There was a small snow storm up here this week. Everything is back to normal.
Later today there is going to be oral arguments in Koons v. Reynolds. Finding the transcripts has proven difficult and listening to oral arguments drives me bonkers.
We are waiting on a number of cases as well. There is the case down in the Eleventh Circuit Court where the three judge panel decided that Bruen be damned, they were going to find laws justifying today’s infringements. There are the CCIA cases in New York that will be heard by the Second Circuit court soon.
All in all there are a lot of moving parts.
One of our readers asked “Why do you spend all this time on legal cases?” to paraphrase. I had to think on that a bit.
Just before I headed off to University I was thinking about buying a gun. I didn’t really have the money but I was thinking about it. I really wanted to buy an M-16. They weren’t that expensive and they were cool.
At University I spent my money on music (CD Collection) and stereo equipment, books and education. I collected knives but couldn’t justify buying a gun because I couldn’t carry it. Heck, most of the knives I carried on campus were illegal but…
I graduated, had a kid, thought about that M-16 and suddenly that was gone. In the blink of an eye the cost of an M-16 went through the window with the Hughes Amendment. For those that don’t know, the Hughes Amendment was a poison pill added to the Firearm Owners Protection Act. The FOPA was designed to reign in the ATF and to allow citizens to transport weapons through gun unfriendly states without being harassed or charged.
The Hughes Amendment closed the NFA list to new machine guns.
In that blink of an eye my options changed. I slowly started to see and understand how stupid gun control laws were. When my mentor died his father took ownership of his AR-15. I had to explain to him that he had to unload all the magazines to meet Maryland law regarding “unloaded firearms”
Before my mentor died we had testified in the state legislature against gun infringements. We found that our rights were being eroded.
When I started writing for GFZ I was finding articles and writing opinion pieces based on what those articles said. I tried to find primary sources but most of the time they were missing. As I wrote more I got better at finding the references and reading the references.
At this point I have an acceptable grasp of how to get case documents, not always, but most of the time.
My goal when I write about these cases is for you to see how the fight is fought in court. How the state twists things to get the infringements they want. I also want you to be able to get to the primary sources quickly and easily. That’s why I attempt to cite everything I quote.
I hope my efforts are successful.
One of my biggest thrills on the blog to date was when some lawyer group liked one of my legal analysis articles. I wish that they would fire off an email or start commenting in general. I’d love to have actual lawyer feedback on some of the things I’ve written, I have no real feedback if I’m getting this stuff “right”.
Question of the week, if you are interested in gun rights, how did you get there?
“Normal “ is a cycle on a washing machine…
I grew up in a gun friendly home. Reading nra magazines all thru school and listening to idiots bray “guns are bad” made me more determined to not put up with gun control. Common sense was being eroded all thru the 70s and 80s. Today its even worse. liberals will never change. We the People have 25 states that are free.
I have engaged my representatives numerous times. I’m 1000% jaded. They don’t give a fuck. Called and emailed them. Mostly get caned responses, never further engagement past one response. Went to testify against PA13-3 the post sandy hook awb in ct. The line of people to enter was wrapped around the block at 9am. Didn’t bother testifying, it was coveted. 13 hours of testimony (I watched every minute of it), 90% against and 10% for the new awb (and that is being genrous to the pro awb side). Didn’t matter, passing the act was a foregone conclusion, the legislatures mind was made up for what was politically expedient and our supreme court found it lawful even though ct has an even more strongly worded right to bear arms in our constituon (were the constitution state too if you didn’t know, ironic huh?). The contempt was real, beth bye, an anti gun representative (iirc senator), was famously photographed on Facebook on her phone during the testimoney.
How did I get interested in gun rights?
.
First, from a morals-and-ethics standpoint. Then, as I learned more, incredulousness over the stupidity of most gun laws. That evolved to stubbornness (as by this time I found I like both shooting and working on guns, and wanted to keep doing both) and outrage over the gall and presumptuousness of most would-be banners.
My experience led me to this subject. I started in MA. (Where everything is illegal) learning gun laws, first in the Cape Cod region then in the western Berkshire region. Then after moving to up state NY, PA, NH, VT and finally Fl. I learned the differences each state had with Gun Laws. And while living in those states over the years, I had three unfortunate occasions where felons with guns brought them to bear on my life, which I was lucky as hell to not become a victim of those shootings. So, for me it started as a curiosity, then later became a necessity. And sadly, one day a close friend suffered what I was lucky enough to not experience. So, it became a passion after that to learn gun and self-defense laws in the states I had experiences in. Today the educational process continues, again because of necessity for me and all I come into contact with. This blog serves as one of several essential assets in that educational endeavor.
Like David, I was in MA when I decided that force could be justified in self-defense*. Firearms are the most effective tool when all else fails. The Commonweal had (and still does have) different views, such as you shouldn’t be able to use those tools.
I did my best to [attempt] to stay within the rules [insert casual whistling here].
I finally escaped to NH.
(* See “The Incident” 1967)