Friedman v. Highland Park (Chicago, IL suburb)
A three-judge panel of the US 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a 2-1 vote in Friedman v. Highland Park, to erroneously uphold Highland Park’s illegal 2013 ban on evil black rifles and magazines that hold more than 10 cartridges, because “If it has no other effect, Highland Park’s ordinance may increase the public’s sense of safety,” wrote Circus Judge Frank H. Easterbrook. He continued, “If 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.”
*emphasis mine — JP
We note no constitutional guarantee of a “sense of safety” or to “feel safer,” or even to BE safe, but we do see a constitutional prohibition of gun bans. My perception is that having idiot judges such as these are a substantial risk. So, let’s ban them.
“During Prohibition, the Thompson submachine gun (the ‘Tommy gun’) was all too common in Chicago, but that popularity didn’t give it a constitutional immunity from the federal prohibition enacted in 1934,” Easterbrook also wrote for the majority that included Judge Ann Claire Williams, noting the regulation of full-auto firearms under the National Firearms Act of 1934.
But the NFA doesn’t prohibit machine guns, and they remain legal today. The judge is lying. (Remember that the next time you have jury duty.)
Senior Judge Daniel Anthony Manion issued a scathing dissent against the majority.
Illinois State Rifle Association Executive Director Richard Pearson said he was confident the law could be overturned on appeal to the US Supreme Court, but the NRA would have to decide whether to make a costly appeal. It should be overturned just because the judges are stupid.
(Four shot dead and 22 injured in Chicago last weekend, which is apparently typical. But I suppose they felt safe, which the judge says is a substantial benefit.)
