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June 16, 2012, 07:48 AM | #126 |
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Too many courts are trying to claim that Heller only addressed possession in the home. In fact, the SCOTUS spoke primarily to "in the home" in Heller for the simple reason that the lawsuit was about possession in the home.
Once you get beyond that, any high school English teacher can tell you that a sentence reading "The right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed" is talking about ONE right, not two. The gun grabbers love to paint the SCOTUS as "activist" when they support the RKBA, but they are silent when a truly activist lower court tries to divide what is clearly ONE right into two rights: (1) a right to "keep" arms (only in the home -- a word and concept not appearing in the 2nd Amendment at all); and (2) a separate right to "bear" arms. That said, even if it were construed as two separate and independent rights, the 2nd Amendment still says they "shall not be infringed." This attempt to split what is clearly and grammatically one right into two separate and apparently unrelated rights is nothing more nor less than lower courts thumbing their noses at the SCOTUS. And I am under the impression that more than a few of the nine justices of the SCOTUS become rather testy when they perceive that lower courts are thumbing their noses at them. |
June 16, 2012, 10:23 AM | #127 |
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I would not want to be the lawyer trying to explain to the SCOTUS how Heller created a home-bound right to self defense.
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June 16, 2012, 02:29 PM | #128 |
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When Heller first came out I said its not going to be a slam dunk. Heller was pretty obvious in its ruling. It is a individual right. A person is entitled to defend themselves using a firearm and that there can be some regulation and that it should not be prohibitive in a person owning a firearm.
These are the same folks that said the Second Amendment did not mean what it said and are still in denial. They are going to have to be beat down by the judicial system and citizens voting till they are in submission. They will always be scheming to take away 2A rights because they don't beleive in individual rights to start with. They see the elite class and the government being the ultimate arbiter of rights and think that people are not smart enough to decide what is best for them. An example of this was Ann Richards who was the governor of Texas. We the citizens of Texas approved a nonbinding resolution that asked for the right for concealed carry. Ann Richards had vetoed a previous bill for that. She vowed that no such law would pass while she was governor. So we kicked her out of office and sent her packing to do Doritos commercials for a candidate that said he would sign the bill if elected. The job is not going to get done till the citizens come together and impose their will on the politicians. This is being done in states that are resistant to gun rights for individuals. So even with court decisions we must be vocal about our rights to the politicians and when they refuse to honor the law take them to court and vote them out.
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June 17, 2012, 05:32 PM | #129 |
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To Maestro's post: I definitely wouldn't want to be that lawyer either, especially since they'll most likely be making it to the EXACT same Heller majority. It'll be fun to see them tell SCOTUS that they MEANT to make the right homebound. I can just see it now-Scalia(or Alito) telling the state's attorney,"I wrote that opinion and know that isn't what we said."
If we hear that the attorney might as well have a seat and give up the rest of his time. It'll only get worse. |
June 18, 2012, 11:23 AM | #130 |
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Self Defense vs Recreation
Based on a cursory reading of the State's position they still view the RKBA as a permission, not a RIGHT, and only for recreational purposes. This is why MD "allows" transportion an unloaded firearms, locked & secured in one's vehicle, to places like gunshops & ranges. This has NOTHING to do with Self Defense.
Let us remember, in both Heller & McDonald, that the Supreme Court ruled that citizens have the RIGHT to keep & bear arms for Self Defense. As has been noted above that this right is most crucial in the home, but nowhere did the Supreme Court limit Self Defense to in the home. So MD's position, as well as many other states & DC, is that one may keep & bear arms in the home but they many NOT use them for Self Defense - even in the home. They may keep arms for recreation but NOT for Self Defense. This is in complete discord with the rulings in Heller and McDonald. This is where I believe the issue truly lies: the RIGHT to Self Defense. It is based on a RIGHT to life and the RIGHT to defend that life. By denying citizens a RIGHT to Self Defense anywhere is denial of their unquestionable RIGHT to life. Self Defense is a Natural Right. IMHO this is what the 2nd Amendment was designed to protect as ruled by the Supreme Court. Twice. |
June 22, 2012, 07:05 PM | #131 | |
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Today was the day for any amici for the State of Maryland, to file. Here's what the docket shows (curtesy Krucam at MDShooters):
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I've asked Krucam to upload the Historians brief. Hopefully, he will be along in a bit to do that. |
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June 22, 2012, 07:15 PM | #132 |
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Here's the Legal Historians brief. Large at >7MB...
