What Happens When … The Courts Don't Care
About Your Rights?
By Richard W. Stevens
"We need to fight this all the way to the Supreme Court!"
With jaws set and fists
clenched, so many gun owners want to charge forth into the courtrooms to win
our right to keep and bear arms. Many Americans think that the truth is all you
need to cause a court to declare our rights as the law of the land.
A group of decent
California gun owners tested that idea. They challenged that state's ban on
certain semi-automatic firearms, hoping the lower courts might strike down the
law on Second Amendment grounds. The Second Amendment, after all, declares that
"the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be
infringed." The California law doesn't merely infringe – it
prohibits exercise of the right (for certain firearms).
Lower Court Losses
The Californian gun
owners' case, named Silveira v. Lockyear, lost at the federal district
court. They appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal, and lost again, in a
2-1 split decision. The lone dissenter, Judge Alex Kozinski, blasted the
majority's ruling and supported the gun owners' rights.
Determined to get their
Second Amendment rights affirmed, the Californians petitioned to the U.S.
Supreme Court. As is common for Supreme Court cases, several organizations
filed "friend of the court" ("amicus curiae") briefs. The
petition and the various amicus briefs strongly urged the Court to grant a full
hearing on the issues.
JPFO Petitions The
Supreme Court
In an unusual move for
our organization, JPFO prepared and filed an amicus brief in the Silveira
case. (Excerpts of the text are available on-line at www.jpfo.org.) JPFO's
brief, penned by three excellent volunteer lawyers, informed the Supreme Court
about the direct connection between citizen-disarmament and genocide/mass
murder.
JPFO's main argument,
backed by incontrovertible facts, raised an issue that affects the lives of
millions of people. There is no backing away from the truth that "gun
control" policies prepare the way for criminals, whether individuals or
governments, to devastate the defenseless people.
Black Robes Duck The
Truth
The Supreme Court
received the evidence from JPFO, but it didn't matter much. The horrors of
genocide did not move the Court even to consider the issue. Without issuing any
opinion, the Court this year denied the petition. The Silveira case
was never to be heard. It was over.
When a petition is denied by the Supreme Court, the minority of justices who
favored granting the petition sometimes issues a statement to that effect.
Justice Thomas and Justice Scalia, two reputedly "conservative"
justices on the Court, did not even issue that statement for the Silveira
petition. They could have noted the issues of extraordinary importance, e.g.
the connection between a powerless citizenry and genocide; they said nothing.
JPFO's amicus brief
delivered the information. The JPFO brief is available on-line, in full text,
to lawyers who subscribe to the major legal research services, and to judges
nationwide. The sobering facts and figures are there.
Yet the Supreme Court
ignored the facts because the justices and their law clerks do not care about
civilian defenselessness and genocide. They do not care that millions of
innocents worldwide were disarmed, betrayed and slaughtered by their own
governments in the 20th Century. They do not care that powerless minorities in
the U.S.A. suffered terribly at the hands of the powerful. They live
comfortably, oblivious to the fact that the September 11 disaster could only
have taken place because all of the immediate victims were legally disarmed.
Little Hope In the
Courts
So long as Americans
remain ignorant of the real reasons why "gun control" schemes are
evil and dangerous, we will never see the courts enforce the Second Amendment
as written. The Supreme Court will never strike down any "gun
control" laws until the educated elites and large segments of the people
fear and detest "gun control."
Until JPFO's message
becomes common knowledge, the Supreme Court, the lower courts and the
legislatures will continue to ignore the crucial issues and the truth. They
will act like they don't know. They will not care.
Show Our Evidence to
Your Jury
So it's up to us –
and up to you. If the courts won't listen, then we must take the case against
"gun control" to the juries of our peers, our fellow gun owners and
fellow Americans. Every time we show the documentary video, Innocents Betrayed,
or circulate copies of JPFO's Death by "Gun Control" book
and other freedom resources, we are advocating to the "court" that
really has the power: the American People.
Get the most powerful evidence available. Join JPFO, visit the website, order
the materials, and help us take this fight to the hearts and minds of America.
Call (800) 869-1884 to get membership and information, or click on
www.jpfo.org. The defense of our rights must never rest.
