National Review Online takes a look at the impact, and discusses the various new cases that have appeared. SAF and Gura have a good mix of cases, with varying degrees of risk, and in several different circuit courts. His strategy seems likely to result in some victories. I am less optimistic about the success potential of the NRA-backed Benson suit, largely because the 7th Circuit has shown itself to be fairly hostile to what the Supreme Court is trying to impose on them. I think the 7th Circuit will let Daley keep his onerous laws, not because that is correct legally, but because the 7th Circuit, if they can’t eradicate the right, probably wants it to be relatively meaningless. There’s still plenty of room to try. I wouldn’t care to speculate on the outcome of Nordyke (gun shows on County property) or Maloney (Nunchakus).
2 thoughts on “One Month After McDonald”
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Always wise not to speculate on what the Ninth Circuit will do on anything until you know which three judges will hear the appeal. It generally leans left, but it has some solid conservatives, too, and is more of a wildcard than anything else. The one common thread I see among its liberal and conservative judges alike is a tendency to take existing Supreme Court precedents and run with them, thereby forcing the Supreme Court to back away a bit from its own decisions when reversing them. So my prediction that if we get any interesting decisions from the Ninth Circuit, it will either be a holding that (1) the Second Amendment doesn’t prohibit reasonable restrictions on firearms, therefore, all restrictions on firearms are inherently reasonable or (2) possessing a weapon is a fundamental right, therefore, anything that burdens that right in any way, shape or form is an infringement.
Mountain States Legal Foundation has initiated three challenges to firearms regulations post McDonald. MSLF is challenging Nevada’s ban on firearms in tents, Illinois’s denial of FOID cards to nonresidents, and the Post Office ban on concealed carry.