D.C. v. Heller Eyewitness Wrapup: Part 7

This Is The 96th Gun Case, Not The First

Please understand I do not accept the universally promoted characterization that the Heller case is the first 2A case in 70 years, or that is the only case to directly address the central issue of individual rights. I am a minority of one perhaps, but those widely circulated sentiments don’t meet my tests for validity.

The Supreme Court has consistently recognized an individual right in the Second Amendment for 200 years. I did the research and published the book, with plenty of help and two co-authors.

In dicta and holdings, there is no body of cases that are inconsistent with the idea that 2A is a long extant right of people -- the same people found in 1A, 4A, 9A and 10A. Of the 92 in Supreme Court Guns Cases, 89 flatly support the American right to arms. The remaining three can be timorously clung to by those hoping to eradicate a human right.

The right has been regulated and tweaked, especially for felons, and perhaps unfairly at times, but it is always an adjustment to a recognized right whose boundaries are and may always be in judicial flux.

Two of the most recent cases illustrate -- and what a wonderful pair they are. In one (Bean, 2002), a man loses his RKBA, which he depended on for his livelihood as a gun-show vendor. He had crossed the Texas border into Mexico for dinner with friends after a gun show, and a forgotten box of shells in his vehicle got him a Mexican felony arrest. Through a loophole, the High Court upheld the ban on his rights as a convicted felon, and he needed to change careers, never to handle firearms again.

In a similar case with a different outcome (Small), a man loses his right to keep and bear arms due to what we would call a kangaroo-court decision in Japan, and the High Court decides this is insufficient to remove his private and individual right to keep and bear arms, with no mention or concern whatsoever for a nexus to militia or military service or any of the other anti-rights excreta.

The first case was not a 2A case technically -- according to those who believe they understand such things -- it was a question of jurisdiction. The federal agency for renewing an individual’s rights didn’t rule against him, they just refused to review his case. So the poor schlub with his rights denied had no standing to sue to regain his rights, and he was plumb out of luck.

The second case was a language question of whether “any court” was sufficient to remove your right to keep and bear, and the Supreme Court decided that, no, it was not sufficient when it came to a Japanese court. You should see the injustice this man was subjected to -- including 23 days of interrogation without a lawyer present.

Here were men who had this right “the Supreme Court has never ruled on,” then lost this right “the Supreme Court has never ruled on,” and sued to regain this right “the Supreme Court has never ruled on,” and one got it back and one did not.

It’s easy to see that these cases do not rule on the meaning of the Second Amendment, so the naysayers are correct, if you want to twist words and meanings. But these cases simply take the Second Amendment in stride, and presume it’s there and real.  Of course you have this right, but do you get to keep it under the given circumstances? Virtually all the cases match this model in effect.

The statement that Heller is the 1st case bearing on 2A in 70 years is false.

The idea that the High Court has been inconsistent on this issue is false.

And most of all, the idea that the High Court has been silent on the issue is false, and hopelessly ignorant.

The High Court uses the word “firearm,” in some form, 2,900 times in its decisions, and all the decisions are consistent with an individual right to arms. As much as the anti-rights forces would like gun rights to go away, guns are why America is still free, and will remain free while its citizens retain power.

Heller is the 96th gun case to reach the Supreme Court, not the 7th. Like the examples above, only some are directly 2A cases, the rest deal with guns from another vantage point -- taxes, regulations, statutory interpretation, states’ rights... co-author Dave Kopel found 35 cases that mention or quote the 2A. I count differently, and find 96 gun-related cases at the High Court (including his 35), and hence Supreme Court Gun Cases. Heller is the 64th since Miller.

Read more: Links I've Found

 

Tags: D.C. v. Heller, Supreme Court