Sangamon
County Rifle Association
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights
Springfield, Illinois
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights
Springfield, Illinois
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Sangamon
County Rifle Association
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights Springfield, Illinois |
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 BATF Behind the Bush-Clement Brief on the D.C. v. Heller Case Jim Butler, President, SCRA Gun owners were sandbagged by the Solicitor General of the United States Brief in the D.C. v. Heller case. This brief if followed by the Supremes would help water down any decision regarding Second Amendment Rights. As it turned out the Bush-Clement brief was co-authored by Stephen Rubenstein, the head lawyer for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATF). Not surprising, the brief expresses alarm that federal gun bans, licensing requirements, registration laws, import restrictions and other unconstitutional federal laws and regulations might topple if a literal interpretation of the Amendment becomes the required level of scrutiny. In the Clement-Bush
brief, the phrase "shall not be infringed" is never used. It
would be hard to say gun
ban or licensing requirement in the same breath with
"shall not be infringed."
As they say, the BATF has a dog in this fight as they stand to lose a great deal of their funding and power if the brief they helped write is ignored by the Supreme Court. The danger is if the brief is allowed to sway the opinion of the Supreme Court it could gut the Second Amendment. Writing in USA Today, Gun Owners of America, attorneys Herbert Titus and William Olson stated: No government deprives its citizens of rights without asserting that its actions are "reasonable" and "necessary" for high-sounding reasons such as "public safety". A right that can be regulated is no right at all, only a temporary privilege dependent upon the good will of the very government officials that such right is designed to constrain. As I See it Index Return to SCRA Home Page |