Local Bill of Rights Nullification Power (HCI nut-cake alert)

On October 8, 2002, CNN Crossfire held a debate between Larry Pratt, Executive Director of Gun Owners of America and Dennis Henigan, Legal Director of the Brady Handgun Control, Inc. organization. As could be expected, Mr. Pratt trounced Dennis "Ban Handguns" Henigan. And also as could be expected, Mr. Henigan not only made numerous objectionable statements, but he revealed the depth of what he and his organization are really all about.

One brief section of their interview sparked this entire article. That section follows:

PRATT: Let me ask a question. You were saying that you don't support banning guns. Well, if so, did you disagree, or do you disagree that handgun control went to court to try to keep the D.C. gun ban?

HENIGAN: Look, we believe that individual communities ought to have the power to enact whatever gun laws they want.

- Anti-gun fanatics like Dennis Henigan are scary domestic enemies, a bane to a free society, and they are encouraged to carefully consider how much further they will be allowed to push lawful, peaceable gunowners before a backlash of epic proportions becomes unavoidable. When good men and women have no civil recourse for restoring their rights, the only path left is uncivil. There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 83,000,000 gunowners in this great nation, and many of them are increasingly feeling their backs against the wall -- as a direct result of people like Dennis Henigan who support, promote, endorse and consistently seek to build a long and growing string of "local community" dictatorships.

Angel's full writings bear reading:

If "individual communities ought to have the power to enact whatever gun laws they want," that opens the floodgates to enact laws that restrict the entire Bill of Rights. Local Bill of Rights Nullification Power, if accepted, can and will be applied to the entire Bill of Rights. Let's look at this idea, carried to its logical conclusion, one Amendment at a time.

FIRST AMENDMENT

If individual communities ought to have the power to ban firearms and imprison gun owners for mere possession -- "whatever gun laws they want" -- that same Mob Rule Theory applied to the First Amendment and carried to its logical conclusion could eradicate what's left of America as we know it. The First Amendment states:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

Imagine stiff penalties for speaking out on prohibited topics, or for assembling with friends of like mind, or for publishing banned ideas. Imagine being arrested and thrown in jail for petitioning the government publicly and offending the "wrong" official with your "devious, unpatriotic" grievances. Like China, where "American" flags and Little League baseballs are made -- where people are still to this day executed by the hundreds and even thousands, sometimes for what they say or how/where they say it.

What's your preferred religion? Strictly prohibited. And since the Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment can also be banned by "individual communities [who] ought to have the power to enact whatever [protected right] laws they want," if you get caught exercising that religion, you will be crucified naked in town square in the middle of summer and forced to listen to a repeating loop of Janet Reno justifying having torched Waco's youngsters to a crisp. Hey, these individual communities are powerful now. "Whatever [protected right] laws they want."

For the rest of this message, be sure to remember that the ban on cruel and unusual punishment has been lifted.

SECOND AMENDMENT

"Look, we believe that individual communities ought to have the power to enact whatever gun laws they want."

Hmmm. Gotcha:

"By order of the Mayor of New York City," said police chief Scarface, "anyone caught with a firearm without a permission slip personally signed by the Mayor and three of his approved staff members will be shot on sight and left to rot for 40 days. Before the day's end, all possessions left by the violent criminal will be confiscated and sold at public auction, and any debts left by the criminal will be repaid with hard labor exacted from no more than seven (7) surviving family members or known associates."

And don't even think about praying in prison when you get there -- the Warden in Henigan's "Any Gun Laws They Want" World makes the Mayor look like Snow White.

THIRD AMENDMENT

"No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law."

As soon as the law gets around the prescribing for post-jihad America, that Amendment is already ripe for abuse. But local communities don't have to worry about the very flimsy alleged protections it supposedly affords anyway, right? After some fellow named Mohammed Ramadan turns a beer keg into a dirty bomb and dumps it on a state legislator's front doorstep, you'd best not complain too much when Homeland Security Team Bravo Sierra needs a place to sleep and a television to shoot. Refusal to comply with their needs by sleeping at the neighbor's house is punishable by determination of the weary commanding officer who likes your landscaping enough to convince himself he'll get through the 60-day pseudo "cleanup" procedure outlined on Page 871 of the USA SUPERPATRIOT Act without blowing his own brains out.

FOURTH AMENDMENT

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Henigan's World:

"No, officer, I didn't realize I was going 2 miles over the speed limit. I'm really sorry."

"Step out of the car, mister. Please remove your shoes, pants, shirt, jewelry and bend down and grab your ankles. If you sit still, this cavity search will only take a minute and you can get dressed while we rip your car apart."

Far fetched? Hardly. Prince George's County, Maryland's police department was exposed by the Washington Post a while back for many "unbelievable" things -- including multiple officers strip searching a man who'd been pulled over in his BMW, and doing a cavity search behind a gas station while, according to the successful businessman with a clean record who encountered these "law enforcement officers," they joked, laughed and intimidated him menacingly with clear and concise threats.

At the 2001 Gun Rights Policy Conference, an Ohio attorney informed the entire roomful of people that police officers who "catch you with a firearm" can order you to submit to a strip search -- "and you have to do what they tell you."

