« Nevada ACLU breaks ranks | Main | High gas prices affecting even gang drive by shootings »
Justice Breyer's dissent misreads DC law?
At Concurring Opinions, Prof. Mike O'Shea has a post demonstrating just that. Breyer's dissent argued that the DC law was a reasonable regulation, since he thought militia purposes were the most important aspect of the 2A, and a person could still own and practice with rifles. But as Prof. O'Shea points out, DC law bans machineguns -- and defines them as any semiauto that can accept a magazine of more than 12 rounds. Effectively, this ban every American militiary rifle made in the last 40-50 years (ever since they retired the M-1 Garand in favor of the M-14).
2 Comments | Leave a comment
This law is even worse than that -- it also bans the WWII M1 Carbine (which used a detachable 15-round magazine in WWII; 30-round magazine in Korea), and even the late-WWI M1903 Springfield with the Pedersen Device modification (which converted the bolt-action battle rifle into a 40-round semi-automatic rifle).
Plus, of course, it bans all semi-automatic pistols, including the WWI Colt M1911 and Luger.
Reread the DC law and then reconsider the M1 Garand. Specifically the common conversion to use BAR magazines, and the production model the M1 E.
Garand would be banned also.