Court Rules That Feelings Justify Gun Bans

posted on April 29, 2015

A federal three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a ban on so-called "assault weapons" and "large-capacity magazines" in the city of Highland Park, Ill., in part because it unilaterally decided that "[i]f a ban on semi-automatic guns and large-capacity magazines reduces the perceived risk from a mass shooting, and makes the public feel safer as a result, that's a substantial benefit."

In the 2-to-1 decision, Judge Frank Easterbrook held that "... the Constitution establishes a federal republic where local differences are cherished as elements of liberty, rather than eliminated in a search for national uniformity ..."—apparently using that to justify ignoring the Heller and McDonald Supreme Court precedents, ignoring the U.S. Constitution and allowing local jurisdictions to do whatever they want.

The opinion is worthwhile reading—both for the breathtaking ignorance in the majority opinion, and for the dissent's effective demolition of their arguments.

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