Mariana Islands has Date for Second Amendment Hearing

Gun Watch ^ | 24 February, 2015 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

The Federal court in the Northern Mariana Islands has set a date for the hearing on summary judgment for the lawsuit to uphold the second amendment in the Islands.  From mvariety.com:

THE District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands scheduled a March 12, 2015 hearing on the motion for a summary judgment on the constitutionality the commonwealth Weapons Control Act being challenged by a U.S. Navy Gulf War veteran and his wife.

From radionz.co.nz:

They want to be issued handguns for self-defence, following a home invasion which left Mrs Radich badly beaten.

Our correspondent, Mark Rabago, says the Act is not expected to hold up against the second amendment of the constitution, which guarantees US citizens the right to bear arms.

Perhaps the writer is confusing U.S. jurisdictions with Israel or Switzerland, where guns are commonly issued to citizens by the government.  Crime rates are exceptionally low in both countries.

The correspondent in the Marianas correctly reports that the act is expected to be found unconstitutional.   One of the attempts at defense of existing law is that CNMI customs does not allow importation of handguns.  This is not an insurmountable obstacle, of course, but it would be an interesting situation, if people could legally posses arms, but not import them.  Perhaps a cottage industry manufacturing handguns would spring up.  The defendant in the case claims that the federal court lacks jurisdiction.  It is claim that seems unlikely to hold up in court.  From Marians Variety:

The federal court does not have subject jurisdiction over Count I of the complaint — violation of the right to keep and bear firearms — because handguns cannot be legally imported into the commonwealth, according to Deleon Guerrero.

 
The local elites in the Northern Mariana Islands seem as loath to give up their monopoly of force as Michael Bloomberg.  From the comments on mvariety.com:

We already have the 2nd Amendment in place, only with limitations. If we allow handguns for civilian use, we will surely set a precedent to allow other types of guns. We cannot let this happen. Handguns are nothing compared to high-powered firearms such an AK-47 (7.62 x 39mm NATO round) or an H&K MP5 (9mm) or a splatter-gun such as a 12 gauge shotgun. There will be no one class of persons to have just a handgun. Once we free one type, we free them ALL! NO TO ALLOWING ANY MORE GUNS!

 Those who want people disarmed, are, as usual screaming that there will be "blood in the streets".  It simply has not happened, and it will not happen in this case.  The people who go to the trouble of legally owning guns are simply not the problem.   If a society has respect for the law, the presence of weapons will have little effect.   If there is no respect for the law, the presence of handguns only levels the playing field a bit so that large, strong, men do not dominate everyone else quite as easily.

The biggest question is: Is there respect for the rule of law.  One of the clearest indicators of this is the willingness of a society to follow the restrictions placed on it by its written legal documents.   In the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, that includes the Constitution of the United States.

©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included. Link to Gun Watch

[marktwain]

This could be a significant win for the restoration of the second amendment.

[GeronL]

We already have the 2nd Amendment in place, only with limitations. If we allow handguns for civilian use, we will surely set a precedent to allow other types of guns

What does this mean? That the second amendment only gives government the right to keep and bear arms??

[KC_Lion]

What I don't understand is why this is even an Issue.

The Northern Marianas Islands are PART of the U.S.A.

The second amendment should apply there just like on Guam.

What is different?

[marktwain]

When the U.S. had control of the Mariana Islands, first the U.S. Navy was in charge. Then the territory of Micronesia was created. During that period, Micronesia had their own government. Gun control was being pushed hard by the Democrats. They passed the 1968 Gun Control Act. The chairman of a committee in the Micronesia legislature said, about 1970, we don’t need guns here. Lets make them illegal before we have the problems that sound so horrible in the United States. A full media push for gun control was ongoing in the U.S.

He asked a Peace Corps volunteer who was a lawyer, to write up a gun control bill. At first they were just going to ban all guns, then they got some push back, and banned everything except .22 rifles and .410 shotguns. That was all they said the population “needed”.

It is that bill that forms the basis for gun control in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam, and Palua, and maybe American Somoa, today. Guam has reformed their law with a shall issue concealed carry bill after the Peruta decision in the 9th circuit.

[marktwain]

I called it Micronesia, but it was the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, a UN Trusteeship. The second amendment did not apply there at that time.

[KC_Lion]

But The C.M.N.I residents are now American Citizens, which the rest of Micronesians are Not. (Also, wasn't Guam always a self Governing Territory? They rejected merger with CNMI 4 times in the 50's and 60's).

So when the CMN Islanders became Citizens and The CNMI a Territory, that should have over-ridden the Micronesian Legislature in 1978.

[marktwain]

Yes, but we did not get the Heller decision until 2008. The Supreme Court had been punting on the issue for 74 years. It allowed the appeals courts to make all kinds of irrational decisions based on clear misrepresentations of the Miller decision.

We only got Heller because of an overwhelming public support for the second amendment, and a push for Bush to appoint conservatives to the Court instead of radical progressives.

[kearnyirish2]

I can’t believe any territory/country/population exposed to the WWII Japanese would ever allow gun control.

[School of Rational Thought]

MY Dad fought on Saipan. If you have an enemy there is not anywhere to go.

[marktwain]

My friend Tex Ferguson did an intelligence gathering mission on Saipan before it was invaded. He did not say if he actually landed; but that was the previous MO. He said that he reported to the higher ups that the Japanese on Saipan were very large people.

I have heard it said that some of the Emperor’s own guard were there, but I have not seen it verified.