DC Gun Ban Struck Down By 12th Circuit Today

Individuals Right to Keep and Bear Arms affirmed.

WASHINGTON - In the most important ruling on gun control in 70 years, a federal appeals court Friday for the first time used the Second Amendment to strike down a gun law.

In a 2-1 decision, the court overturned the District of Columbia’s long-standing handgun ban, rejecting the city’s argument that the Second Amendment right to bear arms applied only to militias.

The majority held that the activities protected by the Second Amendment “are not limited to militia service, nor is an individual’s enjoyment of the right contingent” on enrollment in a militia.

---

A glimmer of sanity!!!!!

---

Heres MORE:

BREAKING NEWS -- Divided three-judge D.C. Circuit panel holds that the District of Columbia's gun control laws violate individuals' Second Amendment rights: You can access today's lengthy D.C. Circuit ruling at this link.
According to the majority opinion, "[T]he phrase 'the right of the people,' when read intratextually and in light of Supreme Court precedent, leads us to conclude that the right in question is individual." The majority opinion sums up its holding on this point as follows:

To summarize, we conclude that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. That right existed prior to the formation of the new government under the Constitution and was premised on the private use of arms for activities such as hunting and self-defense, the latter being understood as resistance to either private lawlessness or the depredations of a tyrannical government (or a threat from abroad). In addition, the right to keep and bear arms had the important and salutary civic purpose of helping to preserve the citizen militia. The civic purpose was also a political expedient for the Federalists in the First Congress as it served, in part, to placate their Antifederalist opponents. The individual right facilitated militia service by ensuring that citizens would not be barred from keeping the arms they would need when called forth for militia duty. Despite the importance of the Second Amendment's civic purpose, however, the activities it protects are not limited to militia service, nor is an individual's enjoyment of the right contingent upon his or her continued or intermittent enrollment in the militia.
The majority opinion also rejects the argument that the Second Amendment does not apply to the District of Columbia because it is not a State. And the majority opinion concludes, "Section 7-2507.02, like the bar on carrying a pistol within the home, amounts to a complete prohibition on the lawful use of handguns for self-defense. As such, we hold it unconstitutional."
Senior Circuit Judge Laurence H. Silberman wrote the majority opinion, in which Circuit Judge Thomas B. Griffith joined. Circuit Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson dissented.

Judge Henderson's dissenting opinion makes clear that she would conclude that the Second Amendment does not bestow an individual right based on what she considers to be binding U.S. Supreme Court precedent requiring that result. But her other main point is that the majority's assertion to the contrary constitutes nothing more than dicta because the Second Amendment's protections, whatever they entail, do not extend to the District of Columbia, because it is not a State.

This is a fascinating and groundbreaking ruling that would appear to be a likely candidate for U.S. Supreme Court review if not overturned first by the en banc D.C. Circuit.

---

WOW!!! 78% to 22% in FAVOR of handguns in DC on the nbc4.com website! WOOHOO!

 

---

finally some sanity breaks through the clouds, just hope they can keep it, the mayor is throwing a fit.

Yep. I agree with their asessment of the Framers use of the word Militia.

Here is a snippet of a post I did in the 2A Forum:

"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."

There are only two things one needs to really know and understand: 1) the Militia is defined by the U.S. Code as the sum total of all able-bodied men between the ages of 17 and 47 who are not in the military, and 2) the Revolutionary War was started when the British Army attempted to seize arms from the militia!

---

This is kinda scary though.....does mean that there will now be violence in DC????

---

I'm waiting to hear Sarah Brady explain how this is actually another in the long list of court decisions that backs gun control.

---

They have the highest per capita murder rate in the nation. Now how can that be? They have strick anti gun laws there. Perhaps they have not been told, "An armed society is a polite society."

---

I'm............in ...........SHOCK!!!!

 

Wonder what caused this???

 

Recognition of the SECOND AMENDMENT and what it REALLY means??

 

This is the twilight zone and I love it!!

 

If they keep this up I'll have to change my screen name. lol 

---

See, Again, Common Sense & using the Constitution as it was intended, if we continue to press our issues,we will continue to have our rights, all Freedoms.

LIVE FREE & SPEAK FREE !!

---

Did you read this?

WAYNESBURG, Ky.  —  Miss America 1944 has a talent that likely has never appeared on a beauty pageant stage: She fired a handgun to shoot out a vehicle's tires and stop an intruder.

Venus Ramey, 82, confronted a man on her farm in south-central Kentucky last week after she saw her dog run into a storage building where thieves had previously made off with old farm equipment.

Ramey said the man told her he would leave. "I said, 'Oh, no you won't,' and I shot their tires so they couldn't leave," Ramey said.

She had to balance on her walker as she pulled out a snub-nosed .38-caliber handgun.

"I didn't even think twice. I just went and did it," she said. "If they'd even dared come close to me, they'd be 6 feet under by now."

Ramey then flagged down a passing motorist, who called 911.

After winning the pageant with her singing, dancing and comedic talents, Ramey sold war bonds and her picture was adorned on a B-17 that made missions over Germany in World War II, according to the Miss America Web site.

 Ramey lived in Cincinnati for several years and was instrumental in helping rejuvenate Over-the-Rhine historic buildings. She returned to Kentucky in 1990 to live on her farm.

"I'm trying to live a quiet, peaceful life and stay out of trouble, and all it is, is one thing after another," she said.

---

Hey rog ; I read it and was laughing the whole way through. GOOD FOR HER !!!  If I make to 82 I'm gonna be one mean mama.  By the way Florida voted last year or the year before an addition to our right to bear arms we now have what is called The White Castle Law. Hell I've had it all my life !!! But now it is legal to shoot someone aiming to do you harm "You feel your life is in danger, OR the life of another person " either on your own property or in public places. Of course it has all the same old loop holes that can and will be used against you in a court of law. But at least it gave us a little more wiggle room in defense of our actions. 

---

Just recently they passed a bill here to protect the rights of the victem to defend themselves in their own home. I thought that was a good step in the right direction, but it just doesnt make sense that we even have to do this. Of course we can defend ourselves and our families. Bearing arms is for that reason. So to make a law giving us what we already have is silly. But theres so many wicked people in law now that think if they defend them.....youre guilty.

---

Actually thinking about it, it is probably a good thing to make ordinances and laws to uphold the federal laws in the states just like the question of laws concerning immigration have come up so much lately.

---

Texas just passed the castle doctrine this session. I wonder why when you talk about border security it is a federal issue as specified in the constitution. The second amendment states that persons have a right to own firearms but yet states and cities want to usurp federal laws concerning gun issues. Go figure.

---

I dont understand how they can get away with it either blaze. They are not being held accountable and the people who are supposed to do that seem to hold the same view. I dont get it. So no one is accountable but only in that area? Why should I be accountable in what I dont like if they dont have to be.

---