Hey folks,
I just wanted to take a moment to drop a note sharing the news that Professor Jacobson has kindly invited me to continue blogging here at Legal Insurrection, and I have gratefully accepted.
Of course, my frequency of posting won’t be at the two-to-three-mega-posts-per-day rate that was sustained during much of the Zimmerman trial.
You should expect at least one substantive post from me here a week, however, and as many smaller posts as news events and other circumstances seem to warrant.
Also, it’s likely that my blogging content will expand beyond the narrow confines of the law of self-defense to include other related areas, such as fundamental gun rights and concealed carry rules and regulations.
Without guns there is no effective self-defense for the normal law-abiding citizen, and without concealed carry there is no effective self-defense when living a normal life out and about in the world.
Meanwhile, on the Law of Self Defense front, things have simply exploded. We’ve sold enormously more copies of “The Law of Self Defense, 2nd Edition” than we had any reason to expect, and our LOSD Seminars are being announced and filled up about as fast as we can find local hosts to partner with. There is no doubt whatever that a large proportion of this explosive success has been due to the incredible exposure provided to me by Legal Insurrection. Thanks again, Bill!
(Of course, all of you who have come to know me here will be aware I never let pass an opportunity to pitch: Click here to order “The Law of Self Defense, 2nd Edition,” and use the coupon code LOSD2-LI (for “Legal Insurrection”) at checkout to get $5 off and free shipping; click here to learn more about our Law of Self Defense Seminars; and keep your eyes open for news about our state-specific supplements that dive deep on each state’s self defense statutes and court decisions.)
As always, I’m quite amenable to any suggestions for blog posts on the law of self defense or any related area, so if you have particular areas of interest, don’t hesitate to pass them forward.
That said, I’ll look forward to continuing to engage with all of you on a regular basis, right here at Legal Insurrection.
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
Andrew F. Branca is an MA lawyer and author of the seminal book “The Law of Self Defense, 2nd Edition” now available at www.lawofselfdefense.com as well at Amazon.com, as either a hardcopy or in Kindle version, and at Barnes & Noble as hardcopy or in Nook version.
You can follow Andrew on Twitter on @LawSelfDefense and using #LOSD2, on Facebook, and at his blog, The Law of Self Defense.
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Comments
Looking forward to your posts.
One possible topic – the recent decision in NJ (3rt Circuit ? ) about CCW, upholding ‘may issue’ based on ‘must show greater need than the average person’ (which guarantees at least 1/2 of all people can not get on), and suggesting that ‘it is not proven that 2A rights extend beyond the home at all’. I suspect this one surely rises to SCOTUS.
Be glad to take a look at that. You have a case name or citation, by any chance?
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
Here is the ruling from the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals
“Mean”, “median”, or “mode” type “average”. You assume “median”, or half and half.
Snobs are going to go with “mode”, and “greater than mode” means “elite” or connected. Total percent acquiring CCW can be as little as single digits.
Woot.
That is all.
As an attorney and gun enthusiast (not such a rarity in Seattle as you may think), I enjoyed your posts Andrew and will look forward to more. The professor was spot on to keep you.
It’s been 5 years since the last time I was in Seattle (rode my bike out there from Boston in 2006). Be glad to come out and give a LOSD seminar. If you have lawyers who might be interested and Washington does the CLE thing, I’d be glad to apply for CLE accreditation.
Think on it, let me know.
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
You just made my day.. Will read every word of every post. Have sold 3 books for you. Working on a big gun store to stock and sell your book. Should be a highly recommended, if not required, purchase for everyone taking concealed carry instruction.
Two ladies from my garden club want to buy his book as well. Maybe we’ll get enough interest to come have him speak. Ever addressed a ladies’ garden club before, Mr. Branca? 🙂
I would be honored to speak with a ladies garden party, or any other group of ladies with an interest in learning how to defend themselves and their families vigorously and without accidentally stepping outside the bounds of the law.
I think they’re AWESOME. 🙂
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
Haha, well, that WOULD be nice. 🙂 Thanks for the support, seriously.
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
Fantastic
Hey, NC Mountain Girl, what’s a Massachusetts lawyer have to do to get someone in NC to host a LOSD Seminar? I’ve got Virginia locked down, Georgia locked down, but those Carolinas–they just will NOT give it up. 🙂
I’ll be riding through NC September 24 and October 6. If someone can pull together as few as 10 attendees for a seminar on either of those two dates I’ll hop off the motorcycle long enough to give one. For the Oct. 6 date I may even have some interesting stuff to share from the Gun Rights Policy Conference I’ll be returning from.
Call me, maybe. 🙂
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
(also from NC)
We don’t know, the last three Massachusetts lawyers known to have come here are reported missing ….
