Litigation

• A divided Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals panel last week upheld by a 2-1 vote a lower court ruling that declared California’s voter-approved Proposition 63 background check scheme for ammunition purchases is unconstitutional because the law “meaningfully constrains” people’s right to keep and bear arms and “infringes on the fundamental right to keep and bear arms.” The court agreed that the permanent injunction originally imposed by US District Judge Roger T. Benitez was correct, but California Attorney General Rob Bonta will most likely seek a stay on the decision and an en banc review by an 11-judge panel of majority liberal Ninth Circuit judges. If that’s denied, he could ask the Supreme Court to keep the law in effect during the appeals process. Meanwhile, it seems that vendors are already shipping ammo direct to California shooters again.
• In a fiery dissent, panel Judge Jay Bybee said the decision failed to correctly apply the Bruen test, and that using the logic of the decision, any firearms regulation could be interpreted as a violation of the Second Amendment. “It is difficult to imagine a regulation on the acquisition of ammunition or firearms that would not ‘meaningfully constrain’ the right to keep and bear arms under the majority’s new general applicability standard,” Bybee wrote in the dissent. Well Judge, you are exactly right, and that is the point.
• Also in the Ninth Circus, they’re still up to their old tricks.
• A Fourth US Circuit panel on Tuesday affirmed the constitutionality of firearm bans on those previously committed to mental institutions, because “History shows that legislatures had the authority, consistent with the understanding of the individual right to keep and bear arms, to disarm categories of people based on a belief that the class posed a threat of dangerousness.” A factor in this case is that the plaintiff attacked the mentally ill gun ban provision on its face rather than as applied to him, meaning that he would have had to show that it is unconstitutional in all applications, rather than just in his particular circumstance. That’s why you need a GOOD lawyer.
• Missouri Circuit Judge Joseph P. Whyte ruled that St. Louis’ 2017 “unattended vehicle” gun storage city ordinance – which required any gun left in a parked car to be also locked in a secure, hidden container – violates Missouri’s state firearm preemption law.
• Grassroots updates.

Arrest

• A Jamaican national working as a reserve police officer in Maine overstayed his visa and was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement after he was caught trying to illegally purchase a firearm.

Enemies & Liars

• California Gov. Gavin Newsom prevented California Gov. Gavin Newsom from accepting gun gift.
• New York Gov. Kathy Hochul responded to the recent mass murder by a crazed gunman by telling outright lies about carry laws and so-called “assault weapons.”
• Late night TV. But that’s not news.
• The American Medical Association.
• Study: Gun owners don’t trust the mental health system. Well, duh.

DGUs

• Good Guy with a Gun Ends Mass Stabbing in Michigan
• The Armed Citizen:
  • American Rifleman – July 25, 2025
  • American Rifleman – July 28, 2025

Not DGUs

• Manhattan Tragedy Underscores Failed Gun Control Policy – CCRKBA
• Man Pours Bucket of Gasoline on Elected Official and Sets Him on Fire Outside Office, Police Say
  • “Lee attempted to flee, ran to the front of the building – the individual followed him and set him on fire.” Probably should have just shot the attacker.
• Also not a DGU, but I couldn’t leave this one out: 1-year-old infant fatally bites cobra.

(Don’t believe the recoil claim about the Federal 20 gauge buckshot load – I ran the numbers and it ain’t true, unless you’re using a significantly lighter 20 ga. gun.)

Tactics & Stuff

• About those “shots in the back.”
• Being gray.
• Discussion of Appendix Inside Waistband Carry. My primary guns are more than 2″ long and I’ve never been able to sit down with one in the front of my pants, no matter what orientation is used.

Industry News

• Years ago, Ducks Unlimited moved its seminal event, the Ducks Unlimited Expo, from Memphis, TN. We just learned that the Expo has returned to Memphis, and is happening NOW.
• The website of the Church Security Institute Network has recently moved to a new URL. The new site is ChurchSecurityInstitute.net. Until past articles are merged into the new site, also visit its previous address: ChurchSecurityInstitute.wordpress.com.

Sig.

• We previously reported that the Air Force Global Strike Command implemented an indefinite command-wide “pause” on Sig M17/M18 pistol use after the death of an airman at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, we have word that although Headquarters Air Combat Command has not directed a similar ban, but some subordinate commanders have temporarily restricted use of the weapon out of an abundance of caution. I don’t pretend to know the structure of the Air Force or what the various “commands” are, other than confusing.
• Contrary to an earlier report, US ICE has extended its existing contract with SIG SAUER another two years.
• Sig Triples Down. “The P320 CANNOT, under any circumstances, discharge without the trigger first being moved to the rear.”
• Or maybe it can.
• And, Sig has filed a lawsuit against the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission (WSCJTC), which operates Washington’s police training academy, seeking to have the Commission’s academy ban of the P320 reversed and claiming that the ban is unnecessary and not well grounded in fact or law. I’m not a lawyer and haven’t even read Washington law, but I think Sig’s gonna lose the point on the preemption law. The case is Sig Sauer Inc. v. WSCJTC. Also see the discussion in the Grassroots Judicial Updates under “Litigation,” above.
• Of course there are several P320 lawsuits against Sig working their way through the courts.
• Meanwhile, the Tucson-based National Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors Association announced, “Effective immediately and until further notice, the use of any variant of the SIG Sauer P320 pistol is prohibited in NLEFIA courses.”

Products

• Picaridin vs Deet: Bug Out Shootout.
• S&W’s new M&P Shield X series: an upgraded subcompact platform.