ANTIGUN ACTIVISTS’ RELENTLESS ASSAULT ON LONG-GUNS

PART FOUR

MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WITH THE ACTIVE ASSISTANCE OF ANTIGUN AND OTHER RADICAL GROUPS PURSUE ANTI-SECOND AMENDMENT AGENDA THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ENHANCING SCHOOL SAFETY AND SECURITY.

ANTIGUN ACTIVISTS TARGET SEMIAUTOMATIC LONG-GUNS FOR ELIMINATION THROUGH SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN: THE PROXIES FOR ANTIGUN GROUPS.

Make no mistake: the relentless assault on semiautomatic long-guns that antigun activists call “assault weapons” is itself an assault on civilian ownership of all semiautomatic weapons, not merely some of them. This relentless assault on so-called “assault weapons” is an attack on the natural and sacred right of the people to keep and bear arms, codified in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.American citizens should not believe for a moment that antigun activists and their cohorts in State legislators and in Congress, and those who echo their sentiments in Hollywood and in the mainstream media, and the billionaire benefactors behind the scenes who fund the effort to destroy our sacred rights and liberties do not—all of them— seek to end civilian gun ownership in this Country. They say they merely support “common-sense” gun laws and “sensible” constraints on gun ownership. But their principal goal is confiscation and eventual elimination of all firearms in the hands of civilians.Through enactment of the National Firearms Act of 1934, civilian access to selective-fire and fully automatic firearms has been effectively eliminated. Since that time antigun activists have attempted, with varying degrees of success, to ban semiautomatic guns defined as ‘assault weapons.’ But, the distinction between semiautomatic handguns and semiautomatic long guns construed as ‘assault weapons,’ that antigun activists and legislators feel American civilians should not be permitted to own and possess, is fuzzy. Each State has its own legal standards.Against the backdrop of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School tragedy, many jurisdictions are enacting or are attempting to enact increasingly more onerous firearms laws. The distinction between semiautomatic weapons defined as banned ‘assault weapons’ and those that aren’t is becoming increasingly tenuous. Antigun activists and antigun legislators strive to cast ever more semiautomatic handguns and long guns into the ‘assault weapon’ banned category.

ANTIGUN ACTIVISTS SEEK TO END CIVILIAN OWNERSHIP OF ALL SEMIAUTOMATIC WEAPONS IN THE UNITED STATES, NOT MERELY SOME OF THEM.

In a recent March 2, 2018 article, titled, “With AR-15s, Mass Shooter Attack with the Killing Power of Many U.S. Troops,” posted in the National Section of the paper edition of The New York Times newspaper, and published digitally, on February 28, 2018, under the title, "With AR-15-s, Mass Shooters Attack With the Rifle Firepower Typically Used by Infantry Troops," Times’ reporters wrote a lengthy article on semiautomatic long guns that was uncharacteristically discerning. In hundreds of earlier articles, NY Times reporters, Op-Ed columnists and NY Times contributors--and those writing for other mainstream newspapers--carelessly, and clumsily, refer to the semiautomatic long gun, modeled on the original Armalite AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, as an ‘assault weapon.’ The expression, ‘assault weapon,’ was invented by antigun proponents as a political device to pursue a gun confiscation agenda, attacking an entire category of firearms in common use among the law-abiding American citizens that comprise the civilian population. But the expression, 'assault weapon,' isn't a technically accurate one; and it is not to be confused with the expression, ‘assault rifle,’ which is a technically precise military term of art.Often, in the same newspaper articles, writers will use ‘assault weapon’ and ‘assault rifle’ interchangeably, likely not knowing the difference, and not caring if they did know as the distinction isn’t crucial to the running narrative, which is that both categories of firearms are, as antigun proponents perceive them, "weapons of war"--which is another political phrase, and one also tinged with emotion. "Weapons of war," so the narrative goes, have no place in “civilized” Countries.But, the March 2, NY Times article is decidedly different from previous antigun articles. The reporters here appear intent on demonstrating that semiautomatic long guns, modeled on the progenitor, Armalite AR-15, presently marketed to the civilian population, truly are military weapons and, so, must be banned. In that article, the expression, ‘assault weapon,’ doesn’t even appear.The article is presented as a seeming technical exposition on “AR-15” rifles. The Times reporters, who wrote the article, compare the civilian “AR-15” rifle to various military models. They assert:“The main functional difference between the military’s M16 and M4 rifles and a civilian AR-15 is the ‘burst’ mode on the many military models. . . . But in actual American combat these technical differences are less significant than they seem. For decades the American military has trained its conventional troops to fire their M4s and M16s in the semiautomatic mode—one bullet per trigger pull—instead of on ‘burst’ or automatic in almost all shooting situations. The weapons are more accurate this way and thus more lethal.” Consider these remarks for a moment. The NY Times reporters are using quasi technical exposition here in an attempt to make the case that no appreciable difference exists between “AR-15” rifles and their military counterparts. The reporters argue, tacitly, that  the politically charged expression, ‘assault weapon,’ and the military expression, ‘assault rifle,’ do accurately refer to the same kind of rifle, after all. But, do they? The NY Times reporters remark that many troops are issued military rifles without selective-fire capability at all. They do this in an obvious attempt to dispel the criticism constantly and accurately leveled against mainstream news reporters which is that some semiautomatic rifles marketed to the civilian population may exhibit superficial, cosmetic similarities to military rifles, but these rifles are functionally different from military rifles. Yet, in the recent NY Times article, the reporters categorically state that AR-15 semiautomatic rifles are functionally equivalent to military M4 and M16 assault rifles. But are they? The reporters assert:“The NRA and other pro-gun groups highlight the fully automatic feature in military M4s and M16s. But the American military, after a long experience with fully automatic M16s reaching back to Vietnam, decided by the 1980s to issue M16s and later M4s to most conventional troops without the fully automatic function,* and to train them to fire in a more controlled fashion. What all this means is that the Parkland gunman, in practical terms, had the same rifle firepower as an American grunt using a standard infantry rifle in the standard way.”It is abundantly clear that the Times’ reporters—clearly speaking for antigun proponents generally—are targeting all semiautomatic weapons for elimination, not merely some of them. They attempt to get across the idea that since any semiautomatic weapon is capable of rapid, controlled fire, all semiautomatic weapons represent a threat to public safety and must be eliminated—long guns and handguns.

