In June, I traveled to Chur, Switzerland, to take part in the 2026 Federal Shooting Festival. In addition to competing with my club the Swiss Rifles of Washington, D.C., I shot several individual programs with the M49 9 mm pistol at 25 meters and the SIG Stgw 90 5.6 mm service rifle at 300 meters. I have participated in the once-every-five-years Federal Shoot, the largest rifle match in the world, since 1995. This year, some 30,000 competitors, mostly Swiss, are competing. Look for my future magazine article on the subject.

To see the newspaper article (in German) on my participation in the Shoot, go to stephenhalbrook.com, click the "Switzerland" tab at the top of the page, then scroll down to "Articles" to find “US-Amerikaner bewundert die Schweiz.” Or copy and paste this link: https://stephenhalbrook.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Salzmann-Article.pdf

Photo: I am holding a SIG Stgw 90, also designated as SG 550.
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#EidgenössischesSchützenfest #EidgenössischesSchützenfestChur #Schuetzenfest #swissrifles #shootingcompetition ...

"On June 25, the Supreme Court decided Wolford v. Lopez, holding 6-3 that Hawaii may not `prohibit licensed concealed-carry permit holders from carrying handguns on private property open to the public unless the property owner gives express permission.`..."
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"At the jurisprudential level, Wolford starkly clarifies the methodology of text first and history second, which are often flipped to uphold infringements. In determining whether a law clashes with the plain text, three questions arise: `First, does the law apply to "the people"—which is to say, to "all members of the political community"? …. Second, does it concern any form of "Arms," i.e., any weapon customarily used for offensive or defensive purposes? … Third, does the law place any restrictions on either the "keep[ing]" (i.e., possession) or the "bear[ing]" (i.e., carrying) of arms?`
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"Justice Barrett, joined in part by Justice Thomas and Justice Gorsuch, doubled down on the discrepancy between the purported analogues and Hawaii`s law, which `does not target any particular abuse of firearms at all. Rather than identifying a specific threat to public peace and safety, Hawaii admits that it enacted the rule because many of its citizens oppose the public carry of guns." However, "Mere disapproval of protected conduct is not a valid reason to severely restrict it.`"

The above excerpts are from my Second Amendment Roundup blog post, "Supreme Court Decides Wolford" (6/25/26).

Read the post at reason.com/volokh or copy and paste: https://reason.com/volokh/2026/06/25/second-amendment-roundup-supreme-court-decides-wolford/

Link can also be accessed through the home page of my website, stephenhalbrook.com
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#WolfordvLopez #SCOTUS #Hawaiigunlaws #secondamendmentroundup #2acase ...

"A bill of rights is intended not only to instruct government on its limits, but also to `giv[e] information to the people,` wrote St. George Tucker in 1803. Every man, even the most humble, thereby `may learn his own rights, and know when they are violated.` Ferreting out the Founders` conceptions of the right to have arms side-by-side with an array of other substantive rights contributes to a broader understanding of the Bill of Rights as a whole."

From Halbrook, The Founders` Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms, p. 6.
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#StGeorgeTucker #billofrights #thesecondamendment #thefounderssecondamendment #shallnotbeinfringed ...

Some happy faces and some determined faces. This early-1930s rifle club photo is a reminder that community-based shooting clubs were once common throughout America. They brought men and women together for marksmanship, safety training, competition, and fellowship.

Photo: The Osborne Rifle Club in Sault Ste., Marie, Michigan. Early 1930s.
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#rifleclub #1930sphoto #marksmanship #vintagegunphoto #shootingsports ...

King Henry VIII may be best known for having six wives, but sports were among his greatest passions. He enjoyed the javelin, dressage, double-axe fighting, archery, and hunting. In 1536, he acquired Hyde Park as his private hunting grounds, where he pursued deer whenever he sought privacy and relief from the pressures of ruling a kingdom.

