Posted on 06/12/2006 4:19:00 PM PDT by steveo
06-12) 16:03 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- An initiative that San Francisco voters approved last November banning residents from owning handguns violated state law, a Superior Court judge ruled today.
Proposition H, which won a 58 percent majority, would have outlawed possession of handguns by all city residents except law enforcement officers and others who needed the guns for professional purposes. It also would have forbidden the manufacture, sale and distribution of all guns and ammunition in San Francisco.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Wow, SF.
WOW, a touch of common-sense... from a judge... in SF... WOW.
Forget state law...it violates the freakin' 2nd Ammendment!
I don't think handguns should be banned. But should judges be allowed on overrule what voters have decided?
That judge had better wear a spitwad-proof vest.
Yes, when it really IS unconstitutional.
Absolutely. Checks and balances. If voters want to pass a law that violates the constitution, they need to get a constitutional amendment passed, not some local ordinance.
This is exactly the type of thing judges *should* be doing IMO.
It depends. If he ruled, as the story says, that the local law violates state law, then it has to be struck down.
Local voters can't change that fact.
Reason prevails.
as per post # 4
i would have liked to see a ruling that it violated the 2nd amendment to the US Constitution
what we got here is a reaffirmation of a state's ability to outlaw gun ownership
"overstepped local government authority and intruded into an area regulated by the state."
maybe you have to take these things one step at a time, and overturning this city proposition is certainly a good thing, but we need more
OMFG!!! NO WAI!
What if some 'voters' said only whites allowed to own property in a city.
Uh...yeah. We're a republic, not a democracy. In a democracy, if a majority of people said it was okay to kill you (and you hadn't done anything wrong), how would you feel about that?
The SF Bay Area is a foreign country. To get just a small glimpse of how foreign it is, find a copy of "The Cuckoo's Egg" by Cliff Stoll. Even though he was an anstronomy major deeply involved in pure hardcore science every day, he and his ilk still lived a bizarre fantasyland hippie dippie life that is virtually unknown outside the bay area and Berkeley. I had to re-read some sections of that book to make sure I understood what those folks were thinking and doing.
I have a CCW permit that is a state permit, albeit issued by my county. As a state permit, it is supposed to be good anywhere in the state. I understand that SF will not honor it. I wish a state court would take SF to task over this issue also. I go there only rarely, but this irks me.
bttt
The constitution doesn't require a popular vote to validate it.
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