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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

FEDERAL COURT FINDS NO CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO CARRY A CONCEALED WEAPON — WE EXPLAIN THE DECISION

While gun rights supporters might like to think the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution is an absolute guarantee against government interference, according to at least one (relatively conservative) appeals court, they are severely mistaken. In fact, according to that same court, when it comes to carrying concealed weapons, the Second Amendment is basically irrelevant.

Last Friday, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals handed down its decision in the case of Peterson v. Martinez, a case involving the question of whether a state has an obligation to provide a concealed carry license to anyone who has been granted such a license in another state. Their answer was, to put it mildly, “no.”

In fact, the court adopted a fairly novel approach in explaining why the right to keep and bear arms didn’t apply in this case: Rather than rely solely on precedent that restricted gun rights, they built most of their analysis on language from cases that expanded gun rights, but still made clear that there were limits, of which concealed carry was certainly one. As Lawyers.com’s Larry Bodine put it, “To bullet-proof the ruling against an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, the 10th Circuit recounted numerous court rulings and state laws dating back to 1813, and based its ruling on prior U.S. Supreme Court cases.”

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The way I see it is I have a God given right to protect my family. And God over rules the goverment.

Anonymous said...

Well, the fact that you even NEED a concealed carry PERMIT from some Government twit is unconstitutional to begin with so how could the courts logic apply? It should not even be something the court entertains or adjudicates. Allow State and local Governments to have jurisdiction.
These great United States are to diverse to be beholding to one set of laws. What works in Butte, Montana certainly will not work in Newark, New Jersey!

Anonymous said...

One may not have the right to CONCEALED carry, but one certainly has the right to OPENLY carry.

Anonymous said...

If the open vs concealed carry debate doesn't clearly illustrate the absurdity of government...nothing will.