Alan Gura talks about the effect Heller is meant to have on DC’s registration system.
There are significant, practical limits on the number of arguments that can be put together in one lawsuit. In our case, we chose to focus on the handgun and functional firearms bans – and that was plenty work for the courts to consider.  Litigants do not have unlimited space in the briefing, or unlimited time in argument, and there is a significant strategic advantage – as we have demonstrated – in keeping constitutional litigation focused and narrow.
I’m hoping he’s not, but suspect he is, getting grief from gun people about how Heller should have fixed this whole thing. One thing Alan is going to learn about gun owners, if he hasn’t already, is that many of us are never happy, or grateful much. Be sure to read his whole post.
Unfortunately he probably is.
He spoke to the VCDL last night, and one of the repeated phrases had to do with machine guns (PARAPHRASED): We’re not going to get them. Not now, not yet. Maybe down the road, but in today’s atmosphere, no.
That didn’t seem to sit well with some in the crowd, but that’s how court cases work.
One case will never be the fix-all for any issue (EXCEPT the one or two specific, limited issues that are actually litigated). To get sweeping change, you need to work incrementally – take on the easy stuff first, then build up to the harder stuff. So long as non-constitutional laws remain on the books (e.g. DC’s ‘semi-automatic ban’) we have to get those dealt with first, then broaden the scope. To use an analogy, the low hanging fruit of the tree needs to be picked first, to clear a way to the fruit higher up.
Sebastian, I know you get this, but there are those who don’t (or think that lawyers are intentionally standing in the way – for this, I say we’re not) but do need to see this and understand it.
He did also mention that there are some people that won’t ever be happy. To paraphrase again, ‘There’ll be people who will be bearing machine guns in their jet-fighter cockpits who are upset that they can’t have nukes.’ That drew a chuckle from the crowd, but I’m sure there was one or two that would have fit into that category.
Well, people can already buy fighter jets… just not mount weapons on them…