Posts Tagged ‘RKBA’

Second Amendment: Seventh Circuit Upholds Chicago Ban

June 7, 2009

Commentary from The Patriot Post (see sidebar) about an earlier post subject on this blog.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled Tuesday that Chicago’s handgun ban could stand because the Second Amendment is not incorporated against the states or local jurisdictions. Likewise, the three-judge panel said, last year’s Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia v. Heller did not apply to states or municipalities. The 1982 ban was challenged by the National Rifle Association and has already been appealed to the Supreme Court.

The case is particularly interesting because of the lack of precedent on incorporation, though the Ninth Circuit Court found in April that the Second Amendment is incorporated against the states. The Supreme Court has ruled in the past that under the 14th Amendment’s Due Process Clause, much of the Bill of Rights is incorporated against the states. (Blogger Eugene Volokh has more on the Privileges or Immunities Clause used in past 2A rulings.) Imagine a state forbidding freedom of speech and religion or allowing unreasonable searches and seizures — such laws would not stand. On the other hand, the Second Amendment doesn’t mention Congress as the First Amendment does, but simply says the right “shall not be infringed.” Yet states and municipalities infringe on that right all the time. And as we noted last week, Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor once wrote, “[T]he right to possess a gun is clearly not a fundamental right.”

Perhaps Investor’s Business Daily said it best: “The Circuit Court decision was written by Judge Frank Easterbrook and joined by Judges Richard Posner and William Bauer. Easterbrook’s reasoning is fascinating. According to him, the Revolution was fought and independence won so that the Founding Fathers could write a Constitution with a Bill of Rights that applied only to the District of Columbia.”

Talk about warped logic!

Politics, and blindfolds, as in Lady Justice

May 7, 2009

The impostor in chief is about to have the opportunity to not only make history yet again but to put his stamp on generations to come. How so? With at minimum one appointment to the Supreme Court.

Justice is supposed to be blind, not filled with emotion. Not issuing rulings based upon personal desires, but upon law. This is most important when one is a Justice on a Supreme Court, be that of an individual state or the United States Supreme Court. The rulings that are made in those places have an effect all the way down to the individual citizen. They determine how one lives, or dies too as far as that goes.

All too often high courts thwart the intentions of the people that had laws passed in order to achieve their own (the courts) personal agenda. Be that a State Supreme Court or the U.S. Supreme Court. Of note, or example, would be the Colorado Supreme Court trashing the Tabor Amendment, and the U.S. Supreme Court by endorsing ex post facto law that also takes away unalienable rights for less than felony indiscretions. Or mysandry based regulation or law founded within the realm of political correctness.

Part of the duty of those courts is the protection of minority groups, be those racial, political or based upon gender. We have all but put away the arguments based upon racial superiority in America, at least within the legal concept. Racism does still exist in America, as well as everywhere else in the world but we are making headway on that front where as in many other parts of the world it is lip service at best. On the other two fronts we have not really changed much at all. We have simply exchanged one evil for the extreme opposite. That, is where things become incredibly difficult when choosing a Supreme Court Justice.

What follows is from yesterdays Patriot Post about this subject. You read, and decide if someone should be appointed, for life, to a position of near unbridled authority based upon the contents of their crotch, personal penchants, and ability to go with the flow. Or, upon personal integrity, honor, and sense of duty.

“[J]udges, therefore, should be always men of learning and experience in the laws, of exemplary morals, great patience, calmness, coolness, and attention. Their minds should not be distracted with jarring interests; they should not be dependent upon any man, or body of men.” –Johns Adams

Rule of men: “Now, the process of selecting someone to replace Justice (David) Souter is among my most serious responsibilities as president, so I will seek somebody with a sharp and independent mind and a record of excellence and integrity. I will seek someone who understands that justice isn’t about some abstract legal theory or footnote in a casebook; it is also about how our laws affect the daily realities of people’s lives, whether they can make a living and care for their families, whether they feel safe in their homes and welcome in their own nation. I view that quality of empathy, of understanding and identifying with people’s hopes and struggles, as an essential ingredient for arriving at just decisions and outcomes.” –President Barack Obama

From the gun grabbers: “[T]he Supreme Court has ruled in a direction that gives more opportunity for people to have guns. We never denied that right. We don’t want to take their guns away. We want them registered … and we have to rid the debate of the misconceptions that people have about what gun safety means.” –Nancy Pelosi

Non Compos Mentis: “Welcome to Cinco de Cuatro — Cinco de Mayo at the White House.” –Barack Obama (click here for video)

Quite taken with himself: “Everywhere I go, crowds spontaneously assemble. They start to cheer, whether I go to a play on Broadway or I’m going home to Wilmington, Delaware. I walk on the train. People stand up and clap.” –Vice President Joe Biden

