Second Amendment Update

A new lawsuit filed in Oregon will challenge a teacher's right to bring a concealed weapon to school. [MSNBC] This will be an interesting case that could test the limits of the second amendment. In the wake of school shootings, judges will likely be hesitant to allow weapons on school grounds, but we'll see how this turns out.

DC Circuit Strikes Down Gun Ban

The beer is flowing like wine at NRA HQ. From the AP:

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the city cannot prevent people from keeping handguns in their homes. The ruling also struck down a requirement that owners of registered firearms must keep them unloaded and disassembled. The court did not address provisions that prohibit people from carrying unregistered guns outside the home.

The court correctly declared that the Second Amendment's use of the words "the people" conferred an individual right to bear arms, and that the - an enormous triumph for freedom, and for the safety of the beleaguered citizens of our crime-ridden capital.

From the 2-1 opinion in Parker v. District of Columbia:

To summarize, we conclude that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. That right existed prior to the formation of the new government under the Constitution and was premised on the private use of arms for activities such as hunting and self-defense, the latter being understood as resistance to either private lawlessness or the depredations of a tyrannical government (or a threat from abroad). In addition, the right to keep and bear arms had the important and salutary civic purpose of helping to preserve the citizen militia. The civic purpose was also a political expedient for the Federalists in the First Congress as it served, in part, to placate their Antifederalist opponents. The individual right facilitated militia service by ensuring that citizens would not be barred from keeping the arms they would need when called forth for militia duty. Despite the importance of the Second Amendment's civic purpose, however, the activities it protects are not limited to militia service, nor is an individual's enjoyment of the right contingent upon his or her continued or intermittent enrollment in the militia.

More reaction from Volokh and the Cato Institute. (Cato assisted the plaintiffs in the case.)

My favorite, though, is the D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty's take:

"I am personally, deeply disappointed and quite frankly outraged... [This decision] flies in the face of laws that have helped decrease gun violence [in Washington, D.C.]"

Ah, yes. I can see why he might be outraged. That city has been sooooo safe since the ban went into effect in 1976. I mean, it's just a coincidence that the city with the strictest gun laws was also crowned the "Murder Capital" of the nation in the 1990s, right? Maybe we just should have just given the mayor a little more time to declare a few more "crime emergencies" - yeah, those seem to be doing the trick.

Not only is this a profound victory for individual liberty and the Constitution, but it's about time the criminals plaguing our nations capital no longer can safely assume their victims can't fight back. Good law and good policy - God bless conservative Constitutional law.

Bellevue’s Second Amendment Foundation, by way of ACLU, seeks injunction against Washington libraries

The ACLU has filed a complaint against the North Central Regional Library District (Chelan, Douglas, Ferry, Grant, and Okanogan Counties) on behalf of, among others, the Second Amendment Foundation. The complaint alleges the library district violates the First Amendment and Wash. Const. art. I, § 5 by refusing to remove filters for adults engaged in gun-related research. Specifically, the SAF is peeved that the website womenandguns.com is blocked.

Plaintiff Charles Heinlen is a fan of both women and guns. He complains the library district's policy has prevented him from accessing "various dating sites, publications such as Soldier of Fortune Magazine, [and] the Web log (or “blog”) that he maintains at www.myspace.com."

They want an injunction and, by my unrefined understanding, ought to get it--i.e., at least as to art. I, § 5 and presuming they've got their facts straight.

I’m reading the Volokh Conspiracy, it's true.

2nd Amendment Debate TODAY

Don't forget to join us tonight at 5:30 in room 138 for a debate on how much regulation is Constitutionally permissible.

Free drinks will be provided! It's right after the TGIT - plenty of reason to stick around.

Arguing that gun regulation and licensing should be treated much like we do with cars is our own Constitutional Law Professor Stewart Jay. And we are proud to welcome Mr. Don Kates, a pro-2nd Amendment criminologist, retired Constitutional and Criminal Law professor, civil right's lawyer, and proud member of the ACLU. It should be a very interesting and unique 2nd Amendment discussion, with a lot of nuance that is usually missing from this important issue.

Gun Rights Debate This Thursday

Now that you've sent a few rounds down range, join us this Thursday at 5:30 in room 138 for a debate on how much regulation is Constitutionally permissible.

Arguing that gun regulation and licensing should be treated much like we do with cars is our own Constitutional Law Professor Stewart Jay. And we are proud to welcome Mr. Don Kates, a pro-2nd Amendment criminologist, retired Constitutional and Criminal Law professor, civil right's lawyer, and proud member of the ACLU. It should be a very interesting and unique 2nd Amendment discussion, with a lot of nuance that is usually missing from this important issue.

Exercise Your 2nd Amendment Rights

The Military Law Association is sponsoring their annual trip to Wade's shooting range today. It's always a ton of fun. If you're interested, the safety brief/information session is in room 119 at 12:30. MLA members will be supervising the range, and helping those who are unfamiliar with how to shoot a gun.

If guns make you nervous, come learn about what they're really all about, and what they aren't. You may just find yourself walking out of there with an NRA brochure in your pocket...

Guns, "the people," & the ACLU's Shifting Legal Philosophy

I recently made a point a friend of mine associated with the ACLU that his organization picks and chooses the "rights" it wishes to protect, and ignores some parts of the Constitution altogether while imagining parts that it wishes were there but weren't. Specifically, I mentioned that they completely ignored the 2nd Amendment.

He responded with the ACLU's 2nd Amendment information page, and quoted their official philosophy on it:

"The ACLU agrees with the Supreme Court's long-standing interpretation of the Second Amendment [as set forth in the 1939 case, U.S. v. Miller] that the individual's right to bear arms applies only to the preservation or efficiency of a well-regulated militia. Except for lawful police and military purposes, the possession of weapons by individuals is not constitutionally protected. Therefore, there is no constitutional impediment to the regulation of firearms." --Policy #47

Here's the actual text of the Amendment:

"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." (emphasis added)

The page goes on to explain that because hand guns and hunting rifles could never be used to challenge the government with tanks and bazookas, the people should have no weapons at all. A strange stance coming from a group that no doubt imagines that a few thousand insurgents in Iraq with IEDs have already beaten the US Army there.

The thing that kills me is that this is one of the few Amendments to the Constitution the ACLU wants to restrict. (Unmentioned abortion is an absolute right that should never be taken away, but specifically mentioned gun ownership isn't? What what what?!?!)

I understand that it could be read in a more limited way. And I don't think that owning full military grade hardware up to and including nuclear weapons is protected, just as certain kinds of speech aren't protected. But the phrase "the people," along with the specifically enumerated authority elsewhere in the Constitution to raise armies and enforce the law, means that it meant (and means) something more than a provision enabling the government to do something it was already empowered to do.

The reason you bother to write out a Constitution is so that there is an unchanging (or at least difficult to change) baseline of inviolable rights that are secured for ourselves and "our Posterity." If the founders envisioned such rights to be subject to a veto by judicial fiat any time 5 justices thought "times had changed," then it would be called the Bill of Suggestions instead.