Shoe Leather Hits The Road

"Local government officials in Washington, D.C., announced Monday they will
appeal to the Supreme Court in a major test case on the meaning of the Second
Amendment. The key issue in the coming petition will be whether the Amendment
protects an individual right to have guns in one's home -- an issue on which
there is now a clear conflict among federal Circuit Courts. The city will be
defending the constitutionality of a local handgun control law that is regarded
as the strictest in the nation."

So this is it folks. Here's what's on the line. On March 9th, the DC circuit court ruled that the second amendment protects an individual's right to keep and bear arms. In making this ruling the court invalidated the notion that many gun grabbers try to use. Namely, that the second amendment ensures the right of the "militia" to bear arms and that the "militia" in question is not composed of individual citizens, but the National Guard.

The court case was brought before the court to protest Washington DC's anti-gun laws. If the DC circuit court's ruling stands, it will invalidate those laws (and the same sort of laws maintained by several other states and municipalities). Additionally, it will end the maneuvering to reinterpret the second amendment into some phantom of what the founding fathers had intended it to be. The only avenue left open to the gun grabbers then will be the passage of a new constitutional amendment that repeals the second amendment. This is a far higher hurdle than they currently must contend with. Further this verdict will set precedent. It will set a gold standard against which all other gun control laws can be challenged as an illegal infringement on an individual's second amendment rights.

Unfortunately our opponents may have already foreseen this eventuality so they've simply switched tactics. The ATF has been engaging in open warfare with firearm suppliers. For a perfect example of this scheme in action, all one needs to do is look at the case they have pending against Red's Trading Post in Twin Falls Idaho. The ATF has trumped up charges against Red's claiming they are a danger to public safety for such egregious infractions as forgetting to check the box on the form that denotes whether a handgun or long gun was sold on one single form out of tens of thousands of completed forms or for storing those forms in chronological alphabetical order as opposed to purely alphabetical order. This has been going on for years now. Since 1994, the ATF has managed to shut down 78% of the gun dealers in the country (245,628 in 1994 - 54,902 today).

Initially the gun community's usual reaction was to say "Well they must have done something really wrong other wise the ATF wouldn't be going after them!" We were wrong. How many of our fellow gun-lovers have they railroaded out of business without our support? We should be ashamed of our disloyalty. If we do not start supporting our local gun stores then the second amendment will be moot, because we won't have anywhere left to buy guns.

The ATF has been relying on the fact that there are no written rules. They simply reinterpret the rules to manufacture an infraction. We need to band together and demand that the ATF formalize their rules and policies in a written form. We also need to close ranks with our local gun shops.

The other thing that's been rumbling around lately is that OSHA is trying to impose new restrictive rules regarding the storage of small arms ammunition and reloading supplies at retail locations. This will mean that the retailers will be saddled with a raft of new repressive rules to sell ammunition. That means that the retailers of course will pass this considerable expense on to us by marking up the already skyrocketing prices for ammunition and reloading supplies.

While the chance to see the DC circuit court's decision presented to the supreme court and canonized into precedent is heartening, our fight is not over by far. First we need to rely on the fact that George Bush's appointees to the Supreme Court will correctly decide this case. Then we need to keep in mind that our enemies who wish to disarm us are resourceful. They have the considerable weight of government office and never-ending supplies of our own hard earned cash that they can use against us.

Further, the entity that we've relied upon to be our chief representatives have lost touch with us. The NRA has moved more and more into a position where they believe that they should negotiate with our adversaries. There can be no negotiation or compromises because every time you negotiate, you end up giving something away and we've already given far too much. It is time for us to retake territory that we've conceded. Ever since the NRA started mouthing the words "common sense gun control" and endorsing gun grabbers for political office, they've sold us out!