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by mloamiller
Sun Jun 14, 2015 6:55 am
Forum: 2015 Legislative Session
Topic: Is requiring a permit to carry constitutional?
Replies: 28
Views: 14437

Re: Is requiring a permit to carry constitutional?

baldeagle wrote: So long as the government does not break into or encroach upon your right to keep or bear arms, any action they take would be constitutional by legal definition. No right is absolute. All rights must be balanced against the rights of others.
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Similarly, you have the right to keep and bear arms, but you may not do so in a manner that is threatening to or endangers other people. The question is obviously raised, who decides what is threatening to or endangers other people? The answer is the people do, through their representatives. So, if you want "constitutional carry" (or more accurately unlicensed carry), you must convince the people that it will not endanger them or threaten them in some way.
In general, I agree with the statements above, but I think the last sentence contradicts them. Yes, our rights are limited by the impact they have on the rights of others (unless the "others" are conservative, heterosexual Christians, but that's a different thread). However, we shouldn't have to prove that our exercising our rights will not endanger or threaten others. The reverse should be true - those who want to limit our rights should be required to prove that our excising those rights will adversely impact the rights of others. So in the context of this thread, has it been proven that constitutional (unlicensed) carry is a threat to others? I don't think so.

As it has been said many times in many ways, it isn't the carrying of a gun that threatens others, it's the intent and motivation of the one carrying it, and no law or license is going to impact that.
by mloamiller
Fri Jun 12, 2015 8:37 pm
Forum: 2015 Legislative Session
Topic: Is requiring a permit to carry constitutional?
Replies: 28
Views: 14437

Re: Is requiring a permit to carry constitutional?

I've always found it interesting that it's usually the same people who find a "constitutional right to an abortion" in a document that says nothing about it, have a hard time understanding a clear statement in the same document about "shall not be infringed." Unfortunately, it just proves that "constitutional" has little to do with the actual document, and more about what the current group in power wants it to say.

Below is an excerpt from the recent PLEDGE IN SOLIDARITY TO DEFEND MARRIAGE. I mention it here not to distract from the topic, but because the same principles stated below apply to the topic at hand.
Neither the United States Supreme Court nor any court has authority to redefine marriage and thereby weaken both the family and society. Unlike the Legislative Branch that has the power of the purse and the Executive Branch which has the figurative power of the sword, the Judicial Branch has neither. It must depend upon the Executive Branch for the enforcement of its decisions.
As the Supreme Court acknowledged in the 1992 decision of Planned Parenthood v. Casey, its power rests solely upon the legitimacy of its decisions in the eyes of the people. If the decisions of the Court are not based on the Constitution and reason, and especially if they are contrary to the natural created order, then the people will lose confidence in the Court as an objective arbiter of the law. If the people lose respect for the Court, the Court’s authority will be diminished.
The Supreme Court was wrong when it denied Dred Scott his rights and said, “blacks are inferior human beings.” And the Court was wrong when Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in Buck v. Bell, “three generations of imbeciles are enough,” thus upholding Virginia’s eugenics law that permitted forced sterilization. Shamefully, that decision was cited during the Nuremburg trials to support the Nazi eugenic holocaust.
In these earlier cases, the definition of “human” was at issue. Now the definition of “marriage” is at issue. The Constitution does not grant a right to redefine marriage — which is nonsensical since marriage intrinsically involves a man and a woman. Nor does the Constitution prohibit states from affirming the natural created order of male and female joined together in marriage.
If the Supreme Court can be "wrong", what does that say about the constitutionality of the thing they are wrong about? Does it mean that something is unconstitutional but legal, or that something is constitutional but illegal? It seems that constitutionality does not always equate to legality.

:confused5

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