Federal Judge Finds Gun Free School Zone Act Constitutional

AmmoLand ^ | February 2, 2024 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

On January 31, 2024, US District Court Judge Susan P. Watters published an opinion on the motion to dismiss the Gun Free School Zone case in Billings, Montana. She found the Gun Free School Zone Act (GFSZA) to be constitutional.

The case has been covered extensively here on AmmoLand. The person charged, Gabriel Metcalf, had reason to carry a firearm for his own defense and that of others outside his home in Billings, Montana. His home is across the street from an elementary school. The school was not in session while he was carrying outside his home.

Gabriel Metcalf’s primary defense consists of two pillars. First, the Gun Free School Zone Act has an exemption for people who are licensed by the state the school is in to carry firearms. Montana had created a special statute to grant individual licensure to people who could legally own firearms in Montana. Gabriel Metcalf has no criminal record or record of violence. Therefore, he was granted an individual license to carry in Montana, specifically for the purpose of the Gun Free School Zone Act.

Judge Watters found the Montana law does not meet the requirements of the GFSZA.

The second pillar is the facial unconstitutionality of the Gun Free School Zone Act (GFSZA). The GFSZA had already been found to be unconstitutional because it exceeded the authority granted by the United States Government under the Constitution of the United States. President Clinton and Janet Reno pushed to add 12 words to the law. Five circuits have upheld the law based on those 12 words, and three circuits have held that 12 words do not heal the constitutional defect.

The Ninth Circuit is one of the circuits that has held the GFSZA to be within the authority of the federal government under

[marktwain]

Judge Susan Watters' decision is quite weak. She misquotes the primary law the decision is based upon.

[dblshot]

Seems like the GFSZA violates the takings clause as it is being applied to private property near the school without compensation.

[marktwain]

The GFSZA was found to be unconstitutional in 1995, because the federal government did not have the authority for it.

Then President Clinton and Janet Reno pushed to add 12 words to the law. Five circuits have upheld the law based on those 12 words, three circuits have held the 12 words do not heal the constitutional defect.

All that was before the Second Amendment decisions in Heller, McDonald, and Bruen.

The GFSZA is clearly unconstitutional, given the guidance in the Bruen decision.

[ComputerGuy]

The people who participated in the arrest and trial of this individual need to be given an old-fashioned counselling session.

[OttawaFreeper]

And it has given psychotic school shooters a safe work environment.

[bk1000]

What has become of the judiciary in this country?

(Rhetorical question, with some sarcasm added)

[E. Pluribus Unum]

---

98% OF MASS-SHOOTINGS OCCUR IN GUN-FREE ZONES

---

REPEAL JOE BIDEN'S GUN-FREE SCHOOL ZONE ACT OF 1990

---

FACT: Guns prevent an estimated 2.5 million crimes a year or 6,849 every day. 98+% of the time the gun is not fired and no blood (including the criminal’s) is shed.

SOURCE: http://www.gunfacts.info/pdfs/gun-facts/7.1/Gun-Facts-7.1-screen.pdf, pages 21, 83.

FACT: 98% of mass-shootings occur in gun-free zones

SOURCE: https://www.dailywire.com/news/what-percentage-mass-shootings-happen-gun-free-amanda-prestigiacomo

SOURCE: https://slowfacts.wordpress.com/2023/05/29/how-we-stopped-mass-murderers-time-after-time/

[Bonemaker]

Land of the fee and home of the knave.

[Bonemaker]

We have old man Bush to thank for that filthy dung pile of a law.

[vikingd00d]

>>Judge Susan Watters’ decision is quite weak. She misquotes the primary law the decision is based upon.

What do you expect from an Obama judge?

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

How insane is this whole concept of a “Gun free zone”??

“The crook was going to rob people at gunpoint, but when he saw it was a gun free zone he changed his mind and left”

WHAT?

[logi_cal869]

To be clear, the "12 words":

After the ruling, Attorney General Janet Reno recommended that the Gun-Free School Zones Act be amended to apply only to any gun “that has moved in or that otherwise affects interstate or foreign commerce.” [sic]

Gun-Free School Zones Act United States [1990]

Those 12 words in the 1995 amendment included (read "buried") under Title IV, section 657 of the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act of 1997:

H.R.3610 - Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act, 1997

(Sec. 657) Amends the Federal criminal code to limit to firearms that have moved in or otherwise affect interstate or foreign commerce the existing prohibition against the possession or discharge of firearms in a school zone.

IOW, the '12 words' were intended by Bill Clinton/Janet Reno et al to overcome the principal shortcoming of the law, that GFSZA is unlawful on the basis of a federal law not governing commerce.

To the best of my knowledge, that amendment has never been challenged.

[marktwain]

To the best of my knowledge, that amendment has never been challenged.

The law, with the amended language has been challenged several times (at least nine times).

In six circuits, the law was upheld as constitutional, one of those (First Circuit, 2014) later reversed in another case, leaving five circuits which held the amendment to be sufficient.

In three circuits, the 12 words were held to be insufficient to heal the constitutional defect.

[logi_cal869]

Apologies, I meant at the SCOTUS level.

[wny]

More importantly, it’s idiotic

[antidemoncrat]

The sacred Judicial ruling branch of the US Government has spoken ... all fall down and obey.

[linMcHlp]

bkmk

[kiryandil]

Susan "Stoogin' P" Watters, a Barry Obama stooge.

Probably courtesy of Jon "No Testes" Tester.

Watters was previously known as Susan Pamela Dunn, Susan Pamela Elsberry and Susan Pamela Klein.

Looks like Susie "spread it around a little", like all good Democrat women...

[kiryandil]

Judge Susan Watters' decision is quite weak. She misquotes the primary law the decision is based upon.

American "law" is all about Power, now, and having the right ideological stooge in the right place at the Left time.

[DesertRhino]

Women should not be judges.