We thought in light of today's national news, it was time to review John F. Di Leo's August 2014 column about "One Rogue Judge & the 2nd Amendment's Forgotten Roots" …
By John F. Di Leo -
In the case of Kolbe et. al. versus O’Malley, a class of various American individuals, businesses, and associations rightly challenged Maryland’s outrageous 2013 law banning honest, law-abiding citizens from possessing – not just public carrying, but possessing – several classes of firearms, such as the AR-15, and weapons – even pistols! – that hold more than ten rounds.
The Federal District Judge hearing the case, a Clinton appointee named Catherine C. Blake, disregarded both legal precedent and two hundred years of scholarship, in holding, outrageously, that this blatantly unconstitutional state law was constitutional.
Judge Blake declared that AR-15s and similar weapons “fall outside Second Amendment protection as dangerous and unusual arms,” and therefore can be prohibited if a government wants to do so.
Now, the several state governments clearly have the authority to punish those who commit real crimes with firearms. Virtually no one argues that convicted bank robbers, violent rapists, murderers and muggers, couldn’t be forbidden from possessing firearms as part of their condition of parole, if society is foolish enough to release them in the first place. (The reason this exception is not addressed in the Constitution is that, in the Founding era, this exception was simply not imagined; there was no need. In their day, no sane government would release such villains into the general public ever again). But that’s not the issue here. This is a rogue state government choosing to deny law-abiding citizens a constitutionally-guaranteed right, and a Federal Judge violating her oath of office by giving them cover.
Read the rest of this important piece HERE.
