It Is Dangerous to Be Right When the Government Is Wrong - Andrew P. Napolitano [78]
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Under the Act, the men faced fines and up to five years in jail. Layton and Miller appealed their conviction all the way to the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, by the time their case reached the Court, the men were unavailable, and their counsel could no longer afford to represent them without compensation. Yet, their case moved forward, and the Court heard oral arguments on behalf of the government only. The government argued that the statute was for revenue purposes and held no relation to the Second Amendment or the right to keep and bear arms. This one-sided oral argument resulted in the Court incorrectly ruling in favor of the government and the constitutionality of the National Firearms Act. The justices accepted the government’s false claims that firearms with a barrel shorter than sixteen inches were not used by the military. Consequently, the government successfully argued these arms were not protected by the Second Amendment because it only protects arms used by the militia, and the militia can only be armed by guns used by the military. The failure of the Court to investigate the truth and reject this narrow and obviously incorrect interpretation of the Second Amendment created a wide-open door for the enactment of gun regulations over the next seventy years.
By 1968, the government took the opportunity to intrude even more on the natural right to keep and bear arms by enacting the Gun Control Act of 1968 and Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act. These Acts required all gun owners to be over the age of eighteen and prohibited the sales of arms between residents of different states. Moreover, a gun-licensing program was implemented, and a manipulative “sporting test” was developed. Yet, after allegations of abuse and a complete about-face by the government, the Firearms Owners Protection Act of 1986 was enacted. The Act resulted from a 1982 bipartisan Senate subcommittee. The subcommittee was tasked with investigating the Second Amendment and found,
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The conclusion is thus inescapable that the history, concept, and wording of the second amendment to the Constitution of the United States, as well as its interpretation by every major commentator and court in the first half century after its ratification, indicates that what is protected is an individual right of a private citizen to own and carry firearms in a peaceful manner.11
While the subcommittee concluded the above, the Act did not reinstate the natural right to self-defense. Instead, the Act banned the manufacture, transfer, and civilian use of machine guns not manufactured as of the date of the Act. But, of course, there was one exception: Those for the police.
By 1993, the government was up to its old tricks, and President Clinton signed into law the Brady Handgun Prevention Act (Brady Act) on November 30th 1993. The Brady Act was named in honor of James Brady. During the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan, a stray bullet hit Brady, Reagan’s press secretary, and left him permanently disabled. Consequently, he and his wife have devoted their lives to assaulting the right to self-defense. The main purpose of the Act was to provide “for a waiting period before the purchase of a handgun, and for the establishment of a national instant criminal background check system to be contacted by firearms dealers before the transfer of any firearm.”12 In doing so, the Act imposed a five-day interim measure before a licensed importer, manufacturer, or dealer may sell, deliver, or transfer a handgun to an unlicensed individual. While the interim measure applied only in states without an acceptable alternate system of conducting background checks on handgun purchasers, it expired on November 30th 1998, and the waiting period ceased to apply when the computerized instant check system came online.
Finally, the government enacted the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act