Helpless by law: enduring lessons from a century old tragedy, in the Connecticut Law Review. Summary:

“This essay examines questions of violence and self-defense in African American history. It does so by contrasting historical patterns of racist anti-Black violence prevalent in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, as exemplified by the destruction of the Greenwood community in Tulsa Oklahoma in 1921, with the current phenomenon of Black-on-Black violence in modern inner-city communities. Although circumstances have changed greatly in the century since the destruction of Greenwood, two phenomena persist: 1. the failure of authorities to protect Black communities and their…
Continue Reading New article by Bob Cottrol and Ray Diamond

John Lott has a study of press-reported defensive gun uses. (In my experience, defensive uses are very rarely reported in the press). I especially like this story:

“Young yelled at the deputies and then fired on them. The first deputy was hit in the head and dropped to the ground.

The second deputy stepped forward and returned fire in an effort to protect the deputy who had already been shot…

Police said that was when good Samaritans armed with their own weapons stepped forward and fired multiple shots in the direction of Young to provide cover for and protect…
Continue Reading Lott on defensive gun uses

Only Guns and Money reports that John Ross, author of “Unintended Consequences,” has died of a heart attack while working on a sequel.
Continue Reading RIP John Ross

Supreme Court oral arguments are divided into “sessions” aka “sittings,” each lasting two weeks and encompassing 10-12 arguments. The custom is that each Justice gets at least one opinion to write from each session. Usually, that’s not difficult: yes, every Term will have two or so really controversial cases, and about 50-60 that are mundane. Odds are a Justice won’t often be in the dissent on ten cases in a row.

If you plot out the cases of a session vs. who has already written an opinion from it, you can often get an idea of who is writing the…
Continue Reading Thoughts on NYSRPA v. Bruen

It’s posted at SSRN. “What ‘Text, History and Tradition’ Matter in Construing the Constitution?”

Among other finds I made: a lot of the antis’ arguments on the subject invoke the 1328 Statute of Northampton, which seemingly banned all carrying of arms. I found that (1) the notion that British common law applied in the colonies is mistaken. Colonial charters often commanded the colonies to apply common law insofar as it fit in with their conditions. The monarchs recognized that the colonies would be dealing with issues that didn’t arise in Britain. (2) The Statute definitely didn’t fit in with…
Continue Reading My latest paper on the 2A

Right here. The sheriff has released video of Baldwin during earlier segments of the filming. These show he wasn’t worrying about having his finger inside the trigger guard and pressing the trigger while handling a cocked single-action. Of course, he’s playing a gunman who’s drawing and ready to fire, but all the more reason to follow the tightest safety procedures — starting with making very, very, sure the gun isn’t loaded and there isn’t a live round anywhere in the area. And, of course, not pointing it at anyone. Plus a few other things that anyone who respects a…
Continue Reading More on Alec Baldwin shooting

A report of an interesting study. A Memphis newspaper published data on concealed weapon permit holders, itemized by zip code. Someone set out to study what happened to burglary rates in the years after the publication. Answer: burglary rates for the areas with high populations of permit-holders fell, while those for areas with low populations of permit-holders rose. The newspaper had inadvertently pointed out where the safest burglary targets in the city were located.
Continue Reading More guns, less crime?

Article here. A nice win in the Washington Supreme Court.
Continue Reading SAF wins pre-emption lawsuit in Washington state

Here’s a link to a webpage I created, with pictures and audio and video, to accompany my book I’m from the Government, and I’m Here to Kill You. At the first link, audio and video links are on the left. David Koresh talking to 911, and sounding entirely reasonable for a man who’s been shot and seriously wounded. Radio traffic for the first day’s gunfight. FBI radio traffic during the fire, with one FBI leader demanding firetrucks, and a higher commander refusing, quite in cold blood.

Plus an ATF report indicating that (contrary to the official story that Koresh…
Continue Reading Waco, April 19, 1993.

This is not going to be easy, since the killer acted in New York City, generally considered already to have the most oppressive gun laws in the country, and the killer had no trouble getting around them all. But here is Everytown’s email fundraiser:

“Brooklyn Subway Shooting Highlights Dangers of Adverse Ruling in Supreme Court Case

On Tuesday, at least ten people were shot and wounded in a subway station in Brooklyn – the worst shooting in the history of the New York City subway. The shooting comes as the Supreme Court is poised to rule on New York State…
Continue Reading Everytown tries to exploit Brooklyn subway shooting

Here’s the video. Skip the first 41 minutes of blank screen and intro. He proclaims a “ghost gun” can be completed on a kitchen table in under 30 minutes, that 20,000 were seized by police last year, etc. Then he calls for bans on gun purchase by anyone on a “terrorist watch list,” cracking down on rogue gun dealers (using old figures indicating that 90% of traces — which he describes as guns found at crime scenes — trace to 5% of dealers, wants the usual shopping list of background checks for private sales, “assault weapon” and “large magazine”…
Continue Reading Biden on gun restrictions

Right here.

“Since the modern affirmation of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), much scholarly attention has focused on two issues: the soundness of Heller’s originalist approach to the Second Amendment, as well as the pragmatic question of whether the Second Amendment right is now being underenforced by the lower federal courts.

This Article examines a subject at the intersection of both of these questions: the role of traditionalist interpretation in interpreting and applying the Second Amendment. It particularly focuses on how traditionalist interpretation sheds light on the constitutionality…
Continue Reading Michael O'Shay article on the 2A.

Predictably, it’s being used as a call for more gun control. Even though it happened in a state which Brady Campaign consistently ranks as having the most restrictive gun regulations in the country.

It turns out one of the arrested shooters was on the streets only because, after being sentenced to ten years of assault with great bodily injury, he was given early release, over the prosecutor’s objections that he is a violent criminal who “has no regard for his victims” and no respect for the law.

Add in that the one gun found at the scene…
Continue Reading Sacramento mass killing