An incremental RKBA victory: FAA reverses "collective rights" claim.

[Justin]

Per David Codrea's War on Guns Blog, the FAA has reversed their claim of the "collective rights" notion of the 2nd Amendment with regard to carrying arms on commercial spaceflights.

Granted the FAA still claims that they have jurisdiction to prohibit arms on (at this time completely theoretical) commercial spaceflights, which isn't great, but this is still a baby step in the right direction.

This reversal sets a tiny bit of precedent. We can now point to the FAA as yet another governmental organization that recognizes the right to bear arms as intrinsically individualistic.

 

[ArfinGreebly]

. . . tiny bit of precedent.

Hey.

I'll take what I can get.

I need some good news to go with the steady diet of bilge I've been offered of late.

 

[Sam Adams]

IMHO the Supreme Court already recognized the 2nd as protecting (NOT conferring) an individual right. In the 1939 US v Miller case, the Supremes analyzed the case on its merits, rather than denying cert (i.e. refusing to take the case) because Miller lacked standing (i.e. that he wasn't personally injured). Note that Miller had won his case in US District Court with a claim that the 1934 National Firearms Act (which requires a $200 tax stamp for each full auto and short barreled shotgun) violated his 2nd Amendment rights.

It would've been a very easy thing for the Supremes, who love to hear as few cases as possible, to say "Miller isn't in the militia, so he hasn't got standing. Cert denied." But it didn't, thereby impliedly adopting Miller's position that the 2nd protects an individual right.

3 excellent resources on this case are found at:

http://www.rkba.org/research/miller/Miller.html

http://publicola.mu.nu/archives/200...e_millers_tale_problems_with_us_v_miller.html

http://www.jpfo.org/miller.htm