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.
I am begging you please to ignore robertpaulsen.
He is a troll who’s only goal is to disrupt all RKBA posts by hijacking them.
His method, which has worked brilliantly so far, is to make outrageous claims and bait you into wasting your energy trying to convince him and educate him. Which is not possible, since it is not his goal.
His goal is to hijack the threads. He does so successfully anytime people respond to him.
I personally know how hard it is to let such ignorance just go without succumbing to the temptation to educate. But trust me, you only play into his hands when you fall for this temptation.
The only way to prevent him from consistently hijacking these threads is to completely ignore him and to not respond to any of his posts, no matter how outrageous or how badly he gets your goat.
I’m begging you to please ignore him in the future, for the sake of reasonable discussions on these RKBA posts. Thank you.
I am begging you please to ignore robertpaulsen.
He is a troll who’s only goal is to disrupt all RKBA posts by hijacking them.
His method, which has worked brilliantly so far, is to make outrageous claims and bait you into wasting your energy trying to convince him and educate him. Which is not possible, since it is not his goal.
His goal is to hijack the threads. He does so successfully anytime people respond to him.
I personally know how hard it is to let such ignorance just go without succumbing to the temptation to educate. But trust me, you only play into his hands when you fall for this temptation.
The only way to prevent him from consistently hijacking these threads is to completely ignore him and to not respond to any of his posts, no matter how outrageous or how badly he gets your goat.
I’m begging you to please ignore him in the future, for the sake of reasonable discussions on these RKBA posts. Thank you.
I am begging you please to ignore robertpaulsen.
He is a troll who’s only goal is to disrupt all RKBA posts by hijacking them.
His method, which has worked brilliantly so far, is to make outrageous claims and bait you into wasting your energy trying to convince him and educate him. Which is not possible, since it is not his goal.
His goal is to hijack the threads. He does so successfully anytime people respond to him.
I personally know how hard it is to let such ignorance just go without succumbing to the temptation to educate. But trust me, you only play into his hands when you fall for this temptation.
The only way to prevent him from consistently hijacking these threads is to completely ignore him and to not respond to any of his posts, no matter how outrageous or how badly he gets your goat.
I’m begging you to please ignore him in the future, for the sake of reasonable discussions on these RKBA posts. Thank you.
I am begging you please to ignore robertpaulsen.
He is a troll who’s only goal is to disrupt all RKBA posts by hijacking them.
His method, which has worked brilliantly so far, is to make outrageous claims and bait you into wasting your energy trying to convince him and educate him. Which is not possible, since it is not his goal.
His goal is to hijack the threads. He does so successfully anytime people respond to him.
I personally know how hard it is to let such ignorance just go without succumbing to the temptation to educate. But trust me, you only play into his hands when you fall for this temptation.
The only way to prevent him from consistently hijacking these threads is to completely ignore him and to not respond to any of his posts, no matter how outrageous or how badly he gets your goat.
I’m begging you to please ignore him in the future, for the sake of reasonable discussions on these RKBA posts. Thank you.
I get it. Now, please settle down. I’ve seen people suspended for doing this.
I am begging you please to ignore robertpaulsen.
He is a troll who’s only goal is to disrupt all RKBA posts by hijacking them.
His method, which has worked brilliantly so far, is to make outrageous claims and bait you into wasting your energy trying to convince him and educate him. Which is not possible, since it is not his goal.
His goal is to hijack the threads. He does so successfully anytime people respond to him.
I personally know how hard it is to let such ignorance just go without succumbing to the temptation to educate. But trust me, you only play into his hands when you fall for this temptation.
The only way to prevent him from consistently hijacking these threads is to completely ignore him and to not respond to any of his posts, no matter how outrageous or how badly he gets your goat.
I’m begging you to please ignore him in the future, for the sake of reasonable discussions on these RKBA posts. Thank you.
I think a negative ruling from the SCOTUS will precipitate action in some quarters. It'd be like putting the primer cap on a stick of dynamite. As long as they are careful not to light the fuse, things won't blow up.
I guess we'll see.
Your wish is my command. I will ignore, ah, what was his name???
Oh, just forget him :~)
My apologies. I’m not trying to not settle down, I was posting a warning to all of the various parties that have allowed robertpaulsen to hi-jack every 2A thread on Free Republic.
I sure wish someone had been nice enough to post a warning to me the 1st time I got a response from him, then I went on and on debating him before I realized that he was only trolling. I thought it was a courtesy warning. I’m not trying to act up or anything.
I have seen a recent post that said his account is suspended. Frankly, that is too bad. I’m not sorry about it, as his only goal was to be disruptive and to prevent honest debate about RKBA issues by hi-jacking threads and to waste the time and energy of Freepers to prevent them from any productive discussion.
Again, I wasn’t trying to be disruptive myself, I was just Pinging each person with what I felt was a courteous warning. My apologies. I didn’t mean to offend.
How do you Freepmail everyone? I always forget about the mail feature because I rarely ever get mail or ever use it. You are right. That would have been a better method.
Understood. It’s just really bad form, and I really have seen people suspended for it. That, and if a thread gets too messy, it ends up getting pulled and I’d hate to see it happen to this one.
The reason I said it is too bad his account was suspended is because we should be self-policing. The Administrator would not have to ban trolls if we didn’t feed them.
“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,”
My prediction.
They uphold the ban.
In hindsight, I agree on all counts and I would definitely prefer if the Administrator would delete all my multiple posts. The suggestion was made I should have done this by mail and that was a good suggestion. That is how I should have handled it. I just posted and posted and didn’t even think of the effect my own posts would have until I made my way to the last page and now my own posts have polluted the thread. You are dead right.
Have at it... ;-)
We have a request for cleanup on aisle 2, at your convenience.
I screwed up and posted a troll warning to a bunch of folks when I should have used the mail feature instead. Now I have gone and polluted the thread, which is disruptive enough. I was short-sighted and didn’t even think of the effect my chain of posts would have on the thread overall.
Is there anyway you could please delete my obnoxious posts 465, 466, 467, 468, 469, 470, 471, 472, 473, 475, 476, 477, 479, 481, 482, 483, 484, 486.
Thank you, and I’m sorry for the trouble. Next time hopefully I will remember to use the mail and keep it off the forum.
Again, sorry for causing you extra work.
So are hoping for a Kelo type of decision? If such a decision came down in this case, it would instantly become the top political issue (like eminent domain after Kelo). It would be interesting to see Hillary respond to such a treasonous SCOTUS decision.
Trolls do serve a function, they keep threads bumped.
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