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June 22, 2012, 09:55 PM | #133 | |
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They have to dig pretty deep to find historical precedents for the prohibition on carry, but when presented with counter-evidence like Nunn v. State, they sink to pointing out Judge Lumpkin's support of slavery by way of a tenuous rebuttal. If this is the best professional veneer the opposition can muster, I'm feeling optimistic indeed.
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June 23, 2012, 07:15 AM | #134 |
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Going through, the LCAV amicus is especially hilarious.
1) They decide to skip historical context of "wear, bear, or carry in case of confrontation" that SCOTUS laid out, and instead submit the abbreviated statement with the term that SCOTUS agree to no 2A rights outside the home because they said that the 2A "does not allow for anyone to carry at any time) [shortened]. 2) Quoting Kachalsky, which is a farce of aruling in the 2CA. The judge there ruled on the lines of militia being military where Heller states otherwise and that the 2A is for hunting and that handguns aren't used for hunting, which goes against NYS' own laws for hunting which has handgun provisions. 3) "good cause" is a widely accepted standard, except that it is not the standard within 41 states. 4) "Good and substantial reason" does not burden constitutional standards, even though they have been repeatedly shot down when used for abridging the 1A. 5) "In the home only" blah blah blah. I think we all know how that one goes. 6) *** is up with the 16th and 17th century English law references?! The constitution was a far cry from the Magna Carta in scope and precedence. I'm still trying to wrap my head around these citations. 7) LCAV tries to argue that the 2A should not be expanded upon, but the SCOTUS drastically expanded on the scope when it turned from the previously used "collective right" to the more expansive "individual right". The historical scholars Amicus Brief was interesting, but I'm wondering about the actual precedents set forth by him as to how it actually pertains to historical perspective. For instance, he quotes that Jefferson tried to put forth a law that limited people from carrying in order to combat poaching. "Put forth" would not be the same as "passed". Further, I see not historical analysis of the plethora of information that showed that founding fathers would not agree with modern gun control laws. For instance, how does one agree that militia is the intent, yet AWB's and magazine capacity limits are still laws in some states. He also skips two other parts: hunting and modern pistols on the battleground. Both are disproven against their rather cloistered look into the 2A. Modern pistols are indeed used for hunting in most, if not all, areas of the country. Because of significant advancements within the firearms industry, pistols are much more powerful and accurate compared with their smooth bore forebears. On the modern battlefield, pistols have become ever-present. If one were to argue the militia intent (which was of course STRUCK DOWN), then this too must be ignored because in today's world, the pistol is still used for combat. In summation, the state and their amicii attempt to put a historical spin on the framers intent without any modern context to the RKBA, never mind the actual recent rulings from the SCOTUS that affirms that the 2A was HISTORICALLY to be considered "to keep and carry in case of confrontation". |
June 23, 2012, 07:58 AM | #135 |
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What we are seeing, to a lessor extent, are the same arguments used to argue against Heller. We saw the same thing in McDonald, if you remember.
At the end of the day, when all of your well played arguments no longer hold sway, when your ideology has been thoroughly trashed, what can you do? You re-argue your case with all the tired old arguments that you had used before. Hoping against all hope that this time, the outcome will be different. Don Quixote would be proud! Not to be left out, the Brady's filed an amicus late last night (they were having money problems and had to have a fund raiser to do this). Thanks again to Krucam, over at MDShooters, who checked the docket early this AM. |
June 23, 2012, 11:53 AM | #136 |
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Brady Campaign's opening argument:
"Don't look too closely at the Second Amendment - it's scary uncharted territory and we won't like what you'll see." |
June 23, 2012, 04:41 PM | #137 |
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The government has done the research for us, and it's all available on the internet.
