Posted on 02/23/2017 8:30:03 AM PST by SeekAndFind
It looks like Neil Gorsuch is going to have his plate full when he finally takes his seat on the Supreme Court. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has been busy uprooting the Second Amendment this week, delivering a stunning opinion which essentially overturns the Heller decision without so much as a by your leave to SCOTUS. It involves a case out of Maryland where the state’s Democrats decided to ban “assault rifles” and high-capacity magazines. Apparently the idea of precedent is not something they care to have any truck with, as Charles C.W. Cook explains at National Review.
Freed up by the Supreme Court’s ongoing reluctance to engage in depth with the Second Amendment, the Fourth Circuit has taken it upon itself to rewrite Heller en banc. In a 10–4 decision, issued yesterday afternoon, the court upheld Maryland’s ban on both “assault weapons” and “high capacity magazines.” By so doing, it deprived the people of Maryland, the Carolinas, and the Virginias of the core protections to which the Constitution entitles them.
As Judge Traxler’s dissent pointedly establishes, the majority achieved this transformation by contriving “a heretofore unknown ‘test,’ which is whether the firearm in question is ‘most useful in military service.’” In effect, this “test” is designed to permit judges to determine that any weapon they might dislike is unprotected by the Second Amendment and can therefore be prohibited with impunity. Forget that Heller contains its own explicit tests. Forget the “common use” standard. Forget “dangerous and unusual.” There’s a new kid in town, and he’s coming for your rifles.
Pardon my language, but where the hell did the phrase R#8220;most useful in military service” come from? As Charles aptly points out, this is completely new ground which was summoned up out of whole cloth by the majority in this decision. And what does that even mean?
There are two competing narratives which could be applied to these questions. First, let’s look at the ostensible target of the original legislation. They were going after the AR-15 and its related cousins in the firearms market. This begs the question of how many AR-15 style rifles are currently in use. On the civilian side, the NRA estimates that more than 5 million households have one. In a single seven day span last year following the Orlando shooting, more than 30,000 were sold. But how about the military? As it turns out, the rifles under discussion are civilian models which only fire one shot each time the trigger is pulled. The military doesn’t use them. So technically, calling this particular firearm “most useful in military service” is a complete red herring since the military has no interest in them.
But that’s not to say that the weapon couldn’t be used in a military scenario for the purpose of killing the enemy. (Even though the AR-15 is a somewhat under-powered platform.) The same could be said, as Charles points out, for most standard hunting rifles. If you really have to kill the enemy a good 30:06 will get the job done. The same can be said for virtually any semiautomatic handgun of sufficient caliber and they are frequently carried in combat scenarios. Going by the “logic” of the Fourth Circuit court there is almost no weapon of any sort which would fail to meet this test.
Will the Supreme Court actually entertain nonsense like this as some new standard in defiance of all precedent? I can certainly think of four members who might. This is yet another case which demonstrates how important it is to get Neil Gorsuch on the job as quickly and efficiently as possible. This sort of claptrap coming from the lower courts must be kept in check.
Currently, Chief Justice Roberts is the Justice in charge of the 4th circuit.
They can have my military 7MM Remington Rolling Block when they pry it from my cold dead hands!
A bad call by the appeals court. Basically going with the theme that black semi-auto and able to make loud bangy noises is scary and should be banned.
Given the squirrelly makeup of the SCOTUS at the moment, this ruling has half a chance. Adding Gorsuch is the do-or-die.
Scalia is gone, how sure are we that Gorsuch will enforce Heller?
Nullification!
“John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it.” Andrew Jackson
...If you really have to kill the enemy a good 30:06 will get the job done...
Goodbye to Grandpa’s M1 and M1 Carbine. !
The Court said the 2nd amendment doesn’t protect weapons of war. The idiots don’t care that when the Amendment was raitifed, all the colonists firearms were generally weapons of war that freed us from George III.
B
Off topic, but relating to the headline...I can’t stand how so many people these days (mostly millennials) start off their sentences with “So...”
To paraphrase President Trump: “The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes the Second Amendment away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!”
This is also 180 degrees around from the Miller decision in the 1930’s that upheld the NFA because the short-barreled shotgun was found to NOT be a military weapon.
Um, no. A lower court does not “gut” a higher court’s decision. It merely contradicts it until it gets slapped down by the higher court.
Could you imagine if we had a Majority of A Actual Americans running CONgress? They would have passed Legislation Over Riding this Inferior Court they “Ordained and Established” and then immediately Impeach and Remove all 10 Recalcitrant Tyrants in Black Robes.
Unfortunately having Americans in Congress doesn’t seem likely anytime soon. Just the Quisling Bastards
No they didn’t gut Heller. Heller is a SCOTUS decision. They FLOUTED and IGNORED Heller.
They will be overturned. Bigly.
Lower courts overturn SCOTUS often - usually there is no more money by this time to take the case back to SCOTUS, so the overturning/gutting stands.
“Judicial Tyranny Sanctuary Areas”
With the recent anti-Constitutional rulings by federal black robed tyrants (judges?) on Trump’s executive order as well as the 4th Circuit’s braindead anti-2nd Amendment “assault weapons” ruling, maybe we who revere the Constitution should declare (as suggested by radio host Mark Levin) our homes and cities “Judicial Tyranny Sanctuary Areas” where these authoritarian anti-Constitutional rulings and laws are IGNORED and RESISTED. Either there IS “rule of law” or there’s NOT. For this we can thank our (misnamed) “Progressives/Liberal” friends for the inspiration that any law or court ruling we don’t like can be summarily disobeyed and dismissed! #RustyIrony
They didn’t outlaw the M1A, M1 Garand, Enfield, 1911, Certain Shotguns, the Sharps rifle, Pennsylania and Kentucky rifles???
Hacktavist court...
most useful in military service”
= = =
Better guard your Dog Tags and Combat Boots. They will be next.
"Maybe they should try and come get them (our guns)."
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