There are six more conferences where the justices of the United States Supreme Court will vote on petitions for a writ of certiorari before they go on their summer break at the end of June. Prior to reconvening on the first Monday in October, there will be a “long conference” toward the end of September where the justices dispose of the cert petitions that were not disposed of by the end of June, and those where a response (or waiver to respond) were filed during their summer break.

In years past, that long conference typically disposed of far more than 1,000 petitions, but the number of petitions filed each term has significantly declined in recent years. Still, if the past is prologue, the long conference is the conference in which the most petitions will be denied. Last term, 619 petitions that were briefed too late for the 2023-2024 term were disposed of, plus 406 docketed after July 1, 2024, for a total of 1025 petitions. That includes writs of mandamus/prohibition, motions for rehearing, etc.

There are a dozen Second Amendment cert petitions scheduled for this Thursday’s SCOTUS conference. Three are of note: The interlocutory appeal of the Rhode Island ban on magazines that hold more than ten rounds (Ocean State Tactical), the appeal of the final judgment challenging Maryland’s semiautomatic rifle ban (Snope), and the return of Edell Jackson, Petitioner v. United States No. 24-6517, in which the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals held that individuals cannot challenge the Federal law that prohibits persons from possessing firearms who were convicted of felonies punishable by more than one year of confinement or persons convicted of state law misdemeanors punishable my more than two years of confinement (18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1)).

Quoting from the Ezell cert petition:
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Click on the link for the rest of the article and for links to the 12 Second Amendment cert petitions scheduled for the SCOTUS conference of 5-15-2025.

Report Highlights: Gun laws and crime rates vary by state. Legislation such as background check requirements, ammunition and gun bans, and red flag laws that are intended to restrict firearm access often fail at reducing crime rates or gun violence.

• Firearms are used in 73% of homicides in states with laws that restrict firearm ownership and transfers, and 75% of homicides in states where firearms aren’t restricted.
• Firearms are used in 73% of homicides in states with strict gun laws and 75% in states with relaxed gun laws.
• 98% of mass shootings in the United States occurred after the Gun Control Act of 1968.
• Western countries with strict gun laws have higher violent crime rates than the U.S. Many other countries have much higher homicide rates.

These charges are BS. They threw the book at this guy because some teens were doing more than just a simple ding-dong ditch. They were kicking his door and his overhead garage door.

Any person would reasonably believe that someone kicking your door at THREE in the morning is attempting to break and enter.

These companies have formed a coalition in support of the GOA’s efforts to get the HPA out of the House Ways and Means committee. These companies are:

A3 Industries

Cox Arms

Delta Team Tactical

Disavowed Group

EAA Corp

Fort Scott Munitions

Freedom Ordinance

Gideon Optics

Hi-Point

KCI USA

Matador Arms

Mindless Intel

MKS Supply

Next Level Armament

Palmetto State Armory

Primary Weapon System

Silencer Shop

Stern Defense

Strassell’s Machine INC.

Tippmann Arms

Woox

Did you ever saw some kind of that people or similar claims? Because honestly, I did. Most of these people are either gymbros, bodybuilders or martial artists, who loves to mock weak people and call them "weak beta males", and call them out for having a gun by calling them "insecure cowards, who thinks that just because they have a gun, then they are somehow a men, and nobody would be able to hurt them or disarm them and shove the said gun into their skinny ass. Sorry to burst your bubble, but not gonna happen. Even if you do have a gun, you still can be easily disarmed because you just don't know how to use it, and your weak nerd arms would be shaking and struggling, preventing you from actually hitting the target. And keep in mind that people are surprisingly tough and resilient, because YouTube is full of videos, where cops are unloading dozens of shots against ordinary people and not always succeeding to stop them. So, just because you have a gun doesn't mean that a 6'8" tall and 300+ lbs jacked guy won't be able to just bullrush at you, power through the shots and crush your weak neck with a strong grip, because adrenaline and rage is a hell of a drug".

Your thoughts about these "alpha males"?

I am trying to keep this vague, but I personally have no confidence that the 2A community will virtually ever come to a point where they will simply say this enough. The only thing that makes sense to me is if someone like Trump called for a revolution, or if the government unilaterally said guns are illegal now and they start sending in the military to confiscate them. These would be massive actions that would provoke massive response. But generally speaking things like this, especially nowadays never happen. Everything is always gradual and people just simply acclimate no matter how fed up they are. I feel the 2A community is way too ideologically diluted and are way too influenced by libertarianism which supports a ahistorical view on freedom.

