Of course hillary won't take your guns. She'll appoint people who will take your guns
Doesn't matter what your feelings about guns are.
Hillary gave a BS answer.
No, Hillary, The Supreme Court's Heller Decision Wasn't About Toddlers
OMG anti-Heller attny agrees that reasonable limits on 2nd amend to protect kids would be constitutional. OMG
JUSTICE ROBERTS: Well, right. But, I
mean, you don't necessarily expect a young child to be 6 able to reassemble the pistol. 7 MR. GURA: That's true, Your Honor. 8 However, better safe storage approach is the one used by 9 the majority of jurisdictions, I believe, that do have
such laws, which is to require safe storage, for 11 example, in a safe. And that is a reasonable 12 limitation. It's a strict scrutiny limitation. 13 Whatever standard of view we may wish to apply, I think, 14 would encompass a safe storage provision.
But this is not a safe storage provision 16 because we have specific exceptions that allow you to 17 actually use the firearm in recreational shooting and 18 also in a place of business. And we have litigation 19 history from Washington, D.C., that tells us that we are
not supposed to have an operable firearm for purposes of 21 self-defense because they simply do not trust people to 22 defend themselves in our home. And -- and self-defense 23 is the heart of the Second Amendment right. That is 24 what Blackstone was getting at when he spoke of the
fifth auxiliary right to arms, because it protected the 72 Alderson Reporting Company 5 10 15 20 25 Official - Subject to Final Review
1 right of personal preservation.
2 JUSTICE STEVENS: You say that the right of
3 self-defense was the heart of the Second Amendment, in
4 your view. Strangely that some provisions suggested
that and were not accepted by the authors of the Second
6 Amendment.
7 MR. GURA: Which provisions were those,
8 Justice Stevens?
9 JUSTICE STEVENS: Pennsylvania.
MR. GURA: Well, Pennsylvania's provision 11 was certainly influential. Remember, Madison was trying 12 to mollify the anti-Federalists' concerns. The Second 13 Amendment is clearly addressed to Pennsylvania and New 14 Hampshire and New York and all these other States that
were demanding a right to keep and bear arms, and there 16 was always understood to be an individual right because 17 that is the way in which the right that was violated by 18 the British in the war of revolution that occurred not 19 too long ago. And -
I'm finished. 21 JUSTICE BREYER: Thinking of your exchange 22 with the Chief Justice and think of the trigger lock in 23 your view and what the question was, do you want -- I 24 don't know how well trigger locks work or not -- but do
you want thousands of judges all over the United States 73 Alderson Reporting Company 5 10 15 20 25 Official - Subject to Final Review
1 to be deciding that kind of question rather than the 2 city councils and the legislatures that have decided it 3 in the context of passing laws? I mean, isn't there an 4 issue here and a problem with respect to having courts
make the kinds of decisions about who is right or not in 6 that trigger-lock argument? 7 MR. GURA: When a fundamental right is at 8 stake, there is a role for judicial review, Your Honor. 9 We are not going to see a thousand judges review such
laws because Washington, D.C.'s is the only example of 11 it. 12 JUSTICE GINSBURG: If it's a fundamental 13 right, what about licensing? One piece -- we've talked 14 about trigger locks, we've talked about the ban on
handguns, but there is also a requirement that there be 16 a license for possession of a handgun. Assuming you're 17 right on the first question, that you couldn't flatly 18 ban handguns, what about a requirement that you obtain a 19 license to carry -- to have a handgun?
MR. GURA: Justice Ginsburg, that would 21 depend on the licensing law itself. We don't have a 22 problem with the concept of licensing so long as it's 23 done -24 JUSTICE GINSBURG: What about this very law?
If you take out the ban -- there is a law on the books. 74 Alderson Reporting Company 5 10 15 20 25 Official - Subject to Final Review
1 It's one of the ones that you challenged. It's section 2 22-4504(a). Wouldn't that be okay -- would that be 3 okay? It says that you have to have a license to carry. 4 MR. GURA: So long as the licensing law is
not enforced in an arbitrary and capricious manner, so 6 long as there are some hopefully objective standards and 7 hopefully some process for -8 JUSTICE GINSBURG: It just says -- it says 9 you have to get a license if you want to possess a gun.
What kind of standard? It just says you have to have a 11 license. 12 MR. GURA: Well, the government could set 13 reasonable standards for that, Your Honor. The 14 government could require, for example, knowledge of the
State's use of force laws. They can require some sort 16 of vision test. They could require, perhaps, 17 demonstrated competency. And those are the types of 18 things that we sometimes see; background checks, of 19 course. Those are going to be reasonable licensing
requirements. 21 However, if the license requirement is we 22 only wanted to give licenses to people who look a 23 certain way or depends on how we feel or if the 24 licensing office is only open Thursdays at 3:00 in the
morning -- I mean, it all depends on the implementation. 75 Alderson Reporting Company 5 10 15 20 25 Official - Subject to Final Review
1 And -
2 CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: What about -- what
3 about age limits -- you've got to be over 18 or you've
4 got to be over 21 to get a license?
MR. GURA: Well, certainly the
6 age-of-majority issue is -- is an appropriate one. I
7 don't think there is a problem with requiring a majority
8 age 18 and then 21 for -
9 CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: Is the age limit
necessarily the same nationwide? Maybe 16 in Wyoming 11 makes more sense but 21 in the District. 12 MR. GURA: Courts would have to examine 13 those at some point. The government would have to look 14 at the circumstances it confronted and enact, up to some
point, an age limit. I think it would be very difficult 16 to have an age limit that goes beyond 21, because that's 17 the majority age for most things in the United States. 18 And, in fact, we have the voting rights cases from the 19 late '60s where -
JUSTICE STEVENS: May I ask this question? 21 Are you, in effect, reading the amendment to say that 22 the right shall not be unreasonably infringed instead of 23 shall not be infringed? 24 MR. GURA: There is that inherent aspect to
every right in the Constitution.