Constitutional Law

Chicago digs in its heels

Posted on July 25, 2008
Good. Hat tip to Carl in Chicago....

Massachusetts quietly moving to double permit fees

Posted on July 25, 2008
Story here. The firearm permit annual fee would go from $100 to $200.

Brady on Heller: "we're glad we lost"

Posted on July 24, 2008
At the Brady Campaign Blog. Where they claim that NRA's initial opposition to the suit was inspired by fears that, with gun confiscation off the table, the organization wouldn't do so well. I heard a lot of discussion about taking a Supreme Court case 2000-2006, and the only concern was "no one can predict, or even rationally guess, the outcome...

Dave Kopel on Heller and the right of self-defense

Posted on July 24, 2008
Dave Kopel has an article on the subject, accepted at Syracuse Law Review.

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Dumb crook burglarizes rifle club

Posted on July 24, 2008
Story here. He walked home, and deputies just followed his footprints to his door. Hat tip to Bernie Oliver...

How to deal with REAL straw man cases

Posted on July 24, 2008
As in twelve years in prison.

Wilmette IL repeals handgun ban

Posted on July 23, 2008
Story here. It's the second Chicago suburb to do so (first was Morton Grove). Four more remain in place. Hat tip to reader Carl in Chicago....

DC's compliance with Heller

Posted on July 23, 2008
An article at Reason Online. Via Instapundit....

Argue with Rep. Carolyn McCarthy's staff, get guns seized

Posted on July 22, 2008
Story in the NY Post. Hat tip to reader Eric Schultz...

95% of lawyers give the rest of us a bad name

Posted on July 22, 2008
Its' true!. Disbarred lawyer flees to Canada to dodge statutory rape charges, is traced via use of his AMEX card, and now sues American Express.

Mothers Against Guns violated tax code?

Posted on July 22, 2008
Snowflakes in Hell asks the question. MAG is a Pennsylvania entity that appears to be violation the restrictions on what a 501(c)(3) can legally do.

"How a gun-hating family from Billerica produced an Olympic shooter."

Posted on July 22, 2008
An article in, of all things, the Boston Globe. ""I was very anti-gun when my kids were little," says Scherer's mother, Sue, who works a number of different jobs, including cleaning and painting houses, running a day care, and organizing Jeopardy!-style entertainment for nursing homes...

Heller and felons

Posted on July 22, 2008
Don Kates has an article in the NY Post on the topic.

Candidates reach out to "no values voters"

Posted on July 22, 2008
From The Onion.

"gun guys" on the UN

Posted on July 21, 2008
Most amusing. The (anti)Gun Guys, a/k/a Freedom States Alliance, a/k/a Joyce Foundation, have a post complaining about the US refusing to participate in a UN conference directed at the international arms trade. What's amusing is the illustration, I assume of illegal arms being rounded up somewhere in Africa...

Article on San Fran suit

Posted on July 21, 2008
And a good one. Hat tip to reader Jack Anderson....

U.N. efforts

Posted on July 20, 2008
At Opinio Juris, Kenneth Anderson has a response to a NY Times hit piece on NRA and the UN. "The movement toward a small arms and light weapons treaty got going in the wake of the landmines ban treaty; it was a natural follow-on for the then-ascendent global civil society movement...

Sounds like a nice place to live....

Posted on July 20, 2008
Newspaper survey of Alabama residents finds 66% own guns and 80% believe in an individual right to arms. I have to wonder, tho, at the finding that 46% have CCW licenses; that sounds way high.

GeorgiaCarry.com gets favorable press

Posted on July 19, 2008
Pro-gun group GeorgiaCarry.org gets a very nice write-up in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

California case: Nordyke v. King

Posted on July 19, 2008
Good summary of it at CalGuns Foundation. I was surprised to learn the suit is still alive! In 1999, Alameda County passed an ordinance banning guns on public property, including the location where the gun show was usually held. A challenge was filed in Federal district court, and the judge spontaneously raised the 2nd Amendment question, before ruling against the challenge...

One more reason to be glad I live in Arizona...

Posted on July 19, 2008
Snowflakes in Hell reports on an elderly New Jersey fellow who shot a home intruder ... and the prosecutor is debating whether to file charges.

WSJ on Heller & his attorneys

Posted on July 19, 2008
Story here. The only mystery is from where they got the cartoon/sketch -- it hardly resembles Alan Gura. Hat tip to Joe Olson...

Reporters accidentally shot at anti-gun event

Posted on July 18, 2008
OK, it's in China, but it's still ironic. The press conference's purpose was to alert reporters to the dangers of illegal guns. It was a success. Hat tip to reader the Mechanic. Sounds like it was homemade shotgun loaded with pebbles.

Debate over the world post-Heller

Posted on July 18, 2008
Robert Levy, David Kopel, and Dennis Henigan (Brady Campaign) have a debate going over at Cato Unbound. Via Instapundit...

Heller registers his revolver

Posted on July 18, 2008
Story at Reason Online. Like others, written by someone with only modest knowledge of firearms.

Good interview on Heller ruling

Posted on July 17, 2008
Prof. Adam Winkler, UCLA Law, in the National Journal. It's quite detailed, does a great job of outlining the legal strategy (which was as fine a bit of strategic work as I've ever seen in a court) but here's a few high points: Q: Justice Stevens lamented in his dissent that the court's decision overturns a longstanding precedent...

Proposal to call out National Guard in Chicago

Posted on July 17, 2008
Governor Blogo ..Bladjo... Anyway, the governor of Illinois proclaims Chicago crime is out of control and proposes to call out the National Guard. Good thing Chicago's handgun ban is working! If not for that, they'd have to call out 101st Airborne to enforce the laws...

Dick Heller shows up to register his gun

Posted on July 17, 2008
And is turned down because he wanted to register a semi-auto. Confusing story here. Confusing because the reporter doesn't know the difference between clips and rounds, and it sounds as if DC police, in spoon-feeding the reporter the concept of semiauto, explained that it loaded "from the bottom," which the reporter took as the definition...

British press stepping up drumbeat for knife control

Posted on July 17, 2008
Scaring people increases circulation, and that increases ad revenue, so The Daily Mail's headline is "Thugs committing 350 knife assaults EVERY DAY, as blade menace spreads to rural areas." Times Online is more moderate: "Crime falls, but stabbings not just an urban problem...

Interesting aspect to the media

Posted on July 16, 2008
Encountered an article in which the author says that the country "according to anti-arms campaigners, has one of the greatest per capita rates of gun ownership in the world." Alongside a cartoon of a fellow reaching for the two guns in his belt, the author notes: "How many more wake up calls do we need until law makers realise that some new, strict gun control laws need to be passed? What about a limit on the number of guns a person can have, say, two? What about more detailed background checks?" He calls for an assault weapon ban, and ends with: "As everyone realises, we are no longer the pioneer society we were when gun laws were first instituted in this country...

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