Massachusetts Trial Court Holds Gun Storage Law Unconstitutional:

volockh conspiracy ^ | 26 March, 2009 | Eugene Volokh

[Eaker]

Looks like you already have some great answers!

Cool!

[mvpel]

Interestingly, the court seemed to assume that the Second Amendment applies to state laws...

It's an eminently safe assumption with an enumerated right, as any intellectually honest jurist should know.

[TurtleUp]

"Interestingly, the court seemed to assume that the Second Amendment applies to state laws..." It's an eminently safe assumption with an enumerated right, as any intellectually honest jurist should know.

True, but like marktwain, I was startled to see that the judge in this case knew it too.

[hiredhand]

Looks like you already have some great answers!

Oh yes... I was mystified by the "goop" and then it was TOUGH to remove. Next time, I'll try Simple Green, and then oven cleaner! :-)

[hiredhand]

Pinesol?! I'll definitely remember that! Thanks!

[Charles Martel]

So my question is...have you guys ever seen the sort of junk like what I'm describing come out of a stock after being wet? Also bear in mind that these were wrapped in sheets and the sheet was fairly tight up against the rifles, so I'd say there was NO air movement over the surface.

It just seemed strange. It didn't seem like the sort of stuff that would come out of a grease impregnated stock just because it got wet.

Oil floats on water, so it may have been the lighter oils separating from the grease or cosmoline. Also, it may not have been entirely due to the water. How warm did it get where the rifles were stored?

One of the popular ways to blot cosmoline out of old military stocks is to put them in a large black plastic garbage bag with plain clay kitty litter (not the clumping stuff). Tie the bag closed and sit it outside in the summer sun for a week or so. The heat will make the grease ooze out of the wood, and the kitty litter soaks it up. Works like a charm, especially if you remember to rotate the stock inside the bag to promote even heating. There's a stock refinishing forum on the "milsurpshooter" website which gives more details and suggestions.

Brownell's also sells a finer-grained powder called "whiting" which works the same way.

Beware of the oven cleaner method; it tends to leave light-colored wood with a slight greenish tinge.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

It’s a miracle.

[MileHi]

Providing the M-1 doesn't *kb* and split in half on him again!

(((cringe)))

[savedbygrace]

Yep, and the very first place a burglar looks.

You mean, after he makes sure it's not in the gun owner's HAND?

[Lurker]

Try Simple Green.

It worked like a charm on my Ishapore Enfields.

[Lurker]

use a big bucket and .......simple green !

Great minds think alike.

You should be very, very scared. LOL

[DuncanWaring]

Are you saying Pinesol is good for cleaning carbon residue out of smoothbores?

[bamahead]

Libertarian ping! Click here to get added or here to be removed or post a message here!

[wtc911]

You mean, after he makes sure it's not in the gun owner's HAND?

___________________________

No, I mean when the owner is not home...since most burglaries are committed when the house is empty. As I wrote above, finding a gun is as good as finding gold to a burglar.

[William Tell]

Spirochete said: So they did'nt toss it out on the 2A "keeping" clause, just on "ambiguity".

The ambiguity was with regard to the phrase "under the control of the owner". There is no ambiguity in Heller; that is, a person has a RIGHT to have a gun available for "the purpose of immediate self-defense."

The court found that the Massachusetts law was ambiguous since it could be read to violate Heller. Thus the law is an unConstitutional violation of Heller. The legislature could attempt to redefine the law with language other than "under the control of the owner", but any language that doesn't make clear the mandate of Heller would similarly be unConstitutional.

So the court most certainly DID throw the law out on the basis of the Second Amendment protection as decided in Heller.

As others have pointed out, the really significant thing about this decision is that the judge apparently didn't even bother to address the "incorporation" issue; he just applied Heller to state law.

The Massachusetts Constitution contains, "The people have a right to keep and to bear arms for the common defence." The judge may have realized that the scope of the right, given that the language was adopted in 1780, could not possibly be different than the scope intended by the Second Amendment.

[savedbygrace]

I was just being cute. I realized what you meant. No harm, no foul.

[MeanWestTexan]

in a holster under the dust ruffle (with a belt woven in-and-out of the box spring to hold it) is better.

Less obvious -— AND -— easier to get to.

[hiredhand]

Hey buddy! Thanks for the advice! I would imagine that the same techniques as protecting wood from a marine weather-salt-water environment would DEFINITELY protect a gun stock! :-)

This thing (the stock) has all the workmanship of a decent CLUB. Here's a photo of the exact rifle...



...when the wood was cleaned up. BUT, if you leave it in a warm area, or out in the sun, industrial grade grease seeps out of the wood. Whatever formed out of this grease with the water felt like honey, except it was stickier and seemed to go back to grease when we rubbed it.

The guy who was with me suggested stripping it and sanding it after getting the grease out of it...and eventually I'll do it. :-)

[hiredhand]

Try Simple Green.

It worked like a charm on my Ishapore Enfields.

A TIE BREAKER!... Simple Green is on my list now! :-)

[wtc911]

Gotcha. I was a cop for a while (a lifetime ago). I saw it often enough to know that master bedroom matresses always get flipped first. Then shoes in the woman’s WIC. Then the freezer.