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Ron Paul Defends The Second Amendment
Presidential candidate signs on to letter and brief against
DC Gun Ban
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Presidential candidate Ron Paul has put his name to a letter calling
for the withdrawal of a brief filed in the DC gun ban case, citing
constitutional concerns.
According to a House
of Representatives press release, the Texas Congressman
has signed on to a letter to the current administration asking
that an amicus curiae brief filed by U.S Solicitor General Paul
D. Clement on DC v. Heller be withdrawn as it sets a precedent
for further erosion of individuals’ Second Amendment rights
to keep and bear arms.
The brief, filed on behalf of the Bush administration
and the government, says that federal gun control measures should
not be limited and proposes that a court may determine that a
full scale ban on almost all self-defense firearms may be upheld
as constitutional if it constitutes a “reasonable”
restriction of constitutional rights.
It also suggests essentially demoting the Second
Amendment to a lower tier of enumerated rights as it calls for
the District law be sent back to lower courts for evaluation "under
a more flexible standard of review."
The letter in opposition to the brief, signed by
Ron Paul, states:
“If the Supreme Court finds that the D.C. gun ban is a
“reasonable” limitation of Second Amendment rights,
the Court could create a dangerous precedent for the nation in
the future. Such a decision could open the door to further regulation
on American citizens’ Second Amendment rights on a large
scale.”
(Article continues below)
In a separate brief, a majority of the Senate and
more than half of the members of the House will today urge the
Supreme Court to uphold it's previous ruling that the District's
handgun ban violates the Second Amendment, reports the Washington
Post.
Ron Paul, as a strict constitutionalist and in keeping
with his strong record on gun rights, has also signed this brief,
which asks the Supreme Court to uphold the lower courts decision
and allow the precedent of applying a stricter standard of review
for gun control cases to stand.
Advocates of the ban and the representatives of
the District of Columbia have attempted
to argue that the history and context of the second
amendment applies to the rights of militias and not to individuals.
Last year, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the D.C. Circuit ruled 2 to 1, that the right is an individual
one, becoming the first appeals court to do so. It stated that
because handguns should be considered "arms," it is
unconstitutional to ban them.
The case stems from proceedings filed by lawyers
for security guard Mr Dick Anthony Heller, which state that the
District's categorical restrictions are so broad that they cannot
comply with the Second Amendment's protection of the right to
bear arms.
The case is scheduled for argument March 18.
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