DC Court Declines to Rehear 2nd Amendment Ruling

D

Doggieman

New member
Old news to some, but I must say I'm shocked...

http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Federal/Read.aspx?id=2979

Friday, May 11, 2007

On Tuesday, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit, declined to review the decision in Parker v. District of Columbia -- the case in March that upheld the Second Amendment as an individual right and struck down Washington, D.C.’s handgun ban. The decision not to review the case means that an earlier ruling by the three-judge panel will stand.


In commenting on the decision, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty noted that the District’s gun ban is "…a critical part of the District’s crime-control strategy." This strategy, of course, has been an abysmal failure, as year in and year out, D.C., currently the nation’s murder capital, ranks at or near the top of the list of the nation’s most violent cities.

The city now has 90 days to decide whether it wishes to petition the Supreme Court to hear the case.

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Sorry, didn't see the previous posts on this... :o
 
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I keep feeling like I must be misreading it. People in positions of power, in a populated area are actually legislating in favor of reason? I didn't think it was possible. I will laugh my ass off if the ban stays lifted and crime FINALLY starts to decline in DC. That's assuming that I read it properly. Someone please confirm that for me. I don't trust my eyes on this one. I haven't seen a gun control law actively repealed...well, ever.
 
Well, we may have to wait for it to work through an appeal to the Supreme Court (if they decide to hear it) for it to go into effect...but yes, the general de facto handgun ban in DC may well die.

Though this wasn't done through any sort of legislation...it was activist judges at work! ;)
 
yeah I love it whenever a decision comes down, the losing side blames it all on "activist" judges.

I don't know what DC will do! They must know that if the Sup Ct hears the case, it will most likely favor the individual liberty 2nd amendment version, sweeping aside all other interpretations of the other circuits. This would be HUGE. HUGE! And yet if they don't appeal, they lose. I bet they're scratching their heads over this one.
 
While I do hope that stupid gun ban gets overturned let's not continue perpetuating the myth that DC's crime rate is the ban's fault or that its' crime rate is anything special to begin with. It's not the "murder capitol" and it does not rank near the top of any list of violent cities.
 
Satistically, it's almost impossible to determine what causes drops or rises in a crime rate. Since you're not conducting an experiment where you can control all variables besides the one you want to test, you just can't make any real determination of the reason.
 
Agreed. But again, we can't pretend that DC has a top ranking crime rate or is anywhere near the "murder capitol" of the nation. Its' violent crime rate is no more notable than any other city. Once again John Lott's misleading statistics are repeated as gospel.
 
Redworm said:
While I do hope that stupid gun ban gets overturned let's not continue perpetuating the myth that DC's crime rate is the ban's fault or that its' crime rate is anything special to begin with. It's not the "murder capitol" and it does not rank near the top of any list of violent cities.
Click to expand...

Myth Buster! I just quickly grabbed 2005 data for homicide rates (per 100,000) in the US to validate the assertion that D.C. does not rank near the top of any list.

2005 U.S. Homicide rate per 100,000
Average Rate = 5.6

Top 15 Homicide Cities


1 Compton, CA ........67.1
2 Gary, IN ...........58.0
3 Birmingham, AL .....44.3
4 Youngstown, OH .....43.7
5 Richmond, VA .......43.0
6 Baltimore, MD ......42.0
7 Camden, NJ .........41.2
8 Flint, MI ..........40.1
9 Detroit, MI ........39.3
10 Richmond, CA ......38.8
11 St. Louis, MO .....37.9
12 Trenton, NJ .......36.2
13 Washington, DC ....35.4
14 Newark, NJ ........34.5
15 San Bernardino, CA 29.0

Selected other cities for comparison
18 Philadelphia, PA ...25.6
25 West Palm Beach, FL 22.6
31 Atlanta, GA ........20.9
45 Dallas, TX .........16.4
58 Miami, FL ..........13.9
69 San Francisco, CA ..12.8
73 Los Angeles, CA ....12.6
123 Louisville, KY .... 8.8
153 New York, NY ...... 6.6

Source: Morgan-Quinto Press

I'm not trying to put anyone on the spot, but D.C. was ranked #1 in the 90's and has been in the Top 10 for quite a while.

The top two cities have over ten times more homicide than the national average. D.C.'s is "only" 6.3times the national average. This is down slightly from 7-times the average in 2003.

D.C. was ranked 6th in homicides in 2003 (44 per 100k)
It fell to number 8 in 2004 with 35.8 per 100k.
 
I'm predicting that they WON'T appeal it.. too much political pressure from the lefties across the nation. It would be colossally stupid of them to do it, because almost assuredly a 5-4 SupCt decision would say that the 2nd Amend is an individual right. It might even go 6-3.

Of course it doesn't necessarily matter if they appeal it or not. You can bet within a year the NRA or another org will file suit in another place, say Chicago, trying to overturn their gun-restriction laws. And if that circuit upholds the current laws (which it probably will), then the the NRA will appeal to the SupCt.

If that happens, then the SupCt really has no choice, even though they're terrified of 2nd amendment cases. Because the SupCt has a duty to reconcile splits in the circuits. It's one of the most important roles it plays in the judicial system.

(In the interest of full disclosure though, I predicted that the DC court would re-hear the case and overturn its own ruling. That didn't happen. It appears that the individual-rights model is legally "trendy" at the moment... even many lefties are embracing it.)
 
parker vs DC

From a strictly DC point of view the appeal would be a good thing. Right now they lost. If they appeal, three things can happen, the appeal gets a thumbs down. inthis case they are no worse off then they are right now. SCOTUS agrees to hear the case. IF they win, their golden. IF they lose they are now worse off then they are now. Dc in and by itself has nothing to lose by and appeal. Anybody know a way to egg DC into doing it? after all they are suppose to be fighting for DC not the rest of the country. Gee Mr. Mayor those busy bodies telling you not to appeal do not have DC's interest in mind. who is pulling your strings?

Anybody good at letters to the editor? write one to the Washington Post. Know any Blogs well read in DC? Acuse the Mayor of of being in the pocket of outside interest.
 
I've given up predicting what the split will be in any SCOTUS decision. There's always some surprise as to which justice switches sides or writes the dissenting opinion.
 
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