THE STATE OF THE LAW ON SEMIAUTOMATIC RIFLES MODELED ON THE ORIGINAL ARMALITE (“AR-15”) SEMIAUTOMATIC RIFLE

The federal ban on “AR-15” rifles expired in 1994 when the 10-year sunset provision kicked in. But many States have enacted their own laws, banning these rifles. Two cases on whether so-called “assault weapons” fall within the core protection of the Second Amendment went up to the U.S. Supreme Court on a writ of certiorari. One of them, Kolbe vs. Hogan, 849 F.3d 114, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 2930 (4th Cir. 2017), en banc, cert. den., 138 S. Ct. 469, 199 L. Ed. 2d 374, 2017 U.S. LEXIS 7002, 86 U.S.L.W. 3264, was denied a hearing and review by the U.S. Supreme Court, without comment. An earlier case involving the issue, Friedman vs. City of Highland Park, 784 F.3d 406, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 6902 (7th Cir. Ill., 2015), cert. den., 136 S. Ct. 447, 193 L. Ed. 2d 483, 2015 U.S. LEXIS 7681, was denied but over a vigorous dissent from Justice Clarence Thomas, with the late Justice Antonin Scalia joining Thomas in the dissent.Justice Thomas stated in pertinent part:“The City’s ban is thus highly suspect because it broadly prohibits common semiautomatic firearms used for lawful purposes. Roughly five million Americans own AR-style semiautomatic rifles. See 784 F. 3d, at 415, n. 3. The overwhelming majority of citizens who own and use such rifles do so for lawful purposes, including self-defense and target shooting. See ibid. Under our precedents, that is all that is needed for citizens to have a right under the Second Amendment to keep such weapons. See McDonald, 561 U. S., at 767-768, 130 S. Ct. 3020, 3036-3037, 177 L. Ed. 2d 894, 914-915; Heller, supra, at 628-629, 128 S. Ct. 2783, 2817-2818, 171 L. Ed. 2d 637, 679-680.The Seventh Circuit ultimately upheld a ban on many common semiautomatic firearms based on speculation about the law’s potential policy benefits. See 784 F. 3d, at 411-412. The court conceded that handguns — not ‘assault weapons’ — ‘are responsible for the vast majority of gun violence in the United States.’ Id., at 409. Still, the court concluded, the ordinance ‘may increase the public’s sense of safety,’ which alone is ‘a substantial benefit.’ Id., at 412. Heller, however, forbids subjecting the Second Amendment’s ‘core protection . . . to a freestanding ‘interest-balancing’ approach.’ Heller, supra, at 634, 128 S. Ct. 2783, 2821, 171 L. Ed. 2d 637, 683. This case illustrates why. If a broad ban on firearms can be upheld based on conjecture that the public might feel safer (while being no safer at all), then the Second Amendment guarantees nothing."The Court’s refusal to review a decision that flouts two of our Second Amendment precedents stands in marked contrast to the Court’s willingness to summarily reverse courts that disregard our other constitutional decisions. . . . There is no basis for a different result when our Second Amendment precedents are at stake. I would grant certiorari to prevent the Seventh Circuit from relegating the Second Amendment to a second-class right."Despite the opinion of a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, antigun proponents, including those occupying the lower appellate and district courts, evidently don’t give a damn either for high Court precedent or for our sacred, natural right, codified in the Second Amendment.And, this brings us to critical Second Amendment Soto vs. Bushmaster Firearms International, LLC., 2016 Conn. Super. LEXIS 2626; CCH Prod. Liab. Rep. P19,932, which the Arbalest Quarrel has written extensively about and will continue to do so. See, e.g., the AQ article, Soto vs. Bushmaster: Antigunners Take Aim at Gun Manufacturers.The Soto case arises from the deadly attack that occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, when a deranged young adult, Adam Lanza, 20 years old, stormed Sandy Hook Elementary School, fatally shooting twenty children and six adults, before turning a handgun on and killing himself. According to the allegations of the Soto Plaintiffs' First Amended Complaint (CM), Adam Lanza murdered these school children and school staff with a Bushmaster AR-15, model XM15-E2S rifle.The Soto Plaintiffs contend that the Defendant, Bushmaster (Remington), manufacturer of the weapon, specifically, a Bushmaster AR-15, model XM15-E2S rifle, which, as alleged, the killer, Adam Lanza, used to commit the murders at Sandy Hook Elementary School—along with the firearms’ distributor and dealer who served as the intermediaries through which the weapons were sold to the killer’s mother, and ultimately fell into the hands of the killer, Adam Lanza—bears legal, not merely moral, responsibility for the deaths of children and adults that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and that, this is due to the fact of Defendant Bushmaster’s marketing of its AR-15 rifle to the entirety of the civilian population in this Country, and the manner in which the Defendant manufacturer, Bushmaster marketed its AR-15 model semiautomatic rifle to the entirety of the civilian population in this Country.The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (the ‘PLCAA’), Pub. L. No. 109-92, 119 Stat. 2095. 15 U.S.C. §§ 7901-03 (2005). The PLCAA provides immunity to firearms manufacturers and dealers from any lawsuit, pending or otherwise, fitting the Act's definition of a ‘qualified civil liability action.’ 15 U.S.C. §§ 7902-03, and the trial Court found for the Defendants’ on Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss. Plaintiffs appealed the adverse decision directly to the Connecticut Supreme Court, and the State high Court agreed to hear the case.Soon, the State Supreme Court of Connecticut will decide whether to affirm the trial Court’s decision dismissing Plaintiffs suit or remand the Soto case to the Superior Court of Connecticut. The State Supreme Court should affirm the trial Court and not remand the case. In fact, the State Supreme Court shouldn’t have agreed to hear the case in the first place since the PLCAA makes clear that plaintiffs in the Sandy Hook Elementary School cannot overcome Defendants’ qualified immunity. If, though, the case is remanded to the trial Court and if the trial Court reverses its previous stance, that can have dire consequences for manufacturers of semiautomatic rifles modeled on the Armalite AR-15. We shall wait and see. The Wall Street Journal, in an article, titled, “Key Gun Case Awaits Ruling in Connecticut,” published on March 17, 2018, discussing the Soto case, and posted online under the title, "The Court Case Making Gun Manufacturers Anxious," hints that the Connecticut Supreme Court may soon issue a ruling.The question is whether the Connecticut Supreme Court will be swayed by political considerations in light of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting incident. It shouldn’t, but, as the matter of semiautomatic long guns is now front and center in the public’s psyche due to massive negative coverage by the mainstream media, and, as we know that liberal Courts that have a dim view concerning the Second Amendment, it is anyone’s guess how the Connecticut Supreme Court will proceed. We must wait and see.This much, we do know, despite the opinion of a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, antigun proponents, including lower Appellate and District Court antigun judges, don’t give a damn either for high Court precedent or for our sacred, natural right, codified in the Second Amendment. Lest there be any doubt about this, consider the words of the antigun New York Times Op-Ed Columnist, Bret Stephens, who made the following remark in an NY Times OP-Ed, posted, on February 16, 2018, titled: "To Repeat: Repeal the Second Amendment."“We need to repeal the Second Amendment because most gun-control legislation is ineffective when most Americans have a guaranteed constitutional right to purchase deadly weaponry in nearly unlimited quantities.” Hey, Bret—Any firearm is potentially deadly. The question is whether the person wielding it is responsible. And, Bret, how much ammunition is too much? Our guess is that for you, Bret, and for other like-minded sanctimonious antigun activists, even one round is too much.____________________________________*The Arbalest Quarrel contacted an expert on small arms weaponry. The Times' reporters' assertion is absolutely false. "Assault rifles" marketed to the military have two main configurations. One configuration has a three-way selector for the following three modes: safe, semiauto, and full auto. The second configuration has a four-way selector for four modes: safe, semiauto, full auto, and burst. Consider, if a military configuration were limited to semiauto mode only, there would be no reason for any rifle to have anything other than the "AR-15" designation as semiautomatic rifles issued to military troops would in fact be identical to the semiautomatic rifles presently marketed to the civilian population. It is true that Army troops and Marines are trained to use semiautomatic fire or burst fire in many instances in order to conserve ammunition and for accuracy. But, for extraction and when charging an enemy position head-0n, full auto is tactically necessary: hence, the need for a selector switch on military models, to serve varying combat needs. The NY Times reporters deviously mix pertinent facts with critical omissions, including an out-and-out lie. Deceptive "fake news" reporting is, unfortunately, to be expected from the mainstream Press as the Press promotes an agenda, and we see deceptiveness in abundance in this "news" article. The mainstream Press is in the business of propagandizing, of psychologically conditioning the American public to perceive the world in a false light. The Press is no longer in the business of informing and enlightening the public, if it ever were in the business of presenting factually accurate news accounts._________________________________________________Copyright © 2018 Roger J Katz (Towne Criour), Stephen L. D’Andrilli (Publius) All Rights Reserved.

