Quote:
Originally Posted by detbuch
The Founders didn't restrict the states by the 2nd Amendment. States had their own constitutions which applied to and were supported by their citizens. So, whatever gun control the states wanted to apply would have to be decided by permission of their citizens. So, if the board of governors of the university wanted to disallow guns on campus, Jefferson and Madison would have thought they had the right to do so, any objections they might have had notwithstanding. If you think that meant that Madison and Jefferson also meant the federal government could also control private ownership of guns, you are wrong. Such a notion is not, as you put it, well within the intent of the 2nd Amendment.
If one could construe that any state action would somehow be evidence that the federal government had the same power, and that the federal government was supreme in its own powers, then there would be no such thing as state sovereignty. There would be no need for state constitutions or criminal statutes or civil codes. There would, in effect, be no need of separate states. And we would have long ago dissolved them and become one State, with unlimited power.
That, BTW, is the Progressive ideal.
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OK, I agree with you that the supremacy clause limits the areas in which federal law trumps state law, to those powers enumerated in the constitution. But it would seem that gun rights and restrictions fall into that category, as some state gun restrictions have been struck down as being unconstitutional, as prescribed in the US constitution.
In this well-known case, the DC gun ban was determined by a federal judge, to be contrary to the US Constitution, and therefore invalid. Therefore, when states enact gun restrictions, those restrictions must pass constitutional muster.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014...itutional.html
So if states want to ban things like bump stocks or high capacity magazines, that's not necessarily unconstitutional for states to do that...just as it wasn't unconstitutional for VA to declare that guns weren't allowed on campus. That's all I'm saying, all I am doing is responding to those who say that any restrictions on guns, are unconstitutional.