This isn’t a brand-new interpretation of the law, but it’s yet another appeals court—this time in San Francisco—ruling that the Second Amendment of the Constitution (see below) does not mean that people have a “right” to carry concealed weapons in public. According to the New York Times, this ruling (7-4 by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals) not only overturned a court decision in the same circuit, but came in response to a challenge to California’s very stringent policy for allowing “concealed carry”: you have to show a very good reason for getting such a permit. (The suit was brought by Californians who were denied those permits.) And the new decision, absolutely in line with those of other federal appeals courts, is a severe setback for gun nuts and the National Rifle Association (NRA).

First, the Second Amendment:

Although the Supreme Court has rule that this means it’s constitutional for private citizens to have guns, and handguns, I’ve always disagreed. The Amendment mentions gun ownership for purposes of having a “well regulated militia,” and that’s not private ownership of guns for your own protection. (I’m not alone in this opinion: others who know more than I, like Garry Wills, agree.)

Regardless, although having guns still seems to be a constitutional right, concealing them in public places is not. From the NYT:

“Based on the overwhelming consensus of historical sources, we conclude that the protection of the Second Amendment — whatever the scope of that protection may be — simply does not extend to the carrying of concealed firearms in public by members of the general public,” the court said in a ruling written by Judge William A. Fletcher.

. . . “This is a huge decision,” said Adam Winkler, a professor of constitutional law at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law. “This is a major victory for gun control advocates. “

The Supreme Court has ruled that individuals have a right to possess a weapon in their home. Thursday’s ruling centers on the next frontier in the gun-control debate.

“Probably the most important battleground of the Second Amendment has been whether there is a right to carry guns outside the home, and if there is, to what extent can states and localities regulate that right,” said Jonathan E. Lowy, the director of the Legal Action Project at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

If you can’t conceal your weapon outside the home, then you have to carry it in your hand or on your hip, and that’s what you’ll have to do if you want a gun in California.

Further, it’s unlikely that an appeal would be heard by the Supreme Court (though the losers vow to appeal), because all appellate courts have agreed with the decision in California. The Supreme Court is loath to take up cases that have such a unanimity of opinion in lower courts.

Of course the NRA has issued its apocalyptic response:

“This decision will leave good people defenseless, as it completely ignores the fact that law-abiding Californians who reside in counties with hostile sheriffs will now have no means to carry a firearm outside the home for personal protection,” Chris W. Cox, the executive director of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action, said in a statement.

If you want to see the full court ruling, click on the screenshot below. Let me the take on this decision Greg Mayer emailed me, as he’s read the entire 89-page document:

I’ve just read the historical part of the court majority’s decision. It’s brilliant. They are aware that “bear arms” meant being in the militia, but that to argue that in this case, they would be defying the US Supreme Court. (They of course don’t come out and say this directly.) Rather, picking up on the Supreme Court’s holding that the Second Amendment codified a pre-existing right inherited from English law, they examine English law closely, and show that the prohibition of concealed weapons has been part of English law since the 13th century, and that this prohibition has survived the vicissitudes of dynastic and religious revolution (so that it can’t be said that the 2nd Amendment is about some later development in English law). To reinforce this, they then pick up on another part of the Supreme Court’s earlier analysis, which used the 14th Amendment to extend the 2nd Amendment to the states. [JAC: The 14th Amendment guarantees equal protection of the laws to all United States citizens.] The Supremes said then that because a majority of states had Second Amendment-like laws, then the 14th Amendment therefore extended the 2nd Amendment to the states. So, for the current case, the majority decision shows that a clear majority of states prohibited concealed carry and/or gave legislatures broad powers of weapon regulation, so that, again, the pre-existing right being incorporated does NOT include concealed weapons.

It’s clear from their historical review that the right to bear arms is intimately linked to collective self defense (i.e., the militia or military), but, being barred from using this reasoning by the Supreme Court’s ruling that bearing arms is not connected to being in a militia, they find a way around that by showing that carrying concealed arms was not considered by the English to have anything to do with bearing arms (however that’s interpreted, even by the Supreme Court’s defective interpretation), and thus concealed arms are not within the ambit of the 2nd Amendment.

It’s really quite clever, and shows that some lawyers are really smart and knowledgeable.

And for a hilarious but pretty accurate piece on the Second Amendment’s meaning, see this short piece from the January 7, New Yorker.

h/t: Greg Mayer, Barry

After all, it’s very clever: a two-shot gun disguised as a cellphone, and manufactured by Ideal Conceal, whose motto is “Because the right of self-defense is the first law of nature.” And if it happens in nature, it must be a right, no?

Here’s the gun: a .380 caliber double-barreled derringer, which is a “transformer” cellphone:

The transformation:

And it’s only $395.  A pittance to buy yourself peace of mind.  However, it is a concealed weapon, and to carry it you’ll need a concealed carry permit. The ad for the gun almost makes it seem that this gun evades that regulation, though it doesn’t:

The best gun is always the one you have with you. 

