We’ve covered the fight over the open-carry ban in California twice in the past seven months through the fine efforts of Reason TV to keep some focus on this infringement of rights in the Golden State. Today, Reason TV’s Tim Cavanaugh interviews Charles Nichols, who has filed the first and as-yet only challenge to the new law that bars the open carrying of unloaded firearms in the state.  Nichols explains why he believes the court will eventually overturn the ban — and why he might not get much help from other gun-rights groups:

“It’s unconstitutional to ban an entire class of weapons, one that the public find most useful for self-defense,” says Charles Nichols, president of California Right To Carry and the man behind the first lawsuit to challenge California’s open carry gun ban.

Nichols sat down with Reason.tv’s Tim Cavanaugh to discuss his lawsuit, which is actually targeting the original ban from the 1970s that prohibited the carrying of loaded weapons. They discussed his prospects for success, as well as California’s extremely strict gun control laws and how they might hold up in a post-DC v. Heller world.

For more details on this case, go here.

On the lighter side, we travel to the other side of the country for another arms ban … one that includes legs as well.  Our friend Steven Crowder reveals the New York ban on mixed-martial arts events. How did New York decide to ban MMA while continuing to allow boxing? Steven finds out that the real issue is a unionization fight … in Las Vegas:

In the end, this is less about the MMA than it is about how deeply union tentacles have grown in national and state politics. How does a culinary union dispute in Nevada have anything to do with a question of event licensing in New York, other than as a way to draft politicians into a private war against the casino owners?