Arms and the Law

Four FFLs and the Calgun Foundation have challenged a provision of California gun laws -- on a First Amendment basis.

The law in question forbids a dealer to advertise handguns with a sign visible from outside the store, or to display the word "handgun." I believe it derives from the ancient Uniform Firearms Act. The case sounds like a winner; business speech can have some controls not allowed in non-business speech, but outlawing truthful speech is a problem even there.

Speaking of litigation, the NYSRA & NRA suit against the NY SAFE act is set for oral argument on December 8.

Right here, from the Crime Prevention Research Center.

"Everytown's recent analysis of mass shootings is riddled with errors. Mistakes are made on the number of mass shootings as well as the extension of mental illness, the killers' ages, and even where the attack occurred."

Johnson v. United States. Issue is whether possession of an unregistered short barreled shotgun qualifies as a crime of violence under the ACCA. I'd say the government is going to lose this one. I don't know the defendant's attorney, Katherine M. Menendez, Fed. Public Defender, but she did a really first-rate job of arguing her case.

I'm on the plane, coming back home. It was a nice event, the students very polite and courteous (this is not always a trait of law students!). A few interesting points: the Common Cause speaker went on a theme of "NRA uses its money to buy elections." I pointed out that the money comes predominantly from members' dues and contributions, so this is five million Americans' money being used to affect politics, hard to say what's wrong with that. In the course of making that point, I said it's millions of people chipping in their annual dues of $35, or whatever it may now be... and two female students added "yes, it's still $35." Another student later shared with me his experiences in gun collecting.

I got to shake hands with Mrs. Thurgood Marshall, who was attending. I'd seen her late husband speak at U of Ariz. years ago; he struck me as one Justice with an active sense of humor.

The event was named for civil rights attorney Wiley Branton; one of hsi family members was there and mentioned that he carried guns during his "time in the trenches."

Story here. I gather that NYC outlaws carrying knives with blades 4" or longer, and also any lock back knife that can be opened by flipping. In this case they arrested someone for carrying a knife that had no lock, and which could only be flipped open if its blade was first half-unfolded. NYC eventually dropped charges, and the owner sued and won.

Via Instapundit, who makes a good suggestion: next time go for an injunction as well as damages.

64,000 pages, albeit with redactions.

In Washington, an anti-gun group runs a TV ad that attacks the online auction website, and the operator hits back.

N.C. State Fair declares itself a "gun free zone;" three fairgoers are robbed at gunpoint.

Yet another case of academic BS. The pic was posted to his Facebook page, not on any school (electronic) property or site. The sanction is supposedly because he "caused disruption."

Instapundit is right: it's getting to where sending your kids to public school is a form of child abuse. In this case, I'd think the academic supervisors need training course in the First Amendment.

It's to be held on Thursday, Nov. 6, at their law school (2900 Van Ness Street, NW, Washington DC 20008 -- the law school is not part of their main campus). Dave Kopel and I will speak, against an Orkish horde. Webpage here.

Woman draws gun on neighbor, holds him, after she discovers him raping her pit bull, he announces that ISIS sent him to do the deed, and tells her that she will die the moment she kills him.

Understatement of the year: "Woodruff said the man appeared mentally ill..."

A while back I posted on MSNBC's poppycock claim that NRA was somehow responsible for Ebola's menace, since NRA had blocked the nomination of an anti-gun Surgeon General and that somehow impaired our response.

SAR, Illinois Carry, and Illinois State Rifle and Pistol have filed Culp v. Madigan (C. D. Ill.), challenging a feature of the new handgun carry permit system, adopted in the wake of prior legal challenges. The new system, for reasons that seem hard to understand, says that nonresidents can only apply for a carry permit if their own State has a handgun carry permit system substantially identical to that of Illinois.

The suit should be a winner. It's hard even to understand how that limitation got in there. I can only guess that someone knew that carry permit systems often have reciprocity and that these provisions commonly limit recognition to permits issued by States with similar standards, or standards at least as strict as those of the State being asked to recognize them. But the provision here isn't a matter of reciprocity, but of which nonresidents can get an Illinois permit.

Judicial Watch has filed a Freedom of Info lawsuit regarding ATF's operation "Fast and Furious," which ran guns to Mexican drug cartels.

The DoJ just asserted executive privilege as a reason for withholding communications to and from Mrs. Eric Holder.

Extraordinary. The spouse of a government employee is not a member of the executive branch, she's a member of the general public.

Gunman storms the Canadian Parliament building -- and finds the Master at Arms is indeed armed. Nice shooting. The only thing that stopped a bad guy with a gun was a good guy with a gun.

Story here. Sounds like the statute allows for recovery of attorney's fees, which would be an important addition.

The Court just granted cert. in Henderson v. U.S.. The issue: can a person who is convicted of a felony, and has firearms seized (because of his status as a felon, not because the guns were used in an offense), deal with it by selling them to another party, who does not have a felony record?

There's a recent law review article on just that topic.

Symposium issue here. Very interesting articles. George Mocsary on requiring insurance as a condition of gun ownership, Clayton Cramer on mental illness and the 2A, Michael O'Shea on slippery slope and background checks, myself on standard of review Josh Blackman and Shelby Baird on the "Shooting cycle" -- mass killings and media coverage lead to support for gun restrictions, but the support soon fades away.

Also of course some antis.

Robbers hit credit union, are departing with a sack of cash when an incoming customer opens fire and kills one. This is Arizona. When it comes to concealed carry, we don' need no steenking permits.

"South Carolina Prosecutors Say Stand Your Ground Doesn't Apply To Victims Of Domestic Violence." Sounds like the argument is a variant of "the statute on its face says this, but we can't believe the legislature meant this to happen." Amusing to see prosecutors arguing that. It's usually argued by defense counsel, when the prosecutor comes up with a theory that the statute, if applied very literally, would turn a jaywalking charge into a ten year felony sentence.