K-Romulus
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From Dave Kopel at the Volokh Conspiracy:
http://www.volokh.com/posts/1179865714.shtml
Frye is a law clerk to the 9th Circuit's Judge Kleinfeld (not sure of how J. Kleinfeld went on the Silveira decision). He uses a lot of 1920's/1930's-era newspaper articles and published memoirs to tell the whole story of:
- the NFA, and how close handguns came to being an NFA item
- the true story of ganster-wannabe Miller, his "gang," and his crooked court-appointed lawyer
- gun control as a plank of the New Deal
- how the Miller case was fast-tracked to the USSC by the government to try to get a pro-control decision
- how the USSC justice who wrote the opinion screwed up the government's plan
- how the biggest gun control supporter in Congress back then was a Klu Kluxer
- how the NRA was active in opposing stupid gun control back then (destroying the Brady/VPC propaganda that the NRA only got politically involved in the 1960's to oppose civil rights laws )
- how machine guns and short-barreled shotguns were the "assault weapons" of the era, with similar anti-gun-owner propaganda campaigns
In all it was a fascinating read. Since I was able to download the PDF through my SSRN account, I am uploading the article to THR per "Fair Use." It is a relatively easy and entertaining read (42 pages), unlike most law review articles.
http://www.volokh.com/posts/1179865714.shtml
The Peculiar Story of United States v. Miller:
A fine new article forthcoming in the NYU Journal of Law & Liberty provides fresh insights on the Supreme Court's last major gun control case, U.S. v. Miller (1939). For example, he shows that the case was brought by the federal government as a test case to quell Second Amendment popular opposition to the Attorney General's efforts to create federal handgun control. The federal district judge who wrote the one-sentence opinion declaring the National Firearms Act to violate the Second Amendment was a gun control advocate with strong political connections. The prosecution of Miller was perfect as a government-initiated test case, since Miller had an established record as "a pliable snitch" who would cooperate with the government, ensuring that the Supreme Court saw no meaningful opposition to the government's position.
Frye also argues that although Miller was written by the now-reviled Justice McReynolds, the meaning of the opinion is fairly clear, recognizing the individual right to arms as a common law right guaranteed by the Second Amendment, while still permitting reasonable gun controls.
Frye is a law clerk to the 9th Circuit's Judge Kleinfeld (not sure of how J. Kleinfeld went on the Silveira decision). He uses a lot of 1920's/1930's-era newspaper articles and published memoirs to tell the whole story of:
- the NFA, and how close handguns came to being an NFA item
- the true story of ganster-wannabe Miller, his "gang," and his crooked court-appointed lawyer
- gun control as a plank of the New Deal
- how the Miller case was fast-tracked to the USSC by the government to try to get a pro-control decision
- how the USSC justice who wrote the opinion screwed up the government's plan
- how the biggest gun control supporter in Congress back then was a Klu Kluxer
- how the NRA was active in opposing stupid gun control back then (destroying the Brady/VPC propaganda that the NRA only got politically involved in the 1960's to oppose civil rights laws )
- how machine guns and short-barreled shotguns were the "assault weapons" of the era, with similar anti-gun-owner propaganda campaigns
In all it was a fascinating read. Since I was able to download the PDF through my SSRN account, I am uploading the article to THR per "Fair Use." It is a relatively easy and entertaining read (42 pages), unlike most law review articles.