Customer Reviews

Firearms Law Deskbook: Federal and State Criminal Practice

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The Deskbook is intended primarily as a reference manual for attorneys doing firearms cases; the book's price reflects that fact that it is a serious technical publication for professionals. Indeed, any attorney attempting to try a gun control case may well find himself intellectually outgunned by an opponent armed with the Firearms Law Deskbook. But I think the audience for this book can be significantly larger than just attorneys. For all the attention paid to the Constitutional right to keep and bear arms, much of the gun litigation in the modern United States does not involve broad Constitutional theory, but instead deals with interpretation of the federal gun control laws. If you want to understand these gun laws in depth--and to understand how courts have interpreted these laws--the Firearms Law Deskbook is an indispensable resource. The Deskbook, after summarizing court decisions and scholarship regarding the Constitutional right to arms, deals with topics such as the federal Gun Control Act of 1968, BATF inspections of gun dealers, property forfeitures under the gun control laws, how the Congressional power over interstate commerce has been used as a basis to expand and (recently) to limit the reach of federal gun laws, and "assault weapons." Anyone who is interested in machine gun policy will find the extensive discussion of the National Firearms Act specially useful. Indeed, anyone, including firearms dealers, who interacts with the federal gun regulation bureaucracy will find the Deskbook a crucial resource in helping to decide when regulators are acting within their lawful powers, and when they are bluffing or bullying. The chapter on "Entrapment and Due Process" should be particularly frightening to anyone who cares about traditional American liberties. The chapter clearly demonstrates that gun control laws, like other laws regarding victimless crimes, often lead to serious abuses of Constitutional rights. Review by Dave Kopel, Independence Institute, http://i2i.org.