WHERE DOES THE MOST SERIOUS THREAT TO THE PRESERVATION OF THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES OF AMERICANS REST? FROM CONGRESS? FROM THE PRESS? FROM THE PRESIDENT? FROM ALL THREE TAKEN TOGETHER? THE ANSWER MAY SURPRISE YOU!

KOLBE VS. HOGAN:

INTERIM REMARKS

The Arbalest Quarrel has been working steadily on a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the Kolbe case. We are taking a short timeout with this segment, subtitled, “Interim Remarks,” to place the substantial time we are devoting to Kolbe in proper perspective. We feel our analysis has singular importance now with the Senate Judiciary Hearings on the Gorsuch confirmation that took place these past few days, and which have concluded. Senate Democrats are now filibustering, to prevent a vote on the confirmation of Judge Gorsuch as Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.The Arbalest Quarrel will continue its comprehensive, analytical exposition of the Kolbe case, considering its negative impact on the Second Amendment and considering, as well, the failure of the Fourth Circuit to take proper note of and abide by the rulings and reasoning of the high Court in the seminal Heller case. The high Court provided clear guidance to the lower Courts for the proper handling of Second Amendment cases where government action attacks the core of the Second Amendment.What is unfortunately abundantly clear now is that lower federal Courts will, at times, ignore rulings and reasoning and guidance of the U.S. Supreme Court if those lower federal Courts do not agree with the methodology, the rulings, the reasoning, and the jurisprudential underpinnings of the law as reflected in specific cases. So it is that we see some United States Circuits ignoring the precepts of Heller. But, regardless of a jurist’s political and social philosophy, precedent must not be ignored. Precedent must never be ignored. All too often as we see, though, judicial precedent is ignored, and it is, not infrequently, ignored in the most important cases: those cases negatively impacting our most sacred rights and liberties.If anything came out of the Neil Gorsuch confirmation hearings —where Judge Gorsuch had to suffer through days of torturous questioning and insufferable pontificating of Senate Democrats sitting on the Judiciary Committee—the public has come to see that Judge Gorsuch believes fervently in the importance of legal precedent as the cornerstone of our system of laws. This is necessary if our system of laws is not to be reduced to a set of discordant, inconsistent body of law, providing no guidance on which Courts may reasonably rely.The public has also seen that Judge Gorsuch gives credence to the law enacted by Congress, as written. Judge Gorsuch does not allow personal feeling to sway his rulings. That seems to bother some members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. It should, though, give the public hope. For, the public can rest assured that Judge Gorsuch, sitting on the high Court as an Associate Justice, will demonstrate proper restraint—applying the law to the facts as that law exists, and not as he may, perhaps, rather like the law to be.What the law ought to be is subject matter for legal and political philosophical musings set down in essays. When a judge opines on a case before that judge, the jurist is not to render judgment on what the law ought to be but must predicate his or her rulings on what the state of the law is, and elucidate findings of fact and conclusions of law on that basis and on that basis alone. Frankly, all too often we do not see this. The worst and most dangerous example of improper legal judgment is judgment reflected in personal feeling peppered, if only tacitly, but unmistakably, in legal opinions—personal feeling overriding judicial restraint in matters directly impacting the Bill of Rights, not least of which, we see on the continued assault against the clear meaning and purpose of the Second Amendment.The rabid assault on the sanctity of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution continues unabated notwithstanding the clear reasoning of and holdings in the Heller case. But, where do the greatest and gravest threats rest?Contrary to popular opinion on the matter, the greatest threat to our Bill of Rights, generally, and the gravest danger to our Second Amendment, particularly, rests less upon the assertive, pretentious, sanctimonious, noxious rhetorical flourishes and rancor of some elected officials who disdainfully, arrogantly voice their antipathy toward the Second Amendment—even if that rancor is masked through the obligatory assertion, “but of course I support the Second Amendment,” as if, through the addition of that assertion to the official’s polemic, the elected official may effectively hide his or her clear distaste toward the very idea that the average, law-abiding, rational, American citizen—not working as a policeman, or as a soldier, or as a licensed bodyguard, or as a government or private security officer, or in some unknown, secretive governmental capacity, but merely, solely as a civilian—should actually ever be armed with—horror of horrors—a firearm.And, contrary to popular opinion on the matter, the greatest threat to our Bill of Rights, generally, and the gravest danger to our Second Amendment, particularly, rests less upon the loud, vociferous, discordant voice of writers, editors, and owners of mainstream media whose antipathy toward the right of the people to keep and bear arms is well-known by the public, and is at once both longstanding and supremely malevolent.Rather, the greatest threat to our Bill of Rights, generally, and the gravest danger to our Second Amendment, particularly, rests more on the actions of activist Jurists of the federal District and Circuit Courts whose arcane opinions, seemingly well-learned and well-reasoned, merely obscure an intent to defeat the Second Amendment despite clear guidance from the U.S. Supreme Court.The threat posed by an activist Judiciary to the preservation of our basic liberties, as envisioned by the founders of our Free Republic is very real, not to be reasonably denied. And that threat posed to our Second Amendment right of the people to keep and bear arms is ultimately greater than that posed by either a recalcitrant Congress or a derelict Press.The danger posed by an activist Judiciary is greater and graver to our sacred rights and liberties because the Judiciary is the final arbiter of what our law means and, therefore, how the law impacts our lives.As our Constitution sets forth, Congress makes the law we live by. The Executive enforces the law that Congress enacts. But, as the grand interpreter of the law—what the law means and whether the law is consistent with the U.S. Constitution—whether a law shall operate at all, and, if so, the effect it has on our lives—it is for the