#entirely possible i wrote it in a note app as opposed to posting it

[bbeelzemon]

as time goes on im realizing that describing your gender is tbh kinda similar to the naming of jellicle ca- hey wait no stay with me for a second here okay. im holding your hands and looking directly into your eyes now. listen to me. i have a public facing gender. a more specific and personal gender that i can share with my closest friends and family. and an innermost unique gender that only i can ever truly know. gender is just like a jellicle cats

[omoi-no-hoka]

Hello! I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but how do you become proficient at handling conversations in Japanese/handling grammar very well? I read your post on the JLPT, and it addressed issues I have been tip toe-ing around--indeed, passive actions such as listening or reading are easier than the active ones. How did you go about that? Did you write a bunch of sentences daily? Did you have a conversation partner? What would you rec. to someone who lives outside Japan? Thank you!

This is an excellent question, and one that I get asked a lot irl by Japanese people in particular. Let’s talk about gaining fluency and the ways we can go about it!

How to Gain Fluency in Japanese (and Other Languages)

Speaking Fluency versus Accuracy

Language proficiency is divided into two separate categories:

Fluency: Although there are no widely agreed-upon definitions or measures of language fluency, someone is typically said to be fluent if their use of the language appears fluid, or natural, coherent, and easy as opposed to slow, halting use. In other words, fluency is often described as the ability to produce language on demand and be understood.

Accuracy: Correctness of language use, especially grammatical correctness and word choice.

By the above definitions, a “fluent” speaker may make grammatical mistakes, but they can speak without having to stop and think too much about conjugations, word choice, etc.

An “accurate” speaker can speak with nearly zero grammatical/word choice mistakes. However, the speed of their utterances isn’t generally taken into account, so it could take an “accurate” person twice as long to articulate the same idea as a “fluent” person. 

Ideally, you need to strike a good balance between these two qualities when speaking. I have a boss, God bless him, who is 100% fluency and 0% accuracy and…man is it hard to understand what he’s saying sometimes, but he can generally get his point across just barely. I have another coworker who is 100% accuracy and takes about 3 minutes to form a sentence because he wants it to be perfect. 

How to Increase Speaking/Writing Accuracy

First, let’s talk about the easiest thing to improve, which is accuracy. It’s also (in my opinion) the least fun thing to improve, because it means grammar books and vocabulary memorization. 

You can only use a language accurately if you know what is correct and what is incorrect, and you can only learn that by studying grammar and vocabulary (or if you’re a native speaker and picked it up innately, you lucky bastard).

So here’s some things you can do to increase your accuracy:

For example, if you’re having a hard time using the passive, you need to review that part of your textbook and find some exercises to drill it into your head. 

Say the correct thing aloud. Lots. Sometimes I just walk around my apartment and narrate everything I see/do like a crazy person, but that’s good practice. 

Write example sentences using the grammar you’re struggling with and say them aloud too. 

There’s a bunch of cool apps that connect you with native speakers that can help correct you too! I used to use HelloTalk, I think. 

If you’re a creative soul, when I was studying for the JLPT, I took 1 grammar point and 5 vocabulary words from my JLPT study books and used them to write a 2-page short story about the adventures of ネギ, a stray black cat that smelled like green onions because she napped in an onion field. Then I had a Japanese friend check it over for me and mark mistakes. I hand-wrote them to improve my abysmal handwriting at the same time. It was really fun! I sometimes think about doing it again just for funsies.

When someone corrects you, don’t feel like your entire life is over and you’re a failure and you’ll never get it right haha. I’ve seen people fall into that hopeless mindset, and that’s just nonsense. It’s a good opportunity for learning and nothing more! Say the correct thing you’ve just been taught out loud, then write it down if you can. And, if possible, find a chance to use it in conversation asap.

How to Increase Speaking/Writing Fluency

Now this is the hard one. Especially for those learners who do not have native speakers nearby. 

I’m going to be dead honest with you. I started formally studying Japanese at uni, and I had a Japanese roommate/best friend since year one. I had a 4.0 GPA in my Japanese classes (and only my Japanese classes lol) because I was and still am a MEGA NERD about it. 

...But it wasn’t until I studied abroad in Japan my 4th year of uni that I gained fluency. 

There are a lot of things that can hold us back from fluency. An interesting thing I’ve noted is that Foreign Language is perhaps the only subject in which a student’s personality can directly affect their progress. To gain fluency, you have to go forth and speak, but if you are naturally a shy person, that is going to hinder you. If you are the kind of person who takes mistakes/failures poorly, you will be less likely to take risks and try to say harder sentences. In contrast, you can get full marks in math regardless of the above personality traits. 

I’m not saying that you have to be an outgoing explosion of a human being in order to gain fluency. But what I am saying is that you have to be willing to seek out conversations, and you have to be willing to take chances. Get out of your comfort zone. Use that new word you picked up the other day. Try to explain something that is difficult for you. 

My problem was that, while I lived with a native speaker who would have happily taught me anything I asked, her English proficiency was much higher than my Japanese proficiency. And when I struggled to say something in Japanese, I’d fall back onto English. And when she told me something I didn’t understand in Japanese, she’d repeat it in English instead of Japanese, because that was easier for us both. The same thing happened when I was in Japanese class as well. I always had the assurance that I could fall back on English.

But when I elected to study abroad in Japan for 3 months, I knew that this was my big chance. So on the host family form in the “other requests” area, I wrote that I specifically wanted a host family that could not speak English. I was setting fire to my crutches, and I was scared but excited to see them burn. 

By the end of my three months in Japan, I had gone from “Chotto matte kudasai” and needing a minute to form my reply, to “Okay, yeah I see that movie too and I liked the action scenes, but I didn’t care for the story little.” (I’ve underlined mistakes that I would have made in Japanese, to show you that I sacrificed some accuracy to obtain higher fluency.)

