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?
4 years, 4 months ago
