Posted on 03/20/2008 10:10:44 AM PDT by neverdem
It isn't often that the Supreme Court gets to dig down to Constitutional bedrock in the Bill of Rights.
--snip--
America, represented by the solicitor general, sought to avoid linking the right to keep and bear arms to militias, apparently for fear the justices could end up allowing ordinary citizens to keep the kinds of weapons modern militias use, like machine guns.
New York City's law isn't as strict as that of the Columbia district, but it's close. In New York City one needs a permit from the police department to keep a handgun at home. The problem is that the permitting process is entirely at the discretion of government officials. Mayor Bloomberg could instruct his police department to draw up a lawful licensing system that gives law-abiding, mentally sound adults with good vision the right to keep and bear a handgun. But Mayor Bloomberg has a hostility to this civil right that leaves little room for even those who feel they need to protect themselves in their own homes to keep and bear an arm.
We're reluctant to predict how the Supreme — or any — court will rule, but it's beyond us why the mayor is so exercised on this head. He speaks of "illegal" guns but rarely of the difficulty law-abiding citizens have owning legal guns. If he were balancing his campaign against "illegal" guns with a campaign to expand the rights of law-abiding citizens to own guns that are legally purchased, he would have gone a long way to defusing the issue. Most New Yorkers don't want to own guns or carry them; they have a magnificent police force to protect them. But no one likes to see a crabbed view of the Bill of Rights, which is what Heller is about.
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
America, represented by the solicitor general, sought to avoid linking the right to keep and bear arms to militias, apparently for fear the justices could end up allowing ordinary citizens to keep the kinds of weapons modern militias use, like machine guns.
Live by Miller. Die by Miller?
The ammendment says “keep and bear”. While the case at trial is about ‘keeping’, it’s hard to see how ‘bearing’ part can be continually made illegal after this case.
That’s good news for Bernard Goetz. He should move to have his conviction overturned. (He was found not guilty of shooting the muggers on the subway, but guilty of illegally carrying a firearm.)
It’s not just NYC’s “permit for home” system that is wrong, it is the “No CCW Permits for anybody except the elites” that is wrong. The result is criminal scum own the subways at night.
In 2006 this "magnificent police force" failed to protect 7.3/100000 citizens from homicide,m 13.12/100000 citizens from forcible rape, 287/100000 from robbery, and 329/100000 from aggrevated assault. Kind of hard to say that those 600+/100000 crime victims were better off being rendered disarmed and helpless and being "protected" by the police without gagging on the words, but the NY media seems to have no problem with it.
"When seconds count, an NYPD officer is only minutes away."
I suppose it would be impolitic to mention Amadou Diallo, gunned down by NYPD cops who cultivated the appearance of street muggers.
Yes that was truly "magnificent" wasn't it.
Most CAN'T own or carry guns. The rest is pure conjecture.
Most can own legally. You have to pay for the privilege. Concealed carry must be justified to the NYPD.
http://www.nraila.org/GunLaws/#
Last time I checked it was a pdf link.
Permit to own a handgun in the home is a statewide law that has been in place since pushed by then NY Assembly leader “Big” Tim Sullivan, which is why NY’s laws are known as the Sullivan laws.
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