Constitutional Law

Serious weapons fun

Posted on May 26, 2008
Over at Popular Mechanics, A 60 lb 25mm chain gun, and a 5 lb. guided missile. Targets a lot more fun than clay pigeons. And some fun stuff for subs, too!

Supreme Court nominations

Posted on May 26, 2008
Some thoughts about the type of Justices a President Obama would nominate.

How many home FFLs?

Posted on May 26, 2008
Back in the 90s, Congress passed legislation meant to kill "home FFLs," guys who didn't have a storefront, etc.. The main hit was a requirement that an FFL comply with zoning and other local non-gun regulations: more home FFLs were of course in areas zoned for residental and not for business...

Word of shakeups in ATF command

Posted on May 26, 2008
Word is circulating that a number of ATF supervisors, from field up to high HQ levels, Assistant Directors and such, are being effectively suspended (effectively, but without using that term) while higher powers look into their competence and allegations of abuse and/or fraud...

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

Memorial Day

Posted on May 26, 2008
Here's an early webpage I did on Civil War research, including tracking down a friend's fallen great-great-grandfather. He was MIA since June 4, 1864, but I showed pretty clearly that he was one of Arlington's unknowns, and they got his name added to the Bay City MI memorial to its Civil War dead.

Tentative settlement in Red's Trading Post

Posted on May 25, 2008
Story here. Not much detail, and it sounds as if ATF is still running it up the chain of command for full approval.

John Lott on Philadelphia and AW Bans

Posted on May 25, 2008
John Lott has an good article on the subject, in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Hat tip to reader Jack Anderson...

A clever self-defender meet a dumb crook

Posted on May 24, 2008
Story

Suit by schoolteacher over preemption

Posted on May 24, 2008
The Oregon Firearms Federation has a report here. Basically, a teacher would like to CCW, and school policy prevents that, so she's invoking the State preemption law, which forbids local units of government to regulate firearms possess and transportation...

Request for fundraising ideas

Posted on May 23, 2008
I was at a meeting of the NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund. They went to the mat on Heller, providing funding, or printing costs, for several briefs, arranging the moot court training sessions (with "judges" who were 2A experts flown in to DC), etc., with the result that they were quite limited in what they could do to aid several other worthy causes (lawsuits over Katrina gun seizures, the NYC lawsuit mentioned in the last posting, suits to shut own shooting ranges, and plenty of other good things that they really wanted to help out on)...

NYC lawsuit--very strange event

Posted on May 23, 2008
Judge Jack Weinstein forbids New York to call Mayor Bloomberg as a witness. If the witness is willing to testify, a party wants to call him, and his testimony is relevant, it's pretty peculiar for a judge to bar it. I could see an argument that the subject of the testimony is irrelevant, but Weinstein says the city should call someone else to testify to it, so he can't see it as irrelevant...

I suppose this settles one question

Posted on May 23, 2008
I.e., Would Hillary REALLY kill someone to get into the White House?. Or at least try to give someone else the idea? I know the Clinton ambition and ruthlessness were powerful, but I didn't think they were totally unlimited. I guess this settles the question of whether Obama might pick her as a running mate...

IowaHawk on Hillary's assassination mention

Posted on May 23, 2008
As usual, one very funny post. Via Instapundit...

Car Dealership offering guns

Posted on May 22, 2008
Michelle Malkin has the story. A Butler, MO car dealership is offering a free gun with each car purchased. ?Down here we all believe in God, guts and guns,? the dealer says.

Techno-bleg

Posted on May 22, 2008
I've got a webpage for selling my 2A documentary. It shows up OK on every browser I use. But I'm getting reports that when accessed by some (I think IE 7, with fonts set at a certain size) the type overlaps. If you could take a look at it and tell me what it looks like in your browser, it'd be appreciated...

Bloomberg lawsuit heading for trial

Posted on May 22, 2008
Story here. Hat tip to reader William Taggart...

