It ain’t often that I beat Mr Downs with a story on this subject, but I guarantee that he’ll be happy! From Sister Toldjah:
- Breaking: DC Circuit rules DC’s gun laws unconstitutional
Great news for one of the nation’s murder capitals, via Howard Bashman at How Appealing:
Divided three-judge D.C. Circuit panel holds that the District of Columbia’s gun control laws violate individuals’ Second Amendment rights: You can access today’s lengthy D.C. Circuit ruling at this link.
According to the majority opinion, “[T]he phrase ‘the right of the people,’ when read intratextually and in light of Supreme Court precedent, leads us to conclude that the right in question is individual.†The majority opinion sums up its holding on this point as follows:
To summarize, we conclude that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. That right existed prior to the formation of the new government under the Constitution and was premised on the private use of arms for activities such as hunting and self-defense, the latter being understood as resistance to either private lawlessness or the depredations of a tyrannical government (or a threat from abroad). In addition, the right to keep and bear arms had the important and salutary civic purpose of helping to preserve the citizen militia. The civic purpose was also a political expedient for the Federalists in the First Congress as it served, in part, to placate their Antifederalist opponents. The individual right facilitated militia service by ensuring that citizens would not be barred from keeping the arms they would need when called forth for militia duty. Despite the importance of the Second Amendment’s civic purpose, however, the activities it protects are not limited to militia service, nor is an individual’s enjoyment of the right contingent upon his or her continued or intermittent enrollment in the militia.
The majority opinion also rejects the argument that the Second Amendment does not apply to the District of Columbia because it is not a State. And the majority opinion concludes, “Section 7-2507.02, like the bar on carrying a pistol within the home, amounts to a complete prohibition on the lawful use of handguns for self-defense. As such, we hold it unconstitutional.â€
Glenn Reynolds has much more, including some background, on this ruling.
If the ban is indeed lifted, I plan to exercise my constitutional right to own a gun in the District of Columbia. I can’t wait to buy my first piece!
Heh 
Gun control laws are ridiculous. Not only do they violate the constitutional right to keep and bear arms, but they fail in their purported purpose of preventing murder!
It’s easy enough to see why: gun control laws suppose that people will do something radical like actually obey the law. And that’s where the distinction between law-abiding citizens and criminals becomes apparent; the law-abiding actually do obey the laws, while the criminals, as one would expect from the fact that they are criminals, do not.
Take a good look at the soaring murder rate in the City of Brotherly Love, and you’ll see that Philly’s more than one-a-day murders are mostly the result of one criminal shooting at another criminal. The Philadelphia Inquirer noted that, in 2005, about three-quarters of the murder victims in the city had police records.
Stunningly, I absolutely agree with you. I didn’t know LaShawn lived in the District. Shit, I would get a couple of guns if I were her.
While I also agree, it may be a bit scarry if suddenly a lot of people who have never handled a weapon in their lives didn’t take the time to have some proper training and safety proceedures.
It’s not like there’s a bunch of shooting ranges in D.C.
And Lisa’s comment should go into some kind a permanent link we can refer to—–so no one can say that she never agreed with anything Dana ever wrote—stunning indeed.
There are a lot of shooting ranges near Washington. However, the lack of skill on the part of local gangsters who cannot shoot straight has not prevented some streets to become de facto shooting galleries. There is just a lot of collateral damage.
The big issue is one of the rights of victims to protect themselves. This is a duty as well as a right, and the DC government (a parliament of moronic whores) has argued this point (successfully) in court (see Warren vs The District of Columbia). The rantings of the latest hack in blue to run the local police force is what can be expected from a servile lackey of corrupt politicians.
Before Home Rule, Washington was a lot more peaceful place but has become an example of the failure of ‘gun control’ to control violent crime.
It ain’t often that I beat Mr Downs with a story on this subject, but I guarantee that he’ll be happy! From Sister Toldjah:
I don’t mind being ‘beaten’ this way. It has been a tough week with some hot deadlines looming. To throw some sand in the gears, I learned that the kidlet was in the ER for what seemed to be a serious gall bladder problem. I learned this after getting home from work at about 9 PM. I dawdled the next morning and left for work late. On the way (it is a 50 mile drive) I learned that he was scheduled for surgery and turned around to pick up my wife and head for the hospital. More delays and the return to his room was not until 8:30. Then anotehr late night. The next day, with a snowstorm threatening, I had to go to the hospital and take him home, with a stop at his apartment. Friday when this good news was released, I was moving his truck from the ER parking lot to his apartment parking lot. Now I am getting ready for another day at work to play more catch up.
The news did brighten my drive home, but that is usually enjoyable, with a commute that has not a single traffic light except for a single flashing red light in the thriving metropolis of Barclay. I do have to contend with Amish buggies when I get near home. I always pass them very gently and wave. I have seen some fuzzy dice dangling from rear view mirrors and on had a neon illumination at the rear undercarriage. Just what does this portend?
Good news is great.
To summarize, we conclude that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. That right existed prior to the formation of the new government under the Constitution and was premised on the private use of arms for activities such as hunting and self-defense, the latter being understood as resistance to either private lawlessness or the depredations of a tyrannical government (or a threat from abroad). In addition, the right to keep and bear arms had the important and salutary civic purpose of helping to preserve the citizen militia.
As my grandson loves to say: Wow! For one of the few times in my life I am virtually speechless at the constitutional insight of these judges. I will renew my membership in the NRA today.
Hope you “catch-up” soon Art, and God’s speed on yur kidlet’s recovery…..
I can only imagine that negotiating Amish buggies
would be a reminder of a “pace of life” we all would like to inhibit from time to time.
I always laugh to myself when I hear people up here on the northcoast complain about the “traffic”, after working in Sacramento, where (on certain times of the day)it takes an hour to drive ten miles.
Rovin, you would feel very much at home with our northern Virginia traffic.
I have aways contended,(and argued vigorously), that the most critical part about the second amendment is the “comma” between the “free state” and “the right of” which meant that the framers were implying two seperate inferences—one being the “militia” and the other being “the people”.
And that both had the Right to keep and bear arms.
I have aways contended,(and argued vigorously), that the most critical part about the second amendment is the “comma†between the “free state†and “the right of†which meant that the framers were implying two separate inferences—one being the “militia†and the other being “the peopleâ€.
And that both had the Right to keep and bear arms.
You are correct. In my circles, such an argument is very unpopular. However, I have always made it.
Rovin, you would feel very much at home with our northern Virginia traffic
Been there, done that ca 1991. My then wife and I biught a yuppie palace in Farifax County. She seemed to be on the fast track to the executive suite and I felt that I could handle a long drive better than she could.
My commute as 69 miles each way and could take as long as two and a helf hours when Route 66 turned into a linear parking lot. This happened very often. There were times when a special project required me to show up at work around midnight and the drive could be done in an hour.
Northern Virginia driving sucks. I could think of no more polite term to use. Montgomery County is little better as panic sets in when commuters negotiate the (shudder) Big Curve.
I enjoy driving and there was a period in my Northern Virginia life when the commute was the best time of the day. The marriage soon ended and at least I survived being married ot Lorena Bobbitts’s defense witness.