Allegheny County Sportsmen's League Legislative Committee Report
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Allegheny County Sportsmen’s League Legislative Committee Report July 2008 Issue 165 ALLEGHENY COUNTY SPORTSMEN LEAGUE ON THE INTERNET http://www.acslpa.org Contacts : Legislative Committee Chairman , Kim Stolfer (412.221.3346) - [email protected] Legislative Committee Vice-Chairman, Mike Christeson - [email protected] through years of deceit and political demagoguery— DC/Heller Ruling Leaves Nation the erosion of this important civil right." Scalia's majority opinion brought to an end decades of Polarized dispute over the meaning of the Second Amendment. by Dave Workman, Senior Editor In the beginning, it was the Supreme Court's 5-4 The high court ruled that the amendment "protects an ideological split that defined the Second Amendment individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with as protective of an individual right to keep and bear service in a militia, and to use that arm for arms regardless of affiliation with a militia. traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense But the historic ruling, written by Justice Antonin within the home." Scalia, quickly divided a nation, and in the aftermath The opinion, supported by Chief Justice John Roberts there did not seem to be much middle ground. The and Associate Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel evidence was clear, in the hysteria-steeped reaction by Alito and Anthony M. Kennedy, left the door open to anti-gunners including Washington, DC, Mayor regulation of the right, noting that "like most rights, Adrian Fenty, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and the Second Amendment right is not unlimited." Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, contrasting sharply "The court's opinion," Scalia wrote, "should not be with the victory remarks from gun rights leaders and taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on activists, including Wayne LaPierre, executive vice the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally president of the National Rifle Association, and Alan ilL or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment sensitive places such as schools and government Foundation. buildings, or laws imposing conditions and Perhaps Daley's outlook was glum because less than qualifications on the commercial sale of arms." an hour after the high court announced its ruling, SAF The ruling also demolished the argument long and the Illinois State Rifle Association filed a federal advanced by anti-gunners that the 1939 Miller case lawsuit against Daley and the city of Chicago over the (See Hindsight column in the July 1 issue of Gun handgun ban there (see related story). Week) relegated the right to bear arms as being "This is a great moment in American history," conditional to militia service. LaPierre said. "It vindicates individual Americans all But Scalia's majority opinion also castigated the over this country who have always known that this is arguments offered in the two dissenting opinions their freedom worth protecting." authored by liberal Justices John Paul Stevens and "Wisdom and truth have triumphed over hysteria and Steven G. Breyer, who were joined by David Souter falsehood," Gottlieb added. "This decision makes it and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In Stevens' case, the clear that a right 'of the people' is a right enjoyed by, majority opinion suggested that the argument put and affirmed for, all citizens. It destroys a cornerstone forth in his dissent that the Second Amendment's right of anti-gun rights elitism, which has fostered— to bear arms would "cause the protected right to consist of the right to be a soldier or to wage war" Page 2 amounted to "an absurdity that no commentator has stop the invective from spilling over on several ever endorsed." newspaper forums It reached a fever pitch with the The majority also stated that Stevens' arguments, traditionally antigun Chicago Tribune calling for a based on his reading of the drafting history of the repeal of the Second Amendment in an editorial the amendment, indicate that Stevens "flatly misreads the following day. historical record." Within hours of the ruling, the Brady Campaign to Scalia also wrote that "Justice Breyer's assertion that Prevent Gun Violence was out with a fund-raising individual self-defense is merely a 'subsidiary interest' plea that declared, "The Heller decision will no doubt of the right to keep and bear arms...is profoundly embolden ideological extremists to file new legal mistaken." attacks on existing gun laws. But with the help of the Scalia's opinion castigates dissenting minority Brady Center's legal team, those attacks can, and rulings must, be successfully resisted in the interest of public Stevens lamented in his dissenting opinon that "I fear safety." the District's policy choice (the gun ban) may well be They were attempting to raise $50,000 by June 30, just the first of an unknown number of dominoes to and