{"id":2098,"date":"2008-07-19T13:10:55","date_gmt":"2008-07-19T17:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=2098"},"modified":"2008-07-19T13:10:55","modified_gmt":"2008-07-19T17:10:55","slug":"convicted-felon-wants-a-gun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=2098","title":{"rendered":"Convicted felon wants a gun"},"content":{"rendered":"

A convicted felon and his lawyer have decided that the Heller vs. DC Supreme Court decision applies to the rights of felons to protect themselves in their home according to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette<\/a>;<\/p>\n

\u00a0James F. Barton Jr. argues that the court’s opinion lifting the ban on handguns in Washington, D.C. — and the assertion that the possession of guns in the home is an individual right — must be applied to all people.<\/p>\n

Senior U.S. District Judge Alan N. Bloch has scheduled a July 31 hearing on the matter .<\/p>\n

On its face, Mr. Barton’s argument appears to have no merit because the majority opinion of the Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller specifically noted: “[Nothing] in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill … .”<\/p>\n

But it’s precisely because of that language that attorney David B. Chontos, who represents Mr. Barton, filed his motion to dismiss.<\/p>\n

Several legal scholars agree that the instruction in the opinion is nothing but dictum, merely a statement by the court that is not binding as a precedent in lower courts or for the future Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

But Mr. Chontos based his argument on language included in the Second Amendment, which reads: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”<\/p>\n

Mr. Chontos argues that the phrase “the people,” must mean the same as it does in other amendments, including the First, which guarantees free speech and freedom of religion, and the Fourth, which guarantees privacy and the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, then eight-year-olds should take to the courts, too, because surely, and eight-year-old might have the occasion to defend themselves in their homes. Eight-year-olds are people, too. An eight-year-old lacks the judgment to safely own a handgun…and a convicted felon lacks the judgment to safely own a handgun.<\/p>\n

Stupid ambulance chasing lawyers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A convicted felon and his lawyer have decided that the Heller vs. DC Supreme Court decision … Convicted felon wants a gun<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal","category-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2098\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}