BP>AV> I have written to the NRA and been advised that the lawsuit
  >AV> it is backing to overturn the assault-weapons-and-high-
  >AV> capacity-magazines ban did not raise the 2nd Amendment as an
  >AV> issue.
  >AV> It is very curious to me that, for all of the NRA's
  >AV> noisemaking about the 2nd Amendment, this suit did not raise
  >AV> the 2nd Amendment as an issue.  I have the feeling that the NRA is
  >AV> being disingenuous and trying to milk gun-banning issues for
  >AV> all of the membership dues it can get, and that it doesn't
  >AV> really want this issue decided.
BP>The US Supreme Court has consistently refused to take 2nd Amendment
  >cases since the Miller case in 1939 when only the Government's side
  >was heard.  The lower level courts just ignore the Miller decision,
  >so it doesn't do any good to raise this issue.  The NRA has also been
  >removed as a plantiff in the "assualt weapons", magazine ban case
  >anyway. The Appeals Court said they didn't even have standing to
  >challenge it.
BP>There are plenty of people being convicted and imprisoned for
  >violating federal firearms laws that are direct violations of 2nd
  >Amendment rights. Many of these people have raised the issue but it
  >hasn't done them any good.
        It's not just that, Bert. NRA is afraid, justifiably IMHO, of
another Hickman v Block decision. That particularly nasty lower court
decision not only didn't provide injunctive relief for the plaintiff,
but also it called the existance of the 2nd Amendment into question,
which is what you get for filing a 2nd Amendment case in the Peoples
Republic of California.
        The only real friends that gun owners have on the bench are
Messrs Rhenquist, Thomas and Scalia. The rest are either hostile or
lukewarm on the gun rights issue, and most of the pro-gun rulings have
been on Tenth Amendment grounds.
        Given the current composition of the court, I wouldn't ask
either. And with Clinton appointing justices, which is why, I suspect,
Mr. Justice Rhenquist hasn't retired and won't as long as his health
holds out, I'd be extremely reticent about putting the whole of the
Second Amendment on the block.
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 X SLMR 2.1a X The Silent Majority isn't silent. The Govt.is deaf.
--- Maximus 3.01
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