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A Win For Carry In The 9th Circuit

July 24, 2018 by 3 Comments

I know you are probably saying, “what the hell? The 9th Circuit?” It is true. Today the 9th Circuit issued its opinion in Young v. State of Hawaii. The 2-1 decision found that the Second Amendment does protect the right to openly carry a firearm in public for self-defense. You will remember in Peruta v. San Diego that the 9th Circuit ruling en banc said there was no constitutional right to carry concealed in public and that the Supreme Court refused to grant certiorari on appeal.

From Reuters:

The ruling issued by a three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, came a year after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to rule either way on the carrying of guns in public.

Two of the three 9th Circuit judges voted to reverse a decision by the U.S. District Court in Hawaii that state officials did not infringe on the rights of George Young, the plaintiff, in twice denying him a permit to carry a gun outside.

“We do not take lightly the problem of gun violence,” Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain wrote in Tuesday’s ruling. “But, for better or for worse, the Second Amendment does protect a right to carry a firearm in public for self-defense.”

 I would be extremely surprised if this decision does not go to an en banc hearing in the 9th Circuit.

I have not had time to read the whole decision but you can read it here.

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Tidbit From Judge Kavanaugh’s Questionnaire

July 23, 2018 by

All nominees for Federal judicial nominations submit answers to a standardized questionnaire from the Senate Judiciary Committee. The questionnaire has answers to questions regarding everything from date of birth and education to significant cases in which the nominee participated.

The questionnaire for Judge Brett Kavanaugh has been received by the Senate Judiciary Committee is now online. Scanning through it I found this tidbit. Question 13 (i) asks the nominee to provide citations to significant opinions that he or she authored on federal or state constitutional issues.

Number one on Judge Kavanaugh’s list is his dissent in Heller II (Heller v. District of Columbia, 670 F.3d 1244 (D.C. Circuit, 2011) (Kavanaugh, J., dissenting). These citations are not listed in chronological order which would seem to indicate that Judge Kavanaugh considers this dissent one of his most important opinions.

I like that and it speaks well to where he stands on the Second Amendment. It gives me hope that future Second Amendment cases might just get a hearing once Judge Kavanaugh becomes Justice Kavanaugh.

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What Wonderful Dissents In Mance V. Holder (now Sessions)

July 23, 2018 by 1 Comment

Mance et al v. Holder et al was a case brought in Texas that sought to overturn the Gun Control Act of 1968’s ban on the sale and immediate transfer by FFLs of handguns to out of state purchasers. It was a win at the District Court level when Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas ruled that part of the Gun Control Act unconstitutional.

Unfortunately, the government appealed their loss to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals and won in January. The plaintiffs including the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms appealed and sought an en banc review.  This was turned down in an 8-7 vote that was released on Friday.

What is most notable about this loss are the dissents from this decision. They make it abundantly clear that there are still some appellate level judges who value the Second Amendment.

Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod, a George W. Bush appointee, had this to say in part:

Simply put, unless the Supreme Court
instructs us otherwise, we should apply a test rooted in the Second
Amendment’s text and history—as required under Heller and McDonald—
rather than a balancing test like strict or intermediate scrutiny.

Judge Elrod then ends her dissent with a quote from Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s dissent in the Heller II case.

Following Judge Elrod’s dissent is one from Judge Don Willett that is, in my opinion, absolutely wonderful. I won’t quote the whole thing but I feel like it.

Constitutional scholars have dubbed the Second Amendment “the
Rodney Dangerfield of the Bill of Rights.” As Judge Ho relates, it is spurned
as peripheral, despite being just as fundamental as the First Amendment. It is
snubbed as anachronistic, despite being just as enduring as the Fourth
Amendment. It is scorned as fringe, despite being just as enumerated as the
other Bill of Rights guarantees.


The Second Amendment is neither second class, nor second rate, nor
second tier. The “right of the people to keep and bear Arms” has no need of
penumbras or emanations. It’s right there, 27 words enshrined for 227 years.
The core issue in this case is undeniably weighty: Does the federal
criminalization of interstate handgun sales offend We the People’s “inherent
right of self-defense?” This merits question turns upon a method question:
What level of judicial scrutiny applies to laws burdening the Second
Amendment? In other words, when the government abridges your individual
gun-ownership rights, how generous is the constitutional strike zone?

