New York’s Not So ‘SAFE’ Act
The Second Amendment in an Alice-In-Wonderland World Where Words Have No Meaning
June 26, 2017
Published Paper
The Second Amendment in an Alice-In-Wonderland World Where Words Have No Meaning
Use and manipulation of the pejorative term “assault weapon” is a classic case of “an Alice-in-Wonderland world where words have no meaning.” The Second Amendment provides that “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Arms, such as rifles, pistols, and shotguns, do not lose their constitutional protection because the legislature describes them with a derogatory term. Indeed, “no pronouncement of a legislature can forestall attack upon the constitutionality of the prohibition which it enacts by applying opprobrious epithets to the prohibited act . . . .”
