Of Arms and the Law

Results of Georgia bill allowing carry in restaurants that serve drinks

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:10:49 -0700

Over at the Atlanta Examiner, Ed Stone has thoughts on the first anniversary of HB 89, which allowed carrying in restaurants and on mass transit. He cites media predictions of mass drunken violence, "escalated gunfight with dozens of innocent Georgians paying the price," etc. ...

The one problem being that, as might be expected, so such thing has ever happened.

Is Nordyke's 2A/14A section holding or dictum?

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:20:32 -0700

Over at the Volokh Conspiracy, Prof. Volokh argues that Nordyke's finding that the 14th Amendment incorporates the 2nd Amendment is part of its holding, and not dictum.

BTW, postings have been slack because I'm still recovering from the operation. Had a complication, infection, that put me on my back for days, and now another -- a tube into me that came partially loose -- and this does tend to reduce blogging time!

DC v. Heller--a one year roundup

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:36:04 -0700

At Reason Hit and Run. To think it's only been one year...

Hat tip to Instapundit....

local media on Mexican gun problems

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 10:56:28 -0700

Story here. An all too typical piece, written in a few hours. There are gun shows, interview and quote some antigunners, make claims without proof (i.e., that four firearms are the weapons of choice), confuse full and semiauto, and publish.

Petition for cert. in 2nd Cir incorporation case

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:25:07 -0700

PDf is here.

Sandy Froman on Sonia Sotomayer

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:55:35 -0700

Her Townhall column is here.

Case with NFA list implications

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:21:38 -0700

Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, handed down today. Defendant charged with cocaine possession. To prove it was coke, State introduced a sworn lab report to that effect. Defendant's objections that this violated his right to be confronted with the witnesses against him was rejected. Supreme Court holds for defendant. The key evidence against him is a claim that the substance he had was cocaine: government must produce testimony from the lab that "accuses" him of that, not just put in a written report.

Might have some relevance as to the often-impeached ATF certification that an NFA gun is not on their list of registrations (although there might be an issue as to whether that list is treated as business records, and thus the certificate allowable).

Lautenburg proposes "terror watch list" to be disqualifier for guns

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:14:50 -0700

And Classical Values takes him apart.

Update: some data on that list. Ted Kennedy's name wound up on it; it took three weeks of personal appeals to get it off. "Kennedy said of "ordinary citizens": "How are they going to be able to get to be treated fairly and not have their rights abused?""

US district court splits the constitutional baby

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:48:42 -0700

Discussion here, over at the Volokh Conspiracy.

PA appeals court strikes down Philadelphia gun ordinance

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:11:43 -0700

Story here.

Fed subpoena online newspaper comments

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:19:41 -0700

Story here. A newspaper story on a tax prosecution drew some overwrought comments, and the prosecution team wants to know all about the commenters.

The prosecution is interesting -- I remember someone asking this question 30 years ago. If a person agrees to be paid thirty dollars -- but only via thirty rare silver dollars, each worth $1000 -- is his taxable income from that $30 or $30,000?

Results in SAF/Alan Gura suit against DC

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:14:51 -0700

SAF, rep'd by Alan Gura, sued DC in a followup action to challenge its post-Heller handgun regs. A recent SAF bulletin reports that DC has caved on one of the major provisions, i.e., adoption of the California list of "approved" handguns.

An interesting auction

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:44:24 -0700

It's for the revolver that police Capt. Timothy O'Neil used against Dillinger in Dillinger's last gunfight.

NY Times on incorporation

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:18:08 -0700

Article here. It's ... almost balanced. Of course the problem the MSM has is that while one can give a knee-jerk label of conservative to gun rights, the opposite label attaches to incorporation.

"Incorporation fell out of favor after the 1960s, but a new generation of largely liberal scholars of law and history have brought it back into the intellectual mainstream, said Akhil Reed Amar, a law professor at Yale University, who supports the process.

“The precedents are now supportive of incorporation of nearly every provision of the Bill of Rights,” Professor Amar said. “Now what’s odd is that the Second Amendment doesn’t apply to the states.”

Sanford Levinson, a law professor at the University of Texas, said he would be surprised if the Supreme Court accepted these gun cases, because some of the conservative justices on the court had scoffed at incorporation arguments in the past and might not want to set a precedent.

Professor Amar, however, argued that the justices would not only take up the case but would also ultimately vote for incorporation of the Second Amendment."

Anti-stabbing knife on sale in Britain

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:48:32 -0700

Story here. Its inventor "was inspired by a documentary in which doctors advocated banning traditional knives."

And to think these guys' fathers held off the Nazis....

Hat tip to reader Jim Kindred....