Category: Law

  • Posse Comitatus Act

    Will the Marines Stand With the President in a Dangerous War Against the American People and the Second Amendment? Which branch of the military constitutes the remnant most likely to uphold the oath to the U.S. Constitution against domestic and foreign enemies?

    The following is a summary of a document entitled The Posse Comitatus Act and Related Matters: The Use of the Military to Execute Civilian Law, by Charles Doyle and Jennifer K. Elsea. A 2012 report prepared for the Congressional Research Service. We will identify any opinions and conclusions that do not ysimply summarize the history & legal precedents contained in the source document.

    The U.S. Constitution provides for use of the militia to execute the Laws of the Union to suppress insurrections and invasions and to protect the states from usurpation of their “republican form of government.” Additionally, state legislatures may request federal military intervention to suppress domestic violence. Congress enacted the Insurrection Acts and other laws pursuant to its express Constitutional authority.

    Insurrection Acts. The Insurrection Acts have been invoked many times in history and outlining such events clears up some of questions while also raising a number of issues. There are several federal laws that also deal with authorizing land and naval forces. The most important law for purposes of the present discussion is the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act.

    Posse Comitatus Act. The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits use of the military to execute the law unless authorized by Congress within its Constitutional authority to suppress insurrection and invasions; thus, the Insurrection Acts and other laws that provide exceptions to Posse Comitatus Act. Violation of Posse Comitatus is a criminal offense.

    (more…)
  • United Nations Reaches Into Local Schools

    United Nations Reaches Into Local Schools

    Many people, with some justification, believe the United Nations is just a harmless debating society without any teeth to it. The reality is that there exist a variety of conduits by which educator associations, UNESCO, International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), and a host of UN and global NGOs influence American education. Woke education in Alaska looks just like the Woke education in New Jersey looks just like the Woke education in Kenya or some other Third World nations where UN influence more directly impacts the daily lives of citizens. DEI along with more or less subtle undermining of U.S. sovereignty (climate change propaganda and so-called Social Justice initiatives) are a global cultural onslaught in education, not just an American Progressive anomaly. Such initiatives need to end ASAP.

    The incoming administration is going to work like Eliot Ness and the Untouchables, exposing and indicting all these global educational initiatives—including Education for Global Citizenship, SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) in education, Education for Sustainable Development, and Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE), not to mention any vestiges of Common Core–derived from the UNESCO World Core curriculum. Many of the ideas summarized here have been culled from James Lindsay and he deserved kudos for his insights.

    (more…)
  • Open-Carry of a Shotgun: A Good Idea in an Apartment Complex?

    Open-Carry of a Shotgun: A Good Idea in an Apartment Complex?

    The day before Thanksgiving (2023), the Law Office of Mark Knapp PLLC obtained an acquittal in a case alleging Second Degree Assault (with a firearm enhancement) in Snohomish County today. The three-day jury trial focused on open-carry issues and whether the complaining witness (the alleged victim) was justified in grabbing a loaded shotgun from our client. Grabbing a weapon is only justified where a threat of imminent deadly force exists.

    Subscribe

    Click on the link above to receive a free newsletter. We won’t spam you and look forward to discussing current legislative issues being decided in the courts. And especially Second Amendment litigation.

    We are planning an email newsletter and will be inviting viewers to subscribe. The initial messages are anticipated to be short and focused on the current legal landscape in Washington State and federal litigation, especially related to Second Amendment issues.

    Please consider subscribing. You can unsubscribe at any time.

    Self-Defense or Criminal Assault? Grabbing a shotgun—other than in self-defense—constitutes Assault in the Second Degree and could include Robbery charges, and a Firearms Enhancement. Our client told the police and the jury that he just went to the parking lot to check on his motorcycle when his neighbor approached him aggressively, demanding to know why he was carrying a shotgun in a common area.

    (more…)
  • Firearms Freedom Could Have Stopped Hamas

    Firearms Freedom Could Have Stopped Hamas

    A recent NY Times story tells a lot about Israel and the restrictions Israeli government imposes on its citizens:

    “They were rounded up and shot like animals within hours of losing themselves, and the pressures of Israeli life, in thumping soundtracks of mystical peace and love. “There were these crazy maniacs with guns and people falling one by one,” Ms. Fakliro said. “It was like a shooting range.”

    Authorities Lulled Into a False Sense of Security. The gruesome reports of how Hamas and Islamic Jihad infiltrated Israel’s well regarded security perimeter are shocking to the world. Despite the extreme risk of terror attacks from Gaza, Israel’s government apparently believed that Hamas was focusing on social programs to help the Palestinians living within Gaza’s borders.

    Disarmed Israeli Civilians. Israel’s government had been taking steps to disarm civilians who possessed rifles and still requires the few rifles permitted in a Kibbutz or other danger zone to be stored in a way that denies hinders access to the weapons in an emergency.

    (more…)

  • Restoring Gun Rights & Vacating Convictions

    Petitioning for restoration of gun rights in Washington. We handle criminal cases, including felonies, and firearms law. We can also help get some convictions vacated:

    INSTRUCTIONS FOR VACATING MISDEMEANOR AND GROSS MISDEMEANOR CONVICTIONS

    Washington law permits vacating some misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor convictions.

