On Jul 25, 2007, at 12:11 PM, Volokh, Eugene wrote:
> Joe: I'm puzzled -- isn't it clear that before the Fourteenth
> Amendment, the dominant view (not the only view, but the dominant one,
> eventually adopted in Barron v. Baltimore) was that gun control was
> indeed a matter for state-by-state decisionmaking (at least setting
> aside conflicts with federal law), and that the Second Amendment, like
> other amendments, bound only the federal government?
>
> One can fault Giuliani for not being attentive to how the Fourteenth
> Amendment was interpreted, and what its Ratifiers would have said, but
> it sounds to me like he's quite right as to the Founding Fathers.
But only out of the left side of his mouth.
As the article makes clear, Guiliani is all for the heavy federal
hand when the legislation enforces something he favors. Only when
the feds are not responsive to his desires does he want the states to
be free to... well, do what HE prefers.
This is really no different than the dance that the Brady Campaign
does. For a decade, they worked to push through an overweening
federal law that had the "side-effect" of leaving a firearm purchase
completely up to the whim of a local LEO. When that aspect of the
law was scotched by the Supreme Court, they progressed to militating
against preemption laws in every state, claiming that cities and town
and counties should "be free to enact laws that reflect their own
values." (Except, of course, contrary to MORE restrictive federal or
state laws of which the Brady group approves.)
This isn't federalism, it's (to paraphrase the old lawyer joke)
pounding the table with a copy of The Federalist. It's tyranny by
one-way ratchet, and it's hypocrisy.
--
Escape the Rat Race for Peace, Quiet, and Miles of Desert Beauty
Take a Sanity Break at The Bunkhouse at Liberty Haven Ranch
http://libertyhavenranch.com
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