So, in short, the easiest and quickest way to increase your spoken fluency is to throw away all the crutches you can and use the language as much as possible. Every single day. Even if you’re just having an imaginary conversation with yourself! And like I said, there are a bunch of cool apps that connect you with Japanese people who want to learn English and you can do language exchanges with them. I had a lot of fun with those in the past. 

As for increasing writing fluency...well. That’s a tough question with Japanese, because I can type Japanese at like 100 wpm, but my Japanese handwriting fluency is at a 10/100. I can read and type at the level of a native Japanese high school student, but I can only write the kanji that 7 year old can write. That’s no exaggeration.

The big reason for that dichotomy is that my work is paper-free. 100% of my work is done on screen, so about the only time I have to write out something is when I’m filling out a form, which includes my name (katakana), address, and maybe occupation. 

If you want to increase your Japanese handwriting speed, just keep on writing. Write those little short stories about ネギ like I did, or find some writing prompts (I just started a side-blog with writing prompts yesterday btw) or keep a little diary. Make opportunities to write. 

How to Have Nice Handwriting in Japanese

Okay, full disclaimer: I am the absolute LAST person qualified to talk about this, because I have awful handwriting in Japanese. 

Unless you have prior experience with a different language that uses kanji, or you lack the keen eye of an artist, you will likely struggle to develop neat handwriting. 

Personally, I really like using this app called Japanese Kanji Sensei. It’s on Android (not sure about iOS), and if you pay just a few bucks you can make your own kanji sets and stuff. Anyways, it will show you how to write the characters prettily. It gives you a good frame of reference for what nice, pencil/pen-written characters (versus calligraphy characters). It has hiragana and katakana on it too!

I get a stylus and write out the characters on this app for the muscle memory, so my hands remember the sensation of writing a certain character. (The muscle memory is different if you only use your fingertip.) This muscle memory and repetition is how Japanese people learn how to internalize kanji as well. I really enjoy and recommend this app. I’m sure that there are others out there like it too.

Summary

TL;DR: Review your textbooks, take risks, use every resource available or make your own, and just have fun with it! 💗

[hinge]

Hinge presents an anthology of love stories almost never told. Read more on https://no-ordinary-love.co

[j-kaiwa]

Discussion Article April 8th

We’ve raised Generation Hopeless: millennials who lack basic life and workplace skills. And it’s a big issue

MILLENNIALS are totally useless when it comes to basic life and work skills and we’ll all pay for it, experts have warned.

FORGET lazy, self-centred or cocky — the truth about most millennials is they’re absolutely hopeless when it comes to basic life and workplace skills, experts say.

Research shows young adults are comfortable putting themselves ‘out there’ online, but all that time glued to screens has raised a generation incapable of small talk, critical thinking and problem-solving.

And that’s not to mention their staggering inability to cook, draft a personal budget or change a tyre.

“There’s been a very steep decline in interpersonal skills and it means that regardless of their school results, young people are going to struggle to get a job,” educator Michaela Launerts said.

Launerts has written the book #Girlcode, which she describes as a guide to interacting properly on this side of a screen.

“It teaches people how to prevent potential disasters in their professional and personal lives that may occur because of the consequences of their online and (online-influenced) behaviour.”

Topics canvassed include the basics, from shaking hands, to more advanced areas like how to convey positive body language, grooming, the art of conversation, dinner etiquette and managing intimate relationships.

The blame for many of these personal inadequacies lies with the internet, she believes. A number of other sociologists agree.

Being glued to screens has resulted in the creation of a generation incapable of small talk, critical thinking and problem-solvingSource:News Corp Australia

Technological advances has made verbal communication redundant in many parts of life — ordering a pizza, taking part in a university class, planning a holiday and even gym personal training can all be done via an app.

What this means is young people aren’t used to speaking to someone in person or on the phone, and the thought of doing so terrifies them.

A survey of American millennials by One Poll found 65 per cent don’t feel comfortable engaging with someone face-to-face, and 80 per cent prefer conversing digitally.

As a result of this they’re less likely to understand how they’re perceived by others in real life.

They struggle to strike up a conversation and can’t navigate tricky problems like workplace conflict.

Their time management is shocking and they desire senior roles they can’t possibly hope to hold down.

“They’re so used to being able to filter themselves before they post something on line that they get stuck in a kind of real life stage fright,” Launerts said.

“I’ve spoken to teenage girls who are more frightened of eating in public than putting a provocative picture of themselves online. That’s so frightening to me.”

‘GENERATION LACKING’

It’s not just educators who are worried about how woefully unprepared so many young adults are for life.

They’re more likely to have a tertiary degree than any other generation, and they can code software and create magic in a digital environment.

But Rachel Weinstein, a clinical psychologist who founded The Adulting School in the US, said these highly skilled candidates often crash and burn in interviews with prospective employers.

“Many lack skills creating a resume, interviewing and (engaging in) professional correspondence,” Weinstein told CNS News.

These sorts of strengths are called ‘soft skills’ — critical thinking, problem solving, attention to detail, working in a group, and verbal and written communication.

The way young people communicate has shifted dramatically.Source:News Corp Australia

These things might sound basic, but they’re often missing in most young adults, Lisa Renneisen, co-founder of the GenerationYOU training conference, said.

“The event teaches millennials these soft skills, or enterprise skills as they’re also known, which every jobseeker need regardless of the role — networking, problem solving, interviewing techniques, personal branding and so on,” Renneisen said.

“But it’s also about bringing them together and empowering them with the knowledge that they’re not alone, and that they can control their own destiny.”

The conference, which has expanded rapidly and now takes place in cities across Australia throughout the year, began through Renneisen’s own experience with young recruits.

“We had a bad run with hiring young people back in 2014,” the event and training company director recalled.