Judge Willett goes on to note that this case deals with a matter of exceptional importance and that it adds a significant methodological component in how Second Amendment cases should be decided – tiers of scrutiny vs. “text, history, and tradition”.

Finally, Judge James Ho takes issue with what he calls a prophylactic ban saying it is not narrowly tailored to a compelling government interest. He also states that he would have voted to affirm the District Court’s judgement. His dissent may also be one of the first times the word “hoplophobia” was used in a decision.

No one disputes that the Government has a compelling interest in
preventing dangerous individuals from purchasing handguns. But as the
district court held, and the panel properly assumed, handgun restrictions must
be narrowly tailored to serve that interest. Law-abiding Americans should not
be conflated with dangerous criminals. Constitutional rights must not give
way to hoplophobia.

The ban on interstate handgun sales fails strict scrutiny. After all, a
categorical ban is precisely the opposite of a narrowly tailored regulation. It
applies to all citizens, not just dangerous persons. Instead of requiring citizens
to comply with state law, it forbids them from even trying. Nor has the
Government demonstrated why it needs a categorical ban to ensure compliance
with state handgun laws. Put simply, the way to require compliance with state
handgun laws is to require compliance with state handgun laws.

The Government’s defense of the federal ban—that state handgun laws
are too complex to obey—is not just wrong under established precedent, it is
troubling for a more fundamental reason. If handgun laws are too complex for
law-abiding citizens to follow, the answer is not to impose even more restrictive
rules on the American people. The answer is to make the laws easier for all to
understand and follow. The Government’s proposed prophylaxis—to protect
against the violations of the few, we must burden the constitutional rights of
the many—turns the Second Amendment on its head. Our Founders crafted a
Constitution to promote the liberty of the individual, not the convenience of
the Government.

I would love to see this case come before the Supreme Court with a Justice Kavanaugh on it. I doubt he would need to recuse himself just because his own words were quoted in the dissents.

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Will This Be Considered A School Shooting?

July 20, 2018 by

It seems any act of violence with a firearm in or near a school is considered a “school shooting”. It matters not that the act of violence had nothing to do with the school, happened after hours, or involved no one affiliated with the school as either the shooter or the victim(s).

By now many, if not most, have seen the shootout during a car chase between Las Vegas Metro Police and two suspects in black Ford Expedition. All the major mainstream news channels have shown video from it. The shootout featured one officer shooting at the fleeing suspects through his windshield. This was after the suspects started shooting at the police chasing them. If you are like me, you worried that he would have permanent hearing loss.

You can watch and listen to the chase from the body camera footage of Officer William Umana who is a 17 year veteran of LVMPD.

At the end of the chase you can see the SUV crash into a wall. That wall is part of Howard Hollingsworth Elementary School in Las Vegas.

Thus the question will be do the gun control prohibitionists and their media allies consider this a “school shooting”?  Obviously it isn’t but that hasn’t stopped them in the past.

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SHOT Show Expanding

July 19, 2018 by 1 Comment

The Las Vegas Review-Journal is reporting that the SHOT Show will be expanding their venues in order to allow more exhibitors. While the Sands Expo Center will still be the primary location through 2027, they will expand to the MGM Grand Convention Center in 2020 and to the planned Caesars Forum in 2021.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation recently signed a contract with MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment Corp. to bring the four-day trade show to their future convention spaces, said Chris Dolnack, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for the Connecticut-based foundation.

The SHOT Show has a number of companies on a waiting list for either exhibition space or for the chance to expand their booths. Currently, they have about 1,000 companies waiting for space according to Chris Dolnack who heads the SHOT Show. The amount of space will expand from 650,000 square feet of exhibition space to over 950,000 square feet of space by 2021 when the Caesars Forum comes online.

