Florida

WEST PALM BEACH -- An attorney said Tuesday he is seeking a $75 million civil judgment against the distributor of a handgun used to kill popular teacher Barry Grunow.

Attorney Bob Montgomery told prospective jurors that Grunow's widow, Pam, and her two young children each deserve $25 million in their product liability suit against Valor Corp., which sold the.25-caliber Raven gun used in the May 2000 shooting.

$75 million from a gun distributor because someone else used on their guns in a crime? What kind of idiot would listen to this?

They excused 10 jurors (from a pool of 60) because of "strongly held opinions about gun ownership". They are stacking the jury.

If you've been wondering exactly what the new law means, check out Kopel's analysis.

... comes this bill in the Florida legislature intended to ban assault weapons. I'm not sure what it's chances of passage are; in 2004 Florida was more "red" than in 2000 (where the closeness of the election became famous), and Florida was among the leaders in shall-issue concealed-carry, but unfortunately banning assault weapons remains an issue on which the public is readily misled.

I think the efforts in San Francisco and now in Florida represent the Democrats deciding that they can't convince gun owners to vote for them. It's exactly the wrong lesson to take from Kerry's loss. Kerry lost because he couldn't conceal his liberal voting record, including his record on gun control. Removing any effort at concealment is not going to improve the situation for them.

Gun owners are smart; we will know if you are peddling a pack of lies. The Democrats need to have an honest conversion on the gun control issue if they want to court the gun vote.

A journalist taking pictures of voters at the polls in Florida was arrested by a police officer there, and in the process struck several times. It seems to me that even if you accept the law against photographing voters as valid, it's hard to justify beating up reporters who aren't fighting back.

PoliTech reports that a Florida appeals court has overturned the dismissal of a case alleging that disclosure of SSN in order to obtain a tax break violates privacy. Now, this is a fairly narrow ruling; plaintiffs objected on three grounds (equal protection of the US constitution, equal protection of the Florida Constitution, and the 1974 Privacy Act) and lost two out of the three even on appeal. The claim that survived appeal is based on the Florida Constitution and is thus not relevant for those outside of Florida, except in that other states may have similar language in their constitutions. Furthermore, this is an appeal of a dismissal, which means that the plaintiffs can bring the case to a trial, not necessarily that they will succeed on the merits.

But it's heartening. This is the sort of thing that I've always felt stunk to high heaven, but I've never found it important enough to fight over.

According to State Attorney's Office records, 70 of Jacksonville's 92 homicides last year involved a gun, and 34 of this year's 51 homicides were tied to a firearm. At the Sheriff's Office, records were compiled in electronic, microfilm and 3-by-5-inch index card versions and listed a gun's serial number, weapon type and description, caliber and registration date. Also listed was the owner's name, race, gender and date of birth.

I wonder if this violates the Privacy Act? More importantly... I wonder exactly what the police were planning on doing with this database? Registration has already been established as completely useful in a crime-fighting context (even when you include a ballistic "fingerprint" along with the registration). The only things registration data can be useful for are harassment and confiscation. So, officer, exactly what were you planning to do with that data?

Virginia Beach Libertarian Robert K. Dean drew 43 percent of the vote in a three-way mayoral race in his city on May 4, nearly defeating a 27-year Democrat incumbent for the non-partisan post.

The incumbent, Meyera Oberndorf, drew 50 percent of the vote.

"Robert Dean deserves tremendous thanks and praise for running such a credible campaign that obviously resonated with so many voters in his city," said Virginia LP chair Steve Damerell.

The Republican challenger drew 6%. Good work down there.

One of the nation's wealthiest towns will soon have cameras and computers running background checks on every car and driver that passes through. Police Chief Clay Walker said cameras will take infrared photos recording a car's tag number, then software will automatically run the numbers through law enforcement databases. A 911 dispatcher is alerted if the car is stolen or is the subject of a "be on the lookout" warning.

Next to the tag number, police will have a picture of the driver, taken with another set of cameras ? upgraded versions of the standard surveillance cameras already in place.

