Posts Tagged constitution

Supreme Court May Take Up Several Gun Cases In Next Term

From Detroit Free Press:

…a federal appeals court panel’s divided ruling last week in a California case makes it more likely that the question of guns outside the home will be heading to the high court soon.

To date, the biggest split from that trend involved an Illinois law that was much more restrictive than those in other states. Its ban on carrying concealed weapons in nearly all circumstances was struck down by a 7th Circuit appeals court panel. Rather than appealing to the Supreme Court, however, the state amended the law to allow for public possession, with restrictions.

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Supreme Court Needs To Clarify Second Amendment

From CATO:

While Heller clarified that the Second Amendment secures an individual right, the ruling left many questions about the scope of that right unanswered. Since then, several courts have made clear that they plan to take only as much from Heller as they absolutely have to.

Since Heller struck down D.C.’s ban on functional firearms in the home, recalcitrant courts pretend that the Second Amendment is limited to the right to keep arms and that legislatures can for very little (or no) reason to ignore the right to bear them outside the home.

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Minnesota Cops Sue NFL Over Gun Ban

From: TwinCities.com

Minnesota’s largest police group and police union are suing the NFL and the Vikings, claiming the league’s new ban on off-duty cops carrying their guns to games is illegal.

The Minnesota law that allows businesses to bar weapons specifically exempts “active licensed” peace officers, and state law trumps NFL rules, the lawsuit says.

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Federal Judge Upholds Conn. Gun Law

From The Courant:

“The court concludes that the legislation is constitutional,” senior U.S. District Judge Alfred V. Covello, wrote in a decision published late Thursday. “While the act burdens the plaintiffs’ Second Amendment rights, it is substantially related to the important governmental interest of public safety and crime control.”

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Missouri Latest State To Attempt To Nullify Gun Laws

From Columbia Daily Tribune:

Missouri’s latest proposal, introduced last week, would attempt to nullify certain federal gun control regulations from being enforced in the state and subject law enforcement officers to criminal and civil penalties for carrying out such policies.

The state’s GOP-led General Assembly came one vote shy of overriding Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of such a measure last year. This year’s bill adds a new twist, delaying the effective date for several years to allow time for other states to join the cause.

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CRYPTO Author Speaks with the NSA

CRYPTO author Steven Levy met with Gen. Keith Alexander, the Director of the NSA, and others to discuss the Snowden leaks .

From: Threat Level

The NSA is clearly, madly, deeply furious at the man whose actions triggered the biggest crisis in its history. Even while contending they welcome the debate that now engages the nation, they say that they hate the way it was triggered. The NSA has an admittedly insular culture — the officials described it as almost like a family. Morale suffers when friends and neighbors think that NSA employees are sitting around reading grandma’s email. Also, the agency believes that the Snowden leaks have seriously hurt national security

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Judge Rules Chicago Handgun Law Unconstitutional

From The Chicago-Sun Times:

U.S. District Court Judge Edmond E. Chang wrote in a 35-page opinion that “Chicago’s ordinance goes too far in outright banning legal buyers and legal dealers from engaging in lawful acquisitions and lawful sales of firearms . . .”

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NSA “CO-TRAVELER” Program Revealed

From EFF:

With neither public debate nor court authorization, CO-TRAVELER collects billions of records daily of cell phone user location information. It maps the relationships of cell phone users across global mobile network cables, gathering data about who you are physically with and how often your movements intersect with other cell phone users. The program even tracks when your phone is turned on or off.

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ATF Used Mentally Disabled Teens to Run Sting Then Arrested Them

From Reason.com:

If you thought the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) couldn’t stoop any lower, you’d be wrong. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that the agency responsible for setting off the events that led to Waco and were at the center of the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal are using mentally disabled teenagers to advertise businessess that are actually fronts for ATF sting operations.

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Debate: The Constitutional Right to Bear Arms Has Outlived Its Usefulness

If you can set aside 2 hours to watch this debate, I recommend it. This is one in a series of debates from Intelligence Squared.

