Re: Denied Illinois FOID card
Posted by Greg Holz on 7/07/08
You may want to retract this statement after the Supreme Court's recent 2nd
Amendment ruling! The Second Amendment not only applies to states but more
importantly to an individuals right to keep and bear arms. It is very much
about state gun control.
On 9/28/07, friend of NRA wrote:
>> On 9/28/07, DILLER wrote in part:
>
>> Foid cards in my opinion violate the United States Constitution. You
>> have a right to bare arms and shall not be infringed; it says nothing
>> about firearm identification cards, or any other requirement. Stop them
>> from dismantling the Constitution.
>
> The applicability of the Second Amendment is often misunderstood. Its
> guarantee applies only to the federal government not to state government.
> Over the years, much of the US Constitution has been made applicable to
> the states by the terms of the 14th Amendment, but still, only certain
> parts of it apply to states and the 2nd Amendment is one part that does
> not apply to states. For example, the 5th Amendment is now applicable to
> the states except for the part where it says "No person shall be held to
> answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment
> or indictment of a Grand Jury[.]" That part does not apply to the
> states. The 5th Amendment has been applied to states piece by piece over
> the last 150 years. Believe it or not, it was not until 1969 that the
> double jeopardy clause of the 5th Amendment was applied to state trials by
> the decision in Benton v. Maryland, 395 U.S. 784, and the self-
> incrimination clause did not apply to state trials until the early
> twentieth century. Likewise, the first sentence of the 7th Amendment
> says "In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed
> twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved[.]" That
> does not apply to states. As I said above; none of the 2nd Amendment
> applies to states. Don't confuse your federal US constitutional rights
> with your rights under state law regarding firearms.
>
> I make no judgment about your opinion on gun control but want to point out
> that the US Constitution does not forbid any type of gun control by the
> states, thus, the Illinois FOID card can not be a violation of the 2nd
> Amendment. The framers of the Constitution were concerned that the
> federal government not take away the right to bear arms from the citizen
> militias created by the states. They were not at all concerned at the
> time the 2nd Amendment was written about state gun control. It is
> unlikely that the Supreme Court will ever hold that the 2nd Amendment
> applies to states.