M-16a2, banned in California.
Posted on 08/15/2003 5:27:37 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
The National Rifle Association has filed a brief in support of what backers are calling a potential landmark gun-rights case now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Sponsored primarily by KeepAndBearArms.com, or KABA, a pro-gun rights website and organization, the case challenges "the California semi-auto rifle ban on the basis of Second Amendment protection of our individual right to keep and bear arms," according to the group's website.
M-16a2, banned in California. |
California lawmakers banned a number of rifles under the Assault Weapons Control Act in 1989, but a decade later, the state also restricted the sale, manufacture, or importation into the state of all semi-automatic rifles having combinations of arbitrarily selected features – such as detachable magazines, folding stocks, flash suppressors and pistol grips.
NRA support, say the suit's backers, was crucial not only to lend credibility but also as a way to boost fundraising for the effort, KABA officials said.
The 28-page NRA amicus brief, filed with the high court Aug. 7, argues that the Second Amendment supersedes state law.
The Second Amendment says, "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."
"The Second Amendment empowers individual citizens to defend themselves and their property against the acts of criminals, mob violence, and even state-sponsored oppression," says the brief. "Only individual possession of firearms allows for the effective exercise of self-defense against such threats."
Brian Puckett, a spokesman for KABA, told WorldNetDaily that Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, the Second Amendment Sisters, Women Against Gun Control, and even Pink Pistols – a homosexual gun-rights group – have filed amicus briefs with the Supreme Court in support of gun rights.
The NRA brief also quotes 19th Century Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, who observed that "the right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of the republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary powers of rulers."
"We are at a critical stage on what may turn out to be the most important Second Amendment case ever filed," said KABA spokesman David Codrea.
Supporters appealed to the Supreme Court after the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled recently that Americans have no individual right to keep and bear arms.
KABA said the suit "seeks to address at least two specific aspects of the Second Amendment, namely: Does the Second Amendment apply to the states in the same way that the First, Fourth, and Fifth amendments apply, and does it guarantee an individual right, in the same manner as those other amendments to the Bill of Rights?"
The case is named after its primary plaintiff, Sean Silveira, and the California attorney general, Democrat Bill Lockyer.
Clinton administration Justice Department officials also held that the Second Amendment was a collective state right, not an individual right, a point laid out in an Aug. 22, 2000, letter by then-Solicitor General Seth Waxman.
However, Bush administration Attorney General John Ashcroft reversed course in a letter to the NRA shortly after taking office, telling the nation's largest gun-rights organization he believes the Constitution supports an individual's right to own firearms.
U betcha . Their motto is: "Pick on someone your own caliber." If guns are outlawed only F@#'s will have guns.
Oh! The horror of that evil pistol grip!
Likewise all the other items on that list.
Terminal idiots wrote that law. Uninformed fools voted it into law.
I own 4 rifles. One of them has a pistol grip and a folding stock and detachable magazine. 2 have detachable magazines (one of those is a .22 LR rimfire, a squirrel rifle). The most powerful of them (.30-06) is a bolt action with none of those features.
All of them are quite lethal. The .30-06 is the deadliest at long distance and would be legal under this insane law.
Fools will be.
It is unfortunate that many of them are now making laws.
It is up to We The People to vote fools out of office as fast as we can identify them! Voting is more than expressing your opinion, it is a civic duty.
Like taking out the trash it is inconvenient, but you feel good afterwards. :)
One final word on the subject. If you don't vote, don't bitch about government!
I was wrong in this case but I think you should try reading their website once in a while so you can ask them the same thing.
It will lay the groundwork for challenging ALL gun laws on the basis that they interfere or 'infringe' on keeping and bearing of arms.
If the Supreme Court rules wrong (against RKBA) on this it will be the end of America and the beginning of the second civil war. This is the most explosive issue that they could possibly rule on.
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