Tacky: “If we had pursued what President Nixon declared in 1970 as the war on cancer, we would have cured many strains. I think Jack Kemp would be alive today. And that research has saved or prolonged many lives, including mine.” –Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA), who fits in just fine with his new party **”Specter’s use of Kemp’s death is not only tasteless but nonsensical. If Republicans killed Kemp by blocking cancer research, how is it that the research they blocked prolonged Specter’s life?” –James Taranto

“That President Obama has made ’empathy’ with certain groups one of his criteria for choosing a Supreme Court nominee is a dangerous sign of how much further the Supreme Court may be pushed away from the rule of law and toward even more arbitrary judicial edicts to advance the agenda of the left and set it in legal concrete, immune from the democratic process. Would you want to go into court to appear before a judge with ’empathy’ for groups A, B and C, if you were a member of groups X, Y or Z? Nothing could be further from the rule of law.” –Hoover Institution economist Thomas Sowell

“Mr. Obama will make Supreme Court history, all right. He will become the first president in American history to make lawlessness an explicit standard for Supreme Court justices. … He has boldly proclaimed that he intends to make sure his nominees to the Supreme Court don’t harbor any crusty fealty to the written Constitution, or the millenniums of Western law that undergird its principles, or to the timeless truths that underlie our Declaration of Independence.” –Judicial Confirmation Network counsel Wendy E. Long

“There is a reason that Lady Justice wears a blindfold. Justice is supposed to be blind to the race, gender, finances, politics — and every other ’empathy’-eliciting — characteristic of those who seek it in good faith.” –columnist Carol Platt Liebau

“It is dangerous in this day and age to use the word ‘fascism’ lightly. Liberals sling around the term ‘fascism’ without regard to its meaning — for the Left, ‘fascism’ applies to everything from religious social perspectives to conservative tax cut prescriptions. But economic fascism has a precise, defined meaning. And Barack Obama’s economic policy fulfills that meaning in every conceivable way.” –radio talk-show host Jerry Doyle

“Liberals do not win elections for Republicans. Conservatives win elections. Whenever conservatives try to placate liberals and show how sensitive and caring and in touch with the feelings and concerns of the other party they are, they lose. But when Republicans stand on principles and demonstrate conviction and give evidence that their ideas work, they win.” –columnist Cal Thomas

“The killer virus for Republicans hasn’t been intolerance inside the party for moderates. What cost Republicans control of the White House and Congress was alleged conservatives behaving too much like Democrats, especially on spending.” –columnist Brendan Miniter

All quotes by former Congressman Jack Kemp (1935-2009)

“As the GOP stumbles around Washington trying to be the party of Herbert Hoover, it’s sad to see so many Republicans drifting so far and so fast from the Reagan model that helped pave the way for the great, non-inflationary economic and jobs expansion of the past 25 years.”

“Democrats are quick to draw parallels with the stock-market crash of 1929. The irony is that it’s mostly the Democrats who want to repeat the mistakes that turned the Crash of ’29 into the Great Depression.”

“The first order of business must be debunking the Democrats’ notion that higher taxes will lead to a more prosperous America.”

“When you tax something you get less of it, and when you reward something you get more of it.”

“Our friends in the other party say the economy is moving forward, and it is. But it is moving like a ship dragging an anchor, the anchor of high taxes, excessive regulation and big government.”

Will the man that refuses to show his real birth certificate choose wisely, or rather based upon political correctness and expediency? Only time will tell.

These two agree? Tell me it isn’t so!

October 20, 2008

I opened up my hotmail account today, and sure enough the NRA newsletter was there as I expected it to be. Can you imagine the shock that sent shivers through my entire body though when I learned that two daimetricly, well almost, (the NRA isn’t Gun Owners of America after all) groups actually agreed on one thing..?

In a rare occurrence, NRA and the Brady Campaign (formerly Handgun Control, Incorporated) agree on something.

Four years ago, the Brady Campaign endorsed an anti-gun senator by the name of John Kerry for President, and NRA thought that decision made sense—for an anti-gun group.

This week, in a testament to his anti-gun record, Barack Obama also received a presidential endorsement from the Brady Campaign.

