Constitutional Law

Heller followup -- district court ruling

Posted on March 27, 2010
Here's the District Court (trial court) opinion. It applies "intermediate scrutiny" (more exacting than rational basis, less exacting than strict scrutiny) and upholds the new DC regulations. [Of course, standards of review are judicial creations, and thus both arbitrary and malleable...

ATF suit against agent; his answer

Posted on March 25, 2010
It's linked, over at CleanUp ATF.org. Pretty appalling. (1) The way they screwed this guy over, while letting his bosses take trips at taxpayer expense to hobnob with starts; (2) how they cover up for favored supervisors caught in major wrongdoing and (3) how they and Hollywood pal around...

First time requirement of purchase

Posted on March 25, 2010
I've received several emails pointing out that, with regard to statements that the current health care bill is the first to require citizens to purchase something, the 1792 Militia Act required every male of military age to have a musket and ammunition, which was roughly equivalent...

Delay or impediment to gun permit issuance may violate due process

Posted on March 25, 2010
So says the Second Circuit, as noted by Eugene Volokh. Amazing how this legal field has turned around in a year or two....

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MSNBC and right to carry

Posted on March 24, 2010
"Record numbers now licensed to pack heat / Firearms deaths fall as millions obtain permits to carry concealed guns" It's far more balanced than you would have seen ten years ago. Rather funny, tho, in that the lead tale is of an armed robber who was shot by one of his intended victims, and it ends with "friends and relatives were left to mourn, barred by the same Castle Doctrine from filing a civil lawsuit...

Kansas House votes to allow CCW on higher ed campuses

Posted on March 24, 2010
Story here. The proposal, which would allow CCW permittees to carry on university and college campuses, has passed the House and is going to the state Senate.

Congress and the Constitution

Posted on March 23, 2010
Rep. John Conyers explains that the healthcare bill is constitutional under the Constitution's "good and welfare clause", adding "I?m chairman of the Judiciary committee, as you know." The inmates really are running the asylum...

Medicinal marihuana and GCA 68

Posted on March 23, 2010
From an email making the rounds: "Nevada has just started adding the names of those who have a lawfully obtained medical marijuana card to the "do not purchase" list. You are now denied if you try to purchase a firearm in Nevada (from an FFL). They don't come out to your house and take your already purchased guns (not yet anyway) but the do not allow any new purchases...

More on pistol-gripped shotguns

Posted on March 21, 2010
From James Bardwell's always-useful list, comes a 1996 BATF opinion letter. Its conclusion is that a shotgun that starts out with a pistol grip and a rifled barrel, which is then shortened below 18", becomes a "destructive device" since it is a rifled firearm of over 50 caliber...

Indiana gets law allowing firearms in parked cars on company property

Posted on March 21, 2010
Story here.

Don Kates on the California gubernatorial race

Posted on March 18, 2010
Don writes: "I have been asked to comment on the up-coming California gubernatorial election: Of the Republican candidate, an immensely wealthy woman named Meg Whitman, I know nothing except that she is the former Chief Executive Officer of eBay and that she is alleged to be anti-gun by some people who claim to know and that the allegation is not surprising to anyone...

medicinal pot grower defends self

Posted on March 17, 2010
Story here. Sounds like a hazardous occupation: "I don't want to shoot people, but God, this is our eighth home invasion since last May." He ought to get something a bigger than a .22, at that rate!

A good year in Virginia

Posted on March 17, 2010
The Virginia Citizens Defense League is reporting a very good year indeed at the Legislature.

Tidying up after self defense

Posted on March 16, 2010
Story and photo here.

Interesting questions re: pistol grip shotguns

Posted on March 16, 2010
From CleanupATF.org comes this interesting question. ATF has consistently taken the position that a shotgun that leaves the factory with a pistol grip and no buttstock, and is kept in that condition, is a pistol rather than a shotgun. I suppose this was in accord with their desire to construe statutes in ways that increased regulation: here, an 18-21 year old couldn't buy it if it was a pistol, but would have been able to if they declared it a shotgun...

