The March 9th decision of the United States Court of Appeals in, PARKER VS. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, overturning the 30-year D.C. handgun ban has wide-ranging ramifications on gun laws including the National Firearms Act of 1934 that, required registration, taxes and outlawing machineguns and such. Soon after that 1st federal (1934) gun law was enacted there was a bizarre one-sided case before the Supreme Court, (USA VS. MIller) where the accused gun law violator, Miller had actually disappeared and had no lawyer to argue his case. That Miller decision was based on a huge fallacy where the members of the Supreme Court did not know that our military and National Guard employed short shotguns. The Court determined without any evidence or argument that a short-barreled shotgun was somehow not a suitable military weapon and not protected by the Second Amendment. The truth is our military has always employed such shotguns or trench-guns. That ruling opened the door to government regulation and various bans of firearms.
In many cases since the Supreme Court held that literacy tests and poll taxes interfered with the American right to vote. The same standard would apply to the Second Amendment if it were indeed a right of “the people”. That would undo the entire Firearms Act of 1934 and dismantle the BATFE or at least their current duties.
We got along fine without the federal gun law that was passed only after the violence brought on by that failed American experiment, Prohibition. Al Capone and his minions gave the “Chicago Typewriter” a bad and undeserved reputation. We focused on guns rather than criminals for the next 70 years.
The whiners from the Brady, hates gun-rights group and their politicians are now screaming and accusing the judges of judicial activism. The activism clearly happened in the Miller case where the court made up “facts" that simply weren’t true.
The same whiners are falsely claiming that not one other appellate court ruling has upheld the Second Amendment. They conveniently pretend that the recent Emerson case that also supported the Second Amendment somehow never happened.
If there was a problem it was lousy representation by lawyers defending people snagged in gun law dragnets. The lawyers just didn’t do their homework and fight for their client’s rights.
The key word here is “dicta” or conflicting appellate court decisions where the law is unsettled. The Supreme Court Of The United States has sidestepped the Second Amendment controversy because they all know what the outcome would be. A proper ruling would bring forth the virtual end of gun control other than bans applied to idiots, lunatics, common drunkards, vagabonds, paupers, and persons convicted of any infamous crimes.
Yes folks, we can roll back the gun laws that only affected the law-abiding and the sky won’t fall.
The only remedy for the gun haters is to convince 2/3 of the American people to amend the Constitution or overthrow the government. I think the latter will be very difficult with all the Armed Americans zealously protecting their re-established liberty.
Comments