From:                              John (Jack) R. Venrick [[email-masked]]

Sent:                               Sunday, November 14, 2010 10:49 PM

To:                                   AJack R. Venrick

Subject:                          Supreme Court says you can 'keep and bear arms'

----- Original Message -----

Sent: Monday, June 28, 2010 3:05 PM

WEAPONS OF CHOICE

Supreme Court says you can 'keep and bear arms'

Striking Chicago handgun ban clears
way to challenge long list of restrictions, rules

Posted:
June 28, 2010

By
Bob Unruh

© 2010 WorldNetDaily

The Supreme Court
ruling in a Chicago gun ban case that found individuals
across the nation do, under the Constitution, have a right to bear arms has
opened the door for a long list of legal challenges
to city, county and other rules and regulations
that now may infringe of the 2nd Amendment, according to several civil rights
organizations.

"This kind of
flips the burden onto the government and legislatures to show why they need to
restrict what the court has already said is an individual
right," John Velleco, the director of federal affairs for Gun Owners of America, told WND today after
the high court's decision was released.

In the Supreme Court's
second major ruling on gun rights in just a few years, the justices used the
14th Amendment to extend the federally protected right to "keep and bear
arms" from the U.S. Constitution to residents of all 50 states.

In the 2008 Heller
case, the court ruled that the 2nd Amendment's right to be armed was an
individual right, but that case pertained only to the District
of Columbia. With today's decision in the case brought by Otis McDonald of Chicago, the high court applied
that definition to all the states as well.

"The right to
keep and bear arms must be regarded as a substantive guarantee, not a
prohibition that could be ignored so long as the States legislated in an
evenhanded manner," Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority.

"This is a
tremendous victory for the 2nd Amendment," Velleco said. "It opens
the door of the courtroom for us to look at laws in many other jurisdictions
where there are highly restrictive gun laws."

He noted it once was
accepted as an individual right to bear arms – in all states. But
the "social climate" of the 1960s with the assassinations of two
Kennedy brothers as well as Martin Luther King Jr. launched "gun control
activists" on their way.

The 1970s followed
with "a lot of hype about a total ban on handguns with the media on
board," he said. Assault weapon bans came up shortly later.

"Through the
constant barrage of media, … a whole generation grew up thinking guns
were bad," he said. "Now that's completely turned around. Maybe the
ideological 22-year-old college students, 10-15 years later, have a family,
have something to protect, and they realize if I'm ever attacked, police cannot
be there immediately."

He said the decision
aligns with the sentiment in the country where more and more people are
rejecting the concept of a total big government control over or responsibility
for individuals' lives.

"We've seen that
throughout this election cycle," he said. "That's why voters are
turning out in record numbers and throwing out of office … incumbents.

"[These are]
people who are fed up with this Congress and this president shoving things down
our throats."

According to Alan
Gottlieb, executive vice president for the Second
Amendment Foundation, his organization views the decision now as a
"call to action."

"This morning's
high court ruling clearly shows that the right of the individual citizen to
have a gun is constitutionally protected in every corner of the United
States," Gottlieb said. "We are already preparing to challenge other
highly restrictive anti-gun laws across the country. Our objective is to win
back our firearms freedoms one lawsuit at a time."

"Thanks to the
Supreme Court," Gottlieb observed, "average Chicago residents like
Mr. McDonald will now enjoy the same right of self-defense as a squad of
bodyguards provides to Mayor Richard Daley. Now we can work to lower the
deplorable violent crime rate in Chicago, something that the anti-gun mayor's
policies have been unable to accomplish."

U.S. House Minority
Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said it was just a matter of common sense.

"It would remind
us that the job of the Supreme Court is enforcing and protecting our rights and
the clear meaning of our Constitution – not inventing new ways to advance
liberal public policy goals by legislating from the bench and straining to
discern previously undiscovered partisan advantage in the 'penumbras' of our
laws," he said.

He cited the hearings
in the Senate, which also began today, on strict anti-military activist Elena
Kagan, who has been nominated by President Obama for the U.S. Supreme Court.

"The American
people deserve an advocate for the Constitution on the highest court in the
land – not an advocate for liberal ideology or the Democrat Party,"
he said.

The sentiment also is
being reflected by what is going on at the state level. Already,
eight states have adopted laws that specifically exempts guns made, sold and
kept inside the states from any federal gun regulations.

A court case already
has developed over that effort in Montana – the first state to take the
step of ordering federal regulators to stay out of the state's business of
regulating its own citizenry's weapons.

In one state, Wyoming,
lawmakers even adopted a $2,000 penalty for federal agents trying to enforce
federal regulations against an exempted weapon.

WND
columnist John Stossel also noted just days ago how "more guns means
– hold onto your seat – less
crime."

"How can that be,
when guns kill almost 30,000 Americans a year? Because while we hear about the
murders and accidents, we don't often hear about the crimes stopped because
would-be victims showed a gun and scared criminals away. Those thwarted crimes
and lives saved usually aren't reported to police (sometimes for fear the gun
will be confiscated), and when they are reported, the media tend to ignore
them. No bang, no news," he said.

"If guns save
lives, it logically follows that gun laws cost lives," he continued.

"Suzanna Hupp and
her parents were having lunch at Luby's cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, when a man
began shooting diners with his handgun, even stopping to reload. Suzanna's
parents were two of the 23 people killed. (Twenty more were wounded.) Suzanna
owned a handgun, but because Texas law at the time did not permit her to carry it
with her, she left it in her car. She's confident that she could have stopped
the shooting spree if she had her gun. (Texas has since changed its law.)"

The McDonald case was
brought by Illinois State Rifle Association and the Second Amendment Foundation.

The case, McDonald v.
Chicago, challenged a 7th Circuit court ruling that said the 2nd Amendment
applies only to federal regulation of an individual's right to guns and not in
cases of restrictions by states and municipalities like Chicago and Oak Park,
Ill.

The Second Amendment
to the U.S. Constitution states: "A well-regulated Militia, being
necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the
people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

Furthermore, Section 1
of the 14th Amendment, or the Privileges or Immunities Clause, states:

All persons born or naturalized in
the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the
United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or
enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of
the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or
property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

The plaintiffs argued
"the right of the people to keep and bear arms" in the Second
Amendment is "incorporated" into the 14th Amendment and applies to
both states and localities.

As WND
reported, even the historically liberal 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
in California has ruled the 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms is
"deeply rooted in this nation's history and tradition" and long has
been regarded as the "true palladium of liberty," so it therefore
must be applied against state and local government weapon restrictions as well
as federal gun limits.

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