Supreme Court takes up landmark gun case

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This will be the first case concerning guns with Sotomayor, and it appears she believes the states can outlaw gun ownership.

The Supreme Court has agreed today to hear a landmark Second Amendment case challenging Chicago’s ban on handguns and onerous registration procedures on other firearms.
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The Illinois State Rifle Association and the Second Amendment Foundation filed a lawsuit against the city of Chicago claiming the city enforces a handgun ban identical to the one struck down by the Supreme Court in the case District of Columbia v. Heller and that the ban violates residents’ Second Amendment rights.
In Heller, the court rejected a lower court position that claimed the Second Amendment applied only to state “militia,” such as the National Guard. However, the 5-4 ruling referenced the federal jurisdiction of Washington, D.C., and not states and localities.
he Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states: “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Furthermore, Section 1 of the 14th Amendment, or the Privileges or Immunities Clause, states:
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

If it can be rightly asserted that the states can deny citizens the right to own and bear arms, then it seems to me that every right in the entire Bill of Rights can be regulated by the states, except on federal property, and thereby the Bill of Rights are then made wholly meaningless.
Every part of the Bill of Rights must apply at all times and in all places or we cannot rely upon their protections anywhere at all. They will have been removed from the Constitution.
Quite frankly I do not own any private firearms, never had any interest in owning any; but I have always believed that even gun registration is unconstitutional, as it is the means for the State to know who has guns and should they decide to institute marshal law on a federal level, they will know where to come and get those guns, leaving the people powerless to defend themselves. I think laws prohibiting their use in legitimate self defense are unconstitutional and a host of other laws restricting gun ownership as well.
I hope we still have enough sane justices left to make it clear this time, with no limited applications or fuzzy judgments that, the Second Amendment applies to every U.S. citizen and no one within the United States my abridge that right.

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  • http://www.dartemis.net/blog/ sayanything-42

    Congratulations, Neiman.

  • http://Verizon.com/ ND in MD

    I agree with Neiman, but should the SCOTUS rule that Constitutional Amendments can be regulated by the states; can we initiate a petition drive in ND forcing the ND Legislature to ban the 16th amendment in ND? To me, this would be throwing it right back in their faces. ND already gets more money from Washington than it contributes, but just think, sending Lord Byron, Sir Kent and Little Earl to Washington to bring home the bacon when you contribute nothing would really drive the left wing nutter crazy.

  • http://www.moszer.net/ Moszer

    My understanding is the 2nd Amendment is the ONLY one not incorporated into the 14th.

    This case should solve that.

  • Rooster

    "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
    What part of 'shall not be infringed.' are people not understanding. It seems very simple and clear to me. Individual states cannot override individual constitutional rights.

  • http://www.bikebubba.blogspot.com/ Bike Bubba

    Actually, lower courts have incorporated the 2nd against the states repeatedly–that was one of the big reasons for the 14th Amendment, according to Yale Law Professor Akhil Reed Amar. He's not a big fan of #2, but he was honest enough to follow the doctrine of incorporation right to "shall not be infringed."

    Hopefully at least five of the justices can perform enough logic to realize that if a state can ban firearms, the 2nd Amendment is meaningless.

  • headward

    The citizens should not be scared of their government, but the government to be scared of their citizens.

  • DINO

    Whereas conservatives are afraid of everything, living in a perpetual state of outrage and fear.

  • robert108

    Again, dino projects the ongoing nightmare in his mind onto real Americans.

  • http://www.bikebubba.blogspot.com/ Bike Bubba

    Whereas conservatives are afraid of everything, living in a perpetual state of outrage and fear.

    One would figure that someone as obviously from the "Daily Kos" mold would figure out that describing people as "in a perpetual state of outrage and fear" would bring a touch of shame on his own side of the political aisle, but apparently not.

    For other people "in a perpetual state of outrage and fear" look up the "The founding Fathers," who described government as a dangerous servant and a fearful master, and prescribed weapons ownership as the antidote.

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