“There was one who never showed up (on the first day), one who started but switched off after a few months … the more we spoke to other employers, the more we realised it wasn’t just us.”

A lack of basic life and workplace skills means millennials face significant struggles finding and retaining employment.Source:Supplied

Launerts said millennials have grown up in online worlds where they make their own rules and don’t learn the social conventions that are still expected of them.

“I think it’s because of the time they’re spending online, which promotes an inward-facing attitude,” Launerts said.

Eye contact, not interrupting, a proper handshake, social engagement — they struggle with what older generations consider basic niceties.

“Body language and creating a good first impression shape how someone sees you. I think most young people lack the concept of what body language is. They’re not equipped with the skills to make a good first impression and that’s a real problem.”

She has met dozens of recruiters who report being “astounded” at the conduct of young jobseekers. Unless something changes, we’ll wind up with a segment of the population doomed to fail, she believes.

“They won’t get the opportunity to thrive … without these skills they’re going to become passive observers of their own lives.”

NOT ENTIRELY NERVOUS

A study of millennials in the workplace by researchers at the University of California observed that young adults are “unusually and extraordinarily confident” in their abilities.

It has long been noted that younger generations want it all — and they want it now.

“The idea of paying their dues by working hard to demonstrate their worth before they’re given significant tasks is likely to be resisted by millennials,” the UC paper noted.

“They seek key roles in significant projects soon after their organisational entry … co-workers see them as overly confident and inappropriately demanding, asking ‘who do you think they are?’”

Young people are exceptionally confident about their abilities in the workplace, but will struggle once they reach their very ambitious goals.

And by many indications, they are skilled in the theory of their respective professions.

Rather than their ambition being an issue, it’s their inability to ‘walk the walk’ when they climb the corporate ladder, Renneisen said.

“They want to skip the entry level, junior roles and go into middle management and the like, but they lack the skills needed when they get there,” she said.

“It’s everything from picking up the phone to have an awkward or confrontational conversation with someone to working with large teams and managing others.”

FISH OUT OF WATER

This lack of interpersonal skills results in often awkward encounters, university professor Elwood Watson noted in an essay for Diverse Education.

“They engage in behaviour that previous generations would consider weird or outright rude, Watson, an academic at East Tennessee State University, wrote.

“I see this inability to converse directly with other human beings. I’ve seen students on campus walking next to one another and texting, as opposed to speaking. They’re also terrified of directly confronting problems or fears.”

Being glued to screens has made a generation of young adults ill-equipped to deal with life on their other side of it.

It’s not just at work where they’re lacking.

Weinstein said millennials flounder when it comes to personal finances, meal planning, time management and general home-based tasks.

“Due to budget cuts and restructuring, schools have changed curriculum and cut courses like (home economics) and consumer science,” she said.

“Families are busy in this fast-paced society and there’s less time to focus on household chores, where kids would be learning those skills.”

Her school for millennials, which aims to “fill the gaps in life knowledge”, offers a class called Improv for Resolution and Family Communication.

Put simply, it teaches young adults how to navigate conflict during family holiday gatherings.

It’s not just technology killing social skills in young people — how we educate them is also to blame. Picture: 

The blame doesn’t lie entirely with digital technology. How we educate young people could also be behind the dwindling priority placed on life skills.

Teaching students how to pass exams and standardised tests is favoured more and more.

“As a result, we’ve created a generation of doctors, lawyers and accountants who don’t know how to cook dinner. The disconnect is stark — minds capable of advanced calculus that are unfamiliar with creating a monthly budget,” the 

[bexical]

Player fantasy: A look at Niantic

A while back, I wrote a post on something important to me in game design, player fantasy. And I'm back to discuss the same topic, but this time, in the context of Niantic and their two franchise-based games, Pokemon Go and Wizards Unite1. (Note: I no longer play Pokemon Go, and never downloaded Wizards Unite, so my descriptions may occasionally be inaccurate.)

In the spirit of my last post, let me start off with some numbers: According to this article, Wizards Unite had about 400,000 installs in the first 24 hours, while Pokemon Go had about 7.6 million installs in its first 24 hours (unfortunately, I was unable to find numbers regarding current usage). Why the stark contrast? There is a wide variety of reasons, some with more explanatory power than others: its paywall is too high, or it simply wasn't different enough from Pokemon Go, or the Wizarding World brand isn't as big as Pokemon (#7 here).

This wasn’t a surprise though: I would claim that this was actually easily predictable, even as early as 2017 when we first heard rumors of a Harry Potter AR game being made by Niantic. I think it's only fair to note though that I have an immense bias against Niantic: I feel the company has a disturbing disinterest in the desires of their players (among other issues). Or, to rephrase in terms of the central topic: they have no understanding of the player fantasy and no interest in such.

It might be hard to accept that claim without hesitation. After all, Pokemon Go was immensely successful that first summer, and it still has a decent playerbase (based entirely on anecdotal evidence). Fundamentally, it does deliver on the main aspects of the Pokemon trainer fantasy: you can go out into the world and find Pokemon in the 'wild' (kind of), and you can battle your friends and train to be the very best.

But the game doesn't feel designed to deliver on that fantasy. Battling friends wasn't introduced until Dec 2018, two and a half years after the game was first launched. As for going out and finding Pokemon… the app directs players towards a Pokestop, where they can then find the Pokemon they are looking for. The experience is so disconnected from the imagined experience of going out into the world and finding Pokemon, and I would claim this is because they never intended to deliver on that experience. In fact, the game's first iteration of Pokemon tracking was much closer to that imagined experience (in which a tracker indicated the distance to nearby Pokemon), and they actually removed it in favor of the current system, which is explicitly designed to encourage exploring Pokestops.

