This guest post does not necessarily represent the views of the Duke Center for Firearms Law. Opponents of firearm regulation, energized by the landmark Bruen decision, have been paying closer attention to early America. They like what they don’t see. The ruling makes historical evidence—or, more to the point, the absence of historical evidence—dispositive in […]
In Teter v. Lopez, a Ninth Circuit panel struck down Hawaii’s ban on butterfly knives in an opinion that is hard to understand. The underlying result was presaged in the oral arguments, as this prior post suggests, but the final opinion is still confounding to me. It would not be surprising to see this case […]
[This is a guest post that is part of a mini-series on the history of firearms and gun regulation in early America.] Over the past ten years, opponents of regulating assault rifles have argued that repeating firearms — some capable of firing 10 shots or more — were well-known and possibly common in eighteenth-century America. Using […]
Restrictions on select kinds of semi-automatic firearms (often labeled assault weapons) are back in the news after the Supreme Court last week declined to halt Illinois’s new law. The request to the Court came on the justices’ so-called shadow docket, where the challengers were seeking emergency relief before the Seventh Circuit had even considered the […]
On April 20, a federal judge in the District of Columbia denied a motion for a preliminary injunction of a Washington, D.C. law banning the possession, sale, and transfer of magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition in Hanson v. D.C. The decision continues a trend of federal courts upholding large-capacity magazine, […]
First principles of federalism suggest that state-to-state variety is a feature, not a bug, of the American system. Each state can generally determine for itself how to exercise its police power and provide for public safety. However, recent litigation following the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision suggests that differentiation among state weapons regulations may raise constitutional […]
After a hearing on October 24, a federal judge in the Central District of California issued an order denying a motion for preliminary injunction of two California statutes that regulate self-manufactured firearms, or ghost guns. The judge’s order adopted the legal analysis in an 11-page tentative ruling issued on October 21. The case, Defense Distributed […]
1. Introduction In 2005, the U.S. Congress bestowed on gun makers and sellers broad immunity from civil lawsuits by enacting the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). Congress explicitly based this immunity on the need to protect Second Amendment rights, pitting defenders of those rights against victims of criminal gun violence seeking to […]
Many Second Amendment questions remained open after Heller. The Court clarified that the right to keep and bear arms guarantees a private, individual right to have a handgun at home for purposes like self-defense, but it left open a host of questions about where people can take their weapons, what weapons can be restricted, and […]
A three judge panel of the Fifth Circuit upheld the federal bump stock ban yesterday. In a post last Wednesday, I noted how the Sixth Circuit en banc had split evenly on the legality of the bump stock ban, leaving in place the trial court’s decision upholding the regulation. The question doesn’t appear to be […]
As I mentioned earlier this week, the en banc Sixth Circuit failed to reach consensus on the legality of the Trump Administration’s ban on bump stock devices, which convert semi-automatic firearms into weapons that can approximate the rate of fire of an automatic firearm. (If you’re unfamiliar with the operation of bump stocks, I’ve found […]
In a major decision issued yesterday, the en banc Ninth Circuit upheld California’s ban on large-capacity magazines. By a 7-4 vote in Duncan v. Bonta, the court ruled that intermediate scrutiny applied to California’s law and that the provision was a reasonable fit with the government’s goal of preventing gun violence. I’ve previously written about […]
The Statute of Northampton of 1328 remains central to the current debate surrounding the limits and protections the Second Amendment provides to carry arms in public.[1] The Statute provided that “no man great nor small, of what condition soever he be, except the king’s servants in his presence…come before the King’s justices, or other of […]
Mister Saturday Night Special / Got a barrel that’s blue and cold / It ain’t good for nothing but puttin’ men six feet in a hole “Saturday Night Special,” Lynard Skynyrd, 1975 Today, reference to a “Saturday Night Special” is rarely heard outside of old films or perhaps among vintage firearms enthusiasts. Rather than a […]
On June 22, the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments in Duncan v. Bonta. The bulk of the arguments regarded the challengers’ claim that California’s large capacity magazine (LCM) ban violates their second amendment rights. Judge Paul Watford, however, focused on their takings claim, training all six of his questions to both sides on the subject. […]
As interpreted by the Supreme Court in Heller, the Second Amendment protects arms that are in common use by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes. Yesterday, an en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments in Duncan v. Bonta, a Second Amendment challenge to California’s ban on ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 […]
Today I’m highlighting further thoughts on Miller v. Bonta, the California federal court decision striking down the state’s assault weapons ban, which I’ve written on several times already last week–here and here. This time, the analysis comes from my Duke Law colleague Charles J. Dunlap Jr., the former deputy judge advocate general of the United States […]
In yesterday’s post, I unpacked the court’s decision in Miller v. Bonta, striking down California’s assault weapons ban. In today’s post, I look at the case with a more critical eye. I first focus on matters of doctrine and then turn to style. As a doctrinal matter, I see three important aspects to the case: […]
Last week, in Miller v. Bonta, Judge Roger T. Benitez of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, struck down California’s assault weapons ban as unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. In today’s post, I’ll describe the doctrinal and theoretical moves the opinion makes, and tomorrow’s post will provide further analysis and […]
A few new student notes about firearms law have been published recently or will be soon. Once again, it’s great to see the field growing! Danny Li, The First Amendment Weaponized: When Guns Become Public Discourse, William & Mary Bill of Rights. J. (forthcoming) Here’s the Abstract: This Article discusses First Amendment challenges asserted against […]
Earlier this week, in Vermont v. Misch, the Vermont Supreme Court rejected a state constitutional law challenge to the statutory prohibition on magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition for long guns and 15 rounds for handguns. Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit voted to grant rehearing en banc in a Second Amendment challenge to […]
On his campaign website, President-Elect Joe Biden lists several of his administration’s priorities for firearm regulation. Since the actual policy proposals are not spelled out in depth, it is hard to evaluate the precise details of his plan. And, of course, the ones that require congressional action are much less likely to pass if the […]
Yesterday, I wrote about the Ninth’s Circuit’s decision in Duncan v. Becerra, striking down CA’s ban on large-capacity magazines (LCMs). Today I offer a few observations from my reading of the case. First, I think the bulk of the majority’s analysis at step one of the two-part step is helpful and mostly accurate. It’s useful […]
Last year a federal district court in California became the first federal court to conclude that a ban on magazines holding more than 10 rounds violates the Second Amendment. A few weeks ago, in Duncan v. Becerra, a panel of the Ninth Circuit became the first federal appellate court to do so. Before this decision, […]
When it comes to the “Arms” protected by the Second Amendment, the conceptual space is typically divided into two categories. Some weapons, like those that are “dangerous and unusual,” can be banned without raising any constitutional problems. For those that are not dangerous and unusual, the government has to satisfy some requisite level of scrutiny. […]