So you’re saying you don’t “know” . . . . hmmm
Maybe I need to twist that throttle a little harder through the Carolinas. 🙂
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
Here’s a link to what Volokh had. http://www.volokh.com/2013/07/31/third-circuit-upholds-new-jerseys-highly-restrictive-scheme-for-gun-carry-licenses/
I see this line in the decision, in particular, as a predicate to getting a CCW – “T]he urgent necessity for self-protection, as evidenced by specific threats or previous attacks which demonstrate a special danger to the applicant’s life that cannot be avoided by means other than by issuance of a permit to carry a handgun.”
Based on that, even the classic ‘diamond merchant who carries stock around every day’ does not qualify.
I’d like to try this – ‘I am a member of the Crips, and the Bloods and the Latin Kings and MS-13 have all said they will shoot me on site for wearing blue’. Specific enough ?
Alos of concern in that – “It remains unsettled whether the individual right to bear arms for the purpose of self-defense extends beyond the home.”
Andrew, this is probably outside your wheelhouse, but I sure would like to see a legal analysis of O’Mara’s Motion For Sanctions and the possible ramifications of that for BDLR and Corey. I was browsing through the Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure today and found that sanctions by the court are required (shall assess) if a willful failure to provide discovery is proven.
The rule you cite says “shall assess”, but assess what? Contempt? What’s that mean? Nothing. The Court can hold you in contempt, give you a 5 minute “time out”, and that’s it you’re all square again.
Like the trial itself, the sanctions will be a political, not a legal, creature.
Does the Florida court system care that they were abused in this way, do they care that the public’s perception of their impartiality has been very badly degraded?
If they do, we’ll see real sanctions.
If we don’t see real sanctions, we’ll know the Florida judiciary simply decided to give Florida citizens, and anyone else who happens to get entwined in their jurisdiction, the big fat middle finger.
Do they see themselves as justices in public service or as princes of the realm with royal privilege?
I guess we’ll see.
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
Hey Andrew how about doing one of those self defense seminars in the northeast??!!! Can’t travel to where you’re doing them. HELP!!!!!!
Haha, I know it’s ironic.
I’m working out an arrangement with the Sig Sauer Academy in New Hampshire to do LOSD seminars in the northeast. Pretty close to closing that deal (and I did many LOSD seminars there years ago, based on the 1st edition of the book), but the Sig folks are very busy. Hope to have it nailed down soon.
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
How Wonderful Andrew!!!
I really look forward to your posts.
Also, I enjoyed cutting up with you on twitter during your live coverage there of the Zimmerman trial.
I received your new book and my sister pounced on it… waiting to get it back so I can finish reading it.
She is discovering the laws pertaining to self-defense are well worth knowing.
Hey, tell her to get her own copy!
(Please.)
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
LOL!!!
She bought for me as a present!
She is selling co-workers on the book though… we have lots of shooting friends here in Arizona. 😉
I hope Branca finds a way to weave some of that humor he exhibited in his tweets into his blog posts.
…it gets a little stiff around here at times..law blog and all..
hahahaha!!!
You triggered a movie line memory 😀
Ike Clanton: Yeah, that’s good, Mr. Law Dog, ’cause law don’t go around here.
My tweets were my own “house, ” I could adopt any tone I liked. When I’m a guest in someone else’s house, however, I conduct myself accordingly to their preferences.
I’m a guest here at Legal Insurrection. Very happy to be here, it’s an awesome place, but a guest nevertheless. The humor in my posts will therefore be aligned with the Professor’s vision for the blog, not with my particular brain chemistry on a given day. 🙂
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
Great
As a steady visitor to the professors place here and an infrequent commenter, I welcome you! And say Gracias to the Professor for asking you to stick around. The self defense and CCW angles are very important to me, so I’ll be looking forward to those posts.
My biggest complaint regarding “self defense” is if I decide to drive from TX to RI I can only legally carry as far as PA or VA.
Some sort of national reciprocity should exist…
Are you kidding me? Imagine if you were in the reverse situation, like me? I can carry most of the northeast, but I can’t get through New York–at least, not without going through Canada, which isn’t so gun friendly either.
I travel most of the country, and can’t bring a home gun with me for that reason.
Thankfully, I have friends who hold self-defense guns in reserve for me in most of “Free America”, so I can gear up as soon as I reach one of them. 🙂
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
What kind of liability attaches to them in that situation ?
None. They’re MY guns, simply being held safely for me.
Oh, I suppose if I were drunk when they gave my own guns back to me there might be some liability. But that’s obviously never the case, and I’m likely one of the most background checked people you’ll ever run across, considering I’ve had CCWs from literally dozens of states over the years, all of which run their own background checks.
It’s America, anybody can sue anybody over anything, any prosecutor can bring charges against anybody. It’s too bad. If I thought there was a serious risk of legal liability I wouldn’t have asked my friends for the convenience in the first place. But there’s not. And they’d do it even if there was.