And I get why. The CEO of Niantic, John Hanke, gave an interview to BusinessInsider back when the game was released in 2016, in which he describes the three goals of Pokemon Go: "to promote exercise, to allow people to see the world with new eyes, and to help break the ice" (alternate source, since the original interview is now behind a paywall). Their goals are evident in the design of Pokemon Go: egg-hatching correlates with exercise, Pokestops (and by correlation, the experience of catching Pokemon) promote exploring the world, and gyms and raids promote a social experience. But… there is very little overlap with the player fantasy of a Pokemon trainer.

What is that player fantasy though? To answer that, let me cite the first few lines of the Pokemon theme song:

I want to be the very best, Like no one ever was. To catch them is my real test, To train them is my cause!

How well does Niantic deliver on this? Let's see:

"I want to be the very best/ Like no one ever was." - Meanwhile, as mentioned earlier, battling went unimplemented for more than two years. How do you prove you’re the best when you can’t even compete?

“To catch them is my real test”2 - Acceptably implemented, but barely, as the experience is designed with ulterior motives. Do see the footnote though.

"To train them is my cause"3 - Training a given Pokemon involves… catching Pokemon of the same type?? It is such a nonsensical concept, and it is hard to imagine anything less related to the idea of Pokemon training.

I think I’ve reasonably established by now that Niantic has no understanding of player fantasy. They ignore the fundamental fantasy of being a Pokemon trainer and instead manipulate us into what they want - and yet Pokemon Go still succeeds because the player fantasy of walking around and catching Pokemon is so natural with AR that any failure would be impressive (not that Niantic hasn’t done their absolute best at failing).

And so Wizards Unite fails because the linking with AR just isn’t as inherent for the Wizarding World. Others have noted that the game fails to deliver on the fantasy the way that Pokemon Go does, and that really is the main reason for its failure, far beyond market timing or anything else. There might be a good WW AR game - after all, the Wizarding World is essentially an augmented reality - but Wizards Unite is not that game. The fundamental mechanic, dealing with the Foundables, is a nonsensical reskin of catching Pokemon without the appeal - no one is excited about handling Foundables (is it really anyone’s idea of a fun social activity to go out with friends and hide things from Muggles...?). Furthermore, the existence of these Foundables is new to the canon, and thus our interactions with them do not satisfy any previously existing desires for Harry Potter fans.

As strong as my disdain for Niantic is, I do want them to succeed - largely because both the Pokemon franchise and the Wizarding World are relatively dear to me, and I would be swept away in bliss if their respective games actually delivered on the fantasies of being a Pokemon trainer and being a wizard. As for whether or not it’s possible… I think it is, but it will be difficult. Pokemon Go is close, but it will still take a surprising amount of work - to fully deliver on the fantasy, I think Pokemon training needs to be entirely revamped. Catching other Pokemon to train a given one is absolutely nonsensical, and a good system would make it viable to train a Pokemon without catching hundreds just like it. And since catching Pokemon is the main gameplay, they need to move on from that in favor of other interactions.

I think exploring more interactions is actually key to improving both games, largely because one of the most important fantasies of augmented reality games in general is being immersed in that new reality. There are so many ways we can interact with the Pokemon world besides catching every wild Pokemon we see: battling these wild Pokemon is an obvious thought, but imagine an encounter like stumbling into a Kakuna nest and needing to carefully extricate yourself for fear of a swarm of Beedrill, or being confronted by an angry Rhyhorn and needing to calm it down with a berry. The Team Rocket encounters are a step in this direction, and with more of these interactions, we can be really immersed in a new world.

As I said earlier - I’d like Niantic to succeed. I want to see them pivot and start thinking about what their players want, as opposed to focusing singularly on what they want their players to do. Unfortunately, I have little hope that this will happen - they certainly won’t change because some individual wrote an angry essay. But, that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from their mistakes. As game developers, work to understand the player fantasy, and deliver on it. As artists, understand what your audience wants and, again, deliver on it - or don’t! Subvert their expectations and deliver on a different experience, one they didn’t know they wanted - but this can only be done well if you do have that fundamental understanding of your audience.

It makes me really sad that they chose to go with the gendered term of ‘wizards’, though the decision goes back to the naming of the Wizarding World. Why couldn’t they call it the Magicking World or something? On a tangent, this is something I think about on occasion with my own work - what will fans call the setting? I’m not sure there is anything quite as charming as Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, for example. Alas. ↩︎

I would argue though that the experience of catching Pokemon is actually significantly tainted by the experience of training them. Any given Pokemon I catch is unlikely to be one that I actually keep - it is simply a source of candy for the actual Pokemon that I am training, and it is thus insignificant. When it comes to catching rare Pokemon, the experience is somehow actually unexciting because well, what am I supposed to do with it? I cannot train it precisely because it is rare, given the absurd design of the training system. ↩︎

I touched upon this in the other footnote, largely because this is actually the aspect of Pokemon Go that bothers me the most. The biggest part of the Pokemon trainer fantasy for me personally is having this partner, like Pikachu to Ash - but the system heavily disincentivizes using one’s starter Pokemon. The best way to train my Bulbasaur is by catching other Bulbasaur, nearly all of which will have higher CP simply by being higher level - and after a relatively short while, one of these Bulbasaur will have better IVs than my 10/10/10 starter. It is thus nonsensical from a gameplay point of view to waste the stardust and candy on my starter, as well as immensely more difficult to do so. Furthermore, any Bulbasaur candy I obtain can inherently be saved for that high IV Bulbasaur I eventually catch, which further incentivizes finding new, strong Pokemon instead of becoming partners with any Pokemon I catch. And so, despite the introduction of battling and cosmetics and newer generations of Pokemon and despite all the excitement that these new features may bring, I will never forgive them for designing a system that relegates my starter Bulbasaur to uselessness. ↩︎

[marymosley]

Red Flag Laws and the Second Amendment

About a year ago, Shea wrote about red flag laws, sometimes called gun violence restraining orders or extreme risk protection orders. More than a dozen states have such laws, and several bills are pending in the General Assembly that would enact a red flag law here. But are red flag laws constitutional?

