That’s the news today from the Ninth Circuit. For more decisions in this case, see here; for more on the panel decision that is now going to be reconsidered en banc (and my views on the decision), see this post. Thanks to Gene Hoffman for the pointer.
Archive | Guns
House passes interstate handgun carry reciprocity
By a vote of 272 to 154. (The vote on the motion to recommit was 161 to 263). On the final vote, 44 Democrats voted in favor, and 7 Republicans voted against. H.R. 822 now goes to the Senate. In the previous Congress, a broader bill on interstate carry was narrowly defeated by a filibuster […]
Felons and the Right to Bear Arms [UPDATE: Added Information on Another Such Case Decided by the Same Panel]
Yesterday’s Baysden v. State (N.C. Ct. App. Nov. 15, 2011) (2-1) holds that North Carolina’s ban on possession of guns by a felon violates the North Carolina Constitution’s right to bear arms provision as to someone with two over-30-year-old nonviolent felony convictions. This follows Britt v. State (N.C. 2009), which held the same on similar […]
Second Amendment Protects Felon Whose Convictions Were 30 Years Ago
So held a North Carolina trial court in Johnston v. State (Oct. 24, 2011). Richard Johnston had been convicted of “felonious receipt of stolen property and conspiracy to commit grand larceny” in 1978, and pled no contest “to fraudulent setting fire, conspiracy, false statement to procure, and conspiracy to receive, receiving, conspiracy to commit larceny […]
Second Amendment / Equal Protection Clause Victory for Legal Alien Gun Owners
A pre-2009 Washington state law, under which Yasin Ibrahim was convicted, required aliens to get a license . (A new statute sets up a different licensing scheme for alien gun owners, but that statute wasn’t involved in this case.) Ibrahim was prosecuted under the old law, for having an unlicensed gun. Today’s State v. Ibrahim […]
Appellate Judges Education Institute Annual Summit, for Appellate Lawyers as Well as for Judges
I’ll be on a The Second Amendment in the Courts After Heller and McDonald panel Nov. 12, 2011 at the Appellate Judges Education Institute Summit in Washington, D.C. The conference (cohosted by the ABA Judicial Division Appellate Judges Conference and SMU School of Law) generally sounds very interesting, and is open to lawyers as well […]
Arizona Sheriffs call for special prosecutor in Fast & Furious
Ten of Arizona’s 15 county sheriffs, including Democrats and Republicans, have called for the appointment of a federal special prosecutor in the Fast & Furious scandal.
A quarter century of civil rights progress: Spread of the right to carry
An excellent graph at No Lawyers, Only Guns and Money, shows the story. We’ve come a long way, baby. And there’s still a long way to go. In Illinois, the right to carry is completely forbidden by law. In eight other states, handgun carry licensing laws are highly arbitrary. With a few exceptions (e.g., upstate […]
Heller Loses Round Two
Today the U.S Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit released a divided opinion in Heller v. D.C. . In this case, Dick Heller (of the Supreme Court’s Heller decision) is challenging the Firearms Registration Amendment Act of 2008 (FRA), a statute adopted by the District of Columbia in response to the Supreme Court’s decision […]
Crime plummets in Chicago and DC after handguns re-legalized
So explains John Lott, in an opinion column for Foxnews.com. Not a surprising result. The McDonald v. Chicago amicus brief I wrote for the International Law Enforcements Educators & Trainers Association (and other law enforcement organizations, and criminologists) showed that after Chicago enacted its handgun ban, its violent crime rate rose sharply. Pre-ban, Chicago had […]
Right to bear arms lawsuit in Illinois: Professors’ amicus brief
Currently before the Illinois Supreme Court is People v. Aguilar, which raises the question of whether Illinois can, consistently with the Second Amendment, prohibit the carrying of firearms for lawful self-defense in public places. Illinois is the only state with such a blanket prohibition. Illinois state law bans open and concealed carry, and has no procedure […]
New law school textbook on the Second Amendment and firearms regulation
Very early next year–in time for 2d semester classes in the 2011-12 academic year–Aspen Publishers will publish the first law school textbook on the the Second Amendment. The title is Firearms Law and the Second Amendment: Regulation, Rights, and Policy. The co-authors are Nicholas Johnson (Fordham), Michael O’Shea (Oklahoma City), George Mocsary (Connecticut), and me. […]
Felons’ Right to Keep and Bear Arms in Colorado
Yesterday’s People v. Dewitt (Colo. Ct. App.) illustrates a very different approach to the right to keep and bear arms under the Colorado Constitution than has been used under the U.S. Constitution (and other state constitutions): On the morning of September 18, 2009, defendant walked from his apartment to a nearby King Soopers to buy […]
The Second Amendment and Illegal Aliens — a Rare Decision That’s Other Than a Total Defeat
The case is United States v. Guerrero-Leco (4th Cir. Sept. 15): Daniel Guerrero-Leco, an alien illegally in the United States, pled guilty to possessing a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(5), and the district court sentenced him to a 24-month term of imprisonment. Before pleading guilty, Guerrero-Leco unsuccessfully moved to dismiss the indictment, […]
Congressional hearing on interstate handgun carry reciprocity
By David Kopel on September 14, 2011 10:21 pm in Congress, Federalism, Fourteenth Amendment, Guns, McDonald v. City of Chicago, Right to carry
On Tuesday I testified before the U.S. House subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, regarding H.R. 822, which would set up a national system of interstate reciprocity for concealed handgun carry permits. My 24-page written testimony is here. The video of the subcommittee hearing is about and hour and 45 minutes. Nearly all members […]