As the day winds down and my body starts rejecting the caffeine, we have two final briefs coming across the wires.
The first is filed by a group including 34 California District Attorneys, 8 Nevada District Attorneys, the California Rifle & Pistol Association Foundation, the Long Beach Police Officers Association, the San Francisco Veterans Police Officers Association, the Arizona Citizens Defense League, the Texas Concealed Handgun Association, the Virginia Citizens Defense League, and the Bloomfield Press.
They argue that incorporation through Due Process is a given, through any reading of the 14th Amendment. Since the right to keep arms is fundamental, it must be incorporated automatically as a matter of course. Their brief focuses on principles of individual defense, and they point out prior court precedent reserving citizens that right, including the 1895 decision in Beard v. United States.
The second brief comes from the Calguns Foundation. Like Kopel’s, it is a specialized brief designed to occupy a specific strategic niche. Continued...