Thursday, September 27, 2007

Parker/Supremes Stuff

Good summation of the Washington D.C. appeal on Parker from Cato, originally appearing in the Legal Times:
D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and attorney general Linda Singer, in their petition to the Supreme Court and in a Washington Post op-ed ("Fighting for Our Handgun Ban," September 4), raise four arguments in support of the city's ban. Their first argument is that the Second Amendment ensures only that members of state militias are properly armed, not that private citizens can have guns for self-defense and other personal uses. That contentious question has been debated at length on these pages. See Dennis Henigan, "The Mythic Second," March 26, 2007; and Robert A. Levy, "Thanks to the Second Amendment," April 16, 2007.

The city's remaining three arguments — two legal claims and one policy claim — have received comparatively less attention. First, declares the mayor, even if the Second Amendment protects private ownership of firearms for non-militia purposes, a ban on all handguns is reasonable because D.C. allows possession of rifles and shotguns in the home. Second, the Amendment restricts the actions of the federal government, but not the states, and D.C. should be treated the same as a state for Second Amendment purposes. And third, "handgun bans work"; the streets of the Nation's Capital are safer as a result. Let's consider each argument in turn.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah, DC is living proof that gun bans work!!!! LMAO! I can not believe how ignorant these people are. How can they even say such a thing with a straight face?

Anonymous said...

I would feel much better if there were a couple more conservatives on the court. Ginsberg, Souter, Breyer, and Stephens are flaming liberals and will rule for DC. That damn Kennedy is a flip flopper. So, we could lose this one. Altho a win won't mean its all good for us gun guys a loss means, eventually, it all over.

Unknown said...

Parker and the Supremes....

Their early stuff was OK, but I don't care for their later albums. Too much over-engineered pop.

Tina Boyer said...

I go to school in DC and the guns people use here are not registered or acquired through normal channels.

Banning handguns will have no effect whatsoever on DC's high murder rate.

As a university student, I am in a seminar that is studying two weird gay guys from Denver. It is the subject of my blog.

I would appreciate any insight about how citizens of Denver view people like these two creeps.

Amy