Opposed: WA Legislature’s HB1240 To Ban Certain Firearms

I am Opposed: WA Legislature’s HB1240 To Ban Certain Firearms

The WA Legislature has introduced bills in the House and Senate to ban certain firearms. All citizens of the United States should be opposed to this completely un-constitutional attempt to violate our individual rights and restrict our liberty.

Several members of the WA State Legislature, at the request of the Attorney General and Governor, have introduced bills in the House and Senate to ban certain firearms. Those bills are HB 1130 and SB 5265.

One Key Bit of Text of HB 1240

Assault weapons are civilian versions of weapons created for the military and are designed to kill humans quickly and efficiently. For this reason the legislature finds that assault weapons are “like” “M-16 rifles” and thus are “weapons most useful in military service.”

Well, yes, that is somewhat true. Although “assault weapons” is a made up category that mostly has to do with them being “Scary Black Rifles”. In any case, below I will demonstrate that this is actually the exact weapons the Second Amendment is meant to protect.

And here you go …. a Scary Black Rifle aka an “assault weapon”. She’s purty, too.

Before that, let’s start with the reality that AG and Governor both swore oaths to uphold and defend the US and WA State Constitutions, which protect the right of the citizens to keep and bear arms. And most legislators also voluntarily took that oath. As I will demonstrate in this post, the US Constitution very specifically protects the right of the citizens of the United States to purchase, own, and bear warlike weapons for lawful purposes, including self-defense.

It’s a long post, so bear with me, but read it all the way through.

Purpose of the Constitution

The Founders of America enshrined the protection of specific individual rights into the US Constitution. Among these are free speech, religion, assembly, private property, self-defense, and others. Less than 100 years after that seminal event (the Constitution and the Bill of Rights), another generation fought the bloodiest and most brutal war in US history to make it clear that the US Constitution applies equally to all Americans. And they made it clear through the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution that the Bill of Rights applied to the States, not just the Federal Government. The people that founded the State of Washington did the same thing in the state’s Constitution.

One major purpose of the Constitution is to create the supreme law of the land, taking those decisions out of the hands of men and women in our various councils and legislatures.

As It Relates to Firearms

US Constitution, 2nd Amendment

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

US Constitution, 14th Amendment, Section 1

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

WA Constitution, Article 1, Section 24

“The right of the individual citizen to bear arms in defense of himself, or the state, shall not be impaired, but nothing in this section shall be construed as authorizing individuals or corporations to organize, maintain or employ an armed body of men.”

What It Means: Selected Historical Quotes

A few select quotes (among hundreds, perhaps more) from over 100 years of US History regarding the 2nd Amendment and it’s meaning

Tenche Coxe, delegate to the Constitutional Convention

“Whereas civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article [the Second Amendment] in their right to keep and bear their private arms.”

And

“Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American”

Robert Desty, The Constitution of the United States, at 255 (2d ed. 1884)

“The right to bear arms is not herein granted, but only protected from infringement…This clause is based upon the idea that the people cannot be oppressed or enslaved who are not first disarmed.”

Andrew White Young, The Government Class Book; A Youth’s Manual of Instruction in the Principles of Constitutional Government and Law, at 185 (Effingham Maynard & Co. 1889) (1880)

“Right to Keep Arms – This means the right of every one to own and use, in a peaceful manner, warlike weapons. Congress is forbidden to pass any law infringing the right.”

Joel Prentiss Bishop, Commentaries on the Criminal Law Volume 2, at 74-75 (4th ed. 1868)

“[T]he provision protects only the right to ‘keep’ such ‘arms’ as are used for purposes of war, in distinction from those which are employed in quarrels and brawls and fights between maddened individuals.”

Henry Campbell Black, M.A., Handbook of American Constitutional Law, at 543 (3d ed. 1910).

“The ‘arms’ here meant are those of a soldier. They do not include dirks, bowie knives, and such other weapons as are used in brawls, fights, and riots. The citizen has at all times the right to keep arms of modern warfare…”

Aymette v. State, an 1840 case from the Supreme Court of Tennessee

The Court explained that citizens “may keep arms to protect the public liberty, to keep in awe those who are in power, and to maintain the supremacy of the laws and the constitution…So the arms, the right to keep which is secured, are such as are usually employed in civilized warfare, and that constitute the ordinary military equipment.”

Summary of the US Supreme Court’s Findings

In other words, the very firearms the Legislature, AG, and Governor seek to ban are the ones that the Constitution of the United States protects. In addition to that, the US Supreme Court in NYSRPA v. Bruen, made very clear that weapons that are in common use for lawful purposes (and self-defense is clearly a lawful purpose) are protected by the Second Amendment. These so-called “assault weapons” (an entirely made up category of weapons) are in widespread and common use for lawful purposes throughout the United States. This means, as the Supreme Court made clear, that the Legislature, AG, and Governor are violating the US Constitution to try to ban these weapons.

To say it just one more time – I am Opposed: WA Legislature’s HB1240 To Ban Certain Firearms

Further Reading

The Truth About Guns: Access to Weapons of War is a Core Tenet of the Second Amendment

NYSRPA v. Bruen