In 2004, then AG Ashcroft commissioned a study on whether the 2nd Amendment secured an individual right to keep and bear arms. His conclusion, supported by exhaustive research, was "Yes." http://www.justice.gov/olc/secondamendment2.pdf Twenty years before that, the United States Senate commissioned its own study of the 2nd Amendment, published in February 1982. This report also concluded that the RKBA is and always has been an individual right. http://www.guncite.com/journals/senrpt/senrpt.html Thus, for the anti-gun crew to continually claim that the Heller and McDonald decisions are the acts of an "activist" court, rewriting and undoing hundreds of years of precedent, is quite simply a flat-out lie. These two studies can be found on the Internet but there have been multiple attempts to make them disappear. I long ago downloaded them onto my hard drive, and it's interesting that where I was able to find them today is NOT where I found them when I first copied them. Since there's no way to know how long they will stay available, I would strongly suggest that each of you who is interested in this (and if you weren't interested you probably wouldn't be reading this thread) download both reports and maintain your own copies. If we all do that, they can never be made to completely disappear. And be sure to tell other people about them. The Senate report was 30 years ago, AG Ashcroft's report was 8 years ago. How many of you even knew of their existence? |
June 23, 2012, 05:00 PM | #138 | |
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Quote:
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June 23, 2012, 06:21 PM | #139 | |
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^^^ Case in point.
The Ashcroft report is meticulously researched and chock full or legal citations. Any attorney in a pro RKBA case who isn't citing it as a persuasive authority just isn't doing his job. It's 107 pages long. Here's the conclusion: Quote:
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June 26, 2012, 09:12 AM | #140 | |
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I started reading the Brady brief. I am immediately struck by this:
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A compelling interest in "ensuring that the Second Amendment does not impede" reasonable governmental action?!?!? [sarcasm]Don't let that pesky Constitution get in the way of our plans. [/sarcasm]
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June 26, 2012, 09:27 AM | #141 |
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Thanks, AB. I didn't know about those reports, either, and they look like a good read.
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June 26, 2012, 06:00 PM | #142 | |
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And we should be grateful that, for once (actually, for twice), our government used our tax dollars to perform a non-partisan task in a non-partisan manner, and both times it seems they did it well. I confess that I have not re-read either for a very long time, but my recollection from when I first encountered them was that they were fairly exhaustively researched and the evidence set forth in both reports is difficult to refute. Taken together, they appear to me to offer a formidable argument in support of the 2nd Amendment as both an individual right, and a right to keep and bear arms essentially without restriction. Which, of course, happens to be exactly what the 2nd Amendment says. What a coincidence. I encourage anyone and everyone who sees this thread to both bookmark and download these two reports. As I've said, they have long since disappeared from the respective sites where I first found them. They are currently accessible on the Internet if you know they exist and go looking for them, but it very much seems to me that various entities have been trying hard to keep them from public knowledge. The fact that so few people even on this forum were aware of them suggests that the effort to keep the reports from the light of day has largely been successful. |
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June 29, 2012, 01:53 PM | #143 |
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Just so we know what's coming, here's briefing schedule for Woolard at CA4:
Appendix/Opening Brief: 6/15/2012 - done |
June 30, 2012, 10:40 AM | #144 | |
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July 2, 2012, 11:03 AM | #145 |
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Judge Legg
So has Judge Legg decided to maintain his temporary stay until after the 4th Circuit rules? I was expecting an official ruling for or against the temporary stay before the end of June. So much for expectations.......
Last edited by rts99; July 2, 2012 at 02:55 PM. |
July 2, 2012, 01:26 PM | #146 |
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It was commonly accepted that the Judge might rule sooner, rather than later. Those of us that thought this (myself included) were wrong.
There is nothing on PACER, as of 5 minutes before this post, to indicate that Judge Legg has ruled on the stay. AFAIK, the ruling to continue or lift the stay is still pending. |
July 2, 2012, 11:52 PM | #147 | |
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A bit more from the CA4 docket.
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July 4, 2012, 08:57 PM | #148 |
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I really don't know why I keep reading these individually. I don't think I have seen a new shred of evidence or argument since Masciandaro.
The sad part is that in many cases the same old argument has been upheld. I'm interested more in the reply briefs and amicus to see what they say now that there has been a large positive ruling for the 2A. |
July 4, 2012, 10:36 PM | #149 | |
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Quote:
Until the Supreme Court steps in and cuts them off at the knees!
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July 6, 2012, 07:18 PM | #150 | |
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We all know, or should know, that Alan Gura has a busy month ahead of him. Enough so that he has requested a 2 week extension to file his response brief in Woollard.
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Additionally, attorneys for appellant amicus Legal Historians have filed forms to appear at the orals (doc #52). So the current timeline is: Plaintiff Response Brief: 7/30/2012 |
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