Tuesday, February 5, 2013

NRA latest lie: AR-15's "Musket of Today!"

The news story line from the NRA is this:
Raw Story: The AR-15 assault rifle is the “musket of today” according to NRA President David Keene. That was the gun used in the Newtown massacre.
Keene: “You hear some of the gun controllers saying, ‘Well, the Second Amendment only applied to muskets, it didn’t apply to AR-15s or semi-automatic pistols or semi-automatic shotguns, for that matter.’ That was handled by the Supreme Court in the Heller decision.
But according to Justice Scalia:
Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose:  For example, concealed weapons prohibitions have been upheld under the Amendment or state analogues. The Court’s opinion should not be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms. Miller’s holding that the sorts of weapons protected are those “in common use at the time” finds support in the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons.
Here's a section I pulled out of the decision:
We also recognize another important limitation on the right to keep and carry arms. Miller said, as we have explained, that the sorts of weapons protected were those "in common use at the time." 307 U.S., at 179, 59 S.Ct. 816. We think that limitation is fairly supported by the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of "dangerous and unusual weapons."

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