The Rohrbaugh Forum
Miscellaneous => The Water Cooler -- General Discussions => Topic started by: Brenden on June 28, 2010, 04:21:34 PM
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High Court’s Big Ruling For Gun Rights
June 28, 2010 - 10:07 AM | by: Lee Ross In its second major ruling on gun rights in three years, the Supreme Court Monday extended the federally protected right to keep and bear arms to all 50 states. The decision will be hailed by gun rights advocates and comes over the opposition of gun control groups, the city of Chicago and four justices.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the five justice majority saying "the right to keep and bear arms must be regarded as a substantive guarantee, not a prohibition that could be ignored so long as the States legislated in an evenhanded manner."
The ruling builds upon the Court's 2008 decision in D.C. v. Heller that invalidated the handgun ban in the nation's capital. More importantly, that decision held that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms was a right the Founders specifically delegated to individuals. The justices affirmed that decision and extended its reach to the 50 states. Today's ruling also invalidates Chicago's handgun ban.
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Good news and excellent timing before the court swings to 5-4 on the liberal side.
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Lets see how long it takes to implement...
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Yep! It's a wait and see ruling, for sure, however, we can hope it'll be soon!
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I'm sure if it had gone the other way it wouldn't have taken long to implement.
John
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How true, how true. Maybe this time it will be different.
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It would appear that the Second Amendment continues to depend on a 5-4 majority on the Court. It is a slender thread, but at my age I expect the Amendment will still be relatively intact when I shuffle off this mortal coil. It will, however, remain for the next generation to continue the fight to preserve the Amendment which supports all others in the Bill of Rights.
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It is up to each one of us now, to make sure the next generation does just that. Can you imagine losing the part of the United States Bill of Rights that protects the right to keep and bear arms that was adopted on Dec. 15, 1791, along with the rest of the Bill of Rights and has been a part of us since that time?
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Lets see how long it takes to implement...
It was at one time implemented....what went wrong?
How many more times will we have to go through another vote in just our lifetime? Until all the justices are libs and vote against our right.
The liberal Chicago leadership still doesn't get it, they still want to restrict gun ownership in a city where it is over run by crime and shootings.
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The system works; I detect some doubt and disbelief in the recent ruling. Perhaps, it is because for so many years we have been fed the naysayer's opinion that there was no connection between individual gun ownership rights and the second amendment. Then, we had to bring in the tenth and the fourteenth amendments to justify our positions. There is a lot of credit due here to the resolve of the conservative movement and the NRA. Conservatives believe in a strict adherence to the Constitution and liberals think that it bends with the wind. This one is here to stay and it will take them a long time to turn it around the other direction.
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Very good thoughts, tracker.
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Six quotations of possible interest:
1. "Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest." [size=10][Gandhi, Mahatma, 2 M. GANDHI, An Autobiography of the Story of My Experiments with the Truth (trans. M. Desai, 1927).][/size]
2. "The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subjected people to carry arms; history shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subjected people to carry arms have prepared their own fall." [size=10][Hitler, Adolph, From Edict of March 18, 1938.][/size]
3. "At the time of the adoption of the Bill of Rights, this country's statesmen were concerned with the need to protect citizens from government itself, and the passage of almost two centuries has not negated the validity of this concern. The fact that Article I, Section 8, clause 16 of the Constitution grants Congress the power to organize, arm and discipline the militia clearly indicates a quite different intention for the Second Amendment." [size=10][Buckley, Senator James L., Congressional Record, S6889 (daily edition, April 28, 1975).][/size]
4. "The right of citizens to bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible." [size=10][Humphrey, Senator and Vice President Hubert H., Quoted in David T. Hardy, The Second Amendment as a Restraint on State and Federal Firearms Restrictions, in Kates, ed., RESTRICTING HANDGUNS; THE LIBERAL SKEPTICS SPEAK OUT (1979).][/size]
5. "Foolish liberals who are trying to read the Second Amendment out of the Constitution by claiming it's not an individual right or that it's too much of a safety hazard don't see the danger of the big picture. They're courting disaster by encouraging others to use the same means to eliminate portions of the Constitution they don't like." [size=10][Dershowitz, Alan, quoted in Dan Gifford, The Conceptual Foundation of Anglo-American Jurisprudence in Religion and Reason, 62 TENN, L. Rev. 759 (1995).][/size]
6. "And if you want to feel the warm breath of freedom on your neck . . . if you want to touch the pulse of liberty that beat in our founding fathers, you may do so through the majesty of the Second Amendment. * * * The Second Amendment isn't about the National Guard or the police or any other government entity. It is about law-abiding, private U.S. citizens. Period." [size=10][Heston, Charleston, From Remarks for the 125th Annual National Rifle Association Members Banquet, April 20, 1996.][/size]
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Richard,
Those are some great quotes!!
I especially like Mr. Hestons..
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They argue that the Second Amendment's words "right of the people" mean "a right of the state" — apparently overlooking the impact of those same words when used in the First and Fourth Amendments. The "right of the people" to assemble or to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures is not contested as an individual guarantee. Still they ignore consistency and claim that the right to "bear arms" relates only to military uses. This not only violates a consistent constitutional reading of "right of the people" but also ignores that the second amendment protects a right to "keep" arms. "When our ancestors forged a land "conceived in liberty", they did so with musket and rifle. When they reacted to attempts to dissolve their free institutions, and established their identity as a free nation, they did so as a nation of armed freemen. When they sought to record forever a guarantee of their rights, they devoted one full amendment out of ten to nothing but the protection of their right to keep and bear arms against governmental interference. Under my chairmanship the Subcommittee on the Constitution will concern itself with a proper recognition of, and respect for, this right most valued by free men."
Senator Orrin Hatch, chairman, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution
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"A Bill of Rights that means what the majority wants it to mean is worthless."
- Justice Antonin Scalia