March For Our Lives is in serious trouble. It’s running out of money, has laid off 13 of 16 employees, who are now suing it over racial discrimination. The layoffs appear to stem from internal politics: staffers wanted more focus on minorities, while leadership was pointing out that 80% of their “following” (meaning donors) was comprised of “middle-aged white women.”
Continue Reading It's always pleasant to think of the problems your opponents are experiencing

Obituary here. Bob died at age 96. He was Maricopa County Attorney when I was in grade school, and Attorney General of Arizona when I was barely out of law school. He served as a very forward-thinking NRA president in 1992-93. He established two committees of board and non-board members, the Committee on the Year 2000, to try to do long-range planning, and a committee to try to plan for a Second Amendment Supreme Court case. Both came up with plans, but the board as a whole did little, if anything.

(One part of the plan for 2000 was…
Continue Reading RIP Bob Corbin

DoJ briefs, argues against latest Illinois infringements of the Second Amendment. I never thought I’d see the day….
Continue Reading what a difference an election can make!

Marianna Mitchem, ATF’s former Chief of Staff and Associate Assistant Director of Field Operations, is reported to have resigned and gone to work for Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety.
Continue Reading ATF official goes right to Bloomberg's antigun group

The !0th Circuit strikes down a New Mexico “cooling off” law.

But the 4th Circuit upheld Maryland’s handgun purchase permit requirement. The 4th also rejected a facial challenge to a Fairfax VA ordinance forbidding firearms in certain places, including parks.

And a Delaware trial court cited the state constitution in striking down the state’s ban on possession of handguns by young adults.

On the side (I don’t have a link) the government withdrew its appeal of a ruling invalidating the ATF ruling against stabilizing braces for handguns. Plus, it withdrew its appeal of a successful challenge …
Continue Reading Quite a month for the Second Amendment!

Clayton Cramer has the story. The link to the story he cites is now here.

The story is from the BBC: I doubt we’ll see it in the US media.
Continue Reading Minnesota mass killer planned to avoid armed citizens

Dr. Lott posts on a debate between himself and Grok on gun issues. At the end he concludes that Grok is “biased and actually stupid” when it comes to empirical research.

To the legal profession, that’s not news. The risks of using AI are a running joke (except to the attorneys involved, who often get hit with sanctions). Judges don’t have to worry about sanctions, just the embarrassment. As in this case, or this one. The most likely explanation is that the judge signed whatever his research clerk put in front of him without so much as…
Continue Reading John Lott vs. AI: guess who wins?

Here in Tucson, two teens in a stolen car try to rob a man, and one robber dies and the other is injured and arrested.

And in Traverse City, Michigan, a lunatic stabs 11 people, but stops when an armed citizen throws down on him. Good video, BTW. Here’s more on Derrick Perry, the citizen who captured him, although the story says Perry somehow did so “using a store shelf as cover,” while the video shows Perry holding a handgun, not a store shelf.
Continue Reading Not a good time for criminals

An interesting paper by Prof. Seth Barrett Tillman. Background: In 2000 alleged historian Michael Bell published a book, “Arming America,” which claimed that Americans were rarely armed in the framing period and, in fact, until after the Civil War. In 2001 the book was awarded the Bancroft Prize, historical writing’s top award.

Clayton Cramer read the book and noticed its claims were contrary to his own extensive research, and began checking the footnotes and found they were often simply invented. Bellesiles claimed he was the victim of a right-wing witch-hunt and was getting death threats, etc. Initially the professional…
Continue Reading Bellesiles An Academic Undead?

A short video comparison. Don Kates once remarked that we assume that because another country speaks English, we must share the same culture–but we don’t.
Continue Reading Self-defense in Canada vs. the US

What is the effective date of the repeal of NFA taxes (if not of the NFA itself?

SEC. 70436. REDUCTION OF TRANSFER AND MANUFACTURING TAXES FOR CERTAIN DEVICES.
TRANSFER TAX.–Section 5811(a) is amended to read as follows:
”(a) RATE.–There shall be levied, collected, and paid on firearms transferred a tax at the rate of–
”(1) $200 for each firearm transferred in the case of a machinegun or a destructive device, and
”(2) $0 for any firearm transferred which is not described in paragraph (1).”.
1 455 (b) MAKING TAX.–Section 5821(a) is amended to read as follows:
”(a) RATE.–There shall be…
Continue Reading Update on repeal of some NFA taxes

18 USC 925(c) provides that the Attorney General can grant a person relief from disability (the “dis-ability” to legally possess a firearm under the law). This is especially important to those convicted of a federal offense, since there is no federal procedure to restore firearm rights or to restore civil rights (those lost by a conviction are all governed by state, not federal, law).

Historically, that function had been delegated by the AG to ATF, and from 1992 onward there was a rider put on ATF’s budget forbidding it to use appropriated money to grant relief (except to corporations).

But…
Continue Reading Relief from disabilities functional again!

The Senate Finance Committee has reported out a reconciliation bill that will de-regulate suppressors. §70436.

The amendment to 26 U.S.C. §5845(a) removes suppressors and short barreled rifles and shotguns from the NFA’s special definition of “firearm,” which defines what items the NFA regulates. “Any other weapon” is likewise eliminated. Now only full-autos and destructive devices are covered.

The amendment to §5845(f) removes all shotguns from the definition of “destructive device.” The DD designation now covers everything everything above .50 caliber except shotguns that the Attorney General finds are “generally recognized as particularly suitable for sporting purposes.” The amendment would…
Continue Reading Senate Committee: Deregulate Suppressors and Short Barreled Firearms