Posted on 05/04/2021 5:57:20 AM PDT by marktwain
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- This correspondent has been involved in the struggle to restore Second Amendment rights for more than 50 years. For much of that period, many of those who wanted the Second Amendment to be honored in the United States asked a simple question:
Why doesn’t the NRA[or any other pro 2A group] bring a case to the Supreme Court?
The assumption was wrong.
So our example group, the NRA, would not bring a case, because the courts had made clear they would not enforce the Constitution. The courts routinely chipped away at Constitutional checks and balances, including the Second Amendment, for decades after the revolution in the courts brought about by Progressives.
The Heller case was not brought by the NRA. It was brought by Robert A. Levy of the Cato Institute, a Libertarian think-tank. They believed the time was finally ripe for a case.
Let me be clear: The policies promoted by “Progressives” were and still are actually regressive. They worked to return us to a period where the government has unlimited power, and a small, powerful, wealthy group rules over everyone else. Still, they call themselves “Progressives”. In a way, it is fitting, as much of their policy is based on the ability to deceive.
The Progressive revolution in the courts was greatly accelerated by the Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) administration. The revolution in the courts was underway in 1932, but the FDR administration made the courts a center of Progressive power.
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
GREAT post & graphic.
Once one state does this several more will follow right behind and gun control will be over for good. Just as important will be the clear path to the return of states rights and federalism. Nullifying all federal gun laws will literally save this nation.
Biggest impediment I’ve seen is a propensity to spend so much time trying to craft a perfect case that bad cases make progress and set precedent.
I’m thankful SCOTUS just declined the “bump stock” case. While valid on its own, it sought to address a toy-level “gotcha” gimmick/workaround in the context of something the federal government considers most heinous (machineguns) - hardly a clean addressing of basic rights. Doing so was trying to get an OK for something intended to strain the limits of a serious prohibition without any practical purpose.
I’ve been following 2ndA cases for decades. I’m getting tired of so little effort making so little progress over such a long time. We’re basically trying to hold a line while wannabe autocrats chip away at it. Heller was a great decision - the first, and last, in a very long time. Why so little effort to restore 2ndA at a federal level? How hard is it, really, to bring a “shall not be infringed” case involving mundane arms? Why is it still illegal for a Selective Service registrant to buy a standard grunt-level M4?
The real progress has, yes, been incrementalism at the state levels. I’m delighted that so many states have gone “Constitutional Carry”, and there’s progress in “2ndA Sanctuary” jurisdictions (though such hasn’t been tested yet).
I understand “all or nothing” isn’t practical.
I also understand minute incrementalism doesn’t really get anywhere.
Is there a reason why we shouldn’t concoct a boilerplate suit for 1000+ to file in various jurisdictions, demanding a mundane right as upstanding citizens, thus forcing SCOTUS to take the case as not just a one-off instance?
Tennessee just passed constitutional carry which goes into effect July 1, 2021. I still urge people to get their carry permit so that they will have 1) at lease some training to use their firearm 2) the ability to carry in states that require non-residents to have a permit and 3) the consequences you will face if you ever have to draw and fire your weapon.
“I also understand minute incrementalism doesn’t really get anywhere.”
Not true, Since 1990 MANY states have adopted shall issue or constitutional carry laws and several have adopted “2A sanctuary” status where they will resist further infringements on the 2A. It will take only one state to declare that the federal gun laws are unconstitutional infringements and nullify them.
Remember only a few years ago when Colorado nullified federal marijuana laws.
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Get the training without the permit. You don’t need to ask permission to exercise human rights. I don’t need a permit to breathe.
I’m 100% in favor of people getting both legal and practical (range time, firearm maintenance, safety, etc.) training, but the more we acquiesce to unnecessary and unconstitutional permits, the more incentive they have to maintain them. If nobody gets a permit, the permits go away.
Incrementalism is how we got in this current mess where our 2A rights are infringed so badly. For decades, it was one major setback after another with little pushback. In the past 20 years, we’ve largely held the line and started a move back toward more liberty. Most of the country now has easy access to carry permits or doesn’t need a permit at all. That’s a HUGE change from how it was in the 80s and 90s. The “assault weapons” ban is history. Expired, dead, and gone. Not likely to come back. And the courts are finally starting to take more reasonable stance on new restrictions.
Thanks to President Trump, I believe we’ll make further progress in the US Supreme Court. Keep getting funding over to GOA and Alan Gura! Gura has been instrumental to the success in the courts. Laws can change, but a Supreme Court precedent typically lasts generations.
Can you grab the 2021 screen and post it?
Clock says 1776 Redux is long overdue.......
I see too paths forward:
One is that when conservatives retake the White House, Hose, and Senate, we go scorched earth, just as democrats have done for the past 100 days. Repeal all gun restrictions. Gut the federal government and lay waste to unneeded bureaucracies. Deport all illegals - by the millions - in another "Operation Wetback". No delays, no compromise. No exceptions.
That path is unlikely because "republicans" in office are gutless and often complicit. The second path forward - "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights . . .
PERMITLESS carry, I think there is a difference. Does it include Doctor’s offices? No guards. I loaded my new now must carry cane with nearly 2 lbs of steel nuts for a Billy Club. Better than nothing. I hate going into Memphis, but all our medical is there. Atoka only has a pop of 7,000. Millington 15,000 NO Medical Specialist. Just GP’s. 1 Ophthalmologist.
Dean, is that map updated with the most recent changes?
You are dead on regarding the supremes. They’re the ultimate Washington insiders - swamp dwellers with a lifetime appointment. Funny all the strange rights they can find in the constitution that were never in the actual document, but can’t seem to find the very obvious ones that are enumerated and not just the 2nd amendment, but the first and the fourth as well.
BINGO
Yes. Texas may change in the next couple of weeks...
Agreed. That’s a very thoroughly considered and well written article.
From a few of the all-or-nothing comments (not many but sometimes just enough to make strategic information efforts difficult), I’ve seen indications that prohibited people were writing the comments. Leaders who founded the United States would have prohibited them as individuals. Some incompetent minds (severely insane or criminal) want freedoms on their terms, sometimes to the detriment of the rights of others. They want to be either armed or to have their neighbors disarmed, or both.
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