Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.

The focus this time: What other Rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights can be taken away from adults based on some arbitrary age requirement?

First, a little mood music:

Carrying on…

There are moves to ban any adult, who even in absence of a criminal conviction, from exercising their Constitutional Rights as guaranteed by the 2nd Amendment, and then there are moves to ban scary looking guns.

Illinois can decided to move on both, but only where they intersect, via HB 1465 as passed by the Illinois Legislature, which bans anyone between the ages of 18 and 20 from owning the vast majority of semi-auto long guns, with the bill that:

“Defines ‘assault weapon’ as any rifle that has a belt-fed ammunition system or a detachable magazine capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition”

A last minute amendment “grandfathered” in current 18-20 year old owners, likely to avoid the “gun grabber” headlines.

Not to be outdone, California moved to ban all adults below the age of 21 from exercising their Constitutional Rights with SB 1100, which according the Legislative Council’s Digest:

“This bill would prohibit the sale or transfer of any firearm by a licensed dealer, except as specifically exempted, to any person under 21 years of age.”

Going beyond Illinois in a way that only California can, the Constitutional Right as guaranteed by the Bill of Rights would be denied. Of note, California is one of the few states that do not have a right to keep as bear arms as part of their own state Constitution (though ironically California is the only state to declare that the right to execute criminals is a declared right).

Vermont, which for the longest time was the only state to have Constitutional Carry, has, with the agreement of its Republican Governor, also banned all adult citizens under the age of 21 who have committed no crime nor been adjudicated incompetent from being able to acquire the very tools necessary to exercise their 2nd Amendment rights.

“A person shall not sell a firearm to a person under 21 years of age. A person who violates this subsection shall be imprisoned for not more than one year or fined not more than $1,000.00, or both.”

Usually, these “Quick Takes” only involve three articles or points of discussion; this issue is of such importance, that additional mentions are necessary.

Perhaps what is worse than the above, is that a state with a Republican trifecta (governorship and both legislative houses) went out of its way to deny such a fundamental human right that exists independent of, and antecedent to, the establishment of said state. Florida is an example of such insidious violations of such a basic human right, as indicated by SB 7026, which mandates:

“prohibiting a person younger than a certain age [18] from purchasing a firearm”

Our fundamental rights are ever precarious, and no political party label will ever be “bulletproof” against such tyranny.

TTFN.

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