There aren’t many people who understand gun-related legislation and court decisions better than attorney David Kopel. It’s useful for all of us to read his latest analysis of the Bruen decision, and in my opinion it is imperative for holders of New York carry permits to do so.
Find it here.
Fascinating reading. It would appear that we’ll need to up our funding to the Second Ammendment Foundation and other similar groups to fund the coming appeals battles. The lawyers (on both sides) are gonna be busy.
I used to occasionally wonder why, since lawyers are so disproportionally present in legislatures, why so many bills are presented (and passed) that are obviously constitutuionally impaired. Then I met more lawyers……… OTOH, the legislatures don’t appear to care, after all, the folks who pay their salaries are also those who pay to defend the deeply flawed legislation they pass.
There IS a suitable cure for this well-noted deficiency.
To become a citizen, one must take and pass a basic test on the Constitution, government, citizenship etc.
Such a test should be mandated to take and pass before anyone can toss their hat into the ring to hold public office. Yes, even for dog catcher. CLosed book, 75% or better score.
That wouldn’t help, MOST if not all career politicians could pass. They don’t believe any of the laws apply to themselves as they are the elite. They’re in office for reason only, personal enrichment. As proven by the fact that nearly every one of them is immediately back on the campaign trail the day after an election. With their only intent being to insure re-election before they’ve accomplished anything from the last election. Accomplishment are measured by offshore bank accounts, that are packed with funds pulled from the money laundering operation of big government! The ONLY real business of the modern U.S. Government.
I went back and looked at what he was referencing as Breyer’s dissent in the Heller decision. I’ve never seen such a convoluted legal argument in my life.
As I’ve heard said before, if the Left interpreted the 2nd Amendment the way they interpret all of the others, the government would REQUIRE us to keep loaded guns at home.
Unfortunately, we are fast becoming a country and society wherein the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and laws are irrelevant to those in power. District attorneys paid for by an evil foreign nut job refuse to prosecute even crimes of violence. Democratic governors and legislatures immediately seek to circumvent Supreme Court decisions. Federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies are blatantly partisan and label you a terrorist if you don’t like it. ATF agents showing up at your door so they can just take a look at your guns. We will soon have upwards of 87,000 new IRS agents doing whatever they feel like to those who cannot afford to resist them. If the darkness descends on this nation there will not be armies of brave men coming to our beaches to liberate us like we did in 1944.
Perceptive Mark, what we do have are large numbers of de facto fifth columnists of one flavor or another moving in to help the rotten “deep state” collapse what is left of American Civilization. I really think that one or more very rich, subversive, influential, and possibly deranged people hate the USA and even the rest of The West for their role in defeating the certified national socialist Hitler. If you follow the money trail back, you will probably discover that much post-WWII funding came from riches “liberated” by the Nazis in WWII and that Nazi fanatics utilized it via Swiss and other secretive banks. Reinhard Gehlen, a very solid intelligence agent for Germany in WWII, and West Germany afterwards, testified that he saw a reliable report in late April of 1945 sent through the German intelligence networks that Adolf Hitler was then seen preparing to board a German submarine. Gehlen further testified that he saw a photograph of Hitler’s “secretary” (right-hand-man) Martin Bormann taken in Russia after the war. Bormann was reportedly working both sides during the war! Check out the book “Op JB” and some of the recent reports of Hitler and Bormann reportedly collaborating in post-war Argentina. Observe a certain influential, yet-extant tycoon who was reportedly basically a Hitler Youth in Hungary during the war. Beware of irrational conspiracy theorists, yes, as well as deceptive, knee-jerk “presstitutes.” I have personally known a few truly wealthy people, however, and they all had significant financial help getting started. Where did our current primary anti-republican-democracy confessed-via-60-Minutes terrorist get his seed money and backing? Remember the strong role of actual conspiracy throughout history. The French Cardinal Richelieu might be the outstanding model for it.
It’s a shame Kopel didn’t delve into or even acknowledge the glaring errors the Court made in the discussed decisions. Errors like letting stand the ASSUMED constitutionality of laws due to “history” and “longstanding tradition,” even when such laws are unconstitutional, to wit: most of the “sensitive places” and charging any fee for a permit, or even requiring a permit, etc.
