Second Amendment Rally Phoenix 02 16 2013
February 16, 2013 Second Amendment rally at the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix, AZ.
By: Harry Hughes
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Second Amendment Rally Phoenix 02 16 2013 - Video
Led by West Virginia's attorney general, 21 states have joined a legal effort seeking to overturn Maryland's tough new gun control law.
The Maryland statute has no effect on gun laws in their states, but the attorneys general argue in an amicus brief filed this month that Maryland's law was written too broadly and violates the Second Amendment rights of their citizens.
"States must band together in times when they see citizens' rights being diminished or infringed upon," West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said in statement released when he filed the brief. "If the courts decide this law passes muster, it would undermine a core part of the Second Amendment."
Morrisey, who declined to be interviewed, said Maryland's ban on the sale of military-style weapons is akin to "trying to impose a content-based ban on speech. It simply cannot be done."
A federal court ruled that Maryland's ban on 45 types of semiautomatic rifles is constitutional. The coalition of gun owners and gun-rights groups that challenged the law is appealing the decision by the U.S. District Court of Maryland. The attorneys general have joined that effort.
Maryland has not yet filed its response, due by the end of the year.
Legal experts say that while it is generally unusual for states to weigh in on laws that do not directly affect them, it is common in divisive issues such as gun control.
"They don't want certain types of regulations to get court-sanctioned because they're afraid it will become a precedent in their states," said Stephen J. Oren, a Rockville lawyer who chairs the Maryland Bar Association's state litigation section. "So they take the pre-emptive step of filing in cases that don't involve them."
Maryland's gun law, proposed by Gov. Martin O'Malley and passed by the General Assembly in 2013, was among the most stringent enacted after the massacre of 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. It is one of three, all passed after Newtown, that gun-rights activists are fighting in federal courts.
Judge Catherine C. Blake upheld Maryland's ban in August, rejecting the argument that military-style weapons are in common use for self-defense and therefore protected by the Second Amendment. Blake wrote that she considered the ban a legitimate way to improve public safety.
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21 states hope to overturn Maryland's gun control law
Caught on camera: Cop kicks down Second Amendment sign
Not all Police, honor the oath taken to defend the constitution of the united states of America. Blue code of silence. Blue is thicker than water. Us vrs the...
By: Holley Decker
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Caught on camera: Cop kicks down Second Amendment sign - Video
UMKC Law School professor Allen Rostron did not begin his legal career intending to work in the area of Second Amendment rights, or be a full-time law professor. After graduating from Yale Law School, he worked as a tax attorney. He soon found, however, that he did not enjoy the work. At the time of his change of focus, gun control was getting a lot of media attention and when an opportunity presented itself, he took a position at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. The decision began a path that he still follows today.
Rostron was recently invited to be part of a planning team on former New York City Mayor Michael Bloombergs gun control group, Everytown for Gun Safety. As part of this group, Rostron focuses on recent decisions about the Second Amendment made by the Supreme Court after many years of the court not having any significant opinions about it.
When the Supreme Court decides something and you think well, that answers the question, it raises just as many questions, Rostron said.
That leaves lower courts around the country trying to figure out which laws are fine as they are written and which laws need some adjustment or even to be struck down. Groups on both sides of the issue gather to strategize to influence those decisions.
According to its website, Everytown is a movement of Americans working together to end gun violence and build safer communities. Their voices of the movement are moms, mayors and survivors.
There are groups that oppose gun control because they see it as an infringement upon the Second Amendment right to bear arms. Rostron said that in the recent Supreme Court decisions, the court has said that there needs to be a historical point of view taken. If a gun law is being decided on, a modern public policy perspective should not be the only perspective. The Supreme Court says that these decisions should begin by looking at what the right to keep and bear arms traditionally meant.
That creates a real need to know the history, Rostron said. There is a real need for historians to delve back into what was the situation with guns 200 years ago or more. What kind of laws did they have and what did they think you had a right to do and what did the right not cover. Its a very rich, interesting, historical exploration.
The courses Rostron teaches at UMKC have a healthy amount of discussion. He teaches a Seminar on Gun Law & Safety, but all of his courses have some amount of discussion about rights that citizens hold.
Students are willing to debate the gun control issue because its not as personal as more hot-button issues like abortion or affirmative action.
I have found guns to be in the category of some other things like maybe religion very controversial and people have very strong views about it, but theyre not afraid to get into it a little bit with other students or with the teacher, Rostron said.
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Law professor focuses work on Second Amendment