Constitutional Law

CA bills up for vote

Posted on August 06, 2008
Calif. Rifle and Pistol Assn has an alert out that three bills could be considered in the CA Senate Appropriations Committee tommorrow: Assembly Bill 2062 would require an individual to possess a license to purchase ammunition, require vendors to keep a detailed record of the transaction, and simply ban mail or internet ammunition orders...

Dumb crooks roundup

Posted on August 06, 2008
Story here. Don't know if I liked the story about the guy who tried to steal copper wire from a live line, or the one about the lady who crashed her car into a convenience store and then tried to buy beer, more.

Another "oops" moment

Posted on August 06, 2008
If you're going to pull a SWAT raid, and shoot two dogs, don't do it to the mayor. That's gotta hurt promotion protential.

New roundup site for gunblogs

Posted on August 05, 2008
Right here. It performs an excellent service, as an aggregator of aggregators, as it were.

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Data on the SiteMeter bug

Posted on August 05, 2008
I don't use sitemeter (nor IE unless I have to), but a few days ago a lot of people were having trouble accessing blogs that do. Here's the info on the source and cure of the problem.

Chicago Tribune on guns & Heller case

Posted on August 05, 2008
Editorial here. "Like Daley, this page strongly disagreed with the court's ruling. We admire his stand on this issue. But the court ruling was clear and explicit: A blanket ban on handgun ownership is unconstitutional under the 2nd Amendment."

Conn. gun seizures

Posted on August 05, 2008
A report on a CT (corrected) law that allows officials to get a warrant, and seize firearms, on the belief that a person *might* misuse them in the future. Something over 1,700 guns have been taken under its provisions. Quite apart from the obvious 2A violations, it seems to me there's a 4th Amendment issue as well...

In case any readers are getting married....

Posted on August 05, 2008
Here's the topper for the wedding cake...

Will wonders never cease, part 4

Posted on August 04, 2008
Via Snowflakes in Hell comes this pdf of the House Demos' proposal for a restoration of DC gun rights bill. It has ambiguities, as might be expected, but does do away with the semiauto ban, and forbids the city to "unduly burden" firearms rights. It also *appears* (don't have time to research the DC Code) to repeal registration except as to NFA-type firearms, and to allow DC residents to purchase in VA and MD.

Will wonders never cease, part 3

Posted on August 04, 2008
The Mass. House passed a resolution endorsing the Heller decision!. Sounds as if the Gun Owners Action League was pushing it.

Historian reviews Saul Cornell book

Posted on August 04, 2008
Historian Robert Churchill has a detailed review of Saul Cornell's recent book on the right to arms (Cornell's approach basically is that of DC in Heller). The critical parts: " If I am reading Cornell correctly, he is arguing that early Americans believed that the right to keep and bear arms was guaranteed only to enrolled militiamen, and that it applied only to a single weapon per militiaman...

Essays on Heller

Posted on August 04, 2008
Two essays by Prof. Tushnet, who is not particularly fond either of the individual rights view or of originalism. Hat tip to Joe Olson...

Local story on protection orders

Posted on August 03, 2008
Story here. Mayor of a small town had his wife request a civil order of protection against him and his son. The order of protection form has a checkbox for finding that the person on the receiving end poses a credible threat and therefore police are to seize any arms they possess...

Reynolds & Denning on Heller's future

Posted on August 03, 2008
Prof.s Glenn Harlan Reynolds and Brannon Denning have an article in Northwestern Univ. Law Rev. on the future of Heller. The question is whether the case becomes, essentially, what it should be: the recognition of a Constitutional right, and the beginning of an entire branch of Con law, or whether it may go the route of the Lopez case...

Pelosi may fold on Souter bill re DC gun laws

Posted on August 01, 2008
The DCist is reporting that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may allow a vote on Rep. Souter's bill. Actually, the report is that she'd have vulnerable blue dog Demos introduce the same or a similar bill, and allow a vote on that. Here's a more extensive report in The Hill...