Scheduled to open in December 2018

Dolnack made the point that the SHOT Show is not just firearms companies but also ammunition, optics, and other manufacturers.

Exhibitor growth is coming from cartridge, equipment and optics manufacturers as well as producers of accessories, he said. More than 400 equipment manufacturers exhibited at the show this year.

“By further diversifying the show and having a larger number of new companies, we will attract retailers every year that may currently come every other year,” Dolnack said by telephone on Tuesday.

“No one ever walks into a show and says ‘show me what is old.’ This will give retailers the opportunity to see several hundred new companies and pick up some more products.”

The Caesars Forum is expected to cost approximately $375 million and open sometime in 2020. The Forum will be located behind LINQ with the Flamingo and Harrahs on either side of it.

Artist rendition from Caesars Entertainment

 I would imagine that the convention industry in Las Vegas is pretty excited by this. If you think about it, you will now include most of the length of the Strip in the SHOT Show. It will be anchored by the Sands Expo on the north and the MGM Grand Convention Center on the south with Caesars Forum occupying a mid-Strip location.

I think this is a great expansion but the amount of walking will increase exponentially. I know I usually walk miles daily at the SHOT Show and this will only increase it. I still wish they’d consider holding it in Orlando or other eastern US location but given the contract with Sands goes through 2027 I can keep wishing.

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Do You Want Sunday Hunting On Game Lands In NC?

July 18, 2018 by

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission is conducting an online survey now through the end of August to determine if there is interest in opening up certain public game lands to Sunday hunting. The restriction on Sunday hunting with a firearm had been in place since 1869. However, in 2015, the General Assembly removed this restriction from private land. In 2017, the General Assembly gave public land managers including the Wildlife Resources Commission the authority to implement new options for hunting on public lands including game lands.

My own feelings are that banning Sunday hunting on game lands discriminates against those for whom their Sabbath is a day other than Sunday. This would include Seventh Day Adventists and Jews among others. Furthermore, the average work week is Monday through Friday which leaves Saturday as the only hunting day for many people. Finally, it is in the public interest to encourage the growth of the hunting population for a variety of reasons including not the least of which that hunters support conservation management with their licenses and ammo purchases.

To take the survey, go here. I see no restriction that says it is limited to North Carolinians.

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Legal Gator Hunting Comes To North Carolina

July 17, 2018 by

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission announced yesterday that they were going to have a (very!) limited alligator hunting season in 2018. The hunt will be by permit only with a total of 20 permits issued. Alligator hunting will be limited to three areas within Hyde County in coastal eastern North Carolina.

If you ever aspired to be the Troy Landry of North Carolina, it won’t be cheap. Resident permits will be $250 and non-resident permits will be $500.

More details including links are in the NCWRC press release below:

RALEIGH, N.C. (July 16, 2018) —The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission is offering permitted hunting opportunities for alligator population reduction hunts in three designated areas of Hyde County only. Hyde County requested a targeted hunt to reduce numbers of alligators in areas of Swan Quarter, Fairfield and Engelhard with frequent alligator conflicts. Commission staff worked with Hyde County officials to evaluate the request and recommended an addendum to the Alligator Management Plan that would allow counties to request a population reduction hunt for unincorporated areas. The Commission approved the addendum at their July 12 business meeting.

Applications for the alligator permit hunt opportunities are available for purchase now through Friday, Aug. 10. Applicants must be 16 years of age or older and there is an $8 application fee for each of the designated hunt areas.

Applications are only available for purchase online using a Visa or MasterCard, by calling 888-248-6834 or in-person at Commission Headquarters, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Monday – Friday. Due to an expected increase in call volume, the Wildlife Commission advises purchasing a permit application online. Those who may experience difficulty using the website should update their web browser to a more current version.

A computerized drawing will award five permits in Swan Quarter, five permits in Fairfield and 10 permits in Engelhard. The permits will be valid from Sept. 1 through Oct. 1, 2018 in the designated areas around these communities only.

