Thanks to a 2005 DUI conviction in Pennsylvania, Edward Williams permanently lost the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. But he did not realize that until a decade later, and his confusion on that point is understandable.
The federal law that stripped Williams of his Second Amendment rights is commonly described as applying to "felons," and Williams' offense was a misdemeanor. But although his sentence did not include any time behind bars, his crime theoretically could have sent him to prison for up to five years. That was enough to trigger 18 USC 922(g)(1), which covers anyone convicted of "a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year."
When a lawyer alerted Williams to that wrinkle, which made his continued ownership of firearms a federal felony, he got rid of his guns. But he did not think that requirement was fair, reasonable, or constitutional, and this week a federal appeals court agreed. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit recognized a historical tradition of disarming "physically dangerous individuals" whose possession of firearms would pose a threat to public safety. But it said Williams plainly does not fit into that category.
"The federal government spent nearly a decade trying to permanently disarm a peaceable man over a nonviolent misdemeanor—and it lost bigly," says Brandon Combs, president of the Firearms Policy Coalition, which supported Williams' lawsuit. "The government does not get to turn a nonviolent conviction into a lifetime ban on exercising a constitutionally protected right."
The 3rd Circuit's en banc decision in Williams v. Attorney General affirms a 2023 ruling by a federal judge who likewise concluded that disarming Williams was unconstitutional. It elaborates on the logic of Range v. Attorney General, a 2023 decision that restored the gun rights of a Pennsylvania man who had been convicted of food stamp fraud. In both cases, the 3rd Circuit held that applying Section 922(g)(1) to the plaintiffs was not "consistent with this Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation"—the Second Amendment test established by the Supreme Court's 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.
Writing for the majority in Williams' case, 3rd Circuit Judge Paul Matey acknowledges that the Supreme Court has described "longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons" as "presumptively lawful." But "those longstanding customs restricted the violently dangerous (within which some felons would be included), not felons writ large," he says. "Felons were restricted because they posed a physical danger, rather than for their offense of conviction."
Matey argues that "focusing on physical dangerousness corrects the erroneous argument" that "only law-abiding and responsible citizens can exercise the rights protected by the Second Amendment"—a claim that the Supreme Court rejected in the 2024 case United States v. Rahimi. "We find no history that supports disarming irresponsible people, where 'responsible' is defined by the whim of the sovereign or the will of the majority," he says, alluding to the danger of allowing legislators to whittle away at the Second Amendment by criminalizing an ever-widening range of conduct.
Matey emphasizes "the novelty of forever restricting all felons from possessing firearms for lawful purposes." The original restriction, which Congress approved in 1938 as part of the Federal Firearms Act, applied only to violent crimes such as murder, manslaughter, rape, kidnapping, robbery, and assault with a deadly weapon. In 1961, Congress expanded the ban to cover nonviolent crimes punishable by more than a year in prison.
Williams' 2005 DUI conviction qualified for two reasons. He had a prior DUI conviction, stemming from a 2000 arrest in State College. And when he was arrested again in Philadelphia four years later, his blood alcohol concentration was a whopping 0.223 percent. That made his second offense a first-degree misdemeanor, which carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.
Since then, Williams has stayed out of trouble. "He has done nothing violent, let alone dangerous, for over twenty years, and has held steady employment at the same job for over three decades," Matey notes. Williams drinks only occasionally, and a psychological evaluation found he "has a normal personality, without psychopathology and without addiction or violent tendencies."
The Justice Department nevertheless argued that Williams' continuing disarmament is consistent with the Bruen test, which requires historical analogs that are "relevantly similar" in motivation and scope. In making that case, the government relied mainly on early laws aimed at "habitual drunkards"—the same analogy that the Supreme Court unanimously rejected last June in United States v. Hemani, which involved the federal ban on gun possession by "unlawful" drug users.
Although the Justice Department "acknowledges it may proscribe Williams's possession of firearms only if he 'presently poses a physical danger if armed,'" Matey says, it "offers no evidence to establish this as the aim of the habitual drunkard laws." Those laws, the Supreme Court noted in Hemani, "did not seek to protect the public from violence so much as to protect habitual drunkards from themselves and their families from financial devastation."
Nor did the habitual drunkard laws permanently disarm people, as Section 922(g)(1) does. "Most statutes capped the commitment of habitual drunkards to the state inebriate asylum, prison, or hard labor to a few months or years," Matey notes. "Others provided for an indefinite period of incarceration, but had no indication that upon release individuals continued to forfeit their arms. Rather, once someone was 'safe' to 'go at large,' they were restored to the status of a full rights-bearing citizen."
