DC Appeals Court strikes down DC Handgun Ban

NajdorfDefense · #1 03-09-2007, 04:08 PM

Awesome.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...M&refer=us

' March 9 (Bloomberg) -- A U.S. appeals court struck down a three-decade-old District of Columbia law that bans residents from keeping a handgun in their homes, saying the Constitution's Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Washington also threw out a district law requiring registered firearms to be kept disassembled or under trigger lock...

``This is clearly an extremely significant ruling,' Lund said. ``The District of Columbia had some of the most restrictive gun control laws in the country.'

The appeals court said it didn't consider the ``more difficult issue' of whether the district can bar people from carrying handguns in public or in cars....
`Bear Arms'

The appeals court rejected that argument in today's 2-1 ruling.

``There are too many instances of `bear arms' indicating private use to conclude that the drafters intended only a military sense,' Senior Judge Laurence Silberman wrote for himself and Judge Thomas Griffith. '

The N.O.-based 5th Circuit agreed previously that the 2nd Amendment applied to individuals. The US SC hasn't ruled directly on a 2nd Amend case in 70+ years.

The Court seems to agree that 'the people' as referred to in the 1st, 4th, 9th, 10th and other Amendments are the same individuals called 'the people' as in the 2nd.

'Advocates of the individual right position, on the other hand, rely on the fact that the natural reading of the amendment's phrase "right of the people" is that it creates not a state right, but one which individuals can assert. This is how the identically phrased first and fourth amendments are interpreted." ~ Don Kates

Odds the US SC takes this case on appeal?

private joker · #2 03-09-2007, 04:11 PM

How is this awesome? Now more people get to die from accidents in the home?

guids · #3 03-09-2007, 04:12 PM

[ QUOTE ]
How is this awesome? Now more people get to die from accidents in the home?

[/ QUOTE ]

oh geez.....

NajdorfDefense · #4 03-09-2007, 04:20 PM

[ QUOTE ]
How is this awesome? Now more people get to die from accidents in the home?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, there were ZERO handguns in DC for the last 30 years, right? How many died then? Zero?

Oh - you mean there still *were* handguns in DC? <nodding>

How many people die from alcohol consumption and related accidents? You gonna try for Prohibition again? Why not?

private joker · #5 03-09-2007, 04:24 PM

OK, never mind. You made your point. I guess the world is a lot safer when everyone has guns. Silly me.

NajdorfDefense · #6 03-09-2007, 04:26 PM

You didn't tell me how many handguns there were in DC the past 3 decades. Was it, in fact, zero? How about NYC?

The 2nd Amendment is a right, no one forces you to exercise it, just like you can not vote, not go to a church/mosque, confess if arrested, not drink, not make political speech, etc.

Your hilariously reductio ad absurdum replies are telling.

private joker · #7 03-09-2007, 04:38 PM

No, really. I wasn't being sarcastic. You have made your point.

I'm now on board. This kicks ass -- finally, the residents of D.C. can legally have handguns in their homes. That is awesome.

grando · #8 03-09-2007, 04:41 PM

the second amendment is just a remnant of the era that it was created in - I can't fathom how people think it still applies in the same sense nowadays

/politics

it's not the actual guns in the house that bothers me, it's the attitude of those that believe it's their right that irks me

jba · #9 03-09-2007, 04:41 PM

"Odds the US SC takes this case on appeal?"

100%

Ray Zee · #10 03-09-2007, 04:48 PM

grando it may irk you but it is your right. just like feedom of expression, and a right is something that is not changeable based on the current whim of the politicians.