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Landmark Court Decision

From: Dick Wells <lonesomedove@blackfoot.net>
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 13:29:39 -0600
To: Ledger@blackfoot.net
Subject: landmark court decision

To The Editor, Sanders County Ledger;

The following excerpts from a landmark ruling from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals might interest your readers. The question of the meaning of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is answered here. There can be no misconstruction of the Second Amendment in the light of what the court has said: 

Governments have no Rights, only power and authority; the use of the word People has a meaning that is constant throughout the Constitution and Amendments; the Right to keep and bear arms is an individual, personal Right and is in no way a collective right.

The issue before the court (as I understand it) was that Dr. Emerson was held to be in violation of a federal statute barring anyone under a restraining order from possessing firearms. His assertion was that such a restraint was a violation of due process, as he was never found guilty of a crime and all other charges against him had since been dismissed. The appellate court up-held his conviction, which will likely now be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The reference to Miller is a 1939 case wherein the court ruled that the individual, Miller, in possession of a sawed-off shotgun could not be justified as having a Militia type weapon. The anti-self-defense proponents (Clinton's justice dept., et al) have offered this decision by the court as evidence that the Right to keep and bear arms is a collective, or state's right.

The excerpts are from http://KeepAndBearArms.com/information/XcIBViewItem.asp?ID=2686, a leader in the petition drive to restore the Second Amendment in all of the 50 united States of America.

(Excerpts not included here, but can be found here. --Editor)

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