Strict Scrutiny
A major win in MD. A court has ruled that the lower court must use strict scrutiny in a case dealing with a ban on “assault weapons” and regular capacity magazines. Says the court:
Likewise, the record in this case shows unequivocally that LCMs are commonly kept by American citizens, as there are more than 75 million such magazines in circulation in the United States. In fact, these magazines are so common that they are standard.
Well, they are regular capacity in most cases. And only 75 million? I find that to be a bit low.
February 4th, 2016 at 6:22 pm
“…only 75 million?” – They only counted the ones they saw pictured on ARFCOM.
February 4th, 2016 at 6:56 pm
This may seem like a small word-play thing, but it’s huge. Sends shivers down the jelly-spines of Marxists. Requires gun-controlling plaintiffs to actually prove something. Thanks for reporting, Uncle, I missed it.
February 4th, 2016 at 8:12 pm
Well, it does say “..more than 75 million…” so they got it right.
Anyway, this is a good thing. Thanks for reporting.
I will however point out that the second amendment says nothing about magazine capacity or types of arms. Magazine capacity or the commonality of this or that are therefore moot points. The right to bear arms includes everything a militia might use, or which might be suitable, or which we might feel like keeping and bearing, and so we are dancing around (while ignoring) the elephant in the room when we argue these things or play numbers games.
“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about answers.” — Some guy
The courts are doing their best to avoid the straight-up question, and so they’ll gladly resort to picking around the edges if it means ignoring the one real issue (we, not the government, are in charge of our own lives, therefore they don’t get to decide any such things – they, by rights, only get to decide on whether a rights violation has taken place and in this case it’s a no-brainer). I don’t expect this to change any time soon.
February 4th, 2016 at 8:37 pm
This is great. Going to force SCOTUS to rule unless there is a Full Fourth Circuit en banc review which doesn’t go our way.
February 5th, 2016 at 3:01 am
I’m beginning to think I have upwards of 75 million of them in my house. Every time I clean out a drawer or unpack a box, more of them show up. That or when I give them privacy they reproduce.
February 5th, 2016 at 6:40 am
We have to understand, not everyone is like us and has dozens of them. I know several people who only have the one that came with the gun and one person who has had an ar15 for over 5 years and doesn’t even have a single mag. Some people are strange.
February 5th, 2016 at 11:06 am
How do you have an AR-15 without a magazine? Do they just never shoot it?
February 5th, 2016 at 11:21 am
Once, after moving residences, I found myself with a Marlin Model 60 .22LR (hey, it IS an assault weapon in New Jersey, so it fits into this comment thread) but the tubular magazine was missing, never to be seen again. A few minutes online fixed that, but yes, it is possible to have an assault weapon without a magazine.
February 5th, 2016 at 1:04 pm
@mikee, It’s even possible to have one legally where they are illegal. California has an AWB, yet the rifles used by the jihadist perps in San Bernadino, were repeatedly reported to be legally purchased “assault weapons”.