Posted on 03/09/2007 8:10:02 AM PST by cryptical
Edited on 03/09/2007 10:38:14 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
If the murder rate declines as a result the libs will be in deep doo doo.
Great news...and have a look at this from an AP story from few months ago. Maybe Silberman's a Freeper.
Thursday, Dec. 7, 2006 9:08 p.m. EST
Scope of 2nd Amendment Questioned
In a case that could shape firearms laws nationwide, attorneys for the District of Columbia argued Thursday that the Second Amendment right to bear arms applies only to militias, not individuals.
The city defended as constitutional its long-standing ban on handguns, a law that some gun opponents have advocated elsewhere. Civil liberties groups and pro-gun organizations say the ban in unconstitutional.
At issue in the case before a federal appeals court is whether the Second Amendment right to "keep and bear arms" applies to all people or only to "a well regulated militia." The Bush administration has endorsed individual gun-ownership rights but the Supreme Court has never settled the issue.
If the dispute makes it to the high court, it would be the first case in nearly 70 years to address the amendment's scope. The court disappointed gun owner groups in 2003 when it refused to take up a challenge to California's ban on assault weapons.
In the Washington, D.C., case, a lower-court judge told six city residents in 2004 that they did not have a constitutional right to own handguns. The plaintiffs include residents of high-crime neighborhoods who want guns for protection.
Courts have upheld bans on automatic weapons and sawed-off shotguns but this case is unusual because it involves a prohibition on all pistols. Voters passed a similar ban in San Francisco last year but a judge ruled it violated state law. The Washington case is not clouded by state law and hinges directly on the Constitution.
"We interpret the Second Amendment in military terms," said Todd Kim, the District's solicitor general, who told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that the city would also have had the authority to ban all weapons.
"Show me anybody in the 19th century who interprets the Second Amendment the way you do," Judge Laurence Silberman said. "It doesn't appear until much later, the middle of the 20th century."
Of the three judges, Silberman was the most critical of Kim's argument and noted that, despite the law, handguns were common in the District.
Silberman and Judge Thomas B. Griffith seemed to wrestle, however, with the meaning of the amendment's language about militias. If a well-regulated militia is no longer needed, they asked, is the right to bear arms still necessary?
"That's quite a task for any court to decide that a right is no longer necessary," Alan Gura, an attorney for the plaintiffs, replied. "If we decide that it's no longer necessary, can we erase any part of the Constitution?"
By that reasoning, none of the other Constitutional protections apply to the residents of DC. You know, things such as Due Process, Free Speech, and all that stuff.
To the Judge: The Constitution applies to the federal government first, and the states only through incorporation. The District of Columbia is technically not part of any state, but rather a creature of federal law. Ergo, the Second Amendment applies to DC even more clearly than to the States.
Simply unbelievable that a federal judge would think the the Constitution and Amendments thereto do not completely and fully apply to DC. Simply unbelievable!
And if you feed more crooks into the pump ...
then...
uhhhhh...
Metro will jabber about how much ridership is up, and how that means they need more funding. Or some such rot.
Hey! Maybe I don't have to stay in the Virginia 'burbs afterall...
Facts and Court Ruling that disagree with libs are meaningless.
It is only feel good emotions that count.
This the best news I have heard come of out of a court room in years.
Me too...I never miss Mario Batali & his merry cross-dressers and soooooo obviously lefty gang of 3.
Still I like his food...except the bacala....and pig innerds.
Wrong. That was made from whole cloth by a judge. It is no part of Constitutional law. In fact, it creates new law, something the judiciary has no power to do.
Here's the operative part of the original legislation:
The First 10 Amendments to the Constitution as Ratified by the States
December 15, 1791
Preamble
Congress OF THE United States begun and held at the City of New York, on Wednesday the Fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine.
THE Conventions of a number of the States having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best insure the beneficent ends of its institution
RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all or any of which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution; viz.:
ARTICLES in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.
This clearly is all the "incorporation" the Amendments need to be part of the "Supreme Law of the Land", the "laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding", and "the Judges of every State shall be bound thereby".
King Richard Daley is deeply saddened!
"I don't think this ruling extends a right to fire-up neighbor kids skinny dipping in your pool. ;~))"
Your description of the incident is incorrect.
He fired at the kid after the kid broke the window on the patio door and was standing in his den.
Having said that, I think he should live by his own rules and turned himself in for a jail term.
This is really, really, really big.
In a related story, pigs were seen flying over the skies of American cities today, and Hell reported snowballs freezing on the ground there!
Now if only the 9th Circuit and the Mass. "Supreme" Court could learn some lessons from the DC court...!
I doubt they take the case.
(check out some of the "KEYWORDS" at the beginning of the thread)
Good, but liberals will do everything that they can to subvert our rights.
Unfortunately, I do believe he signed the lousy assault weapon ban.
I'm skeptical, but I've heard rumors and whisperings about it.
If it's true, and if it holds, then this is a huge victory for second amendment and defensive carry rights everywhere.
Plus it will help the tourist industry in DC tremendously.
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