CompuServe Messages

I didn't say NEVER, just not often (the three cases I mentioned). See, most cases would have originated based on *state* or local regulations, and until the passage of the 14th amendment after the Civil war, the Bill of Rights in the Constitution was not thought to apply to the states. Until quite recently no one would have *dreamed* that actual *bans* by the *federal* government were constitutional, and they weren't tried. The bans that have been passed since then haven't reached the Supreme Court yet. Now, the problem the gun controllers have is that during the debate over the 14th, what had clearly most enraged the senators was the forcible stripping of arms from blacks in the South. It made it much easier to "control" them, and it was much safer to lynch unarmed people than armed ones. Actually, the evidence that the 14th was meant to apply 2nd Amendment rights to the states is better than that for any other of the amendments. Now, given that, why aren't there more cases? Well, one is that an expansive reading of the 14th is fairly recent, so nobody is *certain* how the Court will rule. The Court only needs to accept the cases it wishes to, so you can't predict when it will chose to take on the issue. But the historical evidence is there, so if the Court DOES take it, and if they do their job properly, the gun controllers shouldn't be very happy. -Karl