Ready, aim, fire, but not on county property.  Just when you thought most of the questions about the right to bear arms had been answered by last term’s U.S. Supreme Court case, here comes another one.  This one got started when Alameda County, California officials made it a misdemeanor to bring or possess a firearm or ammunition on county property.  The County claimed the impetus of the law was a shooting at the fairgrounds, but the plaintiffs argued that the law was aimed at gunning down gun shows.  They quoted one County supervisor who said she’d been trying to get rid of gun shows for years but was thwarted by spineless people hiding behind the Constitution and attacked by aggressive gun-toting mobs on rightwing talk radio.  The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the law ruling that unlike the D.C. ordinance, this one regulates gun possession on county property and thus falls within the Supreme Court’s express allowance of laws forbidding carrying firearms in sensitive places.  So the Supreme Court fired a shot heard around the world, and the Ninth Circuit has followed up with a silencer.

THIS IS NEIL CHAYET LOOKING AT THE LAW™

Nordyke v. King, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 07-15763, April 20, 2009, O’Scannlain, J., U.S. Law Week, Vol. 77, No. 41, Pg. 1651, 4-28-09

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