I met both of these gentlemen Wednesday evening at the Independent Institute building in Oakland, where they spoke. Click all images for bigger versions.
UPDATE: DVDs, CDs and transcripts are available here. The fees are nominal and go to a good cause.
First, I met the PackingRat, who drove down from Sacramento to attend this event.
Me and the Packing RatHis review is here. Excerpt:
Being in the presence of these two gentlemen was something different. To me, they were doing important work. This is not to say I don’t appreciate other research from other fields – far from it. But when there are intellectual leaders indulging us with information that can potentially affect our rights, one can’t help but to hang on to every word.
Libertarian chicks are hot. Not average, ‘hey there’s a girl in what’s usually a male enviroment “hot”‘ but, ‘wow, that girl would be hot anywhere, hot’.
Mr. Halbrook … seemed positively giddy – like he hasn’t come down since the Heller decision.
Mr. Kates was up next. Honestly, I was shocked he was so little. You have to understand, Don Kates is GIANT to me. I’ve read almost everything he’s written regarding guns and gun control. I admire his prose, love his wit – but his head barely cleared the podium.
–One person observed that when traveling, his or her First Amendment, Fourth Amendment and other rights do not change from one state to the next. But we’re subject as gun owners to a patchwork of different state laws restricting our 2nd Amendment rights. When will the laws be uniform across the land? Halbrook responded that “we are at the very beginning of this enterprise,” and it will be many decades before we get to that point.
–Kates noted that it is a documented fact going back to the 1890s that law-abiding adult Americans simply don’t commit murder.
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–One person asked, other than Cruikshank and Presser, what are the best arguments (of the other side) against application of the 2nd Amendment to the states by incorporation under the 14th Amendment? Don Kates answered, “There are none.”
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–Another asked if Heller now invalidates the standing problems California cases have had in the 9th Circuit. Stephen Halbrook said “Yes,” with the caveat that incorporation has to happen first. A lot of the 9th Circuit’s arguments against the 2nd Amendment in past decisions have now been invalidated by Heller, so it’s come full circle for Halbrook, who was intimately involved in many of those earlier cases.
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–Halbrook’s next book is on the Weimar Republic and how it passed gun-registration laws that, after the Nazis came to power, were used to disarm enemies of the state and Jews.
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When the two finished speaking and answering questions, all assembled of course gave them a standing ovation:
I’m envious.
They videotaped it. Videos will be available for $20 or so. The publicity person (one of the “hot libertarian chicks,” btw)
emailed me the info, but it’s at the office so I’ll not have it posted until Monday.Original post edited with info to get DVDs, CDs and transcripts.