What are red flag laws? Most red flag laws allow a family member to petition to have guns removed from a respondent’s control when the petitioner believes that the respondent’s gun possession poses a danger to the respondent or to others. A few states only allow law enforcement officers to initiate the process, and a few states allow either a family member or an officer to do so. The process is somewhat similar to the process for obtaining a DVPO, in that there is typically an ex parte stage, where a petitioner may obtain a temporary order that may last a week or two, and an adversarial stage, which may result in the imposition of a final order that typically lasts a year. Final orders may be renewed if appropriate or terminated early if the respondent can demonstrate that the danger has passed. The standard of proof varies by state and by stage of the proceeding, with probable cause the most common standard at the ex parte stage and clear and convincing evidence the most common at the final order stage.

Status in North Carolina. The two bills in the General Assembly that would enact red flag laws are H454 and S565. They are similar though not identical. Both would allow a family or household member or a law enforcement officer to seek an extreme risk protection order. Both would allow a court to issue a temporary ex parte order, and both would allow a final order to last up to a year. Under both bills, the standard for issuing a final order would be a preponderance of the evidence showing that the respondent poses “a danger of causing physical harm to self or others by having in his or her custody a firearm.”

All the primary sponsors of both bills are Democrats. As I understand the information available on the General Assembly’s website, the bills don’t appear to be moving forward this session. However, the partisan divide on red flag laws is not as strong as it is on many other gun-related issues. Media reports indicate that “many Republicans [in the United States Senate] sounded open and enthused about” red flag laws during a recent hearing, and President Trump has expressed some support for such laws. It seems entirely possible that North Carolina will adopt a red flag law at some point.

Do red flag laws violate the Second Amendment? The answer may depend on the details of the law in question, but in general, I doubt that most red flag laws violate the Second Amendment.

By way of background, recall that the Supreme Court decided in District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms for lawful purposes like self-defense. However, the Court did not establish a standard for lower courts to use in deciding whether a given regulation violates the Second Amendment. The federal courts generally have adopted a two-step test, asking first whether the challenged law burdens conduct protected by the Second Amendment at all. If it does not – for example, if the law concerns a class of weapons that are outside the scope of the Amendment, or addresses a group of people not entitled to Second Amendment rights – that’s the end of the inquiry. If the law does burden conduct protected by the Second Amendment, the court moves to the second step, which requires the court to evaluate the law under some form of heightened means-end scrutiny, either intermediate or strict. See generally Kolbe v. Hogan, 849 F.3d 114 (4th Cir. 2017) (discussing the steps and adopting intermediate scrutiny for the purpose of evaluating and upholding Maryland’s ban on assault weapons). North Carolina’s appellate courts have applied a similar analysis. See State v. Fernandez, __ N.C. App. __, 808 S.E.2d 362 (2017) (applying the two-step analysis and rejecting a defendant’s constitutional challenge to the Felony Firearms Act).

How would this analysis apply to red flag laws? Starting with the first prong of the analysis, because red flag laws prohibit a person from possessing firearms of any kind, even in the home, it seems to me that they do burden conduct protected by the Second Amendment. Perhaps one could argue that such laws fall under the Supreme Court’s statement in Heller that its “opinion should not be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by . . . the mentally ill,” 554 U.S. at 626, and so fall outside the scope of the Second Amendment. But that strikes me as a stretch, especially given that most red flag laws – including the ones proposed in the bills pending in North Carolina – do not require the petitioner to allege, or the court to find, that the respondent is mentally ill. (If the respondent is mentally ill and dangerous, he or she may be subject to involuntary commitment, which itself result in legal disentitlement to possess firearms.)

That brings us to the second prong of the test, the means-end fit analysis. The importance of the end goal is beyond dispute. The United States experiences approximately 10,000 gun homicides and 20,000 gun suicides each year. The key concern is whether red flag laws are an adequately tailored means to address the problem of preventable gun violence. I suspect that most courts would say that they are. Such laws typically include a number of provisions designed to minimize the extent to which they infringe on the rights of gun owners. For example, they place the burden of proof on the petitioner; allow an ex parte order to last only a brief time; and require an adversarial hearing and a judicial finding of a risk of harm before a final order may be issued. Many red flag laws require an elevated standard of proof at the final order stage, such as proof by clear and convincing evidence. Most allow the respondent to reclaim his or her guns before the order expires if he or she can establish that he or she no longer poses a danger.

Obviously, the more protective a red flag law is of respondents’ rights, the more likely it will be to survive Second Amendment scrutiny. But the limited case law that we have so far suggests that many red flag laws will be deemed constitutional. See Hope v. State, 133 A.3d 519 (Conn. Ct. App. 2016) (upholding Connecticut’s statute under the first prong of the test because the law “does not implicate the second amendment, as it does not restrict the right of law-abiding, responsible citizens to use arms in defense of their homes”; it only limits “the rights of only those whom a court has adjudged to pose a risk of imminent physical harm to themselves or others after affording due process protection to challenge the seizure of the firearms”). Cf. Redington v. Indiana, 992 N.E.2d 823 (Ind. Ct. App. 2013) (upholding Indiana’s statute against challenge under the state constitution’s right to bear arms). As noted above, the structure of such laws is similar to the laws governing domestic violence protective orders, and the federal prohibition on gun possession by persons subject to DVPOs has been repeatedly upheld against Second Amendment challenges. See Stimmel v. Sessions, 879 F.3d 198 (6th Cir. 2018) (so ruling, and noting that “[e]very circuit that has considered a post-Heller Second Amendment challenge to . . . the statute” has upheld it).

