Court Rejects Gunmakers’ Appeal
From the AP:
Two gunmakers who challenged Congress’ authority to ban the manufacture, sale and possession of semiautomatic assault weapons lost a Supreme Court appeal Monday.
The court, without comment, rejected an appeal that said Congress exceeded its power to regulate interstate commerce when it outlawed such weapons in 1994.
The 1994 law, an amendment to the Gun Control Act of 1968, defines semiautomatic assault weapons to include a list of specified firearms and “copies or duplicates of the firearms in any caliber.”
Navegar Inc. and Penn Arms Inc. challenged the federal ban in 1995.
Florida-based Navegar, doing business as Intratec, manufactures two semiautomatic pistols, the TEC-DC9 and TEC-22, which are among the specifically banned weapons.
Pennsylvania-based Penn Arms makes the Strike 12, a 12-gauge revolving cylinder shotgun. All such shotguns are treated as semiautomatic assault weapons under the 1994 law.
A federal trial judge and the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the ban. In its ruling last year, the appeals court called the law a permissible “regulation of activities having a substantial effect on interstate commerce.”
The appeals court cited Congress’ “intent to control the flow through interstate commerce of semiautomatic assault weapons bought or manufactured in one state and subsequently transported into other states.”
In the appeal acted on Monday, the gunmakers argued that the appeals court ruling conflicts with recent Supreme Court decisions that pared congressional power by narrowing the definition of interstate commerce.
So, why was it being fought as an interstate commerce issue and not a second amendment issue?
September 4th, 2003 at 7:04 pm
Perhaps because they knew that SCOTUS, as it presently stands, is rather hostile to the 2nd Amendment.
September 4th, 2003 at 8:09 pm
Doing some catching up here, Uncle, and I noticed you’ve had your 1 yr. blog anniversary – congrats! Keep up the good work 🙂
September 4th, 2003 at 8:48 pm
Thanks deb! WHere’ve you been?
September 4th, 2003 at 9:18 pm
Even if Bush could pack the court with his judicial dream team I’m not confident that current jurisprudence concerning the ability of the feds to dictate restrictions on types of weapons would be easily overturned. While the ban on AW’s is completely moronic, giving the green light to full autos would get the anti-gunners frothing and tune many undecided into anti’s.
September 5th, 2003 at 1:30 am
The interstate commerce issue gets at Congress’ authority to write the regulation. I don’t follow gun matters like you do, but I don’t think the Supreme Court has made a strictly Second Amendment ruling in decades. It’s not something the courts have gotten into.