14th Amendment

[dfletcher]

What attempts, if any, have been made to apply the protections of the 14th Amendment, Section 1 with respect to gun ownership & state restrictions when those restrictions are greater than those of the federal government? I'm thinking specifically of states like CA, MA or NY which have "assault weapons" bans even though the federal ban is no longer in effect.

The 14th has been used with great success for everything from civil rights to abortion - are those protections not applicable to gun rights?

Further, if the meaning of Miller is that 2nd Amendment rights do not apply unless a firearm is suitable for military use, it seems to me the 14th with Miller would be useful moving against CA AW ban. Whether this is wise or not - I wouldn't want to have unlimited access to military style weapons only to lose access to firearms that do not have a military application - is a tactical judgment left to the attorneys I suppose.

[Librarian]

You're bumping up against a doctrine called 'selective incorporation', in which amendments are not effective against state governments unless SCOTUS has seen an emanation of a penumbra giving them a clue they should so rule.

See this site (http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/incorp.htm) for a longer discussion.

[dfletcher]

Thanks, interesting website in general. I suppose we need to get to the "shocks the conscience" stage before a legal remedy is considered. I see that the site carries the Parker decision, I was not aware the 5th Circuit held 2nd Amendment rights applied to an individual.

[hoffmang]

The 14th is not yet useful for general gun rights but it may become useful for CCW liberalization.

-Gene

[10TH AMENDMENT]

The 14th is not yet useful for general gun rights but it may become useful for CCW liberalization.

-Gene

Good use of a couple of very operative words, Hoff!