Posted on 07/01/2006 3:02:00 PM PDT by neverdem
During Chief Justice John Roberts’ confirmation hearings last fall, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) brought up the Gun-Free School Zones Act, which made it a federal crime punishable by five years in prison to possess a gun within 1,000 feet of a school. In 1995 the Supreme Court overturned the law, concluding that it exceeded Congress’ power to regulate interstate commerce. “Had the Congress placed in there a requirement that the firearm had…traveled in interstate commerce,” Sessions said, “I believe the statute would have been upheld. We could pass it again with that simple requirement.”
Although it apparently escaped Sessions’ notice, Congress did pass the law again with that simple requirement, the year after the Supreme Court’s decision. Here’s something else Sessions may not realize: The law has turned millions of Americans into accidental felons.
According to an analysis by gun control scholar Alan Korwin, the gun-free zones created by the statute cover so much of Phoenix and Cleveland that they are impossible for people traveling in those cities to avoid. The upshot, he says, is that “virtually all public travel with firearms is now a violation of law.” Since schools tend to be scattered around cities, Korwin argues, the situation surely is similar in many other places.
The law does not cover firearms on one’s own property or handguns possessed by people licensed to carry them. But the exemption for other private citizens traveling with guns applies only to unloaded, locked guns and unloaded guns carried by hunters with permission from school officials to traverse whatever school zones lie between them and their destinations. Hence the law covers many otherwise law-abiding citizens who buy guns and bring them home, take their rifles on hunting trips, or drive with their guns to the shooting range. Korwin proposes a simple solution: restrict the law to schools and their grounds.
The more fundamental problem with the law—that it’s not authorized by the Constitution—cannot be so easily fixed. The Supreme Court has not yet considered whether the interstate commerce boilerplate that Congress added in 1996 renders the law constitutional.
What do they charge?
Why not?
You might want to google around a bit. The myth of "explosive decompression" aboard aircraft from a firearm (or just about any portable arm less powerful than an RPG), has been thoroughly debunked.
It is that, or was at least, but the authority under which Congress and the EPA operate is that navigable waterways stuff .
The opening on the pressure relief valve is much larger than that. A coworker who was a crew chief on a KC-10, which is pretty much just a commercial DC-10 with some modifications, said he could look out through the valve on the -10 and watch the countryside go by. On an airliner it's hidden, but just as big. If a goodly hole were to open up, even if a window blows out (which it most likely won't just from being pierced by a bullet), the valve would just close down some to put the "loss" of air, back where it was before the window blew out.
Even if the ICC did authorize something like banning guns, it would not trump the second amendment. An amendment restricts or expands the original document. If there is a conflict, the amendment controls.
Getting your understanding of physics from watching movies is not a good idea.
It's free. Download it here. The tool is in the toolbar under "tools>measure".
Very small caliber shotgun would be ideal. Maybe a .410. I could imagine a lot of ricocheting bullets otherwise. Unless, of course, the caliber was small enough to not go all the way through, hollowpoints?
Did YOU go whine and complain and state how you wanted your child to be protected by law-abiding people with firearms? I did not think so. Sadly this is our great down fall. We all sit by and do nothing while they scream, march and get attention and their way.
I wonder if I squat and pee if the Goverment regualates that too on my private property?
I don't allow my guns to engage in interstate commerce. They can only buy, sell or trade close to home.
you know that.
I know that.
anyone with any integrity and intelligence who has read the Constitution knows that.
which leads one to wonder: Exactly what is the deal with our congresscritters and justices?
I hate to say it, but it seems to me that imposing serfdom through incremental regulation is the likeliest explanation.
Oh, come now! You think he didn't realize that?
"Shooting a gun on a jet is not a good idea."
I'm in a jet.
Approaching Manhattan.
A fellow passenger rises and draws down on a terrorist.
We all scream, "No! We'll take our chances flying into the Trade Center!"
I don't think so.
Jets don't react to holes in windows or fuselages like in the movies--everything and everyone sucked out in a nanosecond. Related note: The sky marshalls and trained pilots who carry aboard these days use ammo that disintegrates in their targets, so as to avoid through-and-through, thus endangering passengers.
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