Are Military Assault Weapons Constitutionally Protected? The Answer!

Washington, DC—Prohibition brought about unprecedented violence in the United States as criminals fought over the lucrative alcohol trade.  By 1934 Prohibition was over but the memories Chicago's St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and numerous other crimes were fresh in our politicians memories.  They passed the nation’s first federal gun control law.

Prior to The National Firearms Act of 1934 Americans could buy most military small arms and explosive devices at their local hardware store or by the convenience of the US Postal Service!  Machineguns, hand grenades, Bazookas and silencers could be purchased and no questions were asked. 

The new gun law was not a ban on these weapons but a stiff $200.00 tax on each regulated item.  Taxing rights soon became unconstitutional when the Supreme Court later outlawed Poll Taxes because they discriminated against poor people.  That tax has never been raised because they simply know that the tax won’t stand a court challenge.

The so-called class 3 weapons and devices were registered and a paperwork blizzard was created to make ownership of these weapons difficult and expensive.  To this day there’s never been federally registered weapon used in a crime by its owner!  I know of one case where a man was arrested after killing an attacker with a fully automatic registered and taxed rifle but he was acquitted at his trial.

The Supreme Court took up USA v. Miller after Jack Miller was arrested and convicted for possession of a short-barreled shotgun.  He argued that the law violated his Constitutional rights successfully before the Court of Appeals but prosecutors appealed to the Supreme Court.  However when it came time for briefs and argument Miller had disappeared and no lawyer was there to argue his case.  The court decided  the case without Miller anyway.

The most important part of the opinion was the passage below.  The problem with this passage was the judges were ignorant of the fact that the military used many short-barreled shotguns called trench guns!

“In the absence of any evidence tending to show that possession or use of a "shotgun having a barrel of less than eighteen inches in length" at this time has some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia, we cannot say that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear such an instrument. Certainly it is not within judicial notice that this weapon is any part of the ordinary military equipment, or that its use could contribute to the common defense. Aymette v. State, 2 Humphreys (Tenn.) 154, 158.”

Accordingly the court held that weapons suitable for national defense are Constitutionally protected!  That’s still the law of the land!  Large capacity magazines and belt fed ammunition have long been part of weapons involved with national defense. 

Today's politicians don't know or care about the law.  They just want to dictate our liberty away.  Within the last few years we have the Heller and McDonald cases that have rallied the Second Amendment in a big way.