims about 2020 voter fraud, complaining about public safety measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic, and repeatedly mocking fellow Republicans for not measuring up."

MORE AT:

The Philadelphia Inquirer

Doug Mastriano is waiting on a financial sign from God about running for governor

The state senator and his wife, Rebbie, told a Bradford County church they have issued a “monetary fleece” before God, seeking a financial sign that he should run for governor.

Chris Brennan

October 22, 2021