High Planes Drifter
Member
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2006
- Messages
- 1,204
I found this to be a good read. It was sent to me from GOA via e-mail.
Dear Editor:
The following op-ed is being submitted for your consideration.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Ed Isler
GOA
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Second Amendment Used to Dump Gun Law
by Larry Pratt
Judge Laurence H. Silberman has written a landmark legal decision
using the Second Amendment to overturn the DC gun ban. No court has
ever used the Second Amendment to overthrow a gun law. The case is
known as Parker v. District of Columbia.
With the overturn of the DC gun ban, the very restrictive law on the
books before the 1976 ban is once again the law in D.C. But, people
can at least once again buy a handgun and keep it in their house.
Judge Silberman's decision provides a platform for the next challenge
to other anti-gun laws in the District. No doubt that is what
especially troubles the socialist politicians of the District. The
thought of citizens empowered to protect themselves and not having
to rely on the ineffective protection offered by the government
terrorizes them.
Think about it – if people can protect themselves, they might start
thinking for themselves. Isn’t that what is "wrong" with flyover
country?
These are some of the highlights of the decision:
"[t]he Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep
and bear arms."
"The individual right facilitated militia service by ensuring
that citizens would not be barred from keeping the arms they
would need when called forth for militia duty."
"Despite the importance of the Second Amendment’s civic purpose, however, the
activities it protects are not limited to
militia service, nor is an individual’s enjoyment of the right
contingent upon his or her continued or intermittent enrollment
in the militia."
"With ‘a free State,' we understand the framers to have been
referring to republican government generally."
"[t]he bar on carrying a pistol within the home [and the requirement to keep
it disassembled] amounts to a complete
prohibition on the lawful use of handguns for self-defense.
As such, we hold it unconstitutional."
Let me go back and expand on a couple of points in the list above.
Silberman showed that the militia was compulsory, requiring men to
enroll much as the Selective Service had men register for the draft.
Fines were assessed on those who did NOT have their own militia guns,
ammunition for them, and keep them in good repair. House to house
searches were even conducted to insure that individuals were keeping,
and thus able to bear, arms.
The word "state" in the Second Amendment is found this way:
"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." "State" was the word seized upon by anti-gunners to
develop a novel theory (in the latter part of the 20th Century) that
militias, and thus gun ownership, were strictly a matter of state
privilege. Silberman showed that the founders’ use of the term
"free State" was a reference to preserving limited, constitutional
government – otherwise known as a republican form of government.
In other words, individual gun ownership was seen as essential to
preserving individual liberty. Government is not, and was not, the
source of those liberties because they predated the creation of the
United States by its Constitution.
Justice Silberman is owed a debt of thanks from all Americans,
because his opinion has gone a long way to clearing away the confusion
around gun ownership and placing it in the proper context: no guns,
no freedom.
It should be pointed out that all Silberman's decision could do was
throw out the DC gun ban of 1976. That was all the plaintiffs were
able to challenge in court. However, all the prior registration and
licensing laws are now fair game for challenge on the grounds that
they also violate – "infringe," to use the Second Amendment word –
the individual right to keep and bear arms.
Congress has – and has had all along – the constitutional responsibility
for legislation in DC. They can delegate that to the DC City Council,
but they cannot remove themselves from the constitutional requirement
that they be the final authority for legislation governing the federal
enclave.
The elitists in DC are hardly likely to want to clean up the rest of
their anti-gun, anti-self defense mess that is still on the books
following the Parker decision. Their priorities can be clearly seen
by contrasting their reaction to two events.
DC officials are outraged by the Parker decision. They are accusing
the justices of judicial activism. The way to understand their double
speak is this: A (rare) decision base on and upholding a constitutional
principal is viewed by the socialists as activism. A liberal decision
that assumes that judges can amend a "living" constitution is
"settled law."
Those same DC officials were totally unconcerned, however, when
plaintiff Shelly Parker was being attacked in her home. She wanted
to sue the District to get rid of the handgun ban because drug dealers
in her neighborhood had tried to break into her home. When they did,
one of them shouted: "I will kill you! And I live on this block, too."
Perhaps DC officials are afraid that the thug might have been shot if
Ms. Parker had a gun?
It seems more than our elite rulers can understand. They have 24/7
police protection – armed police protection. They experience no crime
problem. So, why should the rest of us need a gun?
Since the DC officials are not likely to "get it" regarding the
problem the rest of us have with crime, Congress needs to step up to
the plate and exercise its constitutional responsibility. Congress
should get rid of the pre-ban gun control laws in DC and legislate
a concealed carry law similar to the one in neighboring Virginia.
I would like to see there be no permit required at all, as is the case
now in Vermont and Alaska, but at least a fairly workable law such
as Virginia's would be a big step forward.
If DC residents could legally carry concealed firearms (the way crooks
are already doing illegally), watch for crime to plummet. The only
people who would really suffer from getting rid of the rest of DC’s
gun laws would be the crooks.
Well, there would be some gnashing of teeth heard from City Hall, too.