it was not clear whether they met that goal. be knocked off the table" by the majority opinion. He "We disagree with the Court's decision giving argued that the majority opinion upholding an individuals a right to possess guns for private individual right interpretation amounted to "the purpose," the news release stated. "However, what is announcement of a new constitutional right to own critically important is that all nine Justices agreed that and use firearms for private purposes..." a wide variety of gun laws are constitutional, Breyer contended that gun violence in modern-day including restrictions on carrying concealed weapons, America had created an environment in which guns in schools and other sensitive places, and bans handguns contributed to the problem. He stated that on 'dangerous and unusual' weapons." "there simply is no untouchable constitutional right An anti-gun forum called "The Gun Guys" called the guaranteed by the Second Amendment to keep loaded ruling a "misguided decision" that will lead to an handguns in the house in crime-ridden urban areas." increase in violent crime. They have an archive of But Scalia countered in the finale paragraph of his stories about shooting victims called "America's majority opinion that, "We are aware of the problem Shooting Gallery." of handgun violence in this country, and we take "We only wish that the justices of the Supreme Court seriously the concerns raised by the many amici who could have first looked at an archive similar to ours to believe that prohibition of handgun ownership is a see the devastation of guns in America," the website solution...But the enshrinement of constitutional stated. "Maybe, the discussion and subsequent ruling rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the from the Court would have had a different outcome." table. But LaPierre disagreed with that assessment. "Undoubtedly," he continued, "some think that the "Our founding fathers wrote and intended the Second Second Amendment is outmoded in a society where Amendment to be an individual right," he said. "The our standing army is the pride of our Nation, where Supreme Court has now acknowledged it. The Second well-trained police forces provide personal security, Amendment as an individual right now becomes a and where gun violence is a serious problem. That is real permanent part of American Constitutional law." perhaps debatable, but what is not debatable is that it The New GUN WEEK , July 1, 2008 is not the role of this Court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct." SAF-ISRA, NRA launch federal suits The ruling ignited a firestorm, with supporters of the vs. Chicago ban complaining that it will lead to increased violence by Dave Workman, Senior Editor in Washington, DC, and across the nation. Within an hour of the Supreme Court's ruling on the Polls run by several news organizations found an Second Amendment, attorneys representing the overwhelming majority of on-line respondents Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and the supported the individual rights ruling That did not Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA), and four Page 3 Chicago residents, filed a lawsuit in federal district You have a gun and I have a gun and we'll settle in court in Chicago, IL, to overturn that city's decades- the streets." old handgun ban. Individual plaintiffs in the lawsuit are retiree Otis One day later, the National Rifle Association (NRA) McDonald, former police officer Adam Orlov and and four other citizens also filed suit against the city's David and Colleen Lawson. decades-old handgun ban. The NRA's action is McDonald is a retired maintenance engineer who broader, however, in that the organization and four worked at the University of Chicago and has been a individual citizens in Chicago also seek to overturn Chicago resident since 1952. In the 1960s, this Army longstanding bans in neighboring Morton Grove, Oak veteran, who served in Germany and came home to Park and Evanston. raise a family in Chicago, was a pioneer in integrating The Heller ruling on the District of Columbia's his local union, rising through the ranks until he handgun ban, which left anti-gun Chicago Mayor became head of that local. Richard Daley furious, had been expected to spawn In addition to being a civil rights and union leader in similar lawsuits in cities including Chicago, New the Chicago area, McDonald is also a community York and San Francisco (see related story) but the activist who has been threatened for his efforts to rid swiftness of the filing surprised some people. Chi- his neighborhood of drug dealers and other criminals cago-area attorney David Sigale, who is working with He owns a handgun, but cannot keep it inside the city lead attorney Alan Gura-- the man who successfully because of the handgun ban. argued the Heller case before the high court—filed the "This lawsuit, I hope, will allow me to bring my papers within about 15 minutes of hearing the Heller handgun into the city legally," he said in an interview case outcome.