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Anybody Seen This Yet?

Hawkflyer

Founder's Club Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2007
Messages
3,309
Location
Prince William County, Virginia, USA
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UPDATE: Washington, D.C. Circuit Court Strikes Down
30-Year Old D.C. Gun Ban

'We conclude that the Second Amendment protects an
individual right to keep and bear arms'


WASHINGTON, March 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In a
ground-breaking opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia Circuit today overturned the
D.C. gun ban, a three-decade old prohibition on
possession of firearms within the Nation's Capital.

Senior Judge Lawrence H. Silberman, joined by Judge
Thomas B. Griffith, a recent Bush appointee,
concluded that "the Second Amendment protects an
individual right to keep and bear arms." Judge Karen
Lecraft Henderson filed a dissenting opinion.

The case, Parker v. District of Columbia, was
brought by six D.C. residents -- including Cato senior
fellow Tom Palmer -- who sought to keep
functional firearms in their homes for self-defense.

The appellate court reversed a lower D.C. court on all
counts, and held that the activities protected by the
Second Amendment "are not limited to militia service,
nor is an individual's enjoyment of the right
contingent upon his or her continued intermittent
enrollment in the militia."

Cato senior fellow Robert A. Levy acted as
co-counsel to the plaintiffs.

Under existing law, no handgun could be registered
in the District, and even pistols registered prior to
D.C.'s 1976 ban could not be carried from room to room
within a home without a license. The sum result of
D.C.'s myriad firearm codes: no one within the city
limits may possess a
functional firearm within his or her own home.

"This decision is a very big deal," said Tim
Lynch, director of Cato's Project on Criminal Justice,
upon announcement of the ruling. "The Supreme
Court is very likely to review this case, which means
we're about a year away from a definitive ruling from
the high court on the meaning of the Second Amendment
-- is it just about militias or does the Constitution
guarantee an individual right to keep and bear arms?"

For the full opinion, see:
http://pacer.cadc.uscourts.gov/docs/common/opinions/200703/04-7041a.pdf

The full text of the original complaint, Parker v.
District of Columbia, is available at
http://www.cato.org/pubs/legalbriefs/gunsuit.pdf
Contact: Susan Semeleer, Cato Institute, senior
manager of media relations, 202-789-5212, or Evans
Pierre, Cato Institute, director of broadcasting,
202-789-5200
SOURCE Cato Institute

(c) 1996-2007 PR Newswire Association LLC.
 

TEX1N

Regular Member
Joined
May 15, 2006
Messages
842
Location
Northern VA, Virginia, USA

Hawkflyer

Founder's Club Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2007
Messages
3,309
Location
Prince William County, Virginia, USA
imported post

Perhaps, but this demands special attention in the Virginia forum because for years we have been blamed for DC's problems with firearms related crime, and we have been cited as the reason they needed such strict regulation. It seems that each successive law they past was less effective than the last (go figure) so they just kept passing more, and blaming Virginia's "overly Liberal" position on gun rights.

Moreover, we kept having to endure all the arguments about collective rights verses individual, and how the TSA only applied to flintlocks, and that handguns are not militia weapons so they can be prohibited, and on, and on, and on.

This decision overturns every part of the anti second amendment argument. It literally analyses TSA word by word and refutes EVERY anti gun argument you have ever heard.

So you will have to pardon me if I think it should be shouted from every rooftop, and posted in every forum.

It takes a while to read and understand all that it says but it is worth the time to read all of it.

Regards
 
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