    When the court vacates a conviction, you are released from penalties and disabilities resulting from the offense- but not from the prohibition against possessing firearms.

    Subscribe to newsletter.

    (more…)

  • High-Capacity Magazines & Gun Trusts in Washington State

    High-Capacity Magazines & Gun Trusts in Washington State

    Can an NFA gun trust protect you and your family from potential penalties imposed if you loan a “high-capacity” magazine to a co-trustee or leave a high-capacity magazine to your beneficiaries when you die? Transfer or sale of magazines holding more than ten rounds will be a gross misdemeanor with civil penalties in Washington state after July 1, 2022. Even transfers of guns designed and manufactured with an “ammunition feeding device” holding over ten rounds that cannot be detached, such as a tube magazine or an extended magazine tube for your shotgun, will be prohibited. The only exception will be for .22 caliber rifles with tube magazines and all calibers of lever action rifles.

    What does it take for the Law Office of Mark Knapp PLLC to be listed in the Who’s Who of Top Attorneys? https://zurl.co/5ce0

    The civil penalties apply to online sales and do not provide an exception for sales to military and law enforcement. While sales and transfers to law enforcement agencies (but not individual officers) are exempt from criminal penalties, law enforcement agencies will probably not be able to purchase such items online if the law is strictly construed with potential triple damages against sellers for unfair or deceptive business practices under the Washington State Consumer Protection Act.

    (more…)

  • Benefits of a Washington Gun Trust or NFA Trust.

    All Gun Trusts are not equal. A Gun Trust or NFA Trust should be designed for all of your firearms and will provide Asset Protection and multi generational ownership for your firearms.

    The Law Firm of Mark Knapp PLLC focuses on NFA Gun Trusts and working with courts to restore clients’ right to possess firearms in Washington. Mr. Knapp has practiced law since 1989 when he graduated from Gonzaga Law School. The firm emphasizes criminal defense work, Constitutional law and advocacy on behalf of clients needing to fight back aggressively against government overreach.

    No CLEO Signature Required to Own NFA Restricted Items.
    The ATF no longer requires that individuals obtain approval from their Chief Law Enforcement Officer (the “CLEO”) as part of the application process to obtain a Title II firearm from another individual or Class 3 dealer. (more…)

  • Schools are for Educating Students, Not Politics

    Schools are for Educating Students, Not Politics

    For many years there has been a movement aimed at separating children from the traditional authority of the family. Parental rights are the law of the land according to U.S. Supreme Court legal precedent.

    Meyer v Nebraska and Pierce v. Society of Sisters are two landmark cases reinforcing parental rights. In Meyer, the Court struck down a state statute that criminalized teaching students in any foreign language in public or private schools.  In the Pierce case, the Court struck down an Oregon law requiring attendance at public schools.

    In Troxel v. Granville (2000), the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Washington state law that allowed grandparents to petition state courts for child visitation rights over parental objections. The Court upheld parental rights against statutory grandparent rights. The court found Meyer and Pierce controlling,

    James Payne and his wife are the parents of twin nine-year old boys. The two boys attend a school in the Highline School District which is in the SeaTac-Burien area near Seattle. Mr. Payne retained the Law Office of Mark Knapp PLLC to write a letter to Holly Ferguson and the school board demanding that the District stop posting political propaganda in school hallways and classrooms. The District’s lawyers responded in writing with a December, 2022 letter refusing to remove posters allegedly promoting the transgender, LGBQT agenda. Mr. Payne also objected to Black Lives Matter posters and other material allegedly endorsing Communist figureheads like Che Guevara, a sociopath who killed and tortured many innocent Cuban people.

    Highline School District claims that these signs do not violate parents’ and children’s civil rights by creating a hostile learning environment. Ms. Ferguson, who has a law degree and seems to be the chief diversity officer for the District, responded to one of Mr. Payne’s emails as follows:

    “These signs are not considered “political” for the purposes of policy and procedure 4412.  That policy is talking about “political activity” in the context of lobbying officials, or other overt political acts, such as campaigning.”

    (more…)

  • Julian Huxley, Second Amendment & UN Suzerainty

    Suzerain- Main Entry: su·zer·ain
    Pronunciation: ˈsü-zə-rən, -ˌrân; ˈsüz-rən

    Function: noun

    1 : a superior feudal lord to whom fealty is due: overlord;

    2 : a dominant state controlling the foreign relations of a vassal state but allowing it sovereign authority in its internal affairs.

    Jeremy Rabkin, a professor of law at George Mason University School of Law, recently authored an article published in Imprimis called “The Constitution and American Sovereignty”. In the article, Rabkin explains how the concept of national sovereignty, as we understand it today, developed during the Seventeenth century along with nationalism. (more…)

  • What Should You Tell the Police After a Self-Defense Shooting?

    Bob Smith, our expert witness in the Chabuk trial, provided the following insight that relates to some important points we made to the judge concerning what Kamuran Chabuk could have done differently to avoid being prosecuted after shooting an unarmed aggressor where there were at least two or three potential assailants:

    “Recall also that we countered the point of the prosecution in the first trial regarding Chabuk’s alleged legal obligation to announce that he was armed. There is no such legal obligation. This was one of many such points that the first judge pointed out in his decision granting a retrial.”

    (more…)