This is the panel I really wanted to hear. (Don’t get me wrong, I want to hear the next one with Joyce Lee Malcolm and Dave Kopel, but I’m looking more forward to the eye candy element in that one. Thinking ahead, I’m disappointed that I didn’t get in here early enough to get a closer seat for that one.)

Lawrence G. Keane, Vice President and General Counsel, National Shooting Sports Foundation – Reporting that there have been mixed results with cases dealing with preemption. The cases trying to claim Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act is unconstitutional have all failed. I’m cold. I’ve never heard Larry speak to a group of lawyers before. Different. I wish I learned Latin. This is relevant to something he said, just believe me. It involved the (Catholic?) Church. First case was City of New York v. Beretta and points out that it was filed two hours after Bush signed PLCAA and that Weinstein denied the motion. He also made a point to highlight that Rudy Guiliani was the only Republican mayor to sue gunmakers for the actions of criminals, even jumping on board before the NY AG filed his suit. Also highlighting Ileto v. Glock which I don’t know as well. Distracted by reading the PowerPoint, sorry. Pavelka v. Beretta. Flipping faster now. DC and Lawson, et al. v. Beretta and Myers v. Will Company that was a product defect claim regarding a defective lockable case holding the gun. Oliver v. Lou’s of Upper Darby and Thomas-Childs v. American Security. To many details of cases to highlight in this post. However, Larry provided lots of material according to what he said, so I’ll check it out. Back to Weinstein. Points out that there’s absolutely no defense to the Assault Weapon Manufacturing Strict Liability Act of 1990. There’s a reason that I have decided not to study the DC gun laws closely. I’m pretty sure if I actually looked up all of their laws on the issue, my head might explode because of the stupidity. Pending: Charlot v. Bushmaster, Hernandez v. Kahr, City of Gary v. Smith & Wesson, along with several others where PLCAA motions will be filed, but I can’t read that far down on the slide. Brady Bunch will look to narrow the scope of the exceptions of the law. Of course, the Beretta case with Weinstein is on appeal and he’s frequently overturned by the 2nd Circuit. Cushman is asking about the process of charging Bloomberg’s crew with lying on forms to buy guns. Larry doesn’t offer an opinion, but points out that Bloomberg is refusing to turn over the tapes after ATF announced that they wanted to investigate the actions of the investigators. Okay, I didn’t hear the question but Larry said there was a case in the 9th Circuit that relied upon the medical pot case to regulate guns that were produced by an individual for individual use and never cross state lines. Great. Thanks Supremes.

Richard E. Gardiner, Attorney – Highlighting the Bloomberg & Crew cases, but not a focus. Just updating people on them. Why does he assume federal statutes would be boring when applied to firearms cases? He started out by saying that someone like me who is not an attorney or law student would be bored. I might get distracted (something that happens frequently), but not bored. Talking about how Bloomberg’s strategy is to put the dealers out of business so people can’t get new guns. Shocking, the city of New York doesn’t have jurisdiction of the entire US. He’s reporting that even if it’s thrown out because of the suits being filed in NY, then Bloomberg’s legal crew is going to refile all of them in local jurisdictions. Interesting to know. Very interesting to know. Okay, I was sending a SUPER IMPORTANT EMAIL and missed the details on the case if they were told, but apparently some court actually issued a decision that said a 9mm firearm is more likely to be a drug gun based on caliber alone. Gonna have to look that one up. Interesting, he’s saying that Justice Ginsburg could actually be not as awful as we because she’s previously said that “bear” means the same as “carry.” I believe it was somewhat of a joke, but it’s interesting to know. Zoning, licenses, all sorts of stuff that actually is interesting. Not typing much because I’m also surfing updates from the Gun Blogger Rendezvous. Shifts in ATF structure. Interesting that there are 10 times as many inspectors under Homeland Security restructuring. I’m really disappointed that he started out by saying I wouldn’t be interested. Even though I am interested in the topic, I’m more inclined to be distracted because he basically told me to. Horror stories from ATF hearings. How is this possible? These stories about hearings and decisions by judges that willfully ignore sections of law and, in cases, won’t acknowledge that Congress has changed the laws. Of course, as he points out, bad representation for FFLs and gun owners only helps the ATF and Brady Bunch (though he’s not talking about the Brady Bunch, it’s still relevant). Practical non-lawyer lesson from his talk: Get a good lawyer! More on this later. In regard to Cushman’s question, he says Virginians should go and file criminal complaints. (In response, Larry pipes up to say that Georgia’s AG may possibly be investigating this action.) Someone asks about carrying in the Post Office, they point out there’s no case law. Interesting that most of the engaged people are non-lawyers/law students. Guy doomed his own speech.

UPDATE: Some people are a little confused because this is random commentary.  I was liveblogging an event and this was one topic.  For full coverage, visit the Sweet, Sexy Gun Talk archive.

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