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German Views on SCOTUS Decision
HAIRY
Member Posts: 23,606
OPINION
Supreme Court Ruling - Lock and Load
The Supreme Court's ruling on gun rights is a decision that will cause immeasurable pain and suffering and turn America into a more dangerous country.
Free for all: The gun lobby will trumpet the Supreme Court ruling as an end to virtually all gun restrictions.
Thirty-thousand Americans are killed by guns every year -- on the job, walking to school, at the shopping mall. The Supreme Court on Thursday all but ensured that even more Americans will die senselessly with its wrongheaded and dangerous ruling striking down key parts of the District of Columbia's gun-control law.
In a radical break from 70 years of Supreme Court precedent, Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, declared that the Second Amendment guarantees individuals the right to bear arms for nonmilitary uses, even though the amendment clearly links the right to service in a "militia." The ruling will give gun-rights advocates a powerful new legal tool to try to strike down gun-control laws across the nation.
This is a decision that will cost innocent lives, cause immeasurable pain and suffering and turn America into a more dangerous country. It will also diminish our standing in the world, sending yet another message that the United States values gun rights over human life.
There already is a national glut of firearms: estimates run between 193 million and 250 million guns. The harm they do is constantly on heartbreaking display. Thirty-three dead last year in the shootings at Virginia Tech. Six killed this year at Northern Illinois University.
On Wednesday, as the court was getting ready to release its decision, a worker in a Kentucky plastics plant shot his supervisor, four co-workers and himself to death.
Cities and states have tried to stanch the killing with gun-control laws. The District of Columbia, which has one of the nation's highest crime rates, banned the possession of nearly all handguns and required that other firearms be stored unloaded and disassembled, or bound with a trigger lock.
Overturning that law, the court's 5-to-4 decision says that individuals have a constitutional right to keep guns in their homes for self-defense. But that's a sharp reversal for the court: as early as 1939, it made clear that the Second Amendment only protects the right of people to carry guns for military use in a militia.
In his dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens was right when he said that the court has now established "a new constitutional right" that creates a "dramatic upheaval in the law."
Even if there were a constitutional right to possess guns for nonmilitary uses, constitutional rights are not absolute. The First Amendment guarantees free speech, but that does not mean that laws cannot prohibit some spoken words, like threats to commit imminent violent acts. In his dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer argued soundly that whatever right gun owners have to unimpeded gun use is outweighed by the District of Columbia's "compelling" public-safety interests.
In this month's case recognizing the habeas corpus rights of the detainees at Guant?namo Bay, Cuba, Justice Scalia wrote in dissent that the decision "will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed." Those words apply with far more force to his opinion in this District of Columbia case.
The gun lobby will now trumpet this ruling as an end to virtually all gun restrictions, anywhere, at all times. That must not happen. And today's decision still provides strong basis for saying it should not.
If the ruling is held to apply to the states, and not just to the District of Columbia -- which is not certain -- there will still be considerable dispute about what it means for other less-sweeping gun laws. Judges may end up deciding these on a law-by-law basis.
Supporters of gun control must fight in court to ensure that registration requirements and background-check rules, and laws against bulk sales of handguns -- a major source of guns used in crimes -- are all upheld.
The court left room for gun-control advocates to fight back. It made clear that there were gun restrictions that it was not calling into question, including bans on gun possession by felons and the mentally ill, or in "sensitive places" like schools and government buildings.
That last part is the final indignity of the decision: when the justices go to work at the Supreme Court, guns will still be banned. When most Americans show up at their own jobs, they will not have that protection.
This audaciously harmful decision, which hands the far right a victory it has sought for decades, is a powerful reminder of why voters need to have the Supreme Court firmly in mind when they vote for the president this fall.
Senator John McCain has said he would appoint justices like Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito -- both of whom supported this decision. If the court is allowed to tip even further to the far right, there will be even more damage done to the rights and the safety of Americans.
Supreme Court Ruling - Lock and Load
The Supreme Court's ruling on gun rights is a decision that will cause immeasurable pain and suffering and turn America into a more dangerous country.
Free for all: The gun lobby will trumpet the Supreme Court ruling as an end to virtually all gun restrictions.
Thirty-thousand Americans are killed by guns every year -- on the job, walking to school, at the shopping mall. The Supreme Court on Thursday all but ensured that even more Americans will die senselessly with its wrongheaded and dangerous ruling striking down key parts of the District of Columbia's gun-control law.