If there is a robbery, police will be able to comb records to determine who drove through town on a given afternoon or evening.

This is the classic surveilance-state, Big Brother scenario. It's not a joke. They really do have cameras that will automatically read your license plate and notify someone if you are in some kind of database.

This article describes efforts in Miami to pass a law apparantly targeting a specific event (ie, a trade conference with the expected anti-globalization protestors). Now, while I don't have a high opinion of those protestors, the proposed regulations do seem more than a little extreme. But worst of all, they are targetted at a specific event -- completely contrary to the content-neutral test imposed by the courts in similar First-Amendment cases.

Ralph Nader is back on Florida's ballot - probably for good this time. The Florida Supreme Court ruled 6-1 Friday that he can run as the Reform Party presidential candidate in the November election.

The decision met a Saturday deadline for mailing 25,000 ballots to overseas voters, most of them military personnel, and ended a dizzying two weeks during which Nader was on and off the ballot.

From what this story has to say, it sounds like Nader managed to get on the ballot only in a fairly odd manner. However, my position on the strict ballot-access laws for Presidential candidates is clear: more choice is better. Third party candidates should not have to run a gauntlet every year to get their candidate on the ballot. And major parties should not be using third parties as political clubs with which to punish their opponent.

NRA members gathered in Orlando last month and wiped away tears as they waved goodbye to Charlton Heston, afflicted with Alzheimer's. Yet extremists in the group shed no tears over the number of cold, dead hands resulting from the NRA's rabid lobbying. Victims, it has become clear, include those shot down by John Lee Malvo and John Muhammad in last years's sniper attacks.

They wouldn't be talking about the rifle that Malvo admitted to shoplifting, now would they? Hmm? Well, shit. I think they are.

It truly is a case of adding insult to injury. Orange County deputies arrested a victim in a beating case while the suspect remains free. The Orange County Sheriff's Office admits it made a big mistake. Not strange enough? Read more strange news from WFTV.com. Apparently, there was a paperwork problem. The state attorney's word processor processed the wrong words, adding the victim's personal information to the suspect's name - her sex, race, date of birth and physical description added to his name, which is Ronnie and could be a man or a woman. So deputies following the warrant picked up the victim, a woman who had been battered and bruised, instead of the suspect, who is a man.

A Miami crime scene technician assigned to collect more than 100 projectiles fired by SWAT team members during a fatal drug raid took the witness stand Monday morning in the federal corruption trial of 11 Miami police officers. Myrthlin Jeffrey testified that when she arrived at Richard Brown's apartment, 1344 NW Seventh Ct., to process evidence, a supervisor on the scene handed her a gun that allegedly belonged to Brown. Sgt. Josż Acuża, the SWAT supervisor that night and one of the defendants, has told investigators he removed the gun from Brown's hand for safety's sake.

Eleven Miami police officers who saw themselves as "untouchable" and above the law planted guns at four police shootings and lied about it, a prosecutor charged Tuesday in opening statements at their corruption trial.

Nearly five years ago, a pair of elite units from the Orange County Sheriff's Office burst into a crowded sports bar with guns drawn and searched the bar's patrons and employees as a part of a crackdown on a Central Florida organized-crime ring.

There were a few problems with the raid.

Officers soon learned that no one in the bar had anything to do with their criminal investigation or even posed a threat to law enforcement. Furthermore, they found out their searches were unconstitutional.

17-year old Kristofer Mark Walker was arrested Thursday, and now faces a charge of possession of a firearm on school grounds after a School Resource Deputy found a Remington 12-gauge shotgun in his truck, on the Rutherford High campus. Walker says he forgot about it after a weekend hunting trip.

The agents were stunned to learn that a top prosecutorial priority of Acosta and the Department of Justice was none of the above. Instead, Acosta told them, it's obscenity. Not pornography involving children, but pornographic material featuring consenting adults.

Hello?  Terrorism?  Life and death?  This is bullshit.