After McDonald, and the newly enacted Chicago handgun ordinance, people are again turning to whether and when gun license fees are unconstitutional. I’ve heard some argue that under existing constitutional rules applicable to other rights — especially the First Amendment — any fee for the exercise of a constitutional right is per se unconstitutional. But rightly or wrongly, that turns out not to be the case. Here’s an excerpt from my Implementing the Right to Keep and Bear Arms in Self-Defense article, with most of the citations omitted; see PDF pp. 100–102 to find all the citations.Read the rest here.
Taxes on guns and ammunition ... would be substantial burdens [which I argue should be unconstitutional –EV] if they materially raised the cost of armed self-defense. A $600 tax proposed by Cook, Ludwig & Samaha, justified by an assertion that “keeping a handgun in the home is associated with at least $600 per year in externalities,” is one such example. “The poorly financed [self-defense] of little people,” like their “poorly financed causes,” deserves constitutional protection as much as the self-defense of those who can afford technologically sophisticated new devices or high new taxes. (See Martin v. City of Struthers, 319 U.S. 141, 146 (1943) (striking down ban on door-to-door solicitation, partly on the grounds that “[d]oor to door distribution of circulars is essential to the poorly financed causes of little people”); see also City of Ladue v. Gilleo, 512 U.S. 43, 56 (1994) (striking down ban on display of signs at one’s home, partly on the grounds that “[r]esidential signs are an unusually cheap and convenient form of communication. Especially for persons of modest means or limited mobility, a yard or window sign may have no practical substitute.”).) This is true whether the tax ... is imposed on gun owners directly, or on gun sellers or manufacturers, just as a restriction on abortion can be a substantial burden even if it’s imposed on doctors and not on the women who are getting the abortions. ...
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Gun License Fees and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms for Self-Defense
From Prof. Eugene Volokh, opining on the constitutionality of taxes and fees on guns and gun owners:
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Manhattan D.A. Busts Illegal Knives Ring
From anti-gun, anti-knife New York City:
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. announced Thursday a crackdown on the sale of illegal knives in the city.Read the rest of this ridiculous story here (video available at the link). If you watch the video, the "illegal knives" appear to be mostly ordinary pocketknives.
Prosecutors say they confiscated 1,300 knives in an undercover investigation.
Many of the knives were purchased from national retailers like Home Depot, Paragon Sports and Eastern Mountain Sports.
He says the sale of everything from switchblades to so-called gravity knives which have side folding blades must stop.
Officials say the seven companies are cooperating with the crackdown.
"First, these companies have agreed to cease and desist the sale of these knives in New York State, forever. Second, they have agreed to turnover the stocks of their illegal knives, part of which are on this table here today -- more than 1,300 knives. Finally, they have agreed to relinquish the profits made from the sale of these illegal knives over the past four years -- two years beyond the criminal statute of limitations which will be largely split between the city, the state and district attorneys office who wish to partner with us in the fight against illegal knives," Vance Jr. said.
DA Vance says in exchange for their cooperation, the companies will not face charges. ...
Sunday, July 4, 2010
When in the course of human events ...
Wishing you all a happy Independence Day. As we celebrate, let us take time to ponder our founding document:
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
The Declaration of Independence
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
[UT] Utah gun permits booming - in other states
From the Beehive State:
Never shot a gun? Never been to Utah? Got a "combat mindset"?Read it here.
If yes to the above, you could qualify for a concealed gun permit from Utah, which is seeing record demand for permits from people all across the United States who never been to the state and have no intention of ever going.
Bedrock conservatism is enjoying a surge with the rise of the Tea Party movement, which advocates small government, individual rights and has made a strong showing in Utah. The debate may become only hotter after a Monday U.S. Supreme Court ruling extended gun rights to all cities and states. ...
...
A five-year permit good in 33 states has flooded Utah with applications, with the number rising to 74,000 last year. The fee is $65.25. Applicants must also clear a background check, be 21, and take a course.
Today, more out-of-state residents have Utah licenses than state residents, and out-of-state instructors outnumber those from Utah.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Chicago mayor vows new gun controls after Supreme Court ruling
From NBC Chicago:
As expected, Mayor Daley and Chicago's City Council are circling the wagons to defend against an unfavorable decision by the Supreme Court concerning the city's gun ban.Read it here.
Daley said the city would have in place a new ordinance aimed at making it difficult to purchase and own a gun in Chicago. [emphasis added]
"We'll publicly propose a new ordinance very soon," Daley said at an afternoon press conference concerning the gun ban.
"As a city we must continue to stand up ..and fight for a ban on assault weapons .. as well as a crackdown on gun shops," Daley said. "We are a country of laws not a nation of guns."
The Supreme Court did not overturn Chicago's gun ban outright, but sent the case challenging it, McDonald vs. the City of Chicago, back to the lower courts for a final decision.
