Latest ruling an absurd failure to use common sense

Because it won't address climate change, Florida shouldn't receive help

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Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas certainly earned whatever luxury vacation billionaire buddy Harlan Crow pays for this summer with his detailed explanation of what constitutes a machine gun on Friday.

It is what lawyers do and why they have such bad reputations.

They weigh words, twist meanings and reach conclusions that too often defy common sense.

The Supreme Court's latest conclusion in Cargill vs. Garland was that adding bump stocks - a rifle attachment designed to make it fire faster - did not meet the definition as a "machine gun" as defined in a 1934 law.

This is what we in the real world call nit-picking.

Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito and the other four clowns who bought into this logic in the 6-3 decision are an embarrassment.

Here is the cold, hard logic of the case.

In October 2017, Stephen Paddock, a high stakes-gambler, rented a room on the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas hotel. He brought with him a dozen AR-15-style rifles outfitted with bump stocks. Over 11 minutes, Paddock unleashed withering fire on the people attending an outdoor country music festival below, expending more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition that killed 60 people and left 850 people injured.

The Trump administration responded by using a 1934 law that banned machine guns as the rationale for banning bump stocks. The intent of the legislation was to keep weapons of war out of the hands of regular people.

It should not be surprising that how we define a "machine gun" has changed in the nine decades since the law was passed. What is more important is that the underlying logic in banning bump stocks was to prevent another mass casualty event.

Justice Thomas ruled the mechanics and design of a machine gun means that bump stocks don't make an AR-15 a machine gun.

Tell that to the families of the 60 killed and the 850 people injured in that 11-minute shooting spree.

One-thousand miles south from where Thomas and Alito were selling this drivel, the demolition crews were going to work on the freshman building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

It was there on Valentine's Day 2018 that 14 students and three faculty members were killed.

While many mass shooting sites - such as the Sandy Hook Elementary School building in Connecticut - were torn down, Marjory Stoneman Douglas was preserved as a crime scene as the gunman's case worked its way through the courts and another civil case followed.

The building remained as it was that day with blood stains, broken glass and students' computers and class work left untouched.

But it also became an example of how mass shootings are now part of our everyday life.

Relatives and politicians have toured the site over the years.

Max Schachter, whose 14-year-old son died in the attack, told the New York Times he was glad the building was preserved so officials could see the devastation.

It's ironic the demolition took place on the same day that out-of-touch Supreme Court justices made it more likely that the next gunman intent on a mass shooting will be allowed to kill even more people than at Marjory Stoneman Douglas.

The Supreme Court justices should have toured the school before Friday's decision. It might have given them insights into the Second Amendment and what James Madison meant by a "well-armed militia."

I'm sure Tony Montalto would have been happy to show them around.

Montalto's 14-year-old daughter Gina died that day, too. Over the years, Montalto and his wife showed various public officials and politicians the building.

When they walked through one final time this past spring, they spotted something they had not seen before. In a Spanish classroom was a poster that their daughter had made about her family. It was still taped to the bulletin board.

After you hear that story, the definition of a machine gun and its mechanics are irrelevant.

If the justices were too busy to visit Florida, perhaps they could have taken a few hours for something a little less grim as 300 seniors graduated from Newtown High School in Connecticut last Wednesday.

There should have been 320.

Sixty of the graduates were survivors of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that killed 20 first graders in December 2012.

While in town the justices could have talked to Nicole Hockley and Mark Barden, two parents who did not see their children graduate last Wednesday.

They didn't get to see their kids grow up at all.

Both parents were invited to the graduation, but decided not to attend.

That's easy to understand.

Consider all those parents have missed.

This "wraps all that up and puts a point on it," Barden told the Times.

Two days later, Justice Thomas explained in his decision why a bump stock is not a machine gun and should be allowed for public use.

Matt Holden graduated from Newtown High last week. He was one of those first-graders who was there in 2012.

He remembered seeing a police officer draw his pistol.

He remembered seeing his hysterical mother crying.

And he remembered lining up by class at the firehouse after the shooting and noticing there was one class missing almost all of its students.

Holden is going to Washington, D.C, to attend college.

He told the New York Times he was going to study political science and go into politics.

