Uber-Conservative Scalia (ugh) in a recent Supreme Court ruling, has left a LOT of wiggle-room for "sensible gun restrictions" -- Who knew?
Senator Feinstein knew. The Senator referred to this room-to-move legal territory, in her well-informed answer to Senator Ted Cruz's absolutism, last week:
"The Heller decision clearly points out three exceptions ..."
The Heller case was about the blanket ban on handguns and the requirement of trigger-locks on the remaining "allowed" guns, in the possession of the residents of Washington DC. In this case, the conservative-opinion won a 5-4 Supreme Court decision,
led by Antonin Scalia, and ruled these local DC gun constraints were "unconstitutional."
So what were the "three exceptions" to which Senator Feinstein was referring? (Remember Google, and increasingly Bing, are your friends ...)
District of Columbia v. Heller - 07-290 (2008) -- supreme.justia.com
[...]
1.(f) [...]
United States v. Miller, 307 U. S. 174, does not limit the right to keep and bear arms to militia purposes, but rather limits the type of weapon to which the right applies to those used by the militia, i.e., those in common use for lawful purposes. Pp. 47–54.
2. Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose: For example, concealed weapons prohibitions have been upheld under the Amendment or state analogues. The Court’s opinion should not be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.
[...]
In those two Scalia-penned paragraphs (ugh), the over-the-top-Conservative outlined several "legal exceptions" where gun ownership
could be "constitutionally" constrained:
1) limits the type of weapon;
2) concealed weapons prohibitions;
3) prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill;
4) forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings;
5) laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms;
[Shorter: Bazooka Bans; Licensing; Competence; Locality; Gun-sale Registration & Supplier constraints.]
Who knew?
Senator Feinstein knew. Now you do too.
'Information' is a form of ammo too, you know. In this hot & cold, black & white, 'cold-dead-hands' War of Words.
Be armed -- with knowledge. And play nicely with others, too. There's got to be an agreeable middle-ground somewhere, in this very emotional sandbox. Just ask Antonin. (Ugh.)