Posted on 01/30/2017 4:00:08 PM PST by PROCON
Claiming New Jerseys gun permit laws are derived from slavery and motivated by racism, a man denied a license is set to have his case reviewed by the nations high court next month.
Marc Stephens, representing himself, argues he has a Constitutional right under the Second and Fourteenth amendments to keep and bear arms at home and in public, which the state of New Jersey has denied him even though he has had multiple death threats. His petition is set to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in its Feb. 17 conference but has been winding its way through the legal system since 2013.
Stephens, who legally owned a firearm in California, was told by officials with the Englewood, New Jersey police department that he could not bring his gun to the Garden State without a permit. Six months after filing for a permit through the agency, he was denied with officials citing he did not have a justifiable need to own a gun. This led Stephens to file a case in a local court seeking to overturn the denial, which was dismissed in March 2014.
Switching to federal jurisdiction, subsequent motions for reconsideration in the U.S. District Court and the Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit were swatted away, leading Stephens to petition the Supreme Court late last year.
In his filing, Stephens argues that laws in New Jersey dating back to 1694 have discriminated against gun ownership based on race and the remnants of those laws endure today, in violation of equal protection mandates of the Fourteenth Amendment. Stephens maintains the states current firearm permit and licensing scheme was originally passed through its legislature based on Race Discrimination' and is seeking to have it overturned by the high court.
Second Amendment scholars have long held the legal foundation of gun control was laid in oppressive pro-slavery and later Jim Crow-era laws.
Both sides of the gun control argument have unsuccessfully invoked equal protection laws in federal court in recent years with a group of University of Texas professors asking for an injunction against campus carry and a filing by a gun rights group against carving out former law officers from a campus carry ban in California, with each case tanking.
Although the Supreme Court receives thousands of petitions each year, the number granted is few, typically 100 or less. Granting a petition requires the votes of four justices, something the court has declined to do in several recent gun rights cases sent up from the Circuits even with a full bench.
Stephens did not respond to a request for comment from Guns.com.
I expect the Supremes will be accepting more of these 2nd Amendment cases now that America has a gun-friendly President.
More background info at link.
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Why no legal support for the petition? Seems like a great case. Why is he left on his own? What is buried in the details that leaves NRA and others on the sidelines?
If McConnell wasn’t such a Wuss, he could be seated Tomorrow.
Awesome! The right to own guns is a human right. It is a natural right, and it ought to be protected in every jurisdiction in the nation.
Hey NRA (I know you have some lurkers here), where are you? I’m a lifetime member. Do recall that you did not intervene in Keller. Get off your hands and intervene here!
Last time I remember you need a Firearms permit it is sign off on your minutes polities Chief of Police to acquire a a BB gun or a pellet gun. Never mind any other firearms.
I obtain my firearms permit which is not to be confused with a caring is sealed weapon permit when I was 18 for waterfowl hunting. I had to meet the chief of police and give three reasons why I wanted such a permit. The local NRA chapter educated you on these questions to move forward with the process. Remember the police chief Browning that I was 18 years old and requesting such a privilege ammonia Firearms permit. The Firearms permit only allowed me to choir shotguns and rifles and pellet guns. Handguns were a whole different matter and had to be registered each handgun to your firearms permit.
Imagine that to buy a BB gun or a shotgun you need a Firearms permit that was signed off by your mentalities Chief of Police.
It was 1990 and I’m sure that things haven’t changed and only become more restrictive.
Will the last person to the Jersey please turn off the lights on the garden Star Parkway?
I find it doubtful that he hasn’t had some type of Pro-Gun, legal counsel along the way, too difficult to get to this court level unless he knows all the hoops to jump through.
Porter my crappy post I was using talk to text but I think you got the gist.
Good Lord that came out horrible.
I’m so happy I live in Georgia.
Sorry but the NRA is to gun owners what Al Sharpton is to blacks.
I’m a lifetime member as well. Curious about their apparent silence. Same with other 2nd amendment groups. Why sit this out?
I’m originally from NJ, and I also went through the permitting process there.
First, to even be able to buy ammo or a long gun of any type, you need a FOID card (Firearms Owner Identification Card).
Second, for EACH and EVERY handgun you wish to purchase, you have to pay for a separate permit, and then get the permission of the local CLEO.
I found BOTH requirements to be highly offensive, but since I didn’t think that I’d ever leave and wanted to own firearms, I jumped through their hoops. Thank G-d that I escaped, and now live in Texas, Free America, where I can buy anything that I can afford.
Why sit this out?
Simple, the NRA is a Political Organization that Depends on Gun Laws for their very existence. This is the kind of case, if played right, that could Overturn ALL GUN CONTROL Laws Nationwide.
If there are No Gun Laws, do you need the NRA??
In the Top 5 most inane things ever said on FR.
With that logic, the NRA will be around for hundreds of years.
Rush Limbaugh Newsletter Jan 2013 had points he was making on several topics- on gun control, this was his comments of how Democrats progress:
Fight begins: 1865,. Indeed, gun control is in the Democrat Party DNA, all the way back to its racist Civil War-era roots, when southern Democrats enacted Black Codes prohibiting emancipated slaves from owning guns or ammunition. Such blacks were only partly free; thanks to these Democrats, the core civil right of self defense was denied them.
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>> “If McConnell wasnt such a Wuss, he could be seated Tomorrow.” <<
AMEN!
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Apparently there are no 2A rights in NJ. Damn gov’t, courts have a definition for everything but “infringe.”
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There is no such thing as a “civil” right.
Rights stem from our creator, and outside that realm, there is no place for them.
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If we win the gun control debate, the NRA would be out of work. It's called a business model.
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