Law professor Josh Blackman and Yale student Shelby Baird have posted an interesting paper entitled “The Shooting Cycle,” on the reaction of public opinion to mass shooting incidents, like the tragic events in Newtown and the Washington Navy Yard in 2012 and 2013. Political ignorance plays an important role in their explanation for why such […]
Archive | Guns
Right to Carry Guns on Federal Recreation Areas, and Right to Possess in Tents on Those Areas
Today’s Morris v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (D. Idaho Jan. 10, 2014) strikes down an Army Corps of Engineers regulation barring possession of loaded guns in recreation areas surrounding Corps dams. The court holds that tents are akin to homes, where Second Amendment rights are protected. The court also holds that the Second Amendment […]
Heller As an Advertisement for Originalist Methodology
Eric Posner has posted a few comments on our first class on originalism, including his thoughts on Heller: It seems to me that the text of the Second Amendment suggests that the right to bear arms is tied to serving in a militia, though not unambiguously, and that the exhaustive historical research discussed by the […]
“No Firearm May Be Sold, Acquired or Otherwise Transferred Within [Chicago], Except Through Inheritance”
That’s what Chicago Municipal Code § 8-20-100 provides (with some exceptions for sales to police officers, and loans at shooting ranges). Today’s Illinois Ass’n of Firearms Retailers v. City of Chicago (N.D. Ill. Jan. 6, 2014) holds that this violates the Second Amendment (some paragraph breaks added): [The Second Amendment] right must also include the […]
Do Pistol Grips Make Semi-Automatic Rifles More Dangerous, Because They “Aid Shooters when ‘Spray Firing’ from the Hip”?
Laws that ban so-called “assault weapons” often define them with reference to various features, such as a rifle’s having a bayonet mount or “a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon” (to quote the New York assault weapon ban upheld by N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Cuomo (W.D.N.Y. Dec. […]
New York 7-Round Limit Struck Down on Second Amendment Grounds, Assault Weapons Ban and >10-Round Magazine Ban Upheld
The decision, by a federal trial court, is today’s N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Cuomo (W.D.N.Y. Dec. 31, 2013). The court’s conclusion: [T]his Court finds that the challenged provisions of the SAFE Act — including the Act’s definition and regulation of assault weapons and its ban on large-capacity magazines — further the state’s […]
Colorado Sheriffs and the duty to enforce statutes
I represent 55 elected Colorado Sheriffs, plus one retired police officer, in a federal civil rights lawsuit that has been filed against two bills passed by the state legislature last March. Information about the case, including major case filings, is available at ColoradoGunCase.org. I am writing this post to correct a serious and inaccurate accusation […]
10-Day Gun Waiting Period Potentially Unconstitutional
So concludes today’s Silvester v. Harris (E.D. Cal. Dec. 9, 2013). The analysis (some paragraph breaks added): The WPL [the Waiting Period Law] prohibits every person who purchases a firearm from taking possession of that firearm for a minimum of 10 days. That is, there is a period of at least 10 days in which […]
Evolving Christian Attitudes Towards Personal and National Self-Defense
By David Kopel on November 26, 2013 6:05 pm in Civil Rights, Communism, Equal Protection, Guns, McDonald v. City of Chicago, Politics, Popular Culture, Religion, Self-Defense
Issue number 5 of this year’s Connecticut Law Review is an excellent symposium on firearms law, policy, and culture. The lead article is from Nicholas Johnson, of Fordham: Firearms Policy and the Black Community: An Assessment of the Modern Orthodoxy. Johnson (who is my co-author on the Second Amendment textbook Firearms Law and the Second Amendment) details the long […]
Attitudes Towards Handgun Bans
A very interesting graphic from Prof. Bryan Caplan (EconLog): The lines indicate the responses to a Gallup survey, which asked “What about the possession of pistols and revolvers — do you think there should be a law which would forbid possession of this type of gun except by the police or other authorized person?” (or, […]
Has the Constitutional Right to Keep and Bear Arms Outlived Its Usefulness?
I’m on a train to New York from the Federalist Society conference in D.C., headed to do a debate on this subject organized by Intelligence2 Debates. The debaters will be Sandy Levinson and Alan Dershowitz against Dave Kopel and me, and a live video stream will be available starting 6:45 Eastern tonight at this site, […]
Gonzaga Students Facing Expulsion for Legally Possessing Guns in Private University-Owned Apartments
An interesting story from the Gonzaga Bulletin: Roommates Erik Fagan and Dan McIntosh, both seniors, may be expelled this week after they used McIntosh’s pistol to repel a late-night trespasser from the doorway of their 207 E. Sinto Ave. apartment. Fagan answered a 10:15 p.m. knock on their front door Thursday, Oct. 24. A friend […]
Georgia Supreme Court Justices on the Second Amendment, Carrying Guns in Public, and Felons
Hertz v. Bennett (Ga. Sup. Ct. Nov. 4, 2013) rejects a Second Amendment objection to the denial of a concealed carry license. The petitioner, the court notes, had pleaded no contest to five felony counts — “three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, one count of shooting from a vehicle, and one count […]
Steve Chapman on Chicago’s Seized Gun Destruction Policy
From Reason.com: In the course of their duties, Chicago police come into possession of all sorts of contraband: jewelry, video games, bicycles, cars. They sell the stuff through online auctions that are open to the public. They also confiscate some 10,000 firearms each year, with an estimated value of $2 million. They sell them and […]
Live With a Foreigner Who Doesn’t Have a Green Card? You Must Keep Your Guns Locked Up
That’s what the newly enacted Cal. Penal Code § 25135, just signed by Gov. Brown, would do (on pain of criminal punishment) [note UPDATE below]: A person who is 18 years of age or older, and who is the owner, lessee, renter, or other legal occupant of a residence, who owns a firearm and who […]