Of course, not everyone agrees that red flag laws are appropriately tailored responses to preventable gun violence. Reason magazine argues here that with red flag laws, “the process is rigged against the respondent from the beginning” and that “it seems inevitable that the vast majority of people who lose their constitutional rights under this sort of law will pose no real threat to themselves or others.” The NRA “could support” red flag laws that provide robust due process protections for gun owners, but generally has opposed the red flag laws that have been enacted to date based on what it sees as insufficiently stringent procedures.

Comparing North Carolina’s proposals to each other and to other states’ laws. This chart compares existing red flag laws on criteria such as the standard to obtain an order and how long an order lasts, and effectively illustrates how different some states’ laws are from others.

North Carolina’s proposals are generally within the mainstream of red flag laws, though is worth noting several of their specific provisions. For example:

S565 would require a petitioner to provide corroborating evidence along with his or her own allegations, meaning that he or she would need to supply “a written statement made by a witness other than the petitioner that states specific facts supporting the allegation set forth in the petition or . . . an audio and visual recording of the incident the petitioner is using as the basis for seeking an ERPO.” H454 contains no such requirement, and in that regard, is more typical of red flag laws enacted in other states.

S565 would set a relatively high bar for the issuance of an ex parte order. The petitioner would need “clear, cogent, and convincing evidence that the respondent poses an imminent danger of causing physical injury to self or others by having in his or her custody a firearm.” By contrast, H454 would require only that it “clearly appear” from “specific facts” that the respondent poses and imminent danger. As noted in the chart linked above, many other states set lower thresholds at this stage. For example, in Colorado, an ex parte order may be issued based on a preponderance of the evidence. In California, it may be based on “reasonable cause.”

Both North Carolina bills would allow a final order to be issued based on a preponderance of the evidence. A majority of other jurisdictions require an elevated standard of proof at that stage, such as clear and convincing evidence.

Both North Carolina bills would allow the respondent to make a motion to terminate a final order prior to its expiration date. In such a proceeding, the burden would be on the respondent to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that he or she no longer posed a danger.

Neither North Carolina bill provides respondents in these matters with a right to counsel. As far as I know, Colorado is the only state that does guarantee counsel to respondents.

Final thoughts. As always, I’m interested in others’ thoughts and opinions. I should emphasize here that the School of Government is policy neutral and nothing in this post should be interpreted as expressing a view on whether red flag laws are a good idea or a bad idea – the post is intended only to explore whether such laws are constitutional. Finally, the North Carolina Constitution in some ways protects the right to bear arms more broadly than the Second Amendment does, so even if red flag laws are compatible with the Second Amendment, there could be some question about their status under the state constitution.

The post Red Flag Laws and the Second Amendment appeared first on North Carolina Criminal Law.

Red Flag Laws and the Second Amendment published first on https://immigrationlawyerto.tumblr.com/

[waywardpaperpersona-blog]

Twitter Includes Straight Message Request Review Inbox Component.

The button of" Begin day 1" does not appears, please, help me. I possess a settlement of 1366x768 and Microsoft window 7 device. A streaming exam is actually offered but supplies little information outside of 'yes, that will operate' or 'no, that will not'. Fixed is actually an application that centralises this details and also does only one thing - carry all of your social networking data with each other in one app so you do not should switch over between apps and perform several actions merely to get the details you need to have. Additionally, unlicensed media gain access to management (MACINTOSH) procedures don't discuss access to a typical regularity nearly and also licensed scope Mac computers carry out. Unlicensed is all based on opinion, as well as contention process do not scale. PCMag additionally placed the 10 ISPs over inning accordance with their PCMag Rate Index - a rating figured out through raw download and upload rates. Along with the appearance from Xbox 360 and PS3, console suppliers realised that activities gaming consoles may be so much more - they can be the media gamer that takes centre-stage in your living-room, able to supply films as well as TELEVISION shows streamed coming from the world wide web in addition to standard disc-based enjoyment. Fair treatment Monsters V is actually shallow, uninteresting, and also a typical mobile card game I've discovered how to do not like grows older back. Over recent handful of years, Twitter has actually come to be the brand-new real-time newswire for influencers and also the media, and also it has actually emerged as a method for prospects to link straight to elements without the filter from campaign supervisors and also media pros. Well, in-flight Wi-Fi rates is the domain of the airline companies, yet a Gogo representative informed me it's improbable that the improved solution is going to set you back much more than that currently performs. That is essential to take note that social networking sites is actually being actually made use of in cities across the nation if you want to help reborn social trust fund and also citizen involvement in city government. Container Guy Games has dedicated to carrying the 1st 6 manuals to digital systems, though no details launch times are actually specified as of now. TweetDeck has consistently been a well-liked selection among tweeters that want to increase their potential on the social media network. JCM takes note that in 2007 the Ninth Circuit located that attaching to a network did not remove the realistic requirement from privacy in one's pc, however has the placement that in the final nine years things have changed good enough to render this position outdated. alegesanatatea-blog.ro with a multitude of fans are actually certainly not necessarily those with large amount of complete blog posts. There were actually a lot of social solutions generated during the course of this time frame, particularly GeoCities as well as The main thing the internet performed was to eliminate the walled garden complication that beleaguered AOL as well as their brethren. That's your work if you collaborate with the web: really hoping the last point you wrote suffices to survive for a couple of hours so you could consume dinner as well as capture a nap. Of course, viewing these risks as standalone hazards will certainly raise mass anxiety against young people or World wide web or most likely, each. Opting for a wireless online video streaming remedy for your living room depends partially on the hardware you're utilizing. This was likewise the heyday from the 4X approach video game, activities about entire civilisations fighting throughout the immensity of room. For a long period of time, people in both camps had to use numerous internet sites or even courses to access the a variety of networks, yet today there's HootSuite for Twitter, which as opposed to the title, places all your social media networks in one practical location. So I redid my computer system a couple of years back with a new 500 watt power source to operate every thing as well as a brand new graphics card. Motivated by their grandparents' innovation makeover after finding out about Skype and also Facebook, siblings Macaulee and also Kascha Cassaday wanted to assist close the generational void through instructing other elders regarding the Net with a teen mentoring course. Anyone who preserves any kind of sort of social networks presence recognizes that social means even more in these times. Although our experts consider mass media" like television, broadcast and newspapers as components in our lives and in the media economic climate, states The Business analyst, the mass-media age currently seems like a fairly quick and anomalous duration that is coming to an end." As media as well as releasing become one thing any person can possibly do, whether on their blog site or even through various other social devices including Twitter or Tumblr, media business are must change on their own to benefit from this phenomenon-- and to endure. I have among the bigger iCade cabinetries that I acquired for a tune a few years ago, yet never ever actually found numerous games that sustained this, so this's merely been picking up dirt. Crews are made via the Superstar Social Group Players might choose to Join an existing Staff or even develop their very own. On the other hand, hundreds or 1000s of dial-up internet sites and services died because of common high speed Web access, so possibly this's certainly not that frightening to adhere, as long as there is adaptability on the new platform. I hard submitted my exam iPhone on the 7th day, and was actually welcomed through a eager and positive T-Mobile rep. Perhaps this would certainly startle you, after that, to hear that the FCC possesses the specific opposite tip from exactly how the internet operates! Whereas PHYSICIAN Para Chordia, founder of Khush, is actually a teacher of computer popular music at Georgia Technician. Internet Information Accessibility Procedure (IMAP) is among the most well-known techniques to access email. I can't acquire disturbed regarding the condition from gaming up until I start losing great games to participate in.

