second amentment

[GoldTip]

  +1

[bearhunter59]

I beleive this is the biggest, most important decision the Supreme Court has ever, or will ever make, in the history of this country.  I beleive that if they had went the other way with their decision, that it would have resulted in the complete destruction of our constitution, and this country.  There would have been total chaos and anarchy in a very short period of time...I can't beleive they actually got one right!!!!

 

[Hunter4Life]

Can I pat myself on the back calling the five justices who would vote the Second Amendment an individual right (Scalia, Thomas, Alito, Roberts, and Kenedy)?  LOL LOL    I just had to say this in light of great NEWS! 

Suits will be filed against other gun bans.  The Supreme Court reaffirmed that the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right, and that the District of Columbia's ban on handguns is unconstitutional. The Court was split 5-4, with Justice Antonin Scalia writing the majority opinion.

"Logic demands that there be a link between the stated purpose and the command," Justice Scalia wrote. "We start therefore with a strong presumption that the Second Amendment right is exercised individually and belongs to all Americans." Justice Scalia was joined on the majority opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Anthony Kennedy, Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito.
 

[ICEMAN]

Scalia is da' man!

What is scary is that 4 of them voted to uphold the ban, deny the right....

[280ackley]

What is scary is that 4 of them voted to uphold the ban, deny the right....

Yes that is scary.  It just goes to show people it could happen here.  What would the Cort look like if Al Gore or John Kerry would have won the White House.  People need to think about who might be nominated to the supream cort when deciding on a president.

[Ray]

The supreme court justices should not be placed into the benches to legislate. That seems to the a major problem in a lot of court cases I hear about on the news.

[280ackley]

The supreme court justices should not be placed into the benches to legislate. That seems to the a major problem in a lot of court cases I hear about on the news.

I couldn't agree more.

[Hunter4Life]

I couldn't agree more.  The role of the Court is not to legislate, but to interpret the law.  Too often the Court uses its power to over-step their bounds and make law.  The Heller case is an example of the proper function of the Supreme Court, to rule on the Constitutionality of law passed by a legislative branch of government.  The Founding Father's created a system to checks and balances to prevent one branch of the government from becoming too powerful.  The Supreme Court was a check against unconstitutional laws passed by Legislative branch and carried out by the Executive branch.

[Hunter4Life]

Altough I think President Bush has gone soft on us, especially with an anti-Second Amendment Attorney General appointment, we have to commend him on his Judicial appointments.  If we didn't have Alito and Roberts, but had the old Court of Rehnquist and O'Connor, would the outcome have been the same?  We know Rehnquist would have been with the majority, but I would not want to depend on O'Connor's vote.  Alito is 100% Second Amendment as was Rehnquist, but I would much rather depend on Roberts being with us than O'Connor.  Alito and Roberts have shown themselves to be a friend of the Second Ammendment.

[sisu]

The justices divided along lines that have repeatedly split the court under Chief Justice John Roberts. Kennedy, Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito joined Scalia's opinion. Justices John Paul Stevens, Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter dissented. (Who were the presidents that appointed these last 4?

``The right the court announces was not `enshrined' in the Second Amendment by the framers,'' Stevens wrote. ``It is the product of today's law-changing decision.''

Scalia said government can still bar handgun possession by convicted felons and the mentally ill, and restrict bringing guns into schools or government buildings. He also suggested that concealed-weapons bans were constitutional.

Still, the decision may make gun restrictions in Chicago, New York City and other cities more vulnerable to legal challenges. Gun rights advocates including the National Rifle Association vowed to begin new legal moves and said some background checks and automatic-weapon bans are legally questionable.

``Our founding fathers wrote and intended the Second Amendment to be an individual right. The Supreme Court has now acknowledged it,'' said the NRA in a statement on its Web site.

The validity of restrictions may depend on Kennedy, Howard said. Kennedy ``may take a fairly generous view of state police power and vote with the four liberals to uphold regulations,'' he said.

Strictest Ban

Washington's 32-year-old gun law, perhaps the strictest in the nation, barred most residents from owning handguns and required that all legal firearms be kept unloaded and either disassembled or under trigger lock. Six residents disputed the law, saying they wanted firearms at home for self-defense.

``After 30 years of ignoring that right, the District will finally have to respect it,'' said one of the residents, Dick Heller, who works as an armed security guard at a federal government building in Washington.

Washington's mayor, Adrian Fenty, said he is disappointed. ``More handguns in the District will mean more gun violence,'' he said at a press conference.

The decision didn't resolve whether the Second Amendment binds the states in addition to the federal government and the nation's capital.

Second Amendment

Adopted in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights, the Second Amendment reads: ``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.''

The justices in the majority said they had ``no doubt, on the basis of both text and history, that the Second Amendment conferred an individual right to keep and bear arms.''

The Supreme Court hadn't considered the Second Amendment since 1939, when it issued a ruling that both sides in the debate later claimed as support for their arguments.

The ruling drew words of support from both major-party presidential candidates. Republican John McCain in a statement called gun ownership a ``fundamental right -- sacred, just as the right to free speech and assembly.''


And then Obama changes his opinion again!
Democrat Barack Obama said on Bloomberg Television that he agrees with the court's ``overall reasoning'' and the Washington gun ban probably ``overshot the runway.''
Kennedy's Views

Kennedy's views on the gun case became clear during arguments in March, when he said the Second Amendment confers ``a general right to bear arms quite without reference to the militia either way.'' After the arguments, proponents of the ban conceded they almost certainly would lose on the individual- rights question...



``The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times,'' he wrote.



``He's beginning to flex his muscles,'' Howard said. ``His opinion style is a bit more self-confident, a bit more expansive, as if he's looking not only to the opinion at hand but also the history books.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net.

[Machias]

I believe, could be wrong, I'll go do some research but I believe seven, make that SEVEN of the nine Justices were appointed to the bench by a Republican President.  With Obama we know we get another Ginsberg (or worst, if that is possible) with McCain....we just don't know, but I personally don't get a warm fuzzy feeling about a President McCain nomination either!

[Machias]

I was right Justice Stevens appointed by President Ford, Justice Souter appointed by President Bush, senior, Ginsberg and Breyer were appointed by Clinton.

SEVEN by Republican Presidents two of which are as Liberal as both of Clinton's appointments and with McCain almost as Liberal as old time Demoncrats, his appointments are nothing to get excited about IMO!

[Hunter4Life]

Machias,

I could not agree more on your opinion of McCain.  I am not excited about him either, but I look at the alternative.  I hate a choice between the lesser of two evils, but I think Obama is really, really bad.

[sisu]

Here are the comments from the candidates on the ruling.

John McCain yesterday attacked Barack Obama for his "elitist" views on gun control after the Supreme Court proclaimed that every US citizen had the right to own guns for self-defence and hunting.

In a long-awaited ruling, the court struck down the District of Columbia's 32-year ban on handguns as unconstitutional. It marked the first significant Supreme Court ruling on gun rights in US history.

Mr McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, hailed the ruling as a "landmark victory" for gun rights and highlighted his opponent's past support for the ban.

Mr Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, acknowledged the court's decision that the ban "went too far", but said the ruling made clear that states and cities were allowed to impose "reasonable regulations" on gun ownership.

[rewent12003]

the secound ammendment is great and all some of us have to give up our rights to own guns do to an arrest record, my question is how long do i have to go before i can use my secound ammendment rights again i mean come on its been 22 years for the felon and 10 for the misdameanor when is punishment going to be over.