In a radical break from 70 years of Supreme Court precedent, Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, declared that the Second Amendment guarantees individuals the right to bear arms for nonmilitary uses, even though the amendment clearly links the right to service in a "militia." The ruling will give gun-rights advocates a powerful new legal tool to try to strike down gun-control laws across the nation.
This is a decision that will cost innocent lives, cause immeasurable pain and suffering and turn America into a more dangerous country. It will also diminish our standing in the world, sending yet another message that the United States values gun rights over human life.
There already is a national glut of firearms: estimates run between 193 million and 250 million guns. The harm they do is constantly on heartbreaking display. Thirty-three dead last year in the shootings at Virginia Tech. Six killed this year at Northern Illinois University.
On Wednesday, as the court was getting ready to release its decision, a worker in a Kentucky plastics plant shot his supervisor, four co-workers and himself to death.
Cities and states have tried to stanch the killing with gun-control laws. The District of Columbia, which has one of the nation's highest crime rates, banned the possession of nearly all handguns and required that other firearms be stored unloaded and disassembled, or bound with a trigger lock.
Overturning that law, the court's 5-to-4 decision says that individuals have a constitutional right to keep guns in their homes for self-defense. But that's a sharp reversal for the court: as early as 1939, it made clear that the Second Amendment only protects the right of people to carry guns for military use in a militia.
In his dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens was right when he said that the court has now established "a new constitutional right" that creates a "dramatic upheaval in the law."
Even if there were a constitutional right to possess guns for nonmilitary uses, constitutional rights are not absolute. The First Amendment guarantees free speech, but that does not mean that laws cannot prohibit some spoken words, like threats to commit imminent violent acts. In his dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer argued soundly that whatever right gun owners have to unimpeded gun use is outweighed by the District of Columbia's "compelling" public-safety interests.
In this month's case recognizing the habeas corpus rights of the detainees at Guant?namo Bay, Cuba, Justice Scalia wrote in dissent that the decision "will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed." Those words apply with far more force to his opinion in this District of Columbia case.
The gun lobby will now trumpet this ruling as an end to virtually all gun restrictions, anywhere, at all times. That must not happen. And today's decision still provides strong basis for saying it should not.
If the ruling is held to apply to the states, and not just to the District of Columbia -- which is not certain -- there will still be considerable dispute about what it means for other less-sweeping gun laws. Judges may end up deciding these on a law-by-law basis.
Supporters of gun control must fight in court to ensure that registration requirements and background-check rules, and laws against bulk sales of handguns -- a major source of guns used in crimes -- are all upheld.
The court left room for gun-control advocates to fight back. It made clear that there were gun restrictions that it was not calling into question, including bans on gun possession by felons and the mentally ill, or in "sensitive places" like schools and government buildings.
That last part is the final indignity of the decision: when the justices go to work at the Supreme Court, guns will still be banned. When most Americans show up at their own jobs, they will not have that protection.
This audaciously harmful decision, which hands the far right a victory it has sought for decades, is a powerful reminder of why voters need to have the Supreme Court firmly in mind when they vote for the president this fall.
Senator John McCain has said he would appoint justices like Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito -- both of whom supported this decision. If the court is allowed to tip even further to the far right, there will be even more damage done to the rights and the safety of Americans.
Comments
We are lectured on civilian posession of guns by Germany.
The country that implemented confiscation of civilian firearms, just before they started herding Jews like sheep to the slaughter at Auschwitz.
The country in which the Jewish holocaust could have been prevented if only the German citizens had been armed like Americans are today.
The Kraut's memory isn't so good, he only remembers bad things that happened with guns in the last year.
The irony is rich.
We are lectured on civilian posession of guns by Germany.
The country that implemented confiscation of civilian firearms, just before they started herding Jews like sheep to the slaughter at Auschwitz.
The country in which the Jewish holocaust could have been prevented if only the German citizens had been armed like Americans are today.
The Kraut's memory isn't so good, he only remembers bad things that happened with guns in the last year.
colonel Hogan! you are using log-iiic! Das ist ver-bott-teeen!
The irony is rich.
We are lectured on civilian posession of guns by Germany.
The country that implemented confiscation of civilian firearms, just before they started herding Jews like sheep to the slaughter at Auschwitz.
The country in which the Jewish holocaust could have been prevented if only the German citizens had been armed like Americans are today.
