The Supreme Court Opinion??
I came across this folder today while pulling old files for storage and felt like it deserved a post.
These illustrations are from 2019, and if you stay up to date with firearm law, odds are good you've seen them before.
This project certainly highlights the importance of hiring people who have a knowledge - or at very least the desire to learn - surrounding the topic being executed. I've done many editorial illustrations in my career, but this one served a much larger purpose than to allow general readers to visualize what an article was explaining.
I remember exactly where I was standing when the Firearms Policy Coalition team first called me and asked "Are you willing and able to illustrate the functional difference between a full-auto and semi-auto fire control group as if you were teaching your grandma?" -- absolutely, yes.
As soon as I hung up the phone I looked at my brother, a highly skilled gunsmith, and said "I think I'm going to need your help on this one."
I don't even remotely remember how many hours I poured into this project, I just know it was A LOT - and on a short timeline.
Fast forward - this past summer I received a message from Adam Kraut on Facebook “I think your illustrations from the bumpstock stuff were in the opinion today if no one told you.”
Getting work published into government documents such as the Supreme Court opinion, which is what will be cited to for precedent in arguments for other cases, wasn’t something I ever remotely expected to achieve in my career. This, in Adam’s words “wasnt a 2A case, but rather one dealing with the bounds of administrative agencies and their authority.”
Litigation illustration work is challenging but the handful of cases I’ve been involved with (some of which are still under NDA, to my knowledge) have been an honor and allow me to grow as an illustrator. Anyone can draw a gun - but instructional work for people who often have ZERO firearm experience is an entirely different level of challenge.
I’ve done an awful lot of cool things in my career, but this one is definitely up there in the top 5.