Judiciary to say. It is not for Congress to say; and it is not for the U.S. President to say; and it is certainly, not for the Press to tell the American people what the law of the Land is.No! The Judiciary, alone, is the final arbiter of what the law is. Some may think the Judiciary wields less power than the two other Branches of Government. After all, the Judiciary does not have the power of the purse, which, along with the unequivocal and singular power to make law, exists in Congress alone. The Judiciary does not wield power over the military, or over the federal police agencies, or over the vast intelligence apparatuses, all of which fall within the direct purview of the Executive. But, as the final arbiter of our law—what the law means and how the law is to be applied—assuming we remain a Nation ruled by law, truly ruled by law, and not by men—no American should underestimate the power the Judiciary wields over our lives.Even the most uninformed citizens among us knows full well the power of the Judiciary in the matter of immigration. That has been on full display. That power can and, most recently has tied the hands of the U.S. President, as Commander in Chief of our Nation, taxed with the singular duty to protect the People of our great Nation from all threats both foreign and domestic.President Donald Trump, promising to do his best to defend this Nation against imminent and serious threat posed by Islamic terrorists —clearly among his most important duties as U.S. President—has been constrained and frustrated in that effort due to the machinations of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and thereafter by the U.S. District Court of Hawaii—Courts that have, through their actions, placed the welfare of this Nation and the physical safety of its citizens at considerable risk as those Courts, through their opinions, demonstrate that the wishes of non-citizens who seek to emigrate to America from failed States are to be given more consideration than are the health and well-being of this Nation and the physical safety of American citizens. And, it doesn’t stop there, with immigration.Activist U.S. District Court and U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges express their disdain of the Second Amendment and their continued defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court through decisions that rein in the right of the people to keep and bear arms. They denigrate the import and purport of our Second Amendment through manipulation of legal doctrine.If our pronouncement be undiplomatic, untactful toward the Judiciary, so be it. This is not a time for niceties. For the decisions of the Judiciary—the words expressed in opinions—are proof of political activism that strike at the heart of the health, welfare, and safety of our Nation and at the import and purport of our Bill of Rights.No less has the Fourth Circuit, in our estimate, manipulated legal doctrine, in denigration of U.S. Supreme Court precedent. Obscuring opinion in arcane legalese does little to disguise the fact that legal opinions coming out of this Circuit in the recent Kolbe case are antithetical to and involve a misunderstanding—whether consciously deliberate or incautiously but honestly mistaken—of the rulings and reasoning of the Heller Court.The Fourth Circuit relies for support, in part, on similar rulings of its sister Courts, most notably, those of the Second, Third, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits. By relying for support on opinions of their sister Courts, the Fourth Circuit aims, it seems to us, to deflect honest criticism away from itself, thereby suggesting that similar rulings of these other Courts that belie the rulings, reasoning, and clear guidance of the majority opinion, penned by Justice Scalia, in Heller, do somehow demonstrate that the Fourth Circuit does give due consideration to the holdings and reasoning of Heller, rather than contradicting the holdings and reasoning of that seminal Second Amendment case. But that is not the case at all.We firmly believe—as we have explained and will elucidate yet further—the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, en banc, having taken its cue from the U.S. District Court of Maryland and from the opinions of various sister Courts, strained to find a loophole in the Heller case to justify finding Maryland’s Firearm Safety Act to be legal. There isn’t any. So, the Fourth Circuit created one out of whole cloth.The gravest error of the Courts of the Fourth Circuit consists in the application of a standard of review that the Heller Court specifically rejected. Proceeding from an improper footing, an erroneous decision—but one the Fourth Circuit obviously wanted—could not but follow from the application of the wrong standard.Happy the Fourth Circuit would be, as would other United States Circuit Courts that elicit similar sympathies, if Heller were simply overturned. Were Judge Merrick Garland to have sat on the high Court, that pipedream for the antigun movement would come to pass. There is no doubt about that. Clearly, that was one end that Barack Obama had in mind which is why he nominated Merrick Garland to Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. It was one end that Hillary Clinton would have had in mind were she to have been elected U.S. President. For, she would certainly have been elated to sit Judge Garland on the high Court. Thankfully, neither the previous U.S. President or the one who would be Queen will never get their wish.If Judge Neil Gorsuch is confirmed and he should be and undoubtedly will be—despite a Democratic threat of filibuster of his confirmation which is now unfolding—the Heller case should remain untouched—even if ignored by various Circuit Courts as we see in Kolbe. Heller is the first case that extends—albeit tacitly—the idea that, where the very core of a fundamental right is attacked in a government action—a facial challenge to that governmental action will be given proper consideration.The U.S. Supreme Court made clear enough in Heller, to the surprise and, we are sure, much to the consternation of the D.C. Government and to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, that the U.S. Supreme Court would not shrink from applying facial challenge methodology to an action by government that attacks the core of the Second Amendment even if that had not previously been done. We should see that methodology applied as well in Kolbe if Kolbe or a similar case is heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. We hope and trust and pray that Judge Gorsuch sits on the high Court as the Ninth Justice when this happens.We continue with our analysis of the Kolbe case with Part Five of our multi-series article, to be posted shortly._________________________Copyright © 2017 Roger J Katz (Towne Criour), Stephen L. D’Andrilli (Publius) All Rights Reserved. 

