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Just remember these three words: "Standard of Review."

The real question is not whether the Second Amendment is an individual right, the question is what standard of review is employed to determine if a law seeking to regulate that Right is Constituitonal.

A fundamental right is analyzed using "strict scrutiny" and in Emerson, after deteriming that the Second Amendment is a fundamental, individual right, the Court used a lower standard - "rational basis." VAWA can't withstand a strict scrutiny analysis.

The key is for Emerson's attorneys to get SCOTUS to rule that the proper SOR is "strict scrutiny" - that will invalidate most of the current gun control laws - they could never stand the "scrutiny."

Regards...

The key is for Emerson's attorneys to get SCOTUS to rule that the proper SOR is "strict scrutiny" - that will invalidate most of the current gun control laws - they could never stand the "scrutiny."

Thanks for that explanation. It cleared things up for me a bit.

Boy, I remember just a few years ago when you were (IIRC) a cop working on his law degree. I think we even had a few disagreements here on FR back then. Well, that law degree must have got ya some smarts, cuz we seem to be totally in sync in our thinking now! :>)

Please continue to keep us informed of your take on this case.

Regards, weaponeer

I know this is a bit off topic, but I've wondered for the past year or so why the reasoning found in HARPER v. VIRGINIA BD. OF ELECTIONS, 383 U.S. 663 (1966), a poll tax case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the imposition of a fee or standard of wealth was found to be unconstitutional, could not also be used to challenge the payment of a fee for obtaining a concealed carry permit? In Harper, the USSC seems to quite clearly state that once the franchise to vote was granted, any infringement, regardless of degree, is unconstitutional. I would suggest that the imposition of a fee to obtain a CCW permit is an infringement on a citizens 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms since it almost always involves the payment of a fee. This is a separate question as to whether a state can even constitutionally require a citizen to obtain a conceal carry permit in the first place.

What is you opinion on this subject.