Fox News - 6 January 2011 - ACLU files lawsuit alleging South Dakota gun law is unconstitutional because it makes U.S. citizenship a requirement to carry a concealed weapon — while gun rights advocate says lawsuit is ploy to arm illegal immigrants.
ACLU Sues to Protect Immigrant's Gun Rights From Change in South Dakota Law
The ACLU of South Dakota filed the lawsuit this week on behalf of U.K. citizen Wayne Smith alleging the state's concealed weapons law is unconstitutional. Smith - who legally immigrated 30 years ago - was able to get a concealed license for years, but in 2002 South Dakota amended the law, making U.S. citizenship a requirement to carry a concealed weapon. When Smith went to renew his long-held permit last July, he was denied because he is permanent legal resident, not a citizen.
The ACLU says that's a blatant violation of the 14th Amendment which it says prevents states from being able to make such "arbitrary designations."
Is this a great country or what?
I never thought in a million years I'd be on the same side of a gun argument with the ACLU . . . all I can say is I've carried firearms on and off duty, legally and illegally, since I arrived on the shores of this great land - thirty years ago this February.
One of the things I was required to do was sign up for the Selective Service Registration, and I was informed that if they ever re-instated the draft, I would be eligible. The way it was explained to me is that if you're on U.S. soil, then the rights of the U.S. Constitution apply - to include the 2d Amendment. The Bill of Rights applies to everyone on U.S. soil - law-abiding citizens, aliens legal and illegal, even terrorists - (which is why they won't close Guantanamo by the way) - the only thing I couldn't do was vote.
Come to think of it, I wore the uniform of this country for three years and even deployed overseas before I earned my citizenship.
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I never thought I'd agree with Jessie Jackson!
ReplyDeleteTexas allows a resident alien to get a CCW. A co-worker has his and is just starting the citizenship financial drain (as an aside, anyone else notice that they raised the costs of doing it legally just as they pushed for amnesty a few years back?)
ReplyDeleteACLU - not so strange bedfellow to anything anti-American. Recent documents released show ACLU founder had ties with communist party.
ReplyDeleteI think whoever "explained it" to you was in error - for the Bill of Rights to apply to you, you gotta be legal (as you were and this guy apparently is) extending our liberties to illegals and enemy combatants is beyond stupid and to my reading, illegal
ReplyDeleteBoat Guy
There was when the bill of rights was written no concept of legal and illegal immigrants. Anyone was welcome, so to speak (except the Royal Navy and Army, possibly), to enter the United States and take up residence.
ReplyDeletePeople've told me in the past that only citizens have constitutional rights, iow if you're not a citizen you can be arrested without a warrant, have no right to defend yourself, can be detained indefinitely without a court conviction, etc. etc.
I'm not sure that's correct (or if so, to what extent), but it could well be central to this case.