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Author Topic: Some past gun control Legislation  (Read 702 times)

Offline GreyGeek

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Some past gun control Legislation
« on: March 18, 2013, 12:07:28 PM »
There is a book on Amazon titled: "Homemade guns and  homemade ammo", among others listed in  this listing:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_13?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=homemade+guns+and+homemade+ammo&sprefix=homemade+guns%2Cstripbooks%2C380
It contains the following quotes, which  show how the meaning of the 2nd Amendment was changed:
Quote
Volume 79, American Jurisprudence 2nd Edition, Weapons and Firearms, Section 4:
"No absolute right to keep and bear arms was recognized by common law. Furthermore, the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States in declaring that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed means no more than that this right shall not be infringed by Congress, and the guaranty of this Amendment is not carried over into the Fourteenth Amendment so as to be applicable to the states.   The right to bear arms does not apply to private citizens as an individual right guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. Accordingly, it is generally recognized that state or municipal regulation of weapons does not per se offend the right to bear arms guaranteed by the United States Constitution.   Furthermore, the registration provisions of the National Firearms Act cannot be considered an infringement of the federal constitutional guaranty ot the right to keep and bear arms."

Harris v. State, 83 Nev 404, 432 PZd 929, 30 ALR 3d 1412.
"The Second Amendment was not adopted with the individual's rights in mind, but as a protection for the states in the maintenance of their militia organization against possible encroachments by the federal power. Burton v. Sills, 53 NJ 86, 248 A2d 521, 28 ALR 3d 829, app dismissed 394 US 812, 22L Fd 2d 748, 89S Ct 1486."

Luckily, the  meaning of the 2nd Amendment was restored by two recent rulings of the SCOTUS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_v._Heller
In which they ruled that the 2A  DID indeed apply to individuals and not "militia" and the Federal government could not pass laws overruling that right.
Quote
(1) The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.
...
(2) Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose
...
(3) The handgun ban and the trigger-lock requirement (as applied to self-defense) violate the Second Amendment. The District’s total ban on handgun possession in the home amounts to a prohibition on an entire class of “arms” that Americans overwhelmingly choose for the lawful purpose of self-defense.
I think  it would be fair to say that the  3rd point effective prohibits any laws which require devices or actions which would effective nullify the  use of weapons for personal defense, like requiring the gun be locked in one safe and the ammo in another.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald_v._Chicago
The second ruling states that the 14th Amendment applied to the 2A, thus preventing the states from  doing what the Federal  government cannot do.
Quote
On June 28, 2010, the Supreme Court, in a 5–4 decision, reversed the Seventh Circuit's decision, holding that the Second Amendment was incorporated under the Fourteenth Amendment thus protecting those rights from infringement by local governments.

An important point to note is that BOTH decisions were 5 to 4.  Just one Justice changing their mind, or being replaced by one of a different mind, will most likely result in cases which would reverse both rulings.  Knowing the past rulings of the 5 who voted for the 2A, one can only conclude that the Left will take the second strategy, replacing one or more of the 5.   They are:
Scalia      -- 77 years old
Roberts, Jr.
Kennedy  -- 77 yrs old
Thomas
Alito Jr.

What are the odds that the two oldest will have an accident, retire or die within the next four years?
Pretty high.   They can't control two possible outcomes but they can recognize their importance to Freedom in this  country and stay on the Bench as long as they can.