KOLBE VERSUS HOGAN: A CASE AT ODDS WITH HELLER

PART TWO

FACTS AND HISTORY OF THE CASE

The Plaintiffs in Kolbe, include two American citizens and residents of the State of Maryland, a gun club, a gun dealer, and several gun associations. The Plaintiffs filed an action in Maryland District Court, in 2013, against several Maryland State Officials: Martin J. O’Malley, in his official capacity as Governor of the State of Maryland, Douglas F. Gansler, in his official capacity as Attorney General of the State of Maryland, Marcus L. Brown, Col., in his official capacity as Secretary of the Department of State Police and Superintendent of the Maryland State Police, Maryland State Police, Defendants.The citation for the original case, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, with a slightly different case name is: Kolbe vs. O’Malley, 42 F. Supp. 3d 768; 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 110976 (D. Md. 2014). On appeal to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the caption of the case was changed to reflect the new Governor, as party Defendant, Larry Hogan, who superseded Governor Martin O’Malley.In their Complaint, the Plaintiffs alleged that Maryland’s restrictive gun legislation, titled “The Firearm Safety Act of 2013,” is unconstitutional. Plaintiffs alleged specifically that the Maryland Firearm Safety Act infringes the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and that the Act should be declared void for vagueness.The Firearm Safety Act is codified, in substantial part, in the Maryland Penal Code, Crim. Law (“CR”) §§ 4-301(d), 4-303(a)(2), and § 4-305(b). What does The Firearm Safety Act of 2013 say? The Act says that, “after October 1, 2013, no person may possess, sell, offer to sell, transfer, purchase, or receive ‘assault pistols,’ ‘assault long guns,’ and ‘copycat  weapons.’ These banned weapons are, collectively, defined as ‘assault weapons’ under the Act. In addition, the Act states that a person “may not manufacture, sell, offer for sale, purchase, receive, or transfer a detachable magazine that has a capacity of more than 10 rounds of ammunition for a firearm.” The focus of Plaintiffs’ Complaint was on challenging the constitutionality of Md. Criminal Law Code § 4-403, titled, Assault Weapons—Prohibited.  § 4-403(a) says: “Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, a person may not transport an assault weapon into the State or possess, sell, offer to sell, transfer, purchase, or receive an assault weapon.”What constitutes an ‘assault weapon’ under Maryland law? An ‘assault weapon’ is no more than a legal fiction. Md. Criminal Law Code § 4-401, titled, simply, Assault Weapons, defines ‘assault weapon’ as an ‘assault long gun’ or ‘assault pistol’ or a ‘copycat weapon.’  Those three expressions are, in turn, defined as follows:“‘Assault long gun’ means any assault weapon listed under § 5-101(r)(2) of the Public Safety Article.‘Assault pistol’ means any of the following firearms or a copy regardless of the producer or manufacturer:AA Arms AP-9 semiautomatic pistol;Bushmaster semiautomatic pistol;Claridge HI-TEC semiautomatic pistol;D Max Industries semiautomatic pistol;Encom MK-IV, MP-9, or MP-45 semiautomatic pistol;Heckler and Koch semiautomatic SP-89 pistol;Holmes MP-83 semiautomatic pistol;Ingram MAC 10/11 semiautomatic pistol and variations including the Partisan Avenger and the SWD Cobray;Intratec TEC-9/DC-9 semiautomatic pistol in any centerfire variation;P.A.W.S. type semiautomatic pistol;Skorpion semiautomatic pistol;Spectre double action semiautomatic pistol (Sile, F.I.E., Mitchell);UZI semiautomatic pistol;Weaver Arms semiautomatic Nighthawk pistol; orWilkinson semiautomatic ‘Linda’ pistol. ‘Assault weapon’ means:an assault long gun;an assault pistol; ora copycat weapon. ‘Copycat weapon’ means:a semiautomatic centerfire rifle that can accept a detachable magazine and has any two of the following:a folding stock;a grenade launcher or flare launcher; ora flash suppressor;a semiautomatic centerfire rifle that has a fixed magazine with the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds;a semiautomatic centerfire rifle that has an overall length of less than 29 inches;a semiautomatic pistol with a fixed magazine that can accept more than 10 rounds;a semiautomatic shotgun that has a folding stock; ora shotgun with a revolving cylinder.‘Copycat weapon’ does not include an assault long gun or an assault pistol.”Penalties for violation of the law are harsh. A person who violates the Act “is guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction is subject to imprisonment not exceeding 3 years or a fine not exceeding $5,000 or both.” Does the Act apply evenly to everyone? No. The law exempts retired law enforcement officers.