Pro-gun control forces not optimistic

Posted on May 22, 2008
Story in The Hill. "?It?s a pro-gun House, a pro-gun Senate and [Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) or Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.)] won?t want to deal with it,? McCarthy said. McCarthy stressed that she is not giving up on reauthorizing the weapons ban that sunsetted in 2004, but also made clear she is not holding her breath...

Utah weighs restricting CCWs for nonresidents

Posted on May 22, 2008
The Deseret News has the story. The problem is that a majority of their applicants are from out of State, and this year they'll issue 40,000 of them. Limiting it to residents might bump up against the privileges and immunities clause of the Constitution (i...

Possible limits on ATF "letter rulings"

Posted on May 21, 2008
Background: agencies are supposed to follow detailed rules when issuing a "regulation": publish a proposal in the Federal Register, receive public comment, then publish a final rule with preamble answering the major comments. Plus comply with the Paperwork Reduction Act, Regulatory Reform Act, etc...

At last I get recognition!

Posted on May 21, 2008
From the VPC Blog (parody blog, that is): "Runaway Jury is perhaps the preeminent movie of our times. It is so realistic and so truthful that the Brady Campaign holds a yearly showing during one of their fund-raisers. ..... Gene Hackman?s Gun Lobby Attorney character is based on noted lawyer Dave Hardy...

The Miller behind US v. Miller

Posted on May 21, 2008
Story here.

Pro-gun bills moving in AZ

Posted on May 21, 2008
An email from AZ CDL is in extended remarks, below. The bills would allow carrying a firearm concealed in a motor vehicle without a permit (you can presently carry in the glove compartment or trunk that way, if holstered), bring the requirements for a CCW permit into line with the requirements for gun ownership, and clarify when a firearm may be displayed in self defense.

Five years ago today

Posted on May 21, 2008
May 21, 2003. My ex, Frances, had managed to gesture and gasp out that it was time for the hospice, and was sliding into a coma. Here's her webpage, with more detail.

DC snafus

Posted on May 21, 2008
Pretty amazing, even by DC standards. The city winds up reinstating over a dozen officers fired for misconduct ... because it keeps missing a self-imposed deadline for making the decision. Apparently admin. judges have been ruling, for twenty years, that the deadline is binding, but the administrators keep ignoring it...

Olofson case

Posted on May 20, 2008
Snowflakes in Hell has a detailed post on US v. Olofson, complete with links to major documents in the case. It appears a good deal more complicated than had seemed. Apparently the fellow to whom Olofson had loaned the AR-15 was told not to put the selector switch in a third position...

Thoughts on the Polar Bear listing

Posted on May 20, 2008
Interior just announced that it has ruled that the Polar Bear is a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The basis is that global warming is causing its habitat to contact. I did ESA work for nearly ten years at Interior, and have a few thoughts...

David Young and I at NRA convention

Posted on May 20, 2008
Here we are, in booth 1551. Left to right myself, Arlene Young and David Young. David was selling his books and I was selling my Second Amendent documentary.

Sen. McCain's speech at NRA meeting

Posted on May 20, 2008
Transcript here. Afterwards, Grover Norquist made an insightful comment. It would have been much better had McCain just dropped the last two paragraphs, relating to the war in Iraq. Odds are most of his listeners know his position there already. But their insertion made it likely that the media would seize upon them and make that the story, rather than his talk about firearms and gun laws.

Alderman lets gun registration expire

Posted on May 20, 2008
From SayUncle comes this amusing and appalling story. Essentially, Chicago imposed handgun registration, a requirement to re-register annually, and a ban on all new registrations. Over the years, a number of people have forgotten to renew their registration, and been informed that they cannot reinstate it due to the handgun registration ban, and thus lost their guns...

DC police to get "assault weapons"

Posted on May 20, 2008
Story here. Strange part is that the firearms sound like M-16s and M-4s converted over to semiauto. (1) surplus may be cheap, but unless they replace the receiver it's legally a full auto no matter what you do to convert it; (2) military M-4 cost around $1500, whereas AR-15 clones can be had for half that (and probably still less if you're buying in this sort of quantity); (3) has the government stopped buying M-4s at that price, since it apparently is selling off a surplus of them?

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.