So, once again, the Brady Campaign and NRA are in total agreement—Barack Obama is, by far, the most anti-gun presidential nominee in history and he certainly deserves the endorsement of one of the most outspoken anti-gun organizations in the country.

source

The above schizophrenia did not last long though, thank God. What followed is more alligned to the form that I am used too! Same source as above…

On Gun Rights: Obama=Radical:

Refused to sign the brief supporting an individual Second Amendment right in the Heller case.
Against Right-to-Carry. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 4/2/08; Chicago Tribune, 9/15/04)
Director, Joyce Foundation—one of the most anti-gun foundations in America. (Politico)
“I think it’s a scandal that this president [Bush] did not authorize a renewal of the assault weapons ban.” (Illinois Senate Debate #3: Barack Obama vs. Alan Keyes, 10/21/04)
“Clinging” to guns—how Obama described “bitter” gun owners at a San Francisco fundraiser.
Ammunition ban supporter. Obama voted to ban almost all rifle ammunition commonly used for hunting and sport shooting. (United States Senate, S. 397, vote 217, 7/29/05)
Limiting self-defense. Obama voted to allow the prosecution of people who us a firearm for self-defense in their homes. (Illinois Senate, S.B. 2165, vote 20, 3/25/04)

Update: BATFE and David Olofson

September 10, 2008

Outlaw federal agency BATFE continues to ignore the law of the land. Here is an update from GOA.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Gun owners across the nation are still rejoicing over the Supreme Court
decision that struck down portions of the DC gun ban as unconstitutional.

But the Heller decision has also signaled the beginning of a new major
assault by the anti-gun left.

Make no mistake, the anti-gun lobby is not going quietly into the night.
They are absolutely rabid over this decision -- and their friends in
Congress are in a strong position to legislate away those gun freedoms which
the Supreme Court has affirmed.

In the meantime, agencies like the federal BATFE (Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) appear to have no intention, whatsoever,
of stopping their attacks on law-abiding gun owners, gun dealers and
manufacturers.

In GOA's newsletter which recently landed in mailboxes (The Gun Owners,
August 18), we detailed the lengths to which the BATFE is going to trample
the rights of gun owners and dealers.

 From using paid "informants" to provide false testimony, to 
physically
altering firearms to turn them into "machine guns," to 
abusing and harassing
mom and pop gun shops who cannot afford to legally defend themselves, this
agency appears not only to have little or no regards for the rights of
citizens, but is clearly willing even to ignore the rulings of the Supreme
Court.

As you know, Gun Owners is helping to defend David Olofson, a recent victim
of BATFE abuse who has been sentenced to 30 months in the Federal
Correctional Institute at Sandstone, Minnesota for the alleged crime of
knowingly transferring an unregistered machine gun.

GOA submitted an appeal on August 25, 2008, to get him released from prison,
and our brief is viewable at http://www.gunowners.org/fs0806.pdf on the GOA
website.

We took on the case when we learned that the so-called "machine 
gun" that
Olofson owned was, in reality, one of thousands of ordinary semi-automatic
rifles made by Olympic Arms. It happened to misfire a few extra rounds when
a friend was using it at a range -- thus drawing the attention of the feds.
However, it only became a machine gun when the BATFE, behind closed doors,
mechanically tampered with the rifle.

Getting guns to malfunction is a favorite technique of the BATFE as it gives
them a great opportunity to rack up convictions on the possession or selling
of "machine guns," which requires a special type of license.

As a result, David Olofson has been robbed of all his freedom, not just his
right to keep and bear arms. He has lost his liberty, his family, and his
life outside of prison.

It is just a turn of fate that it is David Olofson -- not you or any other
semi-auto owner you know -- who is rotting away in prison.

And that's why GOA came to his aide, and we are pleased to report that you
guys have been a tremendous blessing to the Olofson family.

David's wife, Candy, told GOA Executive Director Larry Pratt last week that
contributions from GOA members have been a tremendous help. So much so,
that she does not need to take a second job, thus allowing her to spend time
with her children.

All of this has resulted from the many GOA members who are making monthly
contributions to help pay the Olofson family's mortgage and car payment.
By the way, a lawyer friend who lives near Candy told her that GOA's brief
was superb. One could could hear the encouragement in her voice that
resulted from what the attorney told her.

So, now that we have the Olofson family stabilized, we're asking you to help
us get stabilized. This case is very expensive, and we need your help to
continue pressing ahead for his release from prison.

The costs in taking on this case are huge, although it's a burden we gladly
bear because of the danger that it presents to ALL gun owners -- especially
those who own semi-automatic firearms. If this injustice stands, it will
give the ATF the green light to put millions of additional gun owners in
their cross hairs.

GOA also needs your financial help because we are using this experience to
work with a team of experts to develop written testing standards that could
be imposed on the BATFE by law. Such a law would protect individual gun
owners, manufacturers and dealers alike, and would be the next best thing to
getting rid of The Gang (aka, the BATFE).

So please help GOA to accomplish these worthwhile efforts.

You can help GOA continue fighting to defend David Olofson -- and all gun
owners like him -- by going to http://www.gunowners.org/ordergoamem.htm on
the GOA website. Thank you.