Political Crazyness

Congress Failing To Protect Second Amendment

posted on June 1, 2012 by Giacomo

Currently, there are a number of bills before the House and Senate that would help protect Second Amendment rights. The House, which is still controlled by the Republicans is supposed to be pro-guns and supportive of the Second Amendment. In the Senate, even though the Democrats still have a narrow margin of power, there are a number of them that have expressed their pro-gun and pro-Second Amendment stands.

Yet, none of the pro-gun bills designed to help protect our Second Amendment rights have been passed and one has to wonder why. It seems to be the perfect time to get these measures through committee and the floors of both chambers of Congress, but the White House is another measure. Barack Obama has made it obviously clear that he is very much against guns, the Second Amendment and would love nothing more than to confiscate every privately own firearm in America.

Among the bills that are before Congress are:

SB 2205, Second Amendment Sovereignty Act, introduced by Sen Jerry Moran (R-KS). This bill is designed to keep the Obama administration from signing the UN Arms Trade Treaty

SB 2213, Respecting States’ Rights and Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, introduced by Sen John Thune (R-SD). This bill is designed to require all states to recognize and accept a valid conceal carry permit from another state. Case in point would be Ryan Jerome who held a conceal carry in Indiana. He planned to travel to New York City on business and researched online to see if he could carry his firearm for protection since he is a jeweler who was carrying over $15,000 in diamonds. The information he found on the internet said he could. When he revealed his gun and conceal carry permit to guards at the Empire State Building, where his business meeting was, he was arrested and charged by NYPD and charged with felony crimes by Manhattan’s gun hating District Attorney.

HB 822, National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011, introduced by Rep Cliff Stearns (R-FL). This bill is similar to SB 2213. It was introduced last year and passed by the House and sent to the Senate where it has sat untouched by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

HR 2900, Secure Access to Firearms Enhancement (SAFE) Act, introduced by Rep Paul Braun (R-GA). “To amend chapter 44 of title 18, United States Code, to provide for reciprocity in regard to the manner in which nonresidents of a State may carry certain concealed firearms in that State.”

In a strange reversal of roles, the US Supreme Court has rendered two rulings that uphold the Second Amendment and actually shot down gun control laws in Chicago and Washington DC.

In the 2008 case of District of Columbia v Heller, the Supreme Court upheld DC Circuit Court ruling that said that,

“The Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to possess firearms and that the city’s total ban on handguns, as well as its requirement that firearms in the home be kept nonfunctional even when necessary for self-defense, violated that right.”

In the 2012 case of McDonald v Chicago, the Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling concerning the ban on guns by the cities Chicago and Oak Park.

McDonald relied on the 2008 ruling in favor of Heller to challenge Chicago and Oak Park’s ban on handguns. The lower courts ruled in favor of the cities, but the Supreme Court basically repeated their Heller ruling by declaring the city’s ban on handguns to be unconstitutional and a violation of both the Second and Fourteenth Amendments.

With these two Supreme Court rulings on the books, it seems that now is the perfect time for the House and Senate to get off their seats and get the Second Amendment bills passed. Write your Senator and Congressman/woman and urge them to help push these measures through and secure American’s rights to bear and carry arms before they are stripped away by the Obama administration.

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