Contrary to the considerations that the Supreme Court deemed relevant in Hemani, Matey says, the Justice Department "fails to show that Williams threatens to 'misuse[] a gun while intoxicated,' or that he 'poses a danger to himself or others as a result' of
alcohol abuse. In fact, much like those nineteenth-century drunkards released from custody and restored their rights, the record shows that Williams poses no present physical danger from the use of a firearm, or anything else."
The 3rd Circuit is one of three federal appeals courts that have allowed people with nonviolent felony records to argue that Section 922(g)(1) is unconstitutional as applied to them. But such challenges have been blocked in six circuits, notwithstanding compelling historical evidence that the law reaches much farther than the Second Amendment allows. So far, the Supreme Court has declined to accept any of the many petitions asking it to resolve that circuit split.
The post The 3rd Circuit Upholds the Gun Rights of a Man Who Committed a Nonviolent Misdemeanor 2 Decades Ago appeared first on Reason Magazine.
Eve Livingston sensitively draws us into the worlds of two women who share a similar past: abusive partners who committed suicide. Through powerful scene‑setting, we’re there when each woman hears the news, and we feel the complex emotions these deaths provoke. This is a difficult, complicated subject—not often tackled. Livingston bravely shines a light on how, in these particular circumstances, suicide can bring both grief and relief.
Things started as they so often do: he was older, professionally successful in a similar field to Siri’s, and there was something “magnetic” about him. There was also, she came to realise, a darkness beneath the surface. A tragic bereavement in his past had left him struggling with his mental health, something which immediately evoked sympathy in Siri and made him seem a deeper and more sensitive person, qualities she was drawn to. At the beginning of their relationship, he would often turn up uninvited to her home or events she was attending, or bombard her with messages — behaviour she now views as stalking, but found flattering in those hazy early days of a new relationship.
In its latest statistical report, Attorney General’s Office recorded the discovery of 137 bodies abandoned wrapped in plastic, sheets or sacks so far in 2026 and attributed the cases to a criminal practice linked to disputes between Guatemalan gangs.
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“According to investigations and analyses conducted by specialized units, one of the main lines of investigation into the abandoned bodies is related to rivalry and territorial disputes between criminal organizations,” National Civil Police spokesman Cesar Mateo said, noting that only 39 similar cases were discovered in 2025.
The main motivations behind these crimes are “control of areas used for the sale and distribution of drugs, as well as ‘disciplinary actions’ within the gangs themselves,” he added.
Authorities attribute these crimes primarily to violent disputes between the Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18 gangs, which were designated terrorist organizations under Guatemalan law in 2025.
Prosecutors’ records show that 68 of the murder victims were found in plastic bags and 53 wrapped in sheets, while 10 were found inside sacks. The remaining bodies were discovered under different circumstances.
The bodies are often abandoned by their killers along desolate stretches of road or in deserted areas, but they are also found in urban areas. One of the most recent cases occurred in September, when authorities found the bodies of two people whose hands and feet were bound.
The discovery took place in the municipality of Chinautla, 3 miles from downtown Guatemala City, where volunteer firefighters rescuers were alerted to two bodies wrapped in plastic bags beside the road.
So far, no information about those responsible is available, while the Attorney General’s Office and the National Civil Police are investigating the case using surveillance cameras.
BERNARDO, ESTAMOS PEOR QUE NUNCA.
— Guatemala Inmortal (@Guate_Inmortal_) August 28, 2026
Guatemala ya no aguanta más.
Secuestros. Extorsiones. Asaltos todos los días. Cadáveres en bolsas. Balaceras. Muertes.
¿Qué estamos viviendo?
Guatemala está atravesando un COLAPSO DE SEGURIDAD y los guatemaltecos vivimos con miedo.
Ni con… pic.twitter.com/MIvUZlL6iO
The text addressing to the Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo reads: “BERNARDO, WE ARE WORSE OFF THAN EVER. Guatemala can take no more. Kidnappings. Extortion. Daily assaults. Bodies in bags. Shootouts. Deaths.
What are we living through? Guatemala is experiencing a SECURITY COLLAPSE, and we Guatemalans are living in fear. Not under Giammattei. Not under Jimmy Morales. Not under the Patriot Party.
In decades, we have never felt this level of abandonment and insecurity. This was not the ‘spring’ that was promised. It is the spring of criminals.
Insecurity has taken root. Gangs are advancing while the State retreats. President Bernardo Arevalo: do something. Because while your government talks, Guatemala lives in fear.”
Identifying the Bodies
The stark statistics contrast with the daily human tragedy, as occurred last August when two young people, ages 18 and 19, were found wrapped in bags in southern Guatemala City. The discovery triggered scenes of grief and helplessness when their relatives arrived at the scene after searching for them for 24 hours following their abduction from a nearby soccer field.
The discoveries have been reported in 14 of the country’s 22 departments, although most of the abandoned bodies have been concentrated in the department of Guatemala, where authorities detected 105 bodies left in the open.