Low Brady Campaign ratings = lower violent crime?

Posted on March 15, 2010
Over at Calguns, an interesting chart on the subject.

Wash. Times on Starbucks debate

Posted on March 15, 2010
Editorial here. Interesting note: "From sea to shining sea, the climate for guns is changing, and the progress extends beyond Starbucks. Major retailers such as Home Depot, Best Buy and Barnes & Noble apparently also are friendly to people who openly pack heat, according to the Wall Street Journal...

The economy is truly tanking

Posted on March 15, 2010
The "million dollar Luger" is auctioned for half that figure. Hat tip to Sixgun Sarah....

Utah votes for "John M. Browning Day"

Posted on March 15, 2010
Story here. A demigod deserves at least a day!

Ohio Supreme Court to hear pre-emption case

Posted on March 10, 2010
Story here. Cleveland adopted a bar on open carry, maintaining that the legislature's pre-emption statute violates its home-rule powers, under the State constitution. The Court of Appeals agreed with that, but the Ohio Supreme Court, after being petitioned by the state's Attorney General, has agreed to take the case.

Report from Ohio State University campus

Posted on March 10, 2010
Reader Mark Noble emails his thoughts in relation to yesterday's shooting at OSU: I?ve been very disappointed in OSU PD?s handling of public safety. The campus is surrounded on 3 sides by some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Columbus. When I?ve talked to the Columbus Police Community Liaison officer at on-campus safety events they blame the victims for getting assaulted and robbed in the neighborhood...

Snowflakes in Hell: NRA Board recommendations

Posted on March 10, 2010
Here are Snowflakes in Hell's recommendations in the ongoing vote for NRA Board members. [Oops. Deleted the double posting!]

New approach to classroom discipline

Posted on March 10, 2010
The Department of Education is acquiring a lot of short-barreled shotguns. They're for the Office of Inspector General, in case they have to deploy a SWAT team against cheated on a student loan or a contract. Of course if you or I wanted one, they'd be "assault shotguns"...

Article on standards of review in 2A cases

Posted on March 09, 2010
By David Kopel and Clayton Cramer, here. Hat tip to reader Joe Olson...

Background to Chicago handgun ban

Posted on March 09, 2010
Some background, at The American Thinker.

Starbucks and the Supreme Court

Posted on March 08, 2010
Bob Barr has thoughts on both. Personally, I may buy a terribly overpriced cup of coffee, for the first time in my life.

Bonus for registering for National Firearms Law Seminar

Posted on March 08, 2010
The National Firearms Law Seminar is the annual Continuing Legal Education seminar put on in connection with the NRA Convention -- the next one is at Charlotte, on May 14. Here's the program. This year, registration has a bonus. The first 150 to register will get a credit, equal to their registration fee, toward setting up an NFA Gun Trust, courtesy of gun trust lawyer David M...

Mayor Daley doubles down

Posted on March 08, 2010
While awaiting the result in McDonald, Mayor Daley is lobbying for additional gun laws. ""The aggressiveness of the gun advocates is just one reason it's more important than ever that we work for common-sense gun laws..." He demands "changes to state law that would require background checks for those buying a gun in a private sale, ban assault weapons, require that gun dealers be licensed and limit the number of handgun purchases to one per person per month, plus micro-stamping and making it a felony to sell a gun to a known gang member (the last has major void for vagueness problems).

Interesting article on an aspect of the Tiahrt Amendment

Posted on March 07, 2010
I knew that the Amendment bans release of gun trace data to cities seeking to sue firearms dealers, but I didn't know that it also declares any such data admissible in evidence. This article argues that the latter restriction, as applied to State courts, is unconstitutional...

Pictures from the McDonald v. Chicago argument

Posted on March 06, 2010
Here are some that I got that day. Understand, we began waiting at 5 AM. Ahead of me were Sarah Gervase and Steven Jones, who'd been waiting since 4:15 AM, I think he said. He's Otis McDonald's nephew, and a member of the Supreme Court Bar, and was taking no chances on missing his uncle's Supreme Court case...

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