Month: May 2016

You do not always have to go to a gun store to purchase an AR-15. Surprised? I know I was when I first ventured into the hobby of building custom AR-15s. Some of you may not know, but building your own AR-15 is actually quite simple. However, if you do not know anything about the

The California State Senate passed a comprehensive series of new legislation aimed at curbing gun violence today, according to a press release from Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de León. The package of bills, which de León called “common sense,” is now en route to the Assembly, who will vote on the bills as well.

One of the judges on the list, David Stras, is on the Minnesota Supreme Court. He has stellar credentials, having clerked for Michael Luttig and Clarence Thomas. Prior to his appointment to the Minnesota court by Tim Pawlenty, he was of counsel to my law firm, but I didn’t know him in that capacity. Surprisingly,

SACRAMENTO (Reuters) – Two of the most powerful politicians in California are advancing the same basic gun control agenda – yet they are at loggerheads in a political duel that could preview an ugly race to replace the state’s popular Democratic governor, Jerry Brown. The spat among ambitious Democrats took a serious turn this week,

Hot off the e-press, from Tuesday morning’s Grace v. D.C.: Matthew Grace and the Pink Pistols (“the world’s largest GLBT self-defense organization,” with the motto “Pick On Someone Your Own Caliber”) have just won a preliminary injunction against D.C.’s provision that, to get a gun carry license, the applicant must show a “good reason to fear

One of the differences between moderate advocates of gun control and prohibitionists is in their attitudes toward self-defense. The former are willing to recognize that defensive arms in the right hands can be socially beneficial. The latter deny that firearms do in fact save lives. A good example is Katie Couric’s new TV special “Under

Eagles of Death Metal recently finished a Canadian tour and I got to sit down with vocalist Jesse Hughes and discuss the Bataclan attack in Paris that killed 89 of his fans. You’d think he’d want to avoid the topic, but he was actually eager to get into it. He sees it as a catharsis.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Monday that the right to bear arms has historically included the right to acquire them, and remanded the case of Teixeira v. County of Alameda to the lower court. Teixeira revolves around Alameda County zoning rules for incorporated areas that not only require a gun store owner to

May a county in effect bar all new gun stores in its unincorporated areas? (The incorporated areas would be governed by city zoning rules.) This morning’s U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit decision in Teixeira v. County of Alameda [Calif.] suggests that the answer is probably “no.” Here’s a rough summary of the reasoning

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit decision Monday in Teixeira v. County of Alameda vindicates the Second Amendment rights of gun stores and provides a good model of the Second Amendment doctrines that have been developed by the federal Circuit Courts of Appeals. Eugene Volokh’s post has summarized the decision, so I will delve into the