No, not that ConLaw prof. I’m talking about one who actually teaches and not the guest-lecturer-in-chief.
This ConLaw professor is UCLA’s Adam Winkler. Professor Winkler is a nationally recognized legal scholar. More specifically, he knows quite a bit about the 2nd Amendment. His book on the subject Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America, has been called an even handed treatment of the gun control debate in the US.
Winkler’s latest on gun control can be found at The Daily Beast: Did the Assault-Weapons Ban Kill Gun Control? In it, Winkler points out that the gun grabbers may have overplayed their hand with DiFi’s AW ban; so much so that they may have torpedoed other gun control efforts. DiFi and Obama have sucked the oxygen out of the room and more “moderate” proposals, like a magazine ban or background checks, could fail as well.
Even if enacted, Feinstein’s proposal would be the most likely of all the major gun reforms being considered in Washington today to be overturned on Second Amendment grounds. The Supreme Court has held that the Second Amendment protects arms that are “in common use” for lawful purposes, like self-defense. There seems little doubt that assault weapons are in common use, given the millions of them in circulation. Of course, the courts might still have upheld the ban; a federal appeals court recently said that outlawing this one category of firearm didn’t substantially interfere with anyone’s self-defense. Strangely, the best thing an assault-weapons ban would have going for it is its loopholes. Because you could buy the exact same gun without the pistol grip, you weren’t really denied the right to have a semiautomatic rifle to defend yourself.
There was one certain impact of proposing to ban the sale of assault weapons: it was guaranteed to stir gun-rights proponents to action. Ever since Obama was elected, they’ve been claiming that he wanted to ban guns. Gun-control advocates mocked this claim—then proposed to ban a gun. Not only that, the gun they were trying to ban happened to be the most popular rifle in America. It’s one thing to ban machine guns, which few law-abiding people ever wanted or used. It’s another thing entirely to ban a gun that millions of American gun enthusiasts love to shoot.
But it’s his discussion of one of the “moderate” gun control proposals that needs some attention. Winkler correctly points out that Chuck Schumer’s background check bill would have been as easier sell, and that his pal DiFi may have just shot the bill in the head, but he incorrectly accepts at face value the claim that such checks would “primarily burden criminals and the mentally ill trying to buy guns”. That isn’t the case at all.
In fact, criminals and the mentally ill wouldn’t be burdened at all. Only mentally healthy, law abiding citizens would be affected. Criminals and the mentally ill are already barred from possessing firearms. To do so for them is a federal felony. So for them, filling out the paperwork for a background check would be a self-incriminating act. And per the 5th Amendment, a law like Schumer’s cannot compel a person to incriminate himself. And practically speaking, it’s just ridiculous to think that criminals or the insane would actually follow the law in the first place and only purchase firearms after completing a background check. So the only one who will be burdened by such a law is you. You’re the one who cannot claim a 5th Amendment privilege to keep from being compelled to go through a background check. You’re the one who Big Sis will have her beady eyes on.
And they say crime doesn’t pay! Apparently crazy pays off too.
So I hope that Professor Winkler takes a second look at what he’s calling “moderate”" and accepting as effective. “Universal” background checks are anything but universal and can only serve to let the government spy on law abiding gun owners.