<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div>Courtesy of today's (December 8, 2015) Spokesman-Review.</div><div><br></div><div>---------------------------------</div><div><br></div><div><h1 style="font-size: 28px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; clear: both; line-height: 1.2; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Supreme Court lets local ban on assault weapons stand</h1><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">WASHINGTON – In a victory for gun-control advocates, the Supreme Court on Monday rejected a 2nd Amendment challenge to laws that forbid the sale or possession of semiautomatic weapons that carry more than 10 rounds of ammunition.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The justices by a 7-2 vote refused to review rulings by judges in Chicago who upheld a ban on assault weapons in the city of Highland Park, Ill., as a reasonable gun-control regulation.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia dissented.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The court’s decision, while not a formal ruling, strongly suggests the justices do not see the 2nd Amendment as protecting a right to own or carry powerful weapons in public. In the court’s only two decisions upholding gun rights, the justices struck down city ordinances in Chicago and Washington, D.C., that prohibited residents from keeping a handgun at home for self-defense.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Since then, the justices have repeatedly refused to hear appeals from gun-rights advocates who have sought to extend the 2nd Amendment right to protect the carrying of weapons in public.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The high court’s action comes at a time of renewed anger and fear over the use of military-style assault weapons in the shootings in San Bernardino, Paris and Colorado Springs.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Advocates of the bans on military-style weapons had pointed to mass shootings before this year and argued these rapid-fire rifles and handguns posed a special danger to public safety.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Several cities in the Chicago area as well as California and seven other states have adopted laws similar to the Highland Park ordinance.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The justices meeting in their private weekly conferences had considered the gun-rights appeal over two months during a time when the mass shootings had highlighted again the devastating impact of rapid-fire weapons. In the eyes of some, those shootings also demonstrated the limited effectiveness of such gun-control measures, since France and the state of California have strict regulations on the sale of such weapons.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But in the end, the court decided against hearing the appeal, which has the effect of upholding the laws in Highland Park and elsewhere.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In dissent in Friedman vs. City of Highland Park, Thomas said the decison upholds “categorical bans on firearms that millions of Americans commonly own for lawful purposes . . If broad bans on firearms can be upheld based on the conjecture that the public might feel safer (while being no safer at all), then the 2nd Amendment guarantees nothing.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Thomas also says the decision has the effect of “relegating the 2nd Amendment to a second-class right.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In addition to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, the federal appeals courts in San Francisco and New York have also upheld laws restricting rapid-fire weapons and rejected challenges based on the 2nd Amendment.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">After Highland Park, a suburb north of Chicago, adopted its ban on semiautomatic weapons in 2013, Dr. Arie Friedman and the Illinois State Rifle Association filed suit and contended the measure was unconstitutional. They argued the weapons affected, including the AR-15, were among the most popular guns sold in this country.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“The millions of Americans who use such ‘assault weapons’ use them for the same lawful purposes as any other type of lawful firearm: hunting, recreational shooting and self-defense,” they argued in court papers.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But a federal judge upheld the law, and the 7th Circuit Court did the same in a 2-1 decision in April. Judge Frank Easterbrook said the courts should defer to city and state officials who seek to protect the public’s safety. “Assault weapons with large-capacity magazines can fire more shots, faster and thus can be more dangerous in the aggregate,” he said. “Why else are they the weapons of choice in mass shootings?”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Friedman filed an appeal with the high court in July, which won the backing of the National Rifle Association and the state attorneys from 23 mostly Republican-led states.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In addition to California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey and New York have similar laws restricting the sale of rapid-fire weapons which carry 10 or more rounds of ammunition.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Had the high court struck down the Highland Park ordinance, its decision would likely have voided all the state laws as well.</span></p></div><div>---------------------------------</div><div><br></div><div>Was it really that long ago?</div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/AD_011413_GunViolence_Ltr.pdf">http://www.moscowcares.com/AD_011413_GunViolence_Ltr.pdf</a><br><br><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"There's room at the top they are telling you still.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">- John Lennon</span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>