Posted on 11/09/2007 3:17:09 AM PST by cbkaty
Justices to decide whether to take up case on strict limits approved in D.C.
WASHINGTON The Supreme Court will discuss gun control today in a private conference that soon could explode publicly.
Behind closed doors, the nine justices will consider taking a case that challenges the District of Columbia's stringent handgun ban. Their ultimate decision will shape how far other cities and states can go with their own gun restrictions.
"If the court decides to take this up, it's very likely it will end up being the most important Second Amendment case in history," said Dennis Henigan, the legal director for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
Henigan predicted "it's more likely than not" that the necessary four justices will vote to consider the case. The court will announce its decision Tuesday, and oral arguments could be heard next year.
Lawyers are swarming.
Texas, Florida and 11 other states weighed in on behalf of gun owners who are challenging D.C.'s strict gun laws. New York and three other states want the gun restrictions upheld. Pediatricians filed a brief supporting the ban. A Northern California gun dealer, Russell Nordyke, filed a brief opposing it.
From a victim's view: Tom Palmer considers the case a matter of life and death.
Palmer turns 51 this month. He's an openly gay scholar in international relations at the Cato Institute, a libertarian research center, and holds a Ph.D. from Oxford University. He thinks that a handgun saved him years ago in San Jose, Calif., when a gang threatened him.
"A group of young men started yelling at us, 'we're going to kill you' (and) 'they'll never find your bodies,' " Palmer said in a March 2003 declaration. "Fortunately, I was able to pull my handgun out of my backpack, and our assailants backed off."
He and five other plaintiffs named in the original lawsuit challenged Washington's ban on possessing handguns. The District of Columbia permits possession of other firearms, if they're disassembled or stored with trigger locks.
Their broader challenge is to the fundamental meaning of the Second Amendment. Here, commas, clauses and history all matter.
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."
Gun-control advocates say this means that the government can limit firearms ownership as part of its power to regulate the militia. Gun ownership is cast as a collective right, with the government organizing armed citizens to protect homeland security.
"The Second Amendment permits reasonable regulation of firearms to protect public safety and does not guarantee individuals the absolute right to own the weapons of their choice," New York and the three other states declared in an amicus brief.
Gun-control critics contend that the well-regulated militia is beside the point, and say the Constitution protects an individual's right to possess guns.
Clashing decisions
Last March, a divided appellate court panel sided with the individual-rights interpretation and threw out the D.C. ban.
The ruling clashed with other appellate courts, creating the kind of appellate-circuit split that the Supreme Court likes to resolve. The ruling obviously stung D.C. officials, but it perplexed gun-control advocates.
If D.C. officials tried to salvage their gun-control law by appealing to the Supreme Court as they then did they could give the court's conservative majority a chance to undermine gun-control laws nationwide.
Cite what? The non-existent clause in the Constitution that authorizes the FedGov to even run an organization like the BATFE? How do you quote something that doesn't exist? Absent the power being delegated to the FedGov, they can take no legitimate action. Hence, everything the BATFE does, is illegal.
You REALLY need to figure out what the whole Constitution thingie did. You don't appear to have a clue.
You didn't read the decision did you... Poor you. Ignorance is curable. Unfortunately, you appear stupid as well which could limit your options...
It'd mean she either lied then, or would be lying now...
Now it's accurate. Why do you hate the idea of re-instating a general prohibition on ALL government within the United States? Far from creating more government power, it removes power from ALL governments to infringe on a fundamental Right.
I still think you are just another gun hating liar. Bent on obfuscating things as much as possible. No one can see the historical evidence and come to any other rational conclusion unless they are just another big government shill.
False. It incorporates no false premises. It's simple and direct.
Your refusal to answer speaks to the poverty of your position, nothing else.
Are the Crips and the Bloods militias?
You seem to think I have some obligation to dignify your drivel with an answer. Not going to happen. Deal with it.
Backwards. I support protective laws in every state; you hate federalism and are obsessed with imposing a judicially created national hegemony. Right now many states protect concealed carry, which would be swept away by your twisted interpretation of the "Nunn" decision.
You're ashamed of your position. I get it.
I’m not interested in exchanging personal attacks or answering your loaded questions.
LOL....
That all pink on the inside syndrome.......:o)
And the entire thread is discussion of the posted article which explicitly set out that premise.
"Were already subject to a collectivist interpretation of the 2A, unless we live in the DC District or the 5th Circuit. That means that the 2A does exactly nothing for an individual like me. How is that going to get worse?"
False. I'm calling your bluff. Prove that all state laws subject us to a "collectivist interpretation of the 2A", whatever that nebulous phrase might mean.
Like those in Kalifornistan? All of those laws need to be "swept away". Starting with the .50 ban and the new idiotic microstamping bill.
Give it a rest troll... EVERY State finally giving the Second Amendment it's due should be the goal. Not piecemeal efforts at the State level that the FedGov would still be free to use some idiotic tax power to circumvent.
Do away with ALL prohibitions on RKBA. Federal and State. Only then will we meet the "Founding Intent".
Millions of gun owners here. Thousands of stores and ranges.
Ignorance is curable. Read a book.
You figure a few hundred of those will get that thread moved to some obscure corner of the site?
You’re trying to change the subject.
Really? What do the Bloods and the Crips have to do with whether the right to keep and bear arms is a collective or individual right?
That depends on whether you hold them to be part of the militia or not. And you're so ashamed of your position that you won't say.
Tell us, how does that alter the right to keep and bear arms?
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