The Hawaii Constitution has a provision that is the same as the 🔹Second Amendment🔹 to the U.S. Constitution.
[Hawaiian] Justice Eddins said: Even though the provisions are the same, we will not interpret them the same way, because we think the 🔸U.S. Supreme Court clearly got it wrong in Heller when it said the Second Amendment creates an individual right to bear arms.🔸
Justice Eddins then pored over the immense body of scholarship and historical research that has shown, beyond a reasonable doubt, that
👉SCOTUS was catastrophically wrong in Heller.
He even quoted this great study that refutes a centerpiece of Justice Antonin Scalia’s analysis in Heller, which was the idea that the phrase “bear arms” typically meant individual use of a weapon in 18th-century parlance.
Scholars have analyzed thousands of documents from that era and proved that Scalia was just objectively wrong:
The phrase “bear arms” was unfailingly used in a collective context, describing a militia—which makes sense, since the Second Amendment begins by saying its purpose is to protect the militia, not an individual right to own guns.
Then Eddins’ opinion goes on to analyze the real history of guns in Hawaii. And he says: “The history of the Hawaiian Islands does not include a society where armed people move about the community to possibly combat the deadly aims of others.”
This echoes the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s discussion of Dobbs and real history—but also originalism, and who history leaves out.
What’s really great about Eddins’ opinion is that it’s not just a rejoinder to Heller.
It also goes on to talk about how🔥 it’s just not practical or feasible or wise to use history as your only guide to constitutional interpretation. 🔥
He wrote: “History is prone to misuse. In the Second Amendment cases, the court distorts and cherry-picks historical evidence. It shrinks, alters, and discards historical facts that don’t fit"
The Hawaii Supreme Court handed down a unanimous opinion on Wednesday declaring that its
👉 state constitution grants individuals 🔹absolutely no right to keep and bear arms outside the context of military service. 🔹
Its decision rejected the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Second Amendment,
refusing to interpolate SCOTUS’ shoddy historical analysis into Hawaii law.
Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discussed the ruling on this week’s Slate Plus segment of Amicus; their conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/02/hawaii-supreme-court-guns-case-rebuke-scalia.html?via=rss
I feel like we could just read chunks of this opinion into the record because it’s just such a delightful excavation of
both the bad history that undergirds "Bruen and Heller" before it,
as well as the larger project of conscripting judges into "historical analysis".
But I just want to read this quote from Justice Eddins: “Judges are not historians. Excavating 18th and 19th century experiences to figure out how old times control 21st century life is not a judge’s forte. History is messy.
It’s not straightforward or fair.
Bruen, McDonald, Heller, and other cases show how the court handpicks history to make its own rules.”
"Hundreds of young children in the U.S. have been killed playing with guns over the last two decades, according to a study published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The vast majority of cases involved guns that were stored unlocked and loaded.
The CDC report's authors say their new findings highlight the rising toll taken by accidental gun deaths that could be preventable."
"CDC researchers say multiple factors likely contributed to a similar increase nationally, including the COVID-19 pandemic that might have exacerbated risk factors for suicide like social isolation, relationship stressors and substance use.
In Texas, gun safety and mental health advocates point to another factor: Easy access to guns."
Sadly, in the U.S. of A., the term "deadly Walmart shooting" has been a foregone conclusion for many years.
It was simply a matter of time.
Tell me again how it's not the guns...?
😭 #vote#gunsense#GunSafety
When will politicians learn ....
Too many guns ...
Too few responsible gun owners ...
Too lenient gun laws ...
Too many hot headed personalities owning guns ...
Most of all Too many incidents of mass shooting in our country.
Sources said that two of the shooting victims are believed to be just eight and 13 years old.
Maybe you should ask yourself these questions depending on your ideological beliefs about the causes of the gun violence problem America has:
Who benefits from keeping the status quo on American gun violence?
⬇️
Who profits from and is supported by the gun industry/gun lobbyists?
⬇️
Which political party wants to disrupt and makes attempt to disrupt the status quo on mental healthcare by expanding care or access?
⬇️
Which political party makes attempts to put more regulation in place to help prevent gun violence?
⬇️
Which party talks, or offers their thoughts and prayers, but takes zero action to disrupt the cycle of gun violence?
⬇️
Are you voting responsibly?
"President Joe Biden will announce the creation of the first-ever federal office of gun violence prevention on Friday...Activists have argued that such an office will help the administration coordinate on gun policy issues across the federal government, while also allowing the president and Vice President Kamala Harris to show leadership on the issue."
"As chatter and images about guns and violence slip into the social media feeds of more teens, viral messages fueled by “likes” can lead to real-world conflict and loss.
This illustrated report has been adapted from a KFF Health News article, "All We Want Is Revenge’: How Social Media Fuels Gun Violence Among Teens,” by Liz Szabo."
The Biden administration is revoking licenses from hundreds of firearms dealers in a significant escalation of federal enforcement actions that has angered many in the gun industry.
🔷 "Once again I ask Congress to send me a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Enacting universal background checks. Requiring safe storage. Ending immunity for gun manufacturers. I will sign it immediately. We need nothing less to keep our streets safe." 🔷
--President Biden