[hinge]

Hinge presents an anthology of love stories almost never told. Read more on https://no-ordinary-love.co

[cover2covermom]

On Saturday April 8th, I attended the 10th annual Ohioana Book Festival.  This event takes place in Columbus Ohio (about 1-1.5 hours north of where I live) every year, and focuses on featuring & promoting Ohio authors.

Continue on to read about my experience, which books I hauled, and which author I had an “awkward encounter” with…

I ended up flying solo to this event.  There are pros and cons to going to a book event alone…

Pros: you are the boss • you can come/go when you please • you can listen to an audiobook on the commute…

Cons: no one to fangirl with • no one to take your picture with the authors • no one to watch your crap while you use the restroom • you have to pay for all of the gas/parking • no one to discuss panels with • no one to people watch with • no one to sit next to you and ward off creepy men (this actually happened) • you look like a loser without any friends…

Basically going solo was fine, but I would have preferred to have my bookish partner in crime with me.

Source: Ohioana Library Twitter

I spent the majority of my time at the festival attending the author panels.  I find author panels absolutely fascinating.  I love that each author typically has such different writing processes, motivations, inspirations, etc.  I also enjoy getting new insights into books I’ve read or plan to read.   I am going to be giving a little snippet of each of the panels I attended, however I am going to limit it to the authors that drew me to the panel in the first place.  This is not to say that I was not interested in what the other authors had to say, but in the spirit of keeping this post relatively short I can only include a few authors.

I started my day off with my first panel, Masters of Mystery.  This eneded up being an all male author panel that comprised of Dan Andriacco, John Hegenberger, Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Robin Yocum.  Now, this may come as a big shock, but I am not a big mystery reader.  So why did I attend this panel?  I wasn’t really interested in any of the other panels during this time slot, so I figured why not?  The only author I had heard of in this panel was Robin Yocum.  I had heard good things about his book A Brilliant Death. 

*Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of this panel because I didn’t have a good vantage point #BookBloggerFail

Robin Yocum

» The first thing I have to get off my chest about Robin is that he resembles Sylvester Stallone with a touch of Mel Gibson.  Basically, he is Sylvester & Mel’s love child.  I thought about telling this to him when I visited his booth after the panel, but I didn’t want him to think I was a werido… which it totally true, but he doesn’t need to know that :)

» It generally takes him 8 months to 1 year to write a book.

» He knows how the book is going to end before he begins so he can write towards that ending.

» He writes everyday and shoots for at least 500 words minimum.

» He likes to utilize the voice to text app on his phone to dictate notes, ideas, plot points, etc. while he is driving in the car.  The app then emails him the notes.

*This is brilliant!  Take note all you aspiring authors!

» “The first 10,000 and the last 10,000 words are easy.  It’s the middle 80,000 words that are hard.”

» A Brilliant Death, A Welcome Murder, and one other book (yet to be published) actually sat in his closet for 15 years before they were published.  He wrote these books 15 years ago!

See what I mean?  He is totally Sylvester & Mel’s love child

  My next panel, Out of the Past: Historical Fiction, was my favorite panel of the day.  Authors Jennifer Chiaverini, Linda Kass, Mary Doria Russell, and David Selcer sat on the panel.  This was actually a “record breaking” panel for the Ohioana Book Fest, as there were over 70 people packed into one small room, which is the most in the history of the event.

Source: Ohioana Library Facebook Page

  *Can you spot me in the front row? I’m on the right hand side of the room to the left of the lady in the long braid.

As you can tell from the picture, this audience was an older demographic.  I was probably the only person under the age of 40 in attendance… BUT if you know me, then you know that historical fiction is my favorite genre.  I went into this panel specifically for Jennifer Chiaverini and Mary Doria Russell.

*I would like to note that the pictures I took at the actual event are not the best quality because they are taken on my phone.  Sorry in advance :)

Jennifer Chiaverini

» Personal observation: this woman is ridiculously pretty.  She is one of those naturally beautiful women we all wish we were.

» She was inspired to write Fates and Traitors by all the gun violence in society today.

» She fangirled hard core over Mary Doria Russell.

» She wanted to write Fates and Traitors from the view points of the women who knew and loved him best, as they were the first ones to be judged.

