Worth Knowing, Probably Not Quite Threadworthy 7/18

[SVPete]

Progressives in Cambridge, Mass Eliminated Shot Spotter. There Were Consequences.

https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2026/07/17/progressives-in-cambridge-mass-eliminated-shot-spotter-there-were-consequences-n3817073

Cambridge, Massachusetts had a Shot Spotter system for 12 years until this May when progressives on the city council voted to get rid of it because of concerns about surveillance in minority neighborhoods. Both the police and the city manager opposed removing the technology at the time but their concerns were ignored by a majority of the council.
...
Councillor Ayah Al-Zubi, the lead sponsor, was endorsed by the DSA when she ran for office. Cambridge is a sanctuary she supports a rule that would make it impossible for the city to hire police officers who formerly worked for ICE. She also supports an alternative, unarmed response team for some calls.

City manager Yi-An Huang argued that Shot Spotter could be important in helping police get to a scene before a 911 call is made.
...
There were also concerns from the public that Shot Spotter was being used by ICE to listen to private conversations. There's no evidence for that, but that seems to be what some people believed was happening or could happen. In the end, the vote was 5-2-2, with five councilors voting to remove it, two voting against and two voting present.

About six weeks later, 32-year-old Xavier Bautista was shot late at night and died at the scene. His body was found around 5:30 am on July 4. Authorities believe he'd been shot a full hour before the 911 call came in.

Why the ethnic make-up of a neighborhood where possible crime gets detected and police response matters to Prog pols eludes me, but I'm not a racist like them. That a person injured, fatally, by this stupidity was a non-white was so foreseeable that it should surprise no one.

[SVPete]

Gun Owners Just Scored A Huge Court Victory

https://www.dailywire.com/news/gun-owners-just-scored-a-huge-court-victory

A federal appeals court ruled Friday that New Jersey’s ban on semiautomatic rifles and high-capacity magazines violates the Second Amendment, marking the first time a federal appellate court has struck down a state ban on so-called assault weapons.

The Third Circuit reached the decision by a 10-5 vote, expanding a lower court ruling that had found New Jersey’s ban on Colt AR-15 rifles unconstitutional.

A lower court had previously ruled that New Jersey’s ban on Colt AR-15 rifles violated the Second Amendment while upholding the state’s large-capacity magazine restriction. The appeals court went further, concluding the constitutional protection extends to all semiautomatic rifles covered by the law.

“We agree with the District Court that New Jersey’s ban on Colt AR-15s violates the Second Amendment,” the court wrote. It added that “the same result” applies to the broader class of semiautomatic rifles covered by the state’s assault weapons ban.

Semi-automatic rifles have been in common use among hunters and range shooters for 7 or 8 decades, at least. Magazine-fed pistols have been in common use by civilians for over a century. That means they are protected by Bruen. That 15 judges were on this ruling means that it was a full panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. If the State of New Jersey wants to waste more taxpayer money with an appeal, it will be to the USSC.