Supreme Court Won’t Block Ban On High Capacity Magazines

BY Herschel Smith
10 years, 9 months ago

SFGate:

The U.S. Supreme Court refused Wednesday to halt Sunnyvale’s enforcement of a voter-approved ban on high-capacity gun magazines. The order signaled that San Francisco will also be allowed to enforce a virtually identical ordinance during court challenges.

Sunnyvale’s measure, approved by 66 percent of its voters in November, prohibits possession of magazines carrying more than 10 cartridges.

A group of gun owners sued to overturn the Sunnyvale ordinance and asked a federal judge to block its enforcement, arguing that tens of millions of Americans legally own guns with high-capacity magazines and may sometimes need them to repel criminal attacks.

But U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte of San Jose rejected the request March 5, the day before the ordinance took effect, saying the ban would have little impact on the constitutional right to bear arms in self-defense.

A federal appeals court refused to intervene, and on Wednesday, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who handles emergency appeals from California and eight other Western states, denied a stay without comment.

More often than not, when the SCOTUS refuses to hear a case, they know full well how it will turn out and conclude that the outcome wouldn’t be any different than the way it is before review.

Occasionally I like the decisions made at the appeals court level.  But more often than not I don’t.  But one thing I do not do is rely on the federal court system to protect my rights.

I am a second amendment and gun rights writer, but I only loosely call myself that.  Readers know that I don’t believe that I have a right to own firearms because the constitution says so.  I also don’t believe in so-called “natural law” or “natural rights.”

Ever since my seminary training in apologetics and philosophy, having seen John Locke thoroughly dissembled with logic, I don’t reference his views for anything.  No respectable philosopher today does.  Even among the legal community, John Whitehead is an exception.  In order for something to be “natural,” it has to be binding upon all men and capable of epistemic certainty.  To me, the concept of a natural right to own guns is no better than the notion of the new head of a pride killing the young lions so that the lionesses will come into estrus again – or the lioness trying to defend her young one.  What’s natural to one won’t be natural to another.

So why do I have a right to own guns, or high capacity magazines?  Because God says so.  That settles it for me, whether the constitution recognizes it or not, whether a judge certifies it or not.  You may not have my world view, and I’m okay with that.  But every man must come to his own conclusions and ascertain the ultimate foundation for what he does and what he believes.

You live on the Serengeti desert in a Machiavellian world of eat or be eaten, with no concept of right and wrong, or you know whereof you act, and you know why what you do and what you believe is morally righteous.  And If you were relying on a federal judge to warranty your rights, you’ve been disavowed of that mistaken belief as we speak.  Is that clear enough?

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Comments

  1. On March 14, 2014 at 10:52 am, pjb1 said:

    I long ago understood what is going on, and how little the opinions of some old men wearing black dresses really matters. I don’t even talk in terms of rights any more, since the rulers are by now pretty comfortable with the concept (especially when they are deciding which ones we have and don’t have). I just put it simply: I won’t be disarmed.

  2. On March 15, 2014 at 10:26 am, Fed Up said:

    After seeing what’s happening in CT, I don’t think compliance is going to happen.

  3. On March 16, 2014 at 3:06 pm, Ned Weatherby said:

    Fed Up – check out this mess: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u95s2Rjz4cs

    Everyone is stopped and searched because of an alleged “manhunt: for bank robbers. Don’t know if they caught the ‘robbers.” These guys are like the BORG.

    Without warning having shotguns and automatic weapons shoved in one’s face, it’s probably prudent to wait to resist until another day.

    We have seen how trigger happy these folks are. My guess is, if anyone stopped in that situation asserted any right to refuse a search they’d of been shot down with a couple hundred rounds. But these are the acts that will likely wake up the sheeple.

  4. On March 16, 2014 at 1:00 pm, TexTopCat said:

    I agree that the courts should not be making such decisions, however, when congress does not enact laws to guarantee that states cannot have laws on guns more strict than federal law then there is not much else. Certainly, states should answer to the people more directly, however, CA, CT and NY have proven that “the people” are not in control.
    When we have one individual, like Mike Bloomberg, that claims he has more power than the NRA made of up 5 million individuals because he has more money, the country has lost its way.

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You are currently reading "Supreme Court Won’t Block Ban On High Capacity Magazines", entry #12005 on The Captain's Journal.

This article is filed under the category(s) Firearms,Guns,High Capacity Magazines,Religion,Second Amendment and was published March 13th, 2014 by Herschel Smith.

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