Scalia: Guns May be Regulated

National Journal ^ | July 29, 2012 | John Aloysius Farrell

[Greystoke]

Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the Supreme Court's most vocal and conservative justices, said on Sunday that the Second Amendment leaves room for U.S. legislatures to regulate guns, including menacing hand-held weapons.

"It will have to be decided in future cases," Scalia said on Fox News Sunday. But there were legal precedents from the days of the Founding Fathers that banned frightening weapons which a constitutional originalist like himself must recognize. There were also "locational limitations" on where weapons could be carried, the justice noted.

When asked if that kind of precedent would apply to assault weapons, or 100-round ammunition magazines like those used in the recent Colorado movie theater massacre, Scalia declined to speculate. "We'll see," he said. '"It will have to be decided."

[wastedyears]

Scalia pointed out that the Second Amendment did not apply to “arms that cannot be hand-carried,” such as cannons.”

With that statement, Scalia is as much a constitutional scholar as Obama is.

[RKBA Democrat]

Gov. Henry said it well when he noted that “he smelt a rat tending to monarchy.”

[combat_boots]

.” said the judge, who is protected by armed bodyguardS (plural) and has the best security money can buy at the expense of the public.

[wastedyears]

I don’t think anyone believes a citizen should be able to own a fully armed tank or fighter jet. What about 50 caliber machine guns and hand grenades, tank killer missiles? The legal battle will be fought where they’ve been for years already: automatic or semi-automatic, hand carried rifles, clip size, caliber, etc.

You've already limited your argument to the very-limiting term "firearms."

[JRandomFreeper]

Scalia also doesn't seem to know that cannons and Gatling guns on limbers are legal under federal law.

/johnny

[wastedyears]

Including sticks that haven’t been sharpened.

[wastedyears]

I don’t know what a limber is.

[muawiyah]

Scalia playing 'the trickster' with that one. He knows as well as anyone that the 'letters of reprisal and marquis', to be understand, necessarily imply private individuals owning the current equivalent of a fully armed battleship or aircraft carrier including nuclear weapons AND a fleet of combat jet fighters on board.,P>The Second Amendment is actually about affirmation of the Huguenot right, carved out in France at the end of the Religious Wars, to not be subjected to the ancient privileges of nobles and commoners (nobles had the privilege, commoners were subject to severe limitations).

The d'Guise faction (Catholic) ~ the majority party, demanded everyone stack arms. The Huguenot faction (Protestant) ~ the minority party, refused ~ and they instantly proved that if you have firearms you have "The power".

The Brits never did quite get into something that revolutionary until maybe the late 19th century, but in America, the Huguenot idea of keeping firearms at home caught on big time! Here Spaniards of every social class had firearms, and then the Dutch, the French, the Scots, etc. as they arrived took up the custom immediately.

The second amendment affirms that commoners can have weapons just like the nobles. The text of the Constitution spells out clearly that everybody has a God given right to have the biggest weapons available!

[JRandomFreeper]

Sorry, I should have been more specific. Carriage mounted Gatling with limber. The limber is the box on two wheels that holds ammo, spares, and the gunner's hooch.

/johnny

[LibLieSlayer]

My wife when she is mad! ;-)

LLS

[Chode]

pretty much...

[Chode]

yup, i doubt it will take till 2075 for the next one...

[Chode]

a crew served hand gun... what will they think of next??? 8^)

[smokingfrog]

I AM the militia.

regulate
c.1630, from L.L. regulatus, pp. of regulare "to control by rule, direct" (5c.), from L. regula "rule" (see regular). Regulation is first recorded 1672, "act of regulating;" sense of "rule for management" is first attested 1715. Regulator is first recorded 1655; in Eng.

infringe

Origin:
1525–35; < Latin infringere to break, weaken, equivalent to in- in-2 + -fringere, combining form of frangere to break

[Da Bilge Troll]

Let’s don’t get over-excited here. When he says, “We’ll see”, that doesn’t mean he would vote for something in particular or not. It just means “we’ll see which side gets 5 votes”. He could be talking about John Roberts!

Also, I have always been in the camp that believes that the Bill of Rights only applies to the national government, not to the states (after all there were states back then with established religions, for instance). So, I don’t take his remarks as a departure, just a realistic appraisal. He doesn’t want to speak to specifics, after all.

[tacticalogic]

Why would it be a problem for a state to ban the sale of rocket propelled grenade launchers, or fully automatic weapons?

The problem comes with the perception that any thing a state can do, the federal government can do.

[Will88]

You've already limited your argument to the very-limiting term "firearms."

I haven't used the term "firearms", but the term "arms" as used in the 2nd amendment.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

the Second Amendment did not apply to “arms that cannot be hand-carried,” such as cannons.”

Yeah, where does it say that? I'm pretty sure if several men could lift it onto a truck, that is still "bearing arms"

I'd even say driving the truck is bearing arms...or flying the aircraft. Where do I draw the line. you may ask?

Unless you've committed a weapons-crime...I don't.

[Political Junkie Too]

If you read the Federalist Papers debate that I posted in post 69,you will see that the Framers meant the militia to either complement or offset (or even substitute for) the power of the standing army. If the standing army had cannons, the militia would have been expected to have proficiency with cannons, too.

It doesn't read like the Framers intended to limit arms to something less than what the standing army would use, if the militia were meant to be a check against it.

-PJ

[Little Bill]

I in the Rochester, NH Walmart yesterday when I ran cross a libertarian with a Glock 40 in open carry, Legal in NH. I don't care for libertarians and I am a wheel gun fan myself so we talked about the lousy choices that Walmart carries for Windoze games.

Vote for Ovide, Smith vowed to veto Constitutional Carry.