Which there’s not. 🙂
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
Lawyers and non-lawyers. Gun owners, and those like me who would not know where to put the gun when you took it off with your belt.
When I was a kid one of my dad’s best friends was a cop. He had to teach his sons never to touch the gun. And, I’m not sure. But at some point Just hanging it off the back of a dining room chair, wasn’t the best solution.
I loved following your posts on the Zimmerman trial. And, though he won in court, it’s also important that he wins this in the public arena, where the real news of who Trayvon was has been blocked.
Will it stay blocked?
Can evidence (not used in court) be hidden?
Is the Smithsonian, making a big deal out of Trayvon’s hoodie on par with getting people to believe the size(s) of old dinosaur’s?
There’s a Richard Feynman story, where he told of how when he was very young, his dad explained to him how big a living dinosaur was. His bedroom was up a flight of stairs. So his dad pointed to the window, telling him that if the dinosaur was outside … his head would be at the window. But the window wouldn’t be wide enough for him to stick his head inside.
Not pertinent to your post. But it’s the way explanations work the best.
There’s so much already known about Trayvon … like his mother “identifying” the screams as belonging to her son. When in reality she toodled out of Trayvon’s life when he was 3. And, then? Well, his dad moved on … so he lost “that” mom. And, got to “live” with Sybrina. Who threw him out when he got suspended from school the 3rd time.
Exactly how did the State of Florida contaminate evidence that exonerated Zimmerman? How about Dr. Bao. Do lawyers see medical examiners like that often?
How do you handle “expert” witnesses that break all the laws of common sense?
Why do you think Zimmerman is threatened by most people (who aren’t black). And, who understand the mischief the State pulled. The State gets away with it? Rick Scott wins another term? (Hey, if he wins … ha, ha, ha … he can run for president. The republicans have an opening in 2016. And, how can you tell one Floriduh governor from another, now?)
Andrew, I look forward to your posts. Hopefully, you find mine more fun, than not.
Good. Good news. Nice.
Glad to have you around, Andrew!
And thanks to the Professor.
Congratulations, Andrew!
I’m delighted that you will continue with LI and Professor Jacobson. Loved your knowledgeable and insightful analysis of the Zimmerman trial.
This site is a treat, not only for the legal beagles but for those of us in other professions who believe in the Law.
Now there’s a piece of good news in the midst of a shower of bad. So glad you’re staying, Andrew.
Welcome, Andrew!
The Professor is certainly assembling an all-star crew; I hope it doesn’t mean he’ll be reducing his own footprint, as the Greenies say.
Great news!
Without a regular Branca fix, ‘Uncle Samuel’ would have gone into Self-Defense Law withdrawal for sure and no telling what kind of symptoms would have resulted to alarm and/or aggravate ‘Aunt Sarah’ in the coming days.
Besides, the Gun Control/Stand Your Ground/Self-Defense war has just begun if this Ebony Magazine cover and the Ophrah comment are any indication.
There is a push-back against the Trayvon Kool-Aid from sane persons of every skin pigmentation and population demographic.
First, Carol Swain, another law professor (Vandy) tells Sybrina Fulton she has missed her moment in history to be a redemptive force for black youth and not just another Sharptonesque race-monger.
LA Senator Elbert Guillory speaks out about the ‘Free At Last PAC’ for conservative, thinking African-Americans who do not go along with the Sharpton/Ferrakhan/Obama/Holder ideology.
Then there is the wonderful AlfonZo Rachel at PJTV’s Zonation, who also weighs in on the Trayvon madness.
Thanks to the Professor for inviting Andrew to continue blogging here, and thanks Andrew for accepting the invitation! I look forward to your ongoing insights into self-defense law and gun rights issues. (And yes I have your book!)
Outstanding. Your coverage of the Zimmerman case was incredible. Its the reason LI became the “go to” site for the rest of the blogosphere re anything Zimmerman. Esp for those Martin supporters that needed debunking.
Thanks again for all the time and energy you put into that.
I think you both made a sound decision Andrew. Welcome and glad to have you here.
Wonderful news, Andrew. I join everyone else in looking forward to your posts. 🙂
Great news. Well reasoned posts based on solid info are a joy to read.
Great to hear that you’re staying on, Andrew! And I’m loving your book, now in Ch. 4 and it’s very well written.
Looking forward to more of your clear analysis of cases.
Thanks for the kind words, Eskyman.
But you’re missing the whole “3D experience” if you don’t buy a separate book for each eye.
Just sayin’. 🙂
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
Hey Andrew – That is exciting. The first time I came to LI – and read your posts – was near the beginning of the trial. I understood the trial because of your coverage. And I learned a lot from you!
Congrats – I’m looking forward to reading your columns. 🙂
Thanks, Sally. Glad to be here. 🙂
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
Glad to hear you’ll be a regular here Andrew!
Thanks! Look for a substantive post from me on Sunday afternoon/evening, I believe. 🙂
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense