[UPDATE: Yow! Reader Gene Hoffman points out that the post below is from last year and not this one; very sorry I missed this — how embarrassing.] From the KCRA TV site: Faced with the potential loss of 300 deputies due to budget cuts, the Sacramento County sheriff may consider issuing more concealed weapons permits…. […]
Archive | Guns
Louis Brandeis comments on the right of self-defense
From Leonard Baker, Brandeis and Frankfurter: A Dual Biography (1984), p. 341. On June 18, 1930, Justice Brandeis (who was the best-known Zionist in the United States) met with the U.K.’s Ambassador to the United States, Sir Ronald Lindsay: Brandeis told Sir Ronald “that it was wholly contrary to any conception of civil rights with which […]
Iowa Federal Court Finds Sheriff Denied Concealed Carry Because of Applicant’s Political Activity, Orders Sheriff to Take a First Amendment Class
The case is Dorr v. Weber, decided yesterday (some citations omitted); the court ordered the sheriff to grant the permit, but also wrote: Paul [Dorr] was denied a permit precisely because Sheriff Weber believed that his free speech rights offended the majority of voters in Osceola County…. In denying Paul a concealed weapons permit, Sheriff […]
Suit against the new Chicago anti-gun laws
Available here. See paragraphs 19-28 for description of which parts of Chicago’s legal regime are being challenged. The National Rifle Association is helping with the funding of the case, but is not a party. Lead attorney is Charles Cooper, so it is certain that the presentation of the plaintiffs’ arguments will be outstanding.
The Battle Cry of Freedom
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ffBXm7kJkk[/youtube] A wonderful song at all times, and especially around Independence Day, especially this year. “The Battle Cry of Freedom” was written during the Civil War, and sung by Union troops going into battle. This video pays tribute to Ulysses Grant, the General most responsible for winning the war for the Union. Elected President of […]
Gun License Fees and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms for Self-Defense
After McDonald, and the newly enacted Chicago handgun ordinance, people are again turning to whether and when gun license fees are unconstitutional. I’ve heard some argue that under existing constitutional rules applicable to other rights — especially the First Amendment — any fee for the exercise of a constitutional right is per se unconstitutional. But […]
Jackson County (Wisconsin) District Attorney Takes Broad View of the Second Amendment
From his press release: Yesterday, in a resounding victory for all freedom-loving Americans, the United States Supreme Court confirmed that the Second Amendment’s protection of our right to keep and bear arms applies everywhere in America, and serves as a rampart against state infringement of this fundamental individual liberty. In its ruling, the Court declared […]
The Limits of the Federal Law Letting You Travel With a Locked, Unloaded Gun
18 U.S.C. § 926A — part of the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act — provides (subsection lettering added), Notwithstanding any other provision of any law or any rule or regulation of a State or any political subdivision thereof, (a) any person who is not otherwise prohibited by this chapter [18 U.S.C.S. §§ 921 et seq.] from […]
My oral testimony on the Kagan nomination
Here, starting at 41:09. The next witnesses, William Olson, also testified on Second Amendment issues. After that, the three Senators at the hearing (Schumer, Sessions, and Hatch) asked questions to some of the witnesses, including Olson and me.
Federalist 46
By David Kopel on June 30, 2010 5:19 pm in Constitutional History, Federalism, Guns, History, Originalism
“The Influence of the State and Federal Governments Compared,” from the New York Packet, by James Madison. My essay thereon is here, at Constituting America’s series on The Federalist. Bottom line: even taking into account the many changes over the last two and quarter centuries, Madison was generally right.
Written testimony on Kagan nomination
Available here. Co-authored with Stephen Halbrook. The oral testimony will be late July 1 or early July 2.
The Sotomayor switcheroo, and the Kagan nomination
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, by joining the Breyer dissent in McDonald which called for Heller to be over-ruled, contradicted what she had told the Senate last summer. I supply the details in an op-ed for the Washington Times. On Thursday (or perhaps, early on Friday), I will be testifying on the Kagan nomination. My written testimony will […]
“The ‘Silent Six’ States Worth Watching for Post-McDonald Second Amendment Litigation”
Prof. Doug Berman (Sentencing Law & Policy) has an interesting post on this, focusing on the six states that don’t have state constitutional right to keep and bear arms provisions. I would add to that list Massachusetts, which has a provision that has been interpreted as not securing an individual right, and Hawaii, which has […]
Constitutional Rights that Put Lives at Risk
In his dissent in McDonald, signed by three liberal justices, Justice Breyer argues that gun rights deserve little or no judicial protection at least in part because they put lives at risk: Unlike other forms of substantive liberty, the carrying of arms for that purpose [self-defense] often puts others’ lives at risk…. And the use […]
Predicting the Impact of McDonald
The Supreme Court has now incorporated the Second Amendment against the states. But the impact of that decision may turn out to be fairly limited. In most states, there will be little if any change in the actual extent of gun regulation. The ideologically divided nature of the Court’s decision suggests that the legal status […]