No court will grant the 2nd Amendment broadscale status. No court will take the words of the 2A at their literal face-value.
Any court, including the Supreme Court, will take the position that our Rights are not unlimited. They will say that, historically, there have been limits on the 1st Amendment, 4th Amendment, 5th Amendment, 6th Amendment, 10th Amendment, etc.
Therefore, in their minds, there must be some limits on the 2A as well. This is the point that old Joe Biden that trying to make when he (repeatedly) made his false claims that people could not buy, and privately own, cannons back in the days when the 2A was drafted and adopted. In old Joe’s mind, that is an obvious limit to the 2A that “ought” to be in-place. Therefore, in the way that leftists have of believing in fantasy and in an alternate reality, Old Joe just “wished” it to be true.
I won’t even go so far as to call Old Joe a liar on this topic. For all I know, in his feeble, delusional mind, he really believes it to be true. It would be interesting to put Biden on a polygraph and ask him whether he believes it true that cannons could not be privately owned in early 19th Century America. He might well say that it is true, and the polygraph might show that he is speaking the truth insofar as to what he believes. Never underestimate the ability of a leftist to engage in self-delusion!
In any event, some limits on the 2A are going to be applied by the courts. We can complain about it, but it will not change reality. Unlike a leftist, I cannot conjure up an alternate reality in which to live. I must live in the “Real World”.
Given that some limits on the 2A are going to be set, we are lucky that the Heller, McDonald, and Bruen Decisions set them as generously as they did. If one of the left-wing Justices, say Justice Kagan, had set the limits, the 2A would have been gutted. It would have been reduced into being a “dead letter of the law”.
Therefore, we should thank our “lucky stars” that, however flawed that they may be, we got decisions like Heller, McDonald and Bruen written and decided. Even flawed, they still try to give the 2A some bit. They don’t leave the 2A neutered like the American Left wanted.
TN_MAN,
Yes, we really are blessed to have as much freedom as we still do. Twenty-five states with Constitutional Carry is amazing! Switzerland is almost as free as the USA, but I do not believe they get to carry handguns for personal self-defense every day. Correct me if I’m wrong. (I just checked. Looks like Switzerland is “may issue.”)
Possibly, the argument that federal law trumps state law may work after Bruen. In other words, the Second Amendment, part of the Bill of Rights, part of the Supreme Law of the Land, says you can “bear” arms. So if NY state makes laws saying you can’t bear arms, the federal law trumps the state law, right?
Hey, what does it matter? Most crimes are permitted in NY now, right? We quibble about the law, while Democrats smash and grab.
@ Roger Willco – “twenty-five states with Constitutional Carry is amazing! ”
I read an article that says, post Bruen, that New Jersey is actually issuing carry permits on a “shall issue” basis now. Here it is:
https://bearingarms.com/john-petrolino/2022/08/20/post-bruen-permits-to-carry-confirmed-in-new-jersey-n61668
This makes one believe in the actuality of miracles!
How is your permit application coming? Did you successfully navigate all the roadblocks? Or is New Jersey still dragging its feet?
I don’t ever expect to see Constitutional Carry in New Jersey. It took the Bruen Decision to drag them, kicking and screaming, into moving from “May Issue” (effectively “No Issue”) to “Shall Issue”.
Thanks for this. Such an important decision. Unfortunately, you’ll have states dance around it and there will have to be cases sent back to set these jerks straight. Who knows how long that will take, or if there will be competent judges still on the court then.
This legal analysis by David Kopel is very good. However, there is a flawed assumption underlying his analysis. He is assuming that we still have Rule-of-Law (ROL) in this country. We do not.
The Democrats and Administration State have undermined ROL by weaponizing it to go after their political opponents. They even coined a term for their behavior: Lawfare.
They have shown a patterning of picking and choosing which laws apply and which do not. Even on the Constitutional level, they pick out and enforce the parts of the Constitution which are useful to them at the moment (like impeachment, for example) while ignoring the parts that could work against their program.
Take this business with the recent raid on President Trump’s home. Supposedly, it was all about 15 boxes of documents in his possession. This is a national security crisis as told by their media operatives. Yet Hillary Clinton improperly stored classified documents on an unsecured server that was penetrated by foreign countries. A true security failure. Even so, the FBI cleared her and gave sweetheart deals to all the people involved. No one was raided. No one was charged.
