Originally Posted By: dbadcraig
Originally Posted By: JM
Originally Posted By: HomelessjOe

Does a state law effect our 2nd Amendment rights ?


The 14th amendment clearly addresses this issue. States in the antebellum south tried to use the excuse that the Constitution was only a restriction on the federal government and that the states could place restrictions on rights. It was merely a cover for the south to exclude blacks and deny them their rights. The excuse that you might hear today from local governments to violate or deny peoples rights is "home rule" or "local control".

The 14th amendment states "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."


We can for now only hope the above statement that the 14th amendment contains all the answers to the issue of a state or local government's right to regulate firearms ownership. However correct the assertion above may be, the reality is far different for now. Many localities limit firearms ownership and my home state of Illinois further regulates the ownership through the "firearms owner identification card" and the municipality I live in has ordinances against owning high capacity magazines and assault style weapons. All the Constitutional theory in the world isn't worth a "tinker's" in the face of the fact that state and local governments do regulate and restrict the types of firearms citizens can own and do so notwithstanding the 14th amendment. That is not to say that such regulation is Constitutional, but as other very astute posters have pointed out, until these laws are challenged and we have a Supreme Court ruling on these issues, many of us are regulated by our state and local governments and we either comply (as do I) or we run the risk of prosecution.

Unlike the condition of slavery, gun ownership isn't nearly such a popular issue with the general public as was the full realization of the emancipation of the ex-slaves in the ante-bellum years.

Doug


Doug you are correct in what you have pointed out, that state and local governments are ignoring the 14th amendment. There is no legal precednet for this construction of 2nd amendment rights being violated under the 14th amendment by state and local governments at present since no one has made that challenge that I am aware of. However, like the 2nd amendment itself, there are countless transcripts of the debates over ratification of the 14th amendment in which the violations of the right to keep and bear arms in the antebellum south were a major issue in passing and ratifying the amendment to stop these infringements. During the debates in Congress some former slaves were brought in to testify before Congress about the restrictions and confiscation of firearms in the antebellum south.