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Old July 14, 2011, 09:26 AM   #24
Al Norris
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Join Date: June 29, 2000
Location: Rupert, Idaho
Posts: 9,660
The major problem with all the other cases, is that the lower courts are all playing word games with Heller. Scalia didn't say that the only place you can carry is in the home. That was the very narrow holding in a specific circumstance. Yet, that is what the lower courts are latching onto, in order to find that public carry is outside the core of the right.

Nominally, it is going to take the SCOTUS to lay it out: The core of the right is to keep and bear arms, in case of confrontation, for self defense. Keep means possess. Bear means to carry, both in the home and in the public, barring "sensitive places" (which is another whole string of cases).

This is why Williams and Masciandaro are very important cases. They are both before the Court. If one or both are granted cert, then this question will be answered.

But there is some hope, even if cert is denied in those cases. The terms laid out in the Ezell opinion, would mean that the district courts in the 7th Circuit (all of IL), will have no choice but to do the historical groundwork. That approach will not leave the district courts much room to wiggle around the basic facts, as laid out in Heller and Ezell.
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