Came across an interesting tidbit in looking at cases involving state
firearms preemption statutes.
Florida's statutory prohibition against owning machine guns contains (or at
least of the time of this case contained) an exemption for those who own
such firearms in accordance with federal law. Here's the state supreme
court's astonishingly sensible comment on why this might be so:
"It would be second guessing on our part to surmise why the Legislature put
this exception into the statute. It would seem reasonable, however, that the
Legislature would want to exempt from the penalties of the statute weapons
owned and possessed by an ordinary law-abiding citizen, whose such
law-abiding character may be inferred from the fact that such citizen took
the trouble to register his weapon with the proper federal authority. It is
reasonable to assume that a person owning such weapon with criminal intent
would not register the same, thereby according an opportunity for his
identity to become known if such weapon is later found to have been involved
in a criminal offense."
Rinzler v. Carson, 262 So. 2d 661, 667 (Fla. 1972)
--
Bob Woolley
St. Paul, MN
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature
is in session.
--Mark Twain
