From: callison@kittyhawk.ecn.uoknor.edu (James P. Callison)
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: Re: home protection concerns
Date: 27 Jan 93 03:37:50 GMT
Organization: Engineering Computer Network, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

In article <PA142548.871.727976341@utkvm1.utk.edu> PA142548@utkvm1.utk.edu (T. Archer) writes:
#In article <C1CG68.JIJ@constellation.ecn.uoknor.edu> callison@kittyhawk.ecn.uoknor.edu (James P. Callison) writes:
##Ahhh...but, if you've been purposely loading down, to get a more accurate 
##_target_ load, that paints another picture entirely--along the lines of
##"I used what I had." It also provides you with another plus: if you've
##been developing target loads, that presumes the fact that you've been
##down to the range quite a bit, which intimates that you talk to the
##people there--relevant character witnesses. Who among us (who reloads)
##hasn't asked another reloader what kind of load he uses, and what his
##results are? If you're developing a load, and you're a steady customer
##of a range, they're going to be very good witnesses to the fact that you
##were devloping the load as a part of your legitimate, sporting hobby, not
##with the intention of dosing out lead-deficiency treatment.
#
#But this "morbid facination with engines of death and destruction" still 
#makes you a "gun nut."

Who said anything about death and destruction? We're talking about a simple
hobby, where there is no criminal intent. And _that_ is what your
character witnesses can testify to. Paper punching is a legitimate,
recognized sport, with governing bodies--hell, it's an Olympic sport!
It's also sanctioned by the US Government--ever heard of DCM competitions?
(OK, so the DCM competitions are designed to ensure that we have soldiers
who can hit their targets if we're ever in such dire straits as to need
them, but it's still a sport, and it still doesn't involve "death and
destruction." How many DCM shooters actually plan to wind up taking shots
at other people?)

##But you're right; we know better, and we're not the jury--although, by
##rights, a handloader should be tried by people who actually understand
##handloading and shooting. You know, that "jury of your peers" stuff...
#
#This is a mis-conception.  You are not entitled to a "jury of your peers" 
#over here, but a jury of "12 good men and true."  A jury of your "peers" is 
#a phrase from english common law meaning that peasants would not wind up 
#haveing to judge nobles and nobles wouldn't get to judge peasants.  

Nowhere does the constitution say that you're entitled to any number
of jurors. It says that you are entitled to "a speedy and public
trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the
crime shall have been committed," and a few other things about the 
actual process.  It can be argued that a jury which is ignorant of
the facts re: handloading and shooting do not constitute an impartial
jury, but this is neither the time, nor the venue for such arguments...

				James

James P. Callison       Microcomputer Coordinator        OU Law Library 
Callison@aardvark.ucs.uoknor.edu   /\    Callison@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu
	constellation!biglaw!callison@mailhost.ecn.uoknor.edu
DISCLAIMER: I'm not an engineer, but I play one at work...
	"God didn't make men and women equal. Colonel Colt did."
			--Maggie Zombro, "Reasonable Doubts"