Re: Denied Illinois FOID card

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> 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.