Elementary

The Widget:

Court: U.S. Supreme Court
Judge: Souter
Subject: Guns, drugs
Tone: Subliminally persuasive
Importance: 5.5

A couple of years ago, the Supreme Court held that a defendant who traded his gun for drugs “used” the gun during the transaction for sentencing purposes. Today, in United States v. Watson, U.S. Supreme Court No. 06-571, the Court held that a defendant who traded his drugs for a gun had NOT “used” the gun during the transaction for sentencing purposes.

At first glance, these two decisions seem wacky and irreconcilable. But then you look at them for a couple of minutes, and kind of like this famous E.G. Boring thing, you start to see that they’re compatible.

Professor Reynolds says he sees no Second Amendment implications and then implies that there are Second Amendment implications.