A judge in NY rejected 2A and sentenced a DIY gunmaker to ten years, saying,
“Do not bring the Second Amendment into this courtroom. It doesn’t exist here. So you can’t argue Second Amendment. This is New York.” (1)
Like it or not, much good could come out of this sentence.
Two things must be recognized for America to return to legitimate self-government. Handled properly, this could result in one of them.
The Bill of Rights, the Constitution itself, define and limit the federal government. Only minor limitations were placed on the states by the states when the superior states created the inferior federal government to serve the states.
States were and remain sovereign entities. None relinquished their sovereignty on joining the union. As illustrated by the Tenth Amendment, the states can do whatever they want that they did not choose to prohibit themselves from doing.
How has SCOTUS extended the BoR to the states, including Macdonald following Heller? Through the wholly illegitimate, completely made-up, whole-cloth, pulled out of a hat idea of “incorporation.”
“Incorporation” takes the duties and limits placed by the superior states on the inferior federal government they created and applies them to the states. It pretends the inferior can tell their superiors what to do.
No Governor should accept this.
The accurate analogy is of parents (the states) placing a bedtime on the children (the Feds) and having the children then turn around and “incorporate” that bedtime on the parents. It’s dumb, silly, childish, and completely obviates the limits of government and the Tenth Amendment.
The Second Amendment - the entire Bill of Rights - limits the federal government. Period.
The Feds cannot infringe our right to keep and bear arms. Just as the Feds cannot outlaw or demand abortion. Neither are within the authority of the federal government as outlined in Article 1 and the Bill of Rights. (Nor can they legislate, nor can SCOTUS hold, on speech, marriage, education, bathrooms, sports, etc., as none of these things are within their constitutional authority.)
The states can outlaw guns all they want, unless their constitution provides a 2A analog, as an increasing number of states, now more than half, have done.
States also should demand that the oath of office be applied: if a federal legislator submits legislation to infringe on guns, speech, privacy, etc., or the president writes an EO for same, that legislator or president has violated their oath of office - a requirement to take their seat - and, no longer meeting the requirement of office, must immediately be expelled. They cannot enter their office without the oath; if they violate the oath, they must be removed from that office as no longer being eligible to hold it.
The tactical problem in the DIY gun case is that both sides use 2A as a fundraising device. The right needs to campaign at the State level for states to add the keeping and bearing of arms to their constitutions and then ignore the Feds, as designed. Just as, in the planned and ongoing invasion by the Third World, they need to add to their constitutions that only voting-age citizens can be counted for apportionment. See: Evenwell.
If “incorporation” were tossed into the dustbin of history where it belongs, I’d bet that many blue states would update their constitutions with their own 2A, and throw-out many blue governors, particularly in hunting states like PA, NY, WI, MI, and others…
The second issue, which has been addressed by Diane Gruber and I jointly (2), is that states must refuse the taxation of their citizens by the federal government to fund things the feds are not allowed to do.
Governors should just take the federal budget, line-out every item unsupported by the enumerated powers, tax the citizens of that state using whatever tax legislation exists in that state for their portion of the legitimate total and send one check for each state to the feds. If the Feds don’t pass the legally-required budget, don’t send them any money as the legality of spending cannot be determined. As citizens still are being taxed (by the feds via the states) on their income, 16A has not been violated; only the process has changed.
Unless we return to federalism and the rights, duties and limitations therein, the authoritarian government of all three federal branches ignoring their limits will continue to accelerate.
While this guy is unfortunate in the judge and sentencing, if it forces the adults in the country to wake up and recognize what the Feds can and cannot do, including SCOTUS, and how the Constitution is designed to work, the country will be much better off, freer, more prosperous, and have a brighter future.
(2)
