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To: Viva Le Dissention
No, no, this man is absolutely correct. The US Constitution provides no protection against state infringement of the 2nd Amendment.

Wrong!Read the amendments again.Notice how the 1st begins:"The congress shall make no law"...An explicit limitation on the congress.

the Second says..."shall not be infringed."It does not mention congress or any other body.It is all inclusive.

In the 10th amendment we see that the constitution was indeed on some level to apply to the states:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution,nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

The 2nd amendment says that the right to bear arms shall not be infringed,period.

As an aside,this is the same Bill Lockyer who commented that Ken Lay should be escorted to a jail cell and intoduced to a tatooed cell mate named Spike.The chief law-enforcement officer of California joking about the homosexual predation that goes on in our prisons.I wish some poor inmate would sue Lockyer and the state for not providing a safe place in which to incarcerate criminals.

109 posted on 09/20/2002 10:04:40 AM PDT by kennyo
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To: kennyo
"But it is universally understood, it is a part of the history of the day, that the great revolution which established the constitution of the United States, was not effected without immense opposition. Serious fears were extensively entertained that those powers which the patriot statesmen, who then watched over the interests of our country, deemed essential to union, and to the attainment of those invaluable objects for which union was sought, might be exercised in a manner dangerous to liberty. In almost every convention by which the constitution was adopted, amendments to guard against the abuse of power were recommended. These amendments demanded security against the apprehended encroachments of the general government--not against those of the local governments." -- Barron v. Baltimore 7 Pet. 243 (1833)

"The Fifth Amendment provides, among other things, that no person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on presentment or indictment of a grand jury. This court has held that, in prosecutions by a state, presentment or indictment by a grand jury may give way to informations at the instance of a public officer. Hurtado v. California, 110 U.S. 516 , 4 S.Ct. 111, 292; Gaines v. Washington, 277 U.S. 81, 86 , 48 S.Ct. 468, 470. The Fifth Amendment provides also that no person shall be [302 U.S. 319, 324] compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself. This court has said that, in prosecutions by a state, the exemption will fail if the state elects to end it. Twining v. New Jersey, 211 U.S. 78, 106 , 111 S., 112, 29 S.Ct. 14. Cf. Snyder v. Massachusetts, supra, 291 U.S. 97 , at page 105, 54 S.Ct. 330, 332, 90 A.L.R. 575; Brown v. Mississippi, 297 U.S. 278, 285, 56 S.Ct. 461, 464. The Sixth Amendment calls for a jury trial in criminal cases and the Seventh for a jury trial in civil cases at common law where the value in controversy shall exceed $20. This court has ruled that consistently with those amendments trial by jury may be modified by a state or abolished altogether. Walker v. Sauvinet, 92 U.S. 90 ; Maxwell v. Dow, 176 U.S. 581 , 20 S.Ct. 448, 494; New York Central R.R. Co. v. White, 243 U.S. 188, 208 , 37 S.Ct. 247, L.R.A.1917D, 1, Ann. Cas.1917D, 629; Wagner Electric Co. v. Lyndon, 262 U.S. 226, 232 , 43 S.Ct. 589, 591. As to the Fourth Amendment, one should refer to Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383, 398 , 34 S.Ct. 341, L.R. A. 1915B, 834, Ann.Cas. 1915C, 1177, and as to other provisions of the Sixth, to West v. Louisiana, 194 U.S. 258 , 24 S.Ct. 650." -- PALKO v. STATE OF CONNECTICUT, 302 U.S. 319 (1937)

"The Second Amendment declares that it shall not be infringed, but this, as has been seen, means no more than that it shall not be infringed by Congress." -- US Supreme Court, U.S. v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542 (1875), Presser v. State of Illinois, 116 U.S. 252 (1886)

"To suppose arms in the hands of citizens, to be used at individual discretion, except in private self-defense, or by partial orders of towns, countries or districts of a state, is to demolish every constitution, and lay the laws prostrate, so that liberty can be enjoyed by no man; it is a dissolution of the government. The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws." -- John Adams

110 posted on 09/20/2002 10:07:16 AM PDT by Roscoe
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