So today.. I did a mock trial

Blitzkrieg

It was a group presentation. 5 of us. We could have done our presentation on anything but we decided on the mock trial format. We picked a recent case that has been going on in Washington, District of Columbia about a ban on handguns and other firearms which stated that nobody could possess a handgun in their home in that city.

The plaintiffs in the case argued the 2nd amendment.. I was on the defense team in which we gave our own interpretation of the 2nd amendment (the old militia argument) and we also used statistics to our advantage that skewed crime/murder rates since the ban was set in place.. Course, our stats were pretty bogus because in reality the numbers have escalated in D.C. along with the fluctuation in population. During the ban a lot of people moved out of the city.. In the real case the plaintiffs won and the ban was lifted.. we had a class vote to determine who they would have supported before we gave them the real results..

Fun stuff. I never thought this legal crap could be so interesting.

Our presentation lasted over 45 minutes.. We got an A.

Inogenius

What role did you play on the defense team?

Either way, that sounds bad ass. I wish I could have done something like that. I did have a mock union contract negotiation though. That was fun.

Blitzkrieg

I was just an attorney for the District of Columbia. The real life trial was 6 individuals, citizens of D.C. who brought the case because of their individual stories in which they all argued that having a handgun in their home could have helped in a burglary or in one case it was a guy who was an officer who wasn't allowed to take his gun home from work.

We, the district, made a lot of arguments on how the ban had helped reduce crime even though it really didn't and we argued that the 2nd amendment did not guarantee any individual rights beyond civic duty such as a state militia.. we argued it's a collective right, not individual.

I wish I could touch on everything we did.. honestly.. it took over 45 minutes but felt like we were debating forever.. great stuff.

here's a link to the real life case.. http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/parker/pleadings.html