Once that comes, the city should have new ordinances in place to limit gun ownership.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Bravo to those who open carry their weapons
Article on open carry from Denver Gun Rights Examiner Dan Bidstrup:
Those who choose to carry their weapons openly are making a statement every time they step out their door. It forces everyone who sees them to confront the whole gun issue. There may be some who are morbidly afraid of the kind of people who would carry a gun, and they will run away. There may be some who come over and slap you on the back and commend your civic spirit. There may be some who promptly call 911 to report you, and when the police come you get to have a nice conversation about municipal laws and the Second Amendment to the US constitution. Educating is important, but it might make you late to a meeting.Read the article here.
...
Openly carrying a gun also shows the general public over and over that a person who is not a police officer can carry a weapon and not shoot anybody at the grocery store or otherwise going about their business. There will be a slow desensitization in our society that will go on, until spotting a pistol on someone's belt is observed and evaluated by the average person like an interesting car or unusual boots, just part of the landscape. There is also the salutory effect on criminals who choose not to attack in a place with armed citizens. Even if they don't choose to attack the person with the gun, they don't know if that person might seek to rescue your un-armed victim. It makes their life harder. ...
Monday, June 28, 2010
Supreme Court rules that Second Amendment applies to state and local governments
Today, the Supreme Court issues its long-awaited decision in McDonald v. Chicago, the Chicago gun ban case, ruling that the Second Amendment applies not only to the federal government, but to state and local governments as well.
Read the Court's ruling here.
Justice Alito wrote the majority decision, joined by Chief Justice Roberts, and Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Kennedy. Justices Stevens, Breyer, Ginsburg, and Sotomayor dissented.
As expected, the Court incorporated the Second Amendment using the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process clause, rather than the Privileges and Immunities clause advocated by plaintiffs' attorney Alan Gura (the plaintiffs were the petitioners at the Supreme Court, having lost in the lower courts).
Some good news to start the week.
Read the Court's ruling here.
Justice Alito wrote the majority decision, joined by Chief Justice Roberts, and Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Kennedy. Justices Stevens, Breyer, Ginsburg, and Sotomayor dissented.
As expected, the Court incorporated the Second Amendment using the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process clause, rather than the Privileges and Immunities clause advocated by plaintiffs' attorney Alan Gura (the plaintiffs were the petitioners at the Supreme Court, having lost in the lower courts).
Some good news to start the week.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
[AK] Some Convicted Felons Allowed to Own Guns
Alaska governor signs law restoring gun rights to certain felons convicted of non-violent crimes:
Governor Sean Parnell signed House Bill 408, known as the Second Amendment Rights Restoration Bill, into law on June 22.Read it here.
The bill signing took place in Palmer at the Matanuska Valley Sportsmen's Range. "Great chance for government to restore rights, rather than taking rights away," said Governor Sean Parnell, R-Alaska.
Alaskan lawmakers created the bill after the US Supreme Court ruled the Second Amendment rights restoration must pass an all-or-nothing test and that state and federal laws must be the same.
The legislation, sponsored by the House Judiciary Committee, states it is now legal for a selected few convicted felons to bear arms. "We tend to turn the screw one way and tend to tighten things, and in the process, we take a lot of liberties away from people," said Rep. Jay Ramras, R-Fairbanks.
The law applies to felons convicted of non-violent crimes, so long as they have completed their time, have had a pardon, fulfilled all the requirements with the state correctional system, or at least ten years after their felony conviction. ...
Saturday, June 26, 2010
[DE] Del. House Votes To Allow Guns In Public Housing
Delaware House votes to repeal public housing gun ban:
DOVER, Del. (AP) ― The state House has approved a bill allowing tenants in government-run public housing to own firearms.Article here.
The bill was approved on a 31-to-9 vote Tuesday despite opposition from Democrats representing districts in Wilmington, a city with several public housing units and a problem with violent crime.
Bill sponsor John Atkins, a Democrat from southern Delaware, said public housing residents were being denied their constitutional right to bear arms. ...
[MI] Flint moves forward on gun control ordinance change, despite fears of increased violence
Flint, Michigan voted to repeal city's illegal open carry ban:
FLINT, Michigan — The Flint City Council moved forward on eliminating the city's illegal ban on openly carrying loaded weapons in public — but some council members weren't happy about it.Article here.
A local ordinance that bans people from openly carrying a loaded gun isn’t consistent with state law, which allows people to carry handguns openly as long as they are visible and in holsters.
The city attorney said the city must update its ordinance to comply with state law, or risk legal challenge. ...
[WA] East Wenatchee repeals ordinance banning gun in parks
Washington city repeals park carry ban that violated state preemption law:
EAST WENATCHEE - Guns are now allowed in parks in East Wenatchee - with a few restrictions, that is.Read the rest here.
A city ordinance banning guns in parks was amended by the East Wenatchee City Council during Tuesday's council meeting.
The ordinance was changed to allow guns in parks under certain conditions. Those without a concealed-carry permit still may not carry a loaded firearm in a public park. Those without the concealed carry license can carry a firearm only if it is unloaded and in an "opaque case or secure wrapper" or if it is in a designated recreation area for firearms, according to the ordinance. ...
Monday, June 21, 2010
Welcome
Welcome to the Spartan Press blog. Visit us for legal updates and news of interest to the armed citizen, including news for travelers, hunters and concealed-carry permit holders.
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