And that's with the alleged "Fourth Amendment" in place... supposedly.

In the Henigan "individual communities ought to have the power to enact whatever [...] laws they want" world, your City Manager, County Supervisor or Mayor can demand that you submit DNA, hair, blood, stool and urine samples -- for each member of your family.

"Privacy? Shut your mouth, or that smile will be wiped off of your face with this nightstick. We'll be by from time to time -- any time we please -- to make sure you don't have any contraband in your house. We're watching you, and we think you are up to something."

FIFTH AMENDMENT

"No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."

1) "Tell us the truth or we will do it to your other thumb. Confess!"

2) "By order of this court, I hereby dismiss this jury for failure to convict an obvious criminal and decree that the fourth jury selection for this trial will commence at noon on Monday."

3) "Hey. Yeah, it's me! Listen! The city is demanding that I vacate my family's home and land -- they are giving me one one-hundredth of what it's worth and said that if I didn't like it the Police Chief would like to settle this matter personally this evening behind the station! ... Whadya mean 'what am I gonna do', you idiot -- I'm packing! I want you to come help me so I get the most important stuff!"

SIXTH AMENDMENT

"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense."

Prisoner Number One: Welcome to The Outhouse. What'd they put you in here for?

Prisoner Number Two: I got pulled over with my friend, and they found a flattened .22 shell casing in his trunk.

Prisoner Number One: Idiot. You should have picked smarter friends. What'd they do to him.

Prisoner Number Two: He's dead.

Prisoner Number One: Right.

Prisoner Number Two: How long did it take you to get to trial?

Prisoner Number One: I'm still "waiting." Every now and then the Warden calls me into his office to tell me the judge is still selecting my jury, but I stopped believing him after the fourth or fifth time.

Prisoner Number Two: How long have you been in this hellhole?

Prisoner Number One: What year is it?

SEVENTH AMENDMENT

"In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law."

Newspaper Headlines:

January:

COMMON LAW RULED ANTIQUATED
COMMUNITY LAW SUITABLE REPLACEMENT

March:

JURY TRIAL UNNECESSARY, SAYS MAYOR
MOST JURORS TOO UNINFORMED

May:

TRAFFIC CRIMINAL GETS 20 YEARS
CALLED JUDGE A SCUMBAG

EIGHTH AMENDMENT

"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."

PORTLAND, Or. (AP) -- The high bails being set for prisoners have led to yet another execution today. A man accused of distributing flyers contesting high bails told the judge he "could stick his $500,000 bail where the sun don't shine." Funeral services have been waived by the family as they are all working in the newly renovated Portland Penal Colony -- to pay their late father's bail, which the judge said he still owes "even though he's lost his head."

NINTH AMENDMENT

"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

Law Enforcement Officer One: "...and she tells me she wants me to turn off my cruiser while I interview her because she says she has a 'right to breathe clean air', I think she said!"

Law Enforcement Officer Two: "Yeah,.. and...?!"

Law Enforcement Officer One: "So I grab her by the neck and close off her windpipe until she faints and drop her on the ground -- then when she wakes up, I says, 'Are you sure about that, honey?!!"

In Unison: "Bwaaaa haaa haaa ha ha HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!"

TENTH AMENDMENT

"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."

"Look, we believe that individual communities ought to have the power to enact whatever [Bill of Rights] laws they want." --Dennis Henigan, legal director for the Brady Campaign Against Gun Violence, CNN's Crossfire Debate with Larry Pratt, Executive Director, Gun Owners of America, October 8, 2002, 19:00 ET

CONCLUSION

Anyone who chips away at one of the Amendments in the Bill of Rights is chipping away at all of them. Supporting local Bill of Rights Nullification Powers is an invitation for the kinds of abuses history has relegated to Totalitarian Dictatorships. Whether the Dictatorship is localized, regional, statewide or national matters little to people living and dying under such conditions.

Basic human rights were specifically enumerated as off limits by any government because the forethinking men who discerned them as innate to the human being had experienced gross dishonoring of these rights and the results such tyranny produced. If government could legitimately strip away one human right, they could strip them all. Thus the term "unalienable rights."

The US Constitution is the Law of the Land -- it says so in Article 6, Section 2, "anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding." It's not a buffet from which petty Dictator Wannabes can pick and choose. As long as each community and state is a part of this nation, the elected officials of that community must abide by The Law. They cannot choose which laws they want to obey any more than individuals are entitled to do. We are one nation, bound together by the contract that is the Constitution. This is what makes us the united States of America.

Anti-gun fanatics like Dennis Henigan are scary domestic enemies, a bane to a free society, and they are encouraged to carefully consider how much further they will be allowed to push lawful, peaceable gunowners before a backlash of epic proportions becomes unavoidable. When good men and women have no civil recourse for restoring their rights, the only path left is uncivil. There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 83,000,000 gunowners in this great nation, and many of them are increasingly feeling their backs against the wall -- as a direct result of people like Dennis Henigan who support, promote, endorse and consistently seek to build a long and growing string of "local community" dictatorships.

*** END ***

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