For those of who have been waiting for an English translation of Russia’s arms statutes, your wait is over. Independence Institute intern Margot van Loon is the author of the new Issue Paper, Weapons Laws of the Russian Federation. Here is a synopsis: No permission or registration is needed to purchase and carry chemical defense […]
Archive | Right to carry
The Great Gun Control War of the 20th Century — And its Lessons for Gun Laws Today
By David Kopel on May 31, 2012 2:37 pm in Constitutional History, Constitutional Law, Fourteenth Amendment, Guns, History, McDonald v. City of Chicago, Politics, Popular Constitutionalism, Registration, Right to carry, Supreme Court
This is the subject of my article in a forthcoming symposium issue of the Fordham Urban Law Journal. The article details the political, cultural, social, and legal battles over gun control from the 1920s to the early 21st century. Here’s the abstract: A movement to ban handguns began in the 1920s in the Northeast, led […]
New textbook: Firearms Law and the Second Amendment: Regulation, Rights and Policy
By David Kopel on May 15, 2012 4:32 pm in Casebooks, Guns, McDonald v. City of Chicago, Militia, Non-Firearms Arms, Registration, Right to carry
The first law school textbook on the Second Amendment is now available from Aspen Publishers. The co-author are Nick Johnson (Fordham), Michael O’Shea (Oklahoma City), George Mocsary (Connecticut), and me. Here’s the publisher’s page for the textbook, from which professors can request a free review copy. The book is also available for civilian purchase from […]
Right to carry victory in Maryland: Woollard v. Sheridan
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Could President Perry carry a gun?
Chris Moody attempts to analyze the issue for The Ticket. The analysis could have been improved by reading the laws of the District of Columbia. Moody describes D.C. as “a city that bans carrying firearms.” That’s not exactly correct. The D.C. Code generally prohibits carrying a firearm “without a license issued pursuant to District of […]