Quote:
Originally Posted by spence
So the SCOTUS is irrelevant on the Second Amendment? I seem to remember the Heller decision being applauded among many gun rights advocates while it also seems to back Jim's position.
-spence
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Heller was a chip in the right direction. It addressed gun ownership in light of the Second Ammendment, not the Commerce Clause. I don't think it addressed Federal regulations in light of the Second Ammendment.
Originally, and as it was adjudicated throughout the 19th Century, the Second Ammendment was strictly a prohibition against the Federal Government. States were allowed restrictive gun laws if they so chose. Heller now, at least affirms, that the states cannot abridge the Second Ammendment in regards to arms in common use. But it still leaves the door open for state restrictions of other types of weapons. Which is why I also asked Jim, and he didn't answer, if he thought the Constitution, as it was written, placed the issue of gun control under state jurisdiction or Federal. Which is why I also asked you why you thought the Constitution made it impossible to implement The Specialist's suggestions on gun regulation.
So, under what Constitutional provision, enumeration, whatever, does the Federal Government have the power to legislate individual gun ownership? And if the answer is the Commerce Clause, or General Welflare Clause, that is mostly the kind of non-sensensical, muddied-up "interpretation" that has pretty much made the Constitution a toy for judges rather than a structure of government, and is the type of "interpretation" that Madison referred to when he said "If not only the means but the objects are unlimited, the parchment should be thrown into the fire at once."