General Category > Second Amendment
Ninth Circuit: Felon Has ‘Right to Possess Firearm for Self-Defense’
mystery-ak:
Ninth Circuit: Felon Has ‘Right to Possess Firearm for Self-Defense’
AWR Hawkins 10 May 2024
On Thursday a three-judge panel from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided that Steven Duarte, a felon, has a “right to possess a firearm for self-defense.”
Courthouse News Service noted Duarte has five felony convictions and was a member of a street gang in Los Angeles.
The decision upholding Duarte’s gun rights was split, with George W. Bush appointee Carlos Bea and Donald Trump appointee Lawrence VanDyke deciding in the majority.
Bea wrote the majority opinion, noted the panel tested the prohibition against felons possessing guns in light of Bruen (2022) and found the government did not have a sufficient substantiation.
Bruen requires that gun control align with historical tradition and the intent of America’s founders. Bea and VanDyke did not believe the blanket prohibition against felons possessing firearms survived scrutiny.
Bea wrote:
We do not base our decision on the notion that felons should not be prohibited from possessing firearms. As a matter of policy, [the prohibition] may make a great deal of sense. But “[t]he very enumeration of the [Second Amendment] right” in our Constitution “takes out of [our] hands . . . the power to decide” for which Americans “th[at] right is really worth insisting upon.” (Heller).
He added:
Duarte is an American citizen, and thus one of “the people” whom the Second Amendment protects. The Second Amendment’s plain text and historically understood meaning therefore presumptively guarantee his individual right to possess a firearm for self-defense. The Government failed to rebut that presumption by demonstrating that permanently depriving Duarte of this fundamental right is otherwise consistent with our Nation’s history. We therefore hold that [the prohibition] violates Duarte’s Second Amendment rights and is unconstitutional as applied to him.
The case is USA v. Duarte in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
https://www.breitbart.com/2nd-amendment/2024/05/10/ninth-circuit-felon-right-possess-firearm-self-defense/
jafo2010:
Nonsense. Felons are NOT PERMITTED to possess firearms or to affiliate with folks engaged in criminal activity.
Fishrrman:
Talk about an upside-down world.
The "Ninth Circuit".
It figures...
collins:
we used to always call it the Ninth Circus, but it's a lot better than it used to be a few years back. The decision:
https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2024/05/09/22-50048.pdf
it sort of makes some sense - if you can have all the other amendments "restored" *and voting* after serving a sentence, why not? "Shall not be abridged".
roamer_1:
I AGREE with this.
A man has a right to defense and to subsist (hunt). I have friends that (supposedly) cannot own a firearm - all their life long now - for something stupid they did in their younger days.
They did their time. They paid the price. If they can prove to be no threat to others, there is no reason to prevent them from their defense and subsistence. Those are big, big things in rural parts.
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