Judging Freedom - Gun Law Challenges Taking Off

Episode Date: July 25, 2022

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gentle guidance and encouragement to create these incredible changes for yourself and see what good can come from them. Trust me, listening on Audible can help you reach the goals you set for yourself. Start listening today when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.com slash wonderyca. That's audible.com slash wonderyca. That's audible.com slash wonderyca. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Monday, July 25, 2022. It's about 1140 in the morning here on the east coast of the United States.

Let's call what I'm about to discuss by the following title. Your guns are none of the government's business. The Supreme Court of the United States just last month released an opinion in a case called Bruin v. New York Rifle Association, which basically invalidated the laws of seven states, New York, New Jersey, Hawaii, California, Illinois, two others, which gave bureaucrats the discretion, sometimes the bureaucrats are cops, sometimes they're not cops, with respect to giving out permits to carrying handguns. The essence of the opinion, a six to three opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas for the six person majority on the court, is that the right to carry a gun is a fundamental liberty.

It's the same category of liberties as your right to worship or not to worship and your freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The opinion itself even says the Second Amendment does not protect second-class rights. It protects first-class rights. It doesn't grant the right to keep and bear arms. That right comes from our humanity. It's a modern-day extension of the ancient right to self-defense. Rather, it restrains the government from interfering with our right to keep and bear arms. The right to own guns was decided by the Supreme Court in 2008 in a five-to-four opinion written by the late, great Justice Antonin Scalia, which held that the right to own a gun is a personal individual right. Prior to that, the law was that the right belonged to a state militia, which today we call the National Guard.

But from and after 2008, and actually before 1934, when the state militia nonsense was issued by the Supreme Court. The right to keep and bear arms is a fundamental individual personal right, but the opinion in 2008 only addressed your right to own a gun and to keep it and use it, God forbid if necessary, in your home, on your property. The reason it addressed that only is because that was only the issue before it. Last month, the issue before the court was the right to take that gun that you can lawfully own and carry in your home and carry it on your person outside the home. And the court held that that is a fundamental liberty. Not only is it a fundamental liberty, the court analogized it to First Amendment rights. You know what the First Amendment protects, your right to worship or not to worship,

your right to think as you wish, to say what you think and publish what you say. A lot of people are now making applications to state licensing agencies in places like New York and New Jersey, which just a month ago they would automatically be to not be denied. Today they are to be granted because your right to carry a gun outside your home is a part of American tradition. It is not extended to churches. It is not extended to schools. It is not extended to government buildings. But everywhere else, you can carry that gun. In my own view, this prohibition on schools and churches and government buildings is wrong. Because if you have, if it's a fundamental liberty, it's a fundamental liberty and the government can't

interfere with it. But even the Justice Thomas opinion allows the government to prohibit guns in those places. Isn't that crazy? We just went through the slaughter in Uvalde. If any of the teachers or any of the staff had had guns, that kid would have been blown away before he could slaughter two teachers and 19 children. But that's what this opinion says. Liberty sometimes takes baby steps to achieve. This is an enormous step to achieve. The state of New York has reacted to this by enacting some crazy legislation that requires two things. Well, it requires three things. One, that you not have a criminal record.

Well, that should have nothing to do with a fundamental liberty. You still have freedom of speech if you have a criminal record. Two, that you be of good moral character. That's insane. The government lies, cheats, steals, and kills, and it's going to decide who's of good moral character, who in the government is of good moral character. And three, you ready for this? Again, this is New York, that you submit to bureaucrats four years worth of your social media, texting, and emailing. These people are attacking the First Amendment as well as the Second Amendment. In my opinion, the New York law will be invalidated by the first federal judge who

reviews it, and that review is going to take place almost any day now. The whole purpose of the Justice Thomas opinion was to resolve once and for all the right to keep and bear arms is not granted by the Constitution. It comes from our humanity. The right to keep and bear arms is protected from governmental interference by the Constitution. And it's a natural right. If they want to take it away from violent people, if they want to take it away from violent people, if they want to take it away from crazy people, the benefit of the doubt is on the part of the person, not the government. The government would have to prove its case. Red flag laws in which the government doesn't prove its case, somebody whispers to a cop, so-and-so lost his temper in

a restaurant last night, and he was carrying a gun. You better go take the gun away from him. And then the police go to a judge and the judge gives the police the order to take the gun away without due process, without a charge, without a trial, without any wrongdoing or any crime having been committed. All of those are unconstitutional under this opinion. But you will still find lefties in government like Governor Hochul of New York who will do their best either to interfere with this right or to pretend that they're interfering with the right so as to please their political bases. This opinion by Justice Thomas is one of the best I have read since I graduated from law school. It is a treatise on your right to keep and bear arms. It goes all the way back to Henry VIII in England in 1535, and it demolishes every single

statute enacted by any government in the Western world that tries to interfere with your ability to protect yourself. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.