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Keep Anti-gun Navy SEAL Off Of NRA Board

From the Bang Switch:

I don’t have all the solutions on this issue but I do know that I’m personally ready to compromise to limit mass shootings, and I’m ready to have an intelligent conversation on this issue.  If leading gun organizations like the NRA don’t take a leadership role in proposing realistic solutions, then they will have failed to truly represent gun owners. — Brandon Webb, Jan 9th 2013

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Knives Covered Under Second Amendment

From The Volokh Conspiracy:

  • Under the Supreme Court’s standard in District of Columbia v. Heller, knives are Second Amendment “arms” because they are “typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes,” including self-defense.
  • There is no knife that is more dangerous than a modern handgun; to the contrary, knives are much less dangerous. Therefore, restrictions on carrying handguns set the upper limit for restrictions on carrying knives.
  • Prohibitions on carrying knives in general, or of particular knives, are unconstitutional. For example, bans of knives that open in a convenient way (e.g., switchblades, gravity knives, and butterfly knives) are unconstitutional. Likewise unconstitutional are bans on folding knives that, after being opened, have a safety lock to prevent inadvertent closure.

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Lt. Col Goes On Gun Confiscation/Civilian Disarmament Rant

Here is the brass tax of what he wants.

From Esquire:

1. The only guns permitted will be the following:

  • a. Smoothbore or Rifled muzzle-loading blackpowder muskets. No 7-11 in history has ever been held up with one of these.
  • b. Double-barrel breech-loading shotguns. Hunting with these is valid.
  • c. Bolt-action rifles with a magazine capacity no greater than five rounds. Like I said, hunting is valid. But if you cannot bring down a defenseless deer in under five rounds, then you have no fking reason to be holding a killing tool in the first place.

2. We will pry your gun from your cold, dead, fingers. That is because I am willing to wait until you die, hopefully of natural causes. Guns, except for the three approved categories, cannot be inherited. When you die your weapons must be turned into the local police department, which will then destroy them. (Weapons of historical significance will be de-milled, but may be preserved.)

3. Police departments are no longer allowed to sell or auction weapons used in crimes after the cases have been closed. (That will piss off some cops, since they really need this money. But you know what they need more? Less violence and death. By continuing the process of weapon recirculation, they are only making their jobs — or the jobs of some other cops — harder.)

4. We will submit a new tax on ammunition. In the first two years it will be 400 percent of the current retail cost of that type of ammunition. (Exemptions for the ammo used by the approved weapons.) Thereafter it will increase by 20 percent per year.

5. We will initiate a nationwide “buy-back” program, effective immediately, with the payouts coming from the DoD budget. This buy-back program will start purchasing weapons at 200 percent of their face value the first year, 150 percent the second year, 100 percent the third year. Thereafter there will be a 10 year pause, at which point the guns can be sold to the government at 10 percent of their value for the next 50 years.

6. The major gun manufactures of the United States, less those who create weapons for the federal government and the armed forces, will be bought out by the United States of America, for our own damned good.

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Philadelphia “Bans” 3-D Printed Guns

PhillyMag:

Today, the Philadelphia City Council voted unanimously to ban the manufacturing of guns by 3-D printers, making Philly the first city to do so. Which is interesting, because the author of the bill, Kenyatta Johnson, isn’t aware of of any local gun-printing 3-D printers. ”It’s all pre-emptive,” says Johnson’s director of legislation Steve Cobb. “It’s just based upon internet stuff out there.”

The first question I have is, how are they going to enforce this? Are they going to issue general warrants to search every house to make sure there are no weapons that have been created? It is obvious that the city council doesn’t know what they are doing. They just want to be seen as doing “something”.

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New York: “Turn in your guns.”

From The Washington Times:

New York City authorities have been sending out notices to residents who own guns that now violate new ammunition capability laws, demanding they relinquish their weapons — and even though the notifications may just be standard police procedure, the text is a shocker.

But no one wants to take your guns away, right?

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