David Codrea's War on Guns blog relocates

Posted on August 01, 2008
New url is here. There are reports that Google for some reason marked his original site as a spam site, and so his provider cut him off.

Movement on Chicago gun case

Posted on August 01, 2008
Plaintiffs have filed a motion for summary judgment (pdf). As they're subject to a page limit of 15 pages, it can't be a treatise. But the critical points are made, and the style excellent. A person without a legal background can read and reasonably well understand it, which for a technical issue like 14th amendment incorporation, is hard to do...

Now, this is strange

Posted on July 31, 2008
Albany County authorities have cut a deal with an armed robber, with past violent record, to testify in a misdemeanor case involving alleged false accusations against officers. Under it, the robber will serve three years. Around here, if he had a prior felony record (the story isn't clear), he'd have done more like 15, ten of it without chance of parole.

Discussion of FLA ruling on guns in parking lots

Posted on July 31, 2008
A clear discussion, at last, in the St. Petersburg Times. The ruling apparently upheld rights of employees to have guns in parked cars, but not the right of customers to. The latter was keyed to how the legislature worded the statute, so they can amend it to cure the problem...

Rep. Souder on DC right bill

Posted on July 31, 2008
Rep. Souder, who introduced a bill to curtail DC's resistance to Heller, has a well-written letter to the editor in the Washington Post. Via Instapundit...

Testing out the new GA law

Posted on July 30, 2008
Story here. "What happens when a Middle Eastern-looking man and a young black man walk into a LongHorn [restaurant] with loaded pistols on their belts? "Welcome to LongHorn, will it just be the two of you?""

Will wonders never cease?

Posted on July 30, 2008
Governor of Mass. sends proposal for doubling the present $100 pistol permit fees to the legislature, and the Massachusetts House instead passes a bill cutting them to $40. Hat tip to reader Jack Anderson...

Judge rules in FLA case over ban of parking lot bans

Posted on July 29, 2008
Artic;e here. Unfortunately, it's hard to judge from the article just what the court did. It seems to say that the judge upheld the law in general, but ruled the distinctions between one type of business and another were unconstitutional. Which would hardly be consistent with upholding the law in general.

Heller II is filed

Posted on July 28, 2008
It's a challenge to DC'S continuing ban on semiautos. (Blogging was slow today due to a meeting, and will be slow for a day or two due to research and travel).

More illicit gun seizures in New Orleans

Posted on July 28, 2008
Story here. Sounds like personal corruption rather than policy.

Off topic -- energy issue

Posted on July 26, 2008
American oil companies are about to cut interim deals with Iraq, with an eye to increasing its oil output. Apparently Congress is objecting and threatening retribution if the deals go thru. OK, Congress doesn't want oil from offshore sites, ANWR, nor ethanol from Brazil, nor electricity from windfarms, at least near Ted Kennedy's digs...

Mayor Daley proposing even more gun laws

Posted on July 26, 2008
Reported at Armed and Safe. I love the beginning: "Mayor Daley, never one to let himself be limited to . . . being sane, is responding to the Heller-inspired lawsuits aimed at overturning Chicago's handgun ban by looking at passing more gun laws."

Good list of procedures for registering a gun in DC

Posted on July 26, 2008
Right here. A bit more complicated than in AZ, where the checklist consists of "buy a gun." I had a person tell me, years ago, that when they moved here they called the Sheriff's Office to find out how to register their pistol. The answer was "you can't...

Spam King kills wife, daughter, self

Posted on July 26, 2008
This gives real meaning to the term minimum security federal prison. He escaped by having his wife pick him up and drive away.

Post-Heller roundup

Posted on July 25, 2008
In the Washington Times, Jacob Sullum argues "D.C.'s political leaders know they are inviting another Second Amendment lawsuit, but they are determined to defy the Supreme Court and the Constitution for as long as possible." While the Washington Post upbraids Congress for considering legislation affecting DC's new laws: "DISTRICT residents are sadly accustomed to congressional interference in their affairs...

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