THE LOWER COURT’S DECISION

In ruling for the Defendants, upholding the constitutionality of a highly restrictive Firearm Safety Act, amounting essentially to a gun ban on an entire category of firearms, the lower Court said this: “the Firearm Safety Act of 2013, which represents the considered judgment of this State’s legislature and its governor, seeks to address a serious risk of harm to law enforcement officers and the public from the greater power to injure and kill presented by assault weapons and large capacity magazines. The Act substantially serves the government's interest in protecting public safety, and it does so without significantly burdening what the Supreme Court has now explained is the core Second Amendment right of ‘law-abiding, responsible citizens to use arms in defense of hearth and home.’”The ruling, far from clarifying the purported constitutionality of Maryland’s restrictive Act, begs the very question at issue: does the Act, banning citizen ownership of an entire category of firearms, violate the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution precisely because the Act precludes to law-abiding citizens the right to own an entire category of firearms they have owned for decades; and does the Act violate, as well, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment insofar as it extends to retired law enforcement officers a right to own a large category of firearms the Act denies to everyone else?

THE DECISION OF THE LOWER, U.S. DISTRICT OF MARYLAND, IS NOT CONSISTENT WITH THE HOLDING, REASONING, OR METHODOLOGY OF HELLER

Whenever a Second Amendment challenge is raised, courts of competent jurisdiction must consider the impact of and import of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia vs. Heller, 554 U.S. 570, 128 S. Ct. 2783 (2008), made applicable to the States in McDonald vs. City of Chicago, 561 U.S. 742, 130 S. Ct. 3020 (2010). To most people—those who have at least an inkling as to the import of Heller—the Heller case stands for the proposition that “The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.” Upon acknowledging that holding as they must, Courts, such as the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, that profess an open dislike for the Heller case generally and for the Second Amendment particularly, proceed on their merry way to misread Heller. They do so to uphold draconian gun laws that are clearly inconsistent with Heller.Is Heller so difficult to understand? No! Even through a cursory reading of Heller, one can see that Justice Scalia, who wrote for the majority, provided specific, clearly articulated guidance for Courts to follow when a Second Amendment challenge to restrictive gun legislation comes before a Court.The U.S. Supreme Court in Heller, laid out, succinctly, the Court’s findings in its Syllabus. The Court Syllabus precedes discussion of the facts and issues of a case, and law applicable to a case. The Syllabus is not part of the main opinion but provides, for judges and attorneys, an abbreviated roadmap for getting a handle on a case.From the Syllabus in Heller, we see that the majority in Heller sets forth three distinct holdings. Apart from the first holding—namely that the right of the people to keep and bear arms is a right that accrues to the individual and, so, unconnected to that individual’s service in a militia—there are two other holdings that must be considered, along with the reasoning of the majority in Heller.The failure of the lower U.S. District Court and the failure of the higher Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to adhere to the holdings of Heller and to apply the reasoning and methodology of the Heller Court, led to wrong decisions—decisions grounded on poor legal reasoning.Apart from holding that the right of the people to keep and bear arms is an individual right, the U.S. Supreme Court in Heller held that: “The District’s total ban on handgun possession in the home amounts to a prohibition on an entire class of ‘arms’ that Americans overwhelmingly choose for the lawful purpose of self-defense. Under any of the standards of scrutiny the Court has applied to enumerated constitutional rights, this prohibition—in the place where the importance of the lawful defense of self, family, and property is most acute—would fail constitutional muster.”It is precisely on the issue as to whether a complete ban on “an entire class of ‘ arms’ that Americans overwhelmingly choose for the lawful purpose of self-defense,”—weapons that Maryland and several other jurisdictions define as ‘assault weapons’— does or does not amount to an unconstitutional infringement of the American citizen’s right to keep and bear arms, that the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit should have focused their inquiry.Instead the lower U.S. District Court and the en banc Fourth Circuit meander into political discussions of whether this or that weapon that a citizen commonly owns constitutes a weapon of war and finding that this is so, deliver their rulings, namely, that the Maryland Firearm Safety Act, banning a very large category of weapons that the public commonly uses for self-defense, does not infringe the Second Amendment in an unconstitutionally impermissible way.Moreover, the lower District Court and the Fourth Circuit’s en banc majority admitted that the weapons the State of Maryland seeks to ban are not really weapons of war at all but are merely like military weapons—weapons the State refers to as “military-style weapons,” namely, “assault weapons”—weapons, nonetheless, similar enough to actual military weapons, according to these Court opinions, so as to be construed as military weapons and therefore not within the scope of the Second Amendment. But, assuming, for purpose of argument, that so-called “military-style weapons” or “copycat weapons” or “assault weapons” were true military weapons that the military does use—which, in fact, the military doesn’t—still, that doesn’t ipso facto mean such weapons do not deserve constitutional protection.After all, the Second Amendment, as written, and as intended by the founders of our free Republic, sought specifically to place military weapons in the hands of the citizenry, that citizens may protect themselves and the States from foreign aggression—threats outside the United States—and from a tyrannical federal government—threats to our individual liberty inside the United States. Thus, even if the Court in Heller didn’t rule directly on whether  American citizens may lawfully keep and bear true military arms for self-defense, this does not mean lower Courts may willy-nilly rule they can’t. The high Court, in Heller, left that issue open as the issue wasn't directly before the Court; but, in raising the issue at all, in dicta, the high Court was at least laying the foundation for considering the constitutionality of whether American citizens, in their individual capacity, unconnected with service in a militia, may keep and bear military arms. Yet, in all too many Court opinions today, antigun judges are quick to pass judgment on matters not before it--assuming, as if the matter were self-evident that the public is not permitted, under the Second Amendment, under any circumstances, to keep and bear military arms and, from that premise  which they take to be axiomatic--holding that the Second Amendment does not protect a right to keep and bear arms that, in a Court's judgment, are like military arms, even if they aren’t actually military arms and, notwithstanding that such weapons that are like military arms are those that are commonly used by American citizens for self-defense--a salient test for whether such weapons are protected under the Second Amendment at all.Again, keep in mind and burn into your memory: What the Heller Court did point out is that weapons that the public commonly uses for self-defense are weapons that do fall within the scope and protection of the Second Amendment.Now, such weapons that the Maryland Legislature, and several other State Legislatures, define as prohibited ‘assault weapons’ are those that the public commonly uses for self-defense. And, if so, such so-called “assault weapons” are a category of weapons, like handguns, that no Legislature may lawfully ban. To do so constitutes an impermissible infringement of an American citizen’s right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment, and constitutes an action by State government that is at loggerheads with the Heller decision.We continue with our analysis of Kolbe in Part Three of this series.______________________________________Copyright © 2017 Roger J Katz (Towne Criour), Stephen L. D’Andrilli (Publius) All Rights Reserved.

