JUST IN 8:15am EASTERN, SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS LOWER COURT RULING OVERTURNING DC GUN BAN!!!
By aceintx Posted in Archived — Comments (35) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Kennedy swung to the Conservatives on the Court in a 5-4 ruling upholding the lower court's ruling overturning the Washington DC gun ban.
This ruling is stunning given the recent usurpation of our rights and the purview of other branches of government!
I was predicting the court would go the other way on this...but I guess taking too much too soon was a fear of the SCOTUS
Bottom line...Gun Rights activists finally win one for the Constitution and DC Residence have a right to own handguns and defend themselves and their property!
What will Bloomberg do in NYC now? or San Fran Nan? or every liberal big city mayor across the country?
What is their ruling?
Yeah, it was predictable that the 2nd Amendment applies to the individual, but my fear was that they were going to go wishy washy by leaving vague any reasoning that the states could impose 'reasonable restrictions' on the 2nd Amendment.
My PERSONAL feeling is that there should be a tradeoff. If a state is allowed to do all sorts of background checks and require me to go to hours and hours of training classes to be allowed to make use of my 2nd Amendment right to keep AND BEAR firearms, then I ought to be able to do so anywhere I choose.
Knowing that the government will NEVER allow a citizen to carry, even if they have a permit, in government buildings, I understand that states will always hamper the 2nd Amendment to maintain authority.
But where is the SCOTUS going to draw the line on the States' ability to infringe on the 2nd Amendment?
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Dependence is Slavery.
The opinions haven't been put out yet beyond the reading in the court it's self...we'll see what the overall ruling is...but at least a right to own handguns has been upheld...for now!
By aceintx
Impeach the Traitorous 5!!!
Expect lawsuits in Chicago and NYC next. Depending on how all this shakes out, that may be only the tip of the iceberg, too.
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This too shall pass.
Scalia wrote the Majority opinion, so I wouldn't count on much Ambiguity!
By aceintx
Impeach the Traitorous 5!!!
Supposing lawsuits concerning the restrictions in place in Chicago and New York, we'll get some more information on what constitutes reasonable restriction on the right to own firearms.
Scalia's opinion seems to support a claim that the 2nd protects ownership of weapons like those in use at the time it was drafted. Although he appears to interpret this as meaning primarily small arms not primarily for military use, I don't know if that's explicitly spelled out. Perhaps it's clearer in the full document. Further rulings might also clarify or modify this statement.
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This too shall pass.
I guess we'll have to read the opinion and figure out where the ruling is weakest and expect the libs to try and exploit them!
By aceintx
Impeach the Traitorous 5!!!
"Land of the Free and Home of da Whopper" Peter Griffin...Family Guy
conform and celebrate diversity....or else!!!
High fives all around.
Kennedy is the new O'Connor. The Swinging Supreme.
And here I am without my firearms.
I predict that tonight will be a busy night at all shooting ranges as people celebrate.
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Dependence is Slavery.
Despite my posting this morning, I am going to have a very busy afternoon and evening and will not be able to catch up on the details of the decision. Would you please expand this blog when you have the opportunity to include more and updated information.
Thanks and already recommended!
*****
Unrepentant African-American nationalist, Unapologetic African-American conservative!
Today is the best day in recent history -- not just for liberty but for the protection of the individual's right to self-defense -- perhaps in the history of our Republic. The right to keep and bear arms has been systematically under interpretative and legislative attack for more than 30 years, and the results have been as plain as day: a coalition of gun-banning mayors who wish to extend their prosecutorial power across state boundaries in sting operations, the confiscation of lawfully-owned firearms in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina, and a consistent and concerted legislative attack on firearm ownership at the local, state and national levels.
Like this:
Every law-abiding citizen in this country, regardless of whether they think they ever intend to own a firearm, should breathe a sigh of relief today that at least 5 of our Supreme Court justices realized that the 2nd Amendment was in fact written as it was in order to protect a preexisting right of individuals to own weapons.
I would like to reprise a couple of my previous blog posts on this subject and invite other people to read the legislative and regulatory hoops I had to jump through in order to acquire my Massachusetts Class A License to Carry. You can read them here and here.
I would also like to invite people to read the history of Massachusetts' strategy of incremental fraud legislation enacted for the sole purpose of making firearm ownership prohibitively difficult and expensive for citizens, dealers and manufacturers -- a law which has had precisely the opposite effect of the rationale according to which it was promulgated.
Finally, I would like to invite everyone who is not already a member of the NRA to join. But don't stop there: get connected with the people in your state and locality who are 2nd Amendment supporters and join their organizations as well. Join a local gun club. Become a part of their community and support their activities and their outreach efforts. Affix their stickers and membership indicia proudly to the windows of your home and your car. Encourage your local school district to establish a competitive shooting program. And above all else, take your responsibility of supporting these causes and protecting your rights as seriously as you do your right to free speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, due process, and freedom of association. Because despite this ruling, complacency regarding the 2nd Amendment is not an option: the gun-grabbers are well organized and well funded in all 50 states of the nation, and they certainly don't intend to stop chipping away at your rights and legislating them out of existence any time soon.