The police spokesman explained that the manner and circumstances in which the victims are abandoned provide key clues that the Video Forensics Unit and investigators analyze through surveillance footage to reconstruct the routes used to transport the bodies and identify those responsible.
As a result of investigations into this pattern, Mateo confirmed that security forces have arrested more than 10 people linked to the abandonment of bodies wrapped in sheets and bags. They include seven suspected Mara Salvatrucha members arrested in September and accused of at least 17 homicides.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime told security agencies that a conducive environment was needed to hold presidential and legislative elections on Dec. 13.
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He attended a meeting of the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP), which was also attended by Defense Minister Mario Andresol; National Police Director Andre Vladimir Paraison; Armed Forces Commander Derby Guerrier; and Maj. Gen. Edernebat Batsuuri of Mongolia, commander of the Gang Suppression Force (GSF).
“The meeting made it possible to assess the national security situation and examine the measures needed to establish the security conditions essential for organizing the upcoming elections,” the office of Prime Minister Fils-Aime said.
The CEP scheduled the first round of presidential and legislative elections for Dec. 13. The elections have been postponed several times since 2021 and were supposed to take place Aug. 30 this year.
The last Haitian president elected by popular vote was Jovenel Moïse, who took office in February 2017 and was assassinated July 7, 2021, at his residence in Port-au-Prince by Colombian mercenaries.
'WE WERE TREATED LIKE ANIMALS'
— Global South World (@g_s_world) August 25, 2026
Dozens of people are feared dead after armed gangs stormed Kenscoff, Haiti, burning homes and forcing hundreds to flee.
Haitian rights group RNDDH says the toll could reach 40 as searches continue. Among the sites attacked was a church sheltering… pic.twitter.com/HwH4i1beKn
Armed Gang Violence
Haitians are also expected to vote on several proposed constitutional changes. However, the severe violence and insecurity crisis, with armed gangs controlling most of Port-au-Prince and other areas of the country, has cast doubt on whether the elections will take place.
“The government reaffirms its determination to work in collaboration with the relevant institutions to establish a secure environment conducive to holding credible, inclusive and democratic elections,” the prime minister’s office said.
The assessment is expected to enable the Provisional Electoral Council “to have reliable data and a more accurate picture of the current security situation.”
Last week, electoral authorities extended the candidate registration period through Oct. 31 and postponed the start of the election campaign, which had been scheduled for Oct. 5. Some sectors have interpreted the moves as a sign that the elections will be postponed once again because of the critical security situation, but the CEP has not commented on the matter.
The armed gangs are being fought by the Gang Suppression Force (GSF), which was established a year ago by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Its mandate was renewed for six months on Sept. 29.
More than 5,700 people have been killed or injured so far this year in Haiti as a result of violence by the gangs are also suspected of being responsible for more than 230 kidnappings and the rape of more than 1,000 women and girls.
teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE
On October 10, thousands of Ecuadorians took to the streets to protest against the government of right-wing President Daniel Noboa. The demonstration was organized by the Autonomous Front of Organized Resistance (FARO) under the slogan “Government vs. People.”
A esta hora, una marcha de rechazo al Gobierno de Daniel Noboa recorre las calles de Quito. La movilización está marcada por carteles de protesta y consignas contra el mandatario y su gestión. Los manifestantes atraviesan en este momento el paso deprimido del Guambra y avanzan… pic.twitter.com/WKPfT8D9jF
— Elena Rodríguez Yánez (@ElenaDeQuito) October 10, 2026
Saturday’s demonstration followed a protest on October 8, organized by labor unions also in Quito, to protest the security, energy, health, and employment crises facing the country. They also protested government cuts to education and health care, as well as alleged mistreatment of workers, according to Edwin Bedoya, president of the United Workers’ Front (FUT).
For its part, the October 10 demonstration – which consisted mainly of high school and college students – set out from the Central University and marched through Quito. Slogans such as “If the people have no peace, neither does the government” and “Out with Noboa, out with him!” were heard along the streets occupied by the demonstrators.
The president of the Catholic University Student Federation, Jatari Ulcuango, told protesters: “Four years ago, this government promised us electricity; two years ago, too – and now the blackouts have returned. Two months ago, the government told us it would provide us with medicine, and yet we’re only receiving 60% of the supply. They’re taking us for fools.”
He added: “We’re dying outside the hospitals. Criminals are kidnapping us, murdering us, and robbing us. That’s why we’ve come out this morning. They plan to dismantle public institutions to force us to hire private security. Who has gotten rich off the health crisis? The private healthcare sector, while the people are getting poorer and poorer.”
The peaceful march headed back to the Central University, where the students gathered. Later, the students reported on social media that they had been harassed and repressed by the police, who had accompanied the entire march.
