Constitutional Law

Win in suit against California ammunition law

Posted on January 18, 2011
Chuck Michel has announced that the NRA / Calif. Rifle & Pistol Assn suit challenging the California handgun ammunition restrictions (requiring registration and banning mail order sales) has won on a void for vagueness challenge. Among other vague provisions was its application to cartridges intended "primarily" for use in handguns.

ATF allowing guns to go into Mexico

Posted on January 13, 2011
Video here. There have been local rumors that ATF allowed considerable quantities of guns to go south of the border, saying it was necessary to their investigations, and without informing Mexican authorities of the arrangements. That'd make it rather unlikely to have aided investigations, though it might help to inflate the numbers traced to US sales...

Thoughts on the Tucson shooting

Posted on January 13, 2011
From all accounts, the shooter appears to be schizophrenic, probably paranoid schiz, and was giving significant signs of being dangerous long before the shooting. Fellow students and teachers were fearful enough to where the college suspended him unless he could provide a psychiatric evaluation showing he wasn't dangerous, and they sent campus police to make sure he got the message...

Alan Korwin on CNN tonight

Posted on January 13, 2011
He'll be on Parker Spitzer, 6 PM Mountain Time, 8 PM Eastern.

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Gun carrier was among those who brought down the Tucson killer

Posted on January 12, 2011
You won't see this on most news programs, for some reason.

Changes at NRA HQ

Posted on January 09, 2011
Jim Baker is returning to become head of ILA Federal Affairs; Chuck Cunningham, in that post, will move to State and Local Affairs; Randy Kozuch, there now, will move to Endowments.

Rest in peace, Judge Roll

Posted on January 09, 2011
Story here. I've been in front of him a goodly number of times, and he was a good judge, probably the fairest one I've ever been before. He did believe that there was "law" that existed outside of his own policy choices, and that he must search for and be governed by it...

Magnus v. US -- DC Ct of Appeals

Posted on January 06, 2011
PDF here. The DC court rules that a person can challenge a decade old guilty plea to violating DC's handgun ban, provided he can make the right showings of fact. Also interesting in that it lists other rulings of that court giving effect to the Heller ruling.

Webpage I'm building

Posted on January 06, 2011
Right here. It's devoted to the legislative history of the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986, which extensively rewrote the Gun Control Act. A big problem is that researching the history of FOPA is almost impossible. Almost all of it is pre-digital...

Kids, don't try this at home

Posted on January 06, 2011
It's only safe for 82 yr old veterans. Hat tip to Sixgun Sarah....

Media ignores ATF internal scandals

Posted on January 05, 2011
David Codrea asks why the mass media have been ignoring a series of management scandals within ATF. It's a good question. For many years, the answer would have been that to the MSM gun laws were a pet project and thus ATF a pet agency. Today, it may be a more generic problem...

Challenge to citizenship requirement for CCW permit

Posted on January 05, 2011
Constant Conservative has a post on a South Dakota case challenging the limitation of CCW permits to US citizens, and exclusion of lawful aliens.

On winning converts

Posted on January 04, 2011
A while back, there was a lot of blogging regarding a William Holda, president of Kilgore College, who had said, quite incorrectly, that CCW permittees shot each other at the Luby's massacre shooting. So blogger Popgun decides to take him and Mrs. Holda out shooting and show them what it's like.

Interesting question re: gun free zones

Posted on January 04, 2011
There was some argument regarding whether a private entity which forbade firearms in an area, or in parked cars, might assume some liability to a person who became a victim of crime because they could not defend themselves. The usual counter was the concept that a person generally has no legal duty to protect someone else from crime -- phrased otherwise, to prevent someone else from committing a criminal act...

Heller aftermath

Posted on January 02, 2011
Supporters of the DC handgun ban argued that it served a crucial role in dealing with crime, and predicted that its loss would lead to all manner of dire effects. "DC Homicides At Lowest Level Since 1963". So much for antigunners' predictive abilities...

More detail on ATF long gun multiple sales reports

Posted on December 31, 2010
The press conference makes it clear the requests are being made as "letter" requests... in the past, ATF had used this power with regard to one or a few dealers, for particularized reasons. Here, they are using it as to all FFLs in four States, and applying it as to multiple sales...

