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Old April 2, 2009, 03:36 PM   #49
pendennis
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Join Date: March 18, 2009
Posts: 572
Quote:
When you purchased or possessed it legally has nothing to do with it. The only question will be did you possess an item after a law was enacted that prohibited such possession? If the answer is yes it will be irrelevant that you possessed it legally before the enactment of such a law.
It has everything to do with it. It's exactly the point. This goes to the root of our civil and criminal law. What a person does uses or owns today, will not be made criminal by legislation tomorrow. Purchase and possession of a weapon which is legal today, can't be confiscated tomorrow.

Not only is this protected by Article I, Section 9, it's also protected by the Fifth Amendment, which states in part, "...nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."

Due process requires a hearing, and in most cases a trial and adjudication by one's peers. Further, confiscation serves no "public use". No gun control act has ever gone so far as to try and confiscate firearms. When police seized weapons in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, injunctive relief was immediately sought in Federal court. The Federal court responded by forcing the NOPD to return those firearms to their rightful owners. The people who had firearms confiscated, would be able to sue the NOPD in Federal court, and probably win, if they could prove harm was done to them by an unlawful confiscation.

What we have in this discussion, is a lot of supposition that smacks of "black helicopter and blue helmet" fear.
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