Posted on 7/1/2006, 10:02:00 PM by neverdem
During Chief Justice John Roberts’ confirmation hearings last fall, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) brought up the Gun-Free School Zones Act, which made it a federal crime punishable by five years in prison to possess a gun within 1,000 feet of a school. In 1995 the Supreme Court overturned the law, concluding that it exceeded Congress’ power to regulate interstate commerce. “Had the Congress placed in there a requirement that the firearm had…traveled in interstate commerce,” Sessions said, “I believe the statute would have been upheld. We could pass it again with that simple requirement.”
Although it apparently escaped Sessions’ notice, Congress did pass the law again with that simple requirement, the year after the Supreme Court’s decision. Here’s something else Sessions may not realize: The law has turned millions of Americans into accidental felons.
According to an analysis by gun control scholar Alan Korwin, the gun-free zones created by the statute cover so much of Phoenix and Cleveland that they are impossible for people traveling in those cities to avoid. The upshot, he says, is that “virtually all public travel with firearms is now a violation of law.” Since schools tend to be scattered around cities, Korwin argues, the situation surely is similar in many other places.
The law does not cover firearms on one’s own property or handguns possessed by people licensed to carry them. But the exemption for other private citizens traveling with guns applies only to unloaded, locked guns and unloaded guns carried by hunters with permission from school officials to traverse whatever school zones lie between them and their destinations. Hence the law covers many otherwise law-abiding citizens who buy guns and bring them home, take their rifles on hunting trips, or drive with their guns to the shooting range. Korwin proposes a simple solution: restrict the law to schools and their grounds.
The more fundamental problem with the law—that it’s not authorized by the Constitution—cannot be so easily fixed. The Supreme Court has not yet considered whether the interstate commerce boilerplate that Congress added in 1996 renders the law constitutional.
Sheer stupidity.
When my daughter was in daycare, one of the other parents was a police detective. The knee-jerk liberal parents complained, whined, and threatened to sue and/or pull their children out of the daycare. The detective afterwards had to lock his service revolver in his vehicle before dropping his daughter off.
This is the mentality of the Left. I have always imagined how history might have been changed if even one of the teachers or staff at Columbine had been armed.
Ah, the infamous "Commerce Claws" again. Government power couldn't be based upon a more bogus stretch of language, but enough crooked, power-hungry lawyers have given it an air of legitimacy. The same logic regulates the puddle in my backyard as a navigable waterway.
Ostlandr wrote: "The knee-jerk liberal parents complained, whined, and threatened to sue and/or pull their children out of the daycare."
Unbelievable. What state did this take place in?
I can imagine two corpses wearing black trench coats.
A teacher standing over them being handcuffed by the police.
A grateful student body screaming at the police to let the teacher go.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. Does this mean that if I drive THRU a school zone with a concealed gun that I'm a criminal? Geez, and to think that I've voted for Sessions!
How would history be different if armed American citizens were aboard the four hijacked aircraft on 9/11?
Actually, it's an EPA "wetland wildlife preserve"
Exactly... instead we all suffer from the feel good, best intentions, unintended consequences minority view which facilitates criminal behaviors.
How different would America's future be if the pilots on the 9-11 flights had been armed? Would make a GREAT movie.
Right now I am wondering exactly how far my house is in feet from the school up the street.
Anyone have a cite to prove this is true?
Often, I have wanted to go out jogging, walking or biking around the neighborhood while carrying, but have been leery about doing so, due to schools being all over the place. You know how uneducated the average police officer is on this subject. I don't relish being a test case.
What's worse is that legislators in some states have tried to legally classify home schools as "private schools", and this would have had the effect of banning firearms in the homes of homeschoolers. I don't think that anyone has gotten anywhere with this, but it is a vivid example of the slippery slope principle.
Google Earth has a yardstick measuring tool.
There's nothing wrong with the old one.
'Regulate commerce among the several States' means just that...
Make a regular set of weights and measure so no State gets cheated in a transaction with another State.
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/tocs/a1_8_3_commerce.html
It has nothing to do with the physical movement of goods.
"What state did this take place in?"
Obviously in a state of extreme ignorance and/or cowardice.
New York, of course.
Shooting a gun on a jet is not a good idea.
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