Defend Liberty -- Join the NRA | Live in Massachusetts? Join GOAL | Cross-Posted @ The Minority Report
Is Kennedy no longer a usurper now?
As the old saw goes, "even a blind hog finds an acorn once in a while!
He'll revert to form during the next SCOTUS term the next time he has a chance to grab more power granted to the other branches!
See...he didn't get to take any executive or legislative branch powers to himself so he could afford to rely on the plain text of the Constitution to make his decision!
By aceintx
Impeach the Traitorous 5!!!
Get this...the conservative minority is accusing the majority on the court of judicial activism in their opinion...Aren't these the ones in the majority on Kelo, CFR and the recent ruling striping the executive branch of it's war powers under the constitution?
If it weren't so common with these clowns the irony would be breathtaking!
By aceintx
Impeach the Traitorous 5!!!
in this case it's a redefinition of terms...judicial activism is making up law out of thin air. The majority took the original meaning of the Second Amendment using the writings of the very people who actually wrote it to rule on it once and for all as opposed to other cases where the four in the minority here took a principle from foreign law...or simply made it up as in the case stripping the POTUS of his constitutional war making powers with no supporting law or constitutional principle!
This redefinition of terms is another issue that Republicans need to put a stop to...Judicial Activism has a specific meaning applied to a specific behavior by Judges...it has no application as to who's ox is being gored!
By aceintx
Impeach the Traitorous 5!!!
Al-Reuters is playing true to type with their headline:
"Americans Have Right To Guns Under Landmark Ruling"
Which implies that before the ruling, they didn't have a right to bear arms or guns. They "substantiate" that insinuation a little further down in the article (by just saying so!, in contradiction to the plain wording of the opinion) with:
Justice Antonin Scalia said for the majority the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with militia service and to use it for traditional lawful purposes, such as self-defense in the home. However, he said the new right was not unlimited.
Emphasis mine. This is an intentional misreading of the 2nd Amendment and the ruling, so that today's events cohere with the liberal narrative that this decision created a "new right" -- a.k.a., through conservative 'judicial activism.' Expect this to be a continual them at our nation's law schools in the next few days, weeks, months and years.
The actual words of the 2nd Amendment, which appear toward the bottom of the piece, are:
"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."
They mention that the amendment was written 200 years ago. In what sense, therefore is this a "new right" ???
The answer, of course, depends on how many years you spend listening to liberal discourse and deconstructive historicism. I expect that Nina Totenberg will be all over this decision as an example of "conservative judicial activism" and I breathlessly await her analysis, particularly since she never graduated from law school but has been for many years NPRs Legal Affairs expert and has stated time and time again that the Supreme Court has "always construed" the 2nd Amendment as a "collective right."
Well, not this time, Nina.
Defend Liberty -- Join the NRA | Live in Massachusetts? Join GOAL.
By saying that Scalia said something that he didn't say in the ruling. They deliberately and fulsomely lie about what his ruling stated. Four people were listed in the credits for that article: James Vicini as the primary author, with additional reporting from Jeremy Pelofsky and Editing by Deborah Charles and David Wiessler.
It took four people from Reuters working together to simply lie about what the majority opinion said and publish it as fact. That's three more than it usually takes them! An improvement!
Surprisingly, the Associated Press at least had a little more journalistic integrity than Reuters and managed to get the story straight(er):
The answer: Writing for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia said that an individual right to bear arms exists and is supported by "the historical narrative" both before and after the Second Amendment was adopted.
Emphasis mine.
Defend Liberty -- Join the NRA | Live in Massachusetts? Join GOAL.
Reuters?
They have a LONG list of why they stink.
Have they even started calling them Terrorists yet?
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Dependence is Slavery.
Does anyone know how this will carry over to Chicago? Does this ruling make the handgun ban in Chicago unconstitutional, or does someone need to actually bring the Chicago ban through the courts? I'm not real versed in how this stuff works but as a Chicago resident, I'm interested in whether I'll now be allowed to purchase a handgun for protection.
I don't think the City Counsel will take it upon themselves to pro-actively change the law to comply with the ruling though that is a possibility also.
will have to prove the law is warranted enough to overcome a constitutional right. These are about to go down all across the country, thank God.
and states, leave unconstitutional laws on the books routinely, until someone challenges them in court and forces them to remove them. Why should they change the law, there is normally no cost to them, if they leave the laws in place?
According to what I've read, the Illinois State Rifle Association filed suit in Chicago about fifteen minutes after the SCOTUS ruling and the NRA is supposed to follow suit (hah!) soon.
will go on late into the night. We have not heard the last from the anti gun crowd. If you don't belong to the NRA it is time you joined. They are leading the fight for our rights so lets give them a hand. Oh and all of you guys and gals who have been kicking President Bush around, you need to thank him for his Supreme Court appointments that allowed this to happen. This is yet another reason to defeat Obama...
and you are exactly right - the anti-gunners are not gonna lay down for this, and will work every angle, every possibility, and lie, lie, lie there butts off.
Impeach the 5 usurpers
Too poor to be a lifetime Member, but I am a yearly member, have been for a few years now.
I'm also toying around with joining another gun rights group as well, but I don't know if I can swing it, with college loans from before AND out of pocket for college now.
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Dependence is Slavery.
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777