From: russo@cucbs.chem.columbia.edu (Thomas Russo)
Newsgroups: alt.society.civil-liberty,alt.politics.usa.constitution
Subject: Re: U.S. Bill of Rights today (was alt.activism et al: Who's free'er)
Date: 9 Sep 92 15:19:48 GMT
	<exukjb.129.715967081@exu.ericsson.se> <33rnkq.adamsr@netcom.com>
	<1992Sep9.032310.18048@nntp.hut.fi>
Followup-To: alt.society.civil-liberty,alt.politics.usa.constitution
Organization: Center for Biomolecular Simulation

In article <1992Sep9.032310.18048@nntp.hut.fi> jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala) writes:
[...stuff about the abridgement of rights enumerated in the BOR...]
> 		   AMENDMENT II:
>	   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.
>
>		   REALITY II:
>	   This right exists.

to which I say:
                  REALITY IIa:
          This right is routinely infringed.  I'm sure dozens of RKBA
proponents will be jumping all over this one, but here's some examples
of this infringement:

          It is currently illegal to import, or assemble from imported
parts any weapon that a handfull of unelected officials deem to have
"no legitimate sporting purpose".  These include, for example,
semi-automatic AK-47 look-alikes, models of the SKS autoloading rifle
which have been modified to look more scary (but remain functionally
equivalent to unmodified rifles which may be imported), and
inexpensive handguns commonly referred to in the media by the racist
term "saturday night specials", but which differ from legally
importable handguns only by the quality of construction and price.

          It is routine for large urban areas to ban or otherwise
restrict the "right of the people to keep and bear arms" -- New York
City forbids the ownership of handguns to anyone who will not submit
to a 6 month long permit application process.  The carrying of
concealed weapons is further restricted to those who can prove a need
to a handful of petty bureaucrats.  People applying for a permit "for
lawful self-defense" are not considered having a valid reason.  Rich
people who own businesses and are known to carry lots of cash for
business purposes are permitted, but only in defense of their
businesses.  I'll leave a discussion of whether NYC is a safer place
because of these restrictions to another group, but to say that "this
right exists" is a bit of an overstatement for residents of NYC.

         Washington DC forbids private ownership of handguns.

         Los Angeles, CA allows handgun owners to carry (bear) their
weapons only if in possesion of a valid California Permit To Carry a
Concealed Weapon, which is available to any California resident who
can show a valid reason.  The issuing authority for those permits has
not heard a valid reason in 20 years.

         Residents of California by law must wait 15 days for a firearm they
purchase to be delivered to them.

         Residents of Los Angeles who were caught in the rioting of
this fall were forbidden by mayoral decree from purchasing the
ammunition they might have needed to defend themselves when they
realized that the police couldn't protect them.

         Residents of Morton Grove, Ill. are forbidden to own
handguns.

         The National Firearms Act of 1934 restricts a variety of
weapons to those who pay a special tax ($200 for machine guns,
silencers and short barreled rifles, $5 for exotic weapons such as pen
guns).  Since 1986 the BATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms)
has been forbidden by law from collecting that tax.  In most districts
this has been interpreted as forbidding ownership of new firearms of
these types.  2 districts have interpreted this as meaning the NFA34
is no longer in effect.  It remains to be seen whose view will prevail
in the coming years.  


Both of the major political parties in the US have proposed further
restrictions (infringments) of the "right to keep and bear arms".  The
Democrats have been pushing for outright bans on certain
military-style autoloading rifles.  A subset of both the democrats and
the republicans have been pushing for bans on large capacity ammuntion
feeding devices (large being defined as holding more than 5, 7 or 15
depending on who you talk to).  Another subset has been proposing a
national 7 day waiting period (without background check, no matter how
often they claim it has one) for handgun ownership, and damn near got
it this past session of Congress.


The RKBA barely exists today, and it is likely it will not exist at
all in a couple of years, if the gun owners of this country keep
sitting back and taking the abuse.

-- 
Thomas Russo			russo@nile.chem.columbia.edu
Department of Chemistry and Center for Biomolecular Simulation
Columbia Univerity
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