Likewise, several media outlets reported that the police were aggressive toward them. This was reported by the outlet La Barra Espaciadora, which released a video showing police officers pushing journalists.
TeleSur journalist Elena Rodríguez also reported that law enforcement officers broke the microphone she was using and struck her on the head: “I’m sick and tired of having to recount, time and time again, police attacks against the press. Today, while I was trying to document the violence with which officers were beating young protesters, I was struck on the head from behind with a baton. I turned around, showed my Telesur microphone to identify myself as a journalist, and the response was another baton strike that ended up breaking it.”
She added: “If they think that by beating me up they’re going to get me to stop documenting police brutality, to put my microphone away, or to back off several blocks so I can report from a place where I won’t be a nuisance, they’re wrong. It is not we journalists who should distance ourselves from the events. It is the police who must stop attacking us. The right to report cannot be negotiated at the point of a baton.”
The protests are taking place against the backdrop of a widespread crisis in the country, which includes the worst security crisis in its history (tens of thousands of deaths due to violence between drug trafficking gangs), a very serious health crisis (a lack of supplies and medicines in the public health system), and other major crises such as those in education, public investment, and employment.
Local elections will be held in November, which will reveal the extent of support – or lack thereof – for President Noboa and his neoliberal government agenda, which aligns with the hemispheric security strategy led by the Trump administration.
According to Legal Medicine data, sexual abuse of older adult women increased 31% during 2026. Examinations by that entity indicate these cases rose from 70 to 92 between January and July this year.
However, professionals consulted say these records correspond only to examinations of victims who reported some type of abuse. Because other cases are neither investigated nor reported, the real number of victims is believed to be much higher.
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As of July 2026, official Colombian figures show 89 femicides and 16,451 sexual crimes, although there are significant discrepancies with social organizations, which report higher figures.
The Ombudsman’s Office reported the 89 completed cases, plus 74 attempts and 20 transfemicides, acknowledging 191 cases in 2025 compared with more than 600 reported by organizations. The Femicide Observatory documented 621 femicides in September 2025 before suspending its count due to lack of funds.
Estamos en Emergencia Nacional por Violencias Basadas en Género en Colombia. Rechazamos el feminicidio de Doña Blanca Pardo y denunciamos el incremento de las violencias contra las mujeres mayores.
— Yesenia Moreno Rodríguez – Yess (@yessmorenor_) October 10, 2026
Exigimos justicia y una vida libre de violencias para todas.
Les invitamos a la… pic.twitter.com/xFVbj13OWN
The Colombian Prosecutor’s Office reports 16,451 complaints of sexual crimes, most of them against girls and adolescents with 12,457 cases, followed by adult women with 3,583. It also records 166 cases of sexual exploitation of minors and 151 trafficking victims.
Between August and September 2026, the Prosecutor’s Office reported the prosecution of 275 people for sexual crimes against minors, of whom 258 received a precautionary measure of deprivation of liberty while the process continues, clarifying that this does not equal a conviction.
Student riots plaguing France have spread to Belgium, where hundreds of hooded thugs have clashed with police, sparking "total chaos" in Brussels.
The post Student Riots Spread to Belgium as Hundreds of Hooded Protesters Clash With Police Sparking “Total Chaos” in Brussels appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The man charged with murdering Ann Widdecombe and targeting Nigel Farage, Joshua Kerry, had "an extreme Left-wing mindset" and hostility to Reform, a court has heard.
The post Man Charged With Murdering Ann Widdecombe and Targeting Nigel Farage Was Motivated by Extreme Left-Wing Mindset and Hostility to Reform, Court Hears appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The horrific story of Jane Doe and the Cornell Seven has spurred nationwide outrage and revived contentious debates around prevention and education. But one question is going unasked: Who really pays after a sexual assault? In terms of actual dollars and cents? The answer, Cosmopolitan finds, isn’t good:
Leah received an email from the first hospital. It was a bill for $3,338, including $663 for lab work and a pregnancy test she hadn’t asked for. She hadn’t been charged for the rape kit, but the price of just checking into the ER was $2,241. After her parents’ insurance was applied, she owed $451.06.
“I was so unbelievably angry,” she says. “I lost it. I was like, ‘You mean it cost me $450 to get raped?!’”
Most people don’t realize this care might not be covered, says Vega, who has worked as an emergency room nurse, emergency room director, and a SANE. But that’s actually common: KFF analyzed a sample of insurance claim data from 2016 to 2018 (the most up-to-date data KFF has) and found that 83 percent of women who received a sexual violence diagnosis were billed for treatment. Another analysis of emergency room department data from 2019 found that the average bill for sexual assault survivors was $3,551, according to the New England Journal of Medicine.
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