US Finally Kills The 2nd Ammendment

[bgt]

On Thu, 2004-01-08 at 10:59, Nostradumbass at SAFe-mail.net wrote:
> That made Silveira the law of the land, you see.
> That means that no American citizen, since December 1, 2003, has a fundamental right to possess a firearm.

Only in the 9th circuit.   

The 5th circuit (in 2001) has previously given an opinion in direct
opposition to the 9th circuit's finding.

http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/99/99-10331-cr0.htm

"We find that the history of the Second Amendment reinforces the plain
meaning of its text, namely that it protects individual Americans in
their right to keep and bear arms whether or not they are a member of a
select militia or performing active military service or training."

and

"We reject the collective rights and sophisticated collective rights
models for interpreting the Second Amendment. We hold, consistent with
Miller, that it protects the right of individuals, including those not
then actually a member of any militia or engaged in active military
service or training, to privately possess and bear their own
firearms..."

and

"In undertaking this analysis, we are mindful that almost all of our
sister circuits have rejected any individual rights view of the Second
Amendment. However, it respectfully appears to us that all or almost all
of these opinions seem to have done so either on the erroneous
assumption that Miller resolved that issue or without sufficient
articulated examination of the history and text of the Second
Amendment."

So in the 5th circuit, the individual right to keep & bear arms is still
explicitly recognized and upheld.  The Supreme Court will eventually
have to resolve this discrepancy amongst the lower courts, it's unclear
what kind of case it will take to push them to it though, given their
historical extreme reluctance to hear any 2nd amendment cases.  And it's
very dubious what the decision would be.  

--bgt