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 […]
Preview of Supreme Court Bump Stock Case
Originally published on Reason.com Tomorrow, February 28, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Garland v. Cargill; the case challenges the administrative prohibition on bump stocks imposed by the Trump and Biden administrations, via interpretation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE). The Supreme Court docket is here. I co-authored 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 […]
Protecting Law-abiding Firearms Businesses from Abusive Lawsuits
In the late 1990s, a gun prohibition organization adopted a strategy previously used by Jim Crow government officials against the free press: filing abusive lawsuits designed to cripple the businesses through the sheer cost of litigation against meritless claims. In response, most states, Colorado included, enacted legislation against such misuse of the judicial process. Eventually, […]
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 […]
Fourth Circuit Amicus Brief on Maryland Handgun Licensing Law
Originally published on Reason.com Today Joseph Greenlee and I filed an amicus brief in the Fourth Circuit case Maryland Shall Issue v. Hogan. Our brief is on behalf of the Firearms Policy Coalition Action Foundation (where he works) and Independence Institute (the Denver think tank where I work). The case had previously appeared in the Fourth […]
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 […]
Defund the Police
“Defund the police” is not the slogan of people who sincerely believe that black lives matter. Rather, “defund the police” is the program of communists who want to establish a totalitarian police state. In the last year, they have made much progress towards their goal. As lawful, constitutional policing in the United States is defunded […]
Magazine Confiscation Splits Third and Ninth Circuits
Originally published on Reason.com California and New Jersey have enacted laws to confiscate firearms magazines holding more than 10 rounds. On Aug. 14, a 2-1 panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled California’s confiscation unconstitutional, in Duncan v. Becerra. The Third Circuit, Sept. 1, upheld by 2-1 confiscation in New Jersey in Association of New Jersey Rifle […]
Magazines over 10 Rounds Were Well-Known to the Founders
Originally published on Reason.com Did the Framers of the Second Amendment consider the possibility that Americans might own firearms with a capacity greater than 10 rounds? Certainly yes. Such arms had been invented two centuries before the Second Amendment, and by 1791, repeating arms, including those capable of firing more than 10 rounds, were well-known in […]
Magazines Over 10 Rounds Were Well-Known to the Founders
Originally published on Reason.com Did the Framers of the Second Amendment consider the possibility that Americans might own firearms with a capacity greater than 10 rounds? Certainly yes. Such arms had been invented two centuries before the Second Amendment, and by 1791, repeating arms, including those capable of firing more than 10 rounds, were well-known in […]
