How Magazine Bans Thwart Self-Defense
Originally published on Reason.com Proponents of bans on standard firearms magazines claim that the bans do not affect lawful self-defense, and do impair mass shooters. Supposedly, victims will be able to escape or fight back during the “critical pause” when a mass shooter is swapping magazines. The claims are not plausible, as explained in an amicus […]
Law Enforcement Officers Are Part of “the People”, Not Above Them
Originally published on Reason.com Two weeks ago, I filed an amicus brief in U.S. District Court in Colorado, in Gates v. Polis, a case challenging the Colorado legislature’s 2013 ban on magazines over 15 rounds. The brief was on behalf of Sheriffs and law enforcement training organizations: the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association, the […]
The Legal History of Bans on Firearms and Bowie Knives before 1900
Originally published on Reason.com Bowie knives are back in constitutional law news these days, after a very long absence. The U.S. Supreme Court’s Bruen decision instructs lower courts to look to U.S. legal history to see what sorts of restrictions on Second Amendment rights are consistent with the mainstream American legal tradition. According to the Court, […]
Preliminary Injunction Against New York Bans on Licensed Carry
Originally published on Reason.com Today U.S. District Judge Glenn T. Suddaby issued a preliminary injunction against many portions of New York’s recently enacted “Concealed Carry Improvement Act.” The act had been passed shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which upheld the Second Amendment right to […]
Amnesty International Brief Against Right To Bear Arms
Originally published on Reason.com As the U.S. Supreme Court considers whether to enforce the Second Amendment right to “bear arms” in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, an amicus brief from Amnesty International argues that doing so would violate international law. In this post, I’ll examine the arguments in the AI brief. Back in […]
Ninth Circuit Holds There Is No Right To Bear Arms Outside the Home
Originally published on Reason.com The en banc Ninth Circuit last week held that the Second Amendment does not extend to open public firearm carriage. The new in Young v. State of Hawaii complements the Circuit’s en banc from five years earlier, Peruta v. San Diego, which held that concealed carry is outside the Second Amendment. According to the Ninth […]
Do Some Courts Underenforce the Second Amendment?
Originally published on Reason.com This Fall, the Duke Law Journal held a symposium Heller at Ten: A Symposium on From Theory to Doctrine. All of the articles are, at least partially, responses to an article Eric Ruben and Joseph Blocher that analyzed data for all post-Heller cases, from 2008 until early 2016. From Theory to Doctrine: […]
The 1986 Plastic Gun Panic
Originally published on Reason.com Have you heard about the “undetectable plastic gun”? The gun control lobbies call it is “tailor-made for terrorism.” The Washington Post reports that a state sponsor of terrorism is already attempting to obtain these guns. A Post columnist warns that the police “vehemently oppose the introduction of plastic guns into our armed […]
Gun ban for young adults would be wholly unconstitutional
Besides violating the laws of some states and cities, firearms bans for young adults also violate the Constitution. In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the Supreme Court reiterated that “[c]onstitutional rights are enshrined with the scope they were understood to have when the people adopted them.” When the Second Amendment was adopted, there were no firearms restrictions on 18-to-20-year-olds, and they were included in every militia across the country.
The First “Assault Weapon”: Banning Guns Based on “Style” Rather than Function
Originally published on Reason.com When five schoolchildren were murdered at an elementary school in Stockton, California, in January 1989, the public learned a new phrase: “assault weapon.” To most gun owners and non-owners alike, it was a brand new term. It was also confusing. Whenever “assault weapon” laws have been enacted, they apply to guns that […]
Moore v. Madigan, Key Points
Originally published on Volokh.com Judge Posner’s opinion for a 2-1 panel of the 7th Circuit. Illinois is the only state which forbids gun carrying in public as a matter of law. There is no provision for the issuance of licenses for concealed carry, or for open carry. Both are banned. There are some exceptions for particular […]
Could President Perry Carry a Gun?
Originally published on Volokh.com 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 […]
