Posted on 02/19/2008 7:35:11 PM PST by djf
Secy of State Brad Johnson of Montana delivered a letter to the Washington Times about possible outcomes of the Heller decision.
Second Amendment an individual right
The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide D.C. v. Heller, the first case in more than 60 years in which the court will confront the meaning of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Although Heller is about the constitutionality of the D.C. handgun ban, the court's decision will have an impact far beyond the District ("Promises breached," Op-Ed, Thursday).
The court must decide in Heller whether the Second Amendment secures a right for individuals to keep and bear arms or merely grants states the power to arm their militias, the National Guard. This latter view is called the "collective rights" theory.
A collective rights decision by the court would violate the contract by which Montana entered into statehood, called the Compact With the United States and archived at Article I of the Montana Constitution. When Montana and the United States entered into this bilateral contract in 1889, the U.S. approved the right to bear arms in the Montana Constitution, guaranteeing the right of "any person" to bear arms, clearly an individual right.
There was no assertion in 1889 that the Second Amendment was susceptible to a collective rights interpretation, and the parties to the contract understood the Second Amendment to be consistent with the declared Montana constitutional right of "any person" to bear arms.
As a bedrock principle of law, a contract must be honored so as to give effect to the intent of the contracting parties. A collective rights decision by the court in Heller would invoke an era of unilaterally revisable contracts by violating the statehood contract between the United States and Montana, and many other states.
Numerous Montana lawmakers have concurred in a resolution raising this contract-violation issue. It's posted at progunleaders.org. The United States would do well to keep its contractual promise to the states that the Second Amendment secures an individual right now as it did upon execution of the statehood contract.
BRAD JOHNSON Montana secretary of state Helena, Mont. Montana, the Second Amendment and D.C. v. Heller
Well, our Founding Fathers apparently thought it was a good idea.
Hey! There’s another out!
If thirty-three states call for a Convention, they could scrap the federal government and start over from scratch.
Which states signed on to the pro-Heller brief?
Texas, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia.
I county thirty.
Soon as I get me a grub-stake, I'm gonna get me a dennil floss ranch.
Did you nap as you drove through Idaho? The inland NW is my old stomping grounds and a place to which I will return. Eastern Oregon, Northern Idaho, and Western Montana are probably the prettiest places in the U. S. In terms of natural beauty, however, nothing compares to British Columbia, IMO.
“That era began in 1865. Was Montana not paying attention?”
You’re gonna get em’ all riled up saying that. It seems that I read a book once that started with Montana seceding followed quickly by several other mountain states.
“I’m a southern boy by birth, but by God I would put up with the snow for this.”
If Tennessee left I’d leave Colorado in a heartbeat to defend my home.
“Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah.
That should be big enough...”
Maybe we could break off Northern Colorado too.
Thank you Captain Buzzkill...
“Maybe we could break off Northern Colorado too.”
I didn’t think that there was much of Colorado left that hadn’t been sucked dry, paved over or turned into a half-a$$ed theme park.
...just like what the tourists and their d*** lawyers are trying to do to Montana now.
I always wanted to ask those judges why were students were allowed to
carry rifles to schools and colleges for class.. Were our lawmakers
just really ignorant and stupid back then? I dare them to answer..
But don't forget to bring your zircon-encrusted tweezers! Even if you don't care to be a dental floss tycoon, they might come in handy....
But I’m unprepared
But the Constitution wasn’t referring to the present-day National Guard, because the National Guard is a federal entity. The militia is still the greater part of the people at large, except for politicians.
Yes, certainly some interesting times.
***If thirty-three states call for a Convention, they could scrap the federal government and start over from scratch.***
I truly doubt the FedGov would let that happen.
Try to remember that book and post it for all to see.
I've run across the explanation, but for the life of me, cannot remember.
ping
“I didn’t think that there was much of Colorado left that hadn’t been sucked dry, paved over or turned into a half-a$$ed theme park.”
There are bastions of liberalism centered around the universities but once you get away from those there are still a lot of guns and individualism.
“Try to remember that book and post it for all to see.”