“After Sandy Hook, there should have been change, and while there was maybe some change, there was by no means enough,” Holden told the Times. “The way I see it now, if I want that change to happen, the best way to make it happen is to go out there and do it myself.”

I'm hoping he goes to law school.

And maybe some day, he will be appointed to the Supreme Court where he can bring some common sense to the proceedings.

One more thing, on Saturday, a gunman opened fire at a group of people playing at a Michigan splash pad, leaving eight people injured, including an 8-year-old boy who was in critical condition after being shot in the head. The shooter was later found dead in his home from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Carnage continues

In my book The Last American Newspaper, I found this reference to the shooting in Newtown, Conn. from an editorial I wrote at the time: "What happened in Newtown can never happen again."

In 2015, 14 were killed in a shooting in San Bernardino, Calif.

In 2016, 49 were killed in an Orlando, Fla. nightclub shooting.

In 2017, 60 were killed at the concert shooting in Las Vegas where a bump stock was used.

In 2017, 26 were killed in the Sutherland Springs church shooting.

In 2019, 23 were killed at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.

In 2022, 21 were killed at a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

In 2023, 18 were killed at a shooting in Maine.

We have all failed.

Florida flooding

The news that South Florida received more than 20 inches of rain this past week appears to be more evidence that the weather patterns in Florida are changing - climate change - and that places like South Florida are going to continue to suffer the consequences.

We should not forget that back in May, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law to ban offshore wind turbines, weaken regulations on natural gas pipelines and removed language that would take climate change into account when considering energy policy.

Instead of addressing the problem, he ignored it.

DeSantis argued this week's rain had nothing to do with climate change.

While I feel for the folks dealing with this calamity, I think if Florida is not going to address climate change, then it should not be considered for federal aid after natural disasters.

Jordan Klepper of The Daily Show takes on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s reversal on congestion pricing in Manhattan.

Closer to home

Lisa Adamson of North Country Earth Action, reports that the New York State Assembly has passed the Climate Change Superfund Act by a vote of 95-46.

The act requires high emission fossil fuel corporations be held accountable for a portion of the costs associated with damages in the state from climate change.

Gov. Hochul still has to sign the bill.

That might be a problem considering that Hochul recently bailed on the Congestion Pricing initiative in Manhattan last week.

The Daily Show's Jordan Klepper called her out with a video clip that showed her enthusiasm for the project in past speeches and her statement that her change of heart was based on what people told her while eating in a diner. It is worth a few minutes of your time and starts at about 5:45 into the clip.

Reporter publishes book

As a long-time editor in the newspaper business, I know the demands on time and energy so it was impressive to see that Christopher Mele, a former reporter at the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, has published his debut novel "Goodwill's Secrets," a mystery set in the Adirondacks.

“I never thought in a billion years I’d try my hand at fiction,” The 40-year newspaper veteran said. “Nonfiction has always been my turf, so I always felt allergic to the idea of inventing people, places and events.”

“Goodwill’s Secrets” tells the story of a community newspaper reporter who is assigned to cover the sudden and unexplained disappearance of a teenage girl in the Adirondack village of Goodwill.  

Mele worked at The Adirondack Daily Enterprise from 1986-88, the Plattsburgh Press-Republican from 1988-92 and now works at The New York Times as a deputy editor on its breaking news team after stints at newsrooms in the Hudson Valley and as executive editor of The Pocono Record in Stroudsburg, Pa.

Mele said he drew on his experiences as a newsman and his time in Saranac Lake and Lake Placid for the setting of his novel. He described the town of  Goodwill as a composite of localities and said it captures community life in the Adirondacks.

“Goodwill’s Secrets” is available on Amazon.

Tingley books

For those of you who are looking for a good summer read, I urge you to consider any of my three books.

The Last American Editor series are collections of columns from my days at The Post-Star while The Last American Newspaper is a memoir about the great work we did at the Glens Falls newspaper and how that work benefitted the community.

Books are available at Ace Hardware in Queensbury, Chapman Museum in Glens Falls and Battenkill Books in Cambridge. You can also check out my website and get a discount when buying more than one of the books.

The Last American Newspaper is also being developed into a play for production in the summer of 2025 at the Adirondack Theater Festival in Glens Falls.

Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.