Constitutional Law

Article on Heller and self defense

Posted on October 28, 2008
Abstract and downloadable article here. The thesis I find a bit confusing: it talks of applying the 2A to the states without 14th A incorporation, but seems to be talking about applying it via 14th A due process incorporation (the right of self defense being fundamental) rather than privileges or immunities incorporation...

FFL helps collar a perp

Posted on October 27, 2008
Story here. The best part: "Was he nervous about the "sting"? "I wasn't," he said. "We have more guns than he has.""

Lautenburg Amendment going to Supreme Court

Posted on October 27, 2008
Summary here. It's a question of statutory construction. Defendant was convicted of ordinary misdemeanor battery in 1994. The victim was his then-wife. Since it was ordinary battery, fact she was his wife was not an element of the offense. Ten years later he's busted for being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm...

Gad... victimization at sea

Posted on October 26, 2008
You've probably seen the images of Somali pirates, usually a handful of guys in small boats, with AK-47s or a few RPGs, taking over a commercial vessel. I wondered how (most of these guys would be toast to an M1A, let alone a .50 M2 -- or a stick of dynamite dropped over the side), and read that commercial vessels are forbidden to be armed...

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petition against pellet guns JROTC courses

Posted on October 26, 2008
From Freedom States Alliance (creators of the Gun Guys, and beneficiary of Joyce Foundation) comes this petition to ban use of pellet guns in high school Junior ROTC. "Children who are taught to use weapons and violence to solve problems will not always enter the military...

Motion in Chicago gun ban case

Posted on October 26, 2008
Here. As would be expected, beautifully written -- clearly expressed, and not a word to spare. Hat tip to reader R. Vance...

Bureaucrats' approach to self defense

Posted on October 26, 2008
Via RicketyClick comes this: a Houston defense lawyer has posted the DEA guidelines on use of lethal force. He notes that trainees are given fact patterns and then expected to recite from the standards verbatim. I'm sure that is solid training ... in memory skills...

NYPD police gun discharge study

Posted on October 25, 2008
Pdf here. A number of interesting results. A majority of shots were fired at 1-2 yards, and hit rate was only 43% at that range (both results not uncommon, actually). At 3-7 yards this drops to 23%, then at 8-15 yards rises again to 40%. Perhaps the officers have the ability to take better aim there, or maybe it's a fluke of the small sample size, What's very interesting is that only 45% occurred on duty, in uniform...

Military gets new sniper equipment, techniques

Posted on October 25, 2008
Story here. I find it interesting that all the equipment is civilian invention and manufacture. That may not seem unusual today, but it wasn't but a few wars ago that everyone carried government-designed rifles made in government arsenals (come to think of it, the one civilian made component was the scope sights, issued in small quantities), and firing government-made ammo...

A First Amendment issue

Posted on October 25, 2008
And a biggie.... A Wisconsin electoral candidate faces criminal charges based on his campaign literature that describes people as supporting him, which is alleged to be false. I can see some serious First Amendment problems here, but suspect (strangely) that the charges will be dropped after the election.

Bureaucratic fun, part three

Posted on October 24, 2008
Here's the legal opinion on the Samish Tribe, in pdf. Courtesy of reader Joshua Tallent, who pdf'd it.

Non gun mass murders

Posted on October 24, 2008
Sensibly Progressive has a post on nongun mass murders.

Justice Thomas on interpreting the Constitution

Posted on October 23, 2008
Excerpts from his Wriston Lecture: "As important as our Constitution is, there is no one accepted way of interpreting it. Indeed, for some commentators, it seems that if they like or prefer a particular policy or conduct, then it must be constitutional; while the policies that they do not prefer or like are unconstitutional...

Old time LEO passes away

Posted on October 23, 2008
A friend of mine, Carl Behrens, just died, age 85. He'd been president of Tucson Rod and Gun Club way back, and a Pima County Sheriff's deputy even farther back. Probably in the 1950s and thereafter. Back in the days when there, er, weren't a lot of rules...

