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Appeals Court holds that Second Amendment doesn't apply... - 5/8/2012 4:28:20 PM

Iamsemisweet

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DENVER -- A federal appeals court has rejected an illegal immigrant's claim that the Second Amendment guarantees him the right to bear firearms.
Emmanuel Huitron-Guizar of Gillette, Wyo., had argued that the U.S. Constitution guarantees are guaranteed certain other rights to illegal aliens, such as the right to due process.
The Second Amendment provides that "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed," and Huitron-Guizar argued that he was part of "the people."But the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver ruled that Huitron-Guizar fell under the Gun Control Act of 1968, which forbids gun possession by nine classes of individuals, including illegal aliens. The court conceded that there is some argument about the meaning of "the people" and U.S. citizens, but found that Congress had lawfully exercised its power to distinguish between citizens and non-citizens."That Congress saw fit to exclude illegal aliens from carrying guns may indicate its belief, entitled to our respect, that such aliens, as a class, possess no such constitutional right," the court said.
Huitron-Guizar, 24, was born in Mexico, brought to Wyoming at the age of 3 and never obtained U.S. citizenship.
In March 2011, officers served a search warrant at his home and found a rifle, a 12-gauge semi-automatic shotgun and a semi-automatic pistol.
He entered a conditional guilty plea to being an illegal alien in possession of firearms transported or shipped in interstate commerce. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison and is to be deported thereafter.
Huitron-Guizar's attorney, Ronald Pretty, said Tuesday that he believed such cases involving constitutional definitions of "people" as opposed to "citizens" could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The circuit court of appeals did find the Constitution did not clearly define U.S. citizenship.
"We know, for instance, that the founders' notion of citizenship was less rigid than ours, largely tied to the franchise, which itself was often based on little more than a brief period of residence and being a male with some capital," the panel noted.

_____________________________

Alice: But I don't want to go among mad people.
The Cat: Oh, you can't help that. We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.
Alice: How do you know I'm mad?
The Cat: You must be. Or you wouldn't have come here.