Applicants awarded a permit will be required to obtain an alligator hunting license no later than 4:00 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 20. Those who fail to purchase the alligator hunting license by the deadline specified will forfeit their permit and an alternate applicant will be awarded the permit. An alligator hunting license costs $250 for North Carolina residents and $500 for non-residents.

The bag limit for permit holders is one alligator per permit with a season limit of one alligator per permittee. Permittees will be required to complete a harvest survey and allow Commission staff to collect biological data from the harvested alligator.

For more information on application requirements, designated hunt areas and regulations, visit ncwildlife.org/permithunt.

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Amazon Prime Day Starts Tomorrow

July 16, 2018 by 1 Comment

Amazon Prime Day starts tomorrow at 3pm EDT. It will be 36 hours of specials for Amazon Prime members. However, you can sign up for a 30-day free Prime trial and cancel it before the end of the 30 days without having to pay a thing.

It is my understanding the products like Kindles and Alexa will be offered at up to 50% off. The Complementary Spouse loves her Kindle Fire(s).

The reason that I’m posting about Amazon Prime Day is that this blog is an Amazon Associate. The monies earned from commissions on your purchases are donated in their entirety to gun rights groups such as the Second Amendment Foundation and the NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund. So linking through No Lawyers – Only Guns and Money costs you nothing but will help raise money to help preserve our gun rights.

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The Stupid Party Strikes Again

July 12, 2018 by 1 Comment

The Republican Party is often derisively called the Stupid Party because of the dumb stuff it does. Things like firing my friend Rachel Malone or things like caving to demands from people who will never vote for them. The latter is the case in North Carolina with the Republicans in the North Carolina Senate.

North Carolinians Against Gun Violence (sic), NCGV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown Moms for Illegal Mayors, sent out an email early this morning touting their achievement in stopping HB 746 which would have allowed permitless concealed carry. This bill had passed the North Carolina House but stalled in the Senate.

From NCGV:

As reported in previous updates, NCGV was on the lookout for the Senate to taking up HB746, the gun omnibus bill that included permitless carry. If this bill would have passed it would mean that people as young as 18 years old with no training and no background check could carry a hidden loaded weapon in public. Because of NCGV pressure and support, the Senate did not consider the bill. We are proud to report that your support made sure that this bill did not even receive a committee hearing on the Senate side.

As a secondary matter, NCGV spoke with legislators and allies about ensuring that our teachers would not be allowed to concealed carry in schools.

The aadjournment (sic) resolution was not sine die and legislators have scheduled a session in November, presumably to take up matters relating to the amendments. Although the bill is technically not dead, it is incredibly unlikely to be taken up during that fall session.

During the interim, legislators restated their commitment to expanding school safety, studying what more can be done, and working with community partners. NCGV will be in any relevant meetings as they take place during the interim.

So you have a group opposed to civil rights crowing that their pressure stopped Majority Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) and the Republicans in the State Senate from even holding hearings on HB 746 which was an omnibus firearms bill which included permitless concealed carry. Please bear in mind that Republicans hold veto-proof super-majorities in both houses of the North Carolina General Assembly. Please also bear in mind that probably not one person in 100 that supports NCGV will even vote for a Republican for dog catcher. They consider themselves the NC equivalent of “The Resistance”.

Has the Republican Party of North Carolina never heard of the old adage that you reward your friends and punish your enemies?

As that great Southern philosopher Forrest Gump famously said, “Stupid is as stupid does.”

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California Sued By Coalition Of Gun Rights Groups Over AWB Registration Disasters

July 12, 2018 by 2 Comments

The Second Amendment Foundation, the Calguns Foundation, the Firearms Policy Coalition, and the Firearms Policy Foundation have come together to sue the California Department of Justice, Attorney General Xavier Becerra, and the head of the California Bureau of Firearms. Their complaint, filed in Shasta County Superior Court, is a constitutional challenge to the bullet button registration system and a writ of mandamus requiring the state to allow people to register as required under state law. That last bit might sound confusing but people had until July 1st to register their bullet buttons. The only problem is that many people were not able to do so because the system crashed. It’s a damned if you do and damned if you don’t situation.