Ruling on right to arms and DV cases

Posted on December 30, 2010
United States v. Chester, handed down by the Fourth Circuit today. Defendant had been convicted of firearm possession after a misdemeanor DV conviction, and appealed. The Fourth Circuit initially vacated the conviction in an unpublished opinion that rejected the argument that the prohibition was justified under Heller's reference to "long standing" forms of gun regulation, and remanded, instructing the trial court to determine if there was any other justification...

Ohio Sup Ct upholds pre-emption law

Posted on December 29, 2010
City of Cleveland v. State of Ohio, Ohio Supreme Court, Dec. 29, 1010. Conflict between Cleveland's enactment of a number of gun regulations, and Ohio's statewide pre-emption law. The City contended that the pre-emption law was unconstitutional under the State constitution's provision of home rule for incorporated cities...

Aaron Zelman passes on

Posted on December 29, 2010
Regret to report that Aaron Zelman, founder and leader of JPFO, died on December 21. Stunning news. He was constantly inventive, and did an absolutely incredible job considering the group's limited resources.

"Cop killer bullets" -- in 1936

Posted on December 28, 2010
A research find, from the papers of Homer Cummings, FDR's Attorney General. J. Edgar Hoover (then signing as John Edgar Hoover), writes that S&W is going to produce a ".357 Magnum," a round plainly meant as a cop killer. It can't be meant to increase stopping power, he adds, because we all know that slow, heavy bullets are the key to stopping power...

Brian Aiken gets commutation of sentence

Posted on December 21, 2010
David Codrea has the story. Aiken is the fellow who was convicted, and sentenced to years of imprisonment, in NJ for possessing arms (and, shudder, hollow point bullets) that he'd legally purchased in Colorado. He still has felony convictions, but at least will be out of jail soon.

More on ATF extending multiple sales reports to rifles

Posted on December 21, 2010
I'd noted earlier that ATFE has issued a proposed rule that will require reporting of multiple sales of rifles that accept detachable magazines. Here's the formal notice. Dealers have long been required to report multiple sales of handguns to the same person within five business days of each other, but this is the first attempt to extend it to rifles...

Another book review

Posted on December 20, 2010
It's With My Rifle By My Side: A Second Amendment Lesson. This book is directed at, I'd think, 5-7 year olds, able to read but just starting out. There's something especially nice about a kid's book that ends with the rules of gun safety, and Second Amendment quotations.

"The 21st Century Sniper"

Posted on December 20, 2010
Another book I'd wanted to review for a time (the snakebite did slow me down a bit) -- The 21st Century Sniper, by two former SEALS, Brandon Webb and Glen Doherty. It traces the history of sniping and then gets into modern tools (including the .50 BMG and its smaller but still enormous cousins), thermal imaging, ballistic computers, and a big chapter on suppressors and their use...

New book on self defense law

Posted on December 20, 2010
Mitch & Evan Vilos, "Self Defense Laws of All 50 States," available here. This must have taken forever to research and write. It has the statutes of every State, notes on major case law in each, and practical explanations of each of these entries. Then charts on when deadly force can be used in each State, a prosecutor's opening statement in a self-defense case (just to show how your actions might be portrayed), and "the mother of all self-defense laws," which they suggest promoting to your State legislature...

Very cool!

Posted on December 20, 2010
Never heard of using a video clip to promote a book, but if this is any sample, it's going to be one heck of a technique!

Attorneys fees in Heller

Posted on December 19, 2010
Guns and Money reports that the post-Heller fight over attorneys' fees is still ongoing. Here's the revised motion. Apparently DC is willing to pay something over $700,000 to Alan Gura and team, while the good guys seek $ 3 million. I find the thought of DC paying either sum just wonderful...

ATF proposed multiple gun sales reports for many long arms

Posted on December 17, 2010
ATFE has issued a proposed rule that will require reporting of multiple sales of rifles that accept detachable magazines. Dealers have long been required to report multiple sales of handguns to the same person within five business days of each other, but this is the first attempt to extend it to rifles.

A safe bet

Posted on December 17, 2010
If Brady Campaign accepts, I think gunblogger Stephen Wright will have $50 more for Christmas.

Frisk based on progun bumper sticker

Posted on December 17, 2010
David Codrea has report: a driver stopped for speeding and a broken light was removed from his car and frisked, based solely upon a GeorgiaCarry.Org bumper sticker. So a (limited) search and (prolonged) detention based on First Amendment protected freedom of speech and association, aimed at promoting a lawful activity protected by the Second Amendment...

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