What to Watch For in D.C. v. Heller

Concurring Opinions ^ | 6/14/08 | Mike O'Shea

[El Gato]

“machine guns for the people!”. In oral argument in Heller, Justice Kennedy openly questioned whether Miller should continue to provide the guiding framework for Second Amendment adjudication. I predict that the Court will put some distance between itself and a strict reading of Miller, perhaps through some agile recasting of the earlier opinion.

This is precisely why I don't go with the "Kennedy will side with us" crowd. He might side with an individual right, but to avoid the "machine gun" (or cannon for that matter) problem, he'll vote with the "reasonable restrictioins", meaning anything which threatens the state or scares the sheeple can be banned, which in turn is everything.

[El Gato]

If the issue was free speech rights, the libs would be for full right of the indivual including newspapers and turdbuckets.

A lot would not. They did vote for McCain-Feingold, did they not?

[El Gato]

Pediction: the court will recognize an individual right, with a long and ambiguous waffle/fudge at the end; the various states will then pay no attention whatsoever.

Many don't pay attention to their own STATE Constitutions on this issue. In the mid '80s, the citizens of Nebraska added, via referendum, and individual RKBA provision to the state Constitution's Bill of Rights. It protected the RKBA for all lawful purposes, and listed some of them. Hunting, recreation, self defense and defense of the state. It also forbid, as did the original language protecting other rights, subdivisions, such as counties and cities, from infringing upon those rights.

The State Supreme Court has yet to invalidate a single gun control law or ordinance on the basis of that Constitutional provision. Nebraska was one of the last states to get a "Shall issue" concealed carry (or any other sort) law. It's still one of the more restrictive of that sort. They should not have needed it, the State Constitution does not provide for any exception such as "except concealed" nor the sort that many Southern states have that say: ..but the legislature may regulate the bearing (or wearing as in Texas) of arms.