Even bureaucrats can have a sense of humor

Posted on October 23, 2008
Here's a scan of the original opinion. It's not the clearest image -- it's been sitting in my files for 21 years now. Click on the thumbnail to get it full size. This is the original opinion she signed (mine is unsigned, since it came from my personal chron file--I would have the opinion as it went to her, the signed one would have gone into the departmental files...

After dinner annoyance

Posted on October 22, 2008
Sitting back, relaxing on couch after dinner, red wine in hand. In shorts, this is the desert, legs crossed. I feel an annoying tickle on my right leg. Something crawling slowly thru my hair there. Look down and see this fellow (dead in this photo): Killed 'im, but spilled the wine on myself and ruined a pair of shorts...

Yes, even bureaucrats can have humor

Posted on October 22, 2008
Back in my Interior days, a small Indian tribe wrote requesting to be listed under the Endangered Species Act, as a publicity move. I wrote up a really hilarious opinion for the Associate Solicitor's signature, and she signed it. Later others became terrified, wrote another opinion that took it very seriously...

Is Judge Posner a "conservative" judge?

Posted on October 22, 2008
The NY Times article on conservative judges criticizing Heller says so, but a post at Blakanization argues otherwise. (Read the comments, too). The argument is that Posner's method -- pretty much pure pragmatism, with no great regard for traditional tools such as textualism, original intent, construction by principles of language, etc...

Practical aspects of campus gun bans

Posted on October 22, 2008
Liberated self has a post regarding Ohio State. The newspaper finally carried a story about on-campus crime, because an officer had to shoot a perp after he stabbed another officer. But, as pointed out, there had been seven robberies within the past seven days that went uncovered...

Brady pledge against student gun violence

Posted on October 22, 2008
Whoopiteedo. "National distribution of the Student Pledge sends a message that is essential if we are to reverse the tide of violence in this country: that violence is neither inevitable nor an abstract force against which we are powerless." Gad, what meaningless words...

Article on Heller and a few critics

Posted on October 21, 2008
In the New York Times. And, despite the source, almost objective. UPDATE: Bob Levy and William Mellor respond. Personal take: the judges are of the brand of conservatives that dislike "judicial activism" (by which standard some of the liberal wing, esp...

Trouble in Ohio

Posted on October 21, 2008
Story here. I see the lawsuits coming...

DC cab drivers argue for firearm rights

Posted on October 20, 2008
Story here. The new DC law allows possession in your business premises, and their argument was that a cabbie's cab is his premises. But DC rejected that. Cabbie there told me some hair-raising stories. They're easy to ambush: decoy gets in cab, asks to be taken to a location where the ambush team awaits...

New movie

Posted on October 20, 2008
Off topic, but it's The Third Jihad, produced by an Arizonan (saw it in the morning paper). The review said that the film explains how, to radical moslems, duplicity and deception are as important as violence. And that the film's producer sometimes takes criticism when he attends mosque.

Coltsville designated a National Historic Landmark

Posted on October 20, 2008
Story here.

Soccer mom gets CCW permit back

Posted on October 18, 2008
She had a permit, but open carried at soccer games. The other soccer moms got bent out of shape, and the sheriff revoked her CCW permit (he didn't like her openly carrying, so he put her in a position where openly is the only way she can carry. Makes a lot of sense...

Audio CDs of Gun Rights Policy Conference available

Posted on October 18, 2008
Here's an order form. Price is $27 for about 8-10 hours, as I recollect.

Software piracy ... by a government agency?

Posted on October 17, 2008
Allegations here. It's not the first time.

Unpublished opinions

Posted on October 17, 2008
Glad to see someone else has heartburn over them. My experience with them is at the State appellate level. Over the last few decades, the State courts adopted a custom of issuing unpublished opinions, i.e., opinions that the West Reporters (the standard books you go to to find decisions) are instructed not to publish and which, even if you find one, you cannot cite as precedent...

Inside information from BATFE

Posted on October 16, 2008
1. Deputy Director Edgar Domenech just got a government "golden parachute" out. It's impossible to sort out the internal politics involved, but he'd been demoted and said it was a result of exposing wasteful spending by the prior director. (GIven the byzantine politics of ATF higher levels, it's hard to sort out who is a whistleblower and who's back-stabbing, except that a lower level agent is always doing to be treated as the latter...

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