I have enjoyed practicing martial arts for most of my life.  I once had a very satisfying moment when I demonstrated how to use a jump rope just like a nunchaku in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee:

"Protected arms are not limited to firearms. Frightened by Bruce Lee movies, in the 1970s, do-gooders rushed to ban nunchaku. In 1986, I testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee against then-Sen. Ted Kennedy’s (D-Mass.) bill to ban mail-order sales. He defined nunchaku as two sticks connected by cord. His face turned beet red when I pulled out a jump rope—it met his definition. I swung it around. The bill died.

"But New York 'saved the children' by criminalizing possession of nunchaku anyway. Martial artist James Maloney challenged the ban. In Maloney v. Singas (2018), U.S. District Judge Pamela Chen wrote that 'the government bears the burden of rebutting the "prima facie presumption of Second Amendment protection" that extends to all bearable arms.' Her careful reading of Heller led her to hold that the state must prove both that an arm is not in 'common use' and is not 'typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes.'
"Neither alternative could be proven. Sales data and the lawful status of nunchaku in most states established its common use. And its lawful use in martial arts demonstrated its typical possession for lawful purposes."

The above excerpts are from my new article:  “What Firearms Have 'Common-Use' Protections?”  America’s First Freedom, June 2022, 28.  Direct link:  https://www.americas1stfreedom.org/content/what-firearms-have-common-use-protections/
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#martialarts #nunchaku #nunchakus #nunchakulife #nunchakuskills #nunchakutraining #nunchucks #nunchakubrucelee #brucelee #bruceleemovies #tedkennedy #senatortedkennedy #jumpropetricks #2sticksandacord #criminalpossession #martialartsweapon #martialartsweapons #martialartsweaponsban
#jamesmaloney #judgepamelachen #heller #hellercase #protectedarms #senatejudiciarycommittee  #stephenhalbrook #americas1stfreedom #nramagazine 
#therighttobeararms #rtkba #rtba ...

The 23rd Annual National Firearms Law Seminar will be held on Friday, May 27, 2022 at the Hyatt Regency in Houston, Texas.  (This coincides with the NRA Annual Meetings which run from May 27-29.)  I will be speaking during Session 5 - Legal Ethics.  The title of my presentation is "Ethics: Counseling Clients in Unlawful Possession of Firearms."  Attorneys earn CLE credit.

I will be there all day, selling and signing my books.

Read the day's schedule here: https://lawseminar.nrafoundation.org/program/

Register here: https://lawseminar.nrafoundation.org/register/

Info on NRA Annual meetings here: nraam.org
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#constitutionallaw #firearmslaws #2a #2ndamendment #rtkba #righttobeararms #stephenhalbrook #continuinglegaleducation #gunowner #gundebate #gunlaws #guns #secondamendment #GunControl #2ndamendmentcases #2ndamendmentsupporter #gunrestrictions #nraannualmeeting #nraannualmeeting2022 #firearms #nra #nraila #nrafoundation #nationalfirearmslawseminar #legalethics #unlawfulpossession #unlawfulpossessionoffirearms #guncharges #gunrights #gunrightsmatter ...

"What 'arms' are protected by the Second Amendment? The text is explicit: 'A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.' 

"Since this is a right, the people, not the government, decide. The arms they keep in their homes and carry on their persons are protected. These include arms that are useful in a militia in order to secure a free state."  
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"Which arms are in common use is established by what Americans acquire in a free market, not by whatever arms are left over after the government bans the arms that the people would have preferred. ..."
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"In McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010), an opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the right to keep and bear arms is a fundamental right applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. Dissenting, Justice Stephen Breyer worried that judicial enforcement of Second Amendment rights would require judges to resolve questions such as: 'What sort of guns are necessary for self-defense? Handguns? Rifles? Semiautomatic weapons?' The thing is, that’s a question for individual choice, not government diktat. As Justice Samuel Alito responded, it is not up to judges 'to assess the costs and benefits of firearms restrictions and thus to make difficult empirical judgments in an area in which they lack expertise.'"

The above excerpts are from my new article:  “What Firearms Have 'Common-Use' Protections?”  America’s First Freedom, June 2022, 28.  Direct link:  https://www.americas1stfreedom.org/content/what-firearms-have-common-use-protections/
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#therighttobeararms #rtkba #rtba #righttobeararms #righttokeepandbeararms #2ndamendment #righttocarry #righttocarryarms #guncontrol #2ahistory #2a #secondamendment #constitutionalright
#therightofthepeople #shallnotbeinfringed #2acase #firearmslaws #2ndamendmentrights #2arightsforall #stephenhalbrook #americas1stfreedom #nramagazine #mcdonaldvchicago #justicebreyer #justicealito #firearms #2ndamendmentrights #selfdefensefirearms #firearmsrestrictions #14thamendment ...

Wise men like Niccolò Machiavelli argued that an armed populace is ideal for a defensive war:

"For either I have my country well equipped with arms, as the Romans had and the Swiss have; or I have a country ill equipped with arms, as the Carthaginians had, and as have the king of France and the Italians today.  In the latter case the enemy should be kept at a distance. . . .