While Henry VIII appreciated his own weapons, he certainly did not believe that everyone else should have them. As an absolute monarch, he "passed several acts restricting crossbows and handguns, which were quite large at that time. His act of 1533 provided that no person `shall shote in any handgonne or crosse bowe, or use or kepe in hys or theire houses or els where any crose bowe or handgonne,` except persons with the yearly value of one hundred pounds. It made an exception for persons `to whome it may please the Kynge our Soverainge Lorde. . .to geve lycence by hys letters patentes under hys greate seale` to shoot and to have and keep crossbows and handgonnes in his house for its defense. This was the epitome of a discretionary gun licensing scheme."
From Halbrook, The Right to Bear Arms: A Constitutional Right of the People or a Privilege of the Ruling Class?, p. 29 (hardback edition).

King Henry VIII was crowned King of England on this date in 1509.

Painting: "King Henry and Anne Boleyn Deer Shooting in Windsor Forest" by William Powell Frith, 1903.
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#kinghenryviii #englandhistory #famoushunters #weaponsrestrictions #onthisdateinhistory #therighttobeararmshalbrook ...

"Following the occupation of Boston by British troops came the newspaper column `Journal of the Times,` which was reprinted all over the colonies. Its anonymous authors included patriots like Samuel Adams, John Adams, and Josiah Quincy II.

"In one issue, Samuel Adams defended the Boston vote calling on citizens to arm: `For it is certainly beyond human art and sophistry, to prove the British subjects, to whom the privilege of possessing arms is expressly recognized by the [English] Bill of Rights, and, who live in a province where the law requires them to be equip’d with arms, &c. are guilty of an illegal act, in calling upon one another to be provided with them, as the law directs.`"

From Halbrook, America`s Rifle: The Case for the AR-15, p. 95-96.

Illustration: "Forging Arms for the Minute-Men" by Edwin Austin Abbey, 1875.
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#samueladams #bostongazette #englishbillofrights #armedcitizens #AmericasRifleTheCaseForTheAR15 ...

This young man had quite a nice collection. (Georgia, 1959)
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#boysandguns #vintagegunphoto #vintageguncollection #1959 #ariskacarbine ...

"On June 18, in United States v. Hemani, the Supreme Court unanimously held that the prohibition under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3) of firearm possession by a person who is `an unlawful user of` a controlled substance violates the Second Amendment as applied to one who used marijuana `about every other day.` ..."
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"Hemani next turns to the government`s argument that the unlawful user provision disarms persons who as a category are violent and unusually dangerous. (Recall the 1936 movie Reefer Madness?) First, the ban is keyed to the Controlled Substances Act, to which drugs can be included without any association with violence, although `some unlawful users of controlled substances can pose a risk of violence.` Second, when this case started, marijuana was listed on Schedule I, which includes drugs with `a high potential for abuse` with `no currently accepted medical use.` But after oral argument, some marijuana products were declassified to Schedule III, which includes drugs with low potential for abuse and for which there is a `currently accepted medical use.` All the while most states have legalized marijuana in different ways. All of that leaves the government `awkwardly positioned to suggest that the millions of Americans who now regularly use marijuana are categorically and unusually dangerous.`"
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"At bottom, Hemani strictly applies Bruen`s principle of reasoning by historical analogy without any departure from that principle. As the Court did in Rahimi, it relies on the `why` principle that a valid deprivation of the arms right must apply to persons who pose a danger of violence and the `how` principle of pre-deprivation process."

The above excerpts are from my Second Amendment Roundup blog post, "Gun Ban for Pot Users Unconstitutional" (6/18/26).

Read the post at reason.com/volokh or copy and paste: https://reason.com/volokh/2026/06/18/second-amendment-roundup-gun-ban-for-pot-users-unconstitutional/
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Link can also be accessed through the home page of my website, stephenhalbrook.com
#USvHemani #SCOTUS #ControlledSubstancesAct #secondamendmentroundup #2acase ...