I’ll try to find it, I’m sure I didn’t give it away, it’s probably in a box somewhere with my other TEOTWAWKI books.
The Brady Campaign to prevent gun violence has announced its state report cards and says that Montana failed and tied for 32nd nationwide when it comes to enacting gun control laws.
Montana scored eight points out of a possible 100.
The scorecard rates five categories: curbing firearm trafficking, background checks, child safety, banning military assault weapons and guns in public places and local control.
A gun rights advocate says a low score means Montana is more in line with the second amendment right to bear arms.
"Every year Montana finds the Brady gun control campaign report on guidelines." said Montana Shooting Sports Association President Gary Marbut "We rejoice in that. We don't like gun control in Montana. Gun control is not consistent with Montana's heritage and culture. It's not consistent with our people and who we are."
The Montana Attorney General's office would not comment on the report, but Marbut says crime decreases with fewer gun control laws.
The Brady Campaign ranks California first while Kentucky and Oklahoma tied for 49th.
NOw THAT is an amicus brief.
I wish a copy was submitted to the US Supreme Court.
I never noticed the zircon encrusted tweezers part. That's in that stupid song, too?
tweezers are good to have...but what i never leave home without, is duct tape! and a pocketknife, of course...
*****
"The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates."
-Tacitus
"If first you don't secede, try try again."
I used to have one of those on my F-150! Bought it at that gift shop atop Stone Mountain.
YEP!
If you're gonna hang out around oil fields in Montana, be sure you don't fall into that burnin' ring of fire! (OW! OW! OW!)
What a great album! Frank at his best. RIP.
Sidney? That's not too far away from Glendive. I have a friend and a cousin who used to live up there.
Rayon is actually a natural fiber. Just got a bum rap early on.
Not quite accurate. Please read the following essay I wrote that was vetted by our own "Congressman Billybob", a constitutional lawyer.
"A Convention for Proposing Amendments...as Part of This Constitution"
CBB: how can it be discovered if Montana pointed out this “contract” regarding individual gun rights to the USSC? Do you know if they did?
I really appreciate your comments, but it is just an old rumor that White Mtn. Peak, 14,242’, is actually higher than Mt. Whitney. It has been a running gag around here for years. It would take a lot of shoveling to get that much dirt and rocks off of White Mountain (pictured below) which is actually 70 miles north of Whitney in another mountain range.
14,496' Mt. Whitney in the High Sierra is not only the highest mountain in the West, but the highest in the United States outside of Alaska.
Missoula, Billings and Helena. Next question.
Alaska and Western Canada forming a new nation, perhaps, with Montana as a Southern jag.
The Third Revolution by Anthony F. Lewis
Quite a bit has changed since then. Or haven't you been paying attention.
See the links in post # 192, above.
Montana has two primary Minuteman support bases, Great Falls and Malmstrom AFBs. Their total number of Minuteman II Mmissiles is circa 350, less a few down for maintenance reefits, etc. There can be one, two or three Independent Reentry Vehicle [MIRV] warheads aboard each.
That should be big enough...”
Maybe we could break off Northern Colorado too.
Don't forget that similar rumblings have been heard in Alberta and Saskatchewan....
Got a passport, Yankee?
I'd just have him step out the back porch door, and point North. Though Devil's Tower sort of blocks a direct view.
It wouldn't be a secession. Should the any of the Bill of Rights be abrogated, the entire constitutional contract is negated, not just one little cherry-picked portion. Accordingly, Articles I,II,III, and IV would be just as moot as the Second Amendment, and there'd be nothing left to seceed from, just as the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991.
But as to how- and more importantly, why- it would *solve* the problem:
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ... .
. ... Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
We'd love to have you back as a neighbor.
I've long noted that if you're going to get into a fight with someone, it's easier to win if he's distracted by having his pants set on fire early on in the dispute.
Oh, surely we can find a few new citizens ready to emigrate from their homeland who appreciate mountain conditions.
Of course, it'll help if we can find a few folks who can pick up their language to help them settle in to their new home: Tesro bisra yudha nepalbata suruu huncha....
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