Constitutional Law

Oral argument in US v. Hayes

Posted on November 10, 2008
Available in pdf here. Government contends the federal bar on gun possession after misdemeanor DV conviction applies to a person who was convicted of ordinary battery, not requiring as an element that it was against an intimate partner, so long as the government can show at the federal trial that it was against an intimate partner...

David Keene: Obama will overreach

Posted on November 10, 2008
That's his prediction. Supporting it is an insider DC tip that his people are seriously considering a federal ban or restriction on "right to carry" laws. Exactly where the constitutional power to enact such a measure is to be found is less than clear to me...

Brady Campaign celebrating

Posted on November 10, 2008
Pdf here. Of course they have reason to do so, but their claims do involve quite a bit of "creative writing." As I see it, it proves an "F" who pretends to be an "A" can beat a "C." The question then becomes... does the "F" then act like an "F," or does he figure that having won as a fake "A" he'd better act like one if he wants to get re-elected as one? Time will tell...

A modest proposal

Posted on November 08, 2008
Next election, let's set up a movement to "draft" Colin Powell. Nevermind that he refuses to run. It can be via one party or the other or both or independent. Then we vote him in. If he refuses to serve, there is plenty of common law precedent for the proposition that an elected official doesn't have a choice...

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Another thing to be grateful for

Posted on November 08, 2008
Only a few days after the election of our first black president, former Klansman Robert Byrd, the last known caucasian non-LEO user of the "n word," resigns his committee chair. My friend Phil "Wild Man" Murphy notes the irony.

Pics of pro-gun demonstrations being sought

Posted on November 08, 2008
Inquiry here for anyone with pics or scans of pics of the pro-gun demonstrations of past decades -- and suggestions as to how to make use of them.

Something good to think about...

Posted on November 07, 2008
From Prof. Joe Olson, who began his background with guns as a civil rights worker who didn't intend to get killed and buried in a dam somewhere. (BTW, my late father held the first sit-in on a segregated bus, when he was stationed in a State with those requirements, back in WWII...

Transition platform

Posted on November 07, 2008
Snowflakes in Hell has the tale. Obama's transition platform is basically the (present) Brady agenda. I say "present," because if they get it they're obviously not going to proclaim victory, dissolve the organization, and look for other jobs.

Article on Heller incorporation

Posted on November 06, 2008
At SSRN. One of the core ideas is interesting to us grunts in the trenches who have to persuade courts -- that a right can be incorporated, yet not identical at State and Federal levels. The idea of "reasonable regulation," that is to say, may be more like "shall not be infringed" at the Federal level, and "reasonable regulation (subject to strict standards)" at the State level...

The American Rifle: A Biography

Posted on November 06, 2008
Here's an article, by its author (a military historian), on the early history of the NRA and military marksmanship. And here's the book, which I plan to order. [Update: no Rifleman review yet that I've seen, probably because the book is just out and Rifleman runs 60-90 days behind...

Debate on whether guns reduce crime

Posted on November 05, 2008
NPR audio here. The topic is a bit stacked, not whether more guns do not mean more crime, but rather whether more guns reduces crime. But looks as if they won over the undecideds. Hat tip to reader BlackX...

Suit against Washington state

Posted on November 05, 2008
SAF and NRA have filed. It's winner. The state requires resident (i.e., legal) aliens to get a special gun permit -- and then won't issue it because the issuing agency is not law enforcement, and FBI won't run background checks for a non-LE agency.

Morning after, part two

Posted on November 05, 2008
The Washington Post has thoughts about Obama's first moves. They figure he's got to do enough to suggest "change" without doing so much that he comes off as a lefty, or loses the blue dogs, or sets the stage for another 1996, and list a number of ideas...

The morning after

Posted on November 05, 2008
1) It'll probably be full employment for second amendment lawyers for four years. For decades we played the safety position. Now we're front line. 2) Maybe, just maybe, the Repubs will remember that they came to power as small-government conservatives, and fell when they became big-government conservatives...

NY ruling applying Heller

Posted on November 05, 2008
New York permit holder has permit revoked for violation of safe storage requirement, which I gather would require the gun to be locked away. The NY Supreme Court (caveat: that is NOT the highest court in the State, NY follows a strange naming rule for its courts) overturns the revocation, noting that Heller found such a storage requirement unconstitutional...