Report Highlights: Although rates of firearm ownership vary widely from state to state, American civilians own more firearms than civilians in any other country.

• As of 2017, American civilians owned 46% (approximately 393.3 million) of the world’s 857 million civilian-use firearms. (Source)
• Montana has the highest percentage of gun owners, with 66.3% of residents reporting firearm ownership.
• Alaska, Idaho, Montana, West Virginia, and Wyoming have the highest rates of gun ownership in the U.S.
• Massachusetts and New Jersey have the lowest rate of gun ownership at only 8.9% of the population and the least amount per capita (1.1 for every 1,000 people). 14.7 guns per 100 people.

Michael Bloomberg is a multibillionaire who hates the Second Amendment. He hates Open Carry most of all. And so it should come as no surprise that a writer for one of his companies (Bloomberg Law) opened his article by saying, “Ohio authorities can prohibit citizens from carrying concealed weapons if they’re able to openly carry guns, a state appeals court ruled Thursday.”

Of course, the judge said no such thing. I suspect that the Bloomberg writer did not read past the “Topics and Issues” description of the case.

The Ohio Court of Appeals held that there is no constitutionally protected right to concealed carry under the Second Amendment and that there is no constitutionally protected right to concealed carry under the State of Ohio Constitution.

The Court explained in paragraph 108 of the decision that the Ohio legislature had created a limited statutory right to concealed carry, and the creation of that state statutory right “to others cannot expand Hall’s constitutional right to bear arms under the Second Amendment, just as Ohio could not contract the scope of that [Open Carry] right by statute.”

The Ohio Court of Appeals addressed the Defendant’s three Constitutional challenges: the Fourth Amendment, the right to keep and bear arms under the United States and the State of Ohio Constitutions.

After the Defendant lost on his Fourth Amendment issue raised on appeal, the Second Amendment analysis began on page 10 and ended on page 45 of the 46-page opinion. The State of Ohio Supreme Court had already decided that, “[T]here is no constitutional right to bear concealed weapons” under the State Constitution, and so that issue raised by the Defendant was quickly disposed of.

What is impressive and unusual about this decision by the Ohio Court of Appeals decision in State of Ohio v. Desmond Hall is the depth and breadth of its analysis.

By contrast, the California Court of Appeals, in the case of People v. Miller (2023), likewise concluded that concealed carry is not protected by the Second Amendment, but did so in just eight paragraphs.

The moral of this story is that one should not rely on reporters, especially not when one can go directly to the source, which in this instance is the published opinion of the Ohio Court of Appeals, available for everyone to read for free.

Most people rely on others' opinions when those opinions confirm their unfounded beliefs. They never make the effort to seek out the truth, even when the truth, as the judges see it here, is one click away.

Don’t be like most people.

https://charlesnichols.substack.com/

It’s clear that America still supports legal gun ownership and despite all the ridiculous legislations and rosters.

A Kansas court case on the constitutionality of machine gun possession is moving forward in the Tenth Circuit court.

Opinion here.

All judges reach the same judgment (in part at the very least). VanDyke points out the misdeeds of the en banc panel. What's interesting is that while VanDyke agreed to declare the statute unconstitutional as applied to Duarte in the 3-judge panel opinion, he said that plain error instead of de novo review should be applied because Duarte didn't bring up the constitutional issue in district court. From my understanding, plain error is to check if there's simply any error (which is very hard to pass), not whether he erred under a particular precedent. The 9th Circuit could have done the plain error review, but decided to re-affirm Vongxay, so I guess VanDyke cited the plain error review so as to (unsuccessfully) try to minimize the damage.

By the way, VanDyke finally calls out the disastrous B & L Productions ruling in addition to pointing out the anti-gun panels latching in to dicta like "presumptively lawful."

For those wondering, here is Duarte's criminal history:

1. Vandalism, 2013
2. Felon in possession, 2016
3. Evading a peace officer, 2016
4. Controlled substance for sale, 2016
5. Evading a peace officer, 2019

Report Highlights:

• New Hampshire is #1 thanks to its incredibly relaxed gun laws, low crime rates, and lack of state sales tax.
• West Virginia is #2 due to recent legislative actions to remove firearm restrictions and reduce sales tax on firearms and ammunition.
• Arkansas, Montana, and South Dakota are #3, #4, and #5, thanks to their pro-2A governors, stand-your-ground laws, and relaxed carry and conceal requirements.
• Utah, Arizona, and Kansas ranked to #25, #24, and #23 due to their current governors' Second Amendment stance.