Obama shipped over 30 million pages of records to Chicago. I assure you that this was considerably more than 15 boxes. Yet, nothing was said about it.
When this contrast is raised, their media operatives RUSH to say that the case involving President Trump is different. Take this article, for example:
https://people.com/politics/fact-check-did-barack-obama-illegally-take-30-million-pages-classified-documents-chicago/
You know what the real difference is? The Administrative State does not give a damn about any action taken by a Democrat. Therefore, by default, the actions of Hillary and Obama were found to be A-OK. However, President Trump is viewed as a threat to the Administrative State. Therefore, any action he takes, no matter how innocent, WILL BE DECLARED to be a violation of some Federal law or statute.
Unequal application of the law. That is where we are in this country today.
This applies to the 2nd Amendment too. After the Heller and McDonald Decisions, by the SCOTUS, established the 2A as an individual Right and incorporated it to the States, activist Left-Wing Judges RUSHED to negate these decisions. As Mr. Kopel noted, they developed a “Two-Step” process expressly designed to undercut the 2A and allow any and every infringement to stand.
In California, the 9th Circuit Court was infamous for reversing lower courts so as to allow infringements against the 2A to stand. I have read that the score was 50 to 0. That out of 50 cases that they ruled on, they decided in favor of the infringement 100% of the time.
The American Left is lawless. They have no (zero) respect for the Constitution or the Law. They view both merely as flexible tools that they can twist and use for their benefit.
Just what makes you think that the Bruen Decision will receive any more respect than the Heller and McDonald Decisions that came before?
Until the American Left is brought to heel and FORCED to respect the law, we will not have Justice, under the Law, here in the United States. Until Rule-of-Law is re-established, the American Left will continue to do exactly as it damn well pleases.
The documents that HillBilly and Obama had in their possession were nowhere near as mega ultra top secret as the ones Trump left laying around carelessly at Mar-a-Lago where anyone could have viewed them. What our super dedicated and honest Attorney General and the DOJ did not reveal was that Donald Trump was in the process of traitorously selling to the Chinese and Russians, our many secret files concerning Area 51, Roswell, UFOs, and Elvis’ alien origins.
The Never-Trump strategy seems to be the old throw-enough-mud and something will stick. Same basic strategy as the apes in the zoo, although the apes in the zoo have more serious ammunition at hand than mud. Sure enough, the oblivious Never-Trump apes are smelling progressively worse, the more of the crap that they throw sticks to them. Phew!
A bit off-topic but still court related. It appears that at least one of the public defenders, assigned to represent the January 6th Political Prisoners, takes her role seriously. Instead of being a patsy for the Left, she is a bulldog for Truth. See this link:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/08/crying-capitol-police-officer-aquilino-gonell-humiliated-caught-lie-lie-oath-likely-committed-perjury-january-6th-criminal-trial-last-week-must-see-video-officer-trolle/
It is a shame that all of the political prisoners could not have this kind of representation. Unfortunately, I think that most of the public defenders rolled over and threw their clients to the rabid wolves of the Left, their media attack dogs, and (of course) the Administrative State.
If the appeals courts, including (ultimately) the Supreme Court, has integrity, they will set aside any convictions that arise out of these show trials.
I feel like I should do something to help these political prisoners. But, if I do something, I will be arrested because I am not a DemonRat. Shouldn’t Trump be doing everything he can to help his supporters? Why is this show trial taking so long? I hate it when the bad guys win. America should be experiencing Trump’s second term as President right now.
I used to think we could separate from the Communists, and they might leave us alone. They could build their Communist utopia without us. I no longer believe that is possible. My guess is they believe the whole world must become Communist in order for their utopia to work. That is why Communism hasn’t worked in the past. Because it needs to be worldwide to function, not just a country here and a country there. That may be what they believe.
Reminds me of the Jihadists. They believe the whole world must become Muslim. Compromise is not possible with that mindset, and America has been all about compromise, hasn’t it? (Well, it has been about compromise between the political parties, not between the government and the Native Americans or the slaves.)
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