» In historical fiction, oral histories are crucial sources of info as personal experiences vary.

» She loves that in historical fiction, you have the added gift of emotion and can evoke empathy in readers.

» She recommends Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell

Mary Doria Russell

» Mary is such a character.  She was very charismatic and FUNNY!  I also found it hilarious she was wearing a planet necklace… That isn’t some type of brand name, she was wearing our solar system on her neck.

» Once shared a taxi with David Mcullough.

» Recommends A Friend of Mr. Lincoln by Stephen Harrigan.

» She starts with research BEFORE she decides any characters, plot points, etc.

» She has to be in love with the characters, or she will not write the story.  She had contemplated writing about Abraham Lincoln and Edgar Allan Poe, but didn’t because she doesn’t like them.

I did have a rather awkward encounter with Mary.  I pondered about if I should mention it or not, but it is my blog, so I’ll do what I want :)

Since Mary had a stack of her books (multiple copies of a few of her books) with her during the panel, I went up to the table after the panel was over to enquire if I could just get the books I wanted now (as opposed to going upstairs and potentially waiting in line).  Mary seemed very hesitant and slightly annoyed with this request, not really looking at me or trying to engage me in conversation.  I quickly said that I could just wait and get the books upstairs, but she was already signing her name into the two books I had pointed to.  At this point she then handed them to me and said “I’m going to trust that you are going to pay for these.”   I was a little taken aback by this comment.  I assured her that I would, and quickly left the room feeling a little embarrassed.  It had never crossed my mind that this was the reason that she was hesitant to give me the books she had brought with her to the panel… I guess I just assumed that the reason she brought multiple copies of each of her books was in hopes of selling some to those who attended the panel.

I would be lying if I said that this situation didn’t upset me, HOWEVER I am going to give Mary the benefit of the doubt here.  The panels were held downstairs (near the exits) and the check out registers were upstairs… Maybe she has had books stolen at festivals before?  Maybe the festival had some type of strict rule not to give people books at the panels? Was it the fact that I look younger than I am (despite the fact that I’m now 30 and officially old) and was wearing ripped jeans and a t-shirt?  Did I look suspicious?   I really hate to have a bad taste in my mouth over this, as I really enjoyed listening to Mary on the panel and was so excited to read her books.  Is it possible that I completely misjudged the situation?  Maybe.  Do I really believe that?  Not really.

Just for clarification I did go upstairs and pay for the two books at FULL price.

My next panel, Writing and Publishing for Young Readers, included David FitzSimmons, Anne Vittur Kennedy, Edith Pattou, and Carmella Van Vleet.  This panel included the author of my favorite book that I read for the Ohioana book festival, East by Edith Pattou.

Edith Pattou

» Well first off I would like to brag that Edith Pattou remembered my name from when I had gone to her booth earlier in the day to pick up a copy of East to get signed.  When she had arrived at the panel, she had forgotten to bring a copy of one of her books to put on display.  She saw me sitting in the front row and said “Amanda..” (I’m assuming to ask to borrow the copy of her book she knew I had) but the moderator cut her off and produced a copy of East for Edith.  That’s right, Edith and I are basically BFFs now.

» Edith just finished revisions on a SEQUEL to East!  I had no idea this was in the works.  Anyone want to take a stab at what the title is?  If you guessed West, then you are correct! ((Edith- I’m totally available to read an ARC of West in exchange for a review… call me!))

» She writes for 4-6 hours a day.  She has to get out of the house to write, so she goes to her local library.

» Her favorite childhood book is A Wrinkle in Time

» She lucked out in the publishing process: she pitched her first book and the first publisher picked it up.  This is NOT the norm in the publishing world.

» She doesn’t write with a specific audience in mind, she just writes the story that speaks to her.

My final panel, Submitted for Your Approval: Sci Fi, Fantasy, and Horror, included Gary Buettner, Mark Dawidziak, Terry W. Ervin II, and Leanna Renee Hieber.  Not going to lie, I had never heard of any of these authors before, but I figured why not?  This ended up being the most entertaining panel.  I laughed the entire time.

» “If you read only within one genre, you’re inbreeding.” -Gary Buettner.  Obviously you needed to be there to understand the context of this comment, but Gary was a hoot!

» Mark Dawidziak is totally Mark Twain.  Mark hates labeling.  He feels that labeling minimizes authors: Not a “horror writer,” just a writer.

» Terry Ervin writes the books that he would like to find on the shelf and read.  Advises aspiring authors to write for themselves, not with the intent to make millions.

» Shirley Jackson is such a fascinating woman!  She walked into the room in full on Victorian era get-up, complete with a feather headpiece.  I really wish I had gotten a picture of her outfit.  She looked stunning.  I was even more intrigued when she said that it wasn’t a costume, it is how she normally dresses.  Shirley writes “gothic Victorian fantasy” for a female forward audience.  She was heavily influenced by the Brontë sisters and Edgar Allan Poe.

»  Book recs from the panel: The Shinning by Stephen King (and many more by Stephen King), The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty, and The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.

Follow Cover2CoverMom on Instagram @Cover2CoverMom

» The Seventh Most Important Thing by Shelley Pearsall

» East by Edith Pattou

» A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell

» A Brilliant Death by Robin Yocum

» The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

» Fates and Traitors by Jennifer Chiaverini

Would you (or have you) ever attend(ed) a book festival solo?

Have you ever had a “awkward” encounter with an author?

Have you read any of the books I hauled?  What did you think?

Comment below and let me know :)

I talk about attending the #OhioanaBookFestival and share my #BookHaul. #BookBlogger #Bookworm On Saturday April 8th, I attended the 10th annual Ohioana Book Festival.  This event takes place in Columbus Ohio (about 1-1.5 hours north of where I live) every year, and focuses on featuring & promoting Ohio authors.