District Court Permanently Enjoins California Magazine Confiscation Law
Originally published on Reason.com California’s statute to confiscate all magazines over 10 rounds has been permanently enjoined by the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. The opinion was written by Judge Roger T. Benitez. Previously, Judge Benitez had issued a preliminary injunction against the confiscation law, and the preliminary injunction was upheld […]
Supreme Court Should Clarify Second Amendment Test
Originally published on Reason.com Today I filed an amicus brief in support of the cert. petition in Mance v. Whitaker. The case is a challenge to the federal ban on interstate handgun sales. But more importantly, it is a good vehicle for the Court to clarify how lower courts should review Second Amendment challenges. Background: In […]
Ninth Circuit Strikes Hawaii Law That Only Security Guards May Get Handgun Carry Permits
Originally published on Reason.com Today a 2-1 Ninth Circuit panel held that Hawaii’s near-total prohibition on the carrying of handguns for lawful self-defense violates the Second Amendment right to bear arms. Under binding precedent from a previous case, Peruta v. San Diego (Peruta II), concealed carry is not a Second Amendment right. However, Hawaii requires a […]
Ninth Circuit Upholds Preliminary Injunction Against Magazine Confiscation in California
Originally published on Reason.com Today the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal district count injunction against a California law to confiscate firearms magazines that hold over 10 rounds. The Ninth Circuit’s 2-1 opinion is here, and the dissent is here. My analysis of the 2017 district court opinion is here. Background: In 2016, California […]
US Government Drops Prohibition on Files for 3D Printed Arms
Originally published on Reason.com Last week the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of State settled a lawsuit and agreed to end their prior restraint of distribution of computer files for the production of 3D printed firearms. The “International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR)” are a collection of regulations covering the export of military weapons […]
Judge Kavanaugh and the Second Amendment
Originally published on Reason.com No nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court has had such a detailed record on Second Amendment as does Brett Kavanaugh. His 2011 dissenting opinion in the case known as Heller II was consistent with his long-standing adherence to text, history, tradition, and Supreme Court precedent. Background: In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court […]
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 […]
Firearms Laws of Vietnam
Vietnam has one of the strictest gun laws in the world. The policy reflects the cultural and historical influences that have shaped the nation. Little has been written on Vietnamese gun control, in part because of the inaccessibility and loss of documents as a result of the country’s violent history. This Issue Paper provides an overview of the history of firearm laws in Vietnam and a translation of the current laws. Part I surveys arms laws in Vietnam from 1427 to the present. Part II provides an English translation of the current law, which was issued in 2011. Part III is the Vietnamese text of that law.
The assault weapon attack on math
There’s no better example of the media’s ability to emotionally bait an issue out of all mathematical proportion than that of “assault rifles.”
What if there were serious gun controls?
After the Las Vegas murders, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) urged Congress to “take a stand against gun violence by passing common-sense gun safety laws.” On Monday, after the mass murder in Texas, he wrote, “A simple idea: Anyone convicted of domestic abuse should see their rights under the 2nd Amendment severely curtailed.” On Tuesday, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) announced that he and Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) are writing a bill “to prevent anyone convicted of domestic violence — be it in criminal or military court — from buying a gun.
The racist origin of gun control laws
by Dave Kopel and Joseph Greenlee Guns have historically protected Americans from white supremacists, just as gun control has historically protected white supremacists from the Americans they terrorize. One month after the Confederate surrender in 1865, Frederick Douglass urged federal action to stop state and local infringement of the right to arms. Until this was […]
2017 is shaping up to be another winning year for gun owners
So far this year, thirteen state legislatures have enacted laws to strengthen the right to keep and bear arms, and none have passed new gun control laws. In every year this century, pro-gun laws have outnumbered anti-gun laws, but this year’s score is particularly lopsided.
