Earlier today, Maryland federal district Benson Everett Legg decided the case of Woollard v. Sheridan. Plaintiffs on the case are Robert Woollard and the Second Amendment Foundation. The lead attorney for plaintiffs is Alan Gura, the winning attorney in D.C. v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago. As explained in the district court’s Dec. 2010 ruling, […]
Archive | Guns
Crime to Negligently Let Someone Stay in Your Home, Where You Have a Gun That the Visitor Knows About
That seems to be the implication of United States v. Stegmeier (D.S.D. Dec. 2, 2011) (now on appeal). Stegmeier let a man named Kelley stay in his RV; Kelley was a fugitive from justice, and there was some evidence Stegmeier knew it. Stegmeier also told Kelley where Stegmeier kept his gun. When Kelley was caught, […]
Colorado Courts Continue to Protect Felons’ Rights to Keep and Bear Arms
As I noted last Fall, Colorado courts have treated the Colorado Constitution’s right to keep and bear arms provision as substantially protecting felons’ rights to keep guns for self-defense — an approach quite different from that used by the U.S. Supreme Court in interpreting the Second Amendment, or by other states’ courts interpreting those states’ […]
Remote gun detectors
A few weeks ago, the New York Times reported that the NY Police Department was working with the Department of Defense on a remote firearms detector. According to the article, the detectors are presently effective at a 3 to 5 meter range at finding guns that are being carried concealed. The objective is to improve […]
Interesting Discussion of Arrest for Open Carry in a Seventh Circuit Opinion
I’m on the run now, so can’t analyze it in detail, but I thought I’d pass it along: Gonzalez v. City of West Milwaukee (7th Cir. Feb. 2, 2012). Thanks to John Tuffnell for the pointer.
A Second Amendment-ish Victory for People Who Had Been Temporarily Committed to Mental Institutions with No Adversary Proceedings
In today’s United States v. Rehlander (1st Cir. Jan. 13, 2012), the First Circuit revisited and narrowed its precedents related to 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(4) — the statute that bars gun possession by people who had at some point been “committed to a mental institution” — in light of the Second Amendment: Benjamin Small and […]
Felon Steals Gun, Accidentally Kills Himself, Estate Sues Owner and Gun Manufacturer
But I’m happy to say that today’s Ryan v. Hughes-Ortiz (Mass. App. Ct. Jan. 6, 2012) throws out the lawsuit: In November, 2001, [Charles] Milot was released on probation from the Billerica house of correction after an incarceration of about eighteen months. [Thomas] Hughes testified in his deposition that he helped Milot to get reestablished […]
The Rights of Housemates of People Barred from Possessing Guns
Apropos the United States v. Huet discussion, let me ask a broader question. People generally have a Second Amendment right, the Court has held, to have guns in their homes. Most of us could keep a handgun in our nightstands, for instance, setting aside special questions about laws requiring locked storage of guns when children […]
The Second Amendment and Housemates of Felons
Yesterday’s United States v. Huet (3d Cir.) reverses a district court indictment dismissal that I blogged about a year ago (some line breaks added): Although [Melissa] Huet is legally permitted to possess a firearm, [her housemate and boyfriend Marvin] Hall was convicted in 1999 of possessing an unregistered firearm, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § […]
Are people with concealed handgun carry permits a menace to society?
According to the New York Times, the answer seems to be “yes.” An article in yesterday’s Times by Michael Luo collects some anecdotes about misbehavior by a few licensees in North Carolina. The Times article has some numbers in it, and it provides the number of North Carolinians with carry permits (240,000). After a thorough […]
Factual Errors Tangential to an Article’s Main Thesis
The author’s reply to my A Cautionary Note for Readers of “The People” of the Second Amendment: Citizenship and the Right To Bear Arms, 85 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 1521 (2010) raises an interesting point that I thought worth elaborating on. The reply does take issue with my description of the original article’s claims: “[N]othing in […]
Laws about gun ownership in early America
By David Kopel on December 9, 2011 2:23 am in Constitutional History, Election Law, Guns, History, Militia, Political Ignorance, Religion and the Law, Right to carry
Regarding Eugene Volokh’s post below about an NYU L. Rev. article, “The People” of the Second Amendment: Citizenship and the Right To Bear Arms. I just scanned the article, and there appears to be only a single footnote which directly cites any state statutes from before 1800. Note 125, accurately cites standard statutory compilations from […]
A Cautionary Note for Readers of “The People” of the Second Amendment: Citizenship and the Right To Bear Arms, 85 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 1521 (2010)
I’ve just published this article at the Legal Workshop, the online site run by the NYU Law Review and several other journals; the author of the article to which I responding published a gracious reply to my piece. Here’s the opening of my article, plus a few items from the rest of the piece (which […]
How the British Gun Control Program Precipitated the American Revolution
That’s the title of my new law review article, currently in the editing process at the Charleston Law Review. A draft is available at SSRN, and comments are welcome. The final part of the article suggests how the history might inform our modern understanding of Second Amendment rights.
Amicus Brief in the Michigan Second Amendment Stun Gun Case
Michael Smith and I have just filed an amicus brief that I drafted for Arming Women Against Rape & Endangerment (AWARE) in the Michigan Second Amendment stun gun case, People v. Yanna. As I noted in April, a Michigan trial court had struck down the Michigan stun gun ban on Second Amendment grounds; the case […]