In today’s day and age, carrying a concealed pistol has become a necessity. But what if you didn’t have to conceal?

That’s where Ideal Conceal comes in. Smartphones are EVERYWHERE, so your new pistol will easily blend in with today’s environment.  In its locked position it will be virtually undetectable because it hides in plain sight.  ~ Always check your State and local concealment laws.

Note the caveat in the last sentence. So what’s the advantage of this? I suppose because it isn’t obvious, and it’s slim. However, consider this: even if you agree with the nonsense that carrying a concealed weapon is a NECESSITY, there are real guns, containing up to 10 rounds, that are so small you can slip them in your pocket. If you’re mugged on the street, and this cellphone gun is all you have, I wouldn’t count on your being able remove it from your pocket (what’s a mugger going to think when you go for your cellphone?) take off the safety, “transform” it, and fire it before your assailant gets you first. Since this is not a “home defense” or target weapon, it seems unusually cumbersome.

And what could go wrong? After all, even if you leave it lying around the house, there’s no chance your kids could mistake it for a cellphone, accidentally unlock the safety, and. . . . BANG! Right?

h/t: Gravelinspector

Imagine how the U.S. looks to other countries given our increasing penchant for weapons, our endless mass murders attributable to the proliferation of those weapons and, on top of it, the political circus that is the Republican race for the Presidential nomination. It’s bloody embarrassing, I tell you.

And, on top of all that, we have news, from the Washington Post, that, on February 24, Tennessee adopted an Official State Rifle. U.S. states have long had official state birds, flowers, mammals, amphibians, and even rocks, but I wasn’t aware that guns were on the menu. In fact, seven states have official firearms, all adopted since 2011 after the Gun Madness set in:

But most of these Official Guns are historical relics like West Virginia’s flintlock rifle. Here are photos of all the State Guns from Wikipedia:

But note that Tennessee’s gun, the semiautomatic Barrett M82, is unlike the others. Here it is:

What the hell? The Post explains:

And as of Wednesday, the Barrett .50 caliber is now the official state rifle of Tennessee, joining an illustrious roster of other state symbols including the raccoon (state wild animal), the tomato (state fruit), and Tennessee cave salamander (state amphibian).

The gun’s inventor, Ronnie Barrett, is a Tennessee native and NRA board member who was referred to as “the rock superstar in the world of weapons” at a 2014 birthday bash attended by politicians Mike Huckabee, Lamar Alexander, Marsha Blackburn and others. The rifle bearing his name is manufactured in Christiana, Tennessee.

The M82 is not only an anti-materiel rifle, used to down tanks, helicopters, and airplanes, and to shoot through walls, but is also a sniper rifle. As Wikipedia notes:

The M82A1 is known by the US military as the SASR—”Special Applications Scoped Rifle”, and it was and still is used as an anti-materiel rifle and explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) tool. The long effective range, over 1,800 metres (5,900 ft) (1.1 miles), along with high energy and availability of highly effective ammunition such as API and Raufoss Mk 211, allows for effective operations against targets like radar cabins, trucks, parked aircraft and the like. The M82 can also be used to defeat human targets from standoff range or against targets behind cover.

. . . The maximum effective range of the M107 is 1,830 metres (2,000 yd). The maximum range of this weapon (specifically the M107 variant) is 4,000 metres (4,400 yd), as quoted in the owner’s manual. Fifty caliber (and larger) rounds have the potential to travel great distances if fired in an artillery-like fashion, necessitating the observance of large safety margins when firing on a range.

Here’s the gun in action; I believe it has a magazine of 10 .50 caliber bullets, and look at the size of that ammo! This is pure weapons porn:

Why was it adopted? There’s a rationale, as the Post reports, but it’s pretty thin:

In supporting Tennessee’s designation of the Barrett .50 caliber as the state’s official rifle, Republican state Sen. Mae Beavers noted that the gun “honors Tennessee’s ingenuity and manufacturing.” But the gun’s considerable firepower makes it a formidable threat in the hands of the wrong person.

In the 1993 gun battle at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Tex., for instance, the cultists “fired a .50 caliber semiautomatic rifle at agents attempting to execute a search warrant,” according to a GAO report. In 2013, a suspect in a police standoff in Fond du Lac, Wis., fired several .50 caliber rounds during the incident, prompting police to call in a BearCat armored vehicle.

Overall, the gun safety group Violence Policy Center has identified at least 46 instances of .50 caliber guns being used in criminal activity. The public is generally uncomfortable with the widespread availability of these guns. In 2006, the General Social Survey found that 85 percent of Americans supported a ban on civilian sales of .50 caliber rifles.

Currently, however, .50 caliber rifles are unregulated at the federal level. California and D.C. ban the guns outright, while Connecticut and Maryland place some restrictions on them, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Note the large majority of Americans who oppose the sale of these weapons to civilians. Yet their sale is still legal. Thanks, NRA! By adopting this gun as the state rifle, Tennessee is flaunting its flouting of the Second Amendment, which was never intended to allow unrestricted access to guns—much less military-style guns like this.

h/t: Diane G.