About 245 years ago, a "dead-white-guy" named Thomas Jefferson quoted Criminologist Cesare Beccaria, saying:
Laws that forbid the carrying of arm s... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed one.
This same "dead-white-guy," also known as the author of The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, made it clear too, exactly what the 2nd Amendment was about, and why it was important:
What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?
Afterall ... our Declaration of Independence is unambiguous about the fact that power belongs to the people, not the government, and ...
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation ... that whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS):
Last year's Supreme Court ruling on the District of Columbia v. Heller case, re-settled the fact that the Second Amendment is not a collective right of the State, but that it guarantees an individual the right to bear arms.
The problem that remains however, is that in the world of lawyers, politicians, and legalese, this ruling applies only to the federal government, not against state and local governments as well.
Justice Anotonin Scalia noted in his majority opinion, that the 1876 case U.S. v. Cruikshank, which ruled that the 2nd Amendment does not apply against the states, also excuses the states from being subjected to the normal 14th Amendment inquiry (required in later cases). The Fourteenth Amendment reads in part:
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.
What Scalia is pointing out, is that U.S. v. Cruikshank had been decided prior to the 14th Amendment "incorporation clause," so the reasoning behind the Cruikshank decision no longer applies.
What does this mean?
Two weeks ago, the federal 7th Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Second Amendment does not apply to the states, and furthermore, it offers no protection against state and local government gun control laws in their decision on the National Rifle Association (NRA) v. Chicago case. The 7th Circuit Court even went so far as to make the claim that by allowing the states to disregard the 2nd Amendment, they are actually protecting federalism!
Amazing, isn't it? How the government always thinks it best to disregard our rights, for protection "our own good," but I digress ...
The D.C. v. Heller case was the result of 2 libertarian organizations, the Cato Institute, and the Institute for Justice, who hired a young and inexperienced attorney named Alan Gura, to handle the case. As Cato's Robert Levy said:
... in return for which he got a commitment from me that if the case went anywhere, it would be his baby. It turned out that that commitment was very important.
So even though Alan Gura had never tried a case before SCOTUS, he succeeded in winning a major victory in "The People's Battle against the Leviathan," and now he's got his sights set on the NRA v. Chicago case! Gura says of the 7th Circuit's decision:
To claim that of all rights, the Second Amendment must yield to local majoritarian impulses is especially wrong considering that the rampant violation of the right to keep and bear arms was understood to be among the chief evils vitiated by adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The good news is, given that the Chicago case so closely resembles the Heller case, Gura's well-reasoned appeal offers us a tremendous opportunity to fully restore the Second Amendment! As Robert Levy, chairman of the Cato Institute, says:
... libertarians see [NRA v. Chicago] as an opportunity “to resurrect economic liberties suspended by the Court under the post–New Deal version of substantive due process.” Conservatives should see this case as a rare opportunity to base any incorporation of the Bill of Rights on originalist grounds — an opportunity they should waste no time in seizing, for it may not come again.
Remington Model 700 Xtreme Hunting Rifle:
- Distinctive triangular barrel (like the VTR) which is patent pending.
- 24″ barrel on standard action and 26″ for belted magnum and Rem Ultra mag cartridges.
- Counter bored muzzle.
- Real tree camo
- Hogue rubberized stock
- SuperCell recoil pad system.
- Jeweled bolt.
It features a green Hogue stock, fluted barrel, fully bedded action and trigger work done by Wilson Combat gunsmiths. The PBR action is based on the Winchester Model 70 action and is chambered for .308 Winchester.
