Posted on 01/23/2025 3:13:27 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
Do rights granted under the U.S. Constitution end at the border of one state when a citizen enters another? Generally speaking, no. The privileges and immunities clause of Article IV, Section 2, of the Constitution says that citizens of one state are “entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens” in other states. This includes the right to travel for employment and recreation. However, there are limitations.
The scope of the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms for self-defense across state lines is the issue at the heart of a case filed on January 7, 2025, against Bob Jacobson, in his official capacity as commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
The complaint challenges Minnesota’s refusal to recognize lawfully issued firearms permits of other states, including those held by plaintiffs David McCoy and Jeffrey Johnson in their home states of Texas and Georgia, respectively. Johnson also holds a permit from Florida, where he used to live.
The plaintiffs are professional long-haul 18-wheel truck drivers who crisscross the country, 300 days a year. According to the complaint, both maintain firearm competency with safety courses and memberships in various firearms organizations. Each regularly passes background checks required by their employment. Neither has any history of violence, felony convictions, or class one misdemeanors. Their backgrounds include experience as firefighters and emergency medical technicians.
The men consider themselves good Samaritans, their “personal ethos” impelling them to “make the road a little safer” by “helping stranded motorists, coming to the aid of accidents, assisting law enforcement and emergency workers.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalist.com ...
Sue the bass turds!
I wonder if there isn’t some way to use the interstate commerce clause here? The left has used it for everything under the sun.
Shouldn’t need to. 2nd Amendment is clear.
Sounds like it may be an interesting test case.
The federal controls Interstae commerce... Seems reasonable but then again I drive through reciprocity states only.
Excellent!
Quite a bit different from what the State courts and SCOTUS ruled in 1857.
You really need to read the highly suppressed and now out of print 1982 Senate report on the RKBA. I have a paper copy from the US Government printing office.
Here is an on line copy.
https://guncite.com/journals/senrpt/senrpt.html
“The conclusion is thus inescapable that the history, concept, and wording of the second amendment to the Constitution of the United States, as well as its interpretation by every major commentator and court in the first half-century after its ratification, indicates that what is protected is an individual right of a private citizen to own and carry firearms in a peaceful manner.”
19th century cases
16. * Wilson v. State, 33 Ark. 557, at 560, 34 Am. Rep. 52, at 54 (1878).
“If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the (p.17)penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of constitutional privilege.”
17. * Jennings v. State, 5 Tex. Crim. App. 298, at 300-01 (1878).
“We believe that portion of the act which provides that, in case of conviction, the defendant shall forfeit to the county the weapon or weapons so found on or about his person is not within the scope of legislative authority. * * * One of his most sacred rights is that of having arms for his own defence and that of the State. This right is one of the surest safeguards of liberty and self-preservation.”
18. * Andrews v. State, 50 Tenn. 165, 8 Am. Rep. 8, at 17 (1871).
“The passage from Story (Joseph Story: Comments on the Constitution) shows clearly that this right was intended, as we have maintained in this opinion, and was guaranteed to and to be exercised and enjoyed by the citizen as such, and not by him as a soldier, or in defense solely of his political rights.”
19. * Nunn v. State, 1 Ga. (1 Kel.) 243, at 251 (1846).
“’The right of the people to bear arms shall not be infringed.’ The right of the whole people, old and young, men, women and boys, and not militia only, to keep and bear arms of every description, and not such merely as are used by the militia, shall not be infringed, curtailed, or broken in upon, in the smallest degree; and all this for the important end to be attained: the rearing up and qualifying a well-regulated militia, so vitally necessary to the security of a free State.”
And the SCOTUS case that led to the Civil War..
Are Negros citizens...Dred Scott
“It would give to persons of the negro race, who are recognized as citizens in any one state of the Union, the right to enter every other state, whenever they pleased.... and it would give them full liberty of speech in public and in private upon all subjects upon which its own citizens might meet; to hold public meetings upon political affairs, and to KEEP AND CARRY ARMS wherever they went.”
It also says the fed version has supremacy. Unabridged rights to bear arms rolls down to all states from 2A. Early states that copied similar text into their constitution only did so under the fear that the feds might dump 2A.
I agree.
I’m suggesting that there are multiple reasons that crossing state lines should not nulify our basic constitutional rights.
The commerce clause has been a favorite for abuse by the statists for a long time. Tit for tat.
Thanks!
New Jersey has always been a trap for Truckers who have guns for protection.
When they go through scales or inspections, the State Troopers will causally ask them if their firearms are secured.
If they answer anything other than “no firearm” they will be searched and arrested if guns are found.
“The ONLY restriction written into the Second Amendment is a restriction on legislating restrictions” L.Star
More info on the DreddScott case...
What the SCOTUS thought about gun control in the pre Civil War era.
“It would give to persons of the negro race, who were recognised as citizens in any one State of the Union, the right to enter every other State whenever they pleased, singly or in companies, without pass or passport, and without obstruction, to sojourn there as long as they pleased, to go where they pleased at every hour of the day or night without molestation, unless they committed some violation of law for which a white man would be punished;
and it would give them the full liberty of speech in public and in private upon all subjects upon which its own citizens might speak; to hold public meetings upon political affairs,
and to KEEP AND CARRY ARMS wherever they went.”
Paragraph 77 in the link below.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0060_0393_ZO.html
Yep. That’s what “Shall not be infringed” is all about.
About time. The big truck companies didn’t want the liability but did nothing to accommodate a constitutional RIGHT.
Regardless, the Second Amendment has no exceptions for state lines.
Just to be clear, it's not a right granted to you by the Constitution; it's an inalienable right that the Constitution restricts others from infringing on.
Don't let the enemy control the narrative.
“I wonder if there isn’t some way to use the interstate commerce clause here? The left has used it for everything under the sun.”
Actually, this is a genuine interference with interstate commerce, consistent with the original meaning of the commerce clause.
I fully agree with the truckers. I can imagine some of the dangerous places in blue states where they have to dock.
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