KOLBE VS. HOGAN: KILLING THE SECOND AMENDMENT

“Bubble Guns" In The Fourth Circuit Take Pot Shots At Heller In The Circuit's Poorly Reasoned Opinion

PART ONE

THE KOLBE CASE: INTRODUCTION

On February 21, 2017, antigun establishment judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit decided a case—one directly and negatively impacting the Second Amendment right of the people to keep and bear arms. The case, Kolbe vs. Hogan, 813 F.3d 160 (4th Cir. 2016, rev'd, Kolbe vs. Hogan ____ F.3d ____ (4th Cir. 2017) (en banc), 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 2930, is the latest in a slew of badly decided and badly reasoned cases coming down the pike since the late Justice Antonin Scalia penned the majority opinion in the seminal Second Amendment U.S. Supreme Court case, District of Columbia vs. Heller, 554 U.S. 570, 128 S. Ct. 2783 (2008). What we are seeing are U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals openly defying the clear import and purport of Heller. We are seeing U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal—the Second, Fourth, and Seventh U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal—operating in open revolt to the U.S. Supreme Court on Second Amendment cases.The high Court, in Heller, made abundantly clear that the right of the people to keep and bear arms is an individual right—a right unconnected to a person’s connection with a militia. Two years later, question arose whether the Heller decision applies to the States. The U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Samuel Alito writing for the majority in the case McDonald vs. City of Chicago, 561 U.S. 742, 130 S. Ct. 3020 (2010), held that the individual right to keep and bear arms applies to the States no less so than to the federal government. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit obviously has clear disdain for the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and, concomitantly, disaffection for the Heller and McDonald cases that provide a firm foundation for the Second Amendment’s preservation and provide welcome relief to those Americans who wish to exercise their right under it.

WHERE TO BEGIN?

Where do we begin on our analysis of the atrocious decision of the Fourth Circuit in Kolbe. The import of this awful decision rests, first, upon the majority’s disregard for the precedential holdings of Heller and McDonald. The majority shreds the legal principle of stare decisis, which requires courts to uphold prior decisions lest the foundation of our system of case law fall apart. The import of this absurd decision rests, second, on the Court’s clear contempt for the explicit fundamental right of the people to keep and bear arms, codified in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. And, this atrocious decision rests, third, on the majority’s clear rebuke of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Scalia’s legacy.

WHY IS THE KOLBE CASE, IN PARTICULAR, CRITICAL TO THOSE WHO WISH TO SAFEGUARD THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS UNDER THE SECOND AMENDMENT?

Since 2008, when the Heller decision became the Law of the Land, there have been several cases wending their way up through the various Circuit Courts that have dealt directly or tangentially, and disparagingly, with the Second Amendment. What makes the Kolbe case so important to those Americans who hold dear the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is that the decision openly defies Heller.One, the Kolbe decision amounts to a direct, frontal assault against the right of the people to keep and bear arms. Two, the decision is a disrespectful and unrestrained attack on the methodology that Scalia employed when the Justice wrote his opinion for the majority in Heller. Now, the Fourth Circuit, writing its damning opinion in Kolbe, won’t admit its denigration of the Second Amendment and, by extension, its disrespectful attitude toward Justice Scalia. After all, the decisions of the high Court are the Supreme Law of the Land, and lower courts, State and federal, are legally bound to respect and to apply rulings, holdings, and reasoning of the high Court.

HOW DO LOWER COURTS UNDERMINE RULINGS AND HOLDINGS OF U.S. SUPREME COURT CASES THEY DO NOT LIKE?

