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Washington Post: Gun Ban Ruling Puts Fenty on the Spot

TEX1N

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/16/AR2007051602781.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Snip:
Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, was quite direct: "We're very concerned about this case because if it's allowed to stand, and if it becomes the law of the land, it places in jeopardy just about every other gun law you can think of."

Next, the belief that the Second Amendment protects individual gun rights has been gaining currency among conservative and liberal legal scholars.

Other cities and states are closely tracking what happens. Leaders of several, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) and Massachusetts Gov. Deval L. Patrick (D), declined to publicly comment on what they thought Fenty should do, or talk about their level of anxiety about the fate of their own laws.

Personally, I hope parker gets appealed. And it doesn't bother me if Fenty, Bloomberg, and the Brady Bunch loose sleep over it!
 

BobCav

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Fenty is a coward and a hoplophobe who doesnt have the guts or determination to take it to the SCOTUS and his failure in this arena will be the benchmark for compromise andmediocrity that his term, and indeed he himself will be judged for.
 

TEX1N

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If he doesn't take it to the SCOTUS, I hope that Cato (or someone else) sues DC for unconstitutional carry ban. Then he would either have to take that to the Court or allow people to carry.
 

Anubis

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The sequence as I understand it:

1. The Parker 2-1 decision was made declaring the DC handgun ownership ban illegal.

2. The "illegal" DC gun ban law remained in effect while DC asked the full circuit court to rule.

3. Circuit court declined to revisit the issue.

4. DC is considering whether to appeal to SCOTUS.

So right now, there is no appeal under way. Is the DC gun law struck down or not struck down???
 

Hawkflyer

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I presume that Mike or some of the VCDL folks are researching this, but I believe there was a motion for an injunction staying enforcement until the appeals are exhausted. If that is the case then it is still on hold until a final decision on the appeal is made.

While Judicial activism is possible, Parker looks airtight. A decision from the "Supremes" affirming the ruling could significantly change the landscape in the Firearms debate nation wide. I am certain Fenty and and the other "mupets" are losing a LOT of sleep over that. They are damned if they don't appeal, and they may well be if they do. Big crap shoot, very long odds.

Regards
 

markand

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While one would think that Parker-v-DC is going to be a home run for gun rights if it reaches the Supreme Court, I have no doubt that *both* sides are losing considerable sleep over the case. It is not a sure thing at all that SCOTUS will rule for Parker, nor that they will even agree to hear the case if DC appeals. The history of SCOTUS carefully following the constitution is far from perfect. Look at how property rights, long thought to be pretty clearly enumerated in the constitution, were gutted recently by Kelo-v-New London, CT. And how first amendment rights to political free speech, the very rights the first amendment was written to preserve, were gutted by the SCOTUS ruling on the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. And, regardless of how you feel about the issue, look at how SCOTUS created a new "constitutional right" out of thin air in Roe-v-Wade, gutting the rights of the individual states to make their own laws in that regard.

The stakes are high for both sides in Parker. It took nearly 60 years for the Supreme Court, in Brown-v-Board of Education (1954), to overturn Plessy-v-Ferguson (1896) and related SCOTUS rulings in the late 1800's that affirmed racial segregation and discrimination. It could take a long time to undo an unfavorable Parker ruling.

I certainly hope and pray that Parker-v-DC is heard by SCOTUS and emphatically decided in favor of gun rights. Perhaps that would kick open the door to gun rights in other states and jurisdictions. This may be the best opportunity we have had to get a favorable second amendment decision out of SCOTUS. Solid, non-criminal complainants, narrowly focused issue, likely a more constructionist SCOTUS than we have had in some time, and a large body of legal writing, even by anti-gun rights legal scholars, supporting individual second amendment rights. The reality, however, is that it could go either way.
 

HankT

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markand wrote:
While one would think that Parker-v-DC is going to be a home run for gun rights if it reaches the Supreme Court, I have no doubt that *both* sides are losing considerable sleep over the case. It is not a sure thing at all that SCOTUS will rule for Parker,.....I certainly hope and pray that Parker-v-DC is heard by SCOTUS and emphatically decided in favor of gun rights. Perhaps that would kick open the door to gun rights in other states and jurisdictions. This may be the best opportunity we have had to get a favorable second amendment decision out of SCOTUS. Solid, non-criminal complainants, narrowly focused issue, likely a more constructionist SCOTUS than we have had in some time, and a large body of legal writing, even by anti-gun rights legal scholars, supporting individual second amendment rights. The reality, however, is that it could go either way.
Yep.



Constitutional Commas Have Meaning--Maybe

http://opencarry.mywowbb.com/forum4/1831.html
 

AbNo

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Hawkflyer wrote:
Judicial activism will be the end of this country as we know it.

Regards

It's funny that you should mention that...

Let all laws be clear, uniform and precise: to interpret laws is almost
always to corrupt them. -Voltaire

Unfortunantly, the Court System more or less appointed themselves interpreters of the law.

It's been a downhill ride ever since... :cuss:
 
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