They say never meet your heroes because you are bound to be disappointed, and I suppose that is true as a general rule. But I recently found out it is not always true. A mutual friend put me in touch with one of my 2A heroes, Robert Cottrol. Dr. Cottrol is a professor at George Washington Law, and he and his co-author Brannon Denning have written what, for my money, is one of the best books in the 2A space: “To Trust the People with Arms.”
If you have not read To Trust, I recommend that you run, not walk, to the nearest computer and order it this minute. On second thought, you may want to wait until October when the new edition comes out.
Anyway, I ventured over to GWL earlier this week to meet Dr. Cottrol. I sat down in his office and within minutes the two of us were happily geeking away on assorted 2A topics, mutual friends, and mutual foes. And before the meeting was over, Bob gave me the benefit of a brilliant idea.
Before I tell you the idea, here’s some context: In various briefs I have written over the years, I have countered the whole “weapons of war” canard by noting that if “weapons of war” are not protected, the federal government distributes unprotected arms every time it sells a surplus Garand through the Civilian Marksmanship Program.
Bob’s idea is this. In these arguments we should not focus on the Garand. Instead, we should focus on the M1 carbine. Why? Because M1 carbines have a detachable magazine AND a bayonet lug. That makes them official “assault weapons” under the “features” test in many of the statutes. The argument then becomes “How is it possibly the case that if I live in X state, I commit a serious crime when I purchase a firearm from my own government?”
Like I said. Brilliant.