The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Will the AWB make a come-back at the State level in 2010?

Webleymkv · November 17, 2009, 05:47 PM

Actually, I don't see McDonald having much effect one way or the other on AWB's. Heller only really said that complete prohibitions were unconstitutional and McDonald decides little more that whether that applies to states or the feds only. In the Heller opinion, Scalia said that prohibitions on "dangerous or unusual" arms were still OK, so until we get a definition for what exactly a "dangerous or unusual" arm is, I don't see Heller or McDonald doing anything about AWB's. That being said, I don't really think you're going to see any new state AWB's given the current political climate. Gun control is, by and large, a losing issue for the Democrats and has been, for the most part, since the '94 AWB. When Harry Reid won't support a new AWB even immediately after Virginia Tech and Rahm Emanuel tells Eric Holder to shut up about gun control, it tells me that everyone but the usual suspects from the most left wing districts (Feinstein, Boxer, Schumer, McCarthy, etc.) are scared to touch guns right now. By and large, the states where an AWB could pass already have them anyway (New York, Massachussetts, California). The only new bans that I can see happening right now are municipal bans in places like Chicago should their all-gun bans be struck down. Like DC, I can see these places scrambling to ban as much as they can without running afoul of SCOTUS.

November 17, 2009, 05:47 PM	#8
Webleymkv Senior Member Join Date: July 20, 2005 Location: Indiana Posts: 10,446	Actually, I don't see McDonald having much effect one way or the other on AWB's. Heller only really said that complete prohibitions were unconstitutional and McDonald decides little more that whether that applies to states or the feds only. In the Heller opinion, Scalia said that prohibitions on "dangerous or unusual" arms were still OK, so until we get a definition for what exactly a "dangerous or unusual" arm is, I don't see Heller or McDonald doing anything about AWB's. That being said, I don't really think you're going to see any new state AWB's given the current political climate. Gun control is, by and large, a losing issue for the Democrats and has been, for the most part, since the '94 AWB. When Harry Reid won't support a new AWB even immediately after Virginia Tech and Rahm Emanuel tells Eric Holder to shut up about gun control, it tells me that everyone but the usual suspects from the most left wing districts (Feinstein, Boxer, Schumer, McCarthy, etc.) are scared to touch guns right now. By and large, the states where an AWB could pass already have them anyway (New York, Massachussetts, California). The only new bans that I can see happening right now are municipal bans in places like Chicago should their all-gun bans be struck down. Like DC, I can see these places scrambling to ban as much as they can without running afoul of SCOTUS.