From their joint release:

The lawsuit argues that DOJ’s “bullet-button assault weapon” registration system was defective, often “crashing” completely, and the various failures prevented many gun owners from complying with the laws—potentially turning people into felons overnight.

SACRAMENTO, CA (July 11, 2018) — Today, attorneys for three gun owners and four civil rights organizations filed a new lawsuit and petition for writ of mandate that claims California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and his Department of Justice (DOJ) violated their civil rights protected under the state and federal constitutions. A copy of the complaint can be viewed or downloaded at https://www.firearmspolicy.org/sharp.

The lawsuit, captioned Harry Sharp, et al. v. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, et al., is supported by The Calguns Foundation (CGF), Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), and Firearms Policy Foundation (FPF). Named as defendants are California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, Acting Chief of the DOJ Bureau of Firearms, Brent E. Orick, and the California Department of Justice itself. The plaintiffs are represented in the case by attorneys George M. Lee and Douglas Applegate, as well as Raymond M. DiGuiseppe, a former California deputy attorney general and prosecutor.

“Many people, including our clients, did everything they could to comply with the law and avoid criminal liability,” commented Lee. “They used updated web browsers, hardware, different devices, and even did internet speed tests to make sure it wasn’t a problem on their end. The DOJ’s crashed system is a reflection of their cascading failures to build a system and allow people to register their guns before July 1 if that’s what they wanted to do.”

The complaint says the plaintiffs “seek an un-extraordinary result, compelled by the basic tenets of due process: That they simply be allowed to register their eligible firearms and comply with the law, and that the Attorney General, the DOJ, and their officers and agents similarly comply with the law by allowing such registrations and ensuring they are properly and timely processed through a functioning online database as they have been required by statute to do.”

Under California’s voluminous gun control laws, someone merely transporting an unregistered “assault weapon” to the shooting range – even if one believes it was legal and registered under other DOJ systems, like DROS – “is guilty of a felony” and possibly subject to a prison sentence of “four, six, or eight years.” Other crimes can be added on to that, including common separate charges like possession and manufacturing.

“Attorney General Xavier Becerra seems to care about everything but the constitution, the rule of law, and law-abiding California gun owners,” said FPC President Brandon Combs. “If Becerra spent as much time doing his job as he does talking about his pet crusades against the federal government, hundreds of thousands of Californians would not be in legal jeopardy right now.”

“We’re suing because California DOJ’s Firearms Application Reporting System (CFARS) broke down during the deadline week for people to register their firearms in accordance with new state laws,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “For a whole week the system was largely inaccessible, so people who wanted to comply with the law simply couldn’t and now they face becoming criminals because they couldn’t do what the law requires.”

“Predictably the state of California wants to take guns away from the law abiding. In this instance they couldn’t even build a working system to respect gun owners’ rights,” explained CGF Chairman Gene Hoffman. “We simply want to allow those who want to comply with the law to have more time with a working registration system.”

“It’s like a bad version of ‘Catch-22’,” Gottlieb observed. “The government required registration by the deadline, but the online registration failed and people couldn’t register. They’re required to obey the law, but the system broke down, making it impossible to obey the law. Now these people face the possibility of being prosecuted. We simply cannot abide that kind of incompetence.”

“Once again, the DOJ and Attorney General Becerra unlawfully and unconstitutionally moved the goal posts on peaceful, law-abiding gun owners,” observed FPF Vice President Jonathan Jensen. “Their failures should not result in people going to prison and losing their property.”

Combs noted that the case is not an endorsement of firearm registration, which carries its own risks, as many news reports have shown.

“Gun owners had a right to decide how they would approach these serious legal issues,” explained Combs. “Attorney General Becerra and his DOJ denied gun owners the opportunity to exercise their rights and make an informed choice, forcing them into the sights of fascist, hyper-aggressive special agents who kick in doors and put gun owners in jail. That’s completely unacceptable and totally deplorable.”

Californians who tried to register their firearms as “assault weapons” before July 1 but were unable to should contact the Legal Action Hotline immediately at https://www.firearmspolicy.org/hotline or by telephone at 855-252-4510.