The Kraut's memory isn't so good, he only remembers bad things that happened with guns in the last year.
+100!
"Who gives a s**t what the Krauts think."
(Originally: "Who gives a s**t what the French think.")
Pardon me whilst I borrow & modify one of my favorite PJ O'Rourke quotes:
"Who gives a s**t what the Krauts think."
(Originally: "Who gives a s**t what the French think.")
+1, and the same goes for all of Europe.
And yet the German gun industry flourishes in making and designing handguns for sale here? Screw these Kraut bast#rds.
++1
The guy didn't do his homework. He obviously didn't know that 48 states already have some form of Open or Concealed Carry. What a Deutsch Bag.
well thats not possible those are "gun-free" zones
"The Supreme Court's ruling on gun rights is a decision that will cause immeasurable pain and suffering and turn America into a more dangerous country."
The guy didn't do his homework. He obviously didn't know that 48 states already have some form of Open or Concealed Carry. What a Deutsch Bag.
"Deutsch Bag"! Das ist wunderbar!!! [:D]
it was written by a new yorker.
Dont like it? Afraid it will make America dangerous? Dont come here...we like our freedoms.
I couldnt give two f'ing s*its that this upset the Germans.
Dont like it? Afraid it will make America dangerous? Dont come here...we like our freedoms.
Yeah, go invade France again. They won't shoot at ya.
...What a Deutsch Bag.
That made me spew my Diet Coke.
I'll be quoting you on that one, man.
quote:Originally posted by medic07
I couldnt give two f'ing s*its that this upset the Germans.
Dont like it? Afraid it will make America dangerous? Dont come here...we like our freedoms.
Yeah, go invade France again. They won't shoot at ya.
That isn't fair! There is recorded historic evidence of at least 2 Frenchmen in the "Resistance" that hurled croissants quite violently at the Germans.
Thirty-three dead last year in the shootings at Virginia Tech. Six killed this year at Northern Illinois University
well thats not possible those are "gun-free" zones
" I rob banks because that is where the money is".
Crazies shoot people at school because that is where the guns are not !
quote: This is a decision that will cost innocent lives, cause immeasurable pain and suffering and turn America into a more dangerous country. It will also diminish our standing in the world, sending yet another message that the United States values gun rights over human life.
Maybe a liberal deutsh bag here in the US, posing as a European, to try and make the decision seem more hated than it actually is.
Where is the link?
If it is legitimate, the German needs better english comprehension quote:the amendment clearly links the right to service in a "militia."
I don't see any linking words between "the right of the people to keep and bear arms" and "militia being neccessary to the security of a free state"
Nor is service in the militia ever mentioned, people that can read this sentance any other way, have convinced me there is no hope for this country without dramatic and possibly violent change.
"shall not be infringed" does not mean "they can restrict it anyway they want as long as it is not a complete ban"
Get ready.
So, we'll once again hear the cry to follow the Europian model and how we are loosing respect of our allies. These words will come form Obama and the rest of the lock step democrats.
Get ready.
they're not my allies...in fact I'm killing them in a WWII game right now [;)]
Pardon me whilst I borrow & modify one of my favorite PJ O'Rourke quotes:
"Who gives a s**t what the Krauts think."
(Originally: "Who gives a s**t what the French think.")
I gotta agree 100% with the above.
When I wake up in the morning the first thought that comes to my head is not what those idiots in Germany or France think of what we do in the US, and whether they agree or not.
The plain fact is they are just immaterial to the way the world works.
Margaret Thatcher
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
Mark Twain
I reminded him we have always been armed and never had a Hitler and preferred the results of our history, thank you.
No matter that 2.5 million times US citizens use a gun to stop a crime every year!
No, we just need to raise taxes triple the police force and walk in orderly lines like, guess who.
(Please note, Germany is beautiful and the way they all walk in step is wonderful for them but we Americans have that old mind of our own thing that interferes with being good Germans)
Wulfmann
"Fools learn from their own mistakes. I learn from the mistakes of others"
Otto von Bismarck
Burt?
Still, more people die on our nation's highways every year than by firearms. A quick Google search told me so.
I bet the flu kills even more.
Waste of time and effort to even discuss it.
It's nice to know the Germans like the decision about as much as I do.
You did'nt like the decistion??????
quote:Originally posted by JamesRK
It's nice to know the Germans like the decision about as much as I do.
You did'nt like the decistion??????
Fell way, way short of what the second amendment says! I didn't care for it.