"But when states are strongly armed, as Rome was and the Swiss are, the more difficult it is to overcome them the nearer they are to their homes: for such bodies can bring more forces together to resist attack than they can to attack others. . . . In attacking a foreign country, [the Romans] never sent out armies of more than fifty thousand men; but for home defense they put under arms against the Gauls after the first Punic war eighteen hundred thousand.

"In conclusion, therefore, I say again that a ruler who has his people well armed and equipped for war, should always wait at home to wage war. . . ."

From Machiavelli's Discourses of the First Ten Books of Titus Livy (1531) quoted in Halbrook, That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional Right, p. 21.
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#armedpopulace #defensivewar #niccolòmachiavelli #niccolomachiavelli #machiavelli #machiavelliquotes #machiavellibooks #thediscourses #greatitalians 
#romanarmy #swissarmy #armedcountries #carthaginians #armedstates #strongcountries #armedromans #armedswiss #resistattack #homedefense #gauls #punicwar #firstpunicwar #righttobeararms #armedpeople #armed #armedcitizen #keepandbeararms #selfdefense #thateverymanbearmed #2ahistory ...

A shotgun is always in fashion.  This classy 1953 advertisement from Ford Motor Co. (UK) shows a beautiful lady, a beautiful shotgun, and a Zephyr 6, the car that won the Monte Carlo Rally that year.  It was driven by Maurice Gutsonides, a Dutch rally driver who also invented the speed camera.  
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#fordmotorco #fordmotorcompany #fordmotorsportuk #fordcar #zephyr #zephyr6 #fordzephyr #fordzephyr6 #classicford #classicbritishcars #oldford #fordmotoring #fordsetsthefashion #ronaldpatterson #1950sfashion #montecarlorally #carraces #vintagead #vintageads #vintagecarad #vintagefordad #vintagefordadvertising #1953 #1953ad #1953advertising #adswithguns #shotgun #carsandguns #gunsandcars #womenandguns ...

During WWII, in Nazi-occupied France, "liberal sentences could be imposed for having a gun or insulting the Führer.  Some occupation authorities understood that extreme sentences would only increase resistance.  But more vicious repression would increase later when Germany experienced losses in the war.  

"It seems that gun dealers were remiss in surrendering their inventories.  The search of a weapons dealer in Paris yielded pistols, barrels for hunting rifles, handgun parts, magazines, and hunting and pistol ammunition.  It was assumed that other dealers did not surrender all their weapons either, necessitating that the military police, with support from the French police, conduct a search of gun dealers.  A French police raid on illegal gun dealers netted thirty-six arrests."

From Gun Control in Nazi-Occupied France: Tyranny and Resistance, p. 93.

Photo: "Military parade of the French Milice armed with machine guns in 1944."
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#gunpossessionsentence #illegalgunpossession #frenchresistance #partisanwarfare #guncontrol #nazigermany #disarm #weaponssearch #naziguncontrol #francehistory #nazioccupiedfrance #righttobeararms #gunregistration #guncontrolinnazioccupiedfrance #weaponsconfiscation #firearmsban #europeanhistory #wwIIhistory #ww2history #firearms #hitlerhistory #turninyourweapons #possessionofarms #francewwii #nazihistory #nogunsforyou #frenchpoliceraid #gundealers #frenchguns ...

"Far safer 'is to have the power of defence in the body of the people, to have a well regulated and well-disciplined militia.'  If the people themselves are armed they will defend their country.  A force made up of men of property, who have always worked, 'will generally equal the best veteran troops, in point of strength of body and firmness of mind, and when fighting in defence of their religion, their estates, their liberty, and families, will have stronger motives to exert themselves, and may, if they have been properly disciplined be not much inferior to them in the skill of arms.'"  

From Reverend Simeon Howard's June 1773 sermon to the Ancient and Honourable Artillery Company in Boston.  Quoted in Halbrook, The Founders' Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms, p. 28. 

Painting:  "Portrait of an Unknown Man with a Gun," by T. Seed.  Harris Museum & Art Gallery.
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#reverendsimeonhoward #simeonhoward #selfdefensesermon #selfpreservation #christiansandguns #2ahistory #constitutionalrights #thefounderssecondamendment #2a #2ndamendment #rtkba #righttobeararms #individualrights #armedcitizen #keepandbeararms #selfdefense #firearm #firearms #gunowner #defendyourself #defendyourcountry #militia #ancientandhonourableartillery #1773 #wellregulatedmilitia #welldisciplinedmilitia #skillofarms #strengthofbody #firmnessofmind ...

"As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow-citizens, the people are confirmed . . . in their right to keep and bear their private arms." - Tench Coxe (writing under the pen name "A Pennsylvanian")

From "Remarks on the First Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution," Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789 quoted in Halbrook, The Right to Bear Arms: A Constitutional Right of the People or a Privilege of the Ruling Class?, pgs. 167-68 (hardback edition).

Photo caption: "A man and a boy out hunting with shotguns, circa 1955."
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#tenchcoxe #foundingfathersquotes #billofrights #usbillofrights #civilrulers #tyranny #tyranicalrule #billofrightshistory #bearingarms #carryagun #righttocarry #fundamentalright #privatearms #gunrights #rtkba #individualrights #keepandbeararms #rtba #therighttobeararms #therighttobeararmshalbrook #righttobeararms #rightofthepeople #2a #2ndamendment #2ahistory #selfdefense #governmentalpower #firearms #federalgazette #federalconstitution ...