We finally got a decision. We have been waiting for months… well, really years… for Judge Roger T. Benitez to release his opinion in Duncan v Bonta. You may remember this originally as Duncan v Becerra. California has Penal Code § 32310(c) and (d) that was amended by Proposition 63 which essentially made the mere possession of a...
The irony does not escape me. I am at 35,000 feet, wedged between two people on my way to Milwaukee via a stop-over in Chicago. The flight departed at 6:45 this morning. I tried to sleep through take-off, but that was, as expected, an exercise in futility. I am unarmed. Well… that is probably a misnomer. I have a...
By now you are all aware of the events two weeks ago at Cook’s Corner. I have driven by Cook’s Corner several times on my way into Silverado Canyon but, in all candor, I have never stopped there. Perhaps it was the motorcycles? I am not against motorcycles in the slightest. In fact, I’ve wanted to...
“Bearing arms does not mean from your bathroom to your kitchen!” That little missive was penned by Justice Clarence Thomas in a dissent to the granting of certiorari on a Second Amendment case a few years back. The gravamen of the case centered around the question: Does the Second Amendment provide protection for conduct outside the...
There are two potential antidotes to misinformation or disinformation: criminalization of speech or competitive speech. We have officially adopted criminalization of speech, and have now broadened that concept to include criminalization of thought. This is not just a manifestation here in the States; we see it happening in Europe too. Where China and the former Soviet Union...
Ten years ago Sandy and I were on a drive to the Bay Area to pick up our daughter from a “summer camp”. Chaney (as had her sister, Carolyn, before her) had been identified by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth as… well… a “talented youth”. They offer a summer academic program for these...
“Hear me now, oh, thou bleak and unbearable world Thou art base and debauched as can be And a knight with his banners all bravely unfurled Now hurls down his gauntlet to thee! Hear me, heathens and wizards and serpents of sin All your dastardly doings are past For a holy endeavor is now to begin And virtue shall triumph at last!” So...
“You will love Africa; it will become part of you, and every day that you are away from her you will sit silently pining away for your mistress. She will control you, and yes…she may kill you… she tends to do these things, for she is both loving and paradoxically cruel at the same time....
In the judicial system I exist essentially in three worlds simultaneously. The vast majority of the time I serve as a lawyer and counsel. Occasionally, I provide advice for other attorneys on firearms laws and regulations to better assist their clients… and every so often, I get to serve as an expert witness. Frankly, the last...
A few months back I received an interesting email. One of our clients who had gone through our CCW program and is a medical doctor wanted to know if we taught classes specifically geared towards de-escalation tactics. I explained the corpus of our curriculum is based on the principles of de-escalation. After a fairly lengthy conversation...