If a lower court doesn’t like a holding of the U.S. Supreme Court, it has weapons in its arsenal. Lower courts use these weapons against a U.S. Supreme Court holding if, one, the lower court disagrees with the decision of the high Court, and, two, if a lower court disagrees with the philosophy of law underlying the ruling of the high Court, and, three, if a lower court disagrees with the legal and logical methodology employed in support of the high Court’s ruling in a case.One technique a lower court uses to undercut a high Court ruling is to argue a distinction in fact patterns. We see this in Kolbe. Of course, a reputable* court would attempt to discern similarities in the facts of a case before it, before the court goes hither and yon, denying obvious similarity in fact patterns. A lower court should give maximum effect to a ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court but may feel less compelled to do so if it can, plausibly, demonstrate a distinction in fact patterns between the facts as presented in a case before the high Court and the facts as presented in a case being heard in a lower court.The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Kolbe opined that the facts of the Heller case are wholly unlike those in Kolbe. The Court is wrong.Why do we say that the Fourth Circuit is wrong? First, the critical facts in Kolbe are in several critical ways, identical to those in Heller. A couple of Plaintiffs in Kolbe, as with the Plaintiffs in Heller, are individuals who are under no disability. They are average law-abiding, rational, sensible, sane American citizens whose right to own and possess firearms is undeniable. Second, the D.C. Government in Heller, and the Maryland State Government in Kolbe, both enacted laws to ban outright an entire category of firearms that American citizens traditionally and commonly employ for self-defense. In our analysis of the Kolbe case, to follow, we will demonstrate how the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit attempts to skirt clear U.S. Supreme Court precedent to ignore and undercut Heller and, in so doing, allows stand a restrictive Maryland firearms law that is unconstitutional and inconsistent with the Heller decision. The sad result is that average, law-abiding, sane American citizens who seek to own and possess firearms they had traditionally owned and possessed for decades, can no longer do so. Thus, notwithstanding that the gun ban enacted in Maryland applied originally only to residents of the State of Maryland and to those passing through the State, the Fourth Circuit decision directly impacts the right of American citizens in the five States that comprise the Fourth Circuit: North and South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia, and Maryland. All individuals of these five States are now denied their right to keep and bear arms, guaranteed under the Second Amendment because they are denied their right to keep and bear an entire category of firearms they had traditionally owned—firearms that the American public commonly owns and possesses for self-defense.Second, lower courts that harbor a strong disdain for the ruling in Heller and who thereby harbor a disdain for the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, misconstrue—whether deliberately and callously or, if not deliberately and callously, then certainly carelessly and recklessly—the reasoning of the high Court. The lower court substitutes for the high Court’s reasoning, its own flawed reasoning—reasoning, that lends support to a conclusion the lower court seeks, rather than to the conclusion the high Court requires that the lower court reach.In Kolbe, the Fourth Circuit applied a standard of review that the majority in Heller, and, in particular, Justice Scalia, who wrote the opinion, had rejected outright. We explain this in detail when we proceed with a comprehensive case analysis of Kolbe.Third, lower courts that harbor a strong dislike for the Second Amendment and who attempt to meander around the clear and cogent reasoning, rulings, and holdings of the high Court often, in our estimate, consider matters wholly outside the purview of the law, namely political matters. If so, this clouds judicial judgment, as application of the law to the facts of the case is colored by personal biases and feelings rather than by reasoned, seasoned, Judicial thought. In the process, judicial neutrality and integrity is lost as partiality enters into judicial decision-making. Thus, the rule of law is denied one or the other party to a lawsuit.As we proceed with our analysis, we make abundantly clear the extent to which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit considers matters, it appears to us, outside of legal constraints—matters that have no legitimate, legal, or, for that matter, logical connection to or bearing on how this Second Amendment case ought to be decided.The dreadful decision in Kolbe, also operates as a warning to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. The Committee better get cracking on holding a confirmation hearing of the President’s nominee, Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court. It must do so because the Kolbe case must not stand unchallenged. The antigun forces have slowly chiseled away at Heller through other poorly reasoned and decided cases. But, Kolbe is most dire because this decision, more so than other Second Amendment cases coming down since Heller and McDonald, constitutes a direct assault on U.S. Supreme Court precedent, and, if allowed to stand, unchallenged, severely weakens the Second Amendment and will undoubtedly embolden other antigun federal Circuit Courts that wish to chisel away at Heller.Make no mistake, Plaintiffs in Kolbe vs. Hogan will take this case to the U.S. Supreme Court. They must, for the decision here is antithetical with the holdings set forth and reasoning evinced in the seminal Heller and McDonald cases.With Gorsuch on the high Court, the Justices will likely vote to hear this case. The Justices must hear this case. The case must be overturned, lest the legal precedents of Heller and McDonald be continually ignored by State Governments.What is Kolbe vs. Hogan really all about and why are the issues presented in it critical to the safeguarding of our Bill of Rights? We explain in Part 2 of this series.______________________________________*CLARIFICATION AND QUALIFICATION: The Fourth Circuit Courts, as with Courts of any other federal Circuit, are Courts of competent jurisdiction and, therefore, is competent to rule on the legal and factual issues that come before it. The authors of this article do not intend to assert expressly or impliedly that the Fourth Circuit Courts or that the Courts of any other Federal Circuit are not competent to rule on the cases that come before them. The term, 'reputable,' is not and was not used here to impugn the honor of Fourth Circuit Courts and is not and was not directed to impugn the honor of any other federal Court.  While we disagree vehemently with the decision and reasoning of the majority in the Kolbe case, we do admit that use of a term that would suggest that a Court might act dishonorably was wrong on our part, and for that we admit error and apologize for even suggesting the casting of aspersion on any Court. That said, we believe, as we will illustrate through a comprehensive analysis of the Kolbe decision and, eventually, in an analysis of similar decisions of various sister Courts--that political and ideological considerations pepper the reasoning and conclusions of many Courts as they wrestle with the core of the Second Amendment. The fact of the matter is, and we take this to be axiomatic, that every individual--whether judge, attorney, or layman--has a political philosophy, and it is clear to us that political philosophies are interjected into judicial opinions. We firmly believe, as we will show, in this multi article series, that legal precedent, which should be adhered to, often is not. Yet, if a Court wishes to overturn precedent, it should say so. Obviously, only the U.S. Supreme Court can legally overturn its own decisions. Lower Courts, State and Federal, must adhere to legal precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court. We feel that the Fourth Circuit, in Kolbe, and certain decisions handed down by federal Courts in other Circuits, most prominently, in the Second, Third, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits, as well as the Fourth, have not abided by the holdings and reasoning of Heller and that this can only, and ultimately, be attributed to the insinuation of political philosophy into decision making--as much in judicial opinion, where we, unfortunately see it, as anywhere else. Since insinuation of political philosophy pervades Kolbe, and similar cases coming out of other Circuits, controversial though that statement may be, and as that is the underlying point of our criticism of Kolbe, we do not walk away from it, but embrace it.Our Second Amendment is not to be toyed with. The right of the people to keep and bear arms is the defining feature of our American heritage, for it is the primary safeguard against tyranny, and it informs our Government that the American people control their destiny. Our destiny is not controlled by those who have been given, for a time, extensive authority. For they govern in our name, for our benefit. They do not govern in their own name, for their own benefit. Somewhere along the line, in the years that have gone by, that idea has been lost. It should be found. The Second Amendment encourages those who govern us that ultimate authority rests with the American People, and the Second Amendment is a constant reminder to those who govern us where it is that true authority rests. It is not through the First Amendment, as the Press has, itself, lost its way. It is not through the Fourth Amendment unreasonable searches and seizures clause, as that has been blatantly ignored, even unconscionably refuted by Government, as illustrated through Government's actions. It is not through the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, which have grown more tenuous, through time. It is only through the continued existence of the Second Amendment. And even the fundamental right to keep and bear arms is slowly but inexorably being whittled away, in spite of Heller--a case that exists to remind Government that some members of the U.S. Supreme Court intend for the American People to retain ultimate authority over Government and responsibility for their own lives.______________________________________Copyright © 2017 Roger J Katz (Towne Criour), Stephen L. D’Andrilli (Publius) All Rights Reserved.