My SSRN page is up

Posted on November 04, 2008
Here it is. It has my three latest articles on it, and you can download them. Constitutional history buffs might find my transcription of St. George Tucker's law lecture notes relating to the Bill of Rights of interest. Tucker appears to have written them in 1791-92, as he was just starting out as a law prof...

A tale of two cities

Posted on November 03, 2008
In Florida, home of "shall issue" CCW permits, Miami just went a month without a single homicide. Chicago, home of the handgun ban, is celebrating a crime reduction, too, since its homicides have fallen to only 400+.

Ruger preparing for the election?

Posted on November 03, 2008
SOUTHPORT, CONNECTICUT 06890 U.S.A. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For further information contact: Ken Jorgensen Director of Media Relations and Shooting Sports Coordinator RUGER® ANNOUNCES ?INAUGURAL SPECIAL? MINI-14® MAGAZINE PROMOTION Southport, CT November 4, 2008 ? Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc...

Wish I'd had this idea earlier

Posted on November 03, 2008
I'd put them on the roads to polling places tomorrow.

Post election prospects

Posted on November 03, 2008
A comment, as I recall (it was a busy working weekend) sought an assessment of the legislative picture, post-election. The indicators seem to be that Obama wins. They're neck and neck in popular vote, but he's got the electoral college advantage. Real Clear Politics shows it as Obama 278, McCain 132, toss up 128...

Sandy Froman on the election and the 2A

Posted on November 03, 2008
Column here.

NRA President John Sigler on the election

Posted on October 31, 2008
Hard hitting Townhall column here. Scott Bach's take is the same. I'll just add the following from when Obama ran for Congress in 2000: ?If elected to Congress, Obama says he will continue working to solve the most important issues that affect the South Side of Chicago, including education, health care, juvenile justice, gun control and urban development...

Campaign dirty tricks against gun owners?

Posted on October 31, 2008
NRA reports that gun owners in key States are receiving phone calls, fraudulently claiming to be from NRA, and stating that it has endorsed Obama.

Navy SEALs to use Blackhawk uniforms

Posted on October 30, 2008
A good story about it here. We saw the uniforms at their HQ. Each arm and leg has two built-in tourniquets, with handles concealed in velcro-sealed pouches. In the event of a severe extremity wound (say a limb shredded by an IED) blood flow can completely occluded in ten seconds...

Dan Cooper resigns

Posted on October 30, 2008
Story here. Snowflakes in Hell gets a nice plug: ""This needs to get around," wrote a blogger who calls himself "Sebastian, a thirty something, self professed 'gun nut' living somewhere in Pennsylvania." He added: "Gun owners need to know which companies sell their interests down the river...

Gun issues in the election

Posted on October 30, 2008
At Politico, Roger Simon asks why Palin and the old fellow aren't using the gun issue. OK, so her running mate's record on the issue isn't exactly perfect -- it's a heck of a lot better than that of the opposing ticket. If a candidate only argues issues where one side is 100% and the other zero, he isn't going to have a lot to talk about.

Purchase delayed in DE due to age and gender

Posted on October 29, 2008
Story here. The first level of permit review delayed it because she "too old and a woman." The explanation added that they'd run seven years of records to see if she already had a gun. The problem with the seven years of records is, the records were supposed to have been destroyed within sixty days...

Cooper Arms followup

Posted on October 29, 2008
From the FEC webpage: Here's the image of a $2100 Obama contribution by a Daniel Cooper of Pound Ridge, NY, no occupation given. The FEC webpage lists this under Daniel Cooper/Copper Firearms, I believe by mistake. Here's an image of a 2/6/08 donation of $1,000 by Dan Cooper of Akron OK, President/CEO of Cooper Firearms...

Cooper Arms exec backs Obama, perhaps with illegal contribution

Posted on October 29, 2008
USA Today ran a story noting that Dan Cooper, owner and CEO of Cooper Arms, is backing and contributing to Obama. It said he's given $3,300, "on top of the $1,000 check he wrote to Obama's U.S. Senate campaign in 2004, after he was dazzled by Obama's speech at that year's Democratic National Convention...

Officer mistakenly shoots defender

Posted on October 28, 2008
Story here. The mistake seems understandable: officers respond to "shots fired," encounter a woman and children fleeing a home who report an armed man inside, announce and enter, encounter an armed man coming down the hall. Unfortunately, he was the homeowner; he was apparently coming back from subduing the perp, and either didn't hear the announcement, or under the stress didn't think to put down his gun...

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