Federal Gun Rights Bill Even a Federalist Could Love?

Of Arms and the Law gives us the text of a new law that has been introduced in Congress by Rep. Roscoe Bartlett of Maryland.  This looks like a bill even federalists might be able to get behind, since it appears to be essentially restoring second amendment rights through the 14th amendment.  It doesn’t explicity cite the source of Congressional power, but I seem to recall that Congress does not specifically have to state the enumerated power under which it passes legislation, it just has to fit within the scope of it’s powers.  So if my non-lawyer eyes are reading this right, it would let someone denied the right to have a firearm in Washington D.C., Chicago, or New York to obtain a firearm for self-protection, state or local law to the contrary.

That means this bill will absolutely infuriate Mayor Bloomberg, and for that reason alone, I think it would be worth passing.  Sadly, as Dave mentioned, there’s a snowball’s chance in hell of that happening, which is a sad statement on what’s become of our Congress.