Boring is what most legislative sessions are, but California's last hours were anything but. Shouting, attempts to cut off debate by turning off opposition microphones, and a literal waving of the rulebook marked the close of the Legislative season in Sacramento this week. Many bills were on life support, seeking to crawl their way to the Governor's desk, but died in the chambers as its supporters failed to get the votes to pass them.

Among the firearms-related bills that didn't make it out: Read more »

The Supreme Court handed down the long-awaited McDonald v. City of Chicago case. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment is incorporated against the states. It has reversed the decision of the 7th Circuit and ordered it to re-hear the case with both McDonald and Heller in mind. Given that the Chicago handgun ban is substantially similar to D.C.'s ban that was struck down by Heller, Chicago's ban is effectively dead in the water. Read more »

I ran into this infographic on North Korea, reporting some interesting -- and grotesque -- facts about the pariah state.

This statistic caught my eye in particular: "An estimated 700,000-3,500,000 people have been executed by the North Korean government."

This is an amazingly outlandish statistic. Let's consider the following: Read more »

In what will likely be the seminal case of 2nd Amendment incorporation, McDonald v. City of Chicago was argued yesterday in the Supreme Court. This pitted every pro-gun organization in the country against every anti-gun government and organization at the highest levels of government.

Why is this case important? Didn't we settle things with Heller already?

Actually, no. Bear with me, there's a bit of history and Constitutional law that needs to be explained. Read more »

As part of the weekend round-up, I'll be briefly going over a few stories that caught my attention as the week was winding down:

Black, said the pot to the kettle. In this case, It's Microsoft accusing Google of anti-trust violations. This is rich, coming from a convicted monopolist. Read more »

I heard about the Brady Bunch (sorry, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence) putting out their annual report card. I'm not at all surprised that my state ranked the dubious #1 spot. However, I think it's telling that a number of the points given aren't for effective policies — only that the policies were legislated.

For instance: Read more »

It seems that U.S. v. Skoien is being heard en banc.

U.S. v. Skoien [PDF] is a case heard in the 7th Circuit last November, where a panel of judges struck down a section of federal law barring firearms from those convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence charges. Read more »