Posted on 01/07/2005 9:56:54 AM PST by neverdem
Readying for a constitutional showdown over gun control, the Bush administration has issued a 109-page memorandum aiming to prove that the Second Amendment grants individuals nearly unrestricted access to firearms.
The memorandum, requested by Attorney General John Ashcroft, was completed in August but made public only last month, when the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel posted on its Web site several opinions1 setting forth positions on various legal issues. Reaching deep into English legal history and the practice of the British colonies prior to the American Revolution, the memorandum represents the administration's latest legal salvo to overturn judicial interpretations that have prevailed since the Supreme Court last spoke on the Second Amendment, in 1939. Although scholars long have noted the ambiguity of the 27-word amendment, courts generally have interpreted the right to "keep and bear arms" as applying not to individuals but rather to the "well-regulated militia" maintained by each state.
Reversing previous Justice Department policy, Mr. Ashcroft has declared that the Second Amendment confers a broad right of gun ownership, comparable with the First Amendment's grant of freedom of speech and religion. In November 2001, he sent federal prosecutors a memorandum endorsing a rare federal-court opinion, issued the previous month by the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, that found an individual has the right to gun ownership. President Bush adopted that view as well, saying that "the Constitution gives people a personal right to bear arms," and doesn't merely protect "the rights of state militias," in an interview published days before last year's election in National Rifle Association magazines.
The new Justice Department memorandum acknowledges that "the question of who possess the right secured by the Second Amendment remains open and unsettled in the courts and among scholars," but goes on to declare that...
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Way to go, JOhn.
bump...
Of course it does...the Bill of Rights (the 1st ten amendments) are for and by The People. So, they'd have you believe that that's true for all of them, EXCEPT THAT ONE?
These people are insane.
The Second Ammendment gives John Kerry the right to shoot geese
btt
But not among patriots...
ping for bang list
Roll up the report and shove it up the Brady bunch of boneheads posterior breathing hole!!!!
So much for the "Bush is dumping on gunowners" rants.
"Although scholars long have noted the ambiguity of the 27-word amendment, courts generally have interpreted the right to "keep and bear arms" as applying not to individuals but rather to the "well-regulated militia" maintained by each state."
It as ambiguous as the meaning of the word "is".
And I don't believe the Courts have been unanimous in referring to this as a collective right and I believe that just recently a Federal Court Decision recognized it as an individual right.
The Constitution is quite clear when referring to individual rights, states' rights and the Federal Government's rights and the Second Amendment was clearly intended to be an individual right.
This is the fruit of "loose construction", giving a bunch of black-robed attorneys who are also political hacks the right to distort the obvious intent of the Founding Fathers.
I hope Bush and his attorneys and Ashcroft stick this through to the bitter end.
This is a great example of the Constitution being perfectly clear but the courts wanting to have it their way. It could not be more obvious that the right applies to individuals, but unrestricted gun ownership is simply unacceptable to the modern ruling class (as it was to the English ruling class before them...)
BUMP!
But but, Bush is liberal! How could his administration be doing this??????????????????????????
/s
They "should have" got that message
when he purposely let the so called
"assault weapons ban" expire.
But, noooooooooooooooooooo,
it's much more fun to bash Bush.
There are no conditions for firearms ownership mentioned in the Second Amendment so I don't understand why the phrase "nearly unrestricted" was used in this statement.
"remains open and unsettled in the courts and among scholars"
Even the (Liberal) Lawrence Tribe has come down on the individual right side of the debate in one of his books. He did get some hate mail from fellow Libs for that one!
bump
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