Gun Rights Wins

David Kopel at the Volokh Conspiracy has a major gun rights victory at the University of Colorado, in which a guns rights advocacy group has won a lawsuit allowing concealed carry on campus.

Colorado’s licensing statute for carrying a concealed handgun for lawful protection is explicitly preemptive. The University of Colorado bans concealed carry anyway, arguing that there is an implicit exception applicable to CU. The Mountain States Legal Foundation brings a suit on behalf of SCCC. The trial court dismisses for failure to state a claim. The Court of Appeals unanimously reverses the dismissal, and remands the case for further proceedings. The Court of Appeals holds that: 1. The statutory claim under the Concealed Carry Act should not have been dismissed, because there is no exemption for the University of Colorado. 2. The constitutional claim under the Colorado Constitution’s right to arms provision should not have been dismissed; the proper standard of review, under Colorado case law, is “reasonableness”, which is a higher standard than rational basis.

And in another major gun rights win, Arizona has passed a law allowing concealed carry without a permit. William Teach at Right Wings News comments.

Eugene Volokh on Reason TV

Ted Balaker at Reason Magazine interviews Eugene Volokh of the Volokh Conspiracy on gun rights, free expression, and the welfare state. Volokh is a law professor who immigrated from the Soviet Union, so his take on socialism and government control is particularly interesting to me.

Find out what Volokh thinks the biggest threats to free expression are, and whether today’s muzzlers come mostly from the left or right. Volokh also explains what the landmark Supreme Court case, DC vs. Heller, has done to gun control and whether he agrees with the “more guns, less crime” thesis.

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Civil Rights and Guns

David Kopel at the Volokh Conspiracy follows up a previous post on the importance of gun rights in the civil rights struggle in the 1960’s. Kopel highlights the work of civil rights activist John Salter